My favorite gifts for impossible-to-shop-for friends, a miraculous hard water filter, and the sexiest Medusa necklace

Plus, how I'm slowing down time this November

Today, two friends were talking about our local food pantry—and I learned that what food banks need most right now are grocery gift cards—but the best thing is to call your pantry and ask what they prefer.

November is always a month that stretches me one way or the other as the holiday express starts to gather speed. This week, the stretch was the time change, family birthdays, the dahlias that need to be dug up, and major deadlines at work. As a wise friend once said to me, “The only way to slow down time is to be present,” and I’ve been working on it — really tasting my coffee in the mornings; putting down my laptop and really snuggling with my seven-year-old in the early mornings; calling a friend to blab, taking time to wade through the tsunami of notifications (I’m not built for modern communication expectations) to respond to my people before bedtime.

It will surprise precisely no one that I love gift guide season (the first two weeks of November, unofficially), and this week I gave myself the gift of just diving into the bliss of clicking through as many gift guides as I could. And here, friends, is the best of what I saw.

A. A sexy Medusa necklace for those friends who can pull this off.

B. A luxury tomato candle and a funny tomato candle - for the chic friends and the gardening friends - sometimes they are one and the same!

C. A cool lighter for a witchy friend.

D. A luxury electric blue nail polish because it’s fun to give and to receive.

E. I have this stationery and have given it as gifts before - the cardstock is really thick and special.

F. A tomato pin for the friends who grow tomatoes obsessively and also share them (I have more than one of these friends - a good thing since I manage to kill all my tomatoes except for the cherry tomatoes). The universe gives and the universe takes.

G. I’m a forever fan of chocolate as a gift - I’ve given both Stick with Me Chocolates and Burdick’s Hanukkah selection.

H. This hard water filter is the kind of practical gift that is perfect for a certain sort of sister or friend - this is expensive and something they won’t buy themselves - but the results are nothing short of miraculous.

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I include a few bonus finds here each week for paid subscribers as a small token of appreciation for making this newsletter possible.

A. Gak! I love clicking around Liberty of London - this sleep kit would be perfect for a hot-water-bottle-loving pal.

B. I’ve been eyeing these Camper boots for an upcoming trip.

C. Another chocolate (and wonderful store in NYC). I’m getting Ben this Advent calendar.