School Holidays love 'em or hate 'em ?

For 90% of the time I am in the 'love 'em ' camp of school holidays, I am down to only having one child left at school (insert sad face) and can honestly say he is lovely company and I enjoy being with him the majority of the time although there has been the very odd occasion when I could throttle him! (joke)
I am a little concerned that we are now nearly half way through the school holidays and we haven't done any of the things on my carefully researched 'things to do in the school holidays' list!
We have been lucky enough to have stayed to my lovely friends caravan at North Yorkshire for 9 of those days and the weather was very kind to us so we spent most of the time on the beach, in the swimming pool, up trees (him not me), on the park and walking. I love caravanning, for me it removes you from the hustle and bustle of everyday life, we had no Internet connection and very poor phone signal so found ourselves going back to basics for evening entertainment. We played pick up sticks, jacks and card games, reminds me of when I was a kid (a long long time ago ....) traditional games were the best and only form of entertainment!

30 Day Blog Challenge, can I do it ?

I can talk for England and I can probably come up with enough subjects to cover a 30 day challenge but have to be honest I get bored very easily. I really really need to get my bum in gear so I am going to take up the blogging 30 day challenge of April.

I know I should blog more not only to keep my friends and customers up to date with things but also its good for the seo of my website, something I have got to work very hard on now as I have had to start back at the beginning since my "Old" website is no longer, if you want a nosey at our new website (waiting for our designer to refurb) we can be still be found at www.knotjustjigs.co.uk.

I apologise in advance of my blog posts but in the name of seo here I go .....

Is that the time ?

Well its been a while since I blogged, I have added "write a blog article" to my to do list every week, I even added it to my New Years resolution list but sadly it has been pushed way down on my list.
A quick update about whats been happening since I last blogged, well the snow/weather made life pretty difficult for our packed diary of craft events during November and December, lots were cancelled including the prestigious Lincoln Christmas Market which left myself and a lot of stallholders in a difficult financial position. Our saving grace came in the form of a stand in Nottingham's Victoria Centre, expensive, hard work but a huge learning curve!
We have broken into craft fairs gently with one in Feb, which actually turned out to be great and the weather was positively Spring like and one last weekend which was OK but bitterly cold and very wet.
I have been sewing but sadly not as much as I would like but as our contract at the Victoria Centre is coming to an end I hope to concentrate on this a little more.
I have added some lovely photographs of our stand at Victoria Centre, I hope you like them as much as me, to say I am very proud of our achievement is an understatement!

Wooden Dummy Chain and Clip on Toys, New in!

We are really pleased to have a new lovely range of wooden dummy chains and wooden clip in toys starting at a bargain price of only £4.99 !Made by Heimess these products are hand crafted using non-toxic materials and more importantly they are made from saliva resistant materials as we know what little ones are like for putting things in their mouth! The dummy chains are great way to stop baby dropping their comforter and either getting it dirty or even worse losing it! The clip on both products is strong enough to prevent it being pulled off but still safe enough not to snag clothes.

Big Blog Give-Away!

Happy 3rd Birthday to us!

Knot Just Jigs are celebrating 3 years of trading with a fantastic 3 prize give away!
Prize 1, A box of wooden cakes.
Prize 2, Tipsi, A traditional family games.
Prize 3, A pretty wooden birdhouse

How to enter:
For a chance (or 5) to win one of these fabulous prizes all you have to do is give us a mention and/or become a follower/fan! simple.

Each one of the below = One entry into the draw

Follow the Knot Just Jigs Blog and let us know by leaving a comment.
(if you already follow us - thank-you! ...just leave a comment)

and/or
Become a fan of Knot Just Jigs on Face book and let us know in a comment
(if you are already a fan-thank-you! ... just leave a comment)

and/or
Become a follower of Knot Just Jigs on Twitter and tweet the following "Blog Give-away ! 3 fantastic prizes from @knotjustjigs Traditional Toys and Rag Dolls http://www.knotjustjigs.blogspot.com/

Two Entries =

For 2 extra entries blog about our give-away on your own blog, then pop back and leave a comment to let us know you have done this!


GOOD LUCK!

Give-away starts Saturday 23rd January and finishes at
mid-night Friday 29th January. Winners will be drawn at random and notified on
Saturday 30th January followed by a blog post all about our winners! Winners
have 7 days after contact to claim their prize. Winners will receive their
prizes within 14 days of competition closing. The prize cannot be swapped or
substituted for a cash alternative. Prizes can be dispatched to a UK/EU address
only.

The Noah's Ark

In the early years Noah's arks were considered to be among the most popular wooden toys in 19th century all over Europe and America. Due to their biblical name and reference children were not allowed to play with them with the exception of on a Sunday.

The production of Noah's Arks can be dated back as far as the 17th century until present day but their popularity peaked during the 19th century. Most Arks found from this period were either made in Germany or made in America by German immigrants.

The animals made for the ark were creative, notional figures and largely produced by a cottage industry. Within the cottage industry there would be a family producing one animal type and another family a different species and more often than not the families had never even seen the animal that they were producing in real life, nor did this matter as they were creating a toy not teaching biology. It was common to see animals painted in blues and greens as their imagination was reflected in their creation. It was also common place to have one family doing the carving and another to finish with the painting.

The rarest of the animals are the small creatures such as snakes and insects and also pairs that have strike a different pose to the other.

The manufacturer of the ark was largely in small factories from wood or often wood that was made to look like straw and these were named "prisoner arks" as though they were made from the bedding straw of prisoners, which some often were. Early on the roofs were removable so that the animals could be stored within the body of the ark but it was found that they kept coming off and getting lost so later on hinges were added and usually a dove was also added to the roof.

The original manufacturer was virtually impossible to trace as they were almost all produced by a cottage industry. The compliment of how many animal should accompany the ark is also difficult to determine, it is thought that it should be 8 as that is the number of Noah's family members but that is not always the case. In around the 1800's lithograph was becoming well developed and was widely use to decorate the arks to save on some of the costs of hand painting.

As a traditional toy website Knot Just Jigs are delighted to be able to offer wooden Noah's Arks in 2 sizes which are both hand painted and fair trade.