pira

I've straightened up the livingroom and library (that which was once upon a time a dining room) and am faced with boxes of fabric and kimono....*sighs*....to deal with, on my kitchen table.

Messes never really go away. They just migrate from room to room. In my case it's papers and textiles. My husband must love me very, very much to put up with this....

Speaking of fabric (a.k.a. kimono) ...it's interesting when you disassemble these things ~ what you find in there. One haori was utterly gross with weird dirt hidden in the sleeves ......oh you get used to the lint, but the crumbly non-desciptive bits that would fall out were icky. On the other hand ~ some of the hand-stitching is beautiful and I kept aside one piece of fabric where the person who made it embroidered their name (I think) inside (as in INSIDE) the garment :D...and I am always amused by the variety of fabrics used inside(unseen) to strengthen areas, or the type of thread that varies thoughout the item.

Obviously easily amused.

ANYwho...With that in mind ~ there I am...washing some fabric in my kitchen sink, to hang and dry in the basement after having folded up that which had dried.

This time it's just cotton ~ a number of lengths of material straight from bolts and a few yukata. As I'm washing and wringing out an item of clothing ~ I am pondering if it's just better to take them apart first before I wash them....easier to hang-up when *OUCHIES*...something pricks me.

Not just pricks me but it's hit a nerve and a vein in my wrist.

After having watched the bruise spread I turn my attention to the garment in the sink, and gingerly feel it up to find the source of my throbbing wrist. Turns out to be a 2 1/4 INCH long needle (I'd figured it might just be a pin)...@__@!!!

Well... I'd answered my own question. DEFINATELY taking the f**kers apart before washing from now on. >__<*!!!

Something about when it rains, it pours....

I have finally worked my way down from the heights of a self-righteous snit I'd wound myself up into ~ but am still ignoring drawing because I want to be totally grounded before I redo anything...and so I am playing with the dollies (you'll see why later) when the doorbell rings.

It's my pavers ~ today is the day.

This is good...and this is bad....because I will need to park on the street for a week (now I'm trying to get a hold of city hall to register our vehicles for overnight parking...)...and I would have prefered to do this when the other half was out of town and we didn't have the hassle of jockeying for two spaces out there...but I digress....this also means I HAVE to get going on the garden retaining wall...less than a week before I leave for the farm.

BUT WHATEVs....so I'm moving my car and the Post Lady drives up and jumps out of her truck to stop me ~ I have a package to sign for.

OF COURSE I do.

It's the last box from Kyoto (and oddly enough the first one I mailed)....with a Big fat sticker on it saying it's over 50lbs.....

*0__o what exactly did I put in there???

( contents below )

So the *pissy* stuff (literally and figuratively) has either been disposed of or washed. That would mean the floor, floor coverings, walls, my SEWING MACHINE, swivel chair legs, art desk legs, primed canvases...dust covers on books.....

....thank-the-gods my mother is taking Ruby permanently as of mid-July or there would be a body out in the rubbish bin tonight.

Speaking of rubbish ~ one vintage, 1950's, Swedish, wool rug sits on the curb in all it's brilliantly stinky glory. I wonder if someone in the neighbourhood will attempt to liberate it? Things like that usually do get picked-up (wonders what they did with the urine soaked mattress last year?)...*rolls eyes*

ANYway the cupboard AND artdesk is re-organized (ontop / inside / below)

NEW posters have been put up behind the desk...(raided the furoku/shitajiki/otaku crap collection for pretties)...and I've brought together the many odd figurines (except those who I make room for around my pc) and given them all a home together on the IKEA narrow shelves back there.

A WHOLE lot of cardboard boxes have been broken down and dispatched to recycling bins, but first I sliced out the large areas that make packing *do not bend* bubble envelopes LESS BENDY to posties who don't understand those BIG BLACK WORDS I PRINT ACROSS THE BACK AND FRONT..."PLEASE DO NOT BEND". Those pieces are now sorted into the a well stocked bin.

Box of electronic gadgets, camera etc., cds for the pc, boxes and info about such things sorted into one box again and stored away. Box of empty picture frames filled and placed into storage with bubble envelopes. Easy access but out of the way (and on a basement shelf out of sight).

NOW I start sorting bundles of kimono scraps by colour into bins. As I collected them on my ...@__@!!!!....WOW ~ CLEAN and CLEARED SEWING TABLE ~ It occured to me that I don't know how many kimono (haori or kimono) I own so I decided to do a quick count.

*0__o....only 64?

..and I know I have 2 boxes between here and Kyoto...due to arrive sometime in July. One of the contains...um....23. I don't have a clue how many are in the other one.

.....

I have traded my Japanese-manga/doujin-I'll-never-read obsession for Japanese-clothing-I'll-never-wear.

Yeah...I know...I should be slapped. Hard.

Okay so yesterday I got those shelves cleanered of manga (which were taken up to the attic).

My thought had been to deal with the stuff I'd piled on the table first but realized I'd feel better if I just wiped down the shelves and reogranized some of it.

I folded and packaged up in BIG ziploc bags ~ any kimono I hadn't already sealed against dust. I make a habit of including a note (written in pencil) that states the type of kimono, fabric and weave the material is should I know it. These items take up 2 shelves.

Oops.

Once I get the doujinshi up there I will have a better idea what kind of room I have left. I've decided not to bother to scan the covers of the new ones, including a box of djs from my last trip. Call me crazy...but if I haven't done it in a year, I'm obviously in no rush. I will mark them stickers though ~ as un-scanned. Might as well be organized up the wazoo and it won't cost me much in the way of time. *pira is the definition of organized chaos*

Having emptied two bins of childrens kimono I can now claim them for kimono scraps which....I have already folded and sorted by colours. I can file away the foot high pile that had been waiting patiently for those kimonos to move.

THAT takes more stuff off the table top.

It will be fairly fast at that point...between bouts of snow shoveling. We are in the middle of a winter storm and I am going outside every hour to scrape off another inch. I have NO interest in doing it all at once when there is the predicted 30 cm (12 in) of heavy stuff on the ground. No gym for me today. Instead I'm exercising reality. >D

*glances up and out the window behind the pc*

*shudders*

Man this is going to be ugly. The wind is from the wrong direction (NE) which means tylenol and a heating pad will at the end of the day....be my backs very best friend. *0__0!!

...I am grateful though. It had only just started this snowing around 5 a.m. Bob had poo-pooed the heavy snowfall warnings as more weatherman lies ~ but since he doesn't ever shovel I ignore him. I'm glad it waited till I got up....so I could start tackling it hourly instead of waking up to mission impossible.

*finishes paying for a synthetic haori to be worn around the house this winter, and a lovely patterned silk/cotton blend 1960s vintage kimono*

(.__(.

So I swore up and down that I would stay the hell away from Ebay.

.)__.)

Problem was...I had to go there when a package arrived so as to leave feedback.

(.__.)

When faced with the ebay page I seem to automatically find my willpower abandoning me (whoosh, right out the door it goes).... and I mindlessly default to typing into the search engine things like: tomosode, rinzu, shibori, momiji, ume, sensu, seigaiha, tsumugi, meisen...etc.


Heck I don't just throw in the word *kimono*...like normal people are wont to do. NOOOOOOoooooo. I narrow it down to the romanji Japanese sellers use to describe their products....even when my brain is out in left field planning dinner.

I am utterly and totally hopeless.

At least I'm cheap. My theory being ~ if I just bid the minimum or close to it, I'll probably get outbid but still feel like I made the effort.

The problem is....I don't always lose. I actually feel guilty paying less than a dollar for a haori or less than $10 for a kimono.

Not enough to stop though.

.....

I'm f**ked.