Alexandra and I mentioned Quitokeeto’s brilliant approach to inventory when she was on the podcast and I just received an email sharing that there are new California-made ceramics in stock.
Quite beautiful… and all by new-to-me female ceramicists!
If you find yourself shopping, I’d recommend adding some of my favorite Ambatalia dish covers to your order… I don’t use them all of the time but they do make me feel less wasteful!
Ok this is random, but I was surprised to stumble across a few different brands of American made socks this year! Per usual, all of my socks seem to have lost their matches, and I’ve taken to wearing barre socks around the house (they are warm and prevent me from falling down our slippery wood steps!) and random mismatched pairs everywhere else. It’s not a good look.
We recently started carrying some American made options at W&W so I restocked my collection.
Some of my favorite options:
Little River Sock Mill
I used to always stock up on cute socks at Madewell or J.Crew… these are a great replacement.
Lisa B. via The Reed
I’m partial to the stripes…but the snowflakes are pretty cute too.
Richer Poorer Striped Wool Socks
These are actually men’s socks but fit my size 8.5 feet just fine… I wore them cross-country skiing last weekend and my feet never got cold!
Wool Nomad Socks
Super warm and fairly long… perfect for wearing with rain or snowboots.
Camp Socks
I stocked up on these at J.Crew a few years ago and they’ve really held up… and work well under my rain boots when it’s not quite as cold outside.
I kind of hate gift guides – it seems to me like retailers, magazines and bloggers have tried to turn gifting into something difficult to incite panic and encourage everyone to BUY. ALL. OF. THE. THINGS!
Really, it should be simple. Listen to the people you love throughout the year, and then you’ll get an idea of what they love, and can buy accordingly. For hostess gifts or gifts for people that you may not know that well, non-grocery store flowers or plants, a great bottle of wine, cold-pressed olive oil, or even fancy salts are always welcomed – and unimposing!
When I’m really stuck, I look for gifts that are not only American made, but that also give back and are generally useful. Some of my favorite charitable products…
Ursa Major x United by Blue Blue Ridge Kit For every product sold, United by Blue will remove a pound of trash from our oceans and waterways. Ursa Major will donate 1% of sales from this kit to protecting America’s wildest places.
What am I missing?! I know there are more… please share your favorites in the comments and I’ll work on adding these brands to The A-List!
P.S – None of the above links are affiliate links, as that didn’t quite sit right with me for this post. However, I do sometimes use affiliate links in other posts and give 5% of all TAE pre-tax revenue (from the blog and from my consulting projects) to charity each year. So hopefully, you can feel good about working with me or clicking and buying through these links. I wrote about the reasoning behind this donation last year on Giving Tuesday if you would like to know more. As always, feel free to email me with questions or comments!
I was pretend procrasti-shopping some of my favorite shops today and when I looked at all of the tabs I’d opened (I really hope I’m not the only one who does this!), I had to laugh. All black & white, with a pair of jeans thrown in. I am nothing if not consistent. In case your palette is anything like mine…