We at Soaring Heart take pride not only in handcrafting the most comfortable organic mattresses available, but our location, as well: Seattle! We love our city and happily call ourselves, Seattleites. Unfortunately, we, (or maybe it’s just me), were not exactly sure how to spell Seattleite. It sounds simple, but one would come off sounding pretty silly announcing, chest puffed, that one was a Satellite.
With that thought in mind, I decided to do a quick check and typed it into my browser. It turns out I had spelled it correctly, but the definition that came back, the very first link in fact, was quite interesting...
Seattleite
So, as I sit here drinking my coffee--a grande triple Americano with no room--I confess that I'm unsure where I stand on this list... Are you a Seattleite?
Last week, I, along with two of my colleagues and Soaring Heart's owner (Mike), took a three day road trip down to sunny California. Why? So we could see how the sausage is made so to speak, and so we could tell you about it.
We were visiting one of our suppliers, Wool Gatherer. They are the wonderful people who collect, card, and process all of our wool, which we use in our organic mattress, organic futons, organic shikibutons, and organic bedding (yeah, we use it a lot).
We throw around the term, Eco-Wool™ quite a bit here, for the aforementioned reasons. Well, Nathan - the guy who owns Wool Gatherer - he invented it. "How?" you may ask; I wondered, too...
According to Nathan, it was his background in architecture that helped him design Eco-Wool™ to be so strong and resilient. Just as an architect uses different materials to build the foundation, structure, and support in a house, Nathan built his wool batting using different types of wool from different breeds of sheep. As a result, he created the cleanest and longest-lasting wool we have ever found. Lesson from this? Learn everything you can.
Now I just glossed over a little word up there, batting. It’s what we’re really talking about when we talk about wool here at SH. Essentially, batting is multiple sheets of thin, carded wool layered on top of each other to make a thick, strong, and usable material. The technology for making batting hasn't changed since it was first invented, which is good, because Wool Gatherer's equipment is about as old.
In a nutshell, this is how carding works: the wool is fed into a large hopper which drops a certain amount of wool onto a conveyor belt at a time.
The wool is then grabbed by all these little wire talons and goes for a ride around the wheels, getting separated, pulled apart, and then meshed back together (I'm simplifying). Most places stop here, but at Wool Gatherer, this happens three times.
Each time it is made finer and finer until it finally flows down in sheets to make the Eco-Wool™ batting.
It has given me new appreciation for the great materials we use, and the amazing people who make them. It really is quite refreshing to work for a company that asks—no, insists that all its employees visit the people who make it possible to produce our organic mattresses.
Folks, I'm excited to announce Soaring Heart Natural Bed Company's newest pillow, the Side Dreamer™. Over the summer we have not been idle; no, our guys in production have been busy creating our newest and most luxurious pillow yet.
For those of us who sleep on our sides, neck and shoulder pain has become something we've resigned ourselves to. Fortunately for us, Soaring Heart set out to remedy that. What we came back with was the Side Dreamer™, a pillow perfectly designed for the side sleeper*. Side Dreamer’s crescent shape hugs your upper body,. reduces pressure on your lower shoulder and keeps your upper shoulder in good alignment as you wrap your arms around the Side Dreamer.™ Meanwhile, it provides the perfect loft and support to cradle your head at the proper elevation. It’s like having two pillows in one, keeping head, neck, shoulders, and spine in alignment throughout the night, thus alleviating soreness and stiff joints.
Soaring Heart Side Dreamer™ Pillow is made from silky soft 100% cotton sateen and comes in any of these wonderful organic and natural fills; cloud-like organic kapok, fluffy Pacific Northwest Eco-Wool™, or supple natural and organic shredded latex. Get yours today; you'll never leave home without it again.
What if mattresses could talk? Actually, now that I think about it, the idea's pretty terrifying,. Imagine you've just put down your book or your computer and are on your way to dreamland when, WHAM! Your bed gets chatty. Because, now that I think about it, your mattress would be awake when you sleep. I mean, I couldn't sleep with something lying on top of me--it would be too distracting. So clearly the mattress would be talking while you're trying to sleep. And, AND, if a mattress could speak would it have a MOUTH? A big old mouth flapping around under the sheets?
Talking mattresses would be horrible...
But I digress. The point is, if a mattress could talk, what would it say? I've supplied some pictures, let's see if you can supply the captions!
In a world... where not everything was as it seems... one blog writer... and by association, one mattress company, dared to ask the questions that no one else would ask.
"I need answers!”
"You can't handle my answers!"
"AAhhh, copyright infringement!"
I don't know who that guy I was confronting was, but I couldn't get him to crack... Also, the title could be misconstrued as a group of people who just really love pillows... So, let's move on to something different.
Get ready for winter with our wonderfully cozy handmade comforters filled with fluffy Pacific Northwest Wool or soft organic cotton. And what goes better with an organic comforter than a silky soft organic cotton sateen duvet cover? Nothing as far as we can tell, so they're 10% off too!
Look forward to winter this year, with a Soaring Heart comforter!
Thank you to the 30 kids who volunteered to build pillows for Seattle's Fred Hutchinson Cancer Research Center as part of Friday's annual United Way Day of Caring. You can only imagine the fun that results when you combine 300 lbs of our top quality organic pillow fill with 80 pillow cases and kids bursting with enthusiasm. The mission of the Hutch School, is to serve kids and their families who are receiving treatments either at the Hutch or Seattle's Cancer Care Alliance. Rest assured our hearts go out to these kids and their families.
Teamwork was clearly the message that carried the day. Soaring Heart staff showed up bright and early at the school with a truckload of giant boxes stuffed with pillow filling. School staff and our Soaring Heart experts quickly divided the kids into teams and an assembly line was created with kids pretty much everywhere. (For some reason, kids seem to be very comfortable with "controlled chaos" production methods!). Kids weighed 3lbs of fill for each pillow, carefully placed completed pillows in our recyclable plastic wrappings, and included a little note with each pillow explaining how each was made with the purest, non-allergenic ingredients we could find. And oh yes, the kids helped clean up the place too!
Let your heart soar as you check out these photos of today's volunteer work. We sure hope these kids will brighten your day as much as ours. And if you ever want to learn more about the secrets of how we build all kinds of great pillows - check out our website or visit our shop. We've got plenty of pillow enthusiasm here on our Soaring Heart staff to share too!
Goodness, how long has it been since we've done a pillow fact? Well, I say it's been too long! Therefore, let's roll out Extremely Important Pillow Fact 4.
Fact: Although there are numerous varieties of down pillows, there are no - and I've looked - up pillows.
Now you're probably doing exactly what I did: scratching your head, questioning why--questioning a lot of things. I want to look further into this Da Vinci Code-like mystery. This can only be a conspiracy of the highest level, a secret buried so deep only insanely thin strings of logic and massive leaps of inference will uncover them. Who doesn't want up pillows getting out? What is it about up pillows that makes them so dangerous? Why can they not be released to the public?
I don't know about you, folks, but I can already hear the theme music playing and I'm just itching to throw on my Deer Stalker--the world deserves answers and I will get to the bottom of this. I'm delving into that shadowy underworld the truth calls home., Cloaked figures and overcoat-wearing shadow dwellers, beware.
Tune in next week for the dramatic conclusion... or possibly for a completely unrelated post!
What's in a name? It's a question I hear thrown around a lot. A few days ago, I asked myself that very question: What is in a name? At the time of my musings, we were photographing our zoned latex mattress, called the Madrona. Now, I'm not one to dwell in the realm of the abstract, so I decided to apply my musings to the physical and narrowed my sights on said Madrona.
Staring at the word Madrona, I pondered for, literally, minutes. What is in a name... Well, in Madrona, I found: mad, and, on, rad, dam, ram, androm (I probably made that word up), and Mr. I can now see why the question is such a popular one. There is a lot to find in a name, and it is pretty fun trying to find it.
What I think made it most difficult for me was that Madrona lacks an "e." As I said, I enjoyed myself, and not being the type of guy to hog all the fun, I’ve decided to throw one your way: Tamarack
There you go, no “e” there either, but I believe in you guys. Let's see who finds the most!
Next Tuesday is the first day of our fall Yoga In Bed classes. What's Yoga In Bed? Well, to put it simply (I admit I am no Yoga expert) it is long stretches and held postures designed to help you relax after a long day, and be ready for a deep and restful sleep. For more information, take a look at the Yoga In Bed page of our website, where our instructor gives a little more detail.
What makes Yoga In Bed unique is that it is actually performed in bed. In class you will find yourself on one of our cushy organic mattresses where you will spend the next ninety minutes (6:30pm - 8:00pm) stretching and relaxing. Certain props, such as Soaring Heart Yoga pillows, will also be used during the class and are available for purchase. All the pillows and beds are provided; you just bring some yoga clothes!
What makes the class even better is you pay-what-you-can. With proceeds going to our wonderful yoga instructor, Natalie Ginapp, and charity. Classes are not cumulative and do not build on each other so don't think you need to attend every class--though you can if you want to.
Now I can hear the pounding of hearts, the gnashing of teeth, but don't panic-- I'll tell you how to register, so let’s all calm down... that is the point after all. Just click here to go to the Yoga In Bed webpage to read more about the class and our instructor, or just scroll to the bottom to register. Registering is simple and takes only a minute.
See you soon. Ohm!
Dear Soaring Heart,
Every morning I wake up with back pain. How can I make it stop?
~Sore Back in Saskatchewan
Dear Sore Back,
Unfortunately, this is not a simple problem although it is a pervasive one. According to The Better Sleep Council, 81% of Americans report waking up with back pain. So, you're not alone. The Better Sleep Council recommends getting a new mattress.
"According to Dr. Jacobson's study, published in the Journal of Applied Ergonomics, sleeping on a new mattress can significantly improve sleep quality during the night and reduce physical pain during the day."
That's their opinion. What I suggest is fully removing your spine and replacing it with organic Dunlop Latex.
First of all, you have removed the offending body part; that will stop the current pain. Replacing it with Dunlop latex will prevent pain from reoccurring. I've worked with this material for a while now and people never have sore bones when they sleep on it, so having it as your bones should be even better.
In fact, replace all your bones with organic Dunlop latex. Latex is supple and supportive, so you'll never have stiff bones again!
A few weeks ago I found an article in the Huffington Post about the odd sleep habits of celebrities. It seems they all haven't touched upon a secret formula yet...
Kudos to Consumer Reports (August 2012 print issue, July 2012 on line) for reviewing what makes great sleep - and great mattress shopping. We agree that mattress shopping is confusing--and many price matching or sales promotions are meaningless. We also got a laugh out of their recommendation to lie on any mattress you want to buy for "at least 10 minutes" in the store. 10 minutes? Heck, we'd argue that you should lie around for more than hour - take a nap, bring a book when you shop. I know it takes me more than 10 minutes to kick back and relax, regardless of where I am.
Interestingly, the first 3 pages of this 5 page article are all about what makes great sleep. After surveying more than 26,000 readers all sorts of insightful data comes up - including something we've suspected all along: more than 60% of us have problems falling asleep or walking up feeling relaxed more than 3 nights a week! Wow - that's sure a huge impact on our lives.
Without repeating all the data in the article, CR's "5 Shopping Strategies" are worth noting:
While Soaring Heart didn't expect to be reviewed along with the Sealy's, Serta's, Sleep Train's and Ikea's of the world, we are confident that our hand-made products rank right up there in comfort. durability and craftsmanship. Plus you get our added commitment to all natural, organic bedding that the rest of the market is still trying to figure out. One Consumer Report recommendation worth repeating: "Price guarantees really don't guarantee much. If you prefer not to play those games, buy from a retailer that sells its own mattress brands."
For 30 years we've been ahead of the market by focusing on what makes great sleep, and how our craftsmanship and attention to detail are going to provide enduring quality in ways the big box stores have yet to discover. We thank you for your business and welcome your comments on Consumer Report's findings.
