Got this in an email from my friend, Kathy Malone, of the Brooklyn Indie Market. What a great gift:

Imagine a friend gave you a box filled with delicious-smelling skinnyskinny soap, ingenious holders for soft-boiled eggs called Egg Pants, gorgeous handmade jewelry by wabisabi brooklyn, a striking holiday letterpress card by Jezebel, clever buttons and magnets from Kate Black, and a cool card holder made from the sails of sail boats by Reiter8.

Nice friend right?

Now imagine that you also got at least 6 (6!) of the following in this box:

–A beautiful tote bag with avalove’s hand-lithographed designs
–a candy-colored diamond acrylic ring from by:AMT
–copper and sterling jewelry by Joanne Tracy
–a silkscreened notepad and collaged card by Fisk and Fern
–a book of fabulous artwork by Robert Mars
—a silkscreened onesie by hey punkin!
–a colorful kid’s skirt made by Fofolle
—handmade cards that double as portraiture prints by Desira Pesta
–keychains (made either by RePlayGround, 31 Corn Lane, or This is Swigg)
–crocheted goods, like an Ezra’s Cousin scarflette or Alicia Kachmar’s adorable mitten ornaments
–a fantastic denim clutch, bag or cuff by Wanett Clyde
–pretty letterpress postcards by Erin Fae
–a wire and gemstone ring from Kimmchi
–illustration jewelry and prints by Tilly Bloom

No, you can’t pick which of those six items you get. But you know for
sure you’re getting 11 awesome things… And don’t you like to be
surprised? How fantastic is this friend of yours?

Now here’s the kicker: all of these items are made or designed here in Brooklyn,
by artists, designers and crafters who hail from Bed-Stuy, Carroll
Gardens, Cobble Hill, Ditmas Park, East New York, Fort Greene,
Greenpoint, Kensington, Park Slope, Prospect Heights, Sunset Park,
Williamsburg, and Windsor Terrace, and whose work is available at
fabulous boutiques like Spring in Dumbo, Rare Device in Park Slope, the Brooklyn Indie Market, or online at that one-stop-shop for handmade goods, Etsy. (To learn more about every contributor, download this or click on every item mentioned above.)

This box is so Brooklyn, it’s even wrapped in Brooklyn maps and lined with The Brooklyn PaperBrooklyn Greenway (there’s also a map of the future  and a Zagat’s guide to BK restos inside).

Here’s the other kicker: It’s $20 (plus shipping), an incredible value for one-of-a-kind work made by your gifted neighbors, curated by Brooklyn Based, and sold by The Sampler,
a San Francisco company whose founder Marie Kare came up with this
brilliant idea of mailing boxes filled with the wares of indie
businesses to spread the word about their work. This month they began a
series of Samplers called City Samplers, packed with goods native to
one place. It launched with their hometown, and Brooklyn Based happened
to call at the right moment and propose a box filled with goodies made
by Brooklynites.

The fruit of our collaboration will go on sale this Saturday at 10 am PST, or 1 our time, online at  homeofthesampler.com.
If you’d like an email reminder when they go on sale, drop me a note at
brooklynbased at gmail.com. Because there is one problem with these
Brooklyn Samplers: there are only 100 of them.