The gift guide edition
On small treasures, good hot chocolate and kind words.
Welcome to Small Joys, a bi-monthly(ish) newsletter about finding great joy in the little things. Here are a few recent things that have sparked joy.
For the love of gift guides
I love a good gift guide, especially when it’s thoughtful and well-curated with unique, unexpected ideas. I know we’ve been inundated with them these past few weeks, but if you’re still looking for gifts for someone on your list, or just want to shop for yourself (one for you, three for me), here’s a round-up of some I really liked.
This Twitter thread by Samin Nosrat is chock-full of delicious gift ideas related to food and cooking. Stacy Lee Kong of Friday Things assembled 30 gift ideas for the pop culture obsessives in your life (and has a recommendation by me!). I loved this gift guide from Amanda Demeku who put together 25 cute gift ideas under $25 for FLARE and they’re all perfect little presents that won’t make you weep when you get your credit card statement next month. Clever’s compilation of gift ideas has lots of home decor things so you might start off shopping for someone else but just end up wanting something for yourself. The thing I want most on Food52’s list of gifts under $20 (which technically aren’t under $20 considering that the prices are in USD) is the ruffled linen pillow I never knew I needed.
And one of the many gift guides I put together was for 100 ML with my travel-inspired beauty picks.
Tahini hot chocolate
It’s Hot Chocolate Season, the most superior of holiday drinks. I salivated the minute I read Tara O’Brady’s tahini hot chocolate recipe in her recent newsletter. I’m taking some time off this month and making this chocolatey cup of goodness is at the top of my to-do list.
Notes of kindness
You know when you have one of those really rough weeks where you wonder what would happen if you just crawled into bed and dropped the ball on everything? I had one of those recently. And then, I received an incredibly kind and encouraging DM from someone who follows me on Instagram and it felt like opening up a can of Popeye’s spinach.
I try and make a conscious effort to reach out to people and tell them if something moves me, inspires me or makes me laugh. It might be a DM, a note, an email or a text message. This year made me realize just how important it is to do that. Being on the receiving end, it felt really good to feel seen and appreciated at a time I was really running on empty. It was the fuel I needed. I hope we can continue doing that for each other as we head into a new year.
From my bookmarks:
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If you enjoyed reading this newsletter, I would really love and appreciate it if you shared it with a friend and spread the joy. 💌
Have a great week!
x Mishal