Amy is one of those blogging friends who seems to have been part of my "neighborhood" for as long as I can remember. I couldn't put a finger on the point when she and I became blogging pals, but I'm so glad we have. Not only is she a complete sweetheart, she and her husband are the genius team behind one of my favorite shops, Little Alouette.

My children have the privilege of having a set of Little Alouette shakey blocks in our collection. They are one of those toys that are equally fun to play with and look at. There is something about the sweetness and beauty of wooden toys that can never be duplicated in the world of plastic. And LittleAlouette toys have a simplicity and style that I love. They are classics.

A few months ago, Little Alouette was one of etsy's featured sellers. As I was reading the article this morning to be sure I had all my facts straight about Amy :) , I had to share a few words from the write-up because it is a good story:

Over a decade ago a handsome British boy and an Ohio lass met and
fell madly in love at first site in a sleepy university town. The boy
was a classically trained master carpenter and the girl a writer with a
bit of wanderlust. They worked together creatively through the years on
many projects involving woodworking as they restored and remodeled
homes together. The boy taught his love about trees on their land in
the country and how to use power tools and the girl read poems to him
while they worked. They started a journey of following their bliss and
eventually brought two wee ones into the world and began creating
wooden toys for them. They decided to share these wee wooden toys with
the world and Little Alouette was born over hot steaming mugs of cocoa
in the winter of 2007.

We are Joe and Amy Sharp of Worthington, Ohio.

And I love their words about their creative process:

Each product is made by hand and usually all the wood is surrounded by
cups of tea, laughing children, and disco music so each product will
come to you infused with love and bliss! We use locally sourced Ohio
timber and only finish our products with certified organic flax seed
oil.

Seriously. I've been telling my husband that if I can't have a bandsaw, then I'll just settle for a jigsaw. Reading about Joe and Amy's process makes me think I need to put it on my birthday list again this year.

If you haven't been introduced to LittleAlouette be sure to take a few moments to check out their shop. And after my Lotta Jansdotter giveaway last week, I know a lot of you are shopping for baby gifts--for yourself or for people you know. And if you are "people I know" and you're having a baby soon...don't look, unless you want to spoil the surprise.

And guess what? Amy has graciously offered to give one mommycoddle reader one of her Harper the Hippo teethers! yay. You know the drill, leave a comment to be entered in the giveaway. I'll announce the random winner on Sunday!

Happy Weekend, friends!