Blog Sale!

Due to various reasons (no job + need to move from where I live in 2 weeks) I decided I will have to sell some of the kimono and obi I've collected.

I prefer the blog option because any other site (ebay, etsy etc) work on commission base, and I need to save as much as possible.

How does it work? I will post all the items I'm selling below, along with the price. Shipping for either obi or kimono is 10 Eur for Europe, 20USD if USA (the shipping fee is huge, sorry about that). All items are shipped from Romania.

Whoever is interested in acquiring any of the items, please leave a comment, claiming the item - that should cover the "first come, first served" base. You can then send me an email with your details at kaballa@gmail.com. All payments should be made via Paypal, within 3 days of receiving the invoice. otherwise, the item will be back for sale.

I am new to this type of commerce, so please be kind with me!

Ok! That being said, here are the items for sale:

Item 1: Purple, early showa komon. Price: 45 EUR. - SOLD

Most of you have seen me wearing this komon at least 2 times. You can see me wearing it here!

Measurements: Width: 129cm; length: 156cm; can't see any faults in it.


Item 2: Golden butterfly furisode. Price 60 Eur

I'm wearing it here!

Measurements: width: 132cm, length: 165cm.

For all the items above I can take additional pics for those interested. I didn't want to make this post too long.

Also, you can check out my Virtual Tansu and if there is something that catches your eyes, let me know. Like i said, I need the money, so most of the items there will be for sale. Just email me and we'll take it form there.

Thank you in advance for your help.

Fire Komon @ Mr. Gay Europe!

Hello everyone!

This past weekend was a very good one for me! Not only did I manage to visit my hometown after more than 4 years, but it was also the first time I got to dress-up ever since I was 5 or 6, when all this started :))

As some of you know from my facebook page, last weekend Mr. Gay Europe was held in the lovely Poiana Brasov ski resort... where there was a lot of snow.. for the whole weekend!!! Mr. Gay Italy won the competition. Well deserved, although I had a secret crush on Mr. Gay Ireland...

Deciding on my outfit was a complete fuss. I initially wanted to wear my early showa komon, then made plans for my furisode with musubi and all, and then finally decided on my fire-red komon with a very cute fan design, with my black based nagoya obi with kikko patterned clouds, hot orange obijime and pale pink ougi obiage.

This is the final result:

I look almost skinny in the pic below:

and something about his bow tie made me think i'd look good in a pic next to him:

All in all I had a wonderful time there! Aaand, I also wore my yellow, gold and silver saree:

I really missed my hometown.. so spending 3 days there was a complete and utter bliss!

Tsukuri/Tsuke/Easy Obi part II

So I finished the sewing part of it!

Now will come the hard part: finding ways of wearing it into a musubi other than the otaiko. I'll keep you posted with whatever comes to mind!

Tsukuri/Tsuke/Easy Obi

After a long quarrel with myself, I finally decided it was time to cut my olive hakata obi and turn it into an easy obi.

There are 2 reasons that led to this decision: 1. too short for any proper musubi kitsuke and 2. the tesaki part seems to have been first cut to pieces and then resewn together (see below).

tesaki part cut and resewn

So, the first thing I did was to measure how much would I need for the otaiko part (initial taresaki part). It worked out to be about 110 cm, which was about the same as the reinforced, 2 layer part:

that's where I did my first cut

Then I folded the rest of the obi in half, on the wrong side, and sewn each end, like this:

then turned it around on the good side:

So far, the halfwidth part of my easy obi is done. I am still debating whether to add strings to it or just leave it as is and use those obi metal clips to hold it wrapped around the waist. We'll see which one works better.

Still to finish is the otaiko part. To that I will just hem the cut side, and then add the strings. I'll get back with the finished product. I promise!

nontraditional kitsuke

PC080009
Originally uploaded by ume bloom

Last night, while browsing youtube, found a makeup tutorial which immediately made me think "go punk!"... So I did!

I paired my omeshi yabane komon, the pale yellow haneri I got from a fellow IG member, with the golden karakusa fukuro obi... and a 3-layer skirt... and boots... and feathers...

I got all crazy and then... bang! It hit me to try and do the musubi in the front... I *was* going clubbing after all.

So there you have it: punk make-up (I love it, btw!), non-traditional kitsuke AND musubi in the front... Can it get more scandalous than that..? Oh yeah.. Forgot to take a pic of my collar.... really low tonight.
More pics:

The entire outfit:

the front musubi with the feather accent:

Any good? :)

ume no houmongi

houmongi
Originally uploaded by ume bloom

Yaaaaaay! I finally got to wear the houmngi I bought last summer!

paired with my golden karabana fukuro obi, red& blue shibori obiage, asanoha date-eri and navy obijime. The outfit *screamed* for some salmon pink accesory, but alas, I have none so far... so I went ahead and worked with what's in my tansu so far. More pics on my flickr account!

I did feel good wearing this outfit though... Maybe because it's been sitting in my tansu for over 6 months now and every time I saw it I'd say "anytime now - just wait for a bit of real snow outside".. Or even because I haven't really worn kitsuke in a while and it just felt right doing it...

Enjoy!

my latest purchases!

Monday morning was a good day for me! It was a good day because, after a considerable break, I finally got to buy something from Ebay:

1. purple hakata obi!

I fell in love with it as soon as I saw the listing, and wasn't going to let it go without at least trying; I was lucky!

2. my first houmongi, with a ume branch design:

and a little detail:

So, like I said, Monday was a good day for me! Now I just can't wait until everything gets to Romania..