Gift Guide 2020: Stay Home!
2020 was, for many, a year of staying at home. As a chronically ill person who mainly works from home, this was not a huge transition. The amount of times I’ve said, “This is just like a flare up” this year is… incalculable. Staying home, keeping your mind occupied, fighting the feeling of lost time and seemingly never-ending isolation? I’m an expert at that, as are all chronically ill people. And frankly, if you CAN spend most of your time at home, you need to. I know you’re bored, but frequenting businesses and putting workers who can’t stay at home in danger is a dick move! Plus, if you get sick there’s a good chance you’ll have chronic illness for the rest of your life and then you’ll be at home a lot more than you are now! ANYWAY! Here are some ideas to help you beat the at-home blues.
You can hover over the above image to be linked to all the gifts mentioned, or read on for a few thoughts and feelings about these fantastic, handpicked gifts
Did I recommend something Dolly Parton related in last year’s gift guide? Yes. Will I continue to recommend Dolly Parton adjacent gifts in the future? Of course. Because I love Dolly Parton and you should too. Dolly Parton, Songteller tells the stories behind 175 of her songs and features previously unpublished images. I will be buying myself this book for my birthday.
Elaborate beauty rituals are a great way to pass time AND make you feel pampered. I love a good face mask, particular after a super sweaty workout and before I hop in the shower, wash my hair, and put on clean pajamas. My favorite mask is this one from Farmacy, which I wrote about here, but if you have sensitive skin this Cetaphil clay mask, which I also reviewed, is a gentler option.
How many times during lockdown did I ask myself, “Should I get into puzzles?” NOT ZERO! I have yet to “get into puzzles,” but this one seems just challenging enough, and the little readers are all reading books with punny titles, which is an added layer of distraction.
I feel like a big self-care gift idea is bath bombs, but what if you don’t have a bathtub? Well there’s still a product for you (by you I mean me, a person without a bathtub)! Shower steamers are basically bath bombs for the shower. You put them in the corner of your shower, out of a direct stream of water but still in a splash-zone, and they release scents that fill your shower and turn a utilitarian task into a spa experience. I like this one because it has cussing on it, which in my opinion makes anything a great gift.
I don’t like wearing socks without shoes, unless they are oversized cozy socks, in which case I LOVE them. They’re like slippers you can wear in your bed! A lot of big cozy socks have added nonsense like pom poms or a little animal face with ears stitched over your toes or an overly cutesy pattern in sickly pastels. Not my style. It is only this year that I discovered there are cozy socks for men and they are free of all that twee shit. THEY’RE HOUNDSTOOTH, BABY! I’m getting at least two pairs.
Have you adopted a quarantine craft? I’ve been a cross stitcher for almost a decade, so I already have one (I was supposed to take a knitting class in March and now who knows when it’ll happen! I’m sad about it!), but it’s a craft I recommend to people all the time, with or without a pandemic. It’s a super cheap hobby, so it’s easy to get into (and abandon guilt-free if it’s not your thing), and there are a TON of cool patterns out there. If you want to give cross stitch a try and don’t know where to start, a kit is a great way to get everything you need in one go. This is the kit pictured above, but my favorite pattern maker, Plastic Little Covers on Etsy, has this one that’s Jurassic Park themed AND incorporates backstitching, so you can learn two skills in one kit!
