Smiling Moon Balancer in action

Neptune from Montessori Ici was kind enough to share her recent blog post all about our Smiling Moon balancing toy.  Her two little ones are having a blast with it, and they're learning all about balance, colors, stacking, and sorting while they play.  Read on to hear all about Neptune's experience with this toy, and enjoy her gorgeous photos...

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Wednesday, 4 July, 2012

Balancing

For summer, I have tried to find a few toys that I could play with the kids when they either need to get way from the sun, or during a rainy day.  Although these have been scarce lately, we have found ourselves going inside a few times to get away from the heat.

This week, I got this toy out.  It is a balancing moon game by Smiling Tree Toys that I found on Etsy.  I like that it is handmade, with natural material, the quality is outstanding, and it is very inviting to play with.

We have been playing many ways with this toy.  Alone, or together, as a game or just an activity of balancing.  E has even found his way of playing with the parts of this toy: by using the wooden rods to pile them up, and even sort them by colours (and of course, trying to balance them on the moon, with a lot of success I might say!).

X and M have been playing together a lot at this, but I have also seen X trying to make patterns and montage of his own...which are not always successful...but still loads of fun

escaping block on the right

The kit comes in a drawstring bag, and contains the moon and 14 wooden dowels to balance on the moon.

It is simple yet fun, it is open ended enough to be able to make many variation of the game, portable, and playable about anywhere. We are totally happy with this toy, perfect summer game.

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**For more great handmade toys from Smiling Tree, visit our Etsy Shop - you'll find wood teethers, rattles, cars, blocks, personalized toys, and oodles more.  

**NEW** Go behind-the-scenes and get a feel for daily life at our home-based business in our new About Us page.

sights and sounds at Smiling Tree come to life

With a home-based business run primarily online, we don't often get the chance to personally interact with our customers.  Sure we have some great chats via e-mail, and we love getting to 'virtually' know the families who are making Smiling Tree Toys a part of their homes.  But we're a sociable, happy-go-lucky couple and we love to meet new people. So not getting to meet you face-to-face is disappointing for us.

We dream of some day turning our picturesque red barn into the new home of Smiling Tree Toys, complete with an inviting, attached side room for displaying and selling our toys, hosting visitors, getting to know people like you over cups of hot tea or lemonade.

We're confident that day will come.  But in the mean time, we're excited to offer you the chance to get to know us just a little better.  You've seen lots of photos of our toys, our home, and our family.  But seeing and hearing us in action is an even better way to connect with the artisans behind your organic, heirloom wooden toys.

Thanks to a Minneapolis TV station that recently featuring our family business, we can share a short clip with you about Smiling Tree and our homegrown organic camelina oil finish.  (More about Omega Maiden, our family farm's camelina oil business, in a later post.)

Check it out!  (And sorry about the 10-second ad at the beginning...)

an Ode to Peace Corps...

The little one and I are spending a sunny afternoon in the house today trying to escape the heat.  I'm also trying (quite successfully I must say) to avoid an ugly pile of paperwork that has called my desk home for weeks now.

We've been a bit slow at getting our blog up and running since we started it a few months ago.  I blame Amana, the 9-month old who rules every waking second of the Smiling Tree household.  (I don't know what my go-to excuse will be years from now when the little ones are all grown up and out of the house!)

Our blog will still focus on our family's journey toward a simple, sustainable life on the Minnesota prairie, natural parenting, and keep you updated on the goings-on of Smiling Tree Toys.  But it's also going to be a great way for us to give a shout-out to the people, places, and ideas that inspire us and yes, as cliche as it may sound, "make the world a better place."

So on that note, let me tell you why I'm avoiding paperwork and strolling down memory lane this afternoon.  It all started with an email yesterday from fellow Etsy shop owners KerryandLogan.  This adventurous couple just joined Peace Corps and is moving to Ukraine this fall.  In an effort to raise funds to pay for their college loans while they're serving abroad, Kerry and Logan are selling some gorgeous artwork and poem collections.  Here are two of my favorites:

Landscaping Print

"Home Grown" poem collection

Kerry and Logan will spend the next two years of their life immersed in a new community, new culture, new climate, new language, new clothes, new food, and new work environment.  That's a lot of "newness"...  Kudos to them for giving the next two years of their lives to do their small part to positively change the world!

So just what does this have to do Smiling Tree? 

Where do we begin...

 As many of you might already know, we served with the Peace Corps in Niger, West Africa from 2008-2010.  It was life-changing to say the least.  In fact, our daughter Amana (pronounced "ah-MAH-nah") was named for the Hausa (Niger's primary language) word meaning "trust and friendship".  We also make a donation to Peace Corps youth projects for every toy we sell.  Niger is in our blood. 

We made life-long friends, family really, who are now living a world away from us.  But we know they're never more than a few (well, FOUR actually!) plane rides away.  We look forward to the day when we can return to our 'home away from home' and reunite with our Nigerian community.  Until then, though, the magic of cell phones lets us call them regularly to check in and see how our goats, school garden, and tree nursery are doing.

In a future post, we'll share a few of our most powerful experiences and lessons learned during our time in Niger.  We've got pictures that'll bring a tear to your eye (or at least to mine).

In the mean time, here are a few Etsy finds that pay a small tribute to Peace Corps and the passionate, creative people who have helped make it a reality:

Upcycled Vintage Peace Corps Stamp Magnet

JFK photograph by Clyde Keller

Sargent Shriver silk screened t-shirt

Tanzania map journal

And our two Smiling Tree "ode to Peace Corps" favorites:

organic peace dove teether/grasper

                                                                                 

 

organic little Africa teether/grasper

Never doubt that a small group of thoughtful, committed citizens can

change the world. Indeed, it is the only thing that ever has.

-Margaret Mead

Introducing our POLKA DOT PLAYMATES!

We're super duper excited to roll out a new line of toys this past week - POLKA DOT PLAYMATES! They're cute and funky little hardwood toys that can be teethers, grasping toys, and/or imagination play pieces.  The funnest (I know that's not a real word, but it just has to be said!) part about them are the colorful little polka dots we've added. 

You might think of these one-of-a-kind gems as our "teething toys with a little extra pizzazz"...  

Georgia Giraffe has always been one of our favorite teethers, but she really was just begging for her very own giraffe spots.  (We think she was feeling a bit self-conscious about not having them, so this has really made her day!)  Her she is, all dressed up and happy as a clam:

 

 

Georgia giraffe



We've had spring on our minds lately.  Our backyard is home to some lovely little butterflies and ladybugs, both of which inspired these playmates:



cute-as-a-button ladybug



crazy colorful butterfly

For those of you who know a soon-to-be Daddy, this is an especially darling little polka dot necktie:



funky necktie



If any other shapes that are polka dot-friendly come to mind, please share your ideas!

The Adventure Begins....

Welcome to STT's blog! A place for you to:

• get to know the faces behind Smiling Tree
• read and share tips, stories, and experiences for all things "natural, organic, and eco-friendly for little ones and their parents"
• get insiders' tips, catch sneak previews, and enter contests for Smiling Tree toys 
• learn what we're up to in our little corner of Minnesota
• and some other stuff (gotta leave it opened ended - who knows where this adventure will take us!)

Our Etsy toy shop is "GOIN' GANGBUSTERS" as Justin likes to say...  We're thrilled to be oh-so-close to our 100th sale, we're introducing new toys - Polkadot Playmates - this week, and we just opened a few wholesale accounts. 

Perhaps our most impressive feat as of late, though, as that we've done all of this while taking care of our little TEETHING MONSTER (aka our 7 month old little lady Amana).

Here she is now, discovering grass for the first time (Yes, spring has *finally* sprung in Minnesota. We were beginning to wonder...)

"I'm lovin' this green stuff!"

~~~~~Welcome and enjoy!~~~~~