a lot of people would say raiding anthills, make sure you look up the guide by Sevenless pinned on these forums for technique to avoid getting your clogs too badly devoured by swarms of angry ants, it's the newb bible imo, it got me off to a running start fo' sho yo.
Also making the ol' cone cows doesn't hurt, pump exploration a bit, eat some perception foods and go picking dandelions.
Also certain skills unlock curios you can make, Hearth Magic gives seers bones, easy enough to craft, leather working gives leather balls (maybe you're not willing to let your leather go to curio making at this point).
Your real goal is to get you exploration x perception to the point (150? unsure, somebody might clarify) where you start spotting flotsams... then you are rocking it my friend.
Also gathering naturally growing curios like the aforementioned dandelions gives you a chance to bag a spider or web which are pretty good, but take a long time (I would say save them for an alt on full peaceful).
That's all I can think of right now,
