About Kanelstrand

ABOUT THE AUTHOR

Welcome, I’m Sonya Kanelstrand, simplicity blogger and founder of Kanelstrand Simple Living Chronicles. I'm also a photographer, author and book reviewer. My academic background includes two graduate degrees — an MA in English Philology and an MA in Educational Management. In 2005 I left behind my successful career as a manager of a private school and set on the simplifying path.

I live a simple life with my family in a pine forest by the North Sea. This is where my inspiration comes from. I like the close touch of nature, the colors of autumn and the smell of the sea. Contact me via email or hang out with me on Google+.


I started Kanelstrand Simple Living Chronicles in 2011 to refine my outlook on simple living and to share what I've learned in the process of simplifying.

If you are looking for ways to simplify your life, minimize your possessions and focus on what is really important in life, you will have a great time on Kanelstrand.

MY MISSION

All of us are entitled to one simple right -- the right to freedom. Ironically we often chose to deny ourselves the right to freedom for the sake of some elusive attractive convenience.

Getting back to a simple, slow and mindful life is your main step to regaining your freedom.

Our future as civilization depends on moral values. We need to shift our behaviors in a way that leads us to sustainability, independence and freedom and we can do so by identifying our priorities and live according to them.

My team and I are here to encourage you! Simplifying any given aspect of life is a never ending process which can be mastered and made much more enjoyable with company. We want to motivate and reach out to each other. The strong and dynamic community of Kanelstrand readers and contributors will make the journey to your better self an unforgettable experience.

JOIN KANELSTRAND

Excited? Great, welcome to the club! To ensure you don’t miss our latest stuff, you can subscribe to regular updates via RSS or email.

I welcome you to the Kanelstrand community and wish you many exciting hours on the blog! I care about your opinion, so please comment - make your voice heard! And if you are extra social, join the conversations we have going on here too:

               

The Kanelstrand blog was named one of the Top 100 Green Influencers for 2012 and is in the Top 100 Health Related Blogs to Follow in 2013.

MEET THE TEAM

I am fortunate to have 6 amazingly talented ladies generously sharing their green, simple and inspirational wisdom to the Kanelstrand blog. 

Shelly Kerry is the founder of the program Creating Space, Mindful Living – motivating and inspiring people to run their businesses more efficiently. She helps others look at their personal and professional lives and explore what is and isn’t working. As a jewelry designer she has spent many years testing and honing the skills and discipline needed to run your own creative business while still having time for friends, family and fun. Shelly writes guest posts on living your best life on well-known blogs such as Kanelstrand, The Maven Circle, Handmade Success and Awfully Grand and is pursuing a Core Strengths coaching certificate through San Francisco State University. You can find Creating Space on facebook. Read all posts by Shelly.

Anabel Bouza insists there's powerful magic in the action of creating something out of a vague vision, a chill of inspiration. She is an illustrator with a passion for nature, paper manipulation, and pointing her camera at things. Her appreciation for simplicity dates back to a former life in Cuba where she refined the ability to see the alternative uses of common objects, and the enchanting side of things. She is blogging as Weird Amiga, hard at work in her sunny studio, or staring at things as if looking at them for the first time. Her tiny family is comprised of her husband & a turtle; they're new to the city of Chicago, and they love it. Connect to Anabel via facebook and twitter. Read all posts by Anabel.  

Vanessa Williams is the author of A simply good life where she explores how lower standard of living doesn’t mean lower quality of life. After her decision to  get off the beaten track and forge new paths she has found that living with less actually means living with more. Vanessa explores the luring and dangerous grounds of the consumerism trap and offers a solemn and wise account of her real life experiences on the quest to finding what truly matters in life. Connect to Vanessa via twitter and facebook. Read all posts by Vanessa. 

Cory Trusty is a soap maker, community herbalist, organic gardener, and homeschooling mom to two girls. Cory and her family live in Daytona Beach, Florida. Cory's background is in Traditional Chinese Medicine and Biology.  She is sharing tried and true natural home remedies and mini lessons from herbal classes that she teaches. Cory works full time making soaps, shampoo bars, herbal salves, flaxseed heat packs and more for her website AquarianBath. Read more from Cory at the Aquarian Bath blog. Cory is also a Food and Gardening writer for EcoEtsy and has published in The Essential Herbal Magazine and on the Herb Companion Blog. Connect with Cory on twitter, facebook, google plus and pinterest. Read all posts by Cory. 

Rebecca D. Dillon is a native of Roanoke, VA where she works, lives and plays. She claims a fine arts degree from Roanoke College and has enjoyed being creative since she was a small child. She resides in the Historic Arts District of her hometown where she lives with her miniature dachshund, Jasper, and works for a small business full time. Part time Rebecca handcrafts and sells homemade soaps, lotions and lip balms for her home business, Rebecca's Soap Delicatessen. In her spare time she squeezes in time for dancing, live music and the occasional karaoke. She is the author of Soap Deli News blog where she shares DIY projects, bath and beauty recipes, handmade finds and other things that suit her fancy. Connect with Rebecca on twitter and facebook. Read all posts by Rebecca. 

IN THE PRESS
Kanelstrand: Simple Living Chronicles and Kanelstrand Photography have been featured by the following sites and publications:

• Craft Gossip - How to Felt a Bracelet 
• Heart Handmade - Contemporary Scandinavian Design 
• Carina's Craftblog - Getting to Know You 
• Lilac & Snow - Artist Feature 
• Totally Tutorials - The Bowl DIY 
• My Day Is Friday - Kanelstrand 
• Little Gray Fox - Feature 
• Etsy Blog Team - Google Reader For Crafty Bloggers 
• Handmade Europe - Eco Tips | Featured Seller 
• Knithacker - Split Ego 
• All Things Girl - Till Daffodils Have Come And Gone | The Cloudcatcher
• One Pretty Thing - Google Reader 
• Мода блог - Shop Feature

YOU CAN ALSO FIND ME HERE

If you are curious to know more about me, check out some of my interviews here, here and here, or spend a day with me. You can learn more about my philosophy of creating here or head on over to my latest feature and learn more about the mystic side of my work.

Along with my work on Kanelstrand: Simple Living Chronicles, I also write for various popular green sites. You can currently find me here.

Winner of the Norwegian Handmade Competition Håndlaga 2011.

All posts and photos on Kanelstrand: Simple Living Chronicles are licensed under the Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike 3.0 Unported License, which means that you are free to copy, distribute and adapt my content provided you attribute it to me by linking back to the original post on my blog. If you alter, transform, or build upon this work, you may distribute the resulting work only under the same or similar license to this one. Please note that some elements of posts (images, videos by other authors) may come with different licensing terms.

Enjoy!