Tag: summer

Summer Farewell Ikebana

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The weather here is finally getting cooler, to the point where I’ve actually felt straight-up chilly the past few nights. It’s wonderful! It’s a sure sign that summer is on the way out.

I don’t like summer but I know lots of people do so I wanted to do something to give my least-favourite season a proper send-off before we say hello to Autumn (the best season). My mother brought home an enormous bouquet of mixed flowers the other day after she was out running errands, and I was able to make three separate compositions with it. This is the first one.

The colours of these bold gladiolas and smaller flowers are the perfect bridge between a mid-summer sunset and warm fall foliage. The whole thing feels almost tropical but still very familiar. The green leaf was actually a fantastic slice of serendipity, and you’ll find out why later this week in an upcoming entry.

I’m not sure how I feel about the overall shape and composition of this one; I’d realised nearly everything I do is the composed, structural moribana style, and wanted to try a more relaxed nageire arrangement but to me it feels less like ikebana and more like a random western-style bouquet to me. I’ll have to keep trying!

Refreshing Stripes

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Summer is here in full force. It’s like Montreal finally got the memo that it was June and boom, oppressive heat and humidity. So when this gorgeous, crisp, cool-feeling unlined kimono arrived it seemed like a great time to do something with it. It’s not in great shape so I got it for less than five dollars, shipping included. But it’s such a gorgeous design I was itching to coordinate it anyway.

It has such a crisp, refreshing feeling and I thought this hakata obi with the same colours would help reinforce the palette and coolness of the outfit. I love how the obi gives the eye a bit of space to rest, but almost feels invisible at the same time. A few watery blue accessories finish things off and evoke even more breezy, refreshing vibes. I couldn’t help trying out this cute bow obijime style I saw on Instagram recently, and I think it adds a really sweet touch to an otherwise almost-masculine outfit.

I knew this kimono was stained when I bought it, but the extent of the damage is more severe than I’d realised based on the photos. Now that I’ve made at least one outfit with it I am going to use it for some cleaning experiments. I’d like to try a few different easily-attainable stain remover products on different areas and keep track of the process to help anyone else who may have stained pieces.

The kimono is too new, and somehow this obi escaped my cataloguing process so for the time being I can’t insert the detail gallery. Whoops! I will add it in later, once the items have been cleaned and properly photographed.  😳

Memories of Summer

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It’s snowing today. Again. We had a blizzard on Monday. It’s been frigid enough lately that there’s been warnings to stay indoors. I live in Quebc, I expect winter to be unpleasant. But this winter hasn’t just been unpleasant, it’s been brutal. So I thought I’d do my best to remind myself that summer will be here eventually!

I bought this gorgeous usumono (summer weight) vintage komon at the kimono bazaar back in November and initially had no plans to do anything with it until it was more seasonally appropriate. But I really needed a breath of warm summer air, and decided to feature it.

I love the colour of this piece; it’s a shade of plum that’s somehow rich but muted all at once. And the art-deco feeling birds on it are utterly charming. It’s tiny and will never fit me, but it was incredibly affordable for its age and fragility, and I loved it too much to pass it by.

Typically, I don’t bother putting a juban on the mannequin. She doesn’t sweat so I don’t need a layer to protect the kimono, she doesn’t move so I don’t need the security of it, and she doesn’t need any further padding or smoothing, so usually it’s not necessary. However, this kimono is so sheer that it would have looked odd and shapeless, and I’ve been wanting to feature this ridiculously adorable shrimp juban Naomi gave me for a while now. It’s technically too heavy for the weight of the kimono, but I love how the colours work together and thematically I like the idea of birds swooping over the cool, breezy ocean and diving in to catch the shrimp!

I used my white ro hakata obi, partially because it looks refreshing against the purple and partially because it’s the only summer weight obi I own. Pale purple summer weight accessories and a cool white ro haneri tie it all together.

It may be completely disgusting and frigid and messy outside, but it’s good to look back on happy memories of summer.

Items used in this coordination

#monoKimono Challenge – Summer White

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This may be the last weekend in August, but we’re still suffering the heat here. With the humidity factored in, they’re predicting temperatures in the high 30s again this week. So I decided to run with some cool summer white usumono coordination for this month’s monochrome outfit, even though I did a white/cream one not long ago with the wedding ensemble.

I often find myself breaking the rules a bit with these monochrome outfits. I guess I figure that if I’m playing with one rule, I may as well play with them all. So this outfit is sort of all over the place formality-wise and season-wise, but I really wanted to keep it all in that warm white/cream family with yellow accents to make the bells on the kimono pop out.

Also, if I’m being honest, I just don’t have much variety when it comes to actual summer-weight accessories, so I had to use normal ones. Maybe I should limit myself to only buying usumono for a while. I’ve already cut down on my buying habits lately, this would be even better motivation to stick to that.

I quite like how this turned out, even if it does have a lot “wrong” with it. And it wasn’t too terribly overwhelming to put together even in this oppressive weather. Win-win!

Don’t forget, there’s only a few days left to enter the stencil giveaway!

Items used in this coordination

YATAI MTL! at the Marche Des Possibles – 2018

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As much fun as last year’s YATAI! Japanese street food festival was, I have to admit that it was a little disorganised and definitely had room to grow. Thankfully, this year they took everything they learned from last year and it was so much more amazing! There was plenty of varied and delicious food, fun music, a yukata booth provided by Kimono Yuki, and even a giant daruma art project. There were several workshops over the course of the weekend, including one about tea, one about sake, and some origami. I didn’t participate in any, but it was definitely a nice addition to the concept. It’s amazing to see events like this grow and evolve!

Of course, it was an excellent opportunity for me to wear this new wide yukata I have, and I managed to drag my friends along too! I’ve known Sophie and Dave for eons, and they’re some of my best friends, but somehow I’d never had the opportunity to dress them until now. It was super fun. I kept things very comfy-casual since neither of them has worn yukata before, and we all wore comfortable shoes because the event is in a park with lots of roots and uneven terrain.

As fun as dressing up was, the main draw of the festival was the food. There were lots of amazing options, but in the end I went for a Japanese-style hot dog, yakisoba (noodles), korokke (potato croquette), and karaage (fried chicken). Dave also bought me some grilled corn on the cob, which I happily bit into before realising it had butter on it. I’m inconveniently but not fatally allergic to dairy, so nothing disastrous happened but I did have to stop eating it, alas! Everything I did eat was absolutely delicious, but the karaage was definitely my favourite. So juicy and crispy! And of course, dango for dessert! We also ended up swinging by Ca Lem, a place near my house on the way home that’s got lots of vegan ice cream options. I got a strawberry sorbet and it was the perfect finishing touch to the evening.

We also noticed while waiting in one of the lines that Sophie’s outfit was a perfect match to the cute little girl on their sign. so I convinced her to strike a pose. And of course, no yukata outing would be complete without stupid photos of me eating. We also tried to get a photo of my hair because I really liked how it turned out. The photo’s not great but at least my brain surgery scar looks cool, right?!

The whole day was great fun, and it’s so wonderful to see events like this grow and flourish in Montreal! Next year will be even better, I’m sure. And there’s several other fun things coming up, like the Matsuri Japon and Asian Night Market, and I’m hoping to hit up one or both of them. Maybe I’ll drag some friends along for those too. 🙂

Diane’s Outfit

Sophie’s Outfit

Dave’s Outfit