A Wonderful Giveaway For you...

JUST TO LET YOU KNOW: We’ve extended the deadline for entries to Friday 24 May – so don’t dilly-dally….enter now!

The beautiful Ange from Elfin Trail has a wonderful giveaway on here at the moment. Elfin trail is generously giving a $50 voucher away to a lucky person.  Elfin trail has such wonderful treasures to captivate a child's imagination and allows the child to experience nature's wonders through play.

As a parent of young children I feel the constant pull to keep my children free from the rapid growth of commercial influence and allow my babies time to be young. Children have an amazing ability to see the beauty in everything, if we nurture this natural play then we allow them to slow from the fast pace of the world, giving them vital lessons for life.

We here in our home have a few of Elfin Trails beautiful treasures and my children get lost in play with these. I watch my sweet girls tending to her faerie garden for hours, lost in a wonderful world of small delights. It is so precious to watch.

I spoke with the lovely Ange and this what she had to say about her journey...

1. How long has it been that you have been making these beautiful treasures for children? and why did you start this magical range?

I’ve always loved making things but when my children started attending a Steiner kindergarten a decade ago I fell in love with the craft. That’s when I began delving into the world of natural toys, dolls and imaginative playthings, inspired by Mother Nature and elementals like faeries and gnomes. After years of making things for my children, my friend’s children and my children’s school, I started my business Elfin Trail two years ago.

2. I love how all of your items evoke imagination and keep the child deeply rooted to the earth, this makes your items so unique and individual. Was this your intention?

Absolutely! I’m passionate about childhood, protecting that fleetingly precious time of wonder, imagination and play. I find it heartbreaking - the current culture of rushing kids through childhood - educating them faster, filling their time with adult-directed, scheduled activities, bombarding them with marketing messages and adult concepts and facilitating hour after hour in front of a growing range of screens. In my own small way I’m trying to remind people that imaginative play is profoundly important to children.

3. If you could encourage something for the children of today what would it be?

If our children have any chance of saving this planet for our grandchildren, they’ll need to love nature. To love nature you have to spend time in it: touching, feeling, smelling, watching, exploring, experiencing it. It’s incumbent on us as adults to give our children time and space and freedom to experience nature everyday. Let them take risks, let them climb trees and get dirty and build forts and play with sticks and rocks. Hang out at beaches, go for bush walks, stroll in parks, go on picnics and camping trips. Watch sunsets, roll down grassy hills, build dams in creeks. Have backyards that invite play and pottering and building and gardening (and, yes! Making faerie gardens!) and have long lazy days at home that allow plenty of time for children to develop their own play.

To enter the $50 Elfin Trail Voucher giveaway all you need to do is:

1.     Visit www.elfintrail.com and sign up to their newsletter, AND

2.     Leave a comment on this Mindfully Green blog post.

Plus all Bloggers who share this competition on their site will receive an extra entry in the draw.

The winner will be selected randomly from the Mindfully Green blog posts. The competition opens at 9.00am EST on Thursday 2 May and closes at 7.00pm on Thursday 16^th May 2013. The voucher is redeemable for products from Elfin Trail and not transferable for cash. The total value of the voucher is $50 to include any postage costs. Gift voucher is valid until 16^th August 2013. Winner will be notified via email and posted on www.elfintrail.com and www.mindfullygreen.com.au . Entry is open to both Australian and overseas residents. 

Good Luck!