Wow- so many new readers (huge thanks to my brother,
, for the shout out)! Welcome! I’m so glad you’ve found your way here. You Get-sy is a new project I started this fall to share the things I like — a way to connect good people to good people and share the love. Because this project is new and very much a work in progress, it is so helpful if you subscribe (thanks to you early subscribers!), and please feel free to leave a comment letting me know what you liked, what you’d love more of, or just a bit about yourself.Winter has been slow to come in Missoula, despite a late October snow event that had me itching to ski. We’re finally getting consistently frosty mornings, but we’ve also been fortunate to enjoy beautiful blue sky sunny afternoons. Getting that Vitamin D while we can!
This week’s newsletter is filled with folks I love who are creating joy in my community (and a bit further afield). I hope their work brings you as much happiness as it does me, and I hope it inspires you to seek out the locals creating beautiful work in your own community. I didn’t intend for this newsletter to get quite so long, but I hope you enjoy.
[You Get-sy] Rec 1
Shop Local & Shop Small
A common refrain this time of year, but I truly believe that shopping local and shopping with small businesses not only makes a difference in the lives of the folks you’re spending money with, but also your community. An artist I love, Rani Ban, posted this set of slides on her Instagram page recently, and I really encourage clicking all the way through.
One of the great things (of which there are many) about shopping with small businesses is that they don’t need to be local to you to make a difference. Some local Missoula businesses I’ll be frequenting (& you can, too) this holiday season of gift giving:
Last weekend I participated in an Icelandic knitting class at local Missoula shop, APORTA, with a dear friend and her mom. Picking up knitting needles after years of them sitting in the closet turned out to be a great change of pace, and I enjoyed working with the warm and cozy Icelandic wool. APORTA is a beautiful, well-curated, shop with something for just about everyone. I’ve got my eye on a pair of sparkly earrings and a Danish countdown candle. Stay tuned to see how my hat turns out…
After our knitting class, we headed over to Showroom Missoula to see what they had in store. Showroom is always well stocked with home goods in bright colors that will add a pop of color to those neutral corners of your home, as well as local pottery, vintage threads, and what look to be wildly cozy bathrobes by a favorite brand of mine, Dusen Dusen. Showroom is usually my first stop when I need a sweet gift for a friend or family member.
I always love stopping by The General Public and perusing their beautiful images on Instagram. The shop has a great mix of casual clothing as well as made-in-shop heirlooms you’ll want to wear, save, and then pass down to future generations. I specifically asked for a pair of their insanely warm caterpillar mittens for the winter holidays & I’d always be happy to be gifted a wool cloud scarf as well.
Betty's Divine is another of my go-tos for great clothes and accessories. Most recently I found a pair of Levi’s that fit perfectly, and my trusty big Baggu cloud bag I got there is as essential for travel as it is for hauling your extra gear to your local turkey trot. A bonus of visiting in person is you get to hang with the coolest cat, Jethro.
In addition to great local shops, Montana and the Pacific Northwest at large are home to many wonderful artists who’s work I love to support. I thought you may want to check a few of them out below:
Grace Brogan is a dear friend artist who specializes in broom making. In our home we are fortunate enough to have a small every day table sweeper that I love to use in my sewing studio, a handbroom for small sweep jobs around the house, and a kids broom that our daughter loves to push around and “help” as we tidy. Grace’s work is not only functional, but truly beautiful.
I sure hope to add a piece from Cassie Loretta to our walls soon. Cassie utilizes mixed media to depict landscapes across the west. I’m particularly drawn to her most recent pieces that combine traditional quilt patterns with large landscapes in Glacier National Park.
Paige, of The Arrowleaf, lives not far away from western Montana in one of my most favorite places, the Methow Valley. Paige is an incredible metalsmith who creates heirloom jewelry, of which I have started quite a collection. Alongside her incredible pieces, her Instagram will transport you to the woods and waters she adventures & makes a life in with her sweet family.
Finally, the ceramics I’m working on filling my home with:
My longtime childhood pal, Alexandria Cummings Ceramics from Portland, OR, is an incredible ceramicist who creates the most fun and functional ceramics to hold and use. I’m slowly working on converting all our kitchen dishes to ACC pieces. Her colors and forms are truly a joy to use.
OMO Studio is based here in Missoula and creates stoneware ceramics (& more!) that are beautiful (are you sensing a theme in these recommendations today?) and functional. Their mugs are some of my first go-tos for my morning coffee, and I frequently buy them as gifts.
There are certainly so many more local artists and small shops that I could highlight here, and perhaps will highlight in future newsletters! I couldn’t include them all here, but I hope to highlight more as I make my way writing about the people and places I love.
**Important to note: I do not have interest in providing or know how to use affiliate links. I am just interested in getting the word out about good people and their great ideas!**
[You Get-sy] Rec 2
To listen (& read!)
My arrival into the Substack universe was slow at first, and more recently, full-speed with the joy of discovering many great writers with a lot of great musings to share. My subscriptions vary widely, but one writer I’ll always drop everything I’m doing to read the latest updates from is
by Rachel Stevens. Every newsletter she writes is filled to the brim with great personal essays, lovely links, and often great music to discover. She writes in a no-holds-barred sort of way, baring it all, and her vulnerability endears me to her all the more. I only wish I could be her friend in real life- joining in on cold water dips and adventures around the PNW. If you become a paying subscriber to The Messayist, not only will you support a rad writer, you’ll also get fantastic curated play-lists that are on my near-constant rotation.[You Get-sy] Rec 3
The Smiley [De]Facer
I teach third and fourth grade at a small school in western Montana, and this week, the (what felt like a very long) week before a week-long break, students began to discover and report that smiley faces were being drawn around the classroom. These were popping up on students’ dioramas, work folders, camp chairs, scrap paper, and more. Despite efforts of teachers and students (this age loves a good spy mission) to find the culprit, we left for break on Friday no closer to a conclusion than we started the week. Alternatively both infuriating (kids were bummed their work was being drawn on and nobody would fess up) and joyful (who can resist cracking a smile at the many smiley faces popping up in the classrooms), the newly coined Smiley DeFacer is still at large. As much as we teachers would have loved to figure out the Smiley DeFacer’s identity, we’ll have to settle for the joy that a small school unsolved mystery has brought to us all.
All this is to say, my final rec is, if at all possible, taking a moment to savor the small moments and laughing with friends or family about the sweet mysteries of life we may never solve- perhaps over a delicious meal shared with loved ones later this week.
Until next time, xo.
GET. IT. I love this weird universe and I love connecting with friends/strangers/writers/humans like this. thank you thank you for this rec shout-out and thank you for bringing your writing into the world in this way.