November is my favorite time of the year, from pumpkin-spice everything to the gluttony of Thanksgiving and, of course, my birthday! When it comes to the holiday season, I love buying presents for others (and for myself!), so I thought I'd put together a collection of some of my favorite items of the moment, many from adorable Etsy shops I recommend exploring. Hopefully they can give you ideas for Christmas shopping to come! My first items ... Read More

It is with great sadness (happiness) that I report that as of this past weekend, our long national dream (nightmare) is over. That's right, people--Breaking Dawn Part 2 premiered in theaters, thus ending The Twilight Saga once and for all, or at least until they reboot it in five years with hotter, younger actors. Just kidding, no one is younger than Taylor Lautner.When we left our young Bella (Kristen Stewart) in Part 1, she had just ... Read More

  It’s hard to pin down a woman with a gun (in more ways than one). Cathryne Czubek’s new documentary, A Girl and a Gun, takes on the historically complex relationship between American women and firearms—and the portrait that emerges may surprise those who expect another Bowling for Columbine. Czubek captures some shockingly incongruous images—the mom with a baby in one arm and a shotgun in the other, the Tai ... Read More

With its drizzly rain, cold weather, and short, dark days, sometimes it seems like November is the cruelest month, or at least the most hated. But although summer days are now long past, there are plenty of reasons to love November! Here are ten of them:     1. You can get leftover Halloween candy for cheap. Halloween is now over, and you know what that means…cheap candy! Like the day after Valentine’s Day and the ... Read More

  A family unit is like a fragile ecosystem—the introduction of a foreign species can have dangerous ripple effects. In Ry Russo-Young’s Nobody Walks (co-written by Girls’ Lena Dunham), sexy gamine Martine (Olivia Thirlby) stays for a brief spell in the pool house of an L.A. clan, and changes everyone, for better and for worse. The film takes place over the course of a few hot, summery weeks during which Martine ... Read More