Little Woodlanders Giveaway!

Rachel of Little Woodlanders is a fellow Natural Kids Team member. She is living in England with her husband and two darling little girls. Recently Rachel and I chatted about her etsy shop, Little Woodlanders. 

Your shop is one of my favorite wooden toy shops on etsy, your toys are just so darling! When did you begin woodworking? How did you decide to open Little Woodlanders?

I started making wooden toys for my children for Christmas presents at the end of 2011. Some people saw my toys commissioned me to make some other things for them, such as babywearing figures. People kept saying I should open an Etsy shop, so I did! I opened the shop in January 2012, and the first things I sold were little animals.
 

How do you come up with new ideas?

I come up with new ideas when I see my children playing, by looking outside at nature, and from children's books. Usually while we're at the library and I'm flicking through books looking for good ones to take home, I get some great ideas!

Can you walk us through a little of your process?

My process begins with drawing my ideas on paper, cutting them out, sizing them, and ending up with a final pattern. Then I trace the pattern onto wood and cut it out with my scroll saw. After it's been cut out, I sand it, wood burn if necessary, and paint. Finally, once it's dried, I oil it with my homemade beeswax and olive oil polish.

What's your favorite part of making wooden toys?

I have two favorite parts of making toys. One is when I have just come in from cutting out some brand new toy ideas, and give them to my children to test out in the rough, and see them spend so much time and having so much fun with them, and they're not even finished yet! Then I know they'll be a hit! Another is just as I'm finishing them up, with the oiling, and I see how they have come from a piece of plain wood into a beautiful toy!

I love that you have your own testing professionals! How else do your daughters figure in? How do you balance Motherhood & business. 

It’s really difficult, but thankfully my girls are very good at playing together and occupying themselves. They spend a lot of time drawing and making up and acting out games and stories. So, if I need to sneak off to another room for an hour to work, they usually can entertain themselves. The older they get, the more they play on their own together, and the more I can get done!

New toys this season.

 Rainbow Inspiration blocks.

 Toadstools

Girl & Horse Toy set.

Rachel has generously offered to giveaway her Life Cycle of a Frog toy to one lucky Chocolate Eyes reader!  This wooden toy life cycle of a frog set is a wonderful toy for learning about the metamorphosis of a frog! The set comes with a pond, frog's eggs, a tadpole and a frog.

She is also offering the following discount!  15% off, using Coupon code LITTLEW15, expires next Tuesday the 18th.

• To enter the giveaway you must be a follower of this blog. Please go to Little Woodlanders etsy shop and come back & leave a comment saying which is your favorite Little Woodlanders item.  This giveaway is open world wide!  Please make sure I have a way to contact you if you win.

• For a 2nd entry follow Little Woodlanders blog.

• For a 3rd entry like Little Woodlanders on facebook or become a follower on Twitter.

• For a 4th entry, fb, tweet, pin or blog this giveaway, come back and leave a link.  

 Find LittleWoodlanders at:

Shop: www.littlewoodlanders.etsy.com  
Facebook: www.facebook.com/LittleWoodlanders
Twitter: twitter.com/LWoodlanders
Blog: www.littlewoodlanders.com
Pinterest: pinterest.com/lwoodlanders/
Flickr: www.flickr.com/photos/87684407@N06/  

Thanks so much for chatting with me Rachel! Until next time...

Comments are closed. Winner is Shannon F!