Tag: white

Go Habs Go!

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One thing you may not know about me is that I am descended from hockey royalty. Newsy Lalonde was my great-grandfather. While this isn’t something that generally overlaps with my kimono interests, sometimes a girl’s just got to represent hometown and familial pride, in the form of a coordination evoking the Montreal Canadiens team colours. Especially now that we’ve made it into series two of the Stanley Cup playoffs. Go Habs Go! Tricolore jusqu’au bout!*  I’d originally planned to put this up before Series 2 Game 1 on Wednesday but was feeling under the weather, so I’m making sure it goes up before Game 2.

Sadly, I don’t have any hockey-themed accessories, and I don’t think my father would be too thrilled with me using things like his grandfather’s Hockey Hall of Fame ring as an obi-kazari, so I had to work with the “tricolore” (three colours) emblematic of the Habs — red, with blue and white as accents. Our primary jersey colour is, of course, a nice bright red, and as is standard in the NHL the away jersey is white so of course this red-and-white yagasuri komon was the perfect base. I just always forget how danged huge it is, which makes putting it on the mannequin a little awkward. It also looks a bit pinker in these photos; blame the light in my room. In person it’s definitely a true red.

Sadly I don’t have any obi that are quite the right shades of blue, but this one works pretty well. I tied it in a karuta musubi because the square shape with the red and white lines of the obijime reminds me a bit of an ice rink, if you squint! There’s no significance to the cat motif, I was just going for colour cohesion. It does tie in nicely with the blues and white and the motif on the haneri though, doesn’t it?

How about you — are you a hockey fan? Are you watching the playoffs, and rooting for any particular team? If so, let me know so I can tell you how factually incorrect you are (I kid, I kid).

Items used in this coordination

*(this literally means tricolour until the end or tricolour all the way, referencing the three team colours)

Birthstone Ensembles – April – Diamond

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There really was only one choice for April’s birthstone – this shiromuku with sayagata pattern that looks like facets, and a white obi with silver hishi (diamond) designs. Add in a textured white and silver haneri and a white beaded obijime, and I honestly don’t know how I could have evoked diamond better without gluing crystals onto the ensemble. Which is not something I was keen to do on a wedding piece, frankly.

My only real wish was that the kimono and obi were both in the same undertone family. It’s not entirely evident here due to the blue background, but the kimono is more of a warm ivory white and the obi is a cool greyish white. But eh, lets pretend that’s to evoke light refraction or the colour variation you can find in natural diamonds.

I honestly don’t have a lot more to say about this particular coord. It came together like a dream, the kitsuke didn’t give me grief, and overall I’m beyond happy with this interplay of textures and now I’m even more motivated to stick with this project!

Also, does anyone else remember this Old Spice commercial? The “the tickets are now DIAMONDS” line has been looping in my head since I started.

I’m on a horse!

 

 

 

 

 

Items used in this coordination

Art Gallery – Mystery “Geisha” Doll

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I have mentioned it before (and I’ll likely mention it again), but I am a sucker for any sort of gacha/mystery/blind-box situation, so you know darn well when I found this listing on Etsy for a 3D-printed “mystery geisha doll” from NoirVibe Studio I had to snatch one up. I figured it was high time to share some beautiful original art that wasn’t my own silly fanart, so here she is!

Let’s get the obvious out of the way first – this lovely lady is more of a kitsune miko than a geisha. However, I don’t blame them for the name, this one is much more likely to attract attention and for the average Etsy shopper.

How these work is you purchase the listing, and you can request specific parts for the shop to mix-and-match, or you can be surprised. I told Nikolett I liked the black okobo and red hakama, but wanted a surprise for the face and hair. I’m very happy with the one I got! There only seems to be one option for the kitsune, but I absolutely love how it’s detachable and functions as a fun little fidget toy!

The quality is lovely, she’s very solid and well-assembled, and the 3D-printed parts all fit perfectly together. There are, of course, some print lines — but this is to be expected and doesn’t detract from the figure at all. The quality is good enough that they’re only visible if you’re very close, and I actually find it adds an interesting texture to things like her hair and the large red mon-like dot on the back of the kimono.

Overall I am very happy with this purchase, and am considering buying another though, in a black and white outfit and the skull face.

 

Kimono-inspired Nails with Maniology Stamping Plates

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Back when I wore kimono regularly, I used to love matching my nails to my outfits. Obviously in recent years that’s gone out the window, but when Maniology released a set of very clearly kimono-inspired stamping plates I knew I had to give them a shot. Nothing wrong with having a fresh set even if they don’t match your outfit, right?

I knew I wanted to make a set that match this blog, so of course I grabbed the Sashiko Stitch plate. I also fell in love with the Draped in Elegance plate that featured a variety of kimono design motifs.

Where possible, I have linked to the polishes I used. However, I’ve been hoarding collecting nail polish nearly as long as I’ve been hoarding collecting kimono so many of these colours are no longer available. In one case the brand doesn’t even exist anymore! I do recommend getting a good white polish if you plan to use it for stamping, especially over dark colours, but the selection for the yuzen-style manicure has a ton of room for interpretation.

Sashiko & Kintsugi Blog Manicure

Plate used:

Maniology M650 – Sashiko Stitch
(plus the asagao from the plate below)

Polishes used:

Navy – Expressie Feel The Hype
White – Maniology Bam! (B170)
Gold – Maniology It’s Lit (B262)

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Golden Yuzen Manicure

Plate used:

Maniology M677 – Draped in Elegance

Polishes used:

Plum base – NARS Tokaido Express
Gold stamping – Maniology It’s Lit (B262)
Red – Nubar Sultry Red
Orange – OPI Totally Tangerine
Green –  Zoya Midori
Blue –  Revlon Blue Siren
Purple – Revel Nails Whirled View
Pink – CND Tutti Frutti

@kimono_tsuki

Kimono nails featuring @hellomaniology stamping plates マニキュア #着物

♬ original sound – Kimono Tsuki 着物月 – Kimono Tsuki 着物月

Other tools & products used:

Medium almond nail tips
Polish stamper and scraper
Nail art liner brushes
Nail stand
Silicone mat

I did standard straight-to-nail stamping for the sashiko manicure, and made my own transfers for the yuzen-style one. If you’re curious I did make a little video of the process for the transfers, but there are plenty of incredible videos out there that explain how to use stamping plates far better than I could. I would suggest starting with Maniology’s own YouTube page, they have tons of clear and helpful videos.

These plates were a dream to use and the stamping polish made things so smooth and intuitive. I’ve tried some very basic stamping in the past and didn’t have nearly as much luck, and this was my first time doing anything layered or complicated, and I can’t get over how well they turned out. If you want to give yourself a manicure to match your favourite kimono, or just bring a little bit of Japan to your fingertips, I highly recommend these! My only regret is that I didn’t buy more of them. I’ll have to snag some other ones from this collection in the future.

If you buy anything from Maniology, you can use my code TSUKI for 10% off!

 I purchased this item myself and chose to review it.This post contains affiliate link(s). If you choose to purchase, I receive a small rebate or commission which goes to the continued maintenance of this site. 

A pop of sentiment

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Isn’t it funny how cyclical life can be? The last kitsuke coordination I did before leaving Montreal last time involved poppies, and now the last ikebana I’ve done before leaving California involved poppies.

Last weekend, Keith and I were in Palm Springs (doing an escape room – unrelated but super fun!) and I figured while were there we’d check out one of the local florists. I was running under the assumption they’d have more variety than the supermarket near home and typically I’d be right but they’d done a big event that morning and were running low on stock. I found this bundle of pink and white poppies in various levels of bloom and decided I could do something neat with them once I let the buds open up a bit.

Unfortunately, the following day I learnt the very important lesson of Don’t Put Your Hand In The Blender While It’s Plugged In. Thankfully I only pulsed one finger for a fraction of a second, and while there’s a fair bit of gnarly tissue damage it could have been so much worse. But I couldn’t exactly use my hand, or even hold the scissors I needed to cut the stems. I was worried they’d wilt before I had the chance to feature them.

So imagine my surprise when a beautiful set of proper wide-handled ikebana shears showed up in the mail on Tuesday, courtesy of my lovely friend Andrea.

I decided to just let the flowers shine, featuring them at different heights and different levels of open. I love the contrast, and how sculptural the stems are. A bit of foliage to balance things out, and the arrangement essentially put itself together. I could not be happier with it!