Kahouya is currently closed to allow for exam preparation, but I have to introduce four new additions to everyone! These hanbok will be displayed on Muzuhime and uploaded in kahouya by the end of the year.

All four pictures are seller's pictures.




They're all definitely more beautiful in person. I love the embroidery on the navy/pink and white/red one especially. My own pictures are posted below.




Still need to buy norigae for a more complete look. Hanbok house in Katong Mall sells them, will probably go down once exams are over to grab a bunch.

BUT EXAMS ARE COMING AND I HAVE TO STUDY.

In the process of putting together a chima jeogori set (otherwise known as hanbok). I made a list of items to get and where to get them.

1) Chima = skirt, jeogori = jacket top (Ebay, won one, bidding on two others).
2) Inner petticoat (Ebay, won one).
3) Shoes (Ebay, still browsing).
4) Norigae = tassel thingy that is tied on the chima and hangs down from under the jeogori (this site has many pretty ones, still browsing).
5) Cap (optional)

Slowly veering towards an international closet, no? I've already got a sari from years ago, and just learnt how to put one on. Go figure.

<--- Just uploaded a new userpic. Alphard Onee-sama from Canaan <3

Margaret Atwood's Year of the Flood is now out in bookstores. I have always loved her stories set in near-future dystopias, but with such a depressing workload this month I don't think I could handle any other dampener on my mood right now, as beautiful as they may be.

Still in the process of creating a collection of formal ensembles for kahouya. Next up is the blue rinzu houmongi. It strikes me as a summer piece, because of the watery colour, wave pattern rinzu and swirls of black ink, but the flower motifs are multi-seasonal. I think I did a great job on this set, the accessories almost make the whole thing look very furisode-ish.

First up: Front view of completed ensemble. Working with date-eri again!





Close ups of obi and collars from front:



And of course pictures of the obi-musubi! I attempted another formal knot, this time called ougi-daiko. It gives a touch of elegance without being too fancy.



I still have the pink houmongi and kurotomesode to put up, and then I'm done with formals. Yay!

I went to China Town to take pictures for this essay I have to complete as part of my Singapore Studies elective, and made a detour to the fabric shops in People's Park Complex. I always come away with something Japanese, but this time was extra special because the shop I usually patronise had fabric meant for yukata. They were regular 120cm width fabric bolts, but printed in such a way that divided the cloth into three equal parts - obviously meant to be cut into smaller widths for yukata. Needless to say, I bought enough fabric for three yukata. This picture shows how the fabric looks after it has been cut.


All pinks since I don't have much of it in my collection (I usually stick with traditional blues for yukata, but it's bad for business). I'm in love with the sakura bolt. Dragonflies are <3.

In autumn, it is the evening.
As the setting sun draws closer to the mountains, the crows hastily fly back to their nests in threes and fours and twos.
Even more delightful is the sight of a line of geese flying far overhead.
Then, after the sun has set, the crying of insects and the sound of the wind have a charm that goes without saying.

Sei Shonagon

Autumn approaching, so it's a good time to bring out this tsukesage with chrysanthemums galore. I am planning to put up more formal ensembles at kahouya in preparation for Dinner and Dance season, and since the purple obiage that made a round trip to from Japan is finally here with me, it's time to make good use of it. Purple and brown looked good in my head but it doesn't work in real life. Oh well.


First time working with date-eri, and man, formal kitsuke is really tiring and difficult! Made worse by the fact that Muzuhime doesn't have any arms to help me hold things up :(. I had to use the new (very pretty but expensive) dressing clips to keep the collars aligned. Date-eri, obiage and obijime are all different shades of purple though :/.

Obi musubi used is called "hanatsunodashi" in my book, looks like a fukura suzume from some angles. But it turned out really well.



One thing that I love about this ensemble is the variety of autumn motifs on both the obi and kimono. Kiku (chrysanthemum), kiri (paulownia), kaede (maple).

Put in a tiny bid on a yukata bolt from Ryu on ebay. Teeny weeny bid, I swear! I'll probably get outbid, but I really do not want to miss out on the crazy prices. I was eyeing that bolt for a long time, it's one of those patterns that would look good dressed up as kimono.

SAL shipping has gotten a lot less reliable lately. An obiage-obijime set I bought two months ago made a round-about trip from Japan to Singapore and back to Japan, before finally being sent to me safely by EMS. I was planning to stay off ebay because of this fiasco. Or I should just stay away from buying stuff from Japanese sellers during Golden Week or Silver Week or election periods, because things can get pretty messed up.

Ryu-Japan is having a mega fabric sale. USD7 yukata bolts, people! If I had not burned all my extra money on the netbook...

First autumn ensemble for the year! I was trying to feature some of the items that I have had for a while but had not created ensembles out of yet. I really wanted to showcase this poly komon with bamboo and plum, but the nagoya obi that I chose to go with it might be a little too bling and formal for such a komon. Same goes for the shibori obiage. Must admit I was looking at scans of Okimono Kimono and was feeling the urge to experiment. Explains the scarf randomly thrown in, no?





That's for September!

I was planning to accompany my friend to Comex to buy a netbook today, but History essay and preparations for an art interest group meeting got in the way, so I decided to hop over to the notebook centre in NUS to look at what was on offer instead.

Honestly I must admit that I was under the influence of horror stories about how Acer machines crash on a regular basis, so I ignored the whole Acer display and went to the others. The Notebook centre only has like, five netbook models available for sale so my browsing time took under 10 minutes :o. Weight was the most important factor for me because of backache issues, so I settled on the Lenovo Ideapad S10-2 as it was the lightest one within my budget D:

Netbook is charging now...haven't had time to really take a look at what software is available but it seems Norton Internet security is pre-installed. Microsoft Office is also available but only on 60-day trial. Should I install Office after the trial expires or should I just use OpenOffice? I don't like OpenOffice that much because it is not very compatible with newer versions of Microsoft Office and had some problems with jumbled paragraphs and uneditable presentations. Regular laptop is running Office 2007; will there be conflict???? Haha, but the last time I used Open Office was 2 plus years ago so I don't know if it has improved since then.

Netbook is going to be a school-work-only computer, existing laptop is for kahouya, leisure, random stuffs. Gonna delete some rarely-used programmes and install photoshop + dreamweaver on the old laptop, hopefully I can learn some web designing skills by the end of the year to move kahouya out of blogmode and onto a site of its own. But then hosting and maintenance issues come in...gotta do more planning before I really know what I can do to upgrade the site.

These just arrived today (see pics). Bought them from separate sellers but I meant for them to be worn together.



Most mature tsukesage ensemble I have so far. And I think I'm developing a penchant for obi with marumon as a motif ^^".

Need to make a list of sewing priorities so that I don't go off buying fabric on a whim. I still have enough fabric for at least three yukata/kimono and I need some counter-motivation to keep the cloth-whore in me in check. Draft of sewing list:

1) Indigo-dyed cotton with kasuri print to be sewn into yukata.
2) Dark blue cotton with bunny print to be sewn into yukata.
3) Poly bolt from Qubicfactor to be sewn into hitoe kimono.
4) Sew a new collar into the nagajuban with shibori patterns.
5) Sew a new haneri on the nagajuban with maple leaves and flowing water patterns.
6) Various kinchaku meant as friends' birthday gifts (may be moved to the top of the list as the said birthdays draw near...)

Also seriously thinking of purchasing a netbook (those mini ultra-portable laptops) because classmate's EeePC is oh so tempting. And because my existing lappie is breaking my back. Been getting a bit too reliant on computers but can't really see myself dragging my laptop to campus everyday (campus is 1.5 hour commute from home and train conditions in Singapore are approaching Japanese standards during peak hours, so it's not only the distance that is a drag). So! I have resolved that the income from the next few kimono/yukata rentals will go into the netbook fund. In the meantime I hope that EeePC prices will drop after the next month or so, but I'm being optimistic.

Argh bad news: just lost my tertiary student's Ezlink card! I just topped it up a few days ago. I bought a new adult card for travel by public transport travel in the interim. Grrhhh. Hope it will somehow find its way back to me in a week or so, but if not I'll just have to get a replacement. At least I'll have an excuse to put a nice ID photo on the card, the old one had my really crappy mugshot from JC days.

Oh and in other news I have been won over by Bee Train's Requiem for the Phantom anime. Zwei/Reiji is hawt! And is voiced by Miyu Irino! And the girls kick ass too! Yay for bullet rain part 2 (part 1 being appleseed ex machina)! Why is everything punctuated by exclamation marks?! Because I love this show and will buy the DVD!

Because of the recent additions to the collection (being the pink ro komon and blue tsukesage) I have run out of tatoushi yet again D:. I didn't really want to buy a new set because I was going to take a break from kimono shopping/sewing to get back into rhythm for the school year, so I decided to do a quick DIY and made tatoushi out of plain mahjong paper (for those not in the know, these are like regular copier paper but made in large square sheets meant to line the mahjong table). They were simple enough to make based on measurements from my existing tatoushi and I had a steady supply of cotton tape to make ties courtesy of Mama. Had fun decorating them with decoupage bits from my collection of wrapping paper. I had planned on writing "kimono" in hiragana on each one like the Daiso tatoushi, but my calligraphy marker ran out of ink :(. Ah next time then.

Things have been slow on the yukata/kimono sewing front because a great chunk of my summer holidays were taken up by OCIP and clinicals. I did try to fit in some sewing time in between prepping for the new school semester though, and this afternoon I finished the pink ro bolt with prime-minister's crests go-san-kiri which had been quite high on the sewing priority list (being appropriate for summer and all~). Encountered a few problems mainly with the collar because I am soooooo out of practice :(.

Dressed up Muzu-hime in her first summer ensemble for the whole month of August.



Used the asagao ro nagoya obi for this komon, but unfortunately my one set of summer obiage/obijime was dark blue and didn't go quite well with the cheeriness of it all, so I opted for a normal obijime instead. No obiage because I didn't use a makura as the obi is pre-tied and can hold its shape just like that.



I love this obi, but on hindsight, it IS a little too bright for the komon, ne?



Close ups of the pattern. I used an ivory ro komon as the juban for this, because I cut up my only ro juban to make collar linings (the juban was old and stained, particularly at you-know-where, so no regrets).

Summer is drawing to a close~

Summer season is almost over, so it's time to put away the yukata. Just washed/ironed/folded three yukata this morning, with three more outside drying. BUT! Let's not forget that after yukata season comes Dinner and Dance! So I had an excuse to go on a little Ebay rampage.

This tsukesage just arrived today. Yamatoku has super fast shipping, even though it's SAL.

I have this soursop tree growing in my HDB corridor which I've had for years (since Secondary Two?). It flowers regularly, although nothing usually develops from there. My family thought that maybe it was a male tree or something (soursops usually produce bisexual flowers, but apparently can't self-pollinate D:) but I guess it was determined to prove that it wasn't a sexual anomaly, because one fine day it decided to fruit after all. Pictures below were taken about two months after the fruit first appeared. The soursop has just turned yellowish-green which means it is time to be picked and left to ripen (in the rice sack, as my father suggested).


Love the shape, it's a little green heart! Hope it tastes as good as it looks.

Been looking up Yamamoto Yumi, the author of my newest kimono book. She has a website -  yamamotoyumi.com - and a blog, although the blog is her personal blog so it doesn't have that many kimono pictures. From what I see from her photos, her style is more French ecletic compared to mamechiyo's more polished Art Deco. Very very experimental, although I kind of like the way she places her patterns on kimono. Like so:



And the way she lines her iromuji and furisode in PRINTS is growing on me:



Pictures are linked from her gallery.

Bought a grey shirt on Friday from Uniqlo ION. Previous clothing purchase before the ION outing was a grey cotton ramie dress from Mango. And my aunt who came back from Hong Kong shopping just gave me another grey shirt, so I have in total seven grey tops in my wardrobe now, with three having been added only in the last two months or so. Been pairing grey with everything – jeans, purple skirts, brown skirts, black skirts, uhhh, mainly skirts because they are too floaty and feminine and will be overpowered by anything stronger than white (and grey is a shade of white, so...).

Greyness aside, this summer is proving to have a strong showing in the yukata rentals department. I only have three yukata not rented/reserved at the moment. And only ONE pair of geta left.  Would have run out of koshihimo if I had not met chiiyo -senpai on Friday to get the koshihimo that had been left with her after the Labour Day kimono outing. Will have to close yukata rentals for this summer by the end of the week if this keeps up.

Talking about chiiyo-senpai, I sort of crashed her’s and sodiumion ’s R&R Friday on the pretext of collecting the Yamamoto Yumi kimono book (Machine Kimono). Kimono book does not really offer any new information on yukata sewing but the patterns will be useful when I’m too lazy to hand sew yukata and will fall back on good ol’ transfer-pattern-and-machine-sew. Might have to modify the collar pattern because it is too straight and I always prefer my yukata to have bachi collars. The book also features a photoshoot with an Alice in Wonderland theme, and I’m sorely tempted to do a ro mofuku remake by appliqué-ing white crochet lace motifs in a tsukesage pattern arrangement like one of the kimono featured.

Oh and I also got swept into a karaoke session out of sheer curiosity, because I had never been to karaoke of any sort before. Singing (or rather, attempting to) was loads of fun! Exhausted my memory bank of lyrics in no time, so I sang in Engrrishh and did back-up dancing. Fortunately, karaoke mates were tons better than me so I could just sit back and enjoy~ you girls rock! I shall go listen to Gackt now so hopefully we can sing some crack songs next time :P