independence

Today is Estonian Independence Day.

Why would a little New Mexican girl like me, care?

Well, you see, my husband --the other half of blue hour designs-- just so happens to be Estonian.

He was born and raised in Tallinn, Estonia and jumped over the pond to come to school in New Mexico many moons ago and the rest, as they say, is history...

We remain very connected to Estonia, even now, by frequent visits to see his family (all of his family is there) and also by keeping the language alive in our household: he strictly only speaks Estonian to our sons (and has since they were born), which has better enabled them to have that connection to their Estonian family and the culture in general.

Estonia has an incredibly rich, long, tumultuous and courageous history that is documented in a superb film called The Singing Revolution. 

It came out a few years ago and the trailer is below:

Today is the original Independence Day, but they have two....(yes, they have been occupied many times).

There is another, on August 20th, that celebrates their Re-Independence from the Soviet Union in 1991.

Much of the film, documents Estonia's struggle during the late 80's and early 90's. Norbert and his family experienced and took part in many of these events that led to their Independence, along with most Estonian families, at the time. All this makes everything in the movie that much more real because he lived through it.

This film documents an incredibly rare and magnificent occurrence, where a culture was able to be revolutionary, without violence.
(And very important to note: Lithuania and Latvia had mirrored experiences)

If you are able, I highly recommend, watching...

Elagu Eesti!

Share |

Images of Estonia

I finished putting up the last three pieces of jewelry today. Etsy had some maintenance issues last night so I was unable to post everything then.

I mentioned a couple of posts ago that I wanted to put up some pictures of Estonia from our last trip several years ago. I was unable to include any before, because my camera had gone belly up during our travels. So thanks to my mom I have some to share :)

The following seven pictures were taken in the capital city of Tallinn, where my husband is from. Tallinn was first mentioned in historical records as a city in the year 1154. I'm sure there was a village located there even before that. Needless to say their old town is REALLY old and extraordinarily beautiful...

This picture of my dad, one of my wee ones and me was taken in the city of Tartu when we were visiting family. I don't have very many pictures of this city unfortunately. It is also quite beautiful there.

The last two pictures are from the Estonian island of Saaremaa. The picture below shows part of the castle that we visited and the last one was taken at a local restaurant.

So I'm off to the post office now to ship off a couple of orders. My Botswana ring was snatched up last night and 20 minutes after I posted this ring today:

it flew off the shelf!

I am feeling very, very grateful right now :)

Incredible!

I had the most wonderful surprise yesterday...I started following a very cool blog recently because I loved the items she featured. I LOVE blogs on design! Well, she decided to include me in the 'shopping and treats' section of her site! That is such a HUGE compliment....I was on cloud nine the whole evening. Thank you so much Ennui!

I took a screenshot of her blog so it is hard to see my name fourth one down, but it's there :) Swing by her site when you have time....it is lovely!

In other news, I have not yet mentioned here that I will be going on a huge trip in 9 days. My husband is Estonian and we will be visiting his family and friends there. For all of you who do not know where Estonia is, it is here:

My husband was born and raised in Tallinn, the capital of Estonia. We met in college and now we are probably the first in history to have created Mexican-American/Estonian children! hahaha...probably not, but I'm sure there are not very many in the world!!

So we will be flying into Denmark first and stay with one of my husband's very good friends and his family (All of my husband's family is there). After that we will drive (thanks for the borrowed car Indrek and Signe!!) into Germany, through Poland, Lithuania, Latvia and then end up in Estonia. The drive should take just over a week and then we will be in Estonia for a week and a half. From Estonia we will fly back into Denmark and spend four days with our friends again to look around there more, as well as visit southern Sweden. Overall we will be gone for just under four weeks.

Here is our route:

One of the reasons we wanted to make the drive through these countries was not only because we wanted to visit (we love, LOVE to travel), but also to buy amber in the baltic countries (Lithuania, Latvia and Estonia). They have the most AMAZING amber there. They come in the traditional amber color as well as a lighter yellow and also green.

So I will be buying stones while out there and I will introduce it into my shop when we get back at the beginning of next month. I will also be snapping a gazillion pictures for our personal albums as well as to sell. My shop will be closed during this duration, but I will be posting in my blog throughout my travels.

Here is an OLD picture of my husband and I in the old town of Tallinn, Estonia. This was six years ago...pre-children.


You'll hear this many times....I love Estonia. I am sooo excited to go back :)