silvered flowers, beehive bonbons, and a deck of rainbows/gifts some mothers may enjoy

Silver paper flower by Momoca.

The Shenandoah Mansions linen robe (and/or the matching pajamas and eye mask) by Desmond & Dempsey and Ash Hotels.

Beehive bonbons from Shane's Confectionery filled with honey and black sesame praline.

English Garden Eccentrics: Three Hundred Years of Extraordinary Groves, Burrowings, Mountains and Menageries by Todd Longstaffe-Gowan, about: 

[A] series of obscure and eccentric English garden-makers who, between the early seventeenth and early twentieth centuries, created intensely personal and idiosyncratic gardens. They include such fascinating characters as the superstitious antiquary William Stukeley and the animal- and bird-loving Lady Read, as well as the celebrated master of Vauxhall Gardens, Jonathan Tyers, who created ... one of the gloomiest and most perverse anti-pleasure gardens in Georgian England. Others built miniature mountains, shaped topiaries, displayed exotic animals, excavated caves, and assembled architectural fragments and fossils to realise their gardens ...

Nomenclature of Colors playing cards by Roomytown.

A packet of "Dark Night" scabiosa seeds.

A snail sketch print by Annette Messager, "Locus Solus XIII," because, snail-like, mothers have the power to carry home with them.

An album worth blasting on the way to and from pick-up.

Bienamé hand creams that smell like life in bloom, the color red, or happy days.

Peaceful girl with fist charm by Leith Clark x Catbird (I like to think she is catching a star).

An Apogee card featuring a quote by Gary Indiana, wishing for the ineffable.

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Related posts: choosing motherhood / what's possible / true colors

Other gifts some mothers may enjoy: 2017 / 2018 / 2019 / 2020 / 2021 / 2022 / 2023 / 2024 / 2025

a small valentine

 

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Detail of an American red moiré silk dress, ca. 1837. The Metropolitan Museum of Art.

During the nineteenth century, women's periodicals specified the types of dress appropriate for the variety of evening activities. In 1832, The Ladies' Cabinet alerted its readers, "Moiré is coming much into favour for dinners of ceremony or evening parties." The modest neckline, long sleeves, and subtle moiré textile suggest that this is a dinner or evening party dress.

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Acquaintance card from the collection of Alan Mays.

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Found flower arranging image via Camille Brown.

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Mouth-to-mouth contact occurs across the animal kingdom, including in many, but not all, human societies. Such contact is commonly referred to as “kissing,” which we more formally define as a non-agonistic interaction involving directed, intraspecific, oral-oral contact with some movement of the lips/mouthparts and no food transfer. ... Kissing poses an evolutionary problem, since it does not appear to aid survival or reproduction in an obvious way, while the potential costs of disease transfer are high. What is its benefit or adaptive function?

Matilda Brindle, Catherine F. Talbot, and Stuart West , "A comparative approach to the evolution of kissing." Evolution and Human Behavior, November 19, 2025.

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Though researchers found evidence of kissing in several species, they narrowed the focus of the study mostly to the behavior of large apes, like gorillas, orangutans and baboons.

But the vast use of the practice surprised Dr. Brindle. She said she had expected examples of kissing among apes and humans, but was surprised to see the gentle behavior shared between bugs, albatrosses and polar bears.

“For some reason, I didn’t expect this many of them to kiss,” Dr. Brindle said.

gifts for question-askers

A vintage cup for reading the tea leaves. (More here and here.)

A dictonary of symbols, for deciphering meanings, and a dreamlike Borges oracle by Catalina Kobelt for finding questions.

An obsidian mirror for peering into the dark.

Uusi's Supra deck for Jungian reflection.

An enamel "he loves me, he loves me not" spinning top pendant, for protecting unwary daisies from the lovelorn.

A fortune-telling pencil sourced from a mystical machine in Des Moines that will provide a yes, no, or maybe so answer. 

A Hades Wool sweater with the lyrics to Joni Mitchell's "Both Sides Now" for cloudy realities.

Pat Perry's risograph-printed open call for guidance for anyone seeking to be "part of a collective search for perspective in confusing times." 

A 32-sided 1930s-era fortune-telling dice for more answers than you can get from a Magic-8 Ball.

Hysteric Glamour's "You Pay" keychain to end arguments over picking up the tab.

And for finding a fortune worth keeping, a bucket of cookies, plus a frame for the best one.

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I will add waaaaay down here, in an abashed moment of self-promotion, that I am the editor of a series of open-ended oracle decks written by Ellen Freeman and illustrated by Bethany van Rijswijk that are quite beautiful and interesting, if you happen to like mushrooms, flowers, seashells, fairy tales, rocks, cats, or space. Unlike tarot, these oracle decks do not offer traditional meanings, and they don't promise answers—instead, they are way to play with thoughts and ideas using imagery and scraps of myth, folklore, history, and science.

gifts of notable scale

Foot and hand pillows by John Sohn, for anthropomorphic blanket forts.

A miniature magazine all about miniatures: World of Interiors December 2025 special edition (image via Casa Magazines).

Jumbo Oni paperclips, for a big grip.

A a cottage-shaped box, to hold jewels or sewing notions, or rooms designed to fit on a page, designed by Miss Sarah Elizabeth Birdsall Otis.

A very big bag (Gabrielle Frantzen's raffia weekender), to encourage packing light.

The gift of one book crammed with words (a single-volume edition of the 20-volume Oxford English Dictionary, complete with magnifying glass) or the gift of just three sentences, written by Kiosk.

An extremely difficult puzzle with just 159 pieces, by Artifact Puzzles.

A whale sized to swim in a tea pot, by Ocean Teabag.

Construction supplies for the littlest household projects by Mini Materials.

The ninth chapter of nine-year-old Daisy Ashford's novel, The Young Visiters, designed to fit on a shirt, by A History of Frogs.

A measuring tape by Alan Sobrino marked in increments of verse.

Lisa Swerling's "One Wish" Glass Cathedral—a summer's night under glass.

gifts of repair

A collection of vintage glass buttons, for holding things together with strength and delicacy.

Reclaimed Cashmere mending kit for saving sweaters, complete with darning mushroom, snips, and reclaimed yarns in colors of your choosing.

Cozy one-of-a-kind knits from the Waste Yarn Project, using fibers that would otherwise be thrown away.

A hand-painted teacup, with a stapled-together saucer.

Celia Pym's On Mending: Stories of Damage and Repair: 

"... [A] collection of ten stories of damaged garments–plus a rug and two backpacks–Celia mended in the last fifteen years. The stories record who the item belonged to, how it was damaged, how it was mended and where it is now. ... Not a ‘how-to’ book, this is rather an in-depth look into the damage that we do, as manifested by our outer layers, our clothes."

Old Mill Candles beeswax and mineral oil wood polish, for giving wooden objects new life.

The Speedy Stitcher sewing awl, for dealing with busted straps and bags (or Patagonia's Expedition Awl, for in-the-field repairs of tents, backpacks, or boots). 

Kelly Swanson x NOSO cyanotype-print stick-on patches, for quicker fixes.

Lineco Book Repair kit, for rescuing well-loved reads.

Professional help by hour, from expert mender Donna Lynch. 

10 trees planted for future generations, with a vintage postcard as a keepsake.

Nature's hand-carved locket, as a testament to love strong enough to bear a little damage.