Well everyone, I've been back from Spain for a little more than a week now. The trip was awesome, eventhough I was sick and missed out on hiking a part of the pilgrimage. I don't have any photos from Spain posted yet, but I'll be sure to add them to my flickr page soon.

Other than that, I've spent the last week working like a dog to get ready for Anime North 2009. This year, not only was I staffing in the Comic Market, I was also selling in the Crafter's Corner and curating the Kimono Display in the Art Room. The Kimono Display went smoothly eventhough we were missing one of the kimono... The komon was forgotten at home.

Anyways, for those of you who couldn't attend Anime North, or missed out on the Kimono Display - you can take the virtual tour:



Most of these kimono and obi are from my personal collection. The only items which are not are the fukuro obi, kurotomesode and stage costume. The uchikake was purchased as a karinui from ICHIROYA and sewn by yours truly. The maru obi was also purchased from ICHIROYA

Thursday
Thursday evening was the Artist's Jam, where as usual we have the artists draw on a large board which is later sold at the charity auction. I spent a few hours there finishing up some last minute kanzashi, then joined in the fun by adding a detailed phoenix to the charity board.

Friday:
On Friday I spent the morning and early afternoon with some of the other staff setting up all the tables in the Comic Market, Crafter's Corner and Display Area. Then at about 1pm it was time to set up the kimono display. My kimono stands were delivered promptly and myloko and I got right to work setting up. After the kimono display was looking all pretty and such, myloko and I headed over to the Crafter's Corner to set up our table there. We got dressed in our kimono as well. She wore a black taisho houmongi and I wore my Eibetsu no Fuyu houmongi (which I purchased from ICHIROYA) with my pink haori. The weather couldn't have been worse for a winter ensemble though - I was wearing about 4 layers and it was easily 30 degrees in the convention centre.

Saturday:
On Saturday I got up at about 6:30am and got all dolled up in my chaya-tsuji maiko ensemble. Myloko and I spent the day manning our table and we had some fun with frenchlily. For the early part of the day she was dressed in her AMAZING Tomoe-gozen costume. Her armour was fully authentic and incredible.



And later that day, Frenchlily changed into her geiko costume once her armour got too heavy. So we got all got a nice photo together. Myloko was playing the part of Shikomi, while I was a Junior Maiko and Frenchlily was a Geiko.



Sunday:
On Sunday, I was up at 6:30am again to get my geiko ensemble on. I ended up using a couple of the hairsticks from my Ryuu-sama kanzashi set for this outfit, since the kanzashi I had planned to use had gone missing. You see, I had been storing two antique hair pins in the box for my sensu - and either I had mistakenly left the box somewhere, or it was stolen from our hotel room. So I no longer have the box for my sensu or the two taisho hair pins that had been among my first kimono purchases. I'm very sad to have lost them...



Anyways, I spent the afternoon disassembling the kimono display, but not before about a dozen people asked me if they could buy my kimono. One lady was hoping I would sell her my wedding furisode to wear for her wedding. Unfortunately for her, that's the first kimono I ever bought and so, it's quite special to me.