well well well, the Season (yes, capital S!) is once again upon us. Naturally, that means our gift guide is back. The 3rd annual!!!! Can you believe it? We can and we can’t. This year we will be celebrating 5 years of Spare Time (and all of our other former identities) and (we have made an empty promise to you many times BUT) 2024 is going have some really sweet stuff in store. We are ready to kick it up a notch. We love it here and hope you do too, and in this day and age you just have to spend time doing what you love, you know? More to come…
Until then, let’s chat gifts. We all do it! Why not make your gifts meaningful, supporting small brands, and spare time approved.
let’s dig in.
A magnificent tinned trout that came to our attention by way of a meal so nice we ate it twice at Cart-Driver in Denver, and she is a perfect stocking stuffer for any of those hot girls in your life who, famously, eat tinned fish. The freshwater trout with juniper and lemon thyme from Fangst is tender, flavorful, aromatic and light, and totally worthy of a place at any table, whether a casual WFH desk lunch or elevated dinner party. DC locals can pick up their tins at Each Peach!
AA here coming at you with the annual chocolate or confection we are loving: this year it is all about two girls on the scene: Dick & Valerie. The Dick Taylor chocolate covered cherries are so gorgeous and deluxe - the perfect treat for the fruit + choco lover on your list. We know that some feel the ick for that combo, so for the rest there are chocolate covered almonds which, good news, are just as perfect. If you really love someone get them both.
Val, on the other hand, has been churning out fancy and decadent treats since 2004. What we must discuss today are the almond and toffee treats - they are like a super fancy heath bar with perfectly roasted almonds and the right amount of salt. It’s one of those treats that most people wouldn’t buy themselves (even though AA definitely does) and feel very special. Perfect for a mom, tbh. If you live in DC A Baked Joint and Each Peach market are, as always, slaying their buying, and they have these goodies (and more) in stock.
A foodie gift for the dads or anyone that has some dad spirit in them is the hot ones hot sauce lineup. Honestly, good family fun right here. If you need a quick laugh this holiday season, the Shaq episode is completely insane.
The cookbook Tenderheart is a beautiful text from Hetty McKinnon that is divided into sections by vegetable, making it the perfect gift for your favorite CSA-haver or farmers market afficionado.
Another excellent cookbook for your gifting pleasure is Perfectly Good Food: A totally Achievable Zero Waste Approach to Home Cooking by Margaret and Irene Li, the sisters behind one of our fav Boston spots, Mei Mei (RIP). This is a genuinely thoughtful and useful guide to how to use up everything in your fridge. Another especially excellent gift for the folks dabbling in CSAs!
While we’re discussing CSAs, why not gift one? Our DMV choice is Moon Valley Farm, as you know, and you can choose a subscription or a gift card for your loved ones. For non-DC folks, a quick google is sure to yield plenty of CSA—or Community Supported Agriculture, for the uninitiated—options to gift a box or subscription of local produce to the chef looking to cook local.
The salad dressing bowl from Rachael Pots is an innovation that I (AA) reach for nearly daily in my kitchen, and I think whoever likes to cook, and specifically make dressing, will really love this. If you are local you can get this at Salt & Sundry too.
We are absolutely loving linocut prints these days, so we’ve got two fun options: Inciardi Prints by Ana, a Portland, ME based artist. She’s really having a moment this year and we especially love her tiny food prints, which are selling very fast! Someone scoop up these sardines ASAP. We also love lilmesser, a queer London artist printing really sexy prints like this (and this and this) and silly ones like this.
Back in the GG for the second time is friend of the pod, fooshoo, a talented Miami-based ceramicist churning out whimsical home goods made by hand. Many items are currently on sale and benefitting Doctors Without Borders and UNICEF. You can’t go wrong with these whimsical and charming goods.
Finally, it has come to our attention that Quince linen sheets and bedding deliver top-dollar quality for an almost unbelievably reasonable price. If you want to be a true hero to your sleepiest fam/friends this holiday season we love this. Bonus points on gifting this to the hot sleepers in your life, even (and especially) if one of those hot sleepers is…you.
You may have noticed that it is winter, aka the collision of two of our favorite seasons: SOUP and BEANIE. Why not grab this gift that celebrates both (also available here in some different colors).
B’al D’afrique is the scent of the season / spare time girls this year. This is the thing you reach for when you need a little extra oomph and a hug. Plus, long distance friend of the pod Soph wears it which then feels like you are hugging your friend all day. Kind of nice! The real deal is a million dollars, so if your budget is more normal, there is a dupe out there. It is literally 10% of the price? MM has purchased and will let you know if it stands up to the original!
These moisturizing body stones are an excellent gift for the dry girlie in your life (it’s us, we’re dry girlies) as well as for the frequent flyer—we love a convenient way to bring an insane amount of moisturizer in our carry-on. Don’t forget the travel case!
For the readers our there, the hot girls read collection from maker Allie Rose is so so so cute. We love it and have seen the garment irl - why is text and body being the same color chic as hell? Allie delivers.
Ross Gay is a brilliant poet and overall perfect human, and we love what he is up to these days. His current obsession is joy: observing it, writing about it, and overall taking it as seriously as we take heartbreak, rage, and fear. He has three wonderful books of essays on the subject, and a perfect one to begin with is Inciting Joy. Ideal for the end of the year when we all get all nostalgic and introspective.
Black Friend: Essays by Ziwe delivers Ziwe’s characteristic humor and charm while offering thoughtful commentary on topics ranging from race, gender, and privilege.
Our Wives Under the Sea by Julia Armfield is an unexpected but lingering read. We read it for book club and while many of us had many questions we all generally really liked it too.
Another fav of the ST gals - Big Swiss by Jen Beagin. All we can really say is that this book is WEIRD but is also enjoyable and fun. You won’t regret picking this one up for a friend. Make it a combo with this and the wives for a truly unhinged book gift.
If you or someone you know is interested in knitting the Wool and the Gang kits are such a perfect all in one kickstart. You can choose from a number of different projects ranging from scarves to blankets and everything in between. Every single thing that you need to create a project comes in the kit making it a one stop shop. Word to the wise - when they say easy that is not the same thing as beginner 🫠.
For ur fav textile artist who is already making shit left and right, consider this fucking adorable tomato pincushion, this cool knitting needle/crochet hook rollup storage bag that comes in many fun patterns, or this wool one that keeps it a little simpler.
And, if there is a crafty person in your life who struggles to stay organized (not that we would know anything about that…don’t open Marie’s closet), may we recommend these recycled plastic crates? They come in three sizes and many colors, are collapsible when not in use, and, our favorite, are on sale.
🎄TY FOR SPENDING YOUR SPARE TIME WITH US 🎁