Small shop

I am so happy to see Suvi Ainoa being featured in Smaller, my favorite Children's fashion magazine's blog. Thank you so much. That really made my day.

I don't like modeling

Everytime I look at Fei An and Justine's beautiful daughters who are also their beautiful models for their work. I wish my Landon can be a little bit cooperative when I asked him to put on my work...

That's my boy, a strong willed 19 months old :)

Wednesday evening

Our house is a mess, I am sitting now in our guest bedroom (we also call it  Grandma's room), it is now 1/3 of guest room,1/3 of our office and another 1/3 of my studio. Our office now is becoming a nursery. We left the bookcase inside of the nursery, even after taking all the books out, that thing is still the heaviest piece of furniture we ever had, when we moved in, we had three strong movers who still struggled to bring it upstairs, and it is not even that big...

I ordered some prints to decorate the kids room.

This one is from my blog pal Maia. First saw it on alliot's blog, loved it and thought if I ever have a daughter, I will order it to put it in her room. Now it will be put in her room.

This one is from Laura Di Francesco who is a talented young artist based in Stockholm. I wanted to have her GRETA painting first, but after I read the story of this little sweet dreamer  'Lilla Pupi', I decided to get it instead, we need a good little sleeper in the house!

We can't forget our little Landon, this Apple Papple  from Fine Little Day will look great in his new big boy room

凸&凹

I have not been this excited about a shoe brand for a long time, just discovered : 凸&凹. Is that wrong to want them all?

I am not going to look at you

This is how Landon was avoiding looking at my camera when I tried to take some pictures of him. I feel like a stinky Paparazzi

Happy Father's Day

I  love the moments when Landon is interacting with daddy, I like to sit quietly in the corner, just to look at the two of them, playing, laughing, singing, to see the way Landon looks at daddy, to see the love blooms.

Happy father's day dear Antti.

Always...

Yanyan

During the bigger me days

Sweat pants... hmmm... well I have to admit I like them. They were so comfortable during my postpartum days and now pregnant again days.  But I am not talking about those college type, or 'juicy' on the bottom type, this Y3 harem one and Clu pair would work, don't you think so? (those are not my tummy, unfortunately )

Loose fitted Tunic, another favorite during the bigger me days. Like the wraparound leather detail on this Rozae dress, 70% off for this Martin Margiela navy grey dots tunic, can't say no to that. I just added it to the shopping cart while writing this post, this is what I call multi-tasking

I won't get this pair of Kris Van Assche shoe, it doesn't go with my belly, but I can't stop liking it. (you can get them all from here)

Now I want some brownie with ice cream before going to bed 

Happy dragon boat festival

Almost forgot today is Chinese dragon boat festival until our nanny came with some Zong zi (sticky rice dumplings) she made at home.

Zongzi back home in Jiangsu are much smaller and simpler than the Cantonese and Taiwanese ones we can get here in the Asian supermarket. Usually we only have sticky rice with red beans or just plain white sticky rice ones which you could dip into Osmanthus sugar before you eat them.  They are wrapped tightly into the fresh reed leafs and you could smile the fragrance everywhere in the city.

Another thing we eat which is not so common elsewhere in China is salty duck egg wrapped in 5 colored silk thread pocket which I don't really know the reason behind it. But I guess like many traditions in China, it could  bring good health and get rid of bad energy.

                                              

For Paloma

made in mommy

I got this pair of cute comfy pants from Cara's etsy shop. I tried a few times to take some pictures with Landon wearing them and he has not been cooperative.

So Sunday morning, I 'bribed' him with a biscuit and some Thomas the train time on my laptop, hope to take some nice pictures to showcase Cara's design. He ate my biscuits, occupied my laptop, but still refused to show me his face.

Well, the design detail is at the bottom

大母鸡，好美哦!（What a beautiful big hen!)

We went to the zoo and it was the first time Landon saw peacocks, he pointed at a peacock, said it so dramatically : 大母鸡，好美哦! ( What a beautiful big hen!)

Launch of Suvi Ainoa

I have been waiting for this day to come, I have been anxious for this day to come and today is the day...

We are launching Suvi Ainoa today, June 9th 2010.

It has been quite a journey, the idea started after I became a mum. It was so hard to find stylish yet affordable clothes for my baby boy. There were more options for girls but not for boys. I was discouraged by boring cargo shorts and Tshirts. Things I do like usually are rather pricey imported labels. So I thought why not create something that is simple and chic, something not only for girls but also for boys, something you can hand down to your next children before you know which gender you are going to have. Then came the first sketches of Suvi Ainoa's children's collection, besides a few simple styled dresses and one very full skirt,  many of our clothes are unisex pieces, from baby outfits, to shirts, to pants and to jackets. They are handmade here in California.

Then ideas started to bloom when I ordered my first piece of fabric swatches, I was so in love with those beautiful textured linen, I thought it would be nice to make myself an apron with that. The first natural linen apron that is hanging in my kitchen became the muse of Suvi Ainoa's home textile collection. 

I am a fan of pure, clean scandinavian design, I am a fan of Iittala, I am a big fan of Iittala. Our cupboard is full of Iittala, so here we go, iittala is now on the shelf of Suvi Ainoa.

During one of my trips to China, I noticed some beautifully designed notebooks made from recycled paper. Before this type of small labels loses the battle to mass production. I packed half of my suitcase with some of the brand's earlier authentic design. They are now on the shelf of Suvi Ainoa.

This is the story of Suvi Ainoa,  a small label that does not want to follow any trend, neither intend to create any. It is just a simple way to live, something little that will bring joy to your life, something that will not make you laugh, but make you smile.

Something useful, minimal and still beautiful

Yanyan

p.s Thank you Hanna for your beautiful drawing of our tea towels, Madelyn for your always wonderful graphic design work and Megan for your attention to detailed pictures and my dear blog friends for your inspiration...

Old Town

We went to the old town during the weekend,  have lived here for 2 years, this is the first time we visit the supposedly birth place of California.

The day was warm and sunny, daddy and I had a nice time just to walk around, but Landon was not impressed and he was rather bored...