Day 10: For the bohemian

By Giselle Wedemire

Filled with incense, vegan leather handbags, and books on yoga, Wanderlust Trading Company is a bohemian's wonderland. And that's why we've chosen it as our Day 10 pick in our 12 Days of Christmas (Shopping) gift guide. 

With three locations in town, Wanderlust stands out as a beacon of light for the urban hippies of Calgary, which is exactly why we love this business. If you've got a bohemian to shop for this holiday season, forget buying them patchouli oil and scope out these Picky Bitchez-approved gift ideas instead: 

• Yoga: The Poetry of the Body: A 50-Card Practice Deck ($29.99) 

Photo via ALibris.com (because of all the pictures I took at Wanderlust, this one never turned out :(

If the bohemian in your life is like me, they love yoga. If they're like me, they also prefer to practice yoga at home, where it's perfectly acceptable for them to create and change their own yoga sequence while doing sun salutations to the soothing sounds of Drake, Fleetwood Mac, and/or Harry Potter soundtracks. This handy deck of cards contains photos of 50 yoga poses (plus tips on proper breathing and physical form) that can be combined to make fantastic at-home yoga classes where no one will bear witness to my their questionable yoga outfits or musical selections. This is also great for yogis who travel a lot, because all they need to do is toss this deck of cards and their yoga mat into their suitcase and they've got a fool-proof plan for staying fit on the road.

• Matt and Nat iPad mini case ($28.99)

Here at Picky Bitchez, we love Matt & Nat, the Montreal-based vegan leather accessory powerhouse. Matt & Nat's vegan leather products -- which range from wallets and handbags to backpacks and iPad cases -- are super eco-friendly, since they're made from various sustainable materials like recycled cork, nylon, and rubber. Wanderlust currently has the largest selection of Matt & Nat merchandise in Calgary we've found to date, which made narrowing down our pick quite difficult. However, we feel like the bohemian in your life deserves a nice and strong, yet eco-friendly and vegan iPad case to offset how mainstream they might feel for actually owning an iPad mini.

• Handmade sterling silver jewelry (various prices)

Though Wanderlust is a bohemian paradise full of gift ideas that will relax the mind, the body, and the spirit, their true calling is their handmade sterling silver jewelry. The store is always stocked with hundreds of gorgeous handmade silver pieces with unique stones that are imported from Thailand, Nepal, and Indonesia; and many of these pieces are the product of a collaboration with Wanderlust store owner Cheryl Kelly and Indonesian and Nepalese silversmiths she works with overseas. 

It'd be hard for us to pin down exactly which pieces would make your bohemian's heart sing, but we did develop a hankering for these two pieces (pictured below): sterling silver ring with Batlic amber stoner (left, $99.99), and sterling silver and Baltic amber Ahimsa pendant (right, $199.99).

You can find Wanderlust Trading Company on Facebook, or at any one of these locations:

• 109 - 2205 33rd Ave SW
• Unit A 12, 200 Barclay Parade SW (Eau Claire Market)
• Unit A 10, 200 Barclay Parade SW (Eau Claire Market - clearance location)