I did my first ever vacation present information for vacationers a couple of years in the past, which used to be amusing to assemble. Readers appeared to benefit from the more than a few pieces, and I used to be glad to proportion one of the merchandise that accompanied me at the highway. This 12 months, I sought after to do one thing a bit of other.
For starters, my lifestyles is a little other – one thing all of you recognize. Consequently, my very own presents to friends and family aren’t souvenirs from far-away puts, however amusing issues I’ve found out. I sought after to proportion a few of them right here, particularly as many are small companies like myself.
This 12 months, I’d love to proportion two classes of presents: artists and makers from my new house of Ottawa and a few from past, and books I really like or discovered impactful in my very own lifestyles.
I deliberate to post the e-book information and the artwork/presents information in the similar put up, however there are too many tips and it were given slightly unruly. So I will be able to post the e-book information within the coming week, and beneath are my tips for artwork, jewellery, and extra.
I’m hoping you’ll in finding one thing you prefer in them!
Artwork, attractiveness, and jewellery presents for 2022
Now that I reside in Ottawa, it used to be amusing to get to grasp a few of these nice folks and I’m excited to proportion them with you, too. The pieces beneath are from artists that I’ve both supported by way of buying merchandise myself, or native pieces I beloved that didn’t paintings with my many immune/different restrictions.
Floral Polymer Clay Earrings
The skill at the back of Island Meadow Clay is Rylan, who runs the store along with her husband Alex. She makes the jewellery, he packs the orders, they usually each display up at native flea markets with a sales space to sing their own praises their gorgeous earrings and necklaces.
The industry started as a deadly disease pastime, however took off whilst the rustic reopened. I’ve bought those for myself (see beneath), as presents, and had an earring pair commissioned in particular for a chum according to the colors she loves.
Those are product of light-weight polymer clay, so even the bigger earrings aren’t going to tug down for your earlobes. That is the most important factor for me, since I have already got a large number of head ache. Those can even make for a superb present for folks with migraine complications or different stipulations that have an effect on the cranial nerves. And, for individuals who merely love home made jewellery.
As a result of I’ve bought from them essentially the most, they’re on the most sensible of the listing—and rightfully so! I really like their merchandise, and their heat as a pair too.
Additional info:
The place to shop for: the Island Meadow Clay web page
Delivery to: Canada and the USA
Observe them on: Instagram
Embroidered center maps
I met the stunning couple at the back of Sadie and June when at a flea marketplace in Ottawa, and liked their amusing choices as a traveler with a large number of puts I pass over deeply. They promote hand-embroidered maps for 900 places (and counting), both as stand-alone “I really like this position” taste, or connecting hearts, the place there’s a thread connecting two puts. Additionally they do customized maps, in case your favorite locations aren’t on be offering at this time.
The couple, whose names are in truth Steve and Kendall, are a cross-border couple—one thing slightly commonplace right here within the cities that border the United States! She’s from New Jersey and he’s from Ottawa, however they met in Florida. Very popular any time I’ve noticed their sales space round the city, they seize the nostalgia of leaving items of ourselves in puts we beloved.
Says Kendall, “Our hand-embroidered center maps had been born out of this love and our trust that love is aware of no borders. The concept that: I started embroidering via paper antique map prints that intended one thing particular to me and Steve.”
The couple have a put up about how they went from being ‘flat broke’ in 2014 to development a full-time industry round their stitching abilities. Once I met Kendall on the marketplace, she discussed that because the industry picked up she used to be suffering to get orders achieved … till she taught Steve the way to stitch, and that helped get the maps finished a lot quicker. Now they’re each running on their common maps, and including towns the entire time.
Additional info:
The place to shop for: the Sadie and June web page
Delivery to: Canada and the USA, in addition to Europe
Observe them on: Instagram
Preserved resin flower jewellery
Any other native seller that I used to be taken by way of is Floral Sweeties. I stopped up getting my mum’s birthday present from them, gorgeous earrings that I knew she’d experience.
Floral Sweeties is the brainchild of Hannah, a registered nurse who has expanded right into a botanical facet hustle. The jewellery she sells is made with hand picked wild and lawn flora from Ottawa which might be dried, preserved, after which embedded in resin to create each and every piece. (She additionally sells clay items the place recent flowers is imprinted in clay to provide plaster reduction artwork the usage of herbal pigment, however the ones are slightly heavy to send and I’m specializing in her jewellery).
Their earrings, like Island Meadow Clay, are most commonly very light-weight—very best for any person who has complications.
Additional info:
The place to shop for: the Floral Sweeties web page
Delivery to: Canada and World (together with USA)
Observe them on: Instagram
Hand-drawn maps of meals
Sure, sure—I’ve incorporated my very own maps on this information as neatly. I, too, am a neighborhood Ottawa industry in spite of everything. And one with a thrilling building: my meals map of Canada is in the end entire!
As with the opposite maps on this sequence, the Canada map is designed by way of me and inked by way of Ella Frances Sanders, a bestselling writer whose new e-book may be within the books information that might be revealed in a while.
Additional info:
Felony Nomads readers can take 10% off with the code HOLIDAY22 till December 24, 2022.
The place to shop for: the Felony Nomads artwork store web page
Delivery to: International
Observe me on: Instagram
Plantable playing cards that transform wildflowers
Any other amusing present this is considerate, AND does now not create waste: quirky playing cards embedded with seeds, that you’ll then plant and nourish over the years.
Seeded Recollections used to be constructed by way of MaryAnn and Jose, a husband and spouse group who felt greeting playing cards had been each pricey, and wasteful. So that they made up our minds to make paper and playing cards the usage of 100% recycled subject matter which might be embedded with quite a few wildflower seeds. So the cardboard you purchased can also be planted, rising a lawn of recollections and person who creates no tangible waste.
Playing cards are to be had in English, French, and Spanish.
Additional info:
The place to shop for: the Seeded Recollections web page
Delivery to: Canada most effective. For my many American readers, you’ll in finding seeded playing cards at Lovable Root as an alternative.
Observe them on: Instagram
Lovable fruit earrings
I fell in love with adorable grapefruit earrings a couple of years in the past, and feature worn them so often that they fell aside.
Within the hunt to search out new alternative earrings, I discovered a couple of retail outlets on Etsy that supply them, in case you need a couple for yourselves—or any person else!—too.
LOOK HOW CUTE THEY ARE:
They too are light-weight, and an excessively amusing addition to any outfit.
The place to shop for:
The Scrappy Cat (USA)
Ellie Undergo (Canada)
Brlogarka (UK and EU)
Porcelain and ceramic jewellery
Larra & Morning time began Flourish Stoneware in October 2018, on what they name “not anything greater than a dream to create.”
Each and every in their items takes a median of 25 hours to create, because it comes to sketching, imprinting the clay, drying it out, after which firing it within the kiln sooner than glazing thereafter.
The items are for my part crafted with quite a few fabrics like porcelain, speckled clay, black clay, quite a few glazes and overglazes (like gold lustre and Mom of Pearl overglaze).
The result’s a choice of gorgeous, distinctive jewellery that stuck my eye at a neighborhood marketplace.
Additional info:
The place to shop for: the Flourish Stonewear web page
Delivery to: Canada, USA, and World. (Delivery outdoor N. The united states is pricey, although)
Observe them on: Instagram
Knitted cacti
With a project to convey greenery to “each and every suffering plant mum or dad”, Kelsea’s whimsical knitted cacti stuck my eye at a neighborhood flea marketplace. The industry happened when Kelsea knitted her sister some cacti for Christmas, after seeing how her sister couldn’t stay vegetation alive.
Taking inspiration from actual vegetation, Kelsea moderately crafts knit cacti and succulents in quite a few sizes, colors, and shapes. She additionally tries to make use of sustainable fabrics for different portions of her merchandise: upcycled packaging, sustainable yarn and stuffing, plus reusing cardboard within the pot to cause them to lighter weight for delivery.
The corporate is absolutely family-supported, together with the construct for the shows on the marketplace stall I met her at.
I purchased myself a mini cacti (although I’m having cactus be apologetic about that I didn’t get a bigger one), and concept you might have considered trying one too.
Additional info:
The place to shop for: the Kelsea Knits web page
Delivery to: Canada, USA, and World.
Observe them on: Instagram
DIY candle, deodorant, and clay masks kits
Jessye, the founder and maker at the back of Make This Universe, began her DIY store in 2018, whilst getting very annoyed looking to make her personal deodorant at house. She looked for a store the place must get a equipment to take action as an alternative, and got here up empty. Like me beginning my meals maps as a result of I couldn’t in finding the product I used to be in search of, Jessye kicked off her store to fill an opening available on the market.
Make the Universe provides DIY “fashionable craft kits” for candles, deodorant, mask, and necklaces, in graceful packaging that may be recycled. They permit for customizable merchandise to account for private sensitivities, with no need to do the entirety from scratch.
Additional info:
The place to shop for: the Make the Universe web page
Delivery to: Canada and USA
Observe them on: Instagram
Caffeine necklace in silver
Do your family members experience espresso up to I do? This stainless-steel and silver plated necklace of the molecule for caffeine could also be up their alley, or yours. Chain duration: 50cm. Nickel and lead unfastened
You’ll purchase it right here.
Whimsical hen artwork
I’ve had the excitement of assembly the genius at the back of Birdstrips, Jess, in particular person in Montreal two times sooner than we each and every moved in different places. Her illustrations have grown an enormous following on Instagram because of their whimsical, relatable messaging.
In Jess’ phrases, the store accommodates “the existential misery of the flightless throughout the eyes of the flighted.”
Under, two prints from her store: certainly one of an acrylic portray of a hen named Cheddar Cheese, who’s “escaped right into a box of dandelions and is having the time of her lifestyles”, and the second one, treatment “sooner than and after”—in vintage Birdstrips taste
Additional info:
The place to shop for: the Birdstrips Print Store (additionally mugs, tees, and extra!)
Delivery to: International
Observe them on: Instagram
Birds + curse phrases
Those illustrations of birds that swear in inventive tactics are common in every single place the internet, with excellent reason why. As Twitter implodes and the sector feels love it’s doing the similar, the hen outrage by way of Aaron Reynolds says all that we’re bottling up within.
That doesn’t prevent folks from getting annoyed in regards to the cursing, however … did you are expecting anything from an organization known as Effin Birds?!
Additional info:
The place to shop for: Clothes, mugs, pins, and extra right here, plus an Effin’ Birds e-book and a more moderen French Effin’ Birds e-book, in addition to a 2023 Calendar too.
Delivery to: International
Observe him on: Instagram
Pearl jewellery from Tahiti
My buddy Celeste is not just a super go back and forth creator, but additionally runs an environmentally-friendly Tahitian pearl corporate, Kamoka, that clings to the strictest ranges of sustainable farming on this planet. Their pearls are from oysters grown within the nutrient-rich lagoon of Ahe Atoll, 300 miles northeast of Tahiti, with electrical energy provided by way of sun and wind energy. And should you wanted extra convincing about supporting their endeavor: a Nationwide Geographic find out about discovered that their farming strategies helped building up the world’s fish inhabitants in recent times.
Certainly one of their merchandise I put on ceaselessly: the Mana Bracelet. At $99, it’s an funding, however a sturdy and wonderful one.
Celeste mentioned that this bracelet used to be first of all crafted for surfers. Now, it’s certainly one of their perfect dealers for lively individuals who need an attractive pearl bracelet with out being worried about fragility. The adjustable band is created from kangaroo leather-based (the most powerful leather-based on this planet), and is a smart selection for the stylish wanderer and the lively fashionista alike.
Additionally they now be offering a brand new assortment, that includes Tahitian blacklip oyster shells and jewellery created from their very own sustainably produced mother-of-pearl. The earrings beneath are extra reasonably priced than the pearls by myself, and are an attractive present for individuals who need one thing sustainable and other.
Additional info:
The place to shop for: The Mana Bracelet is to be had right here. The whole mother-of-pearl assortment is right here, with the earrings above right here.
Delivery to: International
Observe them on: Instagram
The ones are my 2022 present choices! I’m hoping you experience no less than a few of them. I’ll be following up with the books I believe are value a learn, in only some days. 💙
-Jodi
