Amica

♥LoveStory♥

Sita&RamThis is a story about Prince Rama, the great warrior, who was married to the beautiful Sita. Rama and Sita were really gods in human form.
Prince Rama meant to take over the throne from his father the king, but his wicked stepmother had tricked his father into sending him away into the forest. With him went his wife, Sita. Rama had begged Sita to stay safely in the palace while he stayed in the forest, but she declared it was a thousand times better to be in the forest with Rama than in the richest palace without him.
So Rama and Sita went to live in the forest together. They lived a simple, peaceful life in a small cottage.
But, before long, their peace was disturbed. One day, Sita was spotted by the demon king, Ravana. Of all the demons who lived in the forest, Ravana was the most terrible. He had twenty arms and ten heads, with eyes as red as coal fires and a mouthful of yellow fangs. When Ravana saw the beautiful Sita, he immediately came up with a plan to kidnap her and make her his wife.
One day, when Rama and Sita were walking in the forest, they saw the most beautiful deer you can imagine. Its golden hide was as bright as the sun, its silver antlers as bright as the moon, its hooves shone as black as night, and its eyes were as blue as sapphires.
So delighted was Sita when she saw the deer that she begged Rama to catch it for her. Rama was worried that this was some demon trick to try and split them up, but Sita pleaded with Rama, until he agreed to try and catch the deer for her.
As soon as Sita was alone, the demon Ravana swooped down and swept Sita up into his chariot pulled by winged monsters. Despite her terror Sita thought quickly and scattered her jewellery piece by piece – first her golden anklets, then her earrings, then her glittering scarf – as a trail for Rama to follow. Far below a white monkey looked up and, seeing the glittering jewellery, thought the stars were falling.
In the midst of the forest, Rama tracked down the beautiful deer. But when he caught hold of it, the deer changed into a terrible demon that broke away from Rama’s grasp and flew into the sky. Realising that he had been tricked, Prince Rama ran back to the cottage as fast as he could, his heart filled with dread. Finding Sita gone, he searched frantically until he came upon the trail of jewellery that Sita had left.
Rama followed this golden trail until he met Hanuman, the white monkey, who had seen Sita’s jewellery fall from the sky. Hanuman was a very special monkey because he was the monkey king. Hanuman took Rama to the monkey city, that lay under the hills in a giant cave. All the monkeys of the city were called to the marble square in the centre of the city, and messages were sent out to monkeys all over the world. They came in their millions from the woods and caves, and with them came their friends the bears. Twenty-three million animals filled the city and covered the hills like a great shaggy sea. After they had heard what had happened, they spread out to search the world for Sita.
It was the monkey, Hanuman, who came to the island where Sita was being held prisoner. The monkeys and bears with him stared in despair at the giant crashing waves that surrounded the island, but Hanuman, the son of the wind god, climbed to the highest hill, took a mighty breath and leapt into the clouds, and over the crashing waves. He landed on the island and quickly found Sita in a grove of trees near the palace. There she sat refusing to marry the evil Ravana.
Sita was overjoyed when she found out who Hanuman was and she gave him a pearl from her hair to take to Rama. Then, Hanuman bounded away to fetch Rama and Lakshmana, and the great army of monkeys and bears.
But still the giant ocean waves kept Rama and his army away from the island. And so the army began to build a bridge of rocks and grass and sand.
The squirrels came running out of the woods to help, every animal – large and small – contributed to the building, and soon the bridge stretched a hundred miles to the island, and the animals poured across their bridge.
Long and terrible was the battle, as the animals fought the evil demons. Many great deeds were done, until at last Rama faced the demon Ravana on the battlefield. With his arrows Rama struck again and again at the heads of Ravana but, each time he chopped one off, a new one grew.
Then Rama took up his special bow and arrow that had been made by the sky god. He chanted a special prayer and shot. The gods of wind and fire guided the arrow and it pierced Ravana’s chest in a blinding flash. Ravana fell dead in an instant.
The entire world rejoiced. The reign of the demons was over and Rama and Sita returned to their own country to rule. In celebration, the gods showered flowers from the sky, and the people lined the streets with flags and garlands. In every home, an oil lamp was put in the window to welcome back the Rama and Sita and their great army. The royal ruled happily for many years until it was time for them to leave their life on earth and return to heaven.
For Hindus, this story shows how good will always triumph over evil in the same way as a little oil lamp will destroy total darkness.

Sita & Ram ♥ Eine Liebesgeschichte ♥
Girasol Exclusives von Xenia und Sabina

SitaRam

♥ different weaves
♥ sale directly from Germany at MeinTragling and Switzerland
♥ sale in April (exact dates to be announced yet)

Aurora

We're waiting for more news about Aurora...
edit.1.4.11
A tale from my childhood.
Girasol Donau and Girasol Aurora.Several of SlingoMama exclusive girasols have been desinged by me. Donau was the first one. I'd like to share with you the story of my Donau design.
As a child I was crazy about reading books. When I was little, my mother worked as a librarian and she took me and my sister to her work at the public library when there was nobody to stay with us at home. And that happend quite a lot, because my father was a military man and was often away.
I think I have read almost every book for children and later for juniors at the library where my mom worked. But most of all I was facinated by the folk tales from different countries.
I was geatly impressed by a tale about the river Donau and a girl, who was in love with some young man, but he didn't have mutual feelings for her. This girl came from time to time to sit along the banks of the Donau river and cried, her tears were falling into the river and Donau was trying to calm her with its waves and wash her sorrows away. One day she jumped into Donau and became a foam. She found happines this way, because she was free and could finally see the sun.
When the young man found out that the girl has jumped into Donau, he suddenly realized that he actualy loved her too and he jumped into Donau river as well, became a foam and joined his beloved. They didn't have human bodies, but they were happy together.
Now I don't know whether it's a sad story or not, but when I red this story as a child, it seemed to me as a story with a happy end and I was genuinly happy for the girl and the young man that they have found each other this way, even though they didn't have human bodies any more.
One day I had a Girasol chart in front of me and I combined together the blue, green and brown stripes and realized that they remind me the story from my childhood about the Donau river, the girl and the young man. This is how the Girasol Donau was born.
The funny thing is that I have never been near the Donau river. Though I very much hope I'll visit it some day.
Almost right away I knew that Donau would get a sister and that her name would be Aurora and that she will have“girly” colors. Aurora is a natural light display which occurs in the polar regions most of the time. I have never seen it, but this beautiful natural fenomenon seems amazing to me.
Donau river is a part of nature and I thought that his sister should be a part of nature as well. I hope to welcome her soon amd I hope that my customers will love her as much as they love Donau.
Olga SlingoMama.nl

The Last Gasps of Winter

Donau

Wrappers' Paradise

Together with Elena of MyGirasol in Russia, we are doing one more batch of Wrapper's Paradise this year.
Girasol Wrapper's Paradise 2009 was the first of the Wrapper's Paradise series.
In 2009, Slings I Love (now Granola Babies) helped organize and hosted a design contest on behalf of the wrappers of TheBabyWearer.com. This particular design won from over 70 designs that were submitted and voted on. It was then weaved that year and the rest is history! But, now...it's back!

PREORDER DETAILS
Preorder is open from 3/9/11 to 3/16/11 end of day.
Girasol woven wraps take between 2- 2 1/2 months to be shipped to you from the time the pre-order closes.
We'll post updates as they are available in our Facebook Page.
Once the wraps arrive at Piece of Cloth, all pre-orders are shippe first and then extras are listed later.
Please note that extras are usually very limited, so it's better to order through the pre-order.
~Giselle

Veni Vidi ...

The Lovers, The Dreamers, And Me.
If you're even a little bit of a hippie-geek (like me!) then you might remember what song the title of this post is from. It's from "The Rainbow Connection", sung by that lovable muppet, Kermit E. Frog.

I know that's not his name. But when Inara was a little baby, she couldn't say "Kermit THE Frog", and she said it her own way instead. So in our house, Mr. Frog's full name has always been Kermit E. Frog.

Back on track!

So why am I going on about lovers and dreamers and rainbows and me? It's because I am in love with a kooky little girl:Who dreams of rainbows (in her rainbow pajamas):And she and I are SO excited about the rainbow that is named after her:Because...

INARA'S RAINBOW HAS ARRIVED STATESIDE!!!

Giselle emailed me over the weekend to let me know that the wrap has made it's trek all the way from Germany, and she posted a few sneak peak pictures over at the Nurture Baby Naturally Facebook page. She is hoping to take some action shots soon, and when I get them I will post them here for all of us to oogle at. For now, here is a little tease to whet your rainbow-y appetites:Inara's Rainbow is on the bottom, the other wrap is another exclusive wrap called Felice.
Don't they look gorgeous together?I can't tell you how happy these two pictures have made me. I've been walking around with a goofy grin on my face for two whole days! Giselle has such a gift for turning dreams into reality, and I could not be happier with the way Inara's Rainbow has turned out. As soon as I saw the pictures I had to do the uber-geeky comparison thing to compare it to the original fabric. You can tell from this close-up (including Baby Doll's hand) just how closely the wrap mirrors the original, but in a more muted, sophisticated way. I think it's going to be stunning when seen in real life:I adore that red weft!I think I'm in love. And for all you fellow rainbow lovers and dreamers (and me), we won't have too much longer to wait before we get to hold a piece of Inara's rainbow in our hands. Giselle and family will be shipping out the pre-ordered wraps this week. And for those of you who didn't get a chance to pre-order, there are still opportunities for you to share in this amazing story of ours...but you will have to have to be vigilant! More details:

- Giselle said that there may be extras of Inara's Rainbow available for purchase through her online store Piece of Cloth. You will want to keep an eye on that site after midweek, as well as stay tuned to her Nurture Baby Naturally Facebook page for up-to-the-minute details on when those few wraps will be made available for purchase.

- If you aren't babywearing, or don't want a whole wrap, you might want to check out my friend Suzi's Etsy store, Starbright Baby. She did a preorder for the insanely popular (Seriously. I had no idea how fast these would sell out!) Inara's Rainbow teething giraffes and hobo bags. She will be opening up a very limited number of slots for those items once she meets all her preorders...so stay tuned to her Etsy store and the Starbright Baby Facebook page for news about that too.

- And also, you may want to keep your eye on my little bloggy too for another chance to own a piece of Inara's Rainbow. Just sayin'.

I hope you will be able to share the gift of wearing your babies close to your hearts the way I have been so lucky to do. Babywearing is a natural extension of my parenting, and it has been such a joy to wear my babies (Yousuf and I actually wore the girls just last night while we were cleaning up after dinner. They're both sick and really needed to be cuddled, and we were able to get things done around the house at the same time. Bonus!).

The symbol of a rainbow, and all it represents for us - hope, joy, the promise of a brighter tomorrows and endless possibilities - are all things that I want to share with all of you, through Inara's Rainbow. And no, I'm not being compensated in any way for saying any of these crazy things (other than the wrap that Giselle has kindly gifted to us). I just really feel that excited, and full of gratitude, to be sharing this with you.

So, are you excited now that you've seen the pictures of Inara's Rainbow? I am beyond thrilled. I'm cooking up plans to turn my wrap into something else...perhaps a Mei Tai or a ring sling (I'm a bit wrap challenged, so I prefer to use wraps in other ways). Do you think an Inara's Rainbow ring sling would be at all appealing? I think it could be really pretty. I've been out of the ring sling loop for a little while - and would love to know what ring sling shoulder style (and company name if you have a favorite) YOU like the most. I'm always up for trying something new!

~Mahreen