The Weekender // 031

Easy, delicious weekend recipes, good sales, and food for thought on being "The Single Friend."

Jul 04, 2026

Welcome to THE WEEKENDER, your weekly dispatch full of ~Saturday spirit~! I fill you in briefly on the week, share a few Little Luxuries that make the mundane feel special and save the best for last with some Brain Food to mull over, expand your horizons, or discuss with your friends over a cappuccino. There are usually lots of links and pictures which perhaps will get clipped if you’re reading in your inbox— click here to read in browser!

Happy Fourth of July! I hope this email finds you on your way to do something fun— or something relaxing. (Both are equally respectable on a hot July day.)

Burgers and frozen cosmopolitans (!) at Long Island Bar, testing out a new Kulfi lip stain, going to a fun book event with my friends Becca and Emily (I can’t wait to read Jenny Jackson’s *The Shampoo Effect*!), wearing the lightest layers possible on my steamy dog walks (Negative’s Whipped fabric in new summer-y tanks, of course! I size up two full sizes in these.).

Small wins from my week:

Powering through not one, not two, but three trips into the city after— or for— work, during an insane heatwave, no less. 🥵 This is PEAK “saying yes more,” which was a mid-June goal I set for myself when I got a bit of post-wedding and summer blues. I’m tired from all the action but it does really feel good to have action at all!
Speaking of, one of my highlights was going to my first book talk! And for a book and author I’m so excited about, Jenny Jackson’s release The Shampoo Effect. Thank you and a hat tip to my friend Becca Freeman for the invite!
A crazy victory for Portugal in their World Cup game against Croatia on Thursday night— that game took a few years off my life.
Getting really sucked in to a book I’m reading right now, Brandon Sanderon’s Mistborn. If you’ve ever read it, I want to talk about it…

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Let’s get into some fun weekend fluff, shall we? I wish I could say I kept this short and sweet, but there is nothing short about me.

I’m really impressed with the “staining” lip liner and lip oil from Kulfi, which I’m wearing in my selfies above. I’ve never seen a liner that “stains” before, but if you enhance the lip line just a little and then put lip balm or chapstick on top, you’ve got yourself a really practical lip combo that won’t budge. (I can’t seem to keep a lip liner or a color cosmetic on my mouth to save my life, and I can’t be arsed to reapply in the mirror all the time, so this was made for me— I have the oil in shade Tamarind and the liner in Chori Chori. Both are more subtle than the images make them look, which for me was a good thing.)
Lots and lots of 4th of July sales, here are the ones I’m paying attention to:
- First Rodeo readers kept recommending these AYR High Hopes pants to me as their go-to WFH pants and they are on megaaaaa sale. Under $70!
  One of the other fan-favorite WFH pants, the Ruti work pants, are on sale this weekend too. I’ve been wearing mine a lot more often these days, the fabric really is summer-weight. (Full try-on with photos of both pants here!)
- When I ran a sustainable marketplace, Koala Eco’s body and homecare products were my best sellers (no surprise that they were best sellers at Erewhon too!). They’re doing 20% off and a bunch of gifts with purchase. I’m scooping refills on counter spray, hand soap, my tingly, cooling body lotion for summer.
- First Rodeo readers LOVE Cadence’s travel pods, but they are not the cheapest. 30% off is a good deal! I like the new summer lids, hehe.
- Farm Rio is doing an extra 30% off everything— !!— which is VERY DANGEROUS FOR ME. My favorites here! I haven’t made my pick yet but every summer I treat myself to one iconic Farm Rio sundress to wear on my next vacation and it’s a little tradition I take great delight in.

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