• Kiehls Ultimate Man Refueling Set. This is perfect because most guys don’t think to buy themselves high end skincare. They tend to grab whatever is at the drugstore and be on their way. They may not be so thrilled with this gift at first, but once they try out the products they’ll be singing a different tune.
• Cologne is always good, especially if it’s your boyfriend or husband. My husband is a fan of Viktor & Rolf’s Spicebomb, but what’s really important is that you like they way it smells too, so shop around and make sure to clear your head with those coffee beans.
• Or if he already uses higher end skincare then you might want to try something like The Art Of Shaving’s kits. Using a higher end shaving cream really does make a difference.
• If the guy in your life is big on exercising, or just prefers a sporty look then a sport watch like this Nike+ Sport with GPS would be absolutely perfect.
• For the guy that’s just turned 21 or is an alcohol connoisseur then these Villeroy &Boch Scotch Tumblers are perfect. If they already have drinkwear then try something like these Whiskey Stones which are perfect because they cool your drinks without watering them down.
• Everyone is obsessed with their iPhones these days it seems, and this Olloclip is a really cool accessory that allows you to take better pictures with your phone. For the tech guy or photography buff in your life this gift is absolutely perfect.
• Something that’s entirely practical is a scarf. I love to give scarves usually ones that I’ve knit myself, and my husband likes them because for a while after I’ve made them they smell like me. If you’re not a knitter try picking up this Gap Buffalo Checkered Scarf and then give it a spray of your favorite perfume. Let it air out for a while before you wrap it so it will smell very faintly of you every time he uses it.
• Because we all know that some boys just never grow up, a remote control Helicopter is the perfect toy for the adult boy in your life. With a usb charger, gyroscope, LED light and metal  body this Phantom Gyro Helicopter is wicked cool.
• Of course I’m going to recommend a Sweater, personally I think this Heritage Irish Fisherman’s Crew Neck Sweater is perfect. But really you can get great sweaters at a multitude of places.
• Finally my husband said that a good quality wallet is always a good gift. He personally picked this Jack Spade Mill Leather Bill Holder, because he said it looks well made and still relatively slim.

Once again these are just suggestions and hopefully they make your shopping this season just a bit easier and more seemless.

So I was looking on the site for the dress to post about and I found a few things that will be sneaking into my closet as soon as I’m not so skint.

1,2,3,4,5,6,7,8

The first dress is the one that they posted on their facbook. Isn’t it gorgeous? Bonus it’s a reasonable length if you’re a shorter girl. Next I saw this Fraternity Collection shirt, and I think it’s just darling, even though I’m not in College. I had a shirt similar to this Caribbean Way Blouse before and it was one of my favorites until I ruined it in the dryer, I’m pretty sure I’d wear this one in Hunter Green to bits. This Go with the flow skirt is perfect. I love skater style or circle skirts.
Starting the second row is this Falling Together Scarf, and not only is it beautiful, the name makes it extra perfect for fall. Of course these Sarah Riding boots and Outlaw boots made my wishlist. I’m boot obsessed, pretty sure boots are my favorite style of shoe. And finally this Aztec Cardigan is just adorable and so cozy looking. It just screams curl up by a fire with some apple cider and a cute boy/good book (the two are not mutually exclusive.).

I can’t tell you how excited I am about A Cut Above Boutique, and I hope you’ll all go check them out. Leave the names of your favorite items in the comments below so I can see if I missed anything cute!

This book follows 8 boys in a small fictional town on Halloween night as they try to save their friend Pip and discover the meaning of Halloween. Carapace Clavicle Moundshroud takes the boys on an adventure to find out why they’re dressed as witches, monsters, mummies and skeletons. He shows the boys not only the why and the how’s of Halloween, but how far they’ll go to save the greatest boy that ever lived Joe Pipkin.

This book has absolutely no flaws for me, being both written by Ray Bradbury, and a huge part of my childhood. I’d even say that this book has a lot to do with where I live, which is a small town very much like the book where “there wasn’t so much wilderness you couldn’t see the town. But on the other hand there wasn’t so much town you couldn’t see and feel and touch and smell the wilderness.”* Mr. Moundshroud was the first character to show me that sometimes you couldn’t be sure if someone was your friend or a villain until the end. And Pip, oh pip. I hope that by the time he’s 12 my son is just like and has friends as loyal as Joe Pipkin,’ the greatest boy who ever lived, and on the day he was born all the Orange Crush and Nehi soda bottles in the world fizzed over.”*

Final Verdict: I wholeheartedly, full stop, recommend this book. It doesn’t matter how old you are, if you love Halloween, you’ll love this book. Ray Bradbury’s words take you into the world of that Halloween Tree and you find yourself racing with all the boys, and willing to do anything to save Joe Pipkin.

I thought of dressing up in costume this week, but I honestly haven’t worn a costume for Halloween since I was 21. It’s just not my thing anymore. So I decided to wear some of my favorite cozy clothing.

I’m wearing a gray stripey sweater from Gap, Glasses from Kate Spade. Victoria’s Secret Most Loved Yoga Leggings and Pink and Pepper boots. I love this sweater because it’s long enough to cover my butt and make these yoga leggings acceptable for public wear.

Bonus: Pinterest Told Me To  blogger Sheaffer recently did a post about Mixing Black Brown and Gray and I totally agree with her. It’s an amazing combination.

There’s howl being adorable with his Owl toy from Martha Stewart’s Petsmart Line. I really love that line for dog clothes and toys.

My makeup is super simple, just Rimmel’s new Stay Matte Liquid Mousse foundation that I received from Influenster, Nars Deep Throat Blush, Rosebud Salve Strawberry Lipbalm, Nyx Skinny Eye Marker, and YSL Baby Doll Mascara.

My Necklace is a Tiny Owl that I have no clue where I got, and not pictured are my Kate Spade Gumdrop Studs in Clear Silver.

Howl decided to get into the Halloween Spirit:

He says he should totally play a Hell Hound on Supernatural. I keep trying tell him he’s too adorable and Hell Hounds are invisible.

He then said he’s not adorable, he has Fangs and is Majestic and Ferocious, and the resemblance is striking.

What are your Halloween Plans? I plan to take my son trick or treating and then come home to curl up with Bitter River which I’ll be reviewing next week. Happy Halloween.

Then as I was looking at PacSun for ideas, I saw holographic oxfords and immediately decided that if I were dressing up this year I would be Leighannsays for Halloween. Youtubers are the new CW stars. I look to them for fashion advice more so than anywhere else and I do have a few favorites. So I’m going to do a little mini series and make wishboards for youtubers I would be for Halloween. Then at the end of it I’m going to actually dress up and show you which Youtuber I decided to dress up as.

Today’s Youtuber is Leighannsays:

Because who doesn’t adore her and her “I do what I want” attitude. Leighann is someone to be admired not because she’s pretty, but because she’s smart and fun and her life is a little bit messy and she shares that with us.

When making this wishboard I tried to think about what things I’ve actually seen her wear.  I know that she was big on the Holographic shoe trend and has some super cute oxfords that she’s worn and since the oxfords are what gave me the idea I had to include them. Then there’s this black skater skirt which is adorable and I could easily see Leighann wearing and I’m pretty sure she has something super similar to this cross top. I should have added in more jewelry because I know that Leighann has said in the past more is more, but I wanted to keep the wish board uncrowded. I loved this arrow ring and skull bangle for this look and since she almost always wears studs I went with these because I know she has a heart pair that’s she’s worn a few times. Check out some of her hair tutorials for your hair and either recreate her Dirty Princess Bun or her Big Texas Hair and maybe her Fall makeup tutorial and your look its complete.

You kinda might have noticed that everything is from Pacsun. Once I started I got on a role and everything just fell together. If you decide to purchase any of these items make sure you check out TeenScreen.org first for coupons.

If it is cold where you live then I recommend switching out the skirt for the Leigh Jeans from Topshop and wearing a fitted sweater with an animal on it. Preferably from Target’s girls section if it’ll fit you.

What youtuber would you dress up as?

I’m wearing a Utility Jacket from H&M, Hollister Sweater, Gray Tank from H&M, Gap Legging Jeans, and Pink and Pepper Boots.

Even though it’s from Hollister and I’m not actually a fan of the Abercrombie company and it’s policies, I actually really love this sweater, and would totally buy more sweaters from them. This one is really soft and comfortable and washes well, even though it says dry clean only.
The jacket I bought from H&M last spring, and it’s absolutely awesome. I last wore it here. I adore this jacket, it’s comfortable and it’s perfect to layer with a sweater on extra chilly days.

These boots from Pink and Pepper I bought last year and I adore them. Despite the one inch heel they are incredibly comfortable and are my absolute favorite riding boots I’ve ever owned.

There’s no good close up of it this week, but I’m wearing the Pen Necklace Miss Cannady bought me last year for my birthday. I am obsessed. It’s probably my most worn necklace.

I am completely in love with my makeup from these photos too. I’m wearing Lancome’s Tient Visionaire foundation and concealer, Nars Deep Throat Blush, Lancome Eyeshadows, YSL Baby Doll Mascara, Lancome Rouge In Love Lipstick in Madam Tulip, and Makeup Forever HD Setting Powder.

Of course here’s Howl’s close up. If you’re wondering why his front leg has been shaved, that was from his time in the hospital. He is doing so so so much better, but he’s still on medication and constant surveillance.

How did your Friday the 13th go?

I can’t even tell you how excited I am for what I’m about to say. I have been waiting years for this, ever since I discovered European countries had this option and we didn’t here in the States, I’ve been waiting. I’ve signed petitions, I’ve emailed the company. And I’ve waited. But now that day is finally here and I’m so happy.

H&M now has online shopping in the U.S.  Seriously! You guys know how much I adore H&M. And since I had to drive to the store, I was finally starting to branch out to other stores again, like Gap and Gilly Hicks, so I wouldn’t have to drive there. Since in case you guys haven’t guessed by all the wilderness in my photos, I live in a town small enough that our park is bordered by woods. I went to a town a bit away to take my barbie photos. My H&M was about an hr or so away, and that’s a lot of gas used to get there. But now that gas money can become shopping money and I’m so so so happy!

I put together an outfit that if I could I’d buy right now. It’s so cute! I didn’t include shoes or accessories because I just couldn’t decide. There will probably be a whole post dedicated to them another day.

I love trench coats. I have one already so I don’t need this one, but it doesn’t stop me from wanting it. I kinda really love hats, and since my Fedora got ruined then I might need to get this Felt Hat to replace it for winter. This Cardigan is sort of my perfect dream cardigan. I love big slouchy long cozy sweaters to snuggle in for the winter. This Oversized tee is perfect and I love that I actually know what it says is (Translation Hello Darling, How’s It Going?). And then these Slim Regular Jeans are absolutely perfect for me.

Then while I was looking I of course found some other things that I feel should come home with me.

1,2,3,4,5,6,7,8,9,10

Obviously I’m not going to be buying all of this right now, because that would be insanely expensive, but there will probably be an H&M haul coming within the next few weeks, because I am just far to excited about this! So excited in fact that I had a post already written for today and decided to save it for tomorrow so I could blog about this today.

I’d also be really grateful if everyone could go check out the H&M 50 States Of Fashion contest and vote for me, just search ManaSmith86

I like them even better if I’ve made them myself. I actually a few projects for this winter planned. I usually like quick satisfying projects, like scarves and hats and I do have some of those planned. A red scarf with pink pockets on the ends that have red hearts knitted into them and a Pink hat with Red hearts knitted into it, maybe in Fair Isle style. The scarf I can turn out in a few hours but if I’m doing the more complicated pattern on the hat, then it will take me a bit longer.

I’ve also thought about delving into harder projects like a sweater. I’ve never made one before and I’ve been really wanting to try a more complicated project this winter. Okay and I’ve sort of been on the hunt for the perfect slightly over sized cozy sweater. So I figure if I can’t find it I should probably just make it.

It’s actually kinda killing me that I can’t head out to my local yarn shop tomorrow to start picking up supplies and get advice on what to make and how to make it. Once I get an idea to do something it sort of drives me crazy until I get started on it, and I love buying new yarn. My last project was an infinity scarf and hat and I went back to my local shop 2 or 3 times. But I’m actually working on a baby blanket for a very close friend right now and it kinda reminds me of snow. I feel like I should finish that first and I have 3 more skeins to knit up before I’m done.

Really if you’re a knitter and you’re getting your yarn at a box store you’re missing out. This is going to sound awful but really the only things I buy from small businesses regularly are my yarn. This is for one reason, buying there insures I have help when I’m stuck. The guy that owns my local yarn shop sat with me for over an hour teaching me to turn a heel when I learned to knit socks. Then a few days later he spent another hour teaching me to graft the toe of the sock. I wasn’t in a class, although he does offer them, he just took his time to teach me how. You can pretty much walk into any yarn shop and they’ll help you if you ask for it. I do recommend being polite though, they don’t have to help you and if you’re rude, they flat out won’t.

I’m also planning on repurchasing Stitch ‘N Bitch: The Knitter’s Handbook and Stitch ‘n Bitch Superstar Knitting: Go Beyond the Basics which I’ve never owned but I’m really excited about because it has 41 new patterns and I might also buy Stitch ‘n Bitch Nation. I love the Stitch N’ Bitch book series, I learned to knit from the first book, and I adore it. I can’t wait to get them.