Welcome our sponsor...Mamma4Earth! And another giveaway!!

Beautiful Readers...

Today we'd LOVE to welcome another one of our FABULOUS sponsors...

MAMMA4EARTH

Please tell our readers a bit about yourself and your business...

I have always loved knitting, my mom taught me to knit when I was 5 years old. When she was youger she knitted cricket jerseys for all of her brothers. I used to often see her knitting when I was little, she knitted us a variety of clothing including our royal blue jerseys for school, these were the softest jerseys, so much softer than the shop bought ones. One day I asked her if she could show me how to knit and she did. She gave me two short, size 4mm knitting needles (I still have those today!) and a ball of blue double knitting wool. I can remember that day clearly. I was always encouraged to try and knit her projects that she was busy with, this was wonderful because I managed to master some complicated patterns and knitting terminology at a young age and she always helped me along the way. I attended a Catholic convent school while growing up and knitting was a part of our curriculum, there were new projects to make for school each year and when I was older I started to knit more advanced items. The first jersey I knitted was a cabled design, I was 18 years old and I still have that jersey today.

 After my husband and I had children, I studied to be a Montessori preschool teacher, I taught for a few years and then after the birth of our fourth child, Kye, we decided that I would no longer work but rather homeschool our children. I discovered the wonderful world of Waldorf education with all its beautiful natural toys and this is when I started knitting toys. At first, I just knitted them because toy patterns were so adorable but then I felt a change developing. A few months later, Mamma4earth, our family business was born and has been growing each year since 2008. I began to really start looking at animals, I noticed that when I encountered an animal or bird I would often study its shape and see the curves and bulk of its body. I would watch its movement and grace. I would calculate the stitches in my mind and see the animal become a knitted creation in my mind's eye. The design usually marinades within my consciousness for a few days and then I begin the pattern writing and designing process. When I start to write a pattern, I usually continue writing until I am finished, I seldom start designing and finish later, this tends to break the flow of my thoughts. Often I wake early in the morning and while my eyes are still closed, I think of a new design, this is one of the most exciting aspects of my creative process. I love how my thoughts eventually fall into place and a new creature takes form... My inspiration stems from my beautiful family and the wildlife that we are surrounded by in this lovely country of ours.

My family and I live in South Africa, we have a suburban homestead where we grow veggies and fruit and live a sustainable lifestyle. We have a whole troop of chickens, rabbits, cats, birds, fish and our newest pet that seems almost human at times... a Labrador called Sandy. I often write about our life on our blog called Natural Suburbia. You can find my patterns for sale on  Etsy,

my Craftsy Shop and my Ravelry Store

Thank you Linda for that wonderful window into who you are and what your business is about. 

Your beautiful blog Natural Suburbia is a place we often visit and

 I marvel at your creativity!

the giveaway!!!

Linda has kindly offered 2 prize packages for our readers. 

The first prize, (value $45) is a knitted elephant

The second prize will be 5 patterns of your choosing from her

etsy shop (value $25)

To enter all you need to do is leave a comment in the comment section below. 

For additional entries you can

become a follower at Natural Suburbia

((heart)) the Mamma4earth etsy shop

"like" Mamma4earth on facebook

Follow Mamma4earth on pinterest

and...if you tweet...facebook...blog or pin the giveaway you can have an additional entry for each action you take!!

You can also check out Mamma4earth at these spaces...

Twitter

Ravelry Store

Craftsy Store

Good luck to everyone who enters...the giveaway will run for one week...until next Sunday at midnight...we'll announce the winner Monday June 11th.

The winners are

#15 Kelly@Creating A Family Home

& #98 Sew Linda Ann

Our winners are chosen via Random Number Generator

Again...we can't encourage you enough

support handmade...mamma made businesses

the next time you need a gift!

xo maureen & shanti