Mini pillows for a magic forest.

I have been truly inspired by this Finnish book my friend sent me: Maja by Kati Rapia and Mari Savio. Lovely book, ladies.


I made the "Suikalemätäs" from old fabric scraps and a thrift store table cloth (it has a hole for the head so it can also be worn, I wish I had taken a photo when my husband wore it.)



And then made some spruce tree pillows, from the book too. The little mattresses I made too, they are just some foam covered with fabric from old duvet covers I have carried with me from Finland only to notice that they were too small for all the duvets and blankets we bought here. The yellow one is actually an old duvet cover, a Finnish thrift store find.



The spruce tree pillows made me think of other kinds of pillow shapes and I made some mini pillows for my Etsy shop. Not only a spruce tree pillow, but also a mushroom and a cloud! Perfect for a magic forest.

My Etsy shop is open!

I opened today my Etsy shop. I have still a couple of items I need to add. I am so happy!

Technical problems. Trying to stay calm.

After writing the last posting my computer broke. All the photos I took and texts I wrote in the last days for the shop are there, out of my reach. So it will take some more time to get it opened! I feel very frustrated.

Working on Etsy and relaxing by knitting and by reading Gudrun Sjöden catalog.

I have been working on getting my Etsy shop opened. I will be ready to open any day now! I just didn't realize it is so much work so it is taking me longer than I was expecting. Luckily I had a babysitter come today to watch my son, so I had an opportunity to do my preparations in peace.

I have also been relaxing in two of my favorite ways: I have been knitting woolen socks (I will put them for sale too though) and browsing Gudrun Sjöden's new catalog that came in the mail last week. I love those clothes. They cost a lot so I can't buy them often but I like too look at them. All of them I wouldn't wear either, but it is still nice to look at the beautiful photos. And I like it that they use ecofriendly materials. Another ecological thing about their clothes is that they last. I bought a pair of organic cotton pants from Gudrun Sjöden last spring and they look still like new.


Photo: http://www.poshyarn.co.uk/images/blog/270508d.jpg

I love my bird.

My dear friend Päivi Tiittanen who is a graphic designer has been working on a logo for my new business! She has come up with such cute designs. I am impressed.




The bird's red boots are traditional Finnish felted boots called huopikkaat. The designer said they remind her of me. Here is a photo of huopikkaat.


Photo: Huopaliike Lahtinen Oy

The header picture of this blog is her work too. The birch trees remind me of Finland and it is my favorite tree. I miss those snow white birch trees here in Louisiana.

We are actually hiking in Arkansas today and I always criticize my husband for working when we are on vacation but now I am guilty myself too. I have my laptop with me and I ordered some woven labels today from Labels4U. I wanted to get eco friendly lables, but the ecofriendly label companies wouldn't answer my e-mails so I ordered a small amount from this other place to try them out. Next time I want some with organic cotton or hemp or something like that. I promise! More later.

Going into business on Valentine's Day.

Hi! I am a Finnish woman living in the US. My husband is Finnish too and my son has a dual citizenship, he was born here. When we came here, I was on parental leave from my communications job in Finland (we can have pretty long parental leaves, I love it!) and my plan was to return there. BUT a couple of weeks ago I resigned because we are not making it back by the end of my leave. It was a hard thing to do, though, I felt like I had closed my back door!

To help myself not feeling so trapped I decided to start a small business, that I can run from home and do as much or as little as I like. I am taking care of my little son at home and in my free time I like to do crafts, sewing etc. Because some people have been interested in buying them, I decided to start my own business. I registered a trade name, kaiku lifestyle. I did all the paper work today, on Valentine's day.

I am planning to start an Etsy shop very soon. And I am working on my website.

Kaiku means echo. I chose the name because I like to utilize old and recycled materials and make something new out of them. The new product is in a way an echo from the original product that was just going to be thrown away. I use old clothes from our household, from my friends and I buy old fabrics and materials from thrift stores. Sometimes I buy fabric remnants from fabric stores or in very rare cases completely new fabrics if I really like them. I can't resist for instance fabrics from Ikea or Marimekko.

I wanted to start my business as Kaiku design, but someone had already a website under that name. Because I might expand my business later to some other things, I decided to go with Kaiku lifestyle.

I am interested in living as naturally as I can. I have been keeping this blog, Living Naturally in Louisiana. Now we are going to move for a while to California, so I am going to pass the responsibility over the blog and the Living Naturally group to someone else. I will keep writing about the living naturally stuff though in this blog when I have something to say.