An exuberantly bowed Collina Strada mask, made from deadstock fabric. Each one sold funds five masks for healthcare workers in New York City.
Masha Tea 'Calm' blend, because, yes, I could use a bag stamped "CALM" full of something brewable and floral and relaxing.
Heavy Oil, because they look like little vials of magic potions.
Marcel Dzama's 'Coloring the Moon Pink': a free downloadable coloring book 'made in collaboration with the artist’s son during quarantine [that acknowledges] the families who are having to discover new ways to balance work, school, and life while isolated at home together.' Perfect paired with a tin of superior crayons.
Beklina Lima sneakers: cork-soled, Velcroed awesomeness to wear around the house and out to get the mail.
Amy Merrick's On Flowers: an escape hatch into a marvelous bloomy world disguised as a very beautiful and deeply charming book. (Full disclosure: I lent a hand on the making of this book and am 100% biased).
For Zoom painting sessions with faraway friends: a Case for Making x Gravel and Gold O, Horizons brush roll and supplies.
The gift of a homemade kite (or a handmade one that doubles as a work of art), because there is nothing like the wind to help blow troubles away, if only for a little while.
Extremely comfortable non-sweat/non-leggings pants.
Faris Vero bracelet—a wearable reminder that something doesn't have to be perfect to be beautiful.
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These are weird times. We've all been shoved into new ways of living, and everyone is standing in very different places as they navigate the change. I am in lucky, lucky circumstances, at least for now, and the days still feel abrasive and hard to manage.
A part of my heart is with small businesses, especially the creators and purveyors of the magical and sometimes impractical stuff and spaces that give me so much unreasonable joy. Each small business is someone's dream come true—an idea that became real through work and luck and timing. And now, timing—well, the timing is all wrong for everything. And while it's enraging that we are in the middle of fighting for absurdly basic things we all should have already, like food and safety and non-bankrupting healthcare and childcare and leaders who actually think and care and plan, I hope somehow in this scrum to survive we find a way to hold a little space for dreamers and dreamy things. This list is a little gesture toward that.
Nothing here is sponsored; it's just things I've seen and liked and hope (maybe?) you might like, too. I don't know—maybe the very thought of a gift guide will make people want to throw their phone/computer/digital interface device out the window. I get it; this week, I collapsed in an inarticulate rage sputter after reading an essay about buying $56/lb crab meat to make comforting toast. That said, Margaret Wise Brown—a hero of mine—once spent an entire paycheck to buy every flower on a flower cart and then threw a party for her friends. But flowers make sense to me. If I was a different person, maybe I'd buy the crab. As it is, I am buying my mother roses.
