Weekly Design Dispatch: What to Get Mom, Support Local Bookstores and Tour Your Neighborhood Trees

Illustrated by Rachel Hillberg

Illustrated by Rachel Hillberg

Welcome to the weekly Design Dispatch. This week we're talking Mother's Day gift ideas that support small and local businesses, self-guided tours of trees in San Francisco neighborhoods, and one convenient way to support local bookstores online while searching for your next read.

DESIGN NEWS:

If you're looking for a copy of the latest bestseller but want to support your local bookstore at the same time, check out Bookshop. The relative newcomer (they're still in beta mode) offers you two ways to shop for books. You can visit the map and enter your zip code to be referred to a local bookseller, and they will receive the full profit of the book. Or you can search by book, and the profit will contribute to an earnings pool to be evenly distributed among independent bookstores. We took the map for a spin and were happy to see some of our local favorites on the list.

Mother's Day is coming up, and we've rounded up some great gift options for you that are shipping now. If you're looking to support a local business, check out our post: With Love From SF: Mother's Day Gifts or choose a beautiful gift box from a small business with: Send Love, Keep Your Distance: The Best Care Packages Shipping Now.

Rifle Paper Co has restocked their fabric selection with some prints from past collections, and local illustrator/children's book author Meenal Patel just released a line of plant inspired prints in her signature style through Cloud9 fabrics. Head over to our Instagram stories later today for some of our favorite ideas to use every last scrap.

The vintage fair aptly described as “the best vintage under one roof,” A Current Affair, will be going live on Instagram next week for a virtual shoppable show during what would have been their regularly scheduled NYC event. Vogue.com has all the details.

LOCAL INTEREST:

Sidewalk tree tours are popping up around San Francisco, with local trees being labled in chalk on the sidewalk. The man behind the lables Mike Sullivan, is the author of Trees of San Francisco, and has partnered up with a handful of tree experts to spread their knowledge of all things dendrological. So far, you can find tours in Forest Hills, the Presidio, Noe Valley, and Cole Valley. Keep an eye out for one near you.

Pick up a Free Sourdough Starter and a small bag of flour at Noe Valley bakery with their Sunday sourdough starters. Available on Sundays while supplies last.

Listen:

I've had the song "Resilient" by Rising Appalachia playing on repeat for the past couple of weeks, and it's lifted my spirits through some pretty rough days. The folky banjo strings and beautifully harmonized vocals are soothing while the lyrics are the perfect anthem for our time.

That concludes our weekly Design Dispatch. If there is anything you would like to add to the list, feel free to leave a comment below, and if you have a tip for a future column, feel free to drop us a line.

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