Last-minute gift finds from local merchants

NORTHEAST WIS. – Memorable gifts don’t necessarily have to be the most expensive.

Consider giving a present with a local inspiration, such as custom apparel from McCraftie’s in Menominee, a stocking stuffer treat from a Dunbar youth entrepreneur, jewelry or artwork from a local artist or a book by a Wisconsin author.

At McCraftie’s, custom-designed school shirts with a family’s last name on the back are a popular holiday gift for family members, said Stefanie McClelland, owner of the store at 625 1st St. Sweatshirts and T-shirts also can be customized for gift recipients.

“We do all our own designing, so if there’s something on the floor they like, they can choose up the color,” McClelland said. “This time of the year, it just depends on the individual, but we get a lot of matching shirts on Christmas time.”

For those who enjoy making their own hand-made gifts, McCraftie’s offers wine glasses to paint by hand, flower pots for mosaic art and pottery to paint, though you might have to pick up your finished product after Dec. 25. Pottery painting items start at about $8.

The store also has unique items for sale in stock. “We have a lot of hand-made items you don’t get in a box store,” McClelland said. It also offers novelty items, such as tumblers and keychains.

Throughout the year, the studio hosts events, such as birthday parties. With a new mobile offering, McCraftie Creations will visit an organization at its location. “We will take ceramics and go off-site. We went to one of the nursing homes, so they are able to do some ornaments,” she said.

While you’re in Menominee, stop by First Street Art Gallery and More at 601 First St. for a spectacular assortment of locally created art pieces. Painter Sherry Millard has about 50 acrylic-paint and alcohol-ink pieces at the gallery, including alcohol-ink tiles depicting for $25 that can sit in a stand. “I price my individual art for the communities who come to the gallery,” she said.

While summer tourists often visit the gallery, which is across quaint First Street from Menominee’s city marina, residents of Green Bay, Marinette, Menominee, Peshtigo, Pound and Coleman shop at the cooperative for distinct holiday gifts, she said. Sixteen artists and authors offer their creations at the shop, she said. Holiday shoppers come to First Street Gallery for a one-of-a-kind gift, Mallard said. “You’re not going to find a carbon copy of the piece you purchase,” she said.

The gallery offers jewelry in the $35 range, ornaments starting at about $8 and hand-painted bookmarks greeting cards on the lower end, Mallard said. Fiber-art owls have been selling well at $32 to $38, she said. Framed and matted watercolor paintings are “reasonably priced” at $80 and up, Mallard said.

The artists in the gallery paint from the heart. “We’re thrilled to have our art sell, but we paint from what inspires us,” Mallard said. “I paint a lot of nature scenes. There’s something from nature in everything I do,” Mallard said. She often uses birchwood for a frame. Only a few of her birchwood ornaments are still available, she said. “People in particular like something that’s homemade.

They also like one-of-a-kind things.” The gallery’s hours are 10 a.m. to 4 p.m. Wednesday through Saturday and 10 a.m. to 2 p.m. Sundays.

For those who enjoy local foods, consider combining several locally made foods in a gift box, such as Wisconsin cheese, sausage, jams, sauces and maple syrup available at Klema’s Sequins in Marinette. Sequins’ also has gift boxes ready to pick up, including some with Wisconsin maple syrup and jams from Slack’s.

For a special treat people will be talking about, toss in a bag of freezed-dried candy made by a local junior entrepreneur. In Dunbar, 10-year-old Gavin Ollila with help from his mother, Jessica, got into freeze-drying candy this past May.

Since then, he has sold it at farmer’s markets, Packers games and around Marinette County. “It actually blew up in amazement. Really,” he said. He gives a portion of the proceeds to local charities, fire fighters, EMS and police, he said.

The freeze-drying process changes the flavor of some candies, such as candy corn, he said. “The sugar expands and makes it larger and crunchier,” he said.

If you haven’t had it before, think of Cheetos or cheese puffs but sweeter. Not all candy works in the freeze dryer, Ollila said. “Plain chocolate has too much oil in it,” he said. Jessica Ollila said Gavin saved up to purchase the freeze dryer and is now planning to buy a larger one.

Flavors include Bit o Honey, caramel apple, gingerbread marshmello, Junior Mints, Milk Duds, Skittles and more. To place an order, send an email to thepreservewi@gmail.com.

For another kind of treat, pick a book from a local Wisconsin author for the book lover on your list.

“True North,” set Norway, Michigan on the Menominee River, is “a heartfelt novel of marriage and whitewater rafting,” according to HarperCollins Publishers. Author Andrew Graff described Piers Gorge in as “his favorite place on earth” during a book tour stop at Boswell Books in Milwaukee.

Graff was raised in Marinette County and learned to guide whitewater rafts on the Menominee River during summers off of college. He and his wife lived near the Peshtigo River before he started teaching English at a small college in Ohio.

His first novel, “Raft of Stars,” which is set in the fictional Claypot, Wis., is a coming-of-age novel published in March 2021 during the Covid-19 pandemic, and also involves rafting in northeast Wisconsin.

Mysteries set in Wisconsin are popular gifts, said Amy Mazzariello, owner of Lion’s Mouth Bookstore, 211 N. Washington St. in Green Bay. From Annelise Ryan, author of Death in Door County comes another Monster Hunter Mystery called The Death in the Dark Woods is set on Washington Island. The thriller, published in hardcover in 2023, was just released in paperback for $19, Mazzariello said. Sightings of a Bigfoot creature and a dead body with a throat injury in Chequamegon-Nicolet National Forest in Bayfield County prompting an investigation.

Hannah Morrissey’s third mystery, “When I’m Dead,” was released in paperback in November, Mazzariello said. Morrissey’s two other novels, “Hello, Transcriber: A Novel” and “The Widow Maker,” also are available in paperback. The books can be read in any order, Mazzariello said.

For the Packer fan on your list, Mazzariello said, Mark Beach’s The People’s Team, an illustrated history of the Packers, also is a popular gift item, she said. The illustrated history covers 100 years and isn’t a heavy biography, Mazzariello said. It’s a fun-to-look-at-book priced at $35.

Mazzariello also recommended Lynda Drews’ “The Maid and the Socialite: The Brave Women Behind Green Bay’s Scandalous Minahan Trials.” It’s a nonfiction book many people might wish was fiction. It describes the abuse surgeon Dr. John R. Minahan imposed on two women and the pursuit of justice that followed.

The books are available at Lion’s Mouth Bookstore, 211 N. Washington St. in Green Bay. The store also sells books online at LionsMouthBookstore.com.