When the cold winter months are in your mind, what do you buy to prepare?
November might’ve started out warm but it came through with a whole week of rain and lowered the temperatures to a crisp and much more seasonally acceptable average of 65 degrees. Finally, it was feeling like the holiday season. And starting to look like it too with the early morning fog and morning frost on car windshields. The prime time to switch from iced coffee to warm lattes, and maybe even add on a warmed baked good on the side.
It’s also time to double down on securing the things that will help make the coming winter months more enjoyable. Like puzzles to help pass time or a new set of base wear to stay warm. There’s also the matter of keeping moisturized when the winds start to pick up. It should be of note, that while some of the things on this list were things that I’m looking forward to using in the coming weeks, others were bought just because they caught my eye.
Here is a few things in the shopping bag this month.
Murdle in the Hedge Maze 500-Piece Jigsaw Puzzle
With the nights long and the cold forcing many to stay indoors, it’s the perfect time to pick up a puzzle as a soft of busy activity that isn’t scrolling through the phone. There is a great and many to choose from, with varying degrees of difficulty. 500 piece sets take an average of 5 to 6 hours for solo solvers but can take even longer for those who haven’t done puzzles in a while.
Murdle in the Hedge Maze is a jigsaw puzzle for those who enjoy the books and want to take a stab at a different format of the popular logic puzzle book. Just d
on’t forget to take a break and stretch every 30 minutes to prevent waking up with back pain the next day.
Muji – Inner Shirt
With winter at the heels of November, now’s the time to don our finest sweaters and think seriously about our layering combinations. That is to say, it’s not always the most efficient to wear four layers of clothes every time you have to head out, but you don’t want to end up freezing either. I find that a good base layer can be heaven sent during the winter all while limiting the bulkiness of wearing a multitude of clothes. So in the hunt for the best base layer, I recently ordered the Wool Crewneck from Muji to test it out against other pure wool and wool blends. What what made this different from the others is that it is a wool-cotton blend; many in the market often blend with synthetics like nylon or spandex for stretch. While I have yet to receive my order, it’ll be interesting to see how well this ranks among its peers.
Traveler’s Refill
My dash has been inundated with journal ecosystem setups, which makes sense since the 2026 planners have just recently dropped and people are hyping themselves with “new year, new me” plans. And there’s plenty of notebooks out there that’ll do the job well enough
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But time and time again, I find myself drawn to the **Traveler’s notebook system in size slim for it’s travel friendly size, ease of customization, and uniformity between notebook refills. In my experience, the paper handles wet fountain pen inks well enough without spreading or bleeding through but that’s not to say that you should use it with watercolors or anything of the sort. Whether it’s used strictly in a Traveler’s notebook system or in combination with other notebooks, a traveler’s notebook is worth trying out.
Mochi Milk by Dedcool
The cold season is prime time to wear traditional gourmands. Unlike the hotter seasons where the combination of heat and humidity might sour the scent, I find that the cold does an excellent job in preserving the dignity of the scent. And by traditional gourmands I mean vanilla, tonka, milk scents that lean closer to desserts or sweets. In comes Mochi Milk by Dedcool, a release from early this year that smells like strawberry milk with a light sprinkle of mochi bits (like the ones you put on fro-yo). The scent might’ve been majorly marketed in the spring and summer months, but it’s lightness makes it an excellent addition to the winter pallet to balance out the heavier scents in the roster.
Dieux – Instant Angel Lipid-Rich Firming Moisturizer
With the Santa Ana winds expected to bring strong winds in the coming weeks, one can also expect for the said winds to dry out the skin in the worst way possible, damaging the skin barrier that we spent the whole year protecting. If lip balm is to chapped lips, then a rich creamy moisturizer is to dry skin. However, most cream moisturizer come with the drawback of leaving a residue post application; and just like sunscreen, that’s not quite desirable. A recent favorite of mine, Instant Angel from Dieux both nourishes the skin and leaves it with very little residue, making it perfect for people like myself who prefer a minimal skincare routine.
The end of the month marked two very important turning points in the year. The first being Black Friday sales weekend which was quite disappointing this year because of the lack of good sales. However, the second more important event being the prime time to buy gifts before the holiday rush really got into full swing. This is doubly important for people who intend to buy hot ticket items or order them online. If both, well, good luck because the cut off to have your present just in time for the holidays is usually before the second week of December. But with current import issues and the unpredictability of the shipping networks, it is my personal recommendation that these types of purchases should be made before the first Wednesday of December.
