Five merry-ings on a Friday:

1. Sending yumalicious cupcakes from Sugar Sweet Sunshine.

2. Buying books for my favorite people this holiday season: including illustrated diaries by Nikki McClure. Her spare, yet elegant, illustrations remind me of construction paper cutouts.

3. Reading wise words from Lorie Ann Grover at her blog, On Point. Mucho thanks!

4. Looking at art inspired by adolescence at this year's Basel fair. Check out Michael Scoggins and his giant sculptures of crumpled-up notebook gossip, The Girl Project, a traveling exhibition of photos taken by teen girls, and Julia Fullerton Batten's Teenage Stories...where daydreams are truly larger than life.

5. Hugging Willa--the tiger-striped kitten who popped up like an early present on the lawn. She is looking sleek and fit. The little monster has tripled in size and spends her days fetching balls, dunking her paws in the tadpole pools, and sparking hissy fits from the felines-in-residence.