natural wood baby rattles finished with beeswax
and wood hair barrettes with a lifetime guarantee.
Today’s giveaway is brought to you by Wooly Moss Roots Sponsor- Earnest Efforts.
We know Earnie and Ellie (aka Heather) from The Eugene Saturday Market and Holiday Market. Jeff and I have admired their woodworking for years and I’ve always been fond of their boxes with whimsical shapes, drawers, and unique drawer pulls. Bracken has a few of their wooden baby rattles and loves them (which I mentioned in ‘Our favorite baby “stuff” post.) They’re a music maker and teether in one (not to mention incredibly beautiful) and they make great gifts. I’ve written about Earnest Efforts in my market tour from 2011 and from this past May (with some pictures from their booth.)
You can follow along with them on their blog.
I’ll let them tell you more:
Tell us about yourself and your business.
Ellie: Earnie & I (Ellie) along with our loyal canine friend, Myrtle Joe Efforts are the hands, paws & laughter behind Earnest Efforts natural woodworking.
What are your favorite things about making a living as an artist? What are your challenges?
Ellie: We joke that we are unemployable. Earnie likes to fire himself fairly regularly – especially the day after a market day. Being self-employed and artists can be particularly challenging because it requires regularly using both sides of the brain. We have to balance the rational business person with the irrational artist. I think this is one reason Earnie & I have found ourselves to be such wonderful partners. We keep each other balanced because we both have the yin & yang of these personalities in ourselves. We simply have to hope that one of us is being rational at the right moment.
How do you balance work life and home life?
Ellie: These two concepts are one and the same for us. Our lives are full because we don’t need to separate the two. We are both worker bees; we simply love to do, so none of what we do feels like work. I suppose the key to balance is knowing that if it does start to feel like work, we can take a break from what we’re doing and go on to a different project; there are plenty from which to chose.
Anything in the shop you are really excited about right now?
Ellie: We currently have an incredible amount of driftwood and tree branches that are my favorite boxes. They are our ode to Mother Earth who is the ultimate artist. She provides the art and we give it function and a coat of beeswax. Crafting our boxes feeds our desire to collect like beavers and support our lifestyle. We are eternally grateful to her for providing us with these gifts.
For today’s giveaway, Earnest Efforts is offering one winner a choice of:
a baby rattle, spirit shaker, or artist’s choice small box.
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In addition, Earnest Efforts is offering a coupon code for 15% off in their Etsy Shop for the duration of the giveaway, when you enter the code: EELOVESGIVEAWAYS15 To enter today’s giveaway, leave a comment below. For a second entry, “like” Earnest Efforts on facebook and leave a second comment below letting me know you did so. International entries welcome. Giveaway will be open until Wednesday evening. Winner will be announced Thursday, within this post.
**Comments Closed.**
Good Luck!
**The winner is Amanda! Congrats! I’ll be sending you an e-mail!**
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