My typical hair routine is pretty boring (and not as low maintenance as I would like). I wash my hair every other day. On the days I wash my hair, I blow dry it straight-ish – on rare occasions I’ll whip out the straight irons – and on the non-wash days I usually create a sally and pull it up into a pony tail or leave it down.

Last Friday, inspired by Alexandar Wang’s Spring RTW hairstyles, I decided to try something new: The Sideways Braid.

Side Note: Sorry for the crummy photos. Lar is out of town, snow-shoeing north of Seattle or something, and I can’t figure out how to work the remote control/timer thing-a-ma-gig on her fancy camera.

The inspiration:

Now looking at the Alexander Wang runway photos again, I should have swept my hair down the front a bit more – and found a hair piece or something that would have given me a longer braid. But it already took me 10 minutes to get the braid angled right so I’m glad I didn’t fiddle with it any more than I did.

Ultimately my casual Friday outfit consisted of Alexander Wang-ish hair and a very un-Alexander-Wang-ish outfit: American Apparel oxford button-up, H&M cardi and belt.

I have to admit that I’ll probably keep this hairstyle for the weekends instead of a work day. The side braid has a tendency to want to slip apart during the day so I found myself re-braiding in between meetings to make sure the look was pulled together enough.

PS: I found this blurb on the Huff Po about the popularity of the Alexander Wang braids. According to the runway show’s hairstylist, the braids are popular because they’re “attainable” by the, uh, average woman. Harumph. I guess I just proved that.

Cath and I spent all Saturday morning at the Boutique Sale in Decatur. Tons of our favorite local boutiques participated: Jac*, Rockit, Evolve Boutique, Boogaloos and Squash Blossom. However, our main purpose for attending the Sale was so say farewell to one of our favorite Decatur boutiques, Kaleidoscope. Remember that post where we got to play dress up? That was all Kaleidoscope owner Camille’s doing.

We love you ladies, and are so sorry to see one of the best retailers in Decatur close up shop.

Cath and I will still continue to shop at our other favorite local boutiques as much as possible. We both left the sale with armloads of gorgeous things from Evolve and Rockit (a necklace made from a sari, and a gorgeous leather belt— we’ll show them soon!). Still, I always feel a little helpless when one of our independent retailers shut down.

Do you guys try to support your local boutiques? Have independent shops/restaurants been hit hard in your city?

*We just heard that Jac is also closing its doors, but they will still sell items online. Huzzah!

We never get compared to the Olsen twins. This kind of surprises us because even though we aren’t blond and don’t own a multi-million empire of any sort, we are petite and we love fashion and, well, you know, we’re twins. Maybe it’s the Asian-ness that throws people off the scent. I think it’s more likely that most of our friends aren’t quite as fashion obsessed as we are. They still think of MKA (that’s Mary Kate and Ashley for you less obsessed) as that little girl on “Full House.”

Like most fashionistas out there, we think MKA are some of the most inspiring ladies in the fickle fashion world, even if they wear things that don’t look uber-flattering. They wear what they want and they hardly ever follow trends. In fact, they set most of them. So while you might not slum around NYC in a raggedy house coat and old loafers (both probably thrift finds, one cashmere and the other real leather), those piles of rings and bangles you wear and the perfect baggy tee you love is all Olsen.

All photos below are from Olsens Anonymous.

I have a lot of these things below in my closet (the cheaper, Target or H&M versions mostly), but I particularly have had my eye on that oversized black Moxsie purse. It’s currently out of stock, but they are usually pretty good about getting more of an item back in quickly.

If you haven’t donated any money to a fund for Haiti just yet, we have two perfect suggestions for you this week.

If you are a local, join us for Decatur For Haiti. A number of shops and restaurants around town are donating a percentage of their profits to the Red Cross. For a full list of participants, see TheDecaturMinute.com.

Not in the Decatur area tomorrow? There are of course a number of ways you can contribute, but I’ve just discovered that one of the charities Moxsie donates to is Wyclef Jean’s yele.org. Moxsie is an online shopping site for independent designer labels (at very reasonable prices) and they donate a percentage of every sale to a charity of your choice from their list. It’s one of the many reasons we love having them as an affiliate sponsor of AsianCajuns (in case you were wondering about that ad in our side bar ). So they support independent designers and donate to charity at the same time. Le swoon.

I will donate to YeleHati when I get this gorgeous purse:

Happy Monday, lovelies! We hope you have a marvelous week!

xoxo,

Lar

Photo by the talented Mr. Andy J Scott.

So we’re still getting used to this whole self-promotion thing. First up? Make a Facebook page! And we have! Click the FB icon in the left bar to become a fan. We love to see all your pretty, smily faces peeking out of your thumbnail photos at us.

For those of you new readers that have found us through Facebook, welcome, welcome! We hope you enjoy your stay (and many repeat visits) to AsianCajun land!

The Constellations – it doesn’t get more Atlanta than this. Check out their song Step Right Up if you really want to get to know ATL.

• Fashionistas/Anna Wintour fans can now pre-order The September Issue on Amazon. The two disc set includes an additional hour of deleted scenes.
• Jinah has a great list of ways to donate to Haiti
• Ediot has the perfect Valentine’s tee available at her Etsy Shop, and it’s neither pink nor red
• Ashley has the secret to making salads not only palatable, but down-right delicious!
• Tired of the cold weather lately? So are we! Cath and I have this Dolce Vita spring/summer dress on our wishlists.
• A shout-out to Scoutmob for featuring us. Thanks, Liza! Read our interview here.
• We just met the lovely lady behind Chowdown Atlanta. Read her blog for the best foodie advice in the ATL.
• Locals, find out the latest news on local eateries and retailers all over the Atlanta area at EZ’s blog, Tomorrow’s News Today.

We know a lot of you aren’t interested in seeing photos of haggis or even hear us babble more about our love for rainy weather and kilts, but we thought you might like a little peak at our Rabbie Burns supper.

Above: Cath and I prepping the neeps (mashed turnips) and tatties (mashed potatoes) in our kitchen. We both had delusions of tartan that we had planned to wear, but realized we didn’t have the funds to spend money on a dress we would wear only once a year. Tartan isn’t the most flattering thing on us. We’re still working on getting our bfs into kilts though .

Our fridge fully stocked with one actual Scottish beer and some other Scottish-looking beers. We still have plenty left over. If you’re in our neck of the woods, stop on over for a tipple- we’d love to have you!

Cath made this awesome sketchbook when we lived in Scotland. It’s full of maps (Cath loves maps) and her awesome drawings which are very much like Eric Chase Anderson’s illustrations (brother to Wes Anderson).

We hope you guys had a wonderful weekend too- full of good food, good friends and rousing bag pipe music!

All photos but the beer photos by Troy Cono. Thanks, Troy, for the delicious meatloaf and the photography!

So the other week when Cath was in New York she was a sweet heart and bought us matching (yes, matching!) Uniqlo sweaters. I haven’t had the pleasure of going into a Uniqlo store, but I’m been wanting to since it opened up north. This is definitely the next best thing! It also gives us the perfect opportunity to do another “The Same Thing Worn Differently… by the AsianCajuns” segment (we are working on that name).

Here’s Cath’s take (and my personal favorite):

Looking very Frenchie with my old H&M trench coat to keep her dry.

I love how she layered all her bright royal blues together. She was worried she looked smurfy- I think she just looks divine.

The necklace she’s wearing (yet another present she gave me after a business trip) is from Sarah Jessica Parker’s now defunct Bitten line. Was anyone else a fan? The price-points were amazing, the clothes were generally better made than most things you can pick up at the mall, and the designs were classic, but cute, not stogy.

I paired by blue sweater with black Blank cords, a DIY studded tee,  a Proenza Schouler for Target scarf and Asos boots.

The red plastic ring is shaped in the silhouette of a diamond ring– my kind of jewelry! Once again, Cath got it for me as a present from another NYC trip. This is from the MoMA store -le swoon. If I were Capote I would have called it “Breakfast at MoMA.” It’s definitely a place where “me and things go together.”

I tied the sweater in the front. Cath tied her’s in the back (see the top pic).

We hope you guys have a wonderful weekend!!! What do you have in store?

xoxo, Lar

This Saturday from 3-7 p.m.head over to Barneys Co-op in Phipps Plaza to customize your jeans with Current Elliott.

The Current Elliott team will have a station set up where they will stud and customize your same day Current Elliott denim purchase (jeans, vest, jackets and dresses). Studding is free and you’ll get your choice of black, gold and silver studs.

Let us know if you get a pair customized – we’d love to see your creations!