6 joy-sparking gifts we’ve received lately

By Brittney Ho

Brittney is a newsletters editor at Wirecutter.

• Years ago, I wrote about how a Chinese cleaver is the most-used tool in my childhood home’s kitchen. After my recent move, a friend (and evidently loyal Wirecutter reader) knew my new kitchen would be incomplete without a cleaver of my own, and gifted me one as a housewarming present. Unlike Western knives, this extremely sharp and versatile Chinese cleaver has a large and flat rectangular blade great for smashing all sorts of things and then scooping it right into a bowl, à la a bench scraper. I’ve been reaching for it daily to breezily chop summer stone fruit and leafy greens into heaping salads.
• Writer Samantha Schoech recently embarked on a family trip to Thailand, where she went “totally cuckoo bananas” for this breezy silk caftan. “I love the colors and the tropical wildness of it,” she says. “And it just felt like it would be a special kind of memento from the trip. It was truly love at first sight.” Her husband did the right thing after seeing such a reaction from Sam … and later surprised her with it for their anniversary. Good call.
• For Mother’s Day, Sam received a new pair of these cozy and chic slipper clogs to putter around the house in. They’re easy to slide on and off, they have a soft fleece inside, and their rubber sole means you can pad around in them outside, too, to quickly grab the mail or take out the trash. “They’ve been my exclusive slipper of choice for years, so they weren’t exactly a surprise,” she says. “But I desperately needed a new pair, making them exactly the right gift.”
• Newsletters coordinator Isoke Samuel recently started a little vegetable and herb garden on her back patio, and she invested in this whimsical and sculptural watering can. Its perfect waterfall pour makes the tedious chore of watering a total delight, and she loves that it doubles as decor when it’s not in use. It’s made by Haws, a 130-year-old British company (and a favorite in our guide to watering cans). Writes our gardening expert Jackie Reeve: “You can keep a Haws can for decades because it works so well and looks so good as it ages.”
• Gifts editor Hannah Morrill was gifted these dreamy blueberry print cloth napkins recently. She says that the flour-sack material has a natural lived-in and unfussy texture right out of the dryer — perfect for adding a bit of whimsy and practicality to park picnics, dinners on the patio, and beyond. “I can’t think of a lovelier simple summer gift,” she told me.
• Meanwhile, newsletters editor Haley Jo Lewis bought herself these charming little anchovy earrings for a subtle lobe statement. They’re dangly — without being too heavy on the ear or flashy. “Sometimes I wear just a singular one in one of my second-lobe-hole piercings as a little element of surprise,” she says. “I just got them, so I’ll have to report back on how they hold up. But I can already say they’ve inspired many a compliment.”