Last-minute gift ideas

If you’re able to get out of your house, and if you still have some Christmas shopping to do, I thought I’d offer up a few last-minute gift suggestions. The snow is still trapping me at home, so have fun out there without me.

*Just because there’s snow on the ground, doesn’t mean you can’t give the gift of “fresh” flowers. aNeMoNe Handmade Paper Flowers, a Spokane company owned by husband and wife Nathan and Mary Eberle, sells a selection of paper flowers that seems as varied as the offerings at Butchart Gardens. Hydrangeas, hollyhocks, and the calla lilies pictured above, are just a few of their creations. The Eberles, who handcraft the flowers themselves, have made it easy to buy their products this year by setting up a kiosk on the second level of River Park Square, near Nordstrom. One of these days I’m going to buy up a bunch of their calla lilies—the flower my nana carried in her wedding—and give them to my mom and my aunts.

Tucked between Divison and Browne streets on Pacific Avenue in downtown Spokane, is 1900 , an ecclectic home furnishings and decor store that sells many products made by local artisans. 1900 doesn’t just sell couches and cabinets—which can be difficult to wrap for under the tree. There are plenty of smaller, more gifty options. Owner Debra Howard runs Gestalt Studio, her interior design company, in the same space.

Local goods: If your loved ones don’t mind getting their presents a few days late (blame it on the snow!), check out Coeur d’Alene’s weekly indoor market on Saturday. Anissa Duwaik, a vendor at the Lake City’s fair-weather market, saw a need for a year ‘round marketplace where residents could buy locally made goods. She organized the indoor market, which has been operating since early November in the Shoppes across the street from the Coeur d’Alene Resort. Vendors include salsa makers, bakers and lamb, beef and fish vendors, but if a few pounds of grass-fed beef seems like an odd Christmas gift, there also are plenty of crafters on hand selling their work. Saturdays, 11 a.m. - 3 p.m.

Those are just a few suggestions—what ideas do you have? What’s still on your shopping list?

Photo credit: aNeMoNe Handmade Paper Flowers