Kitsuke of the Month: February 2013

Only wore a kimono once this month but it seemed to be good luck since that package from Shinei with that gorgeous Taisho era kimono showed up the same day!

I went for Valentine's colors, sorta. I figured this would be the most optimal time to wear that pink obi which is what I worked this whole outfit around. The only kimono I have that goes with it is my grey hitoe but it was just the right weight since honestly our February has been half omg cold and half ridiculously warm. The han eri is a navy blue with cream and aqua accents which mirror the cream and aqua in the obi and the obijime is aqua to bring more of that out. I still lack an aqua obiage so I just used my black and grey scarf.

I also managed to do an otaiko musubi all by my lonesome too, it only took an hour an a half *cries*. But I am steadily improving in terms of being able to put things on. This is very clearly another case of practice being key.

What did I do while kimono'd up? Errands, dropped off the rent check and groceries specifically. I managed to catch the drum part of the musubi on something in the check out line so there was a brief rush to get everything on the conveyor belt so I could shove my obi back into a drum. But I was able to so not big deal. The bagger asked why I was wearing a kimono and I've found my default answer is that it would just sit in my closet so why not wear it grocery shopping/wherever? I got asked the same thing by the exterminator (I moved my grocery day in hopes of not being home for inspection since it's just weird) and I gave him the same answer. Then I did all sorts of fancy cooking and tied back my obi sleeves/put on an apron to be totes domestic and have a lovely dinner prepared for a friend that was coming over.

I didn't quite have dinner done by the time she got here but she was just tickled pink to see me in a kimono and making dinner. I had taken my apron off by then since I was just waiting for the lamb burgers to finish cooking and then assembling everything (and putting in a second loaf of bread once the dough finished rising). We had lamb burgers with tomatoes and fresh from my garden lettuce on home baked wheat bread and roasted asparagus. It was totes delish.

I'm getting more comfortable with fluttering about daily life in a kimono, it tires me out about as much as my Transformers costumes actually but that's just because I'm not used to so much weight and structural bits being situated on my waist/ribcage so those muscles tire quicker.