*Contest is closed! Winner will be announced Wed. or Thurs.!

 

This week we’re having a joint give away! To enter, read to the end of the post.

Today I wanted to share my thoughts on wool Dryer Balls, as well as some information about Rhineland Farm, the company who has so generously sent some dryer balls for us to give away to one of you!

We’ve been using the dryer balls for the past couple of weeks, and have found we LOVE them. I’ve been researching about fabric softeners and wasn’t liking what I had found, however, we do enjoy soft fabrics! Quite some time ago we had tried some other dryer balls, the plastic kind, and found that they really didn’t last very long at all, which was a very big dissapointment. I think it was only a few short weeks before they became brittle and cracked, then broke. As a family of 7, plus all the fabric we wash, we do a LOT of laundry!

I was especially interested in dryer balls for use with our fabrics. I know a lot of people can be sensitive to chemicals, so we try to use natural laundry soaps and dryer balls seemed the next logical step! I wasn’t disappointed!

My delight with the dryer balls from Rhineland Farm started right from the time I opened the box! They were beautifully, and thoughtfully packaged in a gorgeous paper bag. The dryer balls are not just practical, but even pretty!

During the time we’ve been using the wool dryer balls from Rhineland Farm, we’ve been very pleased with them. They have done a very good job of softening our clothing! They also soften our fabrics beautifully!

When we first began to use the dryer balls, we were concerned with how they would do with static in our laundry. We found that concern was not really an issue, except when it came to true synthetic fabrics such as our microfiber dishcloths, and one polyester fleece blanket we washed. Otherwise, for our clothing, towels and ALL our other laundry, they worked really well! We hope to get several more in the future. The more you use in  your dryer load, the quicker your laundry dries! In our home, that could add up to a HUGE savings!

They also work great with our products, and with cloth diapers. A lot of people find regular fabric softeners can leave a build up on their cloth diapers and accessories, causing them to loose absorbency. This can be a big problem! Dryer balls are a great investment for anyone using cloth!

Here’s some information I’d like to share about Rhineland Farm. They offer SO much more then dryer balls!

Rhineland Farm was born from our desire to live simply, enjoy the sunshine and fresh air and be growers of good things.
We started our hobby farm in 2005, it has been several years of hard work but is starting to pay off. We raise Heritage breeds of Sheep and Turkey, along with Nubians goats, chickens and various other farm animals. We have a lovely Lavender field which blooms in May & October, and several hundred Blackberry plants which explode with thousands of juicy berries in the summer months for picking & eating! This year, our beehives have started producing delicious honey from the lavender and pomegranate blooms and Texas wildflowers on our property.

Our farm store is a collection of handmade products from several members of our family who work on the farm. We offer fine artisan chocolates, wool items (yarns, roving, crocheted accessories, dryer balls & other felted products), cold-process soaps, hand-poured Aromatherapy candles, hot chocolate mixes, bath soaks and bottled honey from our own bees!
We use high-quality essential and fragrance oils for our scented products, each scent is listed for use in cosmetics and very safe for your skin.
Our new website is finally up and running, check it out when you have a chance. We will soon be writing a blog which will include updates from the farm, including new births from our sheep and goats, market day updates and more!

www.rhinelandfarm.com

And a note about Rhineland Farm Dryer Balls, which we are giving away!

We found the love for felted items after starting our farm, and soon established a small selling market with our local shoppers for felted soap bars, dryer balls, felt animals and more.
We use a variety of fibers for each project, some of the wool comes from our small flock of Jacob sheep, some is recycled from wool sweaters, and recently we have started using Peace Fleece to craft the majority of our dryer balls and felted soaps.
We love the colors they provide, their service and especially, the mission they have with their company: http://www.peacefleece.com/thestory.htm

Our dryer balls our hand wrapped in small batches, felted 4-5 times and scented with aromatherapy or cosmetic grade Essential and/or fragrance oils. Most of our fragrances are custom blended at our home, many of them are not purchasable elsewhere. We inject the scent into the core of the ball, which prevents direct contact onto your clothing. The scent is only distributed by the heat and steamy air in your dryer.
Adding 4+ balls to your load of clothes in the dryer can cut back on drying time by 25%! Adding more (we recommend no more than 10) can reduce drying time by 50%, saving you many minutes of energy and softening your clothing as a wonderful added bonus!
The dryer balls do not coat your clothes in any substance to produce the softness, it is purely by them bouncing and spinning in the drying, which fluffs your clothing and prevents “bunching” which causes wrinkles, stiffness and uneven drying.

Dryer balls are environmentally safe, child and pet friendly and are even fun to decorate with! We store ours (when not in use) in glass vessels around our home for a unique fiber-art display!

For this give away, we are going to send the winner a pair of their very own dryer balls generously donated by Rhineland Farm AND a $10.00 gift certificate from Homestead Emporium!
Shown below is the gorgeous set of unscented wool dryer balls you will receive.

To enter this contest, we’re going to have some fun with a question asked on facebook. Answer this:

Where in the world are you now, and where else have you traveled? If you’re so inclined, share what you’ve learned from what you’ve seen/done while traveling!

Share your answers in the comments section and some time over the weekend I will be choosing a winner using random.org! I’ll share my own answer to that question when I announce the winner!

If you’d like more chances to win, simply share this blog post, our facebook page, or about Homestead Emporium and then come back and post another comment to let us know where/how you shared!

Have fun & enjoy!