1. Almonds. There is an almond for every occasion–bust out a classic Smokehouse flavor for everyday, try the Cinnamon Brown Sugar flavor for dessert, or maybe even make some french macarons with a bag of simple raw almonds. When you’re done, wash it all down with Chocolate Almond Milk.

2. OPI Skull & Glossbones nail polish. The perfect gray.

3. Girl replaces the lyrics to Lana Del Rey’s song “Video Games” in a parody about the Hunger Games. It’s better than the original.

4. DOWNTON ABBEY. This show is captivating. It’s like Pride & Prejudice and Gossip Girl and Mad Men and Ever After all in one. That was probably not a convincing argument, but seriously, it’s so good! Season 1 is on Netflix, Season 2 is airing right now and also (for a limited time) online here.

5. Louboutin Intern Flats…. not loving the $925 price, obv, but everything else? Flawless.

6. The Fault in Our Stars by John Green. It’s the best (currently number one on the NYT Bestseller List).

7. Shostakovich’s Second Waltz (not particularly this version, but the waltz in general). Also, you know, Kanye West & Jay-Z.

I’ve probably tweeted about everything on this list already, but whatev. In the comments, tell me what YOU are loving!

(Clockwise from top right: Seche Vite Top Coat, Butter London Nail Lacquer, Subscription to Birchbox, Kate Spade Mittens, Soap & Glory Hand Food, Voluspa 3-Wick Candle, H&M Leather Pouch, Friendship Bracelets, Custom Leather Luggage Tag, Marc by Marc Jacobs Water Bottle, Jack Black Lip Balm, Viva La Juicy Perfume Roller, A Merry Mishap Gem Necklaces, Lush Bath Bomb)

Seche Vite Top Coat is hands down my favorite–it’s just-came-from-a-manicure shiny and dries to the touch in a minute. Pair it with a fancy Butter London nail polish (or OPI, Essie, Deborah Lipman) or two and your gift recipient will have polished nails all year long.

Birchbox is a service that sends its subscribers a pretty box full of deluxe samples of beauty products each month. You can gift a month, a few months, or a year, and the boxes will be delivered straight to your gift recipient’s door.

The Kate Spade mittens are fresh and classic, and even if your local mall doesn’t have a Kate Spade (or Kate Spade outlet!), a cute pair of mittens from anywhere will work.

Soap & Glory’s Hand Food is a step up from whatever gift pack is closest to the register at Bath & Body Works, and it’s less than $10.

Voluspa’s three-wick candles with seasonal scents come in the most festive tins! Perfect for a hostess gift or stocking stuffer. Plus, they smell good. If you can’t find Voluspa candles, the Slatkin & Co. candles at Bath & Body Works smell nice, too.

There isn’t an H&M in Houston, so getting my hands on this little blue pouch isn’t likely, but a little leather, faux-leather, or printed pouch (with a gift card or some $ inside) is a thoughtful little gift.

You can buy friendship bracelets at random boutiques or Urban Outfitters, but you can make them, too. Here is a tutorial (pictured above!), and here is a trick: use thick embroidery floss to make your bracelet more substantial.

This leather luggage tag is something most leather-working (read that: rural) or cowboy stores can do if you don’t have time to order it from Etsy. It doesn’t need to say a name, either–make a keychain with some words of wisdom or a funny joke!

A water bottle is so easy to find and buy, and I am forever losing them, so a cute one on standby is always handy. The tumblers at Starbucks will work, and I have this Marc by Marc Jacobs one in green that I love, too.

Jack Black lip balm is the bomb. It smells nice and minty and isn’t crazy expensive, but is a step above Carmex.

Perfume rollers are so handy. The Viva La Juicy is a good, neutral daytime scent for girls, and so is Kate Spade’s Twirl. There is usually a whole little section of these at Ulta!

Geo necklaces from A Merry Mishap are so colorful and trendy! Any rough-gem necklace will do, though.

The last thing: a Lush bath bomb. Lush isn’t my favorite, but their bath bombs can make any present a little more substantial. Go to Lush and smell all of the different ones–there will surely be at least one scent you don’t absolutely hate.

Did I miss any of your go-to quick gifts? Let me know in the comments!

Munich Still Life, William Michael Harnett (oil on canvas) | 1882

The Fish and the Man, Charles Webster Hawthorne (oil on canvas affixed to composition board) | 1925

He’s like, “Hell yes, I did kill this fish.” Kinda Ron Swansonesque, no?

A Mountain Ceremony, Victor Higgins (oil on canvas) | 1921

The Icebergs, Frederic Edwin Church (oil on canvas) | 1861

Though small here, this painting is actually over nine feet in person. It was a crowd favorite, even though the artists in my family seemed hung-up on the uneven midline (?). I like how the icebergs are both calming and commanding.

Persian Letters, Rene Magritte (oil on canvas) | 1958

Still Life with Sardines and Sea Urchins, Adolphe Monticelli (oil on wood panel) | 1875 or 1880-82

There is, like, juuuuust enough detail to decipher a few fish, but not much else–kind of like the sea itself.

The Winkel Mill, Pointillist Version, Piet Mondrian (oil on canvas) | 1908

Ahk! The colors are so much more vibrant in person.

Self-portrait, Sir Winston Churchill | (In the Reves’ Collection)

This little drawing caught me so off-guard! From the museum: “Sir Winston Churchill drew himself as a pig when each guest was asked to draw a self-portrait following a dinner party at the Villa . . . This particular evening, Sir Winston won the timed competition by finishing first.”

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The restaurant at the Dallas Museum of Art was delicious (and the food was presented well, too). Plus, at the end of the bar, there are loads of apothecary jars filled with candy! Tucked into the back of the museum, there is an outdoor area with pretty foliage and a water wall. All in all, it was a pretty solid little museum (despite a few current exhibits that didn’t interest me). Which painting is your favorite from above? Or, have you already been and taken a liking to one that I missed? Share!

It’s October, the best month! Even if it doesn’t feel like autumn in Texas yet, I’ve been burning fall scented candles and even brought a few jackets up to my closet (a girl can dream, right?). The one downfall of October–midterms–has me occupied for the time being, though, but I took a quick break to round up some gems for y’all:

• I love garlic even more now that I can peal it in 10 seconds.
• Last week, I saw Maureen Johnson speak and picked up a copy of her brand new book, The Name of the Star. It’s a mystery, so I’m zooming through it! You can read the first 78 pages for free right here.
• A cheeky street tag: The Times are New Roman.
• These floor pillows are PANCAKES. Want. Need.
• This watch is on my Christmas list, but friends and family have mixed feelings. What do you think about it?
• Apparently, watching the show Lie to Me makes you worse at detecting lies. Bummer.
• All of the food in this blog looks so pretty.

• I am a longtime fan of David Horvitz, who often posts challenges or fun tasks on his blog. I can’t tell if this latest one is genius or subtle trickery.
• One of my professors recommended this book of recipes from literary works after a classmate shared Sinclair Lewis’s recipe for Sinful Christmas Cookies. Also relevant: Digory’s plum cake.
• Speaking of recipes: zucchini hummus? Must try.
• I’ve loved this print for a while now. What do you think?
• So simple, cheap, and pretty.
• Mr. Rodgers’ acceptance speech for a lifetime achievement award.
• I pledged to Readit1st, will you?

If you’re not freaking out about tonight’s LAST EVER Harry Potter movie premiere, I hope this playlist will help rekindle your Harry Potter spirit. I’ve culled through the annuls of wizard rock and selected my favorites from years past and present. If for some reason you haven’t read the books or watched the movies, you might want to skip this post, because there are mad spoilers in these songs. Otherwise, please ~wrock out.

Note: I linked to whatever versions I could find on YouTube, but really, you should just download them in iTunes, because a few of the links are live recordings and the audio isn’t so premium. If you’d like to listen to all of them, here’s a YouTube Playlist that will play one after another.

• Ministry of Magic – The Bravest Man I Ever Knew | This is my favorite. It’s about Snape.
• The Moaning Myrtles - And Then I Died | A musical rendition of Moaning Myrtle’s bathroom tale.
  
• Meekakitty w/ HeyHiHello - Wizard Love | This is a newer song, and very cute.
  
• The Remus Lupins – Looking for Trouble | I’m always humming this.
• Ministry of Magic – This Town | Wizard rock kings Luke Conard & Ryan Seiler aced this one. Such a pretty song and music video.
• The Butterbeer Experience – A Mandrake’s Lament | “It’s not easy being a mandrake, baby.”
• Ministry of Magic – House Song | “I’m a Gryffindor and we own the sky.”
• The Butterbeer Experience – Basically The Man | Neville<333
• Harry and the Potters – Save Ginny Weasley | I couldn’t not include HATP.
• The Butterbeer Experience - On Thestrals Wings | The chorus. So good, but slow.
• Hank Green – Accio Deathly Hallows | Throwback.

What’s up, y’all? One order of summer Web Gems, coming right up:

• These two bracelet tutorials have been keeping me busy for days: DIY Rope Bracelet & DIY Friendship Bracelet. So cute for summer.
• I made this almond chicken once and it’s definitely a repeater, especially with some really good barbecue sauce. This pineapple curry fried rice was gobble-it-down delicious, too (I used chicken instead of tofu).
• If you use a Mac and follow RSS feeds through Google Reader, spend $10 and download Reeder, like, now! It’s the prettiest feed reader I’ve ever seen, works seamlessly, and makes trudging through my RSS feed fun again. It’s available for iPhone, iPad, and Mac!
• The perfect red pouch.
• I’ve been listening to this song over and over. So timeless, and it has a cute message. (Embedded above).
• This.
• Don’t we all hope to be glamourous?
• If you eat fish, this is a handy chart about what and what not to indulge in when gobbling those underwater dwellers.
• Did you know there’s a 73 minute documentary on Russian Prison System tattoos/life?

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This post is part of an ongoing series where I link to items, articles, videos, and general Internet that I think you might like. See previous posts here.

You might know Ransom Riggs from his short films, or maybe from his contributions to Mental_floss magazine, or maybe even for being friends with award-winning YA author John Green. You might not know him, though, as a budding YA author himself.

Miss Peregrine’s Home for Peculiar Children, Riggs’ debut novel, is the best YA book I’ve read in a very long time. It’s about a young boy who stumbles into a mystery and tries to solve it. The story has peripety, adventure, magic, friendship, and loss. It left me curious, but wasn’t so provocative that I had to tear through each page in suspense. Plus, it met my (admittedly low) standard of a good book: I actually finished it.

Unlike the majority of YA novels I wade through, Miss Peregrine doesn’t read like a teenager wrote it. The words aren’t all easy and the themes aren’t all obvious. It’s an honest-to-goodness novel that is written for a critical thinker. The lessons are implicit, and the the tone Riggs takes gives the book a beautiful, classic feeling. It’s written for young adults, but I think it’s meant for all ages. My younger sister read it after me and loved it, and my dad is plowing through it right now.

I kind of think it could even be the new Harry Potter. J.K. Rowling’s series is so successful because her writing style is timeless and poignant and her characters and themes have remained relevant to a huge audience. Ransom Riggs’ writing style is similar, but smarter and maybe written with a little more finesse. Miss Peregrine is also like Narnia–there is fantasy and safety; peril and suspense grew the story for me, but I was never so scared that I had to scoot under a blanket or check that the back door was locked.

Alright, enough of me pretending to be a book critic. Riggs is a filmmaker and made his own book trailer for the novel. Watch it below, and then you’ll surely want to go buy the book. Or maybe you’ve read it already? In which case, please, let’s have a delightful discussion about it in the comments.

As the weather spikes into three-digit territory, I try to condense my time outside into brief spurts throughout the day. Since I can only do so much reading, Netflixing, baking, Tumblring, etc. before I become a total zombie, I’ve compiled some summer crafts for you and I to try. Crafts are fun!

• Make a watermelon cocktail keg for your next patio get-together. You don’t have to follow the drink recipe–there are lots of different kinds of drinks to try.
• I’ve posted this tent before, but I still think it would be a quick and thrifty DIY.
• Paint your own chevron rug.
• Dye your own sneakers! It would be cute to trick out a pair with purple hombre. On an hombre dying kick? Try making this hombre table cloth!
• I’ve posted these before, too (I think), but they could be so much fun for summer.
• Arrows. Lots and lots of arrows.
• Quick and easy chalkboard frame–so cute!
• Make some vintage tin candles.
• Martha Stuart has loads of crafts on her website. I was going to link a few, but, really, you can search yourself. Her crafts could keep you busy for this summer and beyond!
• Bake a beet cake. (Beets still remind me of Dwight Schrute.)
• Monogram some mugs from the the thrift store.
• This might be a little ambitious, but make your own outdoor kitchen.
• Add some detail to a boring door.
• Hello Sandwich’s gift-wrapping zine would be perfect to augment your crafts–you’ll be able to wrap and give them away with style.

Let me know if you make anything, or if you have any other crafts to consider! I realize this is barely even the tip of the crafting iceberg.

Photo is by DesignMom.

• I love a good font, especially when I can pay what I want for it ($100 or even $0). Download away!
• Wouldn’t you love to take a dip in this pool?
• These rooms are so cool. Acid Wasp might be my favorite style right now/forever. Oh, and I’d totally live here, too.
• I ran into my hip 99%-vegan friend Elisha at the wedding last weekend and it reminded me of a video she made for a contest. It’s a recipe that actually looks really, really good. I definitely want to try the non-vegan version of it (lol). For her to win the contest, she has to have the most views–so resist from watching the other ones, as much as you want to and please give hers a look!
• Neuroscience article of the week: Ads Implant False Memories.
• Very useful chart. Who knew that foxes have really short lives?!
• I might be able to deal with the unpleasant smell of crayons for these.
• Cracking up that planking is even a trend.

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This post is part of an ongoing series where I link to items, articles, videos, and general Internet that I think you might like. See previous posts here.