Cheryl Shops

You know how all the best-of lists come out in mid-December? Those seemed to appear so quickly this year (I’m still blaming our late Thanksgiving), but I was really thrown by the plethora of end-of-the-decade stories. How did a whole decade just happen? It feels like 2010 was just yesterday, although, to be fair, a lot has happened in my life—and in the world—since then. That said, there’s a lot that I’m proud of having accomplished, especially in the last year. I love the optimism of starting a new year, but before I jump headfirst into 2020, let’s take a look back at 2019.

Did you leave your shopping till the very last minute? No judgment. And, really, the holiday shopping season was super short this year, so cut yourself some slack. Here are five super-last-minute gift ideas—one Amazon Prime-able, and the rest can be sent electronically. So finish that shopping, pour yourself a well-deserved drink, and relax.

I spent a lot of time recently—too much, perhaps—wondering if I could pull off leather jogger pants. I finally bit the bullet and ordered a pair. They were a fantastic deal, but they made my hips look ginormous (I think I ordered a size too big). Then I tried a pair that was too small, although I loved the cut. Finally, I think I found the pair that's just right. While I would have preferred a real leather pair, I settled for vegan leather; there are just more options out there, some of which are surprisingly priced at real-leather levels. I still am not 100% convinced that I can pull these off, but that's not going to stop me from continuing to try. Here's what I wore with my vegan leather jogger pants.

'Tis the season where we all get on a plane and fly home for the holidays, so we might as well look good while we travel, right? Back in the day, my mom got me all dressed up to fly (these were also the days when you could smoke on an airplane, so clearly we're going waaaaay back); nowadays, you see people wearing everything from flip-flops to pajamas on a plane, and while comfort is definitely key, there's a way to look polished without looking like you rolled straight out of bed. As someone who travels pretty frequently, I have my plane outfit down to a formula. Here's what I almost always wear when I travel.

The older I get, the fewer holiday parties I seem to have. I remember being in my 20s and having multiple events per night in the weekends leading up to Christmas; now I’m just an introvert with no friends. I’m kidding! I still have lots of friends, but we don’t throw parties like we used to, probably because we’re too stressed out this time of year. Still kidding! Well, maybe not. Anyway, while my social calendar isn’t as full as it once was, I do have some festivities to attend, and thus I decided to treat myself to a fun new skirt on Black Friday. Here’s what I’ll be wearing to this year’s holiday celebrations.

Usually I spread my gift guides out over several weeks—or months, as my very organized self did last year—but if you’re anything like me, the holidays REALLY snuck up on me this year, and dear god, how did this happen?! So in the interest of Christmas and Hanukkah being less than three weeks away, I decided to lump my somewhat abbreviated gift guides into one big post. This year, I didn’t filter by recipient; I went straight to price, but included something for all genders and ages in each. Well, except for splurge gifts—those are mostly just for me. ;) So without further ado, here are my favorite gifts for 2019.

My plans to shoot an outfit post were thwarted by the rain we had all weekend in LA (yes, it does rain in Southern California), so instead, I thought I’d share some of what I’ve been wearing lately on Instagram. I used to shoot my daily outfits in the bathroom at work, but since my new job has truly terrible lighting (and the ladies’ room is always crowded), I’ve been trying to do a better job of showing more everyday looks in my feed. In case you’re still not following me on IG (yes, that was a shameless plug!), here’s what I’ve been wearing.