yoga month – guest post!

in honor of yoga month, please enjoy the first in a series of guest posts from one of our awesome fp girls :)

Hi there! I am former blogger “fp girl” and now I work on the accessories buying team. This spring I got certified to teach yoga, and being that September is Yoga Month, thought I’d share a bit about my yoga journey.

I first started practicing yoga about 5 years ago as a way to stay in shape and decompress after work. I hear a lot of people get frustrated finding a studio they like.  I was very lucky to find a studio right away that I connected with. The teachers were  knowledgeable, friendly and caring. The space was simple and beautiful. The regular students that went there seemed to really enjoy their practice, and that enthusiasm helped me to instantly feel at home. I continued practicing there in the Jivamukti style for the duration of my time in Philadelphia.

I later moved to New York and have tried several different types of yoga. Some classes feel like a tough strength-building workout you’d get at a gym, some feel slow paced and peaceful, some concentrate on stretching and flexibility, and others require more thought, meditation, and reflection. And sometimes, when I’m lucky, a yoga class perfectly blends exercises of the body and mind that leave me feeling alive, creative, peaceful and full of energy all at the same time.

My favorite thing about yoga is how curious each new learning and experience leaves me. This curiosity sparked my desire to complete a 200-hour Yoga Alliance Certified training in New York. Training taught me a little bit of everything including the history of yoga, Sanskrit, anatomy, meditation and how to practically instruct a class. Over the next few weeks of Yoga Month, stay tuned for more posts from me including inspiring web sites, people, and products. And feel free to ask questions!

Namaste,

Katie

office style

a look we love:

this look is taking over our office! we LOVE maxi dresses or jumpsuits layered with tanks, tees, or sweaters as it gets cooler! and we’re bringing back that 90’s trend of tying the tank in a knot, then just add some beat up boots or shoes and you’ve got this cool look our designers are rocking :)

our graphic designer’s awesome silver jewelry.

101_3660

earlier this week we had all of our store managers from across the country here at the home office for meetings and to get to know each other and the home office employees.  i kept noticing how amazing they all looked! they were in back to back meetings the whole time they were here but i managed to grab this girl during a coffee break. i love her outfit!

101_3661

i love how she wore the buttonfront lace back tank backwards over the v neck printed tunic!

101_3719

…and a little sneak peek at something we did for the blog. yes that’s my hair.

dream catching

sadly, it is time to say farewell to our concept intern, stacey, who is leaving us to go to college.  please enjoy one last post from her!

I feel as if everywhere I turn I see dreamcatchers. Suspended from rearview mirrors, splashed across blogs, discreetly tucked into editorial images, they are difficult to ignore…not that I would want to. While a trend beloved by too many tires easily, its ubiquity stripping away the element of novelty too soon, the recent overwhelming amount of dreamcatchers has yet to repel me; it just leaves me wanting to know more. It is easy to lose the story in a profusion of images so I looked for it in the legend. These words from Core Designs convince me that a dreamcatcher definitely warrants a warm place above my pillow—

“The dreamcatcher legend originated from the Ojibway and Lakota Elders. They tell us that dreams do hold great power and drift about at night before coming to the sleeping ones. To keep the dreamer safe, the Old Ones created a special web, The Dreamcatcher, to hang above their sleeping places. The ancient story told by the Native Elders is that the Dreamcatcher’s hoop, with the intricate webbing at it’s center, ensures a sleep undisturbed by bad dreams. The good dreams would take the path of the web with great ease to its center and would float gently down the trail of beads, and like the feather, drift down into the minds of the sleepers below.
The bad dreams would struggle with the web and become entangled as the night would pass, leaving them to perish in the rays of the new day sun in the morning.”

The word “dreams” itself is so airy — wispy and elfin when written and rolls cheerfully off the tongue when spoken. The “d” stretches wildly in a yawn before guiding the remaining letters into a calm lethargy. Just hearing and reading and speaking the word throws my imagination into overdrive. Admiring the word and its shape-shifting quality got me thinking about the other meaning of dreams, the even less tangible one that consumes the mind long after the sun has risen and the darkness melted away. A recent dream of mine came true this summer and comes to a close today and I can’t help but feel a melancholy, like I am groping in vain at a fleeting something that has came and passed and can no longer be recovered. I recognize that interning at Free People this summer has been a gift in many forms. Meeting so many wonderful people and being able to observe them and learn from them has enriched not only my understanding of how a corporate setting works, but educated me in the intricate way that a group of creative and hard-working people come together to create something that makes people feel good about themselves. I am very lucky to have had this experience and would not trade this summer for any other.

Thank you, Free People, for having me. :)

in case you missed any of her lovely posts, click on these links:

meet the concept intern!

through our concept intern’s eyes

intern-al affairs

a-dressing nirvana

if you blur your eyes…

be kind to animals and birds, and read all you can

hot and cold

cruel summer

some morning inspiration

home

thank you stacey, keep in touch!

farmers market at the yard!

today we had the extra special treat of a farmers market right outside our office doors! fresh fruit, veggies and other produce from local farms and live music in the background as you shop. this will happen again september 8th and 22nd, how exciting! here are some photos from today- not the sunniest day but still nice :)

101_3412

101_3414

101_3415

101_3417

101_3427

101_3429

101_3430

101_3433

101_3436

101_3438

101_3420

this little boxer puppy stole my heart.

101_3419

101_3447

101_3444

101_3453

new mocs + sunflowers = happiness.

bbq at the navy yard!

we had a bbq here at the navy yard yesterday to celebrate the end of construction around the dry dock next to our building.  it looks so beautiful, they did an amazing job – and the party was awesome.  a live band playing country-tinged covers of classic songs, mini golf, tons of great food, and beautiful weather :)

101_3255

101_3289

101_3290

101_3292

101_3294

101_3296

101_3298

101_3299

101_3301

101_3302

101_3305

101_3304