I want to show you a very cute Obi musubi tutorial this time.
It´s called ウサギの耳 (usagi no mimi) which means rabbit ears ♥


Actually you use a Nagoya Obi and wear this kind of musubi with Komon kimono but the problem is that I´ve no Nagoya Obi and so I had to use one of my Fukuro Obi. A part of Nagoya Obi is always already folded and that makes it easier to tie though before you start tying Fukuro Obi you have to fold it in half by yourself.

I will also use two important words for this tutorial:

Tare and Tesaki






However ... now lets start with the things you need:



1st: Fukuro Obi (actually a Nagoya Obi!)
2nd: Obi ita
3rd: Obi makura
4th: two Koshihimo
5th: Obijime
6th: Obiage



1st step: Since I use a Fukuro Obi I have to fold up around 75% in half first:




2nd step: take the Obi ita, tie it around your waist and close it on your back:




3rd step: the open part of tesaki has to be on the left side of your shoulder:




4st step: start to wrap it around ....




5th step: wrap it again




6th-7th step: in the end I had to wrap it around 3 times until I saw the pattern of the Obi only




8th step: after this fold the tare like you can see here




9th step: take your first Koshihimo (tesaki and tare are now above)




10th step:  bring the Koshihimo to the front and make a loop




11th step: tuck the loop underneath your Obi




12th step: the tare part is now "hanging" down




13th step: now we want to build the rabbit ears! Take the tesaki from above and fold it down




14th step: then fold the right part up like you can see on the following picture


that are already the rabbit ears ♥

15th step: use now the second Koshihimo and slide it over the rabbit ears




16th step: then bring the Koshihimo to the front, make a loop and tuck it underneath the Obi.
Your rabbit ears are ready!




17th step: Time to use the Obimakura and Obiage




18th step: put the Obiage over the Obimakura




19th step: fold the tare part up and put the Obimakura underneath the Obi. The flat part of the Obimakura touches your back.



Bring the strings of the Obimakura to the front, tie and then tuck them underneath the Obi. You can see how you have to tie the Obiage in my previous tutorial, so I skip this part now!


20th step: now the final steps ... tuck up the tare and then put the Obijime on the center part of Tare, bring the Obijime to the front and tie it (you can see how to do it in my previous tutorial!)




the end of o-taiko has to have the same length like your forefinger:




FINISHED!







Like we all know there are tons of beautiful Obi musubi, some are easier and others are more difficult. Today I want to start showing you very beautiful but in the same way difficult Obi musubi tutorials. They are all mainly for Furisode Kimono.


 1st one: 春の花 バラ (Haru no hana bara : Spring flower - the rose)























The pictures donnot belong to me (© http://振袖日和.jp)


I bought two new Kimono items, hope you like them ♥ At the moment I´m investing my money more into Komomo.

I have just far too little Obiage and I wanted to have a pink one. I am happy that I got this cute Shibori Obiage for only £0,99 *laughs*


with seigaiha
(semicircular repeated wave)
design

... and last but not least - a wonderful Kinchaku bag! *yay*
Isn´t it super adorable?

It´s from Shinei´s page. They have still a lot of them with different designs. You should check it out! Just search for "Kinchaku"


Now I have really everything I need for the Japan-Day in Düsseldorf. Let´s hope all arrives soon and safely. (^o^)/


Hello my dear readers! ヽ(。◕‿◕。)

On Sunday (April 7th) we celebrated my birthday party. My birthday is actually on April 1st. First of all I want to show you the "surprise" cake I got - I didn´t know anything about it. *laughs*



Doesn´t it look beautiful? In this case thanks again to my mum and sister ♥ Very delicious! The text says: Happy birthday dear Laura ^_^/

The theme for this party was of course "Asia/Japan". Here you can see the lovely decorated table:




We cooked a lot of different food, here you can see the things I ate:

with chinese cabbage
salad with japanese dressing, tofu and edamame ♥

Of course I wore Kimono. Well, in my defence I have to say that I was really in a hurry and my Kitsuke looks not very good, I am sorry. Somehow I have often problems with my collar ... however, I hope you still like the pictures =3

my fav Kimono ♥
this was my first Obi and I wore it for the first time *haha*

sorry for the messy collar =c
Zori with Sakura tabi ♥


Now the presents I got from my friend Laura (yes, we have the same name *lol*)

me unwrapping the gift from Laura ~
cute chinese tea cup with a tea strainer inside =D
She also gave me the amazing "Sakura" gift set from RITUALS:




This set contains shower foam, shower cream scrub, body cream & the ultimate hand sensation. Arigatou again ♥ The scent is amazing!

One of the cute presents from my sister, an adorable key chain (* v *)/  It´s called Nelly. Looks cute together with my Kimono, right?





It was really a nice and funny evening!