Dear fellow September babies,

I am so sorry. I forgot to put up your birthday gift guide the beginning of this month, and I feel even worse because September is my birthday month too. I celebrated my birthday on the 6th, and since New York Fashion Week started that day, I didn’t get to celebrate yet and I almost entirely forgot.

I have absolutely, positively no idea how it is August. I was staring at the calendar yesterday and realized that this is one of those years when time flies more than usual. The August birthstone is peridot, which appears in only one color, a light green. I’ve never been a huge fan of green handbags, but as I searched for the nine best on the market right now, I started to rethink my aversion to the shade.

4th of July is synonymous with summer. It signifies everything summer is about for me, like beach vacations, bikinis, parades, barbecues, baseball games and late nights out. It will be my second summer to celebrate Independence Day in NYC and there is something magical about being here. Between the fireworks and the overall pride and joy felt in the city for this country, I look forward to celebrating the 4th here with friends and family.

We’ve been having a great time each month coming up with birthstone-guided handbag gift ideas. I can’t believe July is already here, but somehow it is. July’s birthstone is the ruby, a stone synonymous with luxury. A ruby red bag comes in handy not only for the summer months, but also year-round. The color is vibrant and perfect to add a little zest to your wardrobe without seeming too trendy.

Father’s Day is tricky. Lots of dads are either difficult to shop for or don’t really like getting presents at all, and there’s only so many times you can go buy dad some new black dress socks before things get a little boring and predictable. My suggestion? Use the opportunity to update your husband’s or dad’s style game in a way that he may not think to do for himself.

Last week, we rounded up the best accessory gifts for all the recent college grads in your life. In the comments, one of you asked us to make some suggestions for high school grads, and because we like to consider ourselves a full-service blogging operation here, we felt compelled to oblige. Almost any huge life change – graduation, moving to a new city, having a baby – impacts the way a woman interacts with the things that she carries every day, and I like to think that the best way to ready someone for a change like that is to get her the sartorial equipment she needs in order to settle in to her new life.

Yesterday, it came to my attention that today is spring graduation at my alma mater, the University of Georgia, which marks four years since my own advent to the real world. At the time, I was carrying a 2007 Balenciaga bag that I had bought with my own money (from my very glamourous college job selling appliances and TVs at Best Buy), and I remember panicking a little bit when met with the prospect of what I should carry to a job interview.

Being a mom is a tough, tiring, sometimes-thankless gig. All the way from changing diapers to doing your college-aged kids’ laundry when they come home to visit, moms deserve more credit than they sometimes receive. Compared to how much a great mom can mean to her kids throughout their lives, a once-yearly Mother’s Day gift seems paltry by comparison. Want to make it count?