Winner!

Thank you so much everyone who participated. And thank you to Jessica of You're Inspired for her awesome interview and generous gift. 

Congratulations to Jewels! Email me at tangledoakroots (at) yahoo dot com within 48 hours to redeem your prize. That's it!

If you didn't win this month, I have another fun giveaway planned for next month - art yarn, mmmmmmm, and I hope you'll be back! 

November Jubilee Giveaway: You're Inspired

I am excited to announce our November Giveaway! We are adding a new feature as well. We plan to introduce a family-run business each month that we personally and highly recommend because of their sustainable-materials ethics and quality workmanship.

This month our featured shop is of my favorite places of all time: You're Inspired. We are giving away a $25 gift certificate to Jessica's You're Inspired Etsy shop. 

A few months ago I was looking for some homeschool supplies that would span the ages from toddler to preschooler to kindergartener. I found You're Inspired and just fell in love with Jessica's handmade wood creations. I think you will too. All her toys are made from sustainable and renewable resources. 

Here is Jessica's shop announcement:

While the wooden toy market is plentiful, the majority are coated in a thick layer of paint. If the wood is no longer exposed, our precious little ones are not actually touching the wooden toy; they are essentially playing with the paint or varnish coating. While many polyurethanes varnishes and paints state they are "water based", the truth is they are full of chemicals and are probably no safer than the plastic toy you were trying to avoid in the first place.

After seeing thousands of wooden toys recalled due to toxic lead paint, I set out on the venture of creating natural toys for my daughter. All my wooden toys are made from locally purchased lumber, and my hardwoods are all sustainably harvested. I am committed to using AP certified non-toxic waterbased paints, which use plant gum as binders, instead of "non-toxic" acrylic paints, which are plastic based. All toys are sealed using my homemade wood creme, consisting of pure beeswax, expeller-pressed jojoba oil and just a hint of sweet orange essential oil.

I have spent many hours trying different techniques to find the perfect method to avoid the dreaded "bleeding" that natural wooden toys are infamous for. This new method involves a watered wash of paint to deeply penetrate the grain of the wood (creating a stain, instead of a coating over the wood), followed by a protective sealing of beeswax wood creme which is then heatset to stabilize the paint. Finally another coating of wood creme is applied and buffed for the finishing touch. The result is a natural toy that is water resistant which means no more paint rubbing onto little fingers, clothes or your carpet!

Please note that Mother Nature has not yet created a way to completely waterproof wood. While my painted toys are water-resistant, they are not water-proof and I would still not recommend my toys for water play or as a constant teething toy as colors may eventually fade. I do offer many unpainted toys as an alternative for those who are interested.

I love custom orders, so if you have an idea or want something altered, just let me know!

Didn't I tell you Jessica is awesome? Read on to learn more about how she creates her whimsical and wonderful art.

How did you get into wood carving?

After our daughter (Azure) was born, I noticed it was really hard to find wooden toys that didn't have a thick coat of paint over them. Azure chewed on EVERYTHING and that paint kept chipping off. I made a commitment to be a stay at home mom when Azure was born, and funds were limited to purchase the toys I ogled online...so I decided to try my hand at making my own!
My first toys were made using a handheld jigsaw and were crooked. I used food coloring to paint the toys which worked great, until the toys got even the slightest bit damp--and then they bled horribly! I invested in a scrollsaw for $20 off Craigslist, which was a great investment. I then started using watercolors to stain the toys, which worked much better. I was really set that I didn't want to use a lacquer, even if waterbased, to seal the toys-- and it took a bit to learn the right ratio of water/paint to use, and the trick of heatsetting the paint to finally create toys that didn't bleed. I first started trading the toys in crafting swaps, and the demand was so huge I decided to start selling on etsy.

Will you walk us through your work day?
 
The lovely thing about selling on etsy is I can set my own hours, and take breaks or quit if needed. Some days I won't work at all, or only for a few hours. Usually around Christmas though I will end up working for days on end. The great thing is that I am a night owl by nature, so even when I have huge orders, I can work mainly at night or during Azure's naps so I can still spend time with my family.

Where do you find inspiration?
 
I love designing toys and in the beginning my mind was constantly full of ideas. I couldn't wait to try out new designs create them. After awhile though I would be so busy filling orders I didn't really make the time to try new ideas. So honestly now, my inspiration comes from customers! I love when people request items and I get to design new toys again. Sometimes people request things I have been meaning to get around to, or they will request toys I would have never thought to make (such as the viking set, which is now one of my best sellers!). 

How is your daughter involved in your creative process?

Azure loves to help me sand. But other than that, honestly, Azure isn't that interested in the toys. I had visions of her helping me more indepth (and I am still hoping that day will come), but sadly she doesn't even really like to play with the toys! I have tried creating toys for her based on her favorite characters...but even those seem to just sit there and gather dust. She enjoys stacking with the block sets and playing with kitchen food, but has never really roleplayed with any of her toys with the exception of "babies" and her kitchen. She just turned 4, and is finally starting to show interest--so I am hoping things will change! When other kids are around while I am working, they seem really excited and ooh and aah and want to help. I wonder sometimes if because she is around the toys so much, they have just lost their luster!

 
Thank you Jessica for giving us a glimpse into your charming world! I hope others will find as much inspiration as I have from you. Our family feels good about supporting a stay-at-home mama who is committed to using sustainable and non-toxic materials. Our little ones love your beautiful wooden animals and they play with them everyday. It is truly a joy to observe them running their small hands over the wood grain and even breathing in the scent of the wood. We all love how you create happy, peaceful expressions on the faces of the animals, too.

 

How To Enter to Win a $25 Gift Certificate to You're Inspired:

Subscribe to my blog and leave a comment telling me you did. Hint: Look to the right bar of my blog toward the top of the page for a Subscribe box. Just enter your email address, hit Enter and you'll be subscribed. You can unsubscribe at any time.

That's it!

Want Even More Entries?

You know you do! 

The fine print: You must leave a separate comment for each extra entry.

1. Blog about my giveaway and link back to my giveaway on your blog. Be sure to add the link to your blog post in a comment below.

2. Leave a comment to share one thing you have done in the past week towards sustainability OR a frugal organic housekeeping tip OR a Real Food recipe your family loves.

3. Email 3 friends about my giveaway, making sure to include the link to my giveaway in your email. Leave a comment letting me know you did.

4. Subscribe to my Feedburner updates. Look to the right and you will see where you can enter your email address to subscribe to my Feedburner updates.

Subscribe to Tangled Oak Roots Farm

That makes 5 total possible entries for each person.

I like those odds!

Entries will close midnight Tuesday November 8th, 2011 (PST). I will use a random number generator to find the winners. Check back here Wednesday morning for an announcement of the winner.

Comments closed.

Keys To The Castle

It has been very busy around here. So busy, in fact, I have not had a free moment to blog. And I've missed this space. But I come here today with some exciting news: we got a house!


It closed just this week. We have lots of work to do around the place, and we will be blogging how we get the work done in a sustainable way. From installing new floors, repairing a falling down wood fence, removing acoustic ceiling, renovating a kitchen and bathrooms, building a top-bar beehive (what???), a compost bin and planting fruit trees, vines and a garden.


This weekend I will have a fun giveaway, including handmade Waldorf-style wooden animals, so check back for that.


I hope you are all well and staying warm on this cold Autumn day. Have a beautiful Thursday!

Winners!

Thank you so much everyone who participated. I enjoyed reading your comments, tips and goals. Blogger has a new interface and for some reason I can't figure out how to comment on each of your comments. But rest assured, I read each one and am so excited about the way each of us are edging towards sustainability. If you didn't win this month, I have another great giveaway planned for next month, and I hope you'll be back!

And the winners are:

Crews Family:

Kathleen:

LaRessie:

Email me at tangledoakroots (at) yahoo dot com within 48 hours with your shipping address, and I will have your gift sent directly to your door. That's it!

Thanks again for participating, it was fun!

Our First Giveaway

I am excited to announce our very first Tangled Oak Roots giveaway! As we are all about sustainability, frugality and keeping things natural, we are giving away three prizes that I have found very helpful in our headed-toward-sustainability household. Yep, you read right. Three prizes!

First up, a fantastic book, The Backyard Homestead. I love this book and I think you will too! It shows that even with a very modest urban backyard, you can grow thousands of pounds of food for your family every year. It really is simple. For example, when landscaping your yard make sure to choose plants that will give you food, herbs or edible flowers, instead of choosing plants for purely ornamental purposes. Make your yard work for you! Not all of us can have a dairy cow or chickens, but there are many other ways we can all become more self-sufficient, and this book can get you started doing something sustainable you'll be happy about.

Our second prize is a Pyrex 1 Quart Pourable Measuring Cup. I love this thing! It's perfect for mixing up pancake or waffle batter, serving gravy or making chicken, egg, or shrimp salad for sandwiches. Even if you already have one of these babies, a second one would come in handy, I'm sure of it. And it's glass! Most of us know that plastic leaches nasty chemicals that affect our brains, lungs and reproduction systems. The less plastic touching our food, the better. I know, I know there is BPA-free plastic and even so-called inert plastic, but I think many of us would agree that's it's only a matter of time before more harmful chemicals are "discovered" in plastics. Glass is the way to go.

Lastly, we are offering a Winter Vegetable Seed Collection from one of my favorite sources of untreated, open-pollinated, non-GMO, heirloom and heirloom quality vegetable, herb, fruit, cover crop, grain, flower, compost and carbon crop seeds: Bountiful Gardens of Ecology Action. They are fairly local to those of us in Northern California, having a farm in Willits and a supply store in Palo Alto. Check them out! I think you will be excited about the possibilities for your garden.

How To Enter to Win One of These Fabulous Gifts:

Subscribe to my blog and leave a comment telling me you did. Hint: Look to the left bar of my blog toward the top of the page for a Subscribe box. Just enter your email address, hit Enter and you'll be subscribed. You can unsubscribe at any time.

That's it!

Want Even More Entries?

You know you do! 

The fine print: You must leave a separate comment for each extra entry.

1. Blog about my giveaway and link back to my giveaway on your blog. Be sure to add the link to your blog post in a comment below.

2. Leave a comment to share one thing you have done in the past week towards sustainability OR a frugal organic housekeeping tip OR a Real Food recipe your family loves.

3. Email 3 friends about my giveaway, making sure to include the link to my giveaway in your email. Leave a comment letting me know you did.

4. Subscribe to my Feedburner updates. Look to the left and you will see where you can enter your email address to subscribe to my Feedburner updates.

Subscribe to Tangled Oak Roots Farm

That makes 5 total possible entries for each person.

I like those odds!

Entries will close midnight Sunday, October 9th (PST). I will use a random number generator to find the winners. Check back here Monday morning for an announcement of the three winners (one gift per winner, first number: the book; second number: Pyrex; third number: seeds).

And don't fret, this is just the beginning of the monthly giveaways. Next month I will be giving away some fabulous handmade and organic toys, like playsilks and wood animals. And in December, how about some luscious yarns for you fiber artists? It's another good reason to subscribe to my blog, you won't miss a giveaway.

Have fun!

Questions? Comment below.

Seeds of Change Organic Chcocolate Giveaway

I love giveaways, don't you? I also love learning about Real Food. My favorite Real Food blogger, Sarah, at the Healthy Home Economist, is hosting a fantastic giveaway, consisting of a huge Seeds of Change package. What will you win? Lots of organic chocolate, organic salad dressing (without rancid oils), organic brown rice, a rice and beans mix (Sarah points out you need to soak this before cooking), organic fall garden seeds (Woo!), garden gloves and more!

If you are just starting out in your Real Food journey, or have been traveling your road for awhile now, I highly recommend The Healthy Home Economist. Sarah has an admirable knack for turning any daunting Real Food kitchen task into a simple and do-able job. She also has kids and understands that they like simple food, not complex flavors, so many of her recipes are very kid friendly. Sarah is not afraid to tell the truth about food and I greatly appreciate her expose of many subjects regarding food and health. I have learned much from her and I hope that you enjoy her blog as much as I do. I feel she is providing a valuable resource for us Real Foodies and Weston A. Price followers. I don't know about you, but I try to use every resource available to me. Zara loves her video classes and we include some of them for our homeschool curriculum.

Pop on over to the Healthy Home Economist and enter the giveaway. Cheers to your good health!

Cheeseslave Giveaway

One of my favorite Real Food bloggers, Cheeseslave, is doing another fabulous giveaway. Ann Marie is giving away a GAPS Intro Diet Meal Plan from Health Home & Happiness. Cara, at Health Home & Happiness is doing a 30-day GAPS Intro Food Challenge, starting October 31, 2011. Sign up for free and get encouragement and free resources to help you on your Real Food healing journey. And visit Cheeseslave here to enter the giveaway!

If you haven't heard of GAPS, or Gut and Psychology Syndrome, it is worth taking a few minutes of your time to familiarize yourself with the concept. In very simple terms, GAPS is a holistic and nutrient dense approach to healing the gut. Healing the gut results in a myriad of awesome benefits like no longer being allergic to foods (including gluten!), getting the most nutrients out of the food you eat, having long standing health issues resolved and strengthening your immune system.

Visit Natasha Campbell's, the author of Gut & Psychology Syndrome, GAPS Diet site to learn more about this amazing and Real Food way of healing.

Happy healing to you all!