29 August 2014

A Trip to the Anthropologie Outlet

Dearest Lar,

I can’t believe it’s been less than a week since you left, but it already feels like I haven’t seen you in ages. So I’m going to distract myself with some blogging!

Yes, an Anthropologie outlet does exist! It’s called Final Cut and it opened this summer in Augusta, GA right next to an URBN (Anthro parent company) call center in a nondescript strip mall.

What are the odds that the only Anthro (plus Urban Outfitters and Free People) outlet in the country is only 2.5 hours from my house!?!?! I really think the Georgia tourism department should do a whole marketing campaign around Final Cut, IMHO. I mean, Augusta, Georgia! Why not Philly where URBN is headquartered?!

But I digress. A few weekends ago, my friend, Thom, and I spent a Saturday making the trek out to Augusta from Atlanta to check out Final Cut ~~to do some serious shopping~~ for blog research purposes. They don’t allow photos inside the store, so if you want an insider look, check out Effortless Anthropologie’s post here.

Here are my thoughts on the place:

1. It’s huge! One half is mostly furniture and housewares and the other half is chockablock with clothes.

2. A lot of the furniture and rugs looked like they were from Urban Outfitters and there weren’t as many decor items (vases, knick knacks, art etc.) as I was hoping.

3. If you’re looking for a crazy bed, unusual night stand, delicate sofa (i.e. not kid or pet appropriate) or midcentury love seat, this is the place for you.

4. If you’re a soon-to-be bride and need a dress ABSOLUTELY make the trip to final cut. There are tons and tons of BHLDN dresses in great condition for around $100. There are also a handful of bridal shoes (although mostly in large sizes) and some bridal accessories.

5. There is a seemingly endless selection of clothing, but it’s not organized by size, gender, or store (Anthro, Urban, FP). I think most of the clothing was from Urban Outfitters, but I’m not an expert.

6. There’s a huge selection of bags, but they were definitely all from Urban so I didn’t spend too much time looking.

7. The prices are kind of all over the place. Some of the large rugs still seemed overpriced at $300+, but maybe that’s just because I’m cheap. Like I mentioned in #4, the wedding dresses are very well priced. The armchairs and sofas were anywhere between $200 and $900. And the clothing was $5-20-ish. Not bad, but also takes a lot of sifting through the racks to find something that’s your size.

8. The final cut staff is really nice and helpful and update the Final Cut Facebook page regularly.

So, if you’re in the Atlanta/Augusta area, I think it’s worth a trip if you have the time. If you’re in the southeast and looking for a BHLDN wedding dress, definitely make the trip. But if you’re on the other side of the country, it’s not worth a plane ticket.

Here’s my Final Cut haul:

A 3×5 rug for my laundry room – $25
1 coupe glass – $5 (I would have bought more if they had more)
A set of 10 crackers for my mum – $5 (we’ll find out if they have good prizes and jokes in them come Christmas)
A midcentury-style ottoman – $30. Update: I was just searching U.O. site and saw that this same ottoman is selling for $129 – on sale! Didn’t realize I got such a steal!

I’m really pleased with my purchases, but probably won’t be making another trip out to Final Cut anytime soon. Thom just ended up getting two Urban Outfitters hats.

Since Final Cut is so close to downtown Augusta, we decided to have lunch at Nacho Mama’s – a classic burrito joint in a historic building = perfect lunch location.

Downtown Augusta is mostly restaurants, but we spent some time walking along the main street and near the river. I know this is cheesy, but I had to have a picture of this street sign – James Brown FTW!

Edinburgh might have beautiful cobblestone streets and amazing medieval architecture, but do you have a James Brown Boulevard?! I think not! And obviously there’s no Final Cut in the UK. Just a few more reasons why you have to move back to the states.

Miss you so much! Wish we could have explored Final Cut together!

xoxo, Cath

Category: Decatur/Atlanta

8 Comments

25 August 2014

A Short Week Together

Cath

Hello dear readers!

Apologies for the radio silence. Lar was in town for a whole week and it was wonderful. So wonderful, that we didn’t even get a chance to blog about it! But we’ll make up for it this week. I promise! Some things we’ll be blogging about this week and next:

• What we did this past week together.

• The Anthropologie outlet – it does exist!

• Being a tourist in Edinburgh

• Fitbit vs Jawbone

• Lar’s abstract painting that she did for me. I hinted at it here.

At this moment, Lar is flying over the Atlantic back to Edinburgh (sob!). Hopefully we’ll see each other over the holidays, but until then we’ll be writing to each other on AsianCajuns 🙂 Thank you, dear readers, for returning and reading about our lives – it means so much to us!

xoxo, Cath

Category: Twin Take

2 Comments

14 August 2014

Gallery Wall

Cath

Dearest Lar,

It’s soooooo amazing to think that we’re in the SAME country RIGHT NOW and we’ll get to see each other in just a few days – eeeekkkk! I have a whole checklist of things I want to do to the house before you see it in person. It’s about 70 items long and I’ve gotten about 2 things done. One of those things is pizzazz-ing up this wall in my hallway:

Gallery Wall before

You know I love gallery walls – I had one in the teeny hallway of my last house. Unfortunately all of my frames were black. So I spent two sunny weekends (which has been a rare occurrence) spray painting the frames. Then I used newspaper to create a template for each piece.

I wasn’t planning on making the wall so symmetrical. I usually like gallery walls that are a little off kilter, but once I started playing around with the templates, I realized this was the best pattern:

All of the walls in my house are plaster so I have to drill before hammering in the nails to minimize any plaster crumblage (yep, just made up that word).

And tah dah! (Ignore the bare light bulb. Troy and I are saving up for a really cool pendant light)

In just a few days you’ll get to see the wall in person!

I’m going to keep this post short and sweet since I have about 60 other things I need to do around the house before you arrive.

Love you to bits and see you in 3 days!

xoxo, Cath

Category: Home

21 Comments

6 August 2014

Touring Ponce City Market

Cath

Dearest Lar,

You know I’ve been wanting to take a tour of Ponce City Market, but the public tours always sell out faster than you can say, “Ponce City Market.” This is the closest I’ve been to a tour. So I was super excited when, two weeks ago, Lena and I got the opportunity to take a tour with the Georgia Brownfield Association.

Jealous of my hat? Everyone on the tour had to wear a hardhat.

The space actually feels bigger on the inside than it looks on the outside – if that’s even possible. Jamestown Properties is renovating 1 million square feet of the property to turn it into a giant mixed-use project. The photos below probably don’t look like much, but work has come a long way since it began a few years ago. The food court should open up at the end of this year and a handful of the apartments will be ready by this fall.

The food court will house a mix of restaurants and food stalls. The freight elevator will take visitors up to the rooftop where there will be more restaurants and a mini golf course! I don’t know why, but I’m so excited to have a mini golf course nearby.

There’s a gallery space near the leasing office. The current exhibit is Farm to Frame, which features photos of Georgia farms and farmers.

I can’t wait to see Ponce City Market when it’s finished. I think it’ll be a great addition to Atlanta’s shopping and dining scene. It’s a bummer that there isn’t a MARTA station nearby, but it does run up against the eastside trail of the Beltline.

The urban development nerd in me makes me want to take a tour every couple of months to see the progress. And then I’ll get a chance to wear the hardhat again 😉

I can’t wait until you come into town in less than two weeks. You’ll be amazed by how much has changed in this city just in the past few months.

See you in 11 days!!

xoxo, Cath

P.S.: You can also read my Groupon article on Ponce City Market here.

Category: Cath's Style, Decatur/Atlanta

5 Comments

2 August 2014

Saturday Morning Round-up

Lar

Dear Cath

I think that shot above is you and me in our most Scottish form: wee Westie twinsies with matching tartan collars!

Sorry I’ve been MIA for weeks. I blame it on Edinburgh. We (Edinburgh and myself) basically hibernate in the winter and then come summer and Festival time the City explodes (I don’t explode but I do get over stimulated — fireworks, sun, food, people! Gah!). There’s food stalls and musicians and tourists galore. I’ll have to tell you more about Alex and Dexin’s visit to Edinburgh in the next postie, but I just wanted to give you a general catch-up here before Matt and I leave to go back to the states . IN A WEEK!!!

First up: Thank youuuu for the lovely tee for our bday– I loves it so!

With all the tempting food markets popping up because of the Festival, I’ve gone way off the diet. Exhibit A: Banh mi. Exhibit B: dumplings (bread, cheese, spinach, butter sauce, yum) from Austria:

Sara and I visited the Scottish Parliament a few weeks ago. I know the building is controversial but the architecture totally grows on you. I prefer this to where Congress hobnob:

We were at Parliament to see the Great Tapestry of Scotland. It was amazing and incredibly long, covering centuries of Scottish History from this guy (Edward perhaps? Nervous nilly, that one — or maybe he just needed the loo):

To your favourite Tunnock’s Teacakes:

See, this is Matt and I not hibernating. It’s sunny. It’s Festival time. Let’s be paper dolls:

And a teaser for the next post with Alex and Dexin . they brought me this beautiful Tyrolean hat from Munich!

(Sheesh I hate taking selfies):

I’m worried this last week here might get quite busy and then we won’t be in Atlanta for another two weeks yet — so I’ll try to get another post out so it still feels like you are hearing from me.

I miss you ooodles, but I can’t believe I will see you in 15 days. 15 DAYS!!!!

Love you like Westies love tartan,

Lar

Category: Edinburgh, Lar's Style

9 Comments