Category: Ikebana

A Fresh Start

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I’ve been working behind the scenes getting everything updated and fixed up, clearing out spam, and generally doing “invisible” projects for a while now, all in preparation for today. The one-year anniversary of my last post. Not really something to celebrate, but it seemed like the perfect time to give myself a fresh start. More on that below.

To celebrate the rebirth and renewal of my blog, I decided to create this ikebana with a bold and sculptural protea blossom, surrounded and protected by tiny mums in a very similar colour pallette. Airy nigella greens help contrast the heaviness of the focus flowers and bring balance and light to the whole arrangement. The flowers were purchased at a lovely florist here in Montreal called Les Champs Fleuris while I was out with Sophie. While we were there, a woman came in to browse and she was wearing yukata!

As I outlined in my last post, I had a very eventful end of 2023 leading into 2024. I was over-ambitious and thought I’d be able to pick up where I left off, at the same time as I recovered from a pretty debilitating accident, all while working 40+ hours a week, travelling back and forth across the continent, and planning a very DIY wedding.

I accepted that life had gotten in the way, but convinced myself I’d get back into the swing of things when I got back to Montreal (where all my kimono, ikebana vessels, and other blogging necessities still live) last month only to find out there’d been a minor fire in the house here and my parents hadn’t told me to “not stress me out further.” Don’t worry, everyone is safe and sound and the only damage was to one wall where a thermostat shorted out. My mother thankfully felt the heat emanating out of the wall before calling 911 immediately. But I came home to new walls, an entirely refinished floor due to water damage, and the bulk of our possessions boxed up all over the hallways.

But here’s the good news. The wedding went off a treat, I have been happily married for six months. The house here in Montreal is slowly getting back to normal as we unpack everything. The kimono room is still upside-down and I’m still dealing with a lot of chronic pain in my legs and can’t stand for long periods of time, but I’ve got lots of reviews and little adventures planned out for the near future. I still need to wrangle The Husband into a formal kimono and hakama so we can take some very belated “wedding” pictures. Maybe for our first anniversary next December. Seems fitting since I keep doing things on anniversaries lately.

On that note, if you’re still here I can’t express how much I appreciate your continued encouragement and support. Please select your top three options of content you’d like to see or drop me a line here or on any social media platform if you have any requests or suggestions. I can’t promise anything, but I can sure as heck try! All reviews/diys/etc will obviously be related to kimono or Japanese culture, and of course I will be doing as much actual kimono blogging and coordination as I can in the coming months!

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Kiku The Bucket Ikebana

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Behold, proof that I have not kiku’d the bucket. I’m sorry, that was a terrible pun but you put chrysanthemums is a lovely bucket-like container, that’s what you get.

I have been in southern California for the past few months and will be here a while longer, which is why I haven’t updated in so long. I don’t have access to my mannequin or any of my kimono, but I do have a few things I can share now so be prepared for more regular updates again!

The first is this charming ikebana I arranged after not having done one for so long. I have to say, it felt really good and I regret not sticking more regularly to it. The vessel, while looking very Japanese-inspired, is actually from a local ceramic artist who unfortunately does not have any sort of online presence (I did suggest he consider at least setting up an instagram or something, but he was, in his own words, “old and set in [his] ways”, alas). I saw it and fell in love, and had to buy it. I had no idea how much it cost, but when he said I could have it for twenty dollars I was over the moon.

The rangiku were actually from Wal-Mart, of all place. Mixed in with all the generic flower bundles were these little darlings and I knew they’d be absolutely perfect in this particular container. I’m so happy with how they combined!

I might try to do more ikebana in the near future, but it will likely all be in this container because I don’t have others with me XD

Aquatic Green Ikebana

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It’s been way too long since I’ve worked with flowers! I did one little arrangement during the April A to Z challenge, and before that it was last autumn.

To say I’m out of practice would be an understatement. But I’d been itching to do some ikebana for a while now, so today while I was out running errands I dropped by my favourite florist to see if anything inspired me. These funky green bells-of-ireland caught my attention and then I found the green ball dianthus that made me immediately think of marimo. And thus this inadvertently aquatic green arrangement was born. With the water and the green ball, the hydrangea mimics sea foam or  bubbles, and the bells-of-ireland give height to the arrangement and evoke some sort of underwater plant, or possibly the tentacles of some mysterious sea creature!

As ikebana, I’m not sure how successful this was. It’s very free-form, but still evocative and sleek. Considering how rusty I am, I’m quite happy with the end result.

In other news, my finger is almost healed now, so be on the lookout for some kimono coordination in the near future!

I is for Ikebana

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Ikebana, 生け花, 活け花, traditional flower arrangement


If you’ve been a reader here for a while, you’ve likely seen my efforts to teach myself the basics of ikebana. I do feel like I’ve reached a place where I can’t really grow any more without more focused teaching and direction, but the world isn’t exactly in a state where that’s an option currently. Maybe I’ll look into it once things go back to normal, whenever that might be.

Getting fresh flowers right now isn’t exactly a walk in the park. But my lovely father, who had to leave the house to get food and fill prescriptions, was sweet enough to snag these for me from the flower-seller at the local mall. I love the vibrant contrast in them; they almost feel like an inverted Japanese flag. I went for a straightforward three-height arrangement with only a bit of greenery to anchor it. It may not be anything terribly exciting, but fresh flowers bring me a little brightnessright now, and I

Fall’s Bounty Ikebana

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I guess all that complaining about how summer was sticking around actually accomplished something, because it’s wonderfully crisp and cool out now. It seemed like a good time to share this last of the triad I created from that one big bundle of flowers my mum brought home a while back.

The lilies and the greenery forming the horizontal grounding of the arrangement harken back to the end of summer, while the carnations and chrysanthemums scream autumn to me. Unfortunately the piece does end up feeling a little cluttered, in retrospect, and I might have been better off just foregoing the orange lilies entirely. Oh well, you live and you learn, right?

I’d also like to take a moment to thank any regular readers for their patience. My schedule at work and life in general have been a little out of whack for the past few weeks and I’ve found it hard to devote time to blogging. But things are back to normal now, so I should be back to two entries a week or so.