As our economy is changing, apparently permanently, I find this year’s gift-giving season to be a great time to celebrate our friends who make stuff. Certainly buying things isn’t required to have a great holiday season, but when I think about buying things, here’s who I think of:

Reese — you know her from the Linkery team — who hand makes one-of-a-kind clothes for ladies as Tib Nelson Designs.

Custom prom dress by Tib Nelson Designs

Gustav, one block over on Ray Street, who is making kick-ass chairs from repurposed barrels at Planet Rooth.

Former Linkery chef Tara, now in Brooklyn, hand making beautiful soap with Meow Meow Tweet.

Party Pack!

Local farmer extraordinaire Albert Lewis, who make great clothes (and the napkins for the Linkery) at his company Hempys.

Our friends down the street at Velo Cult, who are putting together great bikes from vintage, lugged-steel frames.

Jeremy, Dan and Alex, who make beautiful furniture from reclaimed local wood at SD Urban Timber. (They also made the tabletops at the Linkery, the rotisserie we use on Smokehouse Sundays, and the dining room table that lives in my house.)

Of course, all of our great brewers and farmers locally, too, who mean so much to our quality of life here.

These are just some people on the top of my head, you probably have others you know of who make great things and make things great. We may all be living differently since the great recession started, but we can certainly enjoy living in a world where the stuff we need is made by people we love.