Roots + Crowns || Give Authentic 2017

Portland really must have the best makers. We were so excited to discover Roots + Crowns this Christmas season...

Tell Us About Your Business

Roots & Crowns is a one-woman apothecary out of Portland, OR. I specialize in Tincture-based Bitters, Herbal Remedies, Botanical Skincare, Aromatherapy, & Ritual. Roots & Crowns as a simply put mission, is "plant power to the people." I only use organic and/or wildcrafted ingredients and every product is inspired by the needs of people in my life. I strive to make sure my work is both helpful, while also enhancing the beauty and joy in as many lives as possible.

Where are you located?

Portland

Why should people shop small?

The more we support small and/or local economy, the better off we all are. Contrary to what huge corporations want their shareholders to believe, unlimited growth is both impossible and unsustainable. With growth comes the necessity to cut corners/aspects of quality. That's just the way it is. Smaller is actually better in terms of quality and craftsmanship.

Why support makers?

Moving off my reasons for people shopping small, I believe that by having more makers receive support from the population, we are encouraging more people to live on purpose. This means a happier, more vital society at large.

What is your most popular product?

Rose Face Serum

What is the greatest reward in being a small business?

When I get emails from customers telling me that my work has helped them heal. But really- all the feedback I get from folks who notice what a difference my work makes in their lives. When I get a message like that, it's like an energy boost for the rest of the day.

What is the greatest struggle in being a small business?

The uncertainty. Constantly hoping that I will be able to make ends meet, and maintain a healthy work/life balance.

What is one piece of advice you'd share?

If you have a deep yearning to do something, try it! Fear is part of every risk, but I choose to see certain risks as a leaps of faith. Usually those deep yearnings are intuitive gut instincts that help guide us to what we really, really want to do with our lives. I'm not going to say it's always easy, but I believe when you follow your heart and work hard, everything is possible.

What is your favorite Christmas song?

I wish I had a more obscure thing to say, but I have to say Mariah Carey's "All I Want for Christmas is You"

ADME Apothecary || Give Authentic 2017

ADME is making simple, easy to use, and beautiful apothecary products. I am so excited to introduce them to you this Christmas season...

Tell Us About Your Business

ADME Apothecary was created by a public health nerd, passionate about making routine beauty products healthier. The name was inspired by how anything we put in our bodies, or on our skin, travels through our bodies. ADME Apothecary is dedicated to creating products that replenish and repair daily damage to your skin without leaving anything harmful behind. ADME uses high quality, organic ingredients, and develops blends for all skin types. Each product is made by hand, in small batches to ensure you receive the best possible product. ADME Apothecary is also dedicated to making a difference in the world. I truly believe that business is one of the most powerful instruments for meaningful change. I am proud to give back to causes that inspire my products: women's issues, environmental sustainability, and human health. Currently 5% of all profits from my products are donated to the Dana Farber Cancer Institute, a world leader in cancer research and patient care, and whose sole mission is to defeat cancer. I also created a product that gives 50% of the total cost to supporting efforts to rebuild in the Caribbean Islands through Unidos por Puerto Rico, and the Community Foundation of the Virgin Islands. Both of these charity efforts are very near and dear to me, and being able to give through my work is the most rewarding part of ADME Apothecary.

Where are you located?

Fresno, California

Why should people shop small?

There so many reasons to shop small, but I think the biggest one for me is that shopping small helps to support and build your own community. You're not only investing in a product, but also the people around you, and that can have a really incredible impact.

Why support makers?

As a maker I put my heart into every jar of scrub, or bottle of oil. I really want you to enjoy the product as much as I love making it for you. As a maker you share your passion with others, and it creates a better product.

What is your most popular product?

My most popular product is the Rosemary & Peppermint Body Scrub.

What is the greatest reward in being a small business?

You can connect with your customers in a really incredible way. I've also had several customers request custom body scrub, which has evolved in new product ideas.

What is the greatest struggle in being a small business?

Balancing work and life. Often they blur together, and it can take real effort to disconnect.

What is one piece of advice you'd share?

Invest in yourself. If you have an idea or passion, invest what makes sense into cultivating it, and see where it goes. The worst thing that can happen is that it doesn't work out as you imagined, but at least you tried.

What is your favorite Christmas song?

I'll Be There With Bells On, by Loose Ties

The White Crowe || Give Authentic 2017

I am obsessed with these beautiful works of art The White Crowe creates. Say hello and learn a bit more about them below....

Tell Us About Your Business?

The White Crowe is a small home studio by Lauren Crowe, a freelance graphic designer and printmaker.

Where are you located?

Boone, North Carolina

Why should people shop small?

When individuals shop small they know their economy goes directly to that one person's family, putting food on their table, paying bills, supporting a dream and a passion.

Why support makers?

It's important to support the makers because when you do so you support a dream and help grow an inspiring world.

What is your most popular product?

My piece "Moonshine"

What is the greatest reward in being a small business?

My greatest reward by being an artist is being able to share my work with others and see a piece of myself travel to a new home with a new story.

What is one piece of advice you'd share?

If you have a passion and you're good at something, share it with others.

What is your favorite Christmas song?

O Come Let Us Adore Him by Shane and Shane

Selena Ashley Designs || Give Authentic 2017

Say hello to maker Selena Ashley Designs! 

Tell Us About Your Business: I’m a designer and hand-letterer.

Why should people shop small? When individuals shop small they know their economy goes directly to that one person's family, putting food on their table, paying bills, supporting a dream and a passion.

Why support makers? It's important to support the makers because when you do so you support a dream and help grow an inspiring world.

What is your most popular product? Hand-lettered Globes

What is the greatest reward in being a small business? My greatest reward by being an artist is being able to share my work with others and see a piece of myself travel to a new home with a new story.

What is the greatest struggle in being a small business? Making people understand the difference between handmade artisan prints and mass-produced art and helping them to see the value in the authentic decor. It's easy to go online and just buy any old print, but that's the equivalent of going to a mall and blindly buying a t-shirt. We want people to understand that a significant art purchase requires more than just a quick online glance.

What is one piece of advice you'd share? If you have a passion and you're good at something, share it with others.

Five Alternative Uses for Fruitcake

Truman Capote’s 1956 short story “A Christmas Memory” opens on a chilly, late November morning to a young boy’s surrogate mother looking out the kitchen window. Her breath fogs the pane and “Oh my,” she exclaims to him, “it’s fruitcake weather!"

BY: D. GILSON

I’ve been thinking about this boy and this woman a lot recently, as my own breath fogs the frosty mornings and the local food co-op in our New England town puts out its annual order forms for fruitcake, displayed carefully between menorah candles and commemorative winter solstice prayer cards.

My mother doesn’t bake. But lo-and-behold, every holiday season a fruitcake adorned the giant red sideboard next to our kitchen table. My mother and I would drive to the local Sam’s Club, grab Diet Cokes from the hot dog stand, peruse the aisles of colossal cheese and salami trays, gallon jugs of Jack Daniels, permafrost boxes of Hot Pockets and Pizza Rolls capable of feeding a small legion of junior high boys for the better part of a month. We’d end at the bakery, plop a shrink-wrapped, over-sized fruitcake into our cart, and make for home. Freshness isn’t an issue with fruitcake, the food that, along with Twinkies, may very well feed us in a post-nuclear apocalypse. 

Our fruitcake held court upon the vintage milk glass cake stand for a month or so, a month when we’d peck at it until New Year’s, when my mother would throw what remained in the backyard, where stray cats and birds would finish what we couldn’t.

Yes, it’s popular to hate on fruitcake. And though I don’t particularly like it — even the artisanal ones this site will inevitably link to, made by hipster bakers with pretty blogs and thick framed glasses smudged with organic, locally-sourced, hand-ground flour — I want to offer you five uses for fruitcake that don’t require eating them.

XO,

D.

Rise to social media stardom. Jesus is not the reason for the season, and Santa is drunk on a beach in Cancun. This leaves room for a new holiday star: you. Bake a fruitcake (or buy one, it doesn’t matter). Snap a picture of it next to your bare ass. Tag with #FruitCAKE. Drop to Insta, Tumblr, Facebook, Reddit (even trolling, closeted Republicans need holiday eye candy). Watch your likes grow and your star rise, bringing many a wise man to lay in your manger.

Win the passive-aggressive winter Olympics. That racist cousin whose name you always draw for the family gift exchange? That co-worker who sends you “Long Live Lady Gaga” playlists on Spotify? That guy who gave you chlamydia junior year but is now married to a rich patron with a Lower East Side loft and cabin in Asheville? Yeah, fuck ‘em with kindness. Bake the driest fruitcake you can, wrap it in butcher paper, tie it with twine, add a sprig of spruce, and send it alongside the happiest holiday card you can muster. Up goes your karma count, no one can say you didn’t try, and hey, maybe your untouched fruitcake will draw rats to their well-appointed kitchen.

Plan a date. Tell your crush to bring dried fruit and the door will be open. Splay yourself upon the counter, covered with flour, eggs, butter…whatever else goes in a fruitcake. See what happens.

Throw a costume party. Invite every gay man and every woman you know to a Fruitcake Party. Dress: ho ho ho. Décor: low lighting. Drink: liquid fruitcake (orange zest, a cinnamon stick, but mostly gin). Distraction: Love Actually on loop. Don’t forget: carb and gluten free fruitcake bites and plenty of mistletoe.

Reconnect with your mother. You don’t call enough. You haven’t given her grandchildren. You live so far away in that city now. And yet, you are naturally her favorite. Spend an afternoon baking with your mother, margaritas in your cups and Dolly Parton on the stereo. Tell her about the boy who broke your heart last month. Let her tell you he wasn’t good enough anyway.

D. Gilson is the author of I Will Say This Exactly One Time: Essays (Sibling Rivalry, 2015) and Crush with Will Stockton (Punctum Books, 2014). He is an Assistant Professor of English at Massachusetts College of Liberal Arts, and his work has appeared in Threepenny Review, PANK, The Indiana Review, The Rumpus, and as a notable essay in Best American Essays. Find D. at dgilson.com or on Instagram @dgilson.