Mothering with Mindfulness Sponsor - Armadillo Dreams

Today I would like to introduce you to one of my May sponsors Armadillo Dreams.

Tells us a little about yourself and Armadillo Dreams.

Hi, I’m Dustin. My wife Amanda and I own/run our handmade wooden toy business called Armadillo Dreams. We live in beautiful Redmond, Oregon with our two children, Lucy and Lincoln, our dog Roxie, two German angora bunnies and a dozen chickens. You can get to know our family more and follow our adventures through our blog Wild Armadillos.

We started selling our toys online through our Etsy shop in late 2010. Over the last two and a half years we have grown our selection to about 200 toys/sets. Our toys are all handmade by the two of us from our home based wood shop. A lot of the work also takes place in our work room or our dining room table.

We are very excited about the April launch of our very own website! Here you will find all of the toys we sell on our Etsy shop. The sales from this website will benefit our family more directly. At the same time we also started a customer service phone number with posted business hours. If you ever have questions about our toys, want to check status on an order or just want to say hi, we are just a phone call away!

What inspired you to start your own business?

Armadillo Dreams was born after I discovered a passion for woodworking during the summer of 2010. Amanda had already been selling on Etsy for about five years with her shop (Wild Plums) and knew that it was a great handmade goods marketplace. The business started very small and was more of an outlet for my new found hobby than anything. In January 2013 Armadillo Dreams became our full time jobs.

What is the most enjoyable part about owning your own business?

Our most favourite part about our business is the flexibility it provides for our family life. We really enjoy both of us being able to be at home and being able to raise our children ourselves. We often choose to work at night so that we can be with our kids during the day when they are awake. Sometimes we will also work on weekends so that we can take time off during the week. It’s just really nice having those kinds of options.

You have a large selection of toys at Armadillo Dreams, can you explain how a toy comes to be from first thought to final product?

First Amanda comes up with a design. She draws them on paper and usually goes through many revisions before she has a design that she is happy with. It then gets cut out and traced onto wood. Then I take the wood out to my backyard wood shop where I cut out the shape. It then goes through multiple power sanding and hand sanding phases until the toy is nice and smooth. It then gets bought back inside for wood burning (done by Amanda), painting (done by both of us), polishing/sealing (usually done by me) and finally packaging (usually done by me). There are a few specific trade secret details that I’ve left out, but this gives you an overview.

Do you have a favourite toy your have created over the years?

That’s a hard question to answer. We have so many toys that we really enjoy making. I would say it’s a bit of toss up for me between our Dragon, our Space Set  and our Big Foot Set.

Are there any new toys on the horizon?

We have a lot of new toys planned for this year. We try to at least come out with a few new toys per month. We also make a seasonal toy line for every season of the year. You can see our current Spring toy line here and we will have a Summer toy line coming out very soon.

Thanks so much for taking the time to share a little bit about yourself with us. It was wonderful getting to know you a little better.

You can connect with Armadillo Dreams a few ways:

Website

Etsy
Blog
Facebook
Twitter

Be sure to like them on Facebook or follow them on Twitter for daily specials, sales, news and giveaways!

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Armadillo Dreams is generously offering 

 one lucky Mothering with Mindfulness reader a

3 month surprise toy subscription. 

Entries are open to anyone worldwide!

To enter leave comment, one per person, below.

Giveaway is open until Friday May 10 at 7pm.

I will pick a winner after this time and announce it in this post.

Good luck!

***In addition Armadillo Dreams would like to offer Mothering with Mindfulness readers 

10% off your entire order until Friday May 10, 2013 with the code "mothering". 

This code can be used in their Etsy shop or on their website***

Thanks so much Armadillo Dreams. 

And the winner is comment #21

Josee
"I love armadillo dreams. My daughter has one of their princesses :)" 

Congratulations!