Weekender #258

🥗 Keep dinner handled this fall with chef-crafted meals, 50% off plus free Daily Greens with code ASSIST50FG.

🎧 A sex therapist’s script for the nights you’re not in the mood.

🎁 Skip the forgettable freebies. Find branded gifts people will be excited to use.

💆 Clinical skin treatments are taking over from at-home gadgets in 2026.

I’m a work-from-home mom of two, which means I stared at the same four windows for two years, dressed in whatever sad panels the previous owners left behind. When I finally tackled the living room, it took me three weekends and one very annoying return. Nobody tells you that curtains are a math problem first and a style problem second.

So learn from my mistakes, and do it in this order.

1) Pick curtains or shades

Ask yourself one thing: do you want the window to disappear, or do you want the room to feel softer?

• Go with shades if you want it to disappear. They mount inside the frame, take up zero wall space, and roll out of the way. They’re my pick for small rooms, windows tucked behind a sofa or desk, kitchens and bathrooms where fabric holds onto moisture, and anywhere panels would crowd your furniture. The ones worth knowing: roller for clean lines, sheer if you love your view, zebra when you want to dial the light somewhere in between, and shutters if you’re ready to commit. You can compare them side by side before you decide.

• Go with curtains if you want it softer. Fabric absorbs sound, keeps the cold off the glass, and makes a room feel finished, which is why living rooms, dining rooms, and bedrooms almost always want panels. If one window needs both, a dual shade stacks a light-filtering layer and a blackout layer in one cordless setup.

2) Measure three numbers

This is where I messed up, so please don’t skip it.

• Height. Measure from the top of the window frame to the ceiling and hang your rod about two-thirds of the way up. Short on space? Go 4 to 6 inches above the frame. Hanging it right at the frame is the most common mistake out there, and it makes any window look squat no matter how pretty the curtains are.
• Width. Your rod should be 8 to 12 inches wider than the window so the panels can stack off the glass when they’re open. Then buy more fabric than you think you need. Your panels together should add up to one and a half to two times the window’s width, and if you’re torn, go with two. Panels that only match the window hang flat and look like a rental (I say that with love).
• Length. Measure from where the rod will sit down to the floor, then choose your look: subtract half an inch to float, add 1 to 2 inches for a slight break, or add 3 to 6 inches to puddle. Save sill length for kitchens and bathrooms. TWOPAGES has a free measuring tool that walks you through all of it, and I really wish I’d used it before I ordered for my dining room.

3) Sort your hardware before you drill

Set your brackets 4 to 6 inches in from each end of the rod, and add a center bracket on anything wider than four feet, or the rod will start to sag under lined panels. When you shop, factor in the fabric’s weight along with the rod itself.

Then the little pieces. Rod ends (finials) come in a ton of styles, so pick ones that match the rest of your hardware [Kristel, confirm this is what you meant]. Rings let heavy panels glide instead of drag, hooks give you that structured pleat, and holdbacks keep a panel open without a floppy tieback. Smartwings has rods, rings, hooks, pullwands, and holdbacks if you’re starting from scratch, and if you’re layering two panels, you’ll need a double rod built to hold both.

What I run at home

Upstairs, I have blackout linen pinch pleat panels in front with a sheer linen panel tucked behind, closer to the glass. Downstairs, it’s a taupe flax pinch pleat set with that same sheer in back. And if you’d rather not piece it together yourself (no judgment), you can get the whole layered look made to your measurements.

I’m not perfect, and my dining room curtains are still puddling by accident. The living room took three weekends, and now it finally looks like an adult picked it out 💗

Kristel (TA Marketing)

You copy from one tab, paste into another, fix the formatting, send it, then do the whole thing again in thirty days.

Kat Norton (Miss Excel) is running a free class on building dashboards that update themselves, so you build the report once and after that you just refresh it.

You’ll learn how to:

✅ Build an interactive dashboard from scratch

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She also shows you where your week actually went, down to the hours you lost to meetings that could have been an email.

Sign up and you get her new Dashboard Cheat Sheet.

Save your seat for the free dashboards class.

📚 Read: Yesteryear by Caro Claire Burke

A tradwife influencer wakes up in 1855 and has to survive without her curated farmhouse aesthetic or a single follower. A GMA Book Club pick that’s biting, funny, and a little unsettling, the kind of satire that has you questioning every “soft life” post in your feed.

📺 Watch: Ride or Die (Prime Video)

It topped every streaming original its launch week for a reason, a genuinely funny action series with two leads who are clearly having a blast.

🎧 Listen: “Minibar” by Gracie Abrams

Abrams captures that specific feeling of being at a party alone, smiling through the small talk while counting down to the exit. It’s off her new album Daughter from Hell, and it might be the most relatable three minutes she’s ever written.

You know the drill: the bra you’re tugging at by 3pm, and the underwear you pick based on what might show through your pants. Your top drawer shouldn’t need a strategy.

Knix has sold over 15 million pairs by designing intimates around how you actually live. Start with the fan favorites:

• WingWoman Bra: 99 sizes, over 1 million sold, and wireless shape without the dig.
• Revolution V-Neck Bra: buttery-soft support in A–G removable cups.
• Super Leakproof® Dream Short: the overnight top seller for heavy periods, postpartum recovery, or light leaks.

Just launched: Invisible Cotton. These soft cotton-blend undies have bonded edges that disappear under clothes and a built-in leakproof liner that absorbs about 2 super tampons. Your first pair is risk-free for 30 days.

👉  Shop the fan favorites.

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* Smart Girl Society is our private community for women who want deeper conversations, accountability, and tools that actually make life easier. Join the waitlist to get in the next round.

Brouilly (Brew-ee for short) is a spunky mutt puppy who chews anything he can reach: rocks, sticks, leaves, trash, even scissors. We watch him constantly, and when he’s naughty, he answers to Brucifer. Good thing he’s cute, because once he finally settles down, he’s the sweetest snuggler. We named him after Mount Brouilly, one of our favorite wine regions in France. Had we known what a little terror he’d be, we’d have gone with Brutus.

Pssst…Lemonade Pet starts at $10/month and settles around half of eligible claims on the spot, right in the app. Add the wellness plan and vaccines, checkups, and dental cleanings come along too. Whatever’s left over from claims at the end of the year goes to a cause you pick.

👉 See your pet’s price in under a minute.

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