Smells like lemongrass and cedar, so it doubles as summer perfume. Good Flower Farm’s DEET-free bug spray from northern Wisconsin, in a 4 fl oz or 2.7 fl oz travel bottle.
Floor-plant territory: a bird of paradise, a rubber tree, a palm, 12-inch nursery pot and all. Jungle Club Monroe 12-inch ceramic planter, Rainforest green.
A fiddle-leaf fig can move in straight from the plant shop, grow pot and all, no repotting. Jungle Club Monroe 10-inch fluted ceramic planter, Rainforest green.
Silk on one side for the cool, cotton on the other, lavender either way, sized to cover both eyes and stay put. Baudelaire Japanese eye pillow, made in the USA.
A birthday card dressed as a Kodak VHS label, for the friend who still remembers rewinding. Highland Park Paper Co retro birthday card, 16pt stock, blank.
Birthday wishes on a clean grid for the friend who alphabetizes the spice rack. Highland Park Paper Co birthday card, A2, kraft envelope, made in the USA.
Mixtape nostalgia with a metal cutter. SUCK UK’s retro cassette tape dispenser, 5.5 inches, comes with one roll of clear tape and takes standard 19 mm refills.
Game On Chess Set – Iron & Glory magnetic travel chess set
Chess on a train, a dock, or a tray table: magnetic pieces stay put on a 5-inch tin that doubles as the board. SUCK UK Iron & Glory travel chess set, ages 14+.
The pot for the one plant by the kitchen sink: water it there, pop the plug back in, set it back. Jungle Club Lucy fluted ceramic planter, high-gloss glaze.
Strike, burn a few seconds, blow out, relight as often as you like. Maxwell’s Mystic Matches: 15 two-inch Peruvian palo santo matchsticks, strike-on-box carton.
Hand-sorted for resin, the difference between a stick that smokes and one that chars. Maxwell’s premium palo santo sticks from fallen Peruvian trees, 2.5 oz.
Five centuries of fortune-telling decks, hundreds of rarely seen images, for the reader who wants the history behind the cards. Laetitia Barbier, 400 pages.
Cellulose acetate from wood pulp and cotton, cut by hand into a pair of cat ears. Adorro mini claw clips, set of two, about 1.5 inches, designed in Chicago.
The soft, floral one of the four Noir tins: night-blooming jasmine over black amber, musk, and sandalwood. L’apothicaire Noir Requiem travel candle, 8 oz tin.
Leather, black tea, pipe tobacco, a study of crumbling books. L’apothicaire Noir Nevermore travel candle, 8 oz tin, the one we’d light in a Wisconsin February.