I did my first ever vacation present information for vacationers a number of years in the past, which was enjoyable to compile. Readers appeared to benefit from the varied objects, and I used to be glad to share among the merchandise that accompanied me on the highway. This 12 months, I wished to do one thing a bit of completely different.
For starters, my life is a little completely different – one thing all of you already know. In consequence, my very own items to household and mates aren’t souvenirs from far-away locations, however enjoyable issues I’ve found. I wished to share a few of them right here, particularly as many are small companies like myself.
This 12 months, I’d wish to share two classes of items: artists and makers from my new house of Ottawa and a few from past, and books I like or discovered impactful in my very own life.
I deliberate to publish the guide information and the artwork/items information in the identical submit, however there are too many solutions and it obtained fairly unruly. So I’ll publish the guide information within the coming week, and under are my solutions for artwork, jewellery, and extra.
I hope you’ll discover one thing you want in them!
Artwork, magnificence, and jewellery items for 2022
Now that I stay in Ottawa, it was enjoyable to get to know a few of these nice folks and I’m excited to share them with you, too. The objects under are from artists that I’ve both supported by buying merchandise myself, or native objects I beloved that didn’t work with my many immune/different restrictions.
Floral Polymer Clay Earrings
The expertise behind Island Meadow Clay is Rylan, who runs the store along with her husband Alex. She makes the jewellery, he packs the orders, and so they each present up at native flea markets with a sales space to point out off their lovely earrings and necklaces.
The enterprise started as a pandemic passion, however took off even because the nation reopened. I’ve bought these for myself (see under), as items, and had an earring pair commissioned particularly for a good friend primarily based on the colors she loves.
These are product of light-weight polymer clay, so even the bigger earrings aren’t going to tug down in your earlobes. This is a crucial factor for me, since I have already got a number of head ache. These may even make for an excellent present for folks with migraine complications or different situations that have an effect on the cranial nerves. And, for individuals who merely love hand-crafted jewellery.
As a result of I’ve bought from them probably the most, they’re on the high of the record—and rightfully so! I like their merchandise, and their heat as a pair too.
Extra info:
The place to purchase: the Island Meadow Clay web site
Delivery to: Canada and the USA
Observe them on: Instagram
Embroidered coronary heart maps
I met the stunning couple behind Sadie and June when at a flea market in Ottawa, and appreciated their enjoyable choices as a traveler with a number of locations I miss deeply. They promote hand-embroidered maps for 900 places (and counting), both as stand-alone “I like this place” type, or connecting hearts, the place there’s a thread connecting two locations. Additionally they do customized maps, in case your favorite locations aren’t on provide presently.
The couple, whose names are literally Steve and Kendall, are a cross-border couple—one thing fairly widespread right here within the cities that border the US! She’s from New Jersey and he’s from Ottawa, however they met in Florida. Extraordinarily in style any time I’ve seen their sales space round city, they seize the nostalgia of leaving items of ourselves in locations we beloved.
Says Kendall, “Our hand-embroidered coronary heart maps have been born out of this love and our perception that love is aware of no borders. The idea: I started embroidering by way of paper classic map prints that meant one thing particular to me and Steve.”
The couple have a submit about how they went from being ‘flat broke’ in 2014 to constructing a full-time enterprise round their stitching abilities. Once I met Kendall on the market, she talked about that because the enterprise picked up she was struggling to get orders carried out … till she taught Steve easy methods to sew, and that helped get the maps accomplished a lot quicker. Now they’re each engaged on their in style maps, and including cities the entire time.
Extra info:
The place to purchase: the Sadie and June web site
Delivery to: Canada and the USA, in addition to Europe
Observe them on: Instagram
Preserved resin flower jewellery
One other native vendor that I used to be taken by is Floral Sweeties. I ended up getting my mum’s birthday present from them, lovely earrings that I knew she’d take pleasure in.
Floral Sweeties is the brainchild of Hannah, a registered nurse who has expanded right into a botanical aspect hustle. The jewellery she sells is made with hand picked wild and backyard flowers from Ottawa which are dried, preserved, after which embedded in resin to create each bit. (She additionally sells clay items the place recent flora is imprinted in clay to supply plaster aid artwork utilizing pure pigment, however these are fairly heavy to ship and I’m specializing in her jewellery).
Their earrings, like Island Meadow Clay, are largely very light-weight—excellent for anybody who has complications.
Extra info:
The place to purchase: the Floral Sweeties web site
Delivery to: Canada and Worldwide (together with USA)
Observe them on: Instagram
Hand-drawn maps of meals
Sure, sure—I’ve included my very own maps on this information as effectively. I, too, am a neighborhood Ottawa enterprise in any case. And one with an thrilling improvement: my meals map of Canada is lastly full!
As with the opposite maps on this collection, the Canada map is designed by me and inked by Ella Frances Sanders, a bestselling writer whose new guide can also be within the books information that can be printed shortly.
Extra info:
Authorized Nomads readers can take 10% off with the code HOLIDAY22 till December 24, 2022.
The place to purchase: the Authorized Nomads artwork store web site
Delivery to: Worldwide
Observe me on: Instagram
Plantable playing cards that flip into wildflowers
One other enjoyable present that’s considerate, AND doesn’t create waste: quirky playing cards embedded with seeds, that you could then plant and nourish over time.
Seeded Reminiscences was constructed by MaryAnn and Jose, a husband and spouse workforce who felt greeting playing cards have been each costly, and wasteful. So that they determined to make paper and playing cards utilizing 100% recycled materials which are embedded with a wide range of wildflower seeds. So the cardboard you acquire will be planted, rising a backyard of recollections and one which creates no tangible waste.
Playing cards can be found in English, French, and Spanish.
Extra info:
The place to purchase: the Seeded Reminiscences web site
Delivery to: Canada solely. For my many American readers, you could find seeded playing cards at Cute Root as an alternative.
Observe them on: Instagram
Lovely fruit earrings
I fell in love with cute grapefruit earrings a number of years in the past, and have worn them so continuously that they fell aside.
Within the hunt to seek out new alternative earrings, I discovered a number of outlets on Etsy that supply them, in case you desire a pair for yourselves—or another person!—too.
LOOK HOW CUTE THEY ARE:
They too are light-weight, and a really enjoyable addition to any outfit.
The place to purchase:
The Scrappy Cat (USA)
Ellie Bear (Canada)
Brlogarka (UK and EU)
Porcelain and ceramic jewellery
Larra & Daybreak began Flourish Stoneware in October 2018, on what they name “nothing greater than a dream to create.”
Every of their items takes a median of 25 hours to create, because it entails sketching, imprinting the clay, drying it out, after which firing it within the kiln earlier than glazing thereafter.
The items are individually crafted with a wide range of supplies like porcelain, speckled clay, black clay, a wide range of glazes and overglazes (like gold lustre and Mom of Pearl overglaze).
The result’s a group of gorgeous, distinctive jewellery that caught my eye at a neighborhood market.
Extra info:
The place to purchase: the Flourish Stonewear web site
Delivery to: Canada, USA, and Worldwide. (Delivery outdoors N. America is expensive, although)
Observe them on: Instagram
Knitted cacti
With a mission to carry greenery to “each struggling plant mother or father”, Kelsea’s whimsical knitted cacti caught my eye at a neighborhood flea market. The enterprise happened when Kelsea knitted her sister some cacti for Christmas, after seeing how her sister couldn’t preserve crops alive.
Taking inspiration from actual crops, Kelsea rigorously crafts knit cacti and succulents in a wide range of sizes, colors, and shapes. She additionally tries to make use of sustainable supplies for different elements of her merchandise: upcycled packaging, sustainable yarn and stuffing, plus reusing cardboard contained in the pot to make them lighter weight for delivery.
The corporate is totally family-supported, together with the construct for the shows on the market stall I met her at.
I purchased myself a mini cacti (although I’m having cactus remorse that I didn’t get a bigger one), and thought you might have considered trying one too.
Extra info:
The place to purchase: the Kelsea Knits web site
Delivery to: Canada, USA, and Worldwide.
Observe them on: Instagram
DIY candle, deodorant, and clay masks kits
Jessye, the founder and maker behind Make This Universe, began her DIY store in 2018, whereas getting very annoyed attempting to make her personal deodorant at house. She looked for a store the place ought to 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 discover the product I used to be on the lookout for, Jessye kicked off her store to fill a niche within the market.
Make the Universe presents DIY “fashionable craft kits” for candles, deodorant, masks, and necklaces, in modern packaging that may be recycled. They permit for customizable merchandise to account for private sensitivities, with out having to do every thing from scratch.
Extra info:
The place to purchase: the Make the Universe web site
Delivery to: Canada and USA
Observe them on: Instagram
Caffeine necklace in silver
Do your family members take pleasure in espresso as a lot as I do? This chrome steel and silver plated necklace of the molecule for caffeine could also be up their alley, or yours. Chain size: 50cm. Nickel and lead free
You should purchase it right here.
Whimsical chicken artwork
I’ve had the pleasure of assembly the genius behind Birdstrips, Jess, in individual in Montreal twice earlier than we every moved elsewhere. Her illustrations have grown an enormous following on Instagram as a consequence of their whimsical, relatable messaging.
In Jess’ phrases, the store includes “the existential misery of the flightless by way of the eyes of the flighted.”
Under, two prints from her store: considered one of an acrylic portray of a hen named Cheddar Cheese, who’s “escaped right into a area of dandelions and is having the time of her life”, and the second, remedy “earlier than and after”—in traditional Birdstrips type
Extra info:
The place to purchase: the Birdstrips Print Store (additionally mugs, tees, and extra!)
Delivery to: Worldwide
Observe them on: Instagram
Birds + curse phrases
These illustrations of birds that swear in artistic methods are in style everywhere in the net, with good purpose. As Twitter implodes and the world feels prefer it’s doing the identical, the chicken outrage by Aaron Reynolds says all that we’re bottling up inside.
That doesn’t cease folks from getting pissed off in regards to the cursing, however … did you anticipate anything from an organization referred to as Effin Birds?!
Extra info:
The place to purchase: Clothes, mugs, pins, and extra right here, plus an Effin’ Birds guide and a more moderen French Effin’ Birds guide, in addition to a 2023 Calendar too.
Delivery to: Worldwide
Observe him on: Instagram
Pearl jewellery from Tahiti
My good friend Celeste isn’t solely an excellent journey author, but additionally runs an environmentally-friendly Tahitian pearl firm, Kamoka, that adheres 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 photo voltaic and wind energy. And if you happen to wanted extra convincing about supporting their enterprise: a Nationwide Geographic research discovered that their farming strategies helped enhance the realm’s fish inhabitants lately.
One in all their merchandise I put on usually: the Mana Bracelet. At $99, it’s an funding, however a sturdy and exquisite one.
Celeste stated that this bracelet was initially crafted for surfers. Now, it’s considered one of their greatest sellers for lively individuals who need a fantastic pearl bracelet with out worrying about fragility. The adjustable band is constructed from kangaroo leather-based (the strongest leather-based on this planet), and is a good selection for the trendy wanderer and the lively fashionista alike.
Additionally they now provide a brand new assortment, that includes Tahitian blacklip oyster shells and jewellery constructed from their very own sustainably produced mother-of-pearl. The earrings under are extra reasonably priced than the pearls alone, and are a fantastic present for many who need one thing sustainable and completely different.
Extra info:
The place to purchase: The Mana Bracelet is accessible right here. The complete mother-of-pearl assortment is right here, with the earrings above right here.
Delivery to: Worldwide
Observe them on: Instagram
These are my 2022 present picks! I hope you take pleasure in not less than a few of them. I’ll be following up with the books I believe are price a learn, in only a few days. 💙
-Jodi
