A Yoga Teacher We Love

We do a lot of yoga over here at the Carve offices. It calms the nerves and offers a nice break in the middle of the day. Plus, it’s good conditioning for Surfing. We have been reluctant to talk about a teacher that we love- only because we don’t want his classes to get too crowded, but we decided to let the cat out of the bag and share. Tim Floreen is his name and if you want a kick ass, sweaty, leg burning, ab working class with thumping tunes, this is it. I don’t think I have ever left his class dry. That may sound gross to some of you but to us, it’s just what we need to start or break up the day. He’s a smart guy who is wickedly funny and likes to make his class laugh. He infuses just the right amount of spirituality that you feel connected to what your doing but not overwhelmed with it. He teaches at Red Dragon Yoga in Mill Valley on Mondays at 11:30am and 1pm- his power hour class is perfect but doing the double takes being sore to another level. He also teaches in the City at International Orange on Saturday mornings and The Yoga Tree throughout the week. He has killer taste in music and its hard to not want to shake your tailfeather. Thankfully he shares his music on line at www.yogatim.com . We highly recommend him. Namaste.

Carve Welcomes New Athlete

We're welcoming a new athlete to our team at Carve Designs...and we think she is just plain COOL. And, I am not just saying that because she wears our clothes. This woman rocks.

She learned to surf just 4 years ago and is now competing on a near-professional level. Having learned to surf late in life, I can tell you from personal experience how difficult this is. Surfing has a super long learning curve. You can surf and surf every day for months and never catch a wave. It's frustrating, to say the least. Then one day, you'll catch a wave and it changes your life.

And, that’s what it did for Danielle Marvin, our latest and greatest. Having grown up on the East Coast, she earned a soccer scholarship to Southern Florida state (where she got the surfing bug). She was asked to play professional Soccer for Spain and instead, she followed her passion and moved with her husband to Hawaii to pursue an unlikely career in professional surfing.

I'm not sure how familiar you are with the Women's surf tour, but it's super competitive and not exactly lucrative. The purses are much smaller than the men's tour. Despite that fact, Danielle is working hard to join to tour to be one of the few woman in the world that can lay claim to such a feat.

In her spare time, she is an artist and works as a waitress. We are totally psyched to have Danielle on the Carve Designs roster. Watch out for her as she is a force to be reckoned with, and keep updated on her wins and life at http://www.daniellemarvin.blogspot.com/ . We know you will think she is as cool as we do.

Our favorite Danielle Marvin piece of Art (see more at:http://www.cafepress.com/daniellemarvin )

Ethnic Prints

I am really into Ethnic prints these days, Navajo blankets, Pendleton inspired stuff and especially Ikat prints.

I was a hippie back in the day. I went to the University of Oregon, followed the Dead and Phish (should I even admit that?). The whole time, I was wearing Ikat tunics and Navajo jackets. I love how fashion comes full swing...here we are again revisiting these old motifs.

Luckily, usually when the fashion world circles back, the result is better. And now, everything is much cuter. You can get an ice bucket with a great ikat print from www.shopiom.com. Madeline Weinrib has an amazing line of Ikat fabric out at www.madelineweinrib.com. Gucci is even making a dress out of a great grey, black and blue ikat. My Fall 2011 line will be full of these prints, but you'll have to wait a little while for that!