gifts

  • make your own: beeswax food wraps.

    Ever eager to cut down on disposables, a small collection of compostable beeswax wraps have been among my small-kitchen essentials for the last decade. For the uninitiated, a beeswax wrap can be used in…

    November 2, 2021 6 Comments
  • make your own: origami masu box.

    All three of my kids are home sick this week, so a tutorial for something that makes anything at all feel neat and tidy and moderately contained is feeling just right. These origami masu…

    October 26, 2021 25 Comments
  • make your own: simple cloth coasters.

    As the tail end of summer slips through our fingers, you might decide to use up spare material you have hanging around your house, to make simple cloth coasters. For the cups of tea…

    September 20, 2021 10 Comments
  • gift guide: father’s day.

    Gift ideas for fathers, or anyone at all you love, in springtime: A porcelain utility crock for essential utensils (or anything). A little something to restore the glow to those cheeks. Some time to…

    June 15, 2021 3 Comments
  • gift guide: mother’s day.

    Gift ideas for mothers, or anyone at all you love, in springtime: The most special patchworked dress for spinning in (or wood splitting). Yellow calico undies for fun. An indigo tote. The promise of…

    April 27, 2021 4 Comments
  • make your own: fire starters.

    Years ago I wrote a post about making fire starters in an old egg carton, and carefully filling each nest with wax and cedar shavings and other combustible and fragrant wintry bits. This is…

    December 22, 2020 8 Comments
  • simple gifts around the home.

    Looking around my kitchen this morning, it struck me how many of the simple DIY gift ideas that Rose Pearlman and I have been sharing are in regular use around my own home. In…

    December 14, 2020 4 Comments