The Source: Gift Guides Round ☝️

The perfect gift this holiday season is a cascade of gift guides. 💝

Dec 06, 2024

Hard to believe we’re already here—even a little past here, a little late, in fact—it’s gift guide time. If my traffic and readership statistics have anything to say about it: It is, in fact, many, many people’s favorite time of the year, at least here in the Treehousesphere. So! This time, I decided to go a little bananas, frankly. I am using more or less the same categories from last year, but broken out into multiple emails, three of them in fact.

A little housekeeping on that note: Because of rapidly-approaching shipping deadlines, I’m going to send these out at a little more frequent of a clip than you are used to seeing from me. Don’t panic! I will go back to emailing you with dubious frequency very, very soon.

This week, we’re shopping for The Naturalist and The Big-Time Putterer in your life.
Next time: The Most(est) Host(ess) and The Hardcore Hibernator
AFTER THAT: The Fun Little Bud and Stocking-Appropriate/Under $30

Left to right, top to bottom. You know, as is customary.

THE HEART OF TRACKING | California naturalist and essayist Richard Vacha’s collection of work originally published in a recurring newspaper column is a study of animal tracks and therefore also a study of our own relationship to the creatures around us/within us.

BRUTALIST BIRDHOUSE | The birds really go for post-war industrial-minded slab forms.

SWEATERWEAVE BASKET | Extremely useful basket that just happens to also look a little like a sweater. Yes.

ARM SLEEVES | Be it contact allergies, thorns and thickets, the sun, or pure modesty, these arm sleeves are extremely useful for covering your forearms in any situation. (Mostly with gardening in mind, but do what you please!)

KITAZAWA SEEDS | Classic and go-to Japanese seed breeders for all manner of Asian vegetable and herb varieties. I planted tatsoi last year and have zero regrets, will plant again.

WAXED CANVAS KNEELER | Stop kneeling on styrofoam or whatever that stuff is!

GEODESIC DOME GREENHOUSE | Some people really like to make a big impression when it’s gift giving time and if that is you, you might consider one of these geodesic dome greenhouse kits, which are, and I’m speaking personally here, stunning.

LET’S BECOME FUNGAL | Less about mushrooms than it is about indigenous wisdom, art practices, and what we can learn, as human people, from the mycological world.

BUMPER STICKERS | Our pal at Working Loose in Blue Hill, Maine has—excuse the factual hyperbole—the best bumper stickers. Here, a naturalistic assortment to choose from. I like “VIP: Very Into Pelicans!”

MUSHROOM KNIFE | Portuguese mushroom knife, with a brush and convenient lil carrying case. Less about art and wisdom, more about collecting mushrooms for consumption.

SPRING CITRUS CSA | One of my favorite annual gifts to myself is a 10LB box of Ojai Pixies every March. However! You don’t have to wait until March if you go for this, the monthly CSA, which arrives through citrus season (January-April).

JAPANESE MOSQUITO AND INCENSE HOLDER | If they’re the type of person that dabbles in Japanese coil incense, they’re going to love this patina-ready brass holder.

WOOD BOX | In gift-giving, there’s a sort of balance that has to be made between something unique and maybe beautiful, something actually useful and something that won’t take all your money. Somehow, these little wooden boxes, made from felled trees in California, check all or most of these, um, boxes.

CHASE DECO WATERING CANS | I am a person who routinely kills many plants. They just want so much water all the time!! Maybe, if one had an extremely beautiful and—I’ll say it—kinda fancy watering can, more plants would live. A theory.

BRASS GEOMETRY INSTRUMENTS | If your putterer is the type to plan it out first (good one), this assortment of pretty, shiny and !! customizable !! brass geometry instruments should work out.

INDIGO DYE KIT | Dyeing various fabrics and garments in indigo has been a long-held pastime of mine. It is fun to do, smells terrible, and dyes everything the best color, especially if you are a secret freak for blue, like yours truly. The barrier for entry for mixing up a vat can be a little high, which is why I like this kit LA’s own Graham Keegan. The kit is approachable, while managing not to skimp on interesting details about the why’s and how’s of what you are doing. PSA: Wear gloves!

DUSTPAN + HAND BROOM SET | Clean-up will feel more fun with this one. If someone has the audacity to tell me this is too pretty for their woodshop I am ready to disagree. I guess this is the sword I’m falling on.

CARBON STEEL POCKET KNIFE | All the home cooks love Pallares, the Spanish knife company that produces those wood-handled culinary knives you may have seen (especially if you’ve come to my house!). Well, here The Handy can get a piece of the steely action with a super-sharp pocket knife. This time the handle is resin and comes in a few other colors as well.

TOOLS MAGAZINE | Maybe a subscription? Maybe some back issues? Of the annual French magazine that explores tools and their technologies and techniques? Previous issue themes have been: Cut, Fold, Weave, Mold.

TOOL TOTE | The following sounds like a keyword search directly out of my own personal heart, maybe it is also for your giftee: Seven-pocket tool tote, made from heavy duty 100% cotton canvas in Japan; adjustable shoulder strap.

ICE CREAM SCOOP TURNING KIT | So, do they like to turn wood? If so, this lil ice cream scoop kit is pretty ridiculously cute. In a woodworking way.

POCKET RATCHET SCREWDRIVER SET | Discovering Yuns (h/t

Erin Boyle

for that one) felt like a fever dream. It’s all so good, I could/did honestly lose myself. This wee screwdriver set (Ratcheting, even! My heart!) is a good one for a stocking, probably, or other contexts.

WORK GLOVES | I mean, what about just a really, really beautiful pair of work gloves, made in Washington State by a nearly-100-year-old leather goods company?

KNIFE MAINTENANCE KIT | Whenever I leave a tool out to get rusty and corroded, I think, ‘Helen and Scott Nearing would not be pleased.’ Help your giftee get that much closer to greatness with a knife maintenance kit. Well-maintained tools are the best tools! Buy once! When will I learn!

THE FURNITURE BIBLE | Most of the time when a book self-describes as biblical, my first thought is, “OK, bud.” But, in this case, this particular reference book does in fact possess a deep knowledge and practical instruction in furniture making, restoration, history, and maintenance. Would we say reverence? Perhaps, even, devotion?

STAIR BASKET | For all putterers and tidiers who find a little accumulation of things on the stairs asking to be brought up (or down) and put away. There are also kits available, for those who love getting tangled in rattan.

COMPACT ITALIAN TOOLBOX | Feeling like it’s time to update an older post about toolboxes, ever since these really beautiful ones hit the scene from Parma, Italy. And yes, for those of you who may be newish here, “latest toolboxes on the scene” is a not incorrect way of describing what we do here.

Affiliate disclaimer: I am experimenting with affiliate links where applicable! If the links I generated even work (dubious), I might receive a small commission should you choose to buy something. As you’ll see if you start clicking around, it’s a fairly small percentage of the items here and did not effect editorial decisions or recommendations.