Zen Noodles require a special kimono

I got a chance to wear kimono yet again today! We went to this nifty little restaurant called Zen Noodles and of course that requited a special kimono. Also, it been pretty cold today. I'm from Florida for crying out loud, I get cold EASILY! ;P

I got this kimono before I arrived in UK in May, but never got chance to wear it in Florida like I intended. Originally I intended to pair it up with my bingata tsukuri obi, but we were pressed on time and I didn't want to spend all the time figuring out how to put tsukuri obi on lol. :) So instead I went a safe way and choose one of my favorite gold obi with imaginary flowers. Usually when I'm at a loss as to what obi to choose, I pick this one and so far it hadn't disappointed me!

I ordered seafood noodle soup and got so giddy when the waiter brought me my order :) I think most of the excitement came from the spoon that was give to me! It was one cool spoon :) ;P

Sadly by the time we got done it was dark outside so I don't have many good pictures of the whole outfit.

I just can't stay away from Ebay

I think it's a sort of 'retail' therapy for me. I guess I'm having a much harder time here than I anticipated, I avoid talking about it much but the fact is still here. :( And so I shop for kimono stuff cuz that's about the only thing that makes me happy right now.




Here are 2 new kimono I got. The green and blue one was an instant I WANT item even if I'm gonna have a hard time coordinating it. I don't have a single obi that will match, and I'm still confused about the flowers. Are those Ume? Sakura? Momo? But fun nonetheless :)The other one is much easier, and it's hitoe so I will be able to wear it as soon as it comes in. Good thing too, because I'm hoping to wear it to London Matsuri festival in September. I already have at least 2 obi that I think will look good with it :)

I love Ro or Lyuba's Cambridge kimono adventure

Today was a very good day for me :) The weather was nice, we were able to get out of the house and I got to wear kimono! I haven't had a chance to wear my Ro kimono yet so I figured today was the day to do it. Since I never wore Ro before, I didn't know what to expect. I thought it might be harder to handle because it is so light, but I had no problem with it. I even managed to dress myself without anyone's help and still look nice :)

We spent the whole day hanging out in Cambridge. Last time we went there I saw a really cool store that sold hand made cosmetics, and this time I actually was able to get stuff for myself! Everything they sell if=s completely hand made from the most natural materials and I always loved stuff like that. I got myself some hard shampoo and conditioner, a nice 'jar' of facial cleanser and a very cool hand lotion. I can't wait to try all those things out! :)


We also went to a Japanese restaurant and it was really good! I'm very happy that there is a real Japanese restaurant in the area where I live and we don't have to drive to London to get sushi :) The food was very good too :) So I'm definitely seeing myself coming back there for more!

I finally got a full length mirror!

Today my husband and I finally managed to get to the furniture store and get ourselves (me, I mean) a full length mirror! The only mirror I owned stayed at my parents house and since we were moving overseas right after we got married, we decided to not buy it until we got to UK. My kimono outings suffered tho :( :( But no more! With my handy dandy mirror I can practice as much as I want on those lonely days and nights that I spend home alone. :)

All I can say is wheeeee for full length mirrors and kimono! ;P

My very first purple kimono!

Oh my kimono spendings! No wonder I always go broke!

Yesterday I got myself a purple RO kimono. Now I have 2 ro :) I had to tell my friend Aira to not even think about getting it (because of her love for purple, I give her hard time about it all the time) cuz it's MINE!! It's a little bit on a short side for me, only 154cm in length, but sleeve to sleeve measurement is 137cm! That was the deciding factor for me.





Sadly I only have 1 ro obi right now and I don't think it will match this kimono very well. Ideally I would like a light green obi to go with it, or maybe even cream. I like the light obi paired up with darker kimono, or dark kimono paired up with lighter obi. :)

My most expensive juban yet... :)

Few days ago I got into a real bidding war on Ebay over 2 Taisho jubans. Usually I'm a LOT more reserved, but this time I just really like them. Unfortunately I was only able to get one of them, but even so I'm very happy. I needed a juban with longer sleeves because the number of my kimono have sleeves about 56 cm, and mosts of my jubans are at 49cm sleeves or less. This juban sleeves are 55cm which is perfect for me! :)





Sadly one of my favorite kimono was left without proper juban as I lost another one. It's a bright red kimono, from far away it could be mistaken for red iromuji, but it's not. It has some black and yellow lines design over it. Its sleeves are unusually long (or so it seems to me), at 66cm. I have another Taisho juban that was given to me by a friend, but it's bright red, the same color as kimono! And as much as I like red, I think red kimono AND red juban is a little too much even for me LOL. So the search for PERFECT juban for my perfect kimono still continues.

I decided to treat myself or my new kimono pretties :)

I spent the whole morning looking at Crescent Shop so I could get myself a red, cute and non-seasonal obi to wear with my many Komon kimono but I just couldn't bring myself up to pay all those extra fees on TOP of paying for the item itself. So instead I went to Ichiroya's website and after 15 mins or so of browsing I found EXACTLY what I was looking for! :) It's a tsukuri obi (so I can wear it by myself), it's red, cute, and non-seasonal! Not only that, but it also has kimono girl as a design! All I can say is WHEEEEEE!!











In addition to my new obi, I got 2 new kimono, a pair of zori, black obiage/obijime set and a set of 5 obijime. I can't wait for all these items to arrive! :)