Come for a drive to the beautiful town of Woodend this Saturday and see us!
members free, single $5, Family $8
sustainable house & garden tours
WISE power information
solar hot water systems
alternative energy - solar, wind & PV’s
free energy audits
bicycle maintenance workshop
community permaculture garden tour
fruit tree care demonstrations
organic / slow food stalls
organic food exchange
massage, meditation & yoga workshops
family entertainment & bbq with local produce
This Festival event in the Macedon Ranges is part of the Local Events Program for the 2010 Sustainable Living Festival. The Main Event at Federation Square in 2009 attracted over 124,000 visits. The 2010 Main Event at Federation Square (19-21 February 2010) promises to be just as inspiring. Visit www.festival.slf.org.au for details.
Eco Toys proudly supports local and Australian toy makers.
We have a huge range of beautifully crafted Australian made toys and we are the first online toy store in Australian to provide fun, eco friendly and Australian made toys!
Why purchase Australian made?
When you purchase products that are made in Australia, you are providing jobs to Australians but most importantly you are reducing carbon emissions caused by air pollution.
So where are out toys made?
Locally! Our gorgeous wool felt fruit, veggie and tea sets are made in the beautiful Macedon Ranges by a mum who hand sews them all individually with love.
Remember those traditional wooden toys you had as a child? We have two Melbourne craftsmen that have been making traditional wooden toys for many years and still make them in their backyard shed’s.
Donna Hensen, an aboriginal artist from the Wiradjuri People and part of the Winanggaay art project designs our beautiful Australian made indigenous jigsaw puzzles. Eco Toys brings traditional Aboriginal games and puzzles to your children’s play and learning.
Our new range of eco friendly gift cards are all designed and made locally by talented artist Judith Howell and our Living Landscapes Card Game are also designed by Australian artist Lizet Frijters in Far North QLD.
So what about the rest of the toys?
Most are designed and owned by local and Australian companies!
We try not to ship our toys from all the way from Europe as that increases the greenhouse gases caused by the air transport.
By supporting Australian designed toys we are still supporting Australian designers and companies and our toys comply with the highest Australian safety toy standards, so that’s definitely peace of mind!
My daughter loves the beach, playing in the sand, collecting sea shells and dipping her toes in the water. I was fortunate to recently have the opportunity to share this joy with her during our Christmas holiday at the beach.
Sometimes it’s easily forget how important it is for our children to connect to mother nature.
My daughter reminded me that day . . .
That play can come be created from simple things, like the sticks and shells she found at the beach.
Her creation was magnificent and reminded me to stop and admire the beauty, breathe in the sea air and take pleasure in the simple things in life.
Sometimes it’s our children that teach us life’s most important lessons.
With only a week left until Christmas, it is such an exciting time for many people, including our family. However I really struggle to accept the unnecessary waste and over consumption that happens during this festive season.
There was once a time when I used to stressfully wander around shopping centres trying to find the perfect present for someone who had everything. That is until I went to Africa, and then my life changed forever. I couldn’t forgot the memories of the severe poverty I had seen and the knowledge that so many children still die from hunger and preventable diseases (one child every 3 seconds)! We live in a society where the more you own, the better off you are but I don’t agree with that. Money doesn’t necessarily bring us happiness and we are made to believe that we need so much more than we really do need. Kids these days want it all, the latest new gadgets and branded new toys, all shiny, plastic, noisy and overstimulating, but there is often little or no thought about how or where these toys are made .
It seems so unfair, so unecessary and although I still really struggle to keep up the Christmas tradition in our family of giving presents, as a family we have sat down and discussed what we want Christmas to mean to us and most importantly to our our daughter Safari.
We believe that Christmas is a time to come together as a community of family and friends and celebrate the love we share for another, but not at the expense of the planet, its people and most importantly our child’s future.
What’s the point of getting a present when a child in a third world country has been forced to work in horrific conditions making it?
What’s the point of eating a lavish meal when we aren’t supporting our local farmers, instead supporting large supermarket chains that use poisonous chemicals and pesticides to produce their food?
So we decided that we would only buy sustainable, handmade and fair trade gifts to do our bit to make this world a better place.
Last year my wonderful husband built some planter boxes from recycled timber lying around and we planted herbs and veggies and gave one to each family. I hand sewed a doll for my nephew out of his old but favourite pajama’s and I made a picture from natural materials for another friend’s boy for his room.
For gift wrapping we recycled some old cardboard boxes (as you can imagine we have plenty lying around) and my gorgeous girl (yes that’s her!) had an absolute ball painting and decorating them. There was no need to buy cards as we simply just wrote on the boxes.
This year we have done the same and only bought gifts that are sustainable and won’t end up in landfills.
We have a beautiful native Australian Christmas tree in our home that we bought last year and have had the pleasure of watching it grow as it has almost doubled in size! We decorated it with lovely handmade wool felt decorations made by women in Nepal and decorated our home with hanging mobiles made from recycled newspaper and natural things we have found on our property.
Not only has our home come alive with the natural smells and things collected from our land, our daughter has had such a fun time making them with us. Once the tree is too big to stay in a pot we will plant in in our garden to grow and flourish.
We also sponsor a boy from Tanzania through the World Vision sponsor a child program so we know that we are contributing towards helping another family and community become self sufficient and have the opportunity for a better life. We have his picture next to our Christmas tree as a reminder that we can all do something to make this world a better place.
One day when Safari is old enough we will visit him so she can experience their rich culture without all the materialistic needs that our society places so much emphasise on.
So to us Christmas is about sharing and giving from within our hearts and hopefully Safari will learn that Christmas isn’t about how much you spend, it’s about the joy we spread to other people’s lives.
Check out ‘The story of stuff’, a fantastic documentary on consumerism and damage it causes to our planet.
I believe that we all can make a difference and with change comes a more compassionate and caring society and a happier planet for our children. You don’t have to give up the joy of Christmas but your choices can go a long way!
Have you seen our new range of Wildlife Conservation games for older kids? They are absolutely stunning and I am so thrilled to add them to the Eco Toys collected of games for older kids!
Each game teaches children about endangered species and their diverse habitats that are being threatened. Play a classic game of Congo chess in magnificent Africa where the almighty Highland Gorilla lives.
Or help the polar bear navigate the ice caps of the Bering Sea to find his way back home in this fantastic game of Polar Bear Labyrinth.
By inspiring children to learn about the world around them and to become aware of important conservation work happening every day we can make a difference!
These games are made from FSC certified wood which ensures that our beautiful natural forests remain unharmed and printed using soy based inks. They come packaged in recycled cardboard boxes made from post consumer waste paper.
So not only do these games teach children about the amazing animals on this planet, they are 100% eco friendly and 5% of proceed from each games goes to support the wonderful work of World Wild Fund.
Sure to inspire a new generation of cool games for kids!
Get outdoors this summer and have some fun with our new range of eco friendly outdoor games by “Fun in the Sack”!
Remember those old time favourites when you were kid? The three legged race or jumping with all your might as you head to the finish line in a sack race?
Well thanks to Australian company “Fun in Sack” those good old favourites are back again!
We all want our kids to get active and play outdoors, so these game packs are the perfect Christmas present! They are a great for birthday parties, getting the family together for a laugh on Christmas day or for taking with you on holidays this summer.
Our single game packs include the Ring Toss and Egg & Spoon Race but if you want a value game pack we have the 4 in 1 Game Pack which includes 6 hessian bags for a sack race, 3 hessian bands for a three legged race, 6 wooden eggs & spoons for the Egg & Spoon race & a Ring Toss.
I love these games because they promote outdoor & active play and in a world where so many kids grow up playing video and computer games, these games are such a breath of fresh air!
They are made from high quality, natural & eco friendly materials by an Australian company. So you can feel good that you are helping the environment while also getting everyone to have fun together outside!
Click here to view our full range of Outdoor & Active Play Toys.
Last Sunday we attended the Mathilda’s market which was jam packed full of all things beautiful and handmade for kids. They had the most funkiest and most gorgeous clothes, chic bedroom decorations and furnishings, bags and shoes, dreamy vintage-inspired creations, handcrafted musical instruments and jewellery, fabulous dress-up costumes, striking linen … and so much more!
Luckily I was busy at my stall all day, otherwise I could have potentially spent lots of money as the goods on offer were simply stunning.
Our new Plan Toys Airport was set up on display which a lot of people fell in love with! We had so much fun demonstrating how the elevator and backage claim worked to customers, who of course also shared in our delight!
Our Eco Dollhouse was also very popular and definitely caught people’s attention as they admired the solar panels on the roof!
A huge thanks to my wonderful friend Natalie from Moederkip who helped me out on the day & Alison from Alipants who also popped in to say hello and help out.
This Friday 27th November we do it all again & will be at the Surrey Hills Twilight Christmas market, from 6pm - 9pm. There will be free children’s entertainment & live jazz music with a focus on speciality craft and gift stalls. Come along & bring your kids to see Santa (we’ll be right next to him!), the animal farm or join in the many fun activities available during this brillant night market.
It’s at the Surrey Hills Neighbourhood Centre, 157 Uninion Road & 1 Bedford Avenue, Surrey Hills.
Eco Toys is excited to introduce another fantastic eco toy range to our store!
Green Toys is a US company that makes environmentally friendly children’s toys from 100% recycled milk containers. They use milk containers because it is completely free from Phthalates & BPA and one of the safest & cleanest plastics around.I‘I be honest, I was a bit hesitant at first to add them to my store due to them being made out of plastic, but the more research I did on them, the more I realised that they were an exceptional, high quality, 100% green product!
One of the things that I love about Green Toys is that they are FDA (food contact standards) certified. If your child is like mine and loves to have tea parties pouring with real water then you can be rest assured that it is safe and unlike wooden tea and cooking sets can get wet. It is also dishwasher safe and meets the highest international standards ( EN71 and ISO 8124) for safety.
The outdoors toys are extremelley durable and strong, so although you might initially pay more for a sandpit play set or jump rope, they will last much longer. Unlike the cheap bucket & spade we bought my daughter last Christmas for the sand pit which has literally broken down in the sun! The jump rope is made from 100% pure and soft cotton so won’t hurt your child’s legs.
Oh and one more thing! They come packaged in the coolest, 100% recycled gift boxes that look fantastic and you know you are doing something good for the environment when you buy a Green Toy.
So they have a big thumbs up from me, Green Toys are good for the environment!
Eco Toys will be at the Mathilda’s Market this Sunday 22 November, from 9am to 1pm at Hawthorn Town Hall, 360 Burwood Road, Hawthorn.
We will be showcasing our new range of Plan Toys, our ever so popular cooking centre and many of our other fabulous Eco Toys on the day!
Mathilda’s market is a boutique baby & kids market that sells beautiful handcrafted and limited production baby and kids goods. Carefully handpicked stallholders bring the most divine and original clothing, accessories, homewares and toys for the little ones. Exquisite wares are lovingly made by some of Australia’s most talented crafters and designers – many of them parents themselves.
It’s a shopper’s heaven for those who want to stylishly dress their children or decorate their kids’ home environment, but don’t want to buy mass produced, chain store items. At Mathilda’s Market you’ll see the funkiest and most gorgeous of outfits for the kids, chic bedroom decorations and furnishings, bright and brilliant toys, must-have accessories, pretty and practical bags and shoes, dreamy vintage-inspired creations, handcrafted musical instruments and jewellery, fabulous dress-up costumes, striking linen … and so much more!
As most of the stallholders don’t have a shop front, you are guaranteed to find something truly unique.
With over 80 stallholders and yummy food this will be a fantastic day out for young & old. For a sneak preview, check out their website Mathilda’s market.
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