Selfishly, for me...

I like gift guides, I’ve said so before. Lots of people do. I’m not going to write one though, because, first, whom am I? I barely shop… I’m a student on some kind of budget, whose money goes to piano lessons for the kids, their winter apparel and the occasional visit to Wing Or Tailor to fix the holes in my son’s pants, or shorten my daughter’s pyjama bottoms. I therefore cannot recommend anything more luxurious than a box of IKEA candle sticks for that hygge feeling.

I like the ideas, I like the possibilities, I like the voyeurism… Aren’t those suggestions a little window into a person’s pleasures and priorities?

So here, why not just write a gift guide for myself, little old me, in my tiny black car, on an ideal Saturday of endless hours in Winnipeg.

First, there’d be time for thrifting… I’d visit Signatures by Ellen in St. Boniface, or Redeemed on Academy or Corydon, or even Value Village where the thrill of the hunt is strongest and where time just looking through all the categories evaporate quickest. I’ve also really been meaning to go to Just Like New to You on Portage. 

Lunch at Crumb Queen. A stop at Market 26 for a Lamé fountain pen. 

Browsing at McNally Robinson and choice of recipe books: one for meals, one for baking. Kitchen implements from Happy Cooker. (I could use a bench scraper).

Now, if I were to really give in to fantasy, to the aspirational self in me, I’d take a woodworking class at Bronx Park Community Center. My aspirational self would then have the skills to build cabinetry for my own office in the basement.

Date night with my love at Thermea, because we both like it there. And a future reservation at Petit Socco so we know there’s something to look forward to in January.

The end!