About Us
Lisa Manning
Artists & Yoga Teachers
Artists & Yoga Teachers
Artists & Yoga Teachers
Artists & Yoga Teachers
Artists & Yoga Teachers
Combining our passions for cool artwork and proper alignment.
Jeff Manning
Artists & Yoga Teachers
Jeff Manning
Where we teach and create
Our Sites
the yoga bones story
The Mannings
Jeff originally from Idaho, and Lisa from Illinois, met skiing in Italy in 1993 over Thanksgiving weekend. Lisa was studying in Rome her sophomore year of college and Jeff was a paratrooper in the US Army stationed in Vicenza. By 1996, they were living in Chicago. Jeff and Lisa were married in 1998 in Aurora, IL.
After spending some time living, working, and studying in Illinois they decided to head West to Jeff's home state and more working, studying, and having their first baby happened while in Idaho. This is where they discovered yoga, and fell in love with the practice at the Moscow Yoga Center. Their first daughter, Olive, was born in 2001, Moscow, Idaho.
The couple ended up moving to Sonoma, CA in 2002. While in California, Jeff did his yoga teacher training at the Iyengar Institute of San Francisco. In his notes from yoga class, he drew little skeletons in the margins. The skeletons made sense to him, a way to understand the asana and to remember the pose in proper alignment. Lisa, a life long artist, recognized these little yoga skeleton sketches as something that was really cool. She suggested Jeff make some artwork with them. He created encaustic (wax) paintings and Lisa printed some of the designs on hand-dyed T-shirts. And Yoga Bones was born! So was their second daughter, Iris, in 2004, Sonoma, California.
The family moved back to Aurora, IL in 2006... and their third child, and first son, Leo was born.
Jeff opened the Aurora Yoga Center in the summer of 2009, and a year later, Lisa opened Nido Art Studio in the same building. They continued to make their Yoga Bones T-shirts over the years, slowly and steadily. Selling them primarily to the students who study with Jeff at the Aurora Yoga Center.
In 2014, their fourth & final child, their second son, Herbert was born! And they didn't have to move to another state for him to arrive... just waited for 8 years and he showed up!
Jeff has always been fascinated by anatomy and physiology. He loves teaching yoga, he is also a massage therapist, and studies acupuncture. His next big step is becoming a doctor. Jeff is currently in chiropractic medicine school, and he still loves skeletons!
Lisa has always done art of some kind, not only painting and drawing, but also working in fibers, quilt making, printmaking, clay, and more. She has created one of a kind children's clothing called Nido Threads. Nido means nest in Italian... a little homage to where the couple met, as well as working with bits and pieces in a nurturing & homey environment. Her art studio, has hosted fun classes and workshops for both kids and adults over the years. She loves surface design, dying and printing on textiles. Although she used to screen print the Yoga Bones shirts herself, her busy life has lead to out sourcing to local print shops.
You can find Lisa and Jeff at the Aurora Yoga Center. Jeff still teaches as many classes as possible, but since he is in school, his wonderful teaching staff has helped tremendously with the daytime classes. Lisa now teaches yoga as well, and enjoys teaching prenatal yoga....a way to stay connected to new babies.
Beyond the Yoga Bones artwork, Lisa and Jeff care so much about the quality and softness of their T-shirts. They want it to be a part of your wardrobe that never gets buried too deeply in the drawer... in fact, it may not make it to the drawer because you keep taking it out of the laundry basket. Yoga Bones shirts are super soft and comfortable to wear, whether you are wearing it to yoga class or on the street, it fits great and washes well. It looks cool too! We are all the same down to the bones!