These are a few of our favorite things: Maker Gifts

Looking for gift ideas? These are a few of our favorite things - by makers and for makers. All of these products we have bought and used ourselves and are happy to recommend.

Valerie loves her North St Bags Woodward convertible pannier. It converts easily and quickly from a pannier to a backpack. It's perfect for her frequent grocery store runs and is made in Portland by our good friends at North St Bags.
Fellow cannabis lover? Geoff loves the function and design of the crowd-funded Grasshopper vape pipe, which burns dry, loose herb efficiently and effectively in a modern stainless steel design.
By now, you already know about our appreciation for Nick Offerman and Offerman Woodshop. His new book about the modern maker movement, Good Clean Fun, is such a good summary of our own work philosophy that we couldn't say it better ourselves.
We were early Kickstarter backers of electric-assist Faraday Bicycles and Valerie still adores her British racing green Porteur for around-town errands. Our friend Victor just bought the new Cortland step-through frame, and equally fell in love. It's just that good. (The first thing Valerie did when she got hers? Put our Bicycle Frame Handle on it and got a matching green helmet from Portland brand Nutcase Helmets.)
We're always getting compliments on the walnut veneer iPad case that we use at shows. Our friends at Toast make this and other wood cases for electronics in Portland.
Geoff really digs the high-quality, American-made stainless steel beard combs from Chicago Comb Company.
There are some pretty amazing small-batch gourmet snacks coming out of Portland these days. We heartily endorse the Portland-made gourmet cheesy poofs and Indian-spiced popcorn sold at MadeHerePDX if you can get them near you - or if you're on the East Coast, this Stumptown coffee flavored goat milk caramel made in Vermont for the best apple dipping you'll ever experience.
We're currently playing with the Sherlock Holmes edition playing cards by Kings Wild - this and their currency edition are just beautifully designed.
We live in Oregon, so we're surrounded by a lot of amazing beer and wine, but if we're being honest, we have to admit: our favorite winery is actually in Washington State. (That special bottle of wine looks great with our leather Whiskey/Wine Case)
Jan Heine at Bicycle Quarterly (an excellent magazine subscription gift for bike lovers) recently wrote a gorgeous book about Rene Herse. Geoff has enjoyed poring through the pages and been inspired by the well-designed historic cycles.
Our friends at Portland Growler Company make a covetous ceramic growler for fellow beer lovers. (And of course, you can get yours with a Walnut-made, monogrammed Growler Leash.)
Nick Offerman's favorite Scotch whisky may be Lagavulin but we have to admit that lately our go-to drink has been Irish Redbreast ("the priest's tipple"). Our friends at Toast beg to differ, however, and they recommend the Islay Scotch, Ardbeg.
During the winter, we use our woodstove to supplement heat, so we've been loving our Portland-made canvas log carrier from Beckel Canvas for shlepping logs back and forth from outside.
Valerie uses her walnut wood adjustable-sized acoustic iPad stand from our friends at Schuttenworks as a recipe stand/NPR speaker nearly every day - but it's their new wood Apple Watch stand that got rave reviews from Macrumor.