Hello everyone,

Have you ever seen those cool cambridge satchels from the Cambridge Satchel Company and wished for a vegan version?

I found one at this interesting UK website called Freerangers through this nice vegan blog veganshoeaddict.  The satchels are totally vegan and come in red with blue trim, blue with red trim, and classic brown.

I also really liked this knapsack, available in their “bag” section, delightfully called the “conker rucksack“. Conkers are what English people call Horse Chestnuts and they dry them out and kids play a game with them. I read about this first in Roald Dahl’s book My Year, and references to this charming game can often be found in British children’s literature.

conkers

This website also has a very unique and cool selection of colorful, handmade looking boots and shoes. This is a British company but for around $20 shipping, they will ship to the US.

Check it out:

brogue boot

ruthie boot

brook sandal

pippa sandal 

This last sandal reminds me of a shoe that if you are gorgeous and styling, will look super cool on you, but if slightly less than stylish will look quite frumpy.

all these shoes come in a variety of unique colors, which sadly, the website does not picture.

All these shoes remind me of something I find fascinating– the personal style of Finnish bloggers.

Somehow I began following many Finnish blogs online. These blogs are amazing. They contain some of the most beautiful photography I’ve ever seen.

Now to lump all of them together and generalize — the women who write these blogs live simple lives as photographers or artists (from what I can tell, since their blogs are usually all in Finnish) in quiet cities and villages in Finland. They have small blond children who they take out into nature daily, to forage for mushrooms, swim in ponds, run through tall grasses with their dogs, bathe in steel tubs by the fire, etc…

They eat dark brown bread and sew all their kids clothes. They take a lot of photos of nature –the sun setting on the magical finnish forests, the moon in the evening, the cats sleeping in the sunlight.

They seem to wear simple, handmade colorful clothes that they make look incredibly stylish, and I could really see them wearing some of these shoes!

The best way to get to know them is to look through the pictures on their blog…I wish i could repost all their photos, but here is a taste.

Liviia, one of the coolest bloggers ever.

Chocolate circus: 

puhti

manteli: 

Have fun exploring these blogs if you so choose and I’d love to know what you think!