I love this penguin! He’s so cute and roly-poly and huggable. X3

Artist links:

Blog
Etsy
Flickr

Items for sale by this artist:

Cats and sakura- two of the best things ever. There is a huge gallery of these photos here.

Oh, the things that people can accomplish armed with only felt and a sewing kit. Isn’t this plushie Noah’s ark cute? ^^

The artist does tons of cute things like this, so if you like cute felt crafts, it might be fun to add her as a contact on Flickr.

Too cute not to share. (^3^)

Beautiful work, low prices and she even has a sakura kanzashi made with this method. X3 Look at the pretty things. :D ]]> http://www.snowfoxcreations.com/french-beaded-flower-artist-at-etsy/feed/ 0 http://www.snowfoxcreations.com/mr-rabbits-secret/ http://www.snowfoxcreations.com/mr-rabbits-secret/#comments Thu, 10 Dec 2009 23:38:14 +0000 Cherise Hawley http://www.cherisehawley.com/mr-rabbits-secret/
Mr rabbit’s secret, originally uploaded by Silent Defiance.
alice in wonderland mini ddung doll with mr rabbit.
(Featured by SnowFoxCreations)

SRUY35368883

Hand-carved out of an EGGSHELL. Can you believe this guy’s skill? 0____0

Blogged because this is the best obi ever. #__# (MANEKI-NEKO!!!!)

Found via an IGF thread, which is where I find a lot of my links. ^^;

Floofy arctic foxies.

This piece was one of the first things to spark my love of snow foxes. Please view it and love it. X3 I just refound it after searching for it a while… It’s so cute and so fluffy. ^_^” Snow foxes. They are FLOOFY. This image is what added the word FLOOFY to my vocabulary (for better or worse. :/ )

(My art favorites are here, BTW. Mostly kimono and cute animals [you would never guess that, right? ^^; ])

I also really love this one:

Yuki by *C4mi on deviantART

This is the extravagant costume once worn by Tayuu, which were the highest level of Japanese courtesan in olden times. Unlike geisha, tayuu were prostitutes, although they could refuse customers. While the geisha district was Gion, the Tayuu were based in Shimabara.

Tayuu would wear layer after layer of kimono, a red juban beneath and a thick uchikake on the top. They wore LOTS of hair ornaments (geisha and maiko only wear 2 or 3 at most!) and the best way to tell the difference between Tayuu and other people is that Tayuu *always* tie their obi in the front, which is something NO ONE ELSE does in modern times. They also wear no socks with their geta, and their geta are usually REALLY high like platform shoes.

After WWII, prostitution was outlawed- so although a few Tayuu still exist, they’re just entertainers like geisha now, rather than offering *other* services. The story of tayuu is a tragic one- many of them were forced into that job when young- but now they can follow the form of dancing and costumes of the profession without the sexual aspects.

Note that their outer robe (“uchikake”) is the same type worn as an outermost robe by brides in traditional weddings, and it’s basically the fanciest type of kimono still in use. Uchikake are thick, luxurious, often richly embroidered and have padded hems so that they can trail behind on the ground when being worn. (When tayuu wear an uchikake outside, they often tie it up so that it’s more or less knee-length, since city streets have dirt and stuff.)

(Since this is a very unorthodox summary, PLEASE PLEASE PLEASE don’t cite this in a research paper. PLEASE. TT_TT I know way more about kimono than geisha, and way more about geisha than tayuu…)

BTW an “oiran” is almost the same thing as a tayuu, although a bit different.

Scorpion Schyte

I love Laverinne’s art. I subscribe to her gallery RSS feed to see her new work. :) She always has such beautifully detailed work, with beautiful background stories to accompany the images.

「竜宮の庭」/「彗」のイラスト [pixiv]

Cute, eh? :3

Isn’t this lovely? :3 It reminds me of a yukata. I found this user via an adorable illustration she posted in Flickr’s ‘Bunny Lovers Unite’ group and she has all sorts of cute illustrations and prints in her Flickr photostream. Her adorable, softly-colored fairy-tale-like illustrations and Ukiyo-e style prints are very peaceful. :) Naokosstoop has a really unique and cute style. She also has an Etsy store, which sells reasonably-priced prints of her work (I especially love the kingyo print. I love traditional-style kingyo art.)

NAOKOSSTOOP @ Etsy : Mini-Store

Click on the thumbnails to view the items for sale in her store.

Epic cat is epic.