Year: 2018

Fudangi First Fr… Saturday?

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Well, that didn’t last long. Only a few months in and I missed a Fudangi First Friday. I was at work until late yesterday and then ran errands afterwards and picked up dinner on the way home. By the time I’d settled in, eaten, and decompressed it was too late to do anything. But I’m doing it today, which is better than not doing it at all, right?

I may not have made any resolutions for 2018, but I have decided that I want to try to re-use more of my collection, especially things I bought for one particular coordination. It seems incredibly wasteful of me to leave things languishing in a cabinet instead of enjoying them and sharing them here. So for today’s outfit, I decided it was time to bust out the Starfleet kimono and try to do something different with it.

Seeing the two outfits together, it’s very clear that I basically did the same outfit with a slightly different obi, so I’m not sure how successful I was doing something “different”, but I still quite like the way it turned out. Heck, I even used the same yellow haneri! I had fun making a wider, otaiko-style bow with a hanhaba obi and played with the objime knot a little though. One of the great things about Fudangi Friday is that since it’s more relaxed and casual, it encourages people to experiment a little. I just need to work on breaking out of my comfort zone and playing with more unexpected colour/pattern combinations.

Items used in this coordination

Tea Time – Pure Leaf Matcha & Ginger with Orange Blossom

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Anyone who has had the pleasure of performing or witnessing a traditional Japanese tea ceremony knows how serene and meditative it can be. It’s a beautiful experience, one I think everyone who appreciates traditional Japan should have at least once in their lives.

However, sometimes you crave the fresh, soothing taste of a hot cup of matcha but just want a quick and easy drink. Thankfully, Pure Leaf tea has a solution! While their iced teas have been available for some time now, they’ve recently ventured into bagged and loose-leaf hot teas. I was selected to review two of their new hot teas; individual servings of matcha and a lovely ginger and orange blossom tisane, courtesy of ChickAdvisor.

First off, I knew I wanted to start with the matcha. It’s a single-origin tea from Japan, 100% pure tencha leaves cultivated specifically for matcha. The trees are protected from the sun as they grow, ensuring even exposure which results in a smooth, delicate tea. The nice thing about these pre-measured sachets is that all you need is hot water, a sachet, and a teaspoon! No fussing with pots, whisks, or braziers.

The tea has the distinctive fresh, grassy taste of the matcha we’re all familiar with. It is a smidge more subtle, less of the “soapiness” of tea from a tea ceremony, but that’s not a bad thing. If anything, it makes it more versatile for folks who might not necessarily be familiar with traditional matcha. Certainly, nothing will replace the experience of a proper tea ceremony, but these are a delicious and accessible alternative. They’re small and convenient enough to keep in your purse!

Next up, Ginger with Orange Blossom. This is much more of a typical herbal tea comprised of ginger, orange flowers, orange peel, lemongrass, and other all-natural ingredients. There are no tea leaves of any variety in this blend, which makes it great for a nighttime drink or a treat for anyone sensitive to caffeine. It comes in wonderful pyramid bags which allow for much more water flow and movement than old-fashioned flat bags. It’s the closest you can get to loose-leaf tea without losing the practicality of the bags.

This is a warm, comforting tea with the familiar heat of ginger at the forefront. It’s very well-balanced, somehow taking very strong flavours but keeping them delicate. I drank it plain, but a dollop of honey would be delicious in it. I also think it would make a fantastic iced tea in the summer!

I highly recommend both of these products, and I look forward to trying out more hot teas from Pure Leaf soon. Thank you to Pure Leaf and ChickAdvisor for giving me the opportunity to try these out.

 I received this item from the retailer or manufacturer for honest review purposes.If you have a topically appropriate craft, product, or service you would like me to review, please contact me. 

#Monokimono Challenge – Mustard Yellow

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Anna of KimonoTEKA recently came up with the #monoKIMONO challenge; the last weekend of every month in 2018, challenge yourself to make a monochromatic outfit! I am always up for new kitsuke ideas, and I know I can handle one-a-month type challenges, so you know I’m going to go for it!

My first thought was red or pink, but as I was flipping through my collection for ideas, this odd mustard yellow colour jumped out at me. You might remember this kimono as my emergency backup piece for Belle that I ended up falling in love with. It’s not a piece I’ll ever be able to wear, even if I were to lose an unhealthy amount of weight it would still be too narrow for my broad back and too short for my giant self. Also, this particular colour looks lovely on a lot of folks, but utterly terrible on me. However, I’m always excited to find ways to coordinate it, and I realised I have a vintage obi that’s nearly the exact same colour. A few similarly ochre-toned accessories and voila, a beautiful, wearable, vintage monochrome outfit.

This whole outfit pulled together so smoothly and easily, I hope it’s a sign of things to come for both the challenge and the year as a whole. Are you participating in the #monoKIMONO challenge? If so, I’d love to see your coordinations!

Items used in this coordination

Kiltmono for Robbie Burns

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Yesterday, January 25th, was Robbie Burns Day, a celebration of the life and work of Scottish poet Robert Burns. Traditionally, a Burns Supper is held, an evening filled with bagpipes, haggis, poetry, whisky, and laughter. A few weeks back, a family friend came over while this outfit was on the mannequin, and he jokingly asked if it was for Robbie Burns. It got me to thinking, how could I combine the two, and this “kiltmono” is what I came up with! I’d intended to do it yesterday but this flu season has been kicking my butt over and over again, and I could barely get out of bed. Thankfully today was better.

I hiked the kimono up quite high, to what would be roughly the length of a kilt. The white obi is to echo a crisp white dress shirt, and the black haori calls back to the formal black jacket typically worn with a dress kilt outfit. I chose the red accessories to tie together the red accents in the haori and in the tartan of the kimono. The sporran is my father’s, as is the sgian-dubh (dagger). Traditionally, the sgian-dubh is worn tucked into the sock with a formal kilt outfit, but it reminded me of the traditional kaiken dagger worn by Japanese brides, so I tucked it into the obi. The shoulder fur is reminiscent of both traditional fox fur kimono shawls and a pelt that would have been worn for warmth in the Scottish highlands.

Honestly, I’m kind of shocked at how well this whole experiment came together. As much as I love traditional kitsuke and “proper” kimono coordinations, I also really love demonstrating how modern and versatile these garments can really be. When we stop viewing kimono as rigid, regimented garments with strict prescriptive rules, and start remembering that they are first and foremost clothing and were once worn every single day, we’ll all be able to have a lot more fun with them while still remaining respectful.

Pieces in this coordination

Tropical Fire Ikebana

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Tropical Fire Ikebana

I suspect you’re all probably quite tired of me complaining about winter, but I’m not done yet! Still cold and damp, still sick, and now they’re predicting half an inch of freezing rain overnight! I was very much in the mood for something reminiscent of the sweltering humidity of the tropics. The little flower counter at my local drugstore is not the place I’d expect to find birds of paradise or bright red waxy anthuriums, but lo and behold, they found me and called out to me.

The flowers are so bold and dramatic that I knew I wanted to do something big and sparse and sculptural. The beautiful blue vessel was a Christmas gift from my cousin and I love how it anchors everything, is reminiscent of water, and pulls out the hint of blue in the bird of paradise flower. I tried to arrange the anthurium to almost look like steps leading up to the stark angles of the bird of paradise, and attempted some fancy weaving of the palm leaves. It didn’t hold quite as well as I’d like, I clearly need more practice! The whole arrangement was perched dramatically onto this carved wooden stand that was my grandmother’s. I love the way it raises the whole piece up and elevates it to a work of art.

Spring can’t come soon enough! Aside from all my complaints about flu season and the cold and snow, I’m also eager to go back to working with seasonal flowers from my own garden and the great outdoors. There’s a forsythia bush in our yard that I never got the opportunity to work with last year, and I’ll be damned if I miss its blooms again this year!