The Kanzashi is a traditional hair pin worn to keep the hair up and off of the back of the neck as well as provide a point of beauty within the hair itself. Often, Kanzashi are floral in print or design and are engineered to include real flowers or other items of particular feminine charm. The cool story associated with Peri's particular kanzashi involves a new friend we had the privilege to meet through our process of preparation for Peri's day. In an effort to find a kanzashi that matches Peri's kimono, i looked extensively on various web-sites and couldn't really find what i was looking for. As Sami has always been a big Etsy fan (think "eBay for handmade products" if you've never heard of Etsy.com), so i looked there. I found a perfect Etsy shop that sported some of the coolest Kanzashi I had ever seen, so immediately contacted the shop owner to ask about shipping and customization.
Through the contact, i learned that the shop owner is a fun young woman named Ruri (which is short for Ruriko) who is Japanese but resides here in the US and who, in an effort to help with tsunami relief in Japan, is donating 20% of her sale proceeds to the Red Cross for relief! As we corresponded with Ruri further about Peri and what we were doing, she responded quickly and made a completely customized Kanzashi specifically to fit Peri's outfit, then ensured that it was shipped so that we got it at our doorstep in time for Sunday! It's gorgeous and Peri will be so excited!
Ruri didn't ask me to do this, but if you want to take a look at some of her work, you can go here to see her shop. She also has some fantastic YouTube videos about how to properly wear a kanzashi (provided that your hair is long enough, of course... which... you know... would be a problem for me).
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