Magic Sponsor Giveaway :: Armadillo Dreams

I'm super excited to share one of my Magic Sponsors with you today...


The truth be told, I have poured over this gorgeous shop for hours. Their handmade wooden toys are simply beautiful. Simply BEAUTIFUL! Have a look for yourself...

These are gorgeous heirloom toys, aren't they! And, I'm even more excited to tell you that Armadillo Dreams is offering one lucky reader of this article a $50 spending spree in their shop... $50 to spend on whatever your little ones desire! Yay! Giveaway details are at the end of this post.

To learn a little more about the family behind this amazing toy shop, I've asked the dad, Dustin, to tell us a little about themselves...

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About Us:

Hi Magic Onion readers! My name is Dustin. I own/run Armadillo Dreams with my wife Amanda. I have lived in Central Oregon most of my life. I met Amanda during sophomore year in high school. After graduation we moved to Portland, Oregon for about 3 years and then moved back. We got married in 2004, had our daughter Lucy in 2007 and had our son Lincoln in 2010.

 

We love Central Oregon for the warm and sunny summers and because we get to experience each season here. We enjoy being outdoors as much as possible. Central Oregon is known for having an abundance of outdoor recreation opportunities. You can do just about any outdoor sport/activity imaginable within about an hour drive from home. We have mountains, forest, desert, lakes and rivers all very close by. And the beach is only a 3-4 hour drive away! Central Oregon is an awesome place to raise a family.

About Armadillo Dreams:

Armadillo Dreams makes high quality handmade wooden toys. We make animals, figures, baby toys, pull toys, fantasy themed toys and other fun things! Some toys are painted, while others remain natural. Everything we sell is made from natural materials, is friendly for little hands and is handmade with love! We believe it's important for children to have high quality, natural, simple toys that they can dream, imagine and play with.

 

Our story:

Armadillo Dreams started in late 2010. We started the shop after I discovered a passion for woodworking. I completed a backyard chicken coop/run (we have 18 chickens currently) in the summer and was looking for new woodworking projects. We always wanted more wooden toys for our children, but didn’t have a lot of money. Amanda had already been selling on Etsy for about 5 years with her shop (Wild Plums: http://wildplums.etsy.com). We combined Amanda’s artistic skills and knowledge of Etsy with my passion for woodworking and Armadillo Dreams was born.

The shop started small selling only toys that were already made. I think we had 30-40 natural wooden toys in the shop maximum at any given time for about the first 6 months. We didn’t start making painted toys for about 4 or 5 months because we wanted to perfect our painting skills/methods. We wanted the paint to still show the wood grain underneath so that people could still appreciate the wood. We also wanted to create a painting process that would make it extremely difficult for the paint to wear off under play from children of all ages. Once we had painting down and started releasing painted toys, things really started taking off. It was also around that same time that we switched to having everything in the shop “made to order” (orders are usually made & shipped within 5-7 days), versus trying to keep a large inventory around. This allowed us to really concentrate efforts on expanding our catalog. Currently we are up to about 175 toys/sets.

No matter how big Armadillo Dreams gets we plan to keep operations small and home based. My woodshop is in our backyard (a large converted shed). We also have a two car garage that was remodeled into a family room that serves as an indoor work area. A lot of work also takes place on our dining room table. We like it that way.

Our future plans:

We are currently in the process of setting up http://armadillodreams.com with our own full shop and blog, plus some other fun things we are going to do on the website. We will be spending most of the summer and fall promoting it before the holiday season hits. We are also going to be working on getting our catalog up to about 225-250 items by the holidays. Our primary goal for 2012 is to make Armadillo Dreams capable of supporting our family financially on its own.

Giveaway:

We are giving away a $50 shopping spree in our shop to one lucky reader.

Links:

Website / Blog (coming soon): http://armadillodreams.com

Shop: http://armadillodreams.etsy.com

Facebook: http://facebook.com/armadillodreams

Twitter: http://twitter.com/armadillodreams

Amanda’s other shops:

http://wildplums.etsy.com

http://littlevintageviolet.etsy.com

http://violetplays.etsy.com

Like us on Facebook and follow us on Twitter for daily specials, news, coupons and giveaways!

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Thank you, Dustin... it's so nice getting to know the people behind the scenes of our favorite online places and I'm honored to be able to share your creativity with my Magic Friends :-) I have made a personal commitment to support small businesses whenever I can and I know there are so many who join me in congratulating you and your family on your beautiful shop.

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Now for the Giveaway... as Dustin said above, one lucky reader will win a $50 spending spree in Armadillo Dreams!!

This Giveaway has been won by the Mama over at 'Growing Like Weeds'. Congrats!!

To enter, simply let us know what you love about Armadillo Dreams toys in the comment section of this post. 

You can earn 5 extra entries by...

1. 'like' Armadillo Dreams on Facebook -  http://facebook.com/armadillodreams

2. 'Favorite' Armadillo Dreams on Etsy - http://armadillodreams.etsy.com

3. Blog about this Giveaway so that others can learn about it too.

4. Tweet about this Giveaway

5. Pin this Giveaway.

Be sure to come back and leave a comment for each additional entry.

This Giveaway is open to everyone, everywhere - except me :(

The Magic Winner will be announced on Sunday, May 20.

Good luck, my Friends, and remember to support Armadillo Dreams when you can. 

Blessings and magic, 

Donni