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 Saturday! I spent the week in California and came home just in time for a Nor’Easter… yay… this is such devastating news since my Renaissance Faire plans (which you know I was quite excited about!) will be dashed, womp womp.
That said, a change of scenery did me good! I really miss California and I’d be living there if it wasn’t so f*C**ng FAR from Portugal everything.
Small wins from my week:
Time spent with my parents and my best friend! I was very successful in my goals to eat all my favorite foods (Mexican food and sandwiches on Dutch Crunch, obviously) while at home.
The sun was shining in Santa Cruz, I got the luckiest weather ever.
While I didn’t write as much as I had envisioned, I read quite a bit! Really excited to publish all my September book reviews next week.
Perhaps the very definition of a little luxury: this perfect marbled paper nightlight! What a treat for any room.
This cozy Gap bandana print matching set is awesome. I saw the tote in person and it struck me as very expensive feeling and thick. I am thinking about trying to embroider my initials on this one in red thread…
The new Sandy Liang x Celisse collab is perfect as can be! I loooove a baby blue nail polish, bonus points for the instant dry-down.
Speaking of creative partnerships, I was not expecting Alison Roman to do a shoe line with Margaux, but these platform clogs make a lot of sense! I love them and wish I had anywhere at all to ever wear them, Margaux makes the highest quality shoes ever.
I have become positively smitten with my bestie Sophie’s new travel bag— it folds to be basically flat and non-existent, but with stuff in it it can expand to be quite large, has ample pockets, a luggage strap for hands-free wheeling, and appears to be washable. And it’s Baggu! For $75! I’ve had the giant Beis one for eons and I hate it. I can’t tell you how ready I am to switch to this one, light as air.
FINALLY, after nearly a year of tireless advocacy, I HAVE A CODE FOR SWEATPANT JEANS. It can be stacked with the 25% off that’s going on right now (!!!!) for a ground-breaking 40% off (!!?!). Use code AZORA15. 🥰 I am wearing them as I type this.
Art of the week is carved marble by Vincenzo Vela in 1861… WOW. That lace detail…
ICYMI: this week I published 18 little ways to macrodose Fall. Oxblood manicure and chocolate suede now loading!
Ali Kriegsman’s latest— “Trying to be great at everything made me fucking miserable”— is way too close to home for me. Shhhh, Ali!! Not so LOUD! (But in all seriousness, the grow, water, kill framework is really great.)
Your local library is so much more than books! I loved this piece from Elle Reads Library Books on all the different non-book things librarians love that they offer. Elle is the only person I’ve encountered who crushes books the way I do, well, more than I do— I gasped when I saw how many she’s read this year on Goodreads! She’s got me nearly doubled at almost 140 books read in 2026!
For something a bit more introspective this weekend, read this piece on attention, aliveness, absurdism and meaning.
When Camus writes “one has to imagine Sisyphus happy” as he faces his punishment of pushing that rock up the hill only to keep doing it over again for eternity, I think we have to imagine him stopping at the top to admire the view every time, to pay attention to the shadows around him and notice how they may have changed.
The most compelling and concise POV I’ve seen on celebrities using their “power” when it comes to political advocacy.
Natalie Catalina’s playlists are so good— I’m loving her new Cozy Autumn Jazz one.
