I’ve decided this year to be proactive in my Holiday gift buying, and buy them all before the very last minute which is my usual MO. The tricky part is figuring out what said gifts are going to be. One year I got my dad a scuba mask with a built in camera, while creative, not overly practical. I’m shooting for useful and ingenious.  I found this cool gift guide on NYmag.com that has some interesting suggestions, just in case I’m not the only one suffering from gift giving dumbness:

Here are a few of my favorites from the group:

And by far the coolest thing in the guide; a make your own super hero cape kit… I’m pretty sure it’s for kids but that’s not going to stop me.

And I can’t have a post without a little photo love, it’s just beyond my abilities of restraint… so here are some amazing photos by photographer Tim Walker, whose ethereal images have always inspired me. They are so oneiric and romantic, sometimes bordering on saccharine, but these below I love.