April Meeker - Try Handmade

Please welcome our newest columnist, April Meeker of Secondsister Jewelry and Suaviloquy.

Her column is about atypical guift guides – she’s going to go beyond “Gifts for Him” “Gifts for Her” and “Gifts for Kids” and find the perfect thing for “when you’ve finally completed your dissertation” – “congrats on your new job even though it was your third choice” – “I’m so happy you got promoted instead of that other guy.”

Well, those are the kinds of gift guides *I* would write if this were my column, but it’s not. April will probably choose other themes, but I guarantee you they won’t be pedestrian.

Do you have a tricky gift-giving situation coming up? Leave April a comment below and just maybe the next edition of Gift Guides will be about you!

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Erika

Why the French are getting all the credit is an enigma to me. After all, they didn’t invent the macaron. No, the Italians should be getting the accolades for that bit of genius.

Macarons came to France in 1533 with the pastry chefs of Catherine de Medici, wife of King Henri II. Then there was some business about nuns making and selling them and creating quite a stir. The nuns made simple macarons, no fancy flavors, no double cookie with a filling. (Above photo by Chelsea Victoria.)

A bunch of time went by with people making simple almond cookies. Then in the 1900’s a guy named Pierre Desfontaines (not the author) was working as a pastry chef for Laduree Passterie and decided to take two macaron cookies and sandwich them with ganache.

And the modern macaron was born.

photo by Louis Beche

Then a bunch more time went by and I was born. And a little more time went by until I discovered my passion for macarons. What a shame all those wasted years.

If you have yet to sink your chompers into these morsels, just know it needs to become a life list item. They are little pieces of pure heaven.

And they offer a little something for everyone. I’m personally partial to the traditional flavors, chocolate and pistachio topping my go to choices. But macarons come in flavors that circle the globe. There’s wasabi, passion fruit, green tea, peach, rose, orange blossom, mint, pumpkin, coconut, chili chocolate, honey and praline, just to name a few.

So now that I have you all almond buttered up and salivating, I’ll tell you where you can get them. I buy my macarons, locally from a little French passterie in San Diego named Opera. But sometimes I think I’d like to ship some to a friend for a birthday or a baby, or even a hello there, I’m thinking of you. A girl’s gotta share the love.

I found a pastry chef in Austin, Texas who is in the business of shipping her goodies. Soraiya Nagree used to be a chemical engineer for a bowling ball company. Luckily for all of us macaron junkies, she left that job to attend the Le Cordon Bleu school and follow her true passion. She and her husband Azim opened Luxe Sweets and the rest is tasty history.

“It is a simple truth: food made from scratch just tastes better. The colors, the textures, the smells, and of course the flavors – nothing is better. We started Luxe Sweets because we wanted to create delicious treats which capture all the flavor and taste of home-made food. Every one of our delights has been made by us, by hand. They may not look all the same, but that’s the part we like best. Because it means that every single product has been made for you by a person – not some machine.” -Soraiya

I’m new to Try Handmade if you haven’t noticed. I’m going to be writing the gift guide column. I’m pretty good at shopping. In fact, if there was an Olympics for shopping, I’d take gold, for sure. So for this first post, I wanted to feature something that I personally would love to get as a gift.

I recently threw a big party and I served macarons for dessert. They were a hit. And they are so pretty they double as décor.

photo by secondsister

Bet cha can’t eat just one. And if for some reason you are on some silly diet and you can’t indulge, then by all means buy Chelsea Victoria’s print and feast with your eyes.

I was recently visiting a friend of mine who is the mother-in-law to a very famous person. I’m not going to say who because they might write me out of the will, (not that I was in the will to begin with). photo by sofawned

Suffice it to say that this person is very very famous and his children are very very privileged. I was talking to my friend in her living room and I noticed the most darling little paper diorama of an undersea scape, complete with mermaid, housed in a glass dome. I was complimenting my friend on what a charming keepsake it was and she told me that it was her granddaughters birthday party invitation.

Now I’ve heard plenty of fantastical stories about the life this family leads. Personal jets for vacations. Dinner with the President. Shopping in Paris for the weekend. It never ends and I never tire of hearing about it. But this really took the cake. I stood there, first wondering just how much each “invitation” must have cost, and then wondering what in the world do you give a child that literally has everything?

What could you possibly show up with at a birthday party where the invitation was a small work of art, that wouldn’t look cheap and cliche’?

The answer is decidedly to go handmade.

The first thing that came to my mind was a tutu. I mean really. The kid is already essentially royalty, why not look the part?

Leslie is a mother to two little girls who creates the most fanciful tutus from her studio in Dover Ohio. You can buy her creations from her shop.

The truth of the matter is I have no idea just how spoiled these children really are. My friend is their grandmother so of course she thinks they are the most amazing kids ever. They stay at her house when their parents are jet setting around the globe and I have a sneaking suspicion that they get a healthy dose of real life when they are there. Then again you know how indulgent grandmothers tend to be.

Here’s another idea for that kid you know that has everything, but manners.

John Golden is a digital artist out of Wilmington, North Carolina. He has been making and selling his art since he was eleven years old. He has a large selection of prints on in his shop. He has a retro aesthetic that comes through in all his pieces.

The last thing that I thought might be fun for the privileged child to receive is some play food similar to the food they eat on daily basis. No hot dogs and french fries here my friends. These kids are growing up on salmon sashimi and spicy tuna rolls.

I found these little knitted sushi pieces at CurlyQOnline. I think they are so cute and any rich kid would be happy to have them in their play kitchen, which is probably nicer than my actual kitchen and which most assuredly has fancier food.

We didn’t receive our own invite to my friend’s granddaughter’s party. I wasn’t disappointed at all about not having to stress over the gift, I was, however, a little miffed not to get the invite itself.

I really just wanted my own diorama with a mermaid.

Heaven

Happy Birthday, you spoiled rotten brat.