The weekend is coming!

In just over a day I will be attending my first convention with my kimono friends to sell some of our collection and to spread the love of kimono to as many people as possible.

It is very exciting!

All I need to do is pack my bag and I am ready.

Roger Penrose talk on cosmology

Deep down I am still a physicist so when my partner got an email inviting him to a talk by Roger Penrose we could not say no.

So who is this Roger Penrose? Wikipedia to the rescue here!

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Roger_Penrose

His talk was quite a general one detailing what he was looking at and what he hope to prove however no technical details because one, that would have been too hard for the audience and two, he had just published his results and didn't want to go through it yet.

I was going to wear a kimono but since the talk was late afternoon, I felt it was a bit too informal and casual for a kimono. Therefore just wore the usual jeans and t-shirt (standard uniform for a student/postgrad).

The talk made we realise how much I missed learning physic at university.

Japan Day 2011 - The University of Sheffield.

Since I moved back to Sheffield back in August 2010, I have been waiting for a Japan Day to be organised nearby. I heard that University of Sheffield had a Japan Society and when I went on their website I found out that they organise such an event. Therefore high probability that there will be another one in 2011.

To begin with, I had in mind that I would ask for a stall at the event but I couldn't find any information and left it alone. Then all of a sudden I found a facebook event had been setup detailing the event. By that time, it was only a couple of weeks away and it was too close to Kitacon so I didn't have enough time to make twice the number of kanzashi. In addition, part of me thought that people visiting the Japan Day were more interested in the experience of the day rather then buying.

So another kimono outfit needed to be organised. I choose a nice white kimono with red fans.

and for a change I decided to use a hanhaba obi and tie a more casual musubi. I don't know what it is called but I probably seen it being worn by someone.

So outfit sorted, time to find the event. It isn't too obvious from the outside that the event is happening.

But when you go in there you see straight in front of you (down some stairs) a yukata dressing which was very popular.

So what else is there?

If you walk towards the main hall of the centre then there was the following

Irensei playing table.

Calligraphy

Origami

Martial Art

and one can not forget Japan Centre.

On stage there was various acts but I didn't pay too much attention. Overall I spent 2 hours at the event and for £6 it wasn't bad. There was a maid cafe but since I was on my own I didn't feel like sitting there eating a cupcake on my own.

Oh there was some lovely obi and a kimono being used for display by the origami section but I couldn't take nice photos of them. Here is the best photo out of the lot, I should have asked where they were from.

Busy Busy Busy with KitaCon stock.

There is just not enough time in the day.....or maybe there is enough and I am just inefficient.

Kitacon is only a few days away and all of my kanzashi are made.

In total :-

• 80 matching pair hair clips (alligator style clips) - £6 each
• 20 random pair hairclips (assorted mounts) - £6 each
• 10 hairbands - £10 each
• 14 kimono pyramid bags - £10 each

Depending on space I might bring a couple more hairbands and some of my kanzashi brooches.

Not only that, my friends will be selling some of their kimono collection as well so our little kimono and kimono dressing stall is going to be full of goodies.

Here are some of the kimono that we will be using for our dress up, are they not fabulous.

See you all there!

Features on Wedding blogs

So March has been very good for Kitty Kanzashi as I have been featured in two wedding blogs!

First one was in LadyAmy Bespoke Wedding Design blog I originally found her on twitter and one day she asked for people to submit in wedding features. So I did and she accepted my post. This was the first time I had to write a post about myself and to be honest it was hard. I just could not find the words to express my passion for my kanzashi as they are so personal to me but after taking a week to compile I managed this.

http://ladyamyweddings.blogspot.com/2011/03/kitty-kanzashi-accessories-with-floral.html

The second feature was in Poptastic Bride. One of my Offbeat Etsy Wedding members recommended the blogger on this site to visit me store and she immediately wanted to write a feature on me. This time I only needed to answer three questions which I did and this is the result.

http://poptasticbride.com/2011/03/handmade-japan-style-bridal-hair-accessories-kitty-kanzashi/

I would just like to say a big thank to the two bloggers!

KdJ UK March get together

You can not be a kimono fan and not love textile in general I think. In one kimono you can see an array of dyeing, weaving and decorative skills so when Shelia from Kimono facebook mentioned she will be running a stall at a Textile Fair in Manchester I just couldn't resist setting up a Kimono de Jack event.

This Textile Fair was organised by The Textile Society and it was being held at the Armitage Centre. It showcase a lot of textile guilds and a load of stalls which were be selling all sorts of vintage items.

Perfect place to pick up some unique items for everyday wear and possibly something for kimono.

First thing first! What to wear? Well obviously a kimono and I had one just in mind. It was brought probably 2 years ago when I was going through my silk kimono phase and it was love at first site. However I had trouble finding a obi for it but in the end I took the plunge with my electric blue and silver fukuro obi.

I will need to ask my friend for her pictures because I could hardly take pictures of myself now. (She stayed the night especially for the event).

Anyway getting to Manchester, now there is a story. Getting to the train station was no problem since Hong and I left in good time and buying the tickets again nothing. Then we made our way to the train and got ourselves comfy, hahaha wrong! Hong lost her train ticket so we both panicked because we both knew they were brought so where could they have gone? Not to mention the train was leaving in 15 minutes so what should we do? There was only one thing to do and that was to re-trace our steps and hope no one picked them up/handed them to a station employee. We were lucky and found them laying on the station floor in front of a queue of people using the self-service ticket machine. People must have thought they were rubbish and didn't batter an eye lid.

Well we made it to the train with only a minute or two to spare after running in kimono. What a sight it must have seen.

Anyhow this bout of exercise made Hong very sleepy.

It has been a while since I was in Manchester and Hong and I were lucky to get a lift from Liz's friend. I think I would have got a taxi to the Armitage Centre as buses are just too difficult on a Sunday for me.

Now the fair! It cost £6 to get in but I was not disappointed. I never seen so much vintage clothes and jewellery that I wanted to buy. Here are just a few photos because most of the photos turned out to be rubbish due to lighting in the hall.

Actually the stall above were selling brooches at a bargain price of £1-£3 so I brought a nice peacock one which will go lovely with my kimono shawl.

And here is a group photo!

I must keep an eye out for this event in the future because it was fab!

Oh My I need to update my blog!

Things have been a little hectic with kitacon only a couple of weeks away and I'm busy making kanzashi and little pyramid bags (which is tomorrow's task).

Many things have happened and I promise I will update you on my life.

Stormy Skies is complete

Don't worry about the name, it was just the weather at the time of design.

It took some time to complete as normal because I wanted the clouds to look like clouds but Japan Craft came to the rescue with needle felting kit and the rest was up to my imagination.

However even after adding the falls onto the large cloud there was still something missing. That was it sparkle, it was missing sparkle! So rhinestones was needed to fit inside the falls and also into the bridge part of the set to give it some shine.

So what do you think about the results?

It will retail at $120 for the set although I am thinking of selling them separate but if you wear it as a set then you get a lovely look of cascading clouds.