As promised, the translations of the captions for racerxmachina and myself:

( Suiseiseki )

( Sophia )

Neither of us got big photos in the layout, but we're amusingly the only "big" (coming through the aisles, everyone please stand back, beep-beep-beep...) costumes aside from the Al. And, hey, in one of the shots of the store, that's my Wonderful Husband in the center of the photo. With his back turned, granted, but still. ^_^

Yesterday was my mother's birthday. A few weeks ago, when the Texuba kimono show/sale was held in an antique emporium in Long Beach, I happened to spot an applepot piece that my mother didn't have in her set yet, and returned yesterday morning to purchase it for her. She seemed to like it. ^_^ Dad took her (and my sister and Wonderful Husband and I) out to dinner at the yacht club they belong to, which was very nice. Also jotted up to Anime Gamers in Santa Monica in search of Cosmode 11, which both racerxmachina and I are in, but they were sold out. (So was the Kinokuniya in Torrance.) Got two new-to-me Card Captor Sakura shitajiki, though, one of them an image I've been searching for for a long time.

Today I went to the fabric district with a high school friend who's into RenFaire costuming. It was her first time to the LA fabric district, and while she's on a more limited budget than I am (she's mostly a stay-home mommy with a part-time job, while both Wonderful Husband and I work full-time), she seemed to have a good time. Fortunately some of my usual temptations were closed (in fact, it seemed like half the fabric district was shut today!), but there were still many things flickering my "want!" light on. I resisted most of them, except for a silk/rayon blend for $2/yd and a cotton/linen blend for $1/yd... the latter of which is going to become a new hoopskirt or two. I got what I went for, which was fabric to make Kun-Kun, and fabric to make Matsuri--specifically two yards of white Chinese brocade in a non-dragony pattern, and forty yards of pink chiffon in five different colors. At that, I'm realizing I will probably need even more chiffon for the skirt! And then lunch in Little Tokyo (omuraisu! *heart*). I checked Kinokuniya for Cosmode 11, but they too were out. racerxmachina, I have the ISBN, so I'll just order two copies from the Costa Mesa Kino, if that's all right.

Then I came home and finally cut into my handkerchief weight linen for the rew RenFaire chemise I've been promising myself. And I'm doing it oh-so-neatly, with drawn threads to cut on the straight of grain, t-tunic layout with shoulder seam gussets, silk thread... and then there's the redwork I finally got around to finishing last week for the collar and cuffs.... I'm enjoying this more than I should be, even if I'm drawing my line in the sand for strictest historical accuracy: I'm sewing the main seams by machine, though I will be doing most of the seam finishes by hand 'coz it's easier to make them clean that way.

While I was cutting pieces out, my sister's friend saw what I was doing and asked how much I'd charge her to make one for her. Um. ^_^;; $20 for fabric + something for labor...?