small things

Nova Natural {giveaway}

This weekend, Nova Natural is here for a Spring giveaway!

Nova Natural is a small, family-run business based in the beautiful state of Vermont. Our goal is to be your trusted source for children’s toys and crafts that allow imaginations to run wild, engage curious minds, and foster appreciation for nature. We carefully handpick every item that goes into our catalog, and it’s important to us that we try our very best to offer you fair trade products made with renewable resources. We hope you find beauty and wonder in our toys!

We Vermonters begin to see signs of spring as the daylight stretches out and the clouds push back a bit. We celebrate the sounds of dripping eaves, the sight of sap buckets hanging on maple trees and the scamper of bunnies stirring in the earlier light of dawn. We bring branches of pussy willow indoors to have them bloom or plant the first seeds for our gardens or even set aside some soil for a batch of wheat grass for a favored spring visitor.

At Nova Natural, we hope you find a few things to help your own family invite spring with its puddle and splash, bidding a fond farewell to winter.

Pysanky eggs are an excellent craft for those impatiently anticipating warmer, dryer days. Using our simple ukrainian egg decorating kit, you can start a tradition of annual egg dying. The task requires concentration and perseverance that even very young children can do with enough adult supervision. Because the eggs are emptied of their contents before dyeing, after a couple of years, you’ll have an array of eggs to hang from an “Easter tree” that shows the improving skills of the entire family; children will enjoy remembering how they created their own and the time you spent crafting together.

You might prefer other items to honor the Easter season, like a kit with eco-dyes and wheat grass seed. After dying the eggs in these pastel shades, you can place them on a bed of green, wool fleece with other little surprises. We like the rustic charm of the woodland bunny and the sweet faces of the Easter bunny pair from Ostheimer.

Easter and spring also mean a return to some of our favorite outdoor fun. A new resource we’ve found for fostering outdoor explorations is the Rainy Day Kids Adventure Book; you’ll find year-round ideas for your little one to experience their big backyard in child-sized snippets. And a classic that is ready for any water is the little sailboat; this yar vessel likes birdbaths and rivulets as much as bathtubs.

 

Once your child is outside and wild with the coming of spring, a skipping rope or set of walking blocks might give new, drier ways to herald the wonder of the world. We might love the crispness of the cold, but by Easter, we’re ready to sing King Winter away.

 

Nova Natural would like to give one lucky winner a $50 eGift Card! For your chance to win, leave a comment on this post. Comments are closed and the winner is Michele, who commented, “Yay! We love to shop at Nova Natural for our just-about-one-year-old grandson! Thanks for the chance!”

Reader Interactions

Comments

  2. There are so many lovely things on Nova’s website, from craft supplies to awesome toys. Thank you for hosting this give-a-away. I’m now off to explore your site some more!

  7. Nova Naturals, you hit the nail on the head with your prose and your products. We love celebrating our family festivals with your birthday ring, ornaments, and wooden figures.

  16. Oh, we just got the spring catalog! So many good things! My kids were especially excited about the walking blocks, a fun way to transition play back outside for spring

  23. The rabbits remind me of playing in my father’s wood shop when I was a child! I made things out of his wood scraps. My children are all older but I’m sure I’d find something delightful in the Nova store!

  32. I have always admired the Nova Naturals products. Now that my children are grown I look forward to gifting these lovely things to my neices and nephews. I might just find something for my adult son in here though 😉

  35. Just started following your blog. I love it! Thank you for sharing your beautiful family, pictures and words.

  36. Our first wooden boats died so I was thinking of getting more for Easter baskets this year. The kids love floating those boats in the creeks!

  38. I love pysanky eggs! I haven’t done any in YEARS! Need to do that again.

  40. My daughter and I have long wanted to try making Pysanky eggs. Perhaps this is our chance!

  46. So excited to learn about Nova Natural. My family vacations in VT and we pass through Shelburne. Will definitely stop in this Summer! So many sweet and fun things including a nice selection of waldorf dolls.

  48. Lovely, lovely things. Fun to think about what I would choose for my little Spring bunnies. 🙂