Weekend Window Shopping: Stocking Stuffers.

 Hello! We're down to the wire with the gift thing but here is a collection of fun small gifts all under $25 that would make excellent stocking stuffers because who wants a stocking full of nuts. Okay:

Gift Guide: Books, of course!

 I love getting books as gifts and love giving them as well. I've done quite a few book gift guides (here, here and here) but why not one more? 

Two Arty Books:

Wild Things Are Happening: The Art of Maurice Sendak. I suspect Maurice Sendak was a big part of a lot of your childhoods and now there's a book celebrating the art of his illustrations! I think this would be an amazing gift for the Gen-Xer in your life. 

Terry O'Neill: The A-Z of Rock ‘N' Roll. Okay, obviously I love that David Bowie is on the cover but Terry O'Neill's took amazing rock 'n roll photos of just about all the music legends. This book seems to cover a lot of ground and gets great reviews. This would be a great gift for anyone who's a rock music fan, especially a fan of 60's and 70's era music. 

Two Cook Books:

Appetites: A Cookbook by Anthony Bourdain. I've included this before but now I own it and it's amazing. Have I made any of the recipes? No, I have not, but I have taken his advice re. pigs in blankets, which is solid advice. It's a beautiful book and fun to read and I hear his voice in every page. 

Simply Julia: 110 Easy Recipes for Healthy Comfort Food. Marianne loves this cookbook and I buy what she tells me to because she's pretty much always right. The recipes aren't super complicated and they're really delicious. This is a good one. 

Two That I Read This Year and Loved:

Lesson in Chemistry. This one is guaranteed to be a crowd-pleaser! It's weird and funny and a fast read. My sort-of review is here, but if you're stuck on a gift for a fiction reader, this is probably a safe choice. 

This Time Tomorrow is such a delight. I am a big fan of time travel stories and this one was deeply satisfying and has such an excellent sense of place. My sort-of review is here. Highly recommend. 

Two To Get You In The Spirit:

In God We Trust: All Others Pay Cash. Years ago I won a $5 off a guy when I was waxing poetic about A Christmas Story and he said he bet me I couldn't tell him the name of the book it was based on. What he didn't know is that my father was a huge Jean Shepard fan. There is a sucker born every minute and I took that guy's $5. Anyway, if you love the movie, read the book that inspired it and trust that it's amazing. (You can also buy just the Christmas story part but why? Get the whole book. It's funny as hell.) 

The Christmas Wish. I haven't read this but Marianne has, and she sent it to me because she's the best. She said it's the perfect light holiday read. A funny, holiday romance. I'm in! 

And, don't forget to check out my Christmas-y read list from last year! 

Review: J.Crew New Cocoon Coat.

Hi, guess who fell down the (diabolical spiral) stairs from my office loft and possibly broke her foot? This gal. I won't be able to do my normal outfit photos for a little while but the J.Crew coat I cyber-Monday ordered showed up and the show must go on. The J.Crew New Cocoon Coat in Italian stadium-cloth wool is both really kind of great and also not that great. Oh, J.Crew. Why can't I quit you:

I got the camel color in a size 8 and assumed it would fit because a good portion of the reviews claim it runs big. Spoiler: It does not run big. But, this is a nice coat. Is it a $375 coat? Absolutely not. Maybe back in the day when J.Crew quality was really good, but this is definitely a $150-$175 coat (and right now it's $154.50.) It keeps popping in and out of stock so if you want it, keep an eye out while it's marked down! I do love the style of it -  the double pockets, hidden zipper, and high collar are all really chic. This is a fashionable coat and feels like it would also be reasonably warm. 

However, it has no double zipper and no rear vent so when you zip it up it has to fit correctly and if I was a bit narrower in the hips/booty area, it would be perfect. I can zip it up without struggle but the pockets pull a little and it's definitely snug in the rear. I have not tried to sit down with it zipped up, is what saying. 

Hmmph. The fit isn't terrible but not super great either. I can't stand it when a coat is even a hair too tight so I'm going to return it. I don't know that sizing up will help because it'll probably be too big in the shoulders BUT I'm a masochist and ordered it in a 10 in the pale grey color anyway. I like the overall style enough to try-try again. Plus, it looks pretty cool unzipped and with a nice red bag and a giant grey boot, right? 

Outfit details: My bag is a Rebecca Minkoff Phoebe which is hard to find but this adorable red Minkoff bag is on sale and this one is also a really good deal. My non-medical boot is one of my new Blundstones! That review can be found here. The coat is here and there's also a version over at J.Crew Factory but I haven't tried it. 

Weekend Window Shopping: Personal Gift Guide

While looking for things to include in my various gift guides I keep finding things I want for myself. Is this a gift guide or a shopping list? Can it not be both? I am broken. Here you go:

Gift Guide: Gifts For Menfolk.

Men are, to me, notoriously hard to shop for but this list includes some things that seem like they'd make good gifts for pretty much anyone, as well as some things I've actually given as gifts that were well-received. Here we go:

Do you have a dude in your life who buys all his clothes in bulk from Amazon? Just me? Okay, listen. I have it on good authority that Outdoor Voices makes excellent athleisure/comfy clothes for men and this lightweight hoodie made from their CloudKnit fabric looks like something nearly every guy would wear and appreciate. It comes in a bunch of colors and it's also on sale right now! 

This is a such normcore guy gift but it was one I gave to my dude when he was deeply into grilling but didn't have good tools. It was a hit! I am personally VERY into having the right cooking tools for the job and you can never have enough tongs, right? There's also this fancy set which looks good but I'm into those big flat skewers because they seem so much more stable than the usual skinny kind. 

For the music and/or vinyl buff, this would be a really cool gift. Hell, I kind of want it for myself even though my knowledge of punk music is medium-to-low. I just really love the art of album cover art and feel like it was a big loss when everything went digital. 

Is a toothbrush a good gift? It is when it's a Philips Sonicare. This thing is kind of amazing and life-changing and I would actually like a new one myself because I dropped mine and it broke and now I am SAD WITHOUT IT. So yeah, this might the be romantic gift equivalent of a vacuum cleaner but who cares. It's a nice gift, it comes in several levels of fancy (I mean, what) and it makes brushing your teeth a pleasure.

Okay, hear me out: LEGO for adults. Did you know this was a thing? There are also excellently cool art sets but I am quite taken with this freaking awesome pyramid of Giza set and want it for myself. This would be a really fun gift because who doesn't still want toys for Christmas? (Caveat: this might not a great gift for someone with young-ish kids because I guarantee they already have 800,000 tiny hard bits of Lego in their house and will probably murder you for introducing more.)

Honestly, socks are kind of a boring gift but hiking socks from Bombas? They are really good and kind of fun. I have a pair and I've definitely given a pair as a gift so there you have it. ALSO, Bombas x Cotopaxi Merino wool hiking socks are also a thing! They are really pretty nice looking and if you know someone who's a Cotopaxi fan that's a win-win, right? This is starting to feel desperate. 

A few honorable mentions: This Field Notes National Parks set of little notebooks, This elastic band wallet makes a great stocking stuffer, and if all else fails, Bacon of the Month club. 

Gift Guide: Under $100 Gifts For Your Bestie.

First, my apologies for gendering these guides so hard - you know your people, so grain of salt, please! 

This is a list of under-$100 gifts geared towards your best friend, sister, mom, work wife, etc. Also, these would make great gifts for ME JUST SAYING. Okay:

Marianne keeps telling me about the Nécessaire samples she's gotten and how good they are and I'm like, LALALAALAA I CAN'T HEAR YOU because I don't need another expensive bodycare brand in my life but I also kind of do? SO. This brand is supposed to be amazing and the body wash (which comes in some amazing scents and also unscented) seems like the kind of special thing that you might not buy for yourself, but it would be a great gift. Throw in one of my favorite shower scrubber thingies and you'll be a legend. Ooh, there's also a set with the body serum and lotion! That looks good too. 

I know I bang on about Quince a lot but do not sleep on Quince jewelry, y'all. They have such nice things at amazing price points! For an easy under-$50 gift, this gold vermeil eternity necklace gets rave reviews. For something in the 14K gold range, these cabochon opal studs are SO pretty and still under $100! Also, I now have two of these little 14K gold solo mini hoops and I love them. 

Okay, real talk. I want this Simplehuman travel mirror for myself but haven't pulled the trigger yet. My old light-up travel mirror just died and it was kind of a space hog anyway, so this seems like a good solution, right? And it's also just a nice thing to have when you want to inspect your pores at the molecular level. Just me? Anyway, if your bestie travels a lot, I'll bet this would make a great gift. 

I'm going to do a whole big gift guide of just books, but couldn't resist including this Andy Warhol Polaroids book for your modern art/pop culture lover because oh my God, I love everything about this. In general, I love getting art books as gifts because they seem like such a luxury purchase but I also love anything in the pop culture/art realm and this covers a lot of bases. 

A few years ago Marianne and I gave each other Stackers jewelry boxes (review here) and they were a hit. Starter sets are just under $100, but it's kind of a hard thing to buy for someone when you don't know what their jewelry box situation might be. Marianne also gave me a little travel jewelry box that isn't on the site anymore but the current version is more compact and zips around and seems like the perfect travel accessory! Buy your lady friend a piece of Quince jewelry and stick it in this travel box with a bow on it. Congrats, you are done. Yay. Oh, also, they have a very nifty tech cable organizer that would honestly be a great gift for anyone who travels. 

Okay, I'm just going to say it. If you give someone a pair of Vuori Performance Joggers and they don't like them? That person is a monster. I'm totally kidding, but listen, these are still my #1 favorite around-the-house-but-still-cute lounge pants and they are soft as kittens. (I do wish they had extended and tall sizing but they don't listen to me.) These would be an outstanding gift for a dude as well. Just saying. 

I talked about this amazing stuff last year but here it is again. Marianne gave me this Dior Creme Abricot nail cream which is definitely something I wouldn't have bought myself but I love it. I get very dry, brittle nails and terrible sad cuticles in the winter months and this weird, slightly sticky but very effective potion helps a ton! Plus, the packing is very fancy and rich-lady minimalist and looks very nice on my bedside table. 

I recently got a new phone and immediately ordered a new Burga phone case because they are not only very, very good cases, they are also freaking gorgeous. So many patterns and colors to choose from! I personally love the ones that look like slabs of stone (I went with this one) but they also have a new zodiac collection that's really cool. This would make a great gift (they come beautifully packaged) and I also suggest a matching ring holder. Bonus: you can get $20 off your first purchase through my link (full disclosure: I get credits with each purchase.)

Weekend Window Shopping: Anthropologie Holiday Sale!

Anthropologie has a decent sale going on right now with lots of gift-able things since I guess we need to start thinking about that. I mean, you could technically call this a gift guide, but you can also just buy yourself these things and I would never judge you because I do that ALL THE TIME. I am just saying. 

(Real quick: do you guys want gift guides? Y/N. Let me know in the comments. I can go either way.) 

Anyway! Here's what I like from the Anthro sale: