Welcome to New Mother New Baby

Dear Friends of Earnest Efforts -

We are thrilled to welcome a new store to our circle of friends.  New Mother New Baby in Northbrook, Il.  We will be shipping their first order of wood baby rattles to them on Tues., so they should have them in stock for the weekend.  If you live in their area, please stop by and welcome them to our circle and play with some of our baby rattles.  Here's a link to their website.



Thank you all for visiting our blog and remember
Take care, be good & kind, and don't forget to laugh,
Ellie Efforts (aka Heather)

The Sawdust Cathedral

Dear Friends of Earnest Efforts - We thought it would be fun to give you a mini photo album of the "sawdust cathedral" where we create all of our amazing boxes, drawers, rattles & spirits.  Actually, this time of the year Earnie hauls projects back and forth between the house and the shop to do the gluing and to keep the wood dry.  Otherwise we spend a large portion of our time in the sawdust cathedral.  Hope you enjoy the photos and a glimpse into the life of a woodworking artist.

1953 Boice Crane Bandsaw
Earnie has had this bandsaw for well over 25 years
Earnie cutting a box on the bandsaw
The belt sander. 
We buy a new one almost every other year - in December during our busiest season.
Pneumatic Pump Sander
The final sanding stage before hand buffing.
Entrance to the Sawdust Cathedral
Note there are no solid walls or doors - brrrr rabbit.
Thank you for visiting our shop.  Hope you enjoyed the photos.  Have a lovely weekend and remember...
Take care, be good & kind, and don't forget to laugh,
Ellie Efforts (aka Heather)

Blogtastic Extravaganza 18-22 January

Hello Friends of Earnest Efforts - Just wanted to give you a heads up that the Blogtastic Extravaganza starts tonight at 12am EST and runs through 22 January.  You will be able to hop through 150 blogger sites to read great articles, product reviews and enter to win giveaways.  Two mommy bloggers who have written reviews of our wood baby rattles are included in this blog hop.  Please join the Blogtastic Extravaganza by visiting either http://www.joyofmommajoyner.com/ or http://life-semicrunchy.blogspot.com/

Best of luck to you all and...
Take care, be good & kind, and don't forget to laugh,
Ellie Efforts (aka Heather)

Some See Driftwood; We See Boxes

Yesterday was one of the days between our birthdays - Earnie's was last Saturday and mine is today, so we went to the Oregon Coast to eat yummy seafood, rummage through the bookstores and collect driftwood at our favorite spot on the Coquille River. Myrtle can smell the coast the second we hit the flooded riparian zone of the Coquille River drainage system.  This is beautiful land - green like Ireland, the green of Oregon in winter and flooded fields; nature's way of giving the land a break from the grazing cattle (or range maggots). 
South Bank of the Mouth of the Coquille River near Bandon, Oregon

The South Bank of the Coquille River is our favorite driftwood collection spot because there aren't any other people there and it is an endless treasure trove of driftwood for our boxes.
Notice the beaver chewed log top left and the worm burrows in the log Earnie is cutting


Earnie wishing he could cut up the big log
 We took a lot of photos of the logs we did collect and are planning to add these to the Etsy photos when we finish the boxes and post them for sale.  What fun to be able to see the wood in its natural state when found and before it was transformed into an Earnest Efforts box.

Myrtle looking over the driftwood booty
We didn't chose the warmest, most desirable day to be at the coast, but we had a blast and left full of seafood from the seafood shack we love called Port O'Call (albacore tuna melts with real greens and perfect clam chowder), too much chocolate from Cranberry Sweets (where you can sneak a lot of delicious samples), and a few books from the two book stores we enjoy (forgot their names).  We even got to give away a few spirit shakers to store owners and employees who were a joy to share with. 

Earnie, Myrtle and Ellie with the driftwood
Hope you enjoy the photos and story.  Thanks for visiting our blog and have a joyful day.
Take care, be good & kind, and don't forget to laugh,
Ellie Efforts (aka Heather)

Etsy's Wall of Jewels

Dear Friends - I decided to write two separate posts, so that our two big announcements wouldn't get lost in each other.  We were asked about a week ago if we would volunteer to be featured on a new page for The Wall of Jewels. 

http://www.wallofjewels.com/
The Wall of Jewels is a unique and fun website that connects you with Etsy shops that carry beautiful new or vintage jewelry and now jewelry boxes and displays.  Visit the site at http://www.wallofjewels.com/.  There is ecclectic mix of jewelry boxes and displays and it's fun to see what people are making or finding.  We would love to hear what you think about this site.

Have a lovely evening, Ellie Efforts (aka Heather)

Welcome to Capitol Kids of Madison, Wisconsin

Dear Friends of Earnest Efforts - We are thrilled to announce another store to carry our wood baby rattles.  Peg, of Capitol Kids in Madison, Wisconsin contacted us this week for wholesale information and we shipped their order today.  Their shop is on the beautiful Capitol Square in Madison at 8 S. Carroll St.  I visited their website to learn more about them, and found wonderful pictures from their 10th birthday party on the Square last summer.  It's always a joy to see images from the lives of the people we only meet in cyberspace.  If you live in the Madison area, please stop by their shop and play with our rattles and tell them we said hi!  You can also visit their shop at http://www.capitolkids.com/.

Make it a joyful weekend, Ellie Efforts (aka Heather)

Featured Member on Eco Etsy Team Blog

Dear Friends of Earnest Efforts - First of all can I exclaim - I'm writing this from home using dial-up!!!  This is a first... normally I have to bring the netbook into Winston and use the wifi at the library, which is a beautiful new library and I like going there, but it sure is nice to write from home.

Now onto the big and fun news.  We are the featured member of our Team EcoEtsy blogspot at http://blog.ecoetsy.com/2011/01/featured-member-earnest-efforts.html.  Now, I'll admit that I wrote the article myself, but it's still exciting to be on the front page anywhere; even if it is cyberspace.

Speaking of the front page in cyberspace, we are also featured this month in a review of our baby rattles by The Tree Huggin' Momma, who's name I adore and with whom we have so much in common.  Check out her blog to see if you can figure out what we have in common.  http://thetreehugginmomma.blogspot.com/2011/01/earnest-efforts-review-giveaway.html

Earnest Efforts New Rattle Poster Boy
We also have a new "poster baby" for our website and Etsy shop.  Our baby rattle promotions are now graced with the picture of our new little friend.  He is the Grandson of our dear friends Penny & Dave Peek of Cool Shoes.  Penny gave us a disc full of pics of him, but when we saw this photo we knew it was the one.  The way he is gnawing on his rattle with such an intense expression just cracked us up.  We were sad to see our friend Marco go, but I know he's all grown up now and it's time to let him be a big boy.

Thank you for taking the time to visit and share in our excitement.  We wish you all the most joyful and inspired year ever.  May you be healthy and filled with peace and compassion. 

Ellie Efforts (aka Heather)