Getting cozy (& Friday Links)

The temperatures are finally taking a dip around here. I pulled on a sweater over my pjs to watch tv the other night for the first time in months. And there’s even rain in the forecast! The mornings are dark, the farmer’s market picnics have ended for the season, and I find myself ordering red wine instead of white.

I never look forward to the end of summer, but I do really enjoy this start of fall. Aron is off to Oakland for meetings tomorrow, so the kids and I will be off on our own adventure. I haven’t decided whether I should plan some sort of adventure or make it a lazy day of crafting and playing here. I’m leaning toward the latter—it was a very full week! Sunday will be for birthday parties and dinner with friends. There’s also a chance we’ll get to help out with an olive harvest, but the rain would push that off.

Hope your weekend is a good one! Some links of note… 

Paris is installing sparkling water fountains around the city. If only!

This is incredible 3rd-grader poetry.

Love these fascinating photos of ice fishers.

Pinstripe flannel sheets (via Design Crush)

Ten tips for keeping family tech in check.

Did you read Where’d you go Bernadette? Hudson’s school celebrated Dia de los Muertos, so a friend sent me this. So funny!

Ikea Kitchen favorites from the Remodelista editors.

An enviable 24-hour shopping trip to LA.

Apparently this is the candle that makes all of the Anthropologie stores smell so good! (via Apartment Therapy)

The Goop success surprise.

How friends become closer.

Wonderful advice. For so many things.

Another one to make you laugh. The comment section: When cooking hacks go too far.

Talking to Anita Hill about Weinstein and Trump. Can’t stop thinking about this.

I love this print. I might need to find a place for it.

Uniqlo always has such great outerwear, but I especially love this and this from the Ines de la Fressange collaboration.

We’ve been thinking about starting Harry Potter with Hudson, so I found this interesting.

(Related question: who should get to do the reading??)

Trump Fatigue? A reminder to contribute to journalism with integrity. I especially like ProPublica and NPR for this.

Jumpstarting the holidays: Personalized gifts with Shutterfly

I’m usually in the camp who bemoans the holiday creep. No sooner than you’ve picked out a pumpkin do the boxes of string lights appear on the shelves. But there is one thing I really like to get a jump on: gift giving. The less holiday shopping there is to do in month of December, the better.

And the most personalized gifts, I’ve realized, necessitate some advance planning.

It’s usually around this time that I start looking through family photos from the year for holiday cards anyway, so I pull any and all of those favorites into an album specifically for photo gifts. This year, I’m working with Shutterfly and looking beyond the photo book. There are so many options for bringing together the personal and the practical.

I think I’ve found something for almost everyone on your list.

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Scenes from our Halloween

Hope you had a Happy Halloween! Here’s a few photos (well, more than a few) from our family’s celebration.

Hudson chose to be a cheetah this year, so he could “run ahead and get lots of candy.” He is the fastest land animal afterall. Skyler chose a rainbow fairy unicorn. She was simply to be fairy at first, but in the end she was solidly a unicorn—a spinning, dancing, flying one.

Aron and I took a page from one of our favorite TV shows, Game of Thrones, and dressed as Daenerys and her dragon.

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