Hello! Welcome to episode 94 of I’d Rather Stay In. This week, we’re sharing some of our favorite gift ideas leading up to the holidays.
Quick links
SKINCARE
BOOKS
- The Boy, the Mole, the Fox, and the Horse – Charlie Mackesy
- What Do You Do with an Idea? – Kobi Yamada
CRAFTY SHIT
- Kenyarn Hand-Died Yarn
- Floss drops and needle minders
- Stitch-on tags
- Lemon Made Shop embroidery patterns
FOOD GIFTS
HOUSEHOLD
APPAREL
HANDMADE ITEMS/SHOPS
Episode transcript
Megan
Welcome to I’d rather stay in with your hosts Megan Myers and Stephie Predmore. This week, it’s our annual gift guide. Stay tuned.
Stephie
Do you love listening to I’d rather stay in and want to support the podcast? Well now you can visit our website or the link in our Instagram profile and click Buy me a coffee or visit buymeacoffee.com/IRSIpodcast. For the price of a cup of coffee, you can help us cover the costs of creating this podcast. There are no monthly memberships and you could support us at whatever level you like whenever you like. Whether you buy us one coffee, many coffees or simply continue listening as always, we’re so grateful for your support
Hello, Megan Hello, hello.
Do you want to tell the people about your newest life purchase?
Megan
I mean, this could be so many things but I think you are referring to the peloton you’re referring to the peloton. It’s true. I got a peloton I caved to I guess it wasn’t really peer pressure. Nobody was pressuring me. But I need to do something to get my body moving. Again. It’s been hard. I have other things that I can be doing and nothing has really clicked so
Stephie
you don’t want to do any of them.
Megan
I don’t want to do any of them to be clear. But many many, many of my friends have peloton and they all love them, like in a weird coat like fashion. But they recently reduced the price. So they are still expensive but no longer quite as expensive. It is more reasonable for a purchase like this. Yes. And so I bought one and it came in about two weeks. And I’ve really been enjoying it. I hate to say it but I mean, I guess I am happy to say that because I did spend a lot of money on it. But right? Yes, it is enjoyable. I have taken spin classes at the Y and I have taken SoulCycle classes and I hated both of those. So maybe it just needed a spin class by myself.
Stephie
Well, I need pretty much every exercise I do to be my by myself except for yoga that I can happily do in a class setting. But basically every other exercise I don’t want anyone looking at me. Don’t look at me. Don’t be in the same room as me. Don’t breathe near me as far away as possible, so I can because I am just constantly flailing my limbs don’t know what they’re doing. I look like I’m dying. It’s just a whole lot happening. So feel like at home by yourself. But then there’s still like a community feel, I guess, you know, because you could take a ride with your friends like at the same time.
Megan
Yeah, and you I mean, there are live classes I have not dipped my toes into the live classes yet because I am really bad at cycling so far. I feel like I need to get get a few more rides under me before I start doing those because I assume all of those are much harder with weights and up and off your seat and multiple things like that. And that sounds horrible.
Stephie
I I came over and use the back a couple times this week to see if I cuz I was like, Oh, well if Megan has one and lives down the street, I may as well try hers out before I decided to purchase one for myself. So I don’t like blow $1,400 on something that I end up hating. And also my husband had some nice cycling shoes for when he used to ride road like used to road bike. And we have the same size feet because I have massive feet. So I just took his shoes and it’s not bad. My butt hurts. Like I forgot how bony my asses until the day after my first ride and like I went to sit down and I was like, Why does my butt feel like it’s bruised? Oh,
Megan
yeah, see, my bud is very padded. And it I did not have that problem. After right which is a little it’s not right right now,
Stephie
but it’s like my six bones or whatever. Like you know when you’re in yoga and they’re like, you know, whatever your sits but like your sits bones like that. I don’t know what its real name is but I’m sure my husband could tell me. You know,
Megan
it’s about when you sit on your boat. It’s your sits bones.
Stephie
And it’s funny cuz I texted Taylor to tell her about this. And she was like, you know for how expensive those likes are you think they could give you a more comfortable seat? And I was like, Yeah, they really could.
Megan
Yeah, but it’s the same purpose of like riding a regular bike like my regular bike seat is not great. I remember just there aren’t any that are comfortable.
Stephie
I remember when I was a kid, my dad used to ride his bike a lot. And he like, specifically bought like, a cushy seat, and I totally understand why now.
Megan
Yeah, I think mine’s make it’s a little bit cushy, but still not comfortable because the seat is so much smaller than your butt. So it’s just never gonna be awesome. Yeah, so that’s good. And also Jameela Jamil who I love her. Also got one and she live. tweeted or I guess after tweeted, I don’t know how exactly she did it. Maybe she had an assistant. But she was like, tweeting her thoughts as she was going through the ride. And I was like, yep, yep, yep. Yep. Very accurate. Yeah. So we’ll see. We’ll check in on me. Yeah, we’ll check in about it and you know, a couple months and see how we’re doing.
Stephie
Still on the peloton. Yeah. But yeah, I definitely hated it less than most workouts.
Megan
Ah, yeah. It’s hard to say the good thing is that you can pick short ones. So the 20 Minute ones, by the time I get to like the 10 minute mark, where I’m like, really, really hating it. I realize I’m halfway through and then it’s like, fine, right. Then you’re like, Okay, push through the rest. Right. And then I feel great afterwards, of course, but um, yeah, it’s it’s still a little bit rough to get through, right. I’m very not cardio minded
Stephie
and not doing anything out of the saddle, which sounds terrifying.
Megan
Oh, I did it for the first the first class I checked. It was horrible, because I just like, oh, yeah, I just picked a random class. I was like, I’ll just take a 20 minute class, whatever. And it wasn’t part of it. You had to get up and I was like, Why? Why we
Stephie
thought this was a good idea. This sounds terrible. Yeah. Well, I guess we’re peloton, people now.
Megan
Well, apparently,
Stephie
I’m a peloton, person by proxy. We’ll see if I become an official peloton person or not.
Megan
It’s fine. You’re welcome to use my home gym.
Stephie
It’s much appreciated. Aside from the fact that I have to like put on pants and shoes to come to you. It’s much appreciated. I wish we just had a tunnel between our houses would be super convenient. So Megan, we are going to talk about some gifts that we think are pretty dandy.
Megan
Yes, we both already started buying Christmas gifts. You already gave people Christmas gifts. Very on top of it.
Stephie
Well, yes. Because we you know, we drove all the way down to North Carolina and I was seeing some people I was going to ship Christmas gifts to and I was like fuck that I’m not paying for shipping. Already driving down to see that I’m so we had Christmas in October. It’s fine.
Megan
So we have a list with various categories of things that we enjoy things that would be either good gifts for the people you love in your life or maybe you know a nice little gift for yourself. Because if you’re like us, you have to fill your own stocking as well.
Stephie
Mom problems
Megan
mom problems indeed. So we thought you know we did a Buy Local kind of episode last year and we thought a a nice little fun gift guide would be a nice thing to do this year.
Stephie
Yeah, so we’re gonna kick it off with skincare.
Megan
Skincare love a skincare product as our friend Ade knows and advocates for. I have two that I would like to recommend that I use for myself. And I like to think that I have nice skin. You do have nice. I have good genes,
Stephie
first of all for my skin with things that you are 41. So which is
Megan
a wonderful thing. Yeah. So I use for my face wash. In the shower, I use a product that is made by fresh. It’s just called Fresh, which I find somewhat confusing when I try to tell people about
Stephie
products and they’re like, yes, that’s the goal. And you’re like no who’s on first.
Megan
Right? Exactly. I think they’re based in the UK. They make a really good cleanser and good masks too but I use A soy cleanser is really, like, gentle. And it’s good for even removing makeup even though I don’t use it for that. But I find it especially if I’m traveling my skin, I was extra funky when I travel. And if I bring this with me, it’s a lot better. So that is my favorite, favorite favorite cleanser right now, and actually has been for like a couple years. And I always get kind of sad if I run out of it. And then my other one is a moisturizer that I just started using last month because I ran out of the one I had. And I didn’t really want to place an order online. So I bought the La Roche Posay moisturizer that they have at Target. And it’s really nice. It is like a third of the price of the stuff that I normally buy, which was a huge selling point for me. Yes, it’s like super rich and makes my skin feel really really nice. Like I really like since I started using it, my skin is like softer and I have been breaking out less. And that is like the only thing that I really changed was doing that moisturizer instead. And then I also actually switched, I ran out of my hydrating toner. So I have a different one. Now I use the hydrogen toner from Trader Joe’s actually. But like the combination of those things like my skin’s just been really, really nice. And I think even for winter, it’s going to be a good moisturizer. Usually I need like a thicker one with a dry weather here. But it’s really good. It’s like 25 bucks. And it’s like a pretty good size. I should have grabbed the bottle, but it’s a good sized bottle. Like, I’m impressed. I have not tried their other products. But I think this is this is great. And if you know someone who needs some moisturizer, face moisturizer in your life might be you. You could add this to your own wish list.
Stephie
And I will say I have not used any of the fresh skincare products but they have some lip care products that are really great that I have used. Oh yes, they do. They have a Sugar Lip polish like exfoliator which is so nice. And then looks like they also have like a lip mask and a bunch of different lip balms and things like that. So if you’re not sure, like what someone’s skin situation is doing something nice, like a really nice lip balm lip scrub, like that kind of stuff is also great. Also those make great stocking stuffers.
Megan
Yeah, I think we really neglect our lips in general. So lip scrubs are totally awesome gifts that like most people don’t think of gay for themselves. Mm hmm.
Stephie
Absolutely. So for me and skincare world, I love Kate Somerville, like the goat milk moisturizer. And I don’t actually buy it all the time because it is a little bit more like it’s more on the expensive side. For me, I think it’s like 60 bucks. And it lasted for a while but I love it. I love the way it makes my skin feel. And it’s like a fairly, I feel like it’s it’s fairly like skin type agnostic. Like it’s pretty good for like multiple different skin types. there and I know like our friend Adi has purchased some of the Kate Somerville products, she gets them as gifts for her mom and stuff like that, too. So there’s a ton of great products from her line. And then we love an SPF. So I also added Supergoop products to the list. Because they have some really lovely SPF, not just your typical like, Oh, I’m going to the beach like sunscreen type stuff, but they have their like eyeshadows their SPF lip balms, like all that kind of stuff. So again, those are some nice products that you can get that aren’t necessarily like you don’t have to know like what someone’s exact routine is you can just throw in a little extra SPF love.
Megan
Yeah, they’re really, really great. I have some of their SPF CC cream as well. And it’s really nice. And I think one thing that people forget about is that you do need SPF in the winter. So even if you’re like, Oh, it’s a Christmas gift. Why would I give SPF like, Don’t worry, it’s still a good gift.
Stephie
They probably forgotten about it. They probably need a reminder. They probably need
Megan
a reminder. Hey, hey girl, but that stuff not just on the tip of your nose.
Stephie
Oh Don’t be a Gwyneth
Megan
Paltrow and don’t Paltrow it up, face all over. So we also have a couple of books that we wanted to recommend. They actually are both like, they’re not novels or anything. But they’re both really, really lovely books that like warm your heart, and I think are good gifts for all ages Totally
Stephie
agree.
Megan
One of my favorite books that came out, I think it came out a couple years ago now that I just, I turned to whenever I need, like, kind of like an uplifting day, but also maybe I want to cry a little bit, you know, like that kind of a feeling. The book called the boy, the mole, the fox and the horse. And it’s like, beautiful brush paint drains. And kind of like how, you know, a few, maybe like 20 years ago now God, I hate to say that was 20 years ago. But we were all about like, The Tao of Pooh books. Do you remember those books? It was like, it was supposed to be like, you know, wisdom, but stuff that poor would say or stuff that piglet would say there was a whole series of them. It reminds me of those. But it’s just really lovely. And it makes me think of a lot of like self care memes that have been on Instagram a lot except these like it has a theme and I’m not explaining it very well.
Stephie
It’s it’s just, it’s just been a lot of lovely little takeaways. Yeah,
Megan
it’s a nice little and that like an advice book, but like a life book.
Stephie
Yes, I agree. It is beautiful. And again, like it’s got some really lovely pictures. It’s like a nice, younger age book, but adults can also totally enjoy it. And my book suggestion is what do you do with an idea by Kobi Yamada, I actually love all of this author’s books. There’s a few in this series. There’s the originals what to do with an idea, but there’s also what do you do with a problem? I can’t remember what the third one is. I have all of them. But what do you do with an idea? It’s so it’s just like really inspirational, like and not in like a cheesy way. Like, I don’t know, it’s just, you feel inspired after you read the book. And again, it’s another one where the illustrations are really beautiful. And it is like a children’s picture book. But I have gifted this book to adults, like, multiple times. Because I think it’s just kind of a ageless book. For everyone to enjoy.
Megan
Yeah, I agree.
Stephie
So now we’re going to talk about crafty shit. Yeah. Because we all love No,
Megan
we love craft. We love
Stephie
crafty shit. So I have a few things. So if you are gifting to somebody who does any sort of crocheting or knitting or anything with yarn, hand dyed yarns are really lovely. Especially if the person is someone like me, and like I have a hard time like buying myself really nice yarn. Because I’ll be like, Oh my gosh, well, I don’t know what project I’m going to use it for. And I don’t know I don’t know. I don’t know and then I just don’t buy it and then I have regrets that I didn’t buy the pretty yard. So like by the by the person the pretty yard because they they may or may not actually buy it for themselves. There’s a there’s a there’s a brand a guy it’s called Ken yarn. actually follow him on Instagram. He’s adorable. And there’s some different patterns and things like that but he does all of these really beautiful hand dyed yarns and he’ll do like different series he had one that was a whole Mean Girls series this summer. And he had like the different colors inspired by the different characters and Mean Girls, all these like different collections that he does. So they’re just they’re just gorgeous. Also for if you have somebody that does cross stitch or embroidery, Adam Hart cross stitch is she is actually someone I follow on tick tock and Instagram. She does some really great cross stitching and embroidery content, and actually even like some like knitting and crocheting type of content over there on both platforms, but she makes these acrylic floss drops and needle minders, which are really great if you want to gift to somebody there they come in different colors. There she’s like specifically designed them so they’re super functional. So that those would be a great gift as well as there’s a Etsy shop called MRM tags. And they are stitch on tags for like the crocheted or knitted items that you’ve made. Like if you make a sweater or a hat or a scarf or something like you can, you can stitch on these tags to like, put your branding on it and say like, you know, made with love by whomever. So you could put your logo on it or your name or whatever. So they’re really really nice. They are a faux leather. I have some myself. So that’s a nice little thing that you can get for you know, a maker in your life. Who might enjoy some of those.
Megan
Yeah, I think I need some needle minders myself I am horrible.
Stephie
I went down a real needle minder. Also like you can just like search like needle minders on Etsy and so many cute ones come up. I went down a real rabbit hole recently of like, Oh, I like this one. I like this one. Oh, I like this one.
Megan
can have like a table full of needle minders.
Stephie
I settled on a shits Creek one one of David roses, sweaters and then a cat. But
Megan
of course,
Stephie
I decided with that’s that’s what I would start with but you could have a whole collection of adorable needle minders. Really.
Megan
There are so many embroidery patterns on Etsy but one of my favorite shops is a called lemon made shop and she makes cute little planty embroidery patterns. She also has a book that I cannot remember the name of right now. But she has like a series where she does states and the flowers that go in the States. She does cute little ornament patterns. She does all sorts of any kind of plant. If you love plants, and embroidery. I feel like she’s the go to person for that. Etsy is a great resource for buying patterns. So you can either gift patterns or buy the pattern and then make the project give. Yeah, you totally
Stephie
could. And you could do it with like a whole little like if you were going to give the pattern you could do you know, needle minders, and maybe really a nice little pair of embroidery scissors. Like you could do a whole little basket, a little kit. Yeah. Oh my gosh, would be so cute.
Megan
So we always have to have food gifts. I mean, it wouldn’t be us if we didn’t, right. Hello. We love to buy local stuff. But not everybody obviously can get all of our favorite local things. So one of my go to places for getting spices for gifts. And for myself is penzeys. They are actually based in Wisconsin. So it’s close by for me now. And they have a huge, huge, huge inventory. There. They’re a really great company, they’re socially minded, I love all of their products, they’re really good quality. If you know somebody who is like starting out their kitchen, they have really great kits that you can get I highly recommend those that way you can set up them completely. They also do gift cards so you can have them pick up stuff themselves. But also one of my favorite things to give his or get to my for myself. To be honest, I love buying myself food gifts when I travel about so many winter North Carolina, but local jam or local honey or handmade mustards things, you could get the farmer’s market, those are all super great gifts because they’re edible. So they’re not going to last forever, which I love. And then they’re kind of like a nice glimpse into either where you live or places that you’ve traveled that you can share with your friends and family.
Stephie
Yeah, the farmers market is always great for that stuff. I love getting or like and when I travel, I’m always looking for like, unique pickles and barbecue sauces and hot sauces and stuff like that, that I’ll bring back for my husband. Or sometimes even like I’ll find like a candy shop and pop in there. But anything like that is super fun for the foodie in your life.
Megan
I love to give coffee too. That’s a really good one. Yeah.
Stephie
Coffee is us. Yeah, dollar one.
Megan
There’s also quite a few coffee subscriptions. Now. I get trade coffee. They’re really great. It’s changing Is the company for each delivery that you get, it has a few that it rotates through. But for the most part, you get a different one each time. And it’s a really nice way to try different coffees. Yeah.
Stephie
And actually our local roaster here for the coffee shop that we frequent. The coffee shop is coffee hound. And then the roaster, their brand is serious coffee roaster, serious as in serious the constellation, the dog constellation. And they actually have a coffee subscription as well. So if you’re like, I don’t know where to start, they’re pretty great. They make some pretty good coffee.
Megan
Yeah, they actually also have a Tea subscription. So yeah, they got
Stephie
a whole bunch of different cool stuff. So definitely worth checking that out. Onto onto some household things. So we’ve moved from the kitchen into the rest of the house. There is a shop called fair and simple. It’s actually founded by someone that I have known back from like junior high. And it started as a fairly small shop. But all like Fairtrade goods, and has grown substantially, but there’s tons of really fun. Like home items, jewelry, clothing, even like fabric and patterns, if you want to make your own clothing, there’s just a ton of really cool stuff on there. And you could get gift cards if you want. Or you can order something directly from them. So but there’s a ton of really cool like, hand made fair trade items on that shop if that’s something that you’re interested in. So they’re going to be like really nice quality. And then there’s a shop called Eamon friends, and as a ton of really fun stationery. And there’s like tons of boxes, card sets and postcard books and journals and magnets and all kinds of stuff like that. There’s little pouches I have actually one of the pouches that our friend Kathleen sent me that I use as my makeup bag. And it’s a dandelion with the the last little things blowing in the wind and it says the last of my Romanian fucks on it. And I just checked and they do still have that on the website. So you can match me if you want. Um, there’s one that says the tears of my enemies and also some hair ties. So there’s some like really sassy stuff on there and some good fun stationery items.
Megan
Yeah, actually, I have bought many, many cards from the main designer Emily McDowell and I didn’t realize that she had a new website so I think
Stephie
they just I think she just rebranded like maybe yeah, here to be em and friends. But yeah, I have a couple of the box to card sets because they’re really, actually really love the there’s a set of empathy cards, not sympathy cards, but empathy cards, which I really love. And they’re like great designs of like, please let me be the first punch the next person who tells you everything happens for a reason. I’m sorry, you’re going through this like just like really honest, relatable stuff like that. So like, you know, that’s not necessarily like a gift, but just something that you could buy to keep on hand. Also love I think I might have a set of the birthday cards or something like that. So yeah, they’re really fun ones just to keep around. Yeah, I love that you just like sending
Megan
cards. I do like I need to send more cards you guys too. I love getting them I love sending them and I have always have some on hand that I’m like I’m gonna send this and then I it sits on my desk forever. Oh, well. I’ll be better I promise.
Stephie
Maybe
Megan
one shop that we door is Rifle Paper Co I know that you’ve seen it out and about in the world. It’s beautiful floral patterns on like everything.
Stephie
Mm hmm yeah, that’s a stationery but lots of home decor stuff now to just like so much stuff.
Megan
Yeah, I bought a cute little Rifle Paper Co like, like a little trinket tray. I guess you would call it from my bathroom. It is beautiful. I love it. You have shoes from them. They make planners they make little wall decor signs they make I want to say they make like textile Animals now to like pillows and things like that. It’s just a wide, wide variety. If you love all things floral, you should absolutely check it out. And they
Stephie
actually sell like their fabric like by the yard as well. So you could buy their fabric. And, like if you again if you have a seamstress in your life, or if you want to make something yourself. So there’s lots of lots of really fun stuff on their site. Yeah. And then plume candles, I’m married to a candle man. So I always love a candle. And plume candles are actually made locally to us. So they’re made impure of just 45 minutes away. And they actually think this might be what I ordered from plume candles. The first time I think it might have been the first time I ever encountered those packing peanuts that dissolve in water. And I was delighted. But yeah, they are some great candles. They’ve got a lot of the, you know, kind of standard ones, but then they have you know, like your leather and teak wood and stuff like that. But right now they also have like a black currant, which sounds amazing. Yeah, it does sound really lovely. So if you like candles, that’s a nice maker to check out.
Megan
Absolutely down the rabbit hole on this fabric. Oh, I’m gonna go back to that. But goodness, oh, another candle creator that I love that I hate to mention it because if you’re listening to this, in, you’re my friend, you’re probably going to get one for Christmas. So hopefully you can forget by the time it rolls around. But I love labyrinth big goods candles. They are made with a partnership from our local YWCA and it employs women who were previously incarcerated and it helps them get back on their feet gives them some nice business tools to have in their employee or employee arsenal. So it makes them more easily employed. It’s really hard to get a job if you’ve been in jail. And it gives these ladies a second chance. And the candles are delightful.
Stephie
I love it. Love it so much. A couple of apparel items. Hello headband. If you love a headband, or you have someone in your life who loves a headband, they make super soft headbands. Like they are so so buttery soft. And they are also made locally to us in Peoria. So those are they’ve got a lot of different styles. They have like ones that are you know, they also they do super fun prints. So like I know a lot of times they’ll do like teacher related ones are like healthcare related ones or whatever. So if you have like a nurse in your life, or like a dental tech in your life or something like that, they might have some themed ones but I love their buttery soft headbands. And then there’s a I actually so I don’t people, if you have an Apple Watch, I guess you probably know this. But Apple watch bands are really fucking expensive. Like, inexplicably like they’re, they really are. They’re inexplicably expensive. And I because when I got my Apple watch, I had it for like a year before I realized like my band was getting kind of just gross looking because at the light pink one, and I went to go buy another one. And they were like 50 to $60. And I was like What in the world. And so I hopped on Etsy, and I found this shop Castor, Troy. And they make a bunch of different Apple watch bands that are actually like affordable like under 10 bucks. Some of them there’s like a leather ones, I think that are more expensive. But most of them are under 10 bucks. And they actually do like they fit great on my watch. They also have like, I have some of the like skinny ones, because I actually have a pretty small wrist. And so I like having actually this lately, it’s like thinner band, but they come in tons of different styles and colors. So that could be really fun to get like a couple of those if you have someone in your life that has an Apple watch that you’d think probably doesn’t want to spend $60 for a new watch band.
Megan
Yeah, I remember when I got mine, it was like a big conflict of trying to figure out like, what color you want to get. And that’s when you’re gonna get to it. You’re married to a million dollar forever. So it’s nice like it reminds me of like old school like the cheap watches that you would just get like one of every color right so you could just switch out your bands to match whatever you’re wearing
Stephie
exactly like I cuz I got one I only got one color. And then I was like, Oh, I’ll go like, I’ll make sure it like fits. And I like it before I go buy more and then I just keep forgetting to order more. But you could totally get like a few different colors and change it up with your outfit or whatever. Yeah, very cute.
Megan
They have some really cute braided ones, too. You don’t want plastics? Yeah, tons. We had different offshoring ones.
Stephie
Yeah. And we’re going around things out here with just some like handmade items. And these are like shops that make handmade items. Some of these we’ve talked about before on the podcast, but I feel like they’re always worth mentioning again. The first step is Whitney Winkler, if you’ve been to my house, you’ve seen her art. That’s it. A ton of her art. But she actually she actually, I think this year, she opened like a brick and mortar shop in Memphis where she lives, which is super great, because I think the first time I ordered from her was like before, people really knew who she was not to sound like a hipster. But it was before people really knew who she was. And she was like, just starting her business. And so it’s been really fun, like as a customer to watch her grow her business and become so successful. But in addition to like different art prints and stuff she has, she’s put her her designs, like her paintings on textiles. And so she has different bags and clutches and ornaments and headbands, and pillows, and I mean just all sorts of cool stuff. She even has like Christmas stockings. So just all kinds of stuff. If you’re like just not sure what someone’s wall art aesthetic is, there’s lots of different stuff there. I’ve also talked about pop vision. It’s a really cool shop I discover because of tick tock in based out of Oklahoma, but the owner, it’s a queer and person of color that owns the shop and makes every all the products by hand and they’re just really cool bath bombs and stuff like that. So if you’ve got somebody in your life that loves to take a bath that’s a good that’s a really nice like debt because again, like I don’t buy myself really nice bath bombs, but if someone gives it to me, I’m really excited about it. And I also have purchased some earrings recently some polymer clay earrings least recently from a little shop called abi and clay. She’s based out of Ireland. I think I ordered like three pairs. And then she even threw in like a little like, bonus extra pair. It was super cute. But I really like those. I’ve been enjoying wearing those. There’s some really pretty ones. But there’s tons of really cool, you know, like polymer clay earrings and stuff on Etsy if you search as well.
Megan
Oh, yeah, there’s a ton. So these ones are really really cute though. I think I one of the reasons I like them so much is that I have not seen other ones like them. Yes. Yeah. And they’re so detailed.
Stephie
Oh my gosh, the detail is amazing. And they’re and I like you know, they’re because they’re polymer clay. They’re really lightweight. So they’re not just like pulling on your ears. Yeah, I love them. And then my last one, our friend Kathleen, she has a jewelry shop with one of her friends called wish upon a shop and tons of cute bracelets and they can do custom stuff for you as well. So always worth giving them a check.
Megan
And mask chains
Stephie
and mask chains. Yes. Can’t forget about the mask change as much as we wish we could. We cannot yet so get yourself a mask.
Megan
Yeah, I have a feeling to that. I mean, it’s a mass chain, but also like you can wear it as a necklace guys.
Stephie
Totally Yeah, you can like clasp a little things together. And yeah, absolutely. You can
Megan
no one would know who’s gonna know. So one more that I wanted to make sure that we added is our friend Susannah’s as mom’s shop. Called, o and y studio, we got to visit her studio.
Stephie
Oh my gosh, it was amazing. It
Megan
was like stephie’s dream come true. It was pretty awesome.
Stephie
She fed us an incredible meal. She had us over to her house fed us she’s from South Africa. She made us some traditional South African food which was delicious. And then she showed us her little craft room studio and I nearly died of happiness.
Megan
It was like everything that if you are a craft person Whatever dream I’ve had, she had like multiple workspaces. She had, you know, 20 pairs of scissors. She has beautiful yarn organization while it was insane and awesome. loved it so much, but she makes these adorable. I guess you would call it embroidery. They’re there hoops and they are embroidered with yarn. She makes their beautiful floral design. She’s been making some really cute scenes for Christmas ornaments. Yeah, some new ones that are up right now. They’re all really, really beautiful and really lovely. And they make a great gift.
Stephie
Yeah, they really do. I have I have a few of her pieces in my house. And I love them so much. So she’s also got these little like, just like little broaches. She she’s got so all sorts of different stuff and all sorts of different colors. And like Megan said, there’s some seasonal like Christmas ornaments and stuff too. So I always love Yeah, I like gifting a Christmas ornament.
Megan
I did too. I was we always end up having, you know, we buy like to buy our special Christmas ornament every year. So like gifting an ornament is always really nice, too.
Stephie
Yeah, yeah, I have I have several Christmas ornaments that have been gifted to me over the years. And every time that I put up my tree, I think about the person that gifted me the ornament, and just a nice little nice little memory lane type of situation. So that’s it, guys. That is our 2021 Gift Guide.
Megan
And we hope that it gave you lots of ideas.
Stephie
Yeah, we Yeah, hopefully you’ve got some good ideas, I will link all of these things in our show notes on the blog, in the Quick Links, so it will be slightly less quick than usual. But there will be linked there so you can check them out. And click through and purchase. And, you know, even if you’re not looking for Christmas gifts, things to keep in mind for birthday gifts, or just because gifts, I like buying just because gifts.
Megan
Yeah, and I think you know, we always want to make sure that we are supporting our local economies buying from these cute little shops, it’s people trying to make a living, or you know, just trying to get some extra side money through their hobby. And I always think it’s really important to support them. But remember that you do want to get your orders in. Yes, the crazy shipping season is upon us. So make sure you order early, you don’t want to like get missing out because you’re waiting for things and shipping especially things that might be from further away like those clay earrings. They are from Ireland. So it’ll take a little bit longer, but I just start planning now guys,
Stephie
get on it. Yo
Megan
don’t wait till the last minute is the
What’s bringing us joy?
Stephie
lesson Don’t be my husband. I’m sorry. Megan was bringing you joy this week.
Megan
I just got my brand new 2022 calendar, and I hung it up today I felt very productive with myself because I hung it and I hung a couple other things that have just been sitting on my desk for like a year. So I feel like I finally like have that side of the room taken care of but they are really big wall calendars that are on you know, like those wooden poster rail situations. I don’t know how to describe this, but they’ve been kind of popular lately where it’s like a wooden rail and you hang it between these two magnetic pieces of wood. And so these posters are enormous. The poster calendars are enormous and have lots of space for me to write on. But also I can see the entire year all at once. This past year, I did not have a large calendar on my wall and it drove me insane. Like I did not realize I did not realize how often I look at this giant calendar that I used to have at my old house until I only had a desk calendar that only showed up one month at a time.
Stephie
Well I also think you got a little discouraged in 2020 when you had purchased your big calendar and like written things in and that they all have to be crossed their race everything you feel like you were like just not feeling optimistic enough about this year to buy a big calendar.
Megan
That is true. I think that was part of it. I bought one that like lives in the kitchen. Mostly for like the kids to look at. But yeah, I guess my 2020 calendar like had so many things written on it. And then luckily it was a dry erase calendar. So I just had to go With a spray bottle, wipe it all off and it was very sad. But I’m excited about this. I love having everything like right in front of me. So yeah, puts it in it takes up like a huge portion of my wall. So now I feel like I actually have my room more decorated. It looks great. Yeah, I love it. What’s bringing you joy?
Stephie
I have been making some sweaters. That makes me happy. Excellent. So making the baby a sweater. And I’ve been making myself a like big oversized, like cardigan style sweater. So yeah, I got tired of counting the stitches to make I did to make the sleeves on the sweater I was making for Eden. So I switched over to the sweater for myself because the pattern, like the base of the sweater is just like the same, like stitch rows, couple rows of stitches, like over and over. So it’s a lot easier to like zone out and do. But I will I will switch back and finish her sweater at some point. I just miscounting was getting annoyed with myself. So
Megan
hopefully you will switch back before it is too big for her or too small for or it’s like
Stephie
spring or whatever.
Megan
Right?
Stephie
I will I will I will I will. I just needed to. I also like might be going to Toronto for work in December possibly. So I also really want to finish my sweater so I could possibly like wear it while I’m up there. So
Megan
I thought you’re gonna say so you could bring your knitting on the plane and be that person.
Stephie
I mean, I also might do that. That’s also entirely possible. Like, let’s just be extremely clear. That is entirely possible.
Megan
You might as well what else are you gonna do watch some horrible movie that you’ve already seen?
Stephie
Exactly. Or right? Like watch something where you’re like, I haven’t seen this and halfway through. You’re like, this is terrible. And also not something I should be watching on a plane while people are sitting next to me. So uncomfortable. Oh my god, it’s the worst when you’re like, This movie will be great. And then you’re like, Oh, shit. There’s a lot of sex in this movie. Anyway,
Megan
that’s exciting. Yep. Have You Ever Have you ever made stocks I have a friend who made socks always makes she makes the lots that’s basically all she makes his socks.
Stephie
Yeah, I went through a real sock phase A while ago. And I have a very specific pattern that I like, for my socks that I make. Because I have big feet as I mentioned earlier in the episode, and so like crude, like handmade socks kind of have to be the right size. They’re not like socks, you could just buy at the store and like they cover a range of sizes. And this pattern, it’s like a custom sized situations you like measure your foot and then like based on the length of your foot, like you know how, how big to make the socks or whatever it like walks you through it. And I have literally worn my handmade socks so much that I’ve like worn holes in them. So I actually do need to make myself some new ones but I have made many pairs of socks over the years.
Megan
My biggest fear of making any item of clothing is that I will lose interest before I finish and then it will not fit
Stephie
for me and again like I crochet guys. So crocheting is a little bit faster than knitting in general. But I the socks actually are not bad because they do go pretty quickly. Like I can bust out a pair of socks in like a week’s worth of evenings. But yeah, sometimes there is that like I made one sock and then I got distracted and then it was a few months before I finished the second sock. Really my feet have not grown in years, so it’s fine
Next week’s episode
Megan
so you guys really enjoyed our Costco episode and we thought why not repeat it by going to one of our other favorite weird stores Aldi.
Stephie
Yeah, Aldi is weird as hell, but it’s got some good holiday finds. So we’re gonna go shopping, we’re gonna come back and report on all of the crazy things that we found. In the meantime, leave us a review on Apple podcasts and listen to us on your favorite platform. You can also follow us on social media at IRSIpodcast or send us an email at idratherstayinpodcast@gmail.com We’d love to hear from our listeners.
Megan
Bye
Transcribed by https://otter.ai