By Joleen

This week we’re highlighting a design that’s extremely special to us, because it’s both a memorial and a fundraiser for a local children’s hospital. The design Devon’s Heart was inspired by conversations with Kristine Jenson, who also happens to be this week’s yogi highlight. Devon was Kristine’s niece, and she was born with a rare heart defect called hypoplastic left heart syndrome (HLHS). As a result of this defect, Devon passed away soon after she turned 3. Kristine has been a champion and fundraiser for the cardiovascular program at the Children’s Hospitals of Minnesota ever since. Because this beautiful and...

This week’s yogi highlight (our 19th!) is Kristine Jenson. I first met Kristine during a fitness-and-wellness event and luckily she kept in touch with us. Her first purchase was the first print of our Divine Chakras design (serial #1!). We stayed connected over the following months, and eventually our discussions rolled around to her passion project: donating to Children’s Hospital of Minnesota to honor her niece, Devon, as a part of her business, Jenson Natural Jewelry. I then offered to design a yoga mat we ended up calling Devon’s Heart to represent and honor Devon, her family, and the great...

Everyone who knows just enough about yoga to be dangerous assumes that we’re all young tall slender white limber vegan Buddhists. And no wonder — that seems to be what’s on the cover of every single yoga magazine, ad and website. But as we all know, the truth is much more complex. I’m white, sort of, but I’m not exactly THE paragon of young, tall, slender, limber or vegan (though I was for a while). Nor am I Buddhist, though I find a lot to admire about the Buddha himself, and Buddhism in general. I respect the tenets of Buddhism, and I subscribe to...

One of the really awesome things about owning our own business is our ability to reconnect with and serve the people we knew growing up back in our home town. It’s an incredible thrill to receive orders from those we knew in high school or college. This week’s yogi highlight (our 18th!) came to us through the experience of reconnecting with a high school friend of ours, Linette Piercy, aunt to the remarkable and beautiful Riley Gerlinger. Linette has been the most amazing supporter of Big Raven Yoga — we’ve lost count of the number of yoga mats she’s purchased from...

Hello again, my finely feathered friends. It’s already the middle of the month, and in two weeks we’ll have to say goodbye to our September collection and welcome our October collection. (If you’re thinking about buying one of our September mats, you might want to make your move sooner rather than later, so you don’t forget. Hint, hint :-) In the meantime, however, we thought we should highlight one of our favorite designs from this month’s collection: Minnesota Home. This one is clearly special to us based on the description alone: Big Raven is a proudly Minnesota company. We grew...