Nelson Mandela, 1951. API/Gamma via Getty Images.
“I learned that courage was not the absence of fear, but the triumph over it. The brave man is not he who does not feel afraid, but he who conquers that fear.”
Nelson Mandela. 1918 – December 5th, 2013
Give them an answer to the ever nagging question: “What’s for dinner tonight?” With a simple roll of the dice. ($20)
A harvest calendar. So they always know what’s in season. ($18 on Etsy)
And for the know-it-all who already has the seasonal situation in the bag, how about challenging them to grow their own from seeds? Choose all herb or all veggie or go for broke and get all ten packs and really prod them to start their own farm for real. ($19 or $36)
A customized gift box from the ever fabulous Brooklyn Larder will always go over well. (prices vary)
Or, while we’re on the topic of gift boxes, there’s always the sumptuous 12 Days Of Christmas basket o’ sweets ($100) from Mouth. (Also a Brooklyn based company, so don’t worry, we’re still on trend. Just a few minutes north of the aforementioned Brooklyn Larder, should you be in the mood for a tour.)
This tawashi scrubber may fall into the too-mundane-for-a-gift category, but it’s from Japan, for crying out loud. I, for one, would be thrilled to get another one of these, as mine is beginning to wear our after over a year of heavy use. ($8)
I know I just wrote about this, but I’ll say it again. If you know anybody who is into cooking soul food, you should get them this book by Norma and Carole Darden. It’s out of print, but easy to find, so you get brownie points for delivering an obscure gift without having to do much legwork.
Always good to have a set of pencils in the kitchen. ($10)
Probably the most essential tool in any chef’s roster is a knife. These R Murphy limited edition kitchen knives were made exclusively for Whisper Editions with maple handles hand fashioned from reclaimed homes in Ohio. They will last a lifetime. (starts at $125)
It’s a total splurge, but if you have a special little girl in your life, you should go to Sweet William and get her this dress because her mother is probably too practical to spend this much on clothes for her kid. ($92, but worth every penny)
What little girl doesn’t want a colorful feather clip (for $24) in her hair?
I spotted Land of Nod’s wooden Double Decker Bus ($19.95) on A Cup of Jo (who’s gift guides are brilliant, by the way) and almost wished I had a kid little enough to still want to play with it.
This beautiful arrow mobile ($179) will keep your little one on the straight and narrow, but you have to act fast cause it’s only on One Kings Lane till December 9th!
The Littlest Activity Book ($15, also on One Kings Lane just till the 9th) is full of imaginative things to draw, patterns to make and tales to illustrate. A preschooler could use it with her parents and your 6 or 8 year old with an artistic bent could work on it alone. Instead of an iPad.
A pink floating bird ($5.95) or a blue one or a purple one…
What child wouldn’t love this magical embroidered ermine waving a wand perched atop a racoon’s head? (by Michele Varian, $148)
Every kid should have their own kitchen to play in. It’s up to you (and the size of your abode) to figure out which one. This big one ($339) has everything you need, plus a nice amount of storage.
Or you can go handmade and table top with this Little Kitchen ($100) by MamaMadeThem on Etsy. She’ll even made you one to order if you’ve got the time.
Build your own long multi-sectioned drinking straw. (Only $11.95!) Hours of fun. No joke. My daughter went crazy for this one. She even figured out how to have us both drink from one glass at the same time. Clearly she is a genius…
Magnatiles. The holy grail of building materials. If I had a dime for every castle/fort/animal hospital/ocean liner we have built with these things, I would be writing this from some tropical island that I owned. (set of 100 for $120)
Ah tis the season of the cocktail party. Photo courtesy of jenbutneverjenn.com.
Let the gift guides begin! Everywhere you look, people are making all sorts of suggestions about what you should get for the ones you love (as well as the ones you feel obliged to give to for whatever reason)
For the next week or so, I will humbly add my two cents to the pile. Each day will be a slightly different set of things for a slightly different situation. Hopefully, at least one of them will save your proverbial a** as you stumble through the next 4 weeks.
Here we go:
First off, while we’re on the topic of those holiday parties, it is evidently considered uncool to show up to these things empty handed. Especially if the gathering is at someone’s home. So here are a few suggestions of things you can arrive with so you can feel totally justified in piling on mounds of caviar, or drinking your fill of expensive champagne…
These miniature blown glass Chinese birds make perfect ornaments, plus they come in a set of 12, so if you buy these you’ll have to hit a dozen parties before you need to come up with another gift idea.
It’s more fun to wash your hands when you’re using hands to do it, right? These soaps come in sets of around 8 as well (each set is different) so this gift can cover a few parties as well.
I’m all about bringing consumable gifts to my friends because they take up less room and create beautiful memories. A splash of bitters turns any glass of sparkling water into a party, so it’s the perfect thing to bring to one.
Upgrade their fridge with these oak and walnut magnets. Because nobody ever has too many refrigerator magnets.
Maybe your hosts have sheep, or maybe they just want to hang some sonic cheer around the house. Either way, these animal bells from Greece are the perfect thing.
Bring these cards as a gift if your host is single and looking for company. Maybe they’ll give online dating a bit of a rest.
This Sweet Home Booklet Mobile (designed by Yusuke Oono for Artecnica) is just pretty. And small. So bring it to somebody who likes that kind of thing. Like me.
And last but certainly not least, who doesn’t love a beautifully scented candle? This diminutive set of candles by the ever wondrous Red Flower includes scents like Ocean and Italian Blood Orange. And again, a set of six means you can spread the love six different times.
Come back tomorrow for more…
Evidently one thing all humans have in common is that we all want to be happy. Here’s to unearthing that secret (and sharing it with everybody else!)
Stress levels at the family Thanksgiving dinner still got you down? Here’s a “playlist” of TED talk videos that are all about happiness, what it really is, and how we can get a piece of it for ourselves.
And if that doesn’t make you happy, maybe an Amazon delivery drone bringing your package to you 30 minutes after you ordered it will…
Ok, maybe the path to happiness is not about philosophy or delivery, but just a simple green juice.
Or perhaps just a little piece of sweet potato cake with marshmallow frosting is what’s needed to push you a happy place…
Sometimes, just coming home is enough to make you (and everyone around you) happy. Like Barbra Streisand in Hello Dolly, turning up at the Harmonium Gardens restaurant after so long…
Leave it to the people at The Wall Street Journal to question whether happiness is overrated…
Nevermind the naysayers, at the very least, giving to others is bound to bring a smile to your face. This month, Bird (one of my favorite shops) is taking part in the NY Cares coat drive– drop off a gently used jacket or coat and get 15% off any new outerware you might happen to find there. Win/win!
Thanks everybody. For making my universe the magical place filled with wonder and music and light that it is– even during the slightly darker, less musically wondrous times.
Oh and thanks to Food52, for hooking me up with this butternut squash soup with miso and coconut milk which has helped me to finally get rid of my huge squash with panache.
And lastly, thanks to my friend Sarah Sophie Flicker, who sent this poem out in an e mail earlier today. She is truly a wonder and one of the best creators of community out there. Here’s to all my fellow music makers and dreamers of dreams. The world would be a grey place without you.
This time we went minimal and handmade with the now-obligatory birthday party goodie bag
I have a hard and fast rule that states that the Christmas/Holiday season does not start until after Thanksgiving. Hanukkah starting the night before turkey day is messing me up this year, and as my daughter recently had a few girlfriends over for a birthday tea party, we have had gifts on the brain. And goodie bags. And get-the-apartment-together anxiety. In fact, my husband and I stayed up till 3 am the night before, rearranging the furniture, redecorating and sewing together the little cotton ball stuffed bunnies that the birthday girl wanted to give out to her guests but was not quite skilled enough to complete on her own. I’m still tired.
And I must admit that, while sewing away, I did have a few moments of “are these girls even going to appreciate these amazing little pieces of handiwork?” But I pushed those dark thoughts aside. The bunnies were, of course, loved by all. And the birthday gifts that were left behind are a real tribute to how well these little girls know their friend.
They were so great, in fact, that I am going to share them here. Maybe there are some ideas here for the little ones on your list. But please don’t start singing carols till Friday, at least…
Hansa Toy International does not make stuffed animals. They make “portraits of nature.” That just happen to be really cute and soft and the kind of thing you’ll probably keep around long after the imaginary friend phase is over. At Sweet William, of course.
Pengoloo is a memory game made of all wood (yay!) involving penguins sitting on brightly colored eggs, dice rolling, icebergs… what’s not to love? At Mini Jake.
We’ve been reading D’Aulaires Greek and Norse Myths for years, so Gillian Cross’ retelling of the Odyssey is a natural follow up. A contender for the greatest story ever told, with illustrations (by Neil Packer) that are a kind of mashup of greek antiquity-meets-tibetan mushroom trip. It’s on sale right now at Barnes & Noble.
This magic themed science kit is the perfect thing for a little person who is obsessed with science and who just finished reading all 7 Harry Potter books (and watching the movies, too.) You can get this at Target, since you know you go there regularly anyway. Don’t play like you don’t…
This Sew a Dolly craft kit comes with a little stuffed doll and then all the materials you need to sew her dress. Everything is pre cut, and it includes a plastic needle and nice easy to handle thick thread so that the kids can do the whole project themselves! At My Sweet Muffin.
And lastly (but far from least) from my daughter’s oldest pal, this huge vintage ‘gold’ chain necklace. Which goes with the sparlky red Dorothy shoes and the box full of long shiny princess dresses she already has. You’ve got to happen upon a fine second hand treasure like this one, but you can always try browsing Krrb… you never know what you might find there.
Now it’s on to the thank you notes…
How to properly set a table (both formal and informal) broken down in a chart for all of us to follow. And deviate from if we’re feeling it. Illustration by Adam Dachis on lifehacker.com.
The 10 Laws of Thanksgiving Dinner, according to the great Sam Sifton.
Just Say No to Shopping on Thanksgiving has a Facebook page! Go like it right now.
If you’re going to be spending time in airports on the next couple of days, this app might help turn the layover into an adventure.
Here’s a culinary way to celebrate Thanksgiving and Hanukkah in one go: the baked parsnip and apple latke.
And while we’re talking about food, it now looks like going nuts (and by “going” I mean eating) on a daily basis has a significantly positive impact on longevity.
When it comes to Thanksgiving dinner table topics, politics is generally taboo. But just in case you find yourself stuck in the conversational quagmire of the Middle East, this NPR piece does a really good job of breaking down what we all need to know about the Iran Nuclear deal.
And lastly, a propos of nothing, is the Matrix real? Turns out we may actually be living in some kind of simulated reality… so do we perform the necessary tests to find out or just keep our heads in the sand?
Three bottles of our own honey punch, with handmade labels by someone who is just mastering the art of the lower case letter.
Today was the Harvest Day Pot Luck afternoon snack party at my daughter’s school. My co-class parent and I (Yep, you heard that right… I am a class parent…) decided that it would be great if the things people brought in somehow reflected their cultural heritage, since the class looks like a mini United Nations.
So I, of course, turned to the deep south and my all time favorite soul food cookbook which just happens to be the work of close family friends: Spoonbread and Strawberry Wine. Written in 1978 by Norma Jean and Carole Darden, it is a combination of recipes and family history, with photographs and long descriptions of the various personalities who’s culinary creations grace it’s pages.
We decided to make honey punch (see recipe below). Partly because I loved the photo of Granddad Sampson and he seemed really cool and all-knowing, partly because it is sweetened only with honey, which is something we all need to be ingesting during this cold and flu season, and partly because it looked like the kind of thing my independent 6 year old could make largely on her own.
It was a huge success– subtly sweet, without that crazy saccharine taste. The kids loved it straight up, the parents mixed it with sparkling water (though it would probably taste great with rum, too…)
The Darden sisters, on the cover of their seminal cookbook, in the late 70′s.
So thanks to the Dardens, for helping me to serve up yet another delicious treat. (Norma Jean’s restaurant, Miss Mamie’s Spoonbread too, up in Harlem is well worth a visit) The book is out of print, but you can still find reasonably priced copies of it on Alibris. If you like soul food, you will love this book. I promise.
Here’s how to make the punch:
1 1/2 quarts water
1 cup honey
juice of 3 lemons
juice of 3 oranges
3 cups pineapple juice
1 cup unsweetened grape juice
1 cup crushed pineapple
fresh mint springs
Heat 2 cups of the water so that it is warm enough to blend honey into it easily. Cool. Then mix in remaining water, juices, and crushed pineapple. Pour into tall glasses filed with ice. Garnish with int sprigs. Makes about 3 quarts of punch.
Happy drinking!
and watch this really short video about Hilary Lister, an incredibly inspirational woman creating a truly beautiful and triumphant moment for herself out of a situation that would have completely flattened most of us.
And give thanks that we are part of a race of beings who can make such miracles happen.
Tis the season, after all.
