Sonoma Magazine / Winter 2011 / Holiday Gift Guide

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Holiday Gift Guide

Grab Bag (From the Winter 2011 issue of SONOMA magazine)

 

Forget the cashmere scarf or the boxed set of Wayne Newton CDs, this holiday give something a little different. We’ve assembled some choices you might like, from $1 to $3,800.

 

 

 

 

1.

A perfect match: Chocolate and port wine

Need some love? Give a box of Wine Country Chocolates’ Harvest Blend truffles (raspberry, fresh orange, apricot and dark chocolate), made fresh daily in Glen Ellen at Jack London Mill and Wine Village ($20), paired with a bottle of Sonoma Valley Portworks chocolate-infused Deco port ($18), from the Portworks tasting room next door. Then sip and munch with someone you love.

Wine Country Chocolates, 14301 Arnold Drive, Glen Ellen, or 414 First Street East, Sonoma 707.996.1010, winecountrychocolates.com. Sonoma Valley Portworks, right next door, or call 707.938.7550.

 

 

 

 

2. Give pet a home, give a home a pet

Few things offer as many smiles as a fluffy-faced cat or dog. This
holiday season you can give unconditional love with a gift certificate to adopt an animal at Pets Lifeline, allowing the recipient to choose when the time is right to bring a new addition into the family (pending adoption approval).

Puppies are $250; Dogs (over 1 year) $150; Kittens are $105 and cats are $85. All animals are spayed/neutered and vaccinated. PetsLifeline.org. 707.996.4577.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

3.
Have no fear, Buddha is near

You don’t have to be Buddhist to own a Buddha. You just have to have $3,800, if you want this 19th-century wood lacquered Mandalay Buddha from Myanmar.

At Artefact
Design & Salvage, 23562 Arnold Drive, Sonoma, 707.933.0660,
artefactdesignsalvage.com.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

4.

Clay Tootsie

Ceramic sculptor Cynthia Hipkiss is guilty of serial whimsy. Her figures are mostly fat and funny, primitive and precious and socially insightful. This is her terrier, Tootsie, locked in clay. You can have one too. Shop her gallery or commission a custom work, starting at $180.

Hipkiss Gallery, 707.996.0619, cynthiahippkiss.com.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

5.
West Nile Air Force

Don’t worry. It’s only a metal mosquito, made from a pipe wrench, a drill chuck and hinges. It won’t suck your blood, but it can entertain your friends.

Metal art by Jerry Meyers, ready-made or custom.
707.938.5811.

 

 

 

 

 

 

6.
It’s in the bag

“All the news you need,” has new meaning with these “newspaperbags,” fashioned out of recycled news in Bali, where a micro–business started by Artifact owner Dave Allen has put 60 impoverished villagers to work.
A buck a bag and reusable many times over.

At Artefact. artefactdesignsalvage.com

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

7.
A glass goodie

This crystalline cube of Indonesian glass serves no useful purpose but to decorate a desk, attract attention and require people to say, “Oooh, pretty.
Can I hold it?”

At Artefact. artefactdesignsalvage.com

 

 

 

 

 

 

8.
Beauty book

Robert Janover is a photographic institution, the unofficial chronicler of all things Sonoma County. Like a paper cioppino, this book is stuffed with tasty images capturing virtually every flavor of our Wine Country home.

“Sonoma County, California” – Volume 2. $26.95, from robertjanover.com.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

9.
Another Hipkiss

Daughter Caroline works in acrylics on canvas, favoring farm animals, rich with Holsteins, chickens, pigs and sheep. Her paintings hang in the family gallery but you can commission
a work.

Hipkiss Gallery. Starting at $125. cynthiahippkiss.com
 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

10.
Recycled cat

Bryan Tedrick is a craftsman, an artist, a magician and a jester. He resurrects dead objects, redefines old uses, imagines new ones. He has created 30-foot dragonflies and this life-sized cat. Ask him to make you something.

Starting at $450
707.933.9311, bryantedrick.com.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

11.
Smart stone?

They call it “scholar stone;” it’s a type of tortured marble, but you can call it “metamorphosed limestone” if you like. Add striking décor to your home and yard, or let small creatures nest in it.

Various sizes from $175 with polished marble base.
At Artefact. artefactdesignsalvage.com
 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

12.
Go really fast for Christmas

The perfect Walter Mitty Christmas present. A gift certificate for a half-day, Grand Prix Masters racing class from simraceway performance driving school at Infineon Raceway.

$1,195, and, hey, they provide the car. 800.733.0345, simraceway.com/PDC.
 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

13.
Three heads are better than one

We named them Bruce, Roseanne and Little Billy, but the nice thing about silver-plated bronze skulls (again, from Indonesia) is that you can call them whatever you want, and they won’t complain.

From $29 to $119, depending on size.
At Artefact. artefactdesignsalvage.com