Dangerous Toys

http://news.yahoo.com/s/nm/20071205/hl_nm/toys_tests_dc

"Tests on about 1,200 children's items by a group of consumer and environmental health organizations revealed more than a third contained lead and other potentially harmful chemicals, including mercury, cadmium and arsenic, the Wall Street Journal said Wednesday in its online edition.

"Millions of toys have been recalled this year, with most involving Chinese-made products."

Spiral Garden is committed to selling quality products made from natural and organic materials. Where dyes, paints and finishes are used, every effort is made to ensure that they are safe options.

One main area of concern for parents are the chemicals added to plastics: "DINP is a major plasticizer used in children's toys." For information regarding the dangers of modern plastic toys, read here.

Holiday Craft

The summer holidays are here to enjoy. For when it's too hot or rainy to spend time outdoors, enjoy some simple crafts with your children. Spiral Garden has an increasing range of natural craft materials - wool, felt, fabric, wood and hemp items to be transformed into toys, gifts, decorations and other delights.

The various products are available per item and in small bundles so that you only buy what you need. This makes it less expensive to purchase a variety of craft items to try and enjoy.

Magazine Subscriptions

Spiral Garden offers a variety of quality magazines for sale and subscription...

'Indigo' is a quality Aussie publication for teen and pre-teen girls. I have three daughters in that age-group and personally recommend 'Indigo' because it differs dramatically from the commonly available magazines directed at them. Copies of the brand new Issue 2 are in stock now!

We are proud to offer subscriptions to three Life Media publications. These magazines are printed in Canada but have an international flavour and are valid and interesting for all readers worldwide. 'Life Learning' is aimed at home educating families, particularly those with an unschooling focus. 'Natural Child' is a brand new parenting magazine with a focus on a gentle and conscious family lifestyle. 'Natural Life' has been distributed for over 30 years, which is a statement about the quality of magazines produced by these publishers. All great value at $50.00 per subscription, for six issues a year delivered directly to you (or a gift recipient) from Canada.

Spiral Garden has been selling the quality Australian parenting magazine 'Kindred' for the past couple of years. The content of this popular magazine continues to vary, inspire and inform. It's great value with subscriptions starting at $33.00 a year for four issues, and it's cheaper per issue with longer subscriptions.

Start the year off with something great to read from our choice of quality books at Spiral Garden including titles by Chrissy Butler, Liliane Grace and Golden Beetle Books.

More books and magazines will come into stock throughout 2008. Your suggestions of titles to stock are always welcomed, please use the Contact link on the main page of the Spiral Garden website.

Happy New Year!

I hope you are having a lovely festive season and enjoying the blessings of Summer.

For those of you who placed Christmas orders, I thank you and hope that everyone enjoyed their little treasures.

To celebrate a brand new year, I have a special offer for January. All customers who type the word 'summer' (without apostrophes) into the Discount Coupon section of Checkout on the Spiral Garden website will have their order posted for FREE.



This offer is valid for orders within Australia only, one order per customer and from 1-31st January, 2008.

Last Chance for Christmas Orders!

This weekend is your last chance to order from Spiral Garden for Christmas.

Don't miss our Stocking Stuffer ideas - top quality gifts, many under $10!

Some customers might need to pay a little extra for Express Post for their Christmas orders. I am in Far North Queensland, so if you're in another regional area outside Queensland, please contact me regarding postage charges.

Happy Holidays!

New Products

To view new products at Spiral Garden as they become available. Click here.

Summer in the Spiral Garden

Summer is definitely upon us and the festive season is fast approaching.

Introduce the children in your life to the joy of gardening - grow your own rainbow of edible delights with these open pollinated, heritage seeds.

I am also pleased to announce the return of the Seasonal Columns.

The Music Box at Spiral Garden has been restocked with a variety of inexpensive percussion instruments.

In 2008 we will restock with the beautiful Redwood Chimes, a pentatonic instrument . As well as the top quality pentatonic flutes and recorders - all perfect for the budding musician in your life.

For Summer fun and colour our Colour Circle watercolour paints from Stockmar can be mixed into any shade you desire, are easy to use and best of all, a small bottle lasts a long, long time.

We've increased our range of Stockmar crayons - reknowned for their quality and ease of use. In stock are the blocks, sticks (with or without black) and the Combi set of sticks and blocks.

The wooden pencil boxes are ideal for storing either your Lyra pencils or Stockmar crayons.

Kits are selling fast with Christmas approaching, but new stock is expected in the coming weeks. New Spiral Garden Candle Kits are a simple craft activity, with a useable result. And they smell really good!

The new Raw Materials section of the site is growing and set to expand as new stock arrives. We aim to encourage customers to create with natural materials and will provide projects for you to try.

Re-launch of Spiral Garden November 2007

This month I became the new owner of Spiral Garden. In 2005 Becky Irvine created this magical business, and since then has nurtured it with love. I've recently been working hard with my friend and web designer Melissa Baker to update the site with a new look and additional features.
Through the seasons I have shared my articles on the Spiral Garden site. I will continue to share these seasonal musings, and will add more information and activities for your interest. The seed packs our family used to create and sell through Spiral Garden to encourage other families to garden together will also be available in the coming weeks. I have always enjoyed being involved in the growth of Spiral Garden, and consider it a blessing to take over from Becky. I'm very excited by the possibilities of Spiral Garden and invite you to take a look at the new products. We have expanded upon the original range to include some beautiful new dolls, gifts for teens and adults, a wider variety of games and toys, jewellery, baby items, books and magazines.

Please check back often as more stock will arrive in time for Christmas orders.

Thanks again for your interest and support. Please feel free to contact us with any questions or suggestions.