Little Gifts, Just for You

Imagine reaching for a hair clip on the left side of a dresser while you get dressed, or setting a book down on the arm of a chair at the end of the evening. A place you pass that often is a different proposition from a shelf in a room you rarely enter, which is why it is worth starting there when you are choosing something small for yourself.

What follows is about choosing one thing without a birthday or an occasion to justify it.

Choose a place you actually pass

A dresser, a bookshelf, the table beside the chair you sit in. Watch your own route for a few days instead of deciding in advance. Where do your eyes land while you are getting dressed? Where do the keys go when you come in? Which surface has a clear patch that nothing occupies?

Then move something that is already there. Sometimes a corner feels wrong because the lamp is in the wrong spot, and no new object will fix that. If a space opens up and stays empty, you have found somewhere a small thing could live. If you are torn between two corners, photograph each one at the time of day you use it and compare the two pictures a day later.

Name the part you like

Naming the part you are looking at makes two candidates comparable, and helps later when you are deciding whether to keep something. The colour, the shape, the pattern, or something it reminds you of.

Two pieces from our own shop show how different the answers can be. The Little Pause crochet bunny has long crocheted ears, a bow and a striped top, so the question might be whether it is the ears or the stripes you want to see each morning. The Blue Porcelain handmade fabric bouquet layers blue botanical prints, checks and white lace, and there the question might be which printed fabric or lace detail draws your attention. Part of the pleasure is in the looking itself.

Liking something because of an association is a reasonable place to start: a colour from your grandmother's kitchen, a pattern like the plate you grew up eating from.

Check the liking once, against the actual thing

A photograph is not a measurement. Before you decide, read the listing for what determines whether the piece fits: size, how many items are included, and how it is meant to sit.

For the crochet bunny, red and pink are sold separately, one bunny in the selected colour. The photographs show it resting against a cushion with its legs forward, which is how the listing describes using it. Furniture, clothing and other props in those pictures are not included. The bouquet arrives without a vase.

The listed length is the whole object, which is not the same as the area it covers once it is sitting down, so a paper template is only a rough reminder. If the base matters, ask for the footprint. A soft piece that leans needs something to lean against, and the shelf or cushion underneath is part of the arrangement. More on what is worth looking at closely in a handmade piece is in the details that make handmade feel different.

See how it gets on with the life already there

The pink bunny in the dresser photograph sits at the edge of a surface somebody is using, which makes it a detail you pass on the way out.

Hold whatever you choose against the same questions. Does it interfere with reaching what you keep on that surface? Can you still open the drawer? Look at the corner at the hour you normally pass it, since a surface that is bright in the morning can be dim in the evening. A pale piece reads differently on a dark tray, and moving one existing thing can tell you more than adding a new one.

It also helps to know where it goes when you need the space back: a shelf with clearance above it, a cupboard, a box in the hall. A piece with a second position is easier to live with than one that has to be worked around.

Leave a gap before buying, and a way out of buying

Save the page, and write down beside it the detail you like and the space you measured. Come back later and see whether the reasons still hold; there is no set interval. Details and prices change, so check current information on the product page before ordering.

If you decide against it, that is a decision. The corner is clearer than it was, and you know a little more about what you like.

When it arrives, let use decide the place

Put it where you planned, then use the room normally for a few days. Notice whether you shift it out of the way, whether it gets in the way of what you keep on that surface, whether you stop seeing it.

Small adjustments are normal: turning it a little, moving it back from the edge, setting it where the light falls. Moving it is allowed. So is putting it away. A piece that turns out to be in the wrong place has told you something.

Finish with one decision

Before you buy, it helps to know where it will sit, which detail you like, and what you have checked about size and contents. If one of those is still unclear, waiting a little is a fair answer; the corner will still be there next week. If they are all there, the decision is yours.