Wednesday, October 14, 2015

DragonflyToys | a colourful giveaway

When I opened this space to sponsorship in mid-2012, Dragonfly Toys was one of my very first sponsors and they've been a mainstay on my sidebar ever since. The well-established business is renowned for its beautiful collection of Steiner-inspired toys, art supplies and activities and they're my go-to when I'm searching for gifts. They recently became Australia's only stockist of Filana crayons; organic beeswax crayons made in small batches. At the risk of sounding gushy, these crayons are luscious; rich hues, soft to the touch and creamy to draw with. 

Ujjval and Joanne are the husband and wife team behind Dragonfly, based at the grand creative hub that is Abbotsford Convent. For the past five years they have owned a private college that teaches early childhood education in Melbourne and in 2013 they founded Ignite Minds, a family daycare service to increase work opportunities for their graduates and promote a waldorf play-based approach to early learning.

For Ujjval and Jo, Dragonfly Toys is where they play. "At Dragonfly we believe that childhood is an important time – a time that should be treasured, nurtured and cherished. The world of the child is a magical place, and as parents we can help to keep this magic alive by providing our children with opportunities for open ended, creative, imaginative play," says Jo.

They have a strict criteria when shopping for products and admit that it is getting increasingly difficult to find toys that adhere to their ethos. "It must be beautiful and enchanting, strong and safe, environmentally friendly and fairly traded. Many of our products are sourced from America and Europe and with the falling Australian dollar this comes at a premium.  When we source from companies that produce in Chinese factories we are very strict about the production story - we do not want to bring your child a magical toy with a tragic origin - this simply does not work," says Jo.

Their dedication to sourcing products made with the best of intentions is both rare and admirable. Having recently returned from a week of international toy fairs, they admit that the volume of poor quality toys on offer was frightening. So what did they buy? Home and kitchen play products that will enchant children during parallel play: children's brooms, garden tools, potato mashers and vegetable scrubbers, to name a few.

When it comes to toys for toddlers and pre-schoolers, Ujjval and Jo know exactly what works best: grasping beads, large rainbows (I concur!), tree houses, basket cable car kits and Waldorf natural blocks, if you're after some inspiration for Christmas gifts.

Dragonfly Toys are giving away a pack of 8 (block or stick) Filana crayons as well as a $100 gift voucher. To enter, just leave a comment and tell us what you would buy if you won. The comments that resonates most, wins. This giveaway is open to international readers and closes Wednesday 21st October at 5pm. Good Luck!

Comments closed. Congratulation to ellie - I'll be in touch! x

This is a sponsored post. Thanks so much for supporting the small businesses and brands that support me. 


50 COMMENTS

  1. What a gorgeous story. I have purchased from dragonfly toys before because their products were gorgeous but I didn't know the story behind the owners. It is a pleasure to support such wonderful people. It is also my go to store for gifts. If I was lucky enough to win I would purchase some play silks for my daughter. She loves to play with her animals and these beautiful silks would make her games all the more magical. I would also love the cable basket for my girls. They would have a wonderful time exploring the garden and sending it back to their cubby to investigate. Toys like these harness their imagination and sibling bond, both of which would make their parents immensely proud.

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  2. Their stuff is lovely indeed. My kids would love anything from them really. My son would be so pleased to get a balloon car. My girls all would love their avian friends activity journal. I'm just over here trying to figure out which things would entertain them the longest! Would be so fun to order them up a pile of creative things. Maybe I could get something done while they are occupied. Or at least rock the baby for a few minutes without having my chair rock into another little one!

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  3. The store looks amazing and I love that products are trusted
    I would buy my daughter the Needlecraft Kit as she is always asking me to teach her how to knit. While she is a bit young for it now I am sure it will not be long before I can hear the sounds of clickety clack!

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  4. I signed up for their mailing list. My 6 yo DD loooooves anything art supplies and she would definitely love any of the watercolors, but the one in the tin box would definitely be her favorite. She is a budding artist and I try to encourage her however I can since I don't have much of an art bone in my body! She took an art class over the summer and her favorites were definitely the water color projects.

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  5. I'm keen on the stockmar crayons foxesandfigs@gmail.com

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  6. I absolutely love that they research their products to make sure they are being sourced correctly. That is amazing. And they have such beautiful products. The wooden cash register really caught my eye, as it would be a fun toy that would keep my kids enthralled for ages.

    On another note, can I ask what you do about toys gifted to your children that don't fit with your lifestyle choice at home? Especially if the gift giver opened the packaging in front of your child so you can't return it. We just had this happen with my daughter's birthday and now it's on my mind with Christmas coming.

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    1. Hi - I hope you don't mind me adding my thoughts. This is such a hard one. When we have birthday parties we write on the invite that we'd prefer plastic-free toys. Some people get overwhelmed and don't know what to buy instead, but they mostly just ask me what's a good option - I've never had anyone get offended or deliberately give. (oh my daughters best friend gave Loom Bands when they knew I didn't like it, but my daughter really wanted. I think she's since learnt that it's not as fun / long lasting / beautiful as other things!). And with family members for Christmas we gently suggest presents.

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  7. Beautiful! It's a difficult decision, the more you look the more beautiful things are to be found. We would probably go for some Sarah's silks and something arty like their modelling beeswax or a first felting kit. Although I love the little boats run off of the steam from a tea light. So many great products! Thankyou! Holly blues x

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  8. Both my children spend hours at the craft table. I love all the create packs. Creating packs are the very best Christmas presents. It means hours of fun on the summer holidays.
    Thank you for the opportunity and the reminder of a great online store. X Rach

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  9. Broom.
    Integrating kids into the family unit through working together gives them belonging and security of knowing they are competent to contribute alongside adults.

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  10. Ahhh, so many beautiful things to choose from! I'm torn between the cable basket, the cash register, the wooden microscope and the play silks. I appreciate you sharing their story and business ethos, Jodi. Thank you! x hbrettell@gmail.com

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  11. I must admit I've bever purchased from Dragonfly before but spent many times at their site dreaming. Those crayons do sound divine - my artist kids would love them. If we won I'd put the voucher towards the big wooden treehouse. I've always wanted to get that for my kids - my daughter would love love love it and she'd make little friends and furniture and fairies to live in it. And with my baby growing into a little boy it would be a perfect toy for him in our small collection of thoughtful toys (and small home!). The tree house would be loved and played with by all 3 kids, even my 11yr old boy. Fingers crossed. Thank you xxx

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  12. I'd buy some new art supplies and some toys for our nature table. Especially eith s new baby coming it would be great to have some money for Christmas and birthday presents.

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  13. What a lovely selection! Certainly would help me get a leg up on the holidays :) I'd go with the Trout and/or elastic band motor boat for trips to the creek across the street, and the large land yacht with sailors to occupy the baby creekside. Since having our 5th child with a gap that resulted in the giving away of many toys and a house already full of 'stuff', I am definitely more choosy about what we buy. I love the message this company expresses, thanks so much for sharing.

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  14. My preschooler is turning five very soon. He refers to himself and his younger sister as "Everywhere Explorers" and they take their sketchbooks on their walks and currently share one set of Lyra pencils between them. Dragonfly toys has a lovely range of practical life toys for helping children discover the outside world that I have been ogling over for months. I especially love the magnifying cup. But his analytical mind would also enjoy the marble tracks. I've three littles that I'm homeschooling in a gentle approach...we usually buy second hand toys and supplies but I would love to have some good quality toys that will last the distance!

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  15. What a lovely giveaway! I would buy the Carve a Stamp Kit and some yarn for my daughter :)
    Thank you!
    heatheranne99 at gmail dot com

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  16. Wonderful company. I love those 12 little rainbow people—so cute!

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  17. These toys are beautiful! It would be a hard decision, but I would have to get the sound workshop and a set of those lovely wooden building blocks. Play is vitally important to my little family. Colin is just 5 months old and, as a brand new mom, I'm doing everything I can to build an environment for him to thrive in. Toys ought to inspire creativity and help develop one's imagination. How a toy is made and where it comes from is every bit as important to my family as what it can do.

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  18. What beautiful things! I am torn between the rainbow and basket cable car kits. My seven and five year old would love to run that cable car full of legos or little animal figurines. I can just picture them now! But the baby is turning one this month and I have been feeling the need to find some toys that have him in mind. Plus, the rainbow looks like endless fun for all. Final decision, the rainbow!

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  19. Oh, it's so hard to decide! The little wood sailboat is lovely! My three year old would love to play with it in the bathtub. We love Elsa Beskow books! Maybe a few of those to add to the slow growing collection! Thanks!

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  20. Oh how we'd love the wooden cash register! Our 2.5 year old girl (don't forget the half!) spends her days taking her dolls in the 'troller' to the shops to buy 'bangoes' (mangoes) with her 'monies' ('with pictures of queen lizbef on them!!') and would love to pay for them properly in a real cash register!

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  21. This website looks great! I have a little one year old boy and he loves to play with wooden toys. I would buy the little tree house as it looks gender neutral and would encourage free play and imagination. Thanks!

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  22. I have a boy fascinated and delighted by all the birds who visit our garden. He watches them intently, asks their names, collects their feathers and fills the birdbath for them. He would love a Roosting Bird Pocket to hang from our tree and a Bird Call whistle to make his own bird sounds. Thank you for the chance to win such a generous giveaway!

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  23. What a lovely store! I have a little boy who would adore the butterfly rainbow puzzle, at 3.5 he is all about puzzles - and a little girl who would love to push her babies (or trucks!) Around in the pram. She is one going on 21 I reckon ;)

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  24. 12 rainbow friends & a Steiner doll for my sweet girl who will be one in December :)

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  25. Tough decision! I think I would buy wool, both so that I could knit something special for my soon-to-be niece or nephew and because a friend's daughter has been asking me to teach her to knit.

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  26. I can only imagine the origin of the vast majority of toys! I find the quantity of toys that children completely overwhelming and shudder when my kids are unwrapping presents from well meaning relatives- especially the ones without kids, who don't understand how it all accumulates!

    I would love any of the wooden puzzles, I have been eyeing them off all year for my two babes.

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  27. Definitely the da Vinci catapult - a boys dream, I think it would bring out the child at heart in my husband as well. I quite like the natural rolling snail, he's too cute! Dangerous for my Christmas budget.

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  28. I LOVE that balloon car toy that I spotted! How fun!!! I would love to buy that!

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  29. We are a little music household, and I would love to add some more Putumayo Music to our collection! x

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  30. I'd get some of the items out of the Kitchen Play section, like the enamel cooking set. My toddler loves to help, and I read recently how a great way to show respect to our children is to let them help :) which i totally agree with and these kitchen things are perfect for that!

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  31. We have slowly been curating our toy room so that we keep only those things that encourage open-ended play. Like all things, the plastic and noisy toys don't last and don't follow the sacred home code of beautiful, meaningful or useful. If we won Poppy would choose a boy steiner doll to join her tiny doll family. She spends hours shooting and patting and feeding her babes. x

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  32. Hi,

    Just a quick note, Spiral Garden also stocks Filana crayons :)

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  33. What a great competition - thank you! My boys love art making and we are in the process of setting up a permanent space in the house, rather than packing everything away come meal time. My eldest would help me choose if we won, but he'd probably go for the beeswax crayons and Lyra pencils and maybe some stamps. Or wooden building blocks! Thank you.

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  34. Those Waldorf blocks are exactly what I've been looking for. My little boy is three in a couple of weeks and I've got some farm animals for him and been on the hunt for some natural blocks to spark his imagination. He can build towers (and knock them down!!) barns for the animals, they could become the fences or the hay bales, whatever he can imagine.

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  35. Without a doubt I'd buy some story cd's. The Mermaids shoes or the Story Tree would be perfect and put to good use. My 3 daughters all beg for more and more books each night and when their weary Mumma can no longer read I would pop this on for them all to fall asleep to :)

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  36. All things craft for my daughter (5). The kitchen table has become her artistic space, covered in her supplies and creations. Off to find inspiration for Christmas, as all the family area asking for ideas.

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  37. I would get the Needlecraft Kit because my daughter is very interested in learning to sew! Thanks for this awesome chance!

    andysavi.mom@gmail.com

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  38. What a delightful store! If we were so lucky to win this giveaway we would put the prize money towards the large rainbow stacker for our littlest miss and the large pentagon water lily puzzle for our eldest. Both beautiful, inspiring open-ended toys that I can see being used in our house for all sorts of imaginary play. Just magical xo

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  39. Gosh, I would take my time pondering (as I often do at this beautiful store). My boys would really love the small treehouse for their imaginative play. All such wonderful and appealing gifts.

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  40. With my baby's first Christmas coming up soon I would love to get him some fun toys and rattles. The pebble knitted vw campervan is at the top of my wish list!

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  41. With my baby's first Christmas coming up soon I would love to get him some fun toys and rattles. The pebble knitted vw campervan is at the top of my wish list!

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  42. Gorgeous! I think I would love to get the wooden toy mixer set. My older kids are 10 and 8, and our youngest is 2. With the warmer weather here I cleaned out the cubby house their dad made when the older two were younger and I bought some new play food and made some curtains. I love that not only does Maggie adore playing in the cubby house, but her older brother and sister have been reminded of the fun they had and they enjoy playing in there with their baby sister.

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  43. Oh the magic of Dragonfly Toys. We are waiting on a parcel right now and if I could I would by all of my Hugo's toys from Dragonfly. But after weeks and weeks of researching meaningful, beautiful, open ended and engaging toys we would buy the Spiel and Holz Rainbow Stacking Nesting Bowls and the Spiel and Holz Medium Rainbow. There is nothing more beautiful or classic than the Spiel and Holz / Grimms range. They fit perfectly with my philosophy to have a small, simple collection of meaningful toys (and no awful plastic!). Imagine the hours of creativity.

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  44. I would love to purchase the extra large rainbow, although I dare say I'd perhaps be keeping it aside for a little longer as my son can be a little too rough with his toys. He does love 'helping' Mummy with the chores, including sweeping the patio and weeding the garden. I love that there is a positive and happy association with these ordinary but very necessary tasks so I think the garden set would be well received and better manipulated by little hands than what Mummy and Daddy use. For our little one due to arrive just before Christmas, the colour snake rattle would be a bright and engaging toy as they grow at rapid speed!

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  45. Oooh.. I've been eyeing a large rainbow for months now, though art supplies might win an the end of the day!

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  46. Oooh.. I've been eyeing a large rainbow for months now, though art supplies might win an the end of the day!

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  47. So many beautiful options! My pick for my little artists would be crayons & pencils though as they are really in need of some quality crayons & pencils, especially after just getting rid of their crayons that other people have bought them for fear that they may have asbestos after reading that the low quality ones sometimes do. The pencil roll would be awesome too so we could take the drawing supplies with us easily when holidaying this Summer. This is such a neat giveaway, thank-you!

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  48. We have just moved into my parents granny flat after living abroad for 7 years, with a toddler in tow and suitcase each of our belongings. Having packed only a handful of our wee ones most favourite toys we have been raiding my parents house for the things she has kept from my Brother, Sister and I's childhood. The idea of seeking out things that will last and i can imagine my own grandchildren playing with has really been sticking with me. This shop is perfect for these sort of things! the sweet things on my radar are the water kettle and enamel cooking set. i love how unisex they are for any future kiddos and how broad the scope of play would be one day a kettle the next day a watering can!!

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