My good friend, the lovely Piia Harris-Podersalu, who designed the illustration for this blog, just launched her own boutique on Etsy.com.   Piia is one of those women I wish I was more like. She’s super smart, creative, thoughtful to the point of philosophical, sophisticated but down-to-earth, a picture of poise. She’s Estonian and  speaks six languages fluently — Estonian, Hebrew, Russian, English, Spanish, (what’s the sixth one? Finnish?) — and, wouldn’t you know it, looks like a freakin’ supermodel.

Meeting her in Tel Aviv, where she’s currently living, made me want to travel to Estonia with Jake in a big way.  As she explained it, Estonia is one of those countries that is at a crossroads of culture — a historical stopping off point for travelers on their way to Russia to the east, Scandinavia to the west and continental Europe to the south — and one of the reasons why she probably has an ear for so many languages.  Growing up in a country with such a porous cultural identity may also explain why her visual style is so uniquely diverse. She’s equally comfortable dabbling in high-fashion illustrations as she is designing textiles and children’s prints (which makes up the bulk of the work on her site right now—Piia and her husband Ari are expecting their first baby girl!!!)  as well as depictions of yours truly struggling to hold a chicken.

Her official site can be found here.

I’m biased, but I love her work. If she ever gets around to launching her own line of bedding for Ikea, consider me first in line.