Cheryl Shops

Procrastinators, this one's for you. There's one Amazon Prime–able thing here (also available for instant download on Kindle) but otherwise these are all e-giftable, making them both environmentally friendly and quick. Here are ideas for people you might have forgotten, or just for shoppers who really like to leave things till the last minute.

I live in San Francisco, but I was born and raised in Chicago, and that's where I go every year for Christmas. Chicago is a lovely city, and I'd recommend visiting in the spring or fall; winter is an entirely different beast, although there's something so traditional and comforting about an actual winter. It doesn't look like we'll have a white Christmas this year—thanks, global warming!—but it will be cold. So Christmas in Chicago is an excuse for me to break out all of the wintry things I rarely get to wear in San Francisco. Here's what I'm planning on wearing.

And now, the most fun installment of my holiday gift guide: gifts for meeeee! These are the things on my wish list, from affordable to dream on, girl. Hence the name, dream gifts. Let's hope Santa sees this one before it's too late!

There's really no formula to mixing prints—with the right attitude, you could probably pull off anything. But as a general rule of thumb, I stick to three main guidelines. One: you want similar color schemes. Two: vary the scale, with one larger pattern and one with a smaller one. And three: no more than two prints per outfit. Then again, I will tell you time and time again that rules were meant to be broken, so perhaps the best answer is that there's no wrong way to do it. But while you're here, this is how I like to mix prints.

There really is no rule about not wearing white after Labor Day—it's something the department stores made up to encourage people to buy fall clothes when the weather was still too warm to wear them. That said, I see why people don't wear white as much in the winter—it's hard to keep clean in snow or rain, and with less daylight, we somehow gravitate toward darker colors. But I love wearing white jeans year round, and I find them very refreshing in cold weather. (Although, true, I rarely wear them when it's raining). This look is all about wearing a mix of lighter-colored neutrals for a breath of fresh, wintry air.

There are two camps: those who think men are easy to shop for, and those who think they're hard to shop for. I tend to fall into the former—like most gift giving, it's a matter of knowing your audience. In this case, I had a particularly stylish, do-gooder, food- and drink-loving guy in mind, but these gifts would work in general for the dads, brothers, husbands, boyfriends, sons, and various other guys on your list.

As I shared with you in this post, plaid coats are the fall trend I'm most excited about, and thankfully it's finally cool enough for me to wear mine! You will probably be seeing a lot of this coat over the next few months, but here's the first look I created with it. I'd add in a scarf and tights when the weather gets even colder, but this is how I'm wearing it now.

The Black Friday sales have already begun, which is both a blessing and a curse. Thankfully, I find shopping for holiday gifts for women—friends, sisters, moms, and so on—to be the next best thing to shopping for myself. So go forth, be generous, and take advantage of all those promos flooding your inbox!

Remember The O.C.? And Laguna Beach, the reality show it inspired (which then led to The Hills)? I always think of those shows when I visit Orange County, where my boyfriend's mom lives, which is funny, because I've found it to be nothing like any of them. It's just a sunny stretch of southern California—yes, it's wealthy, but it's pretty laid-back for the most part. It just kind of feels suburban to me. The nice part, though, is that along the coast, the weather is perfectly temperate—even when it's blazing hot in the rest of Los Angeles, it's usually somewhere in the 70s with a cool breeze in Huntington Beach, where we shot these photos. Thus, my outfit is usually some combination of summer and fall. This is the first year in awhile that we won't be spending Thanksgiving weekend down south, but if we were, this is what I'd be wearing.

Real talk: I have been looking for a black jumpsuit forever. I have tried them on everywhere from Neiman Marcus to Target, and just couldn't seem to find one that was right. I had some specifics—I wanted sleeves and wider legs—but otherwise was open to all sorts of styles. I brought some challenges to the table, too, as I have a freakishly short torso, which makes dresses tricky too. So as with dresses, I finally figured out a jumpsuit style that works for me: one without a defined waistline. But unlike with dresses, finding this in a jumpsuit presented a bit of a challenge. Thankfully, at long last, I finally found one that works for me, and here's how I've been wearing it.

This post is sponsored by Cuddl Duds but the content and opinions expressed here are my own.

Surprise, it's a bonus post! In tomorrow's post, I'll be showing you what I'm wearing on Thanksgiving, but first, let's plan our Black Friday shopping outfits. Now, I prefer to shop online from the comfort of my own home, but this is a comfy option even if you plan on braving the crowds at the mall. I've partnered with Cuddl Duds and Macy's to show you the perfect thing to wear. It's all about soft, cozy layers. Let's break it down.

It's been a minute since I've done a Get the Look post, and since then, I've had a pin go viral on Pinterest! This most-pinned look from my Outfit ideas for ageless style Pinterest board is at 2,844 repins and counting, and I can see why—it's a very classic-with-a-twist look, and very fall-friendly. I also love wearing lighter neutrals in fall, because I feel like it's a nice transition from warmer to cooler weather. So before things get too chilly (and snowy), here's how to get the look.

It probably doesn't surprise you that I don't own any sweatpants. Well, I didn't, until I bought this pair a few weeks ago. What spurred me to actually buy a pair of sweatpants, you may ask? The answer is that I needed something to wear when I walk my dog. More specifically, I needed something to throw on first thing in the morning when she needs to go outside to pee ASAP. So sometimes I end up putting these on at 7 a.m. on a Sunday morning...and then I don't take them off all day. Long story short, sweatpants are comfortable, people. So I decided to try to dress them up a little bit, to see if I could get away with wearing them all day. Here's how the experiment turned out.

It's hard to pick my favorite amongst the fall trends I've featured here, but if I have to, it would be this one. I own probably far too many coats (and jackets) for someone who lives in a mild climate, but my love of outerwear knows no bounds, nor season, apparently. This year, I'm all about the plaid coat. In spite of fact that temperatures are still in the upper 60s here, I've already bought my coat (read on to see which one), and I can't wait to wear it. Here are all of my favorites this season.

I was tempted to call this post "50 shades of grey," but that's so three years ago, and all things considered, I'm probably only wearing like five shades here. Also, some of them are maybe technically taupe. That said, monochromatic looks can be kind of tricky to pull off when you're wearing anything but black, but gray is actually a fun color to play with, because there are so many shades of it—probably more than 50, so there! There's really no wrong way to do it, from a charcoal and a heather to several similar shades, but an easy way to wear it is to pair pieces in similar shades but different textures. In this case, I wore a heathered, ribbed gray sweater with a satin skirt, and while it's not Seattle, I picked the moodiest background I could find to showcase this look.

While the origin of the statement stripe sweater (say that 10 times really fast) is unclear, there are a gazillion takes on the trend this season, and I'm here for all of them. Some are more subtle than others, but if you're like me and find yourself starved for color in the winter, this is a pretty easy solution. From skinny rainbow stripes to a more bold, wide, colorblocking, there's something out there for everyone. (There are also softer, more neutral versions, but meh, this is all about bright color.) Here are my favorite statement stripe sweaters for fall.

This post could also be titled "how to wear a sundress in fall." As I've noted in the last few posts, fall in the Bay Area is one of the most beautiful, temperate times of year, and most visitors are surprised by how warm it is. Wine country—Sonoma and Napa counties especially—tends to be much warmer in the summer, but by fall, it's just right, with highs in the upper 70s. It's the perfect weather for a sundress...but as with weather year-round in the Bay Area, layers are key. I recently went up to Sonoma and Napa for the day, and here's what I wore.