While Cath has been entertaining you with lovely fashion in Atlanta, Matt and I have been desperately trying to soak up the wee bit of sun coming our way in what is known as Scottish summer: a slight breeze, just above 60 degrees — and that’s as hot as it gets all year round. Interspersed between these “hot” days is the usual weather: 38-50 degrees, windy, mostly cloudy and sometimes rainy.

But one way Matt and I are coping with this mostly-winter-all-year-round business is by embracing all things that make rainy, dark-skied living bearable: becoming members of the Scottish Malt Whisky Society (oolala), dragging our visitors around town and reminding ourselves how beautiful ole Edinburgh is, and eating good food.

Last month Matt became an official member of the Scottish Malt Whisky Society. How do you become a member, you ask? Love whisky and hand over some  moola, et voila! Not only do you get exclusive rights to sit in the Society’s leather-chaired club rooms around the city, you also get to swirl more drams of whisky (sniff, sniff, glug, glug) and pretend you taste all the 32 different notes you are supposed to taste in each cask.

These days I’m not actually tippling (the above photo is all a farce! deep sigh) but I still love going with Matt to the whisky rooms. The arm chairs are so comfy, I love the smell of whisky (and think you can get tipsy after a few deep inhales of this 60% cask strength dram) and you get to read all the descriptions and tips for how to drink the stuff. The text is all a bit tongue-and-cheek (or at least, I think it’s supposed to be!). Here’s one suggestion for a whisky from the peaty regions of Scotland:

And here are some of the descriptors I pulled from another cask entry in their whisky bible. Even if you aren’t a big drinker and particularly dislike the intensity of whisky, doesn’t this make you want a tipple?

So good, isn’t it? The doughnuts are just on there because I liked the way they looked and think a whisky that tastes of doughnuts would be pretty high up there on the lists of things I would drink daily.

If you aren’t a big whisky drinker and know very little about the stuff, the next time you want to impress someone do this: pour yourself a wee dram (no water until after the first sip, and definitely no ice), swirl, sniff (with mouth partially open — yes you will look a bit dopey, but impressively so), sip and then say something like “a note of vanilla with a bit of peatyness.” Not nearly all whisky is either of those things, but hopefully the person you are trying to impress won’t know that, and vanilla and peat seem like fairly common notes in whisky. Or you can be inspired by the descriptions above and make up your own favorite meal and pretend you taste that in your dram.

Ever wonder what peat is/looked like anyway? Now you know:

I leave you with one last delightful swirl of a description:

But we aren’t just pretentiously sniffing amber liquids over here, Matt and I have also been playing tour guide to our lovely friends from the states! Here’s a classic Edinburgh Tourist Photo:

Edinburgh very rarely looks this (above) sunny, but I’m so glad she was all sun-shiney and almost-T-shirt weathery for Alison and Greg (note: the hardened Scot in the T-shirt on the right, reasonably attired Atlantans on the left).

And of course, no good haps wrap-up is any good without food pics! These are a little subdued on the food front because I’ve been following a wheat-free, mostly dairy-free, meat-free diet for months and months. At times the old foodie in me cries a little at having to eat another bowl of beans and rice, but it’s all in the name of hopefully going pain free one day. And it’s not all bad — just look at the deliciousness below:

I hope you guys have been enjoying a lovely spring/summer too. And if this kind of weather isn’t your thing (you love layers and roaring fires), come for a visit in Scotland the other 11 months of the year. You’ll be in love!

——–

Dear Cath,

I’m sorry that you always have to slog through my mishmash posts. You always have such beautiful fashiony things going on in the ATL. My fashion awareness I believe is at an all-time low. The strange thing is I don’t miss it until I see how lovely you look and I’m like “ooo I should wear a dress again.” I blame it mostly on the chilly weather here and my inability to wear contact lenses any more. I will give it a try once we are in Italy though! Speaking of which, I’m actually getting really excited for our trip. It seemed too far away to dream about until recently.

I hit up the library yesterday and got all of this:

That Eat, Pray, Love in Rome book is actually by the guy (Luca Spaghetti) that Elizabeth Gilbert met in Italy. I thought it would be kind of cheesy and as if he were just coat-tailing it (maybe just a tad), but it’s totally gotten me so excited to go to Rome. You should see if the DeKalb Library has a copy. Unofficial AsianCajun Book Club, book one.

Hope you are having a wonderful time at the Southern Blogger Society brunch today! Wish I could be there with you!

LOVE,

Lar

Ziggy Sawdust + Paper Aeroplane: First Birthday Pop-up Shop! from Fiona Purves on Vimeo.

I am so very inspired by these two lovely ladies. Fiona (aka Paper Airplanes) makes beautiful, handmade stationery and Amy (Ziggy Sawdust) rehabs furniture into wonderful retro pieces. And these two creative entrepeneurs happen to have a pop-up shop this weekend in Edinburgh: May 25-29 at Whitespace, 11 Gayfield Square.

I know a lot of you guys aren’t Edinburgh-based, but Cath and I love highlighting independent creatives who are charting their own course and making beautiful things. I wish you guys could join me this weekend. Local Edinburgh readers, let me know if you’re going!

——

Dear Cath,

I know you really, really want to go to this. Where is our windfall of money when you need it? I’ll take lots of pics and send them your way and buy some bits and bobs to send back to you — or give you when I see you in August.

So glad we got to skype today — it’s not enough, but I guess I should be grateful that we don’t just have to rely on payphones and calling cards (remember good ole Spain or our first trip to Italy?).

Hope that you have a wonderful week! Miss you ooooodles as always. I’ve now come to accept the fact that being apart won’t get easier. Boo to infinity.

Love,

Lar

Phew! Did you make it this far? ‘Scuse the epic photo post — I really wanted you to get a sense of Bordeaux via a pinterest-y vibe.

So the thing that (almost) makes up for missing friends and family back in the states is getting to jet around Europe on weekends. That makes us sound faincy and wealthy but we are neither of those things. Instead of spending money on our home, or clothes, or gadgets, we save for travel.

Matt and I went to Bordeaux a few weekends ago not because we know anything about wine or speak any French, but because we found really cheap flights direct from Edinburgh. And if you dangle a croissant in front of me, I will go wherever it goes. It sealed the deal when I went on Airbnb and found this place that used to be an old store-front for a mere £40 per night. Go to France and play out my dreams of being Juliette Binoche in Chocolat — don’t mind if I do!

I didn’t end up selling chocolate (just eating it), but our store-front flat was charming and walking distance to all things Bordelais.

For those of you curious, there isn’t really that much to see in the city of Bordeaux — especially if you aren’t swayed by the siren song of Chateau wine tours (it sounds like this: winnnnneeeeee….. gurgle, gurgle, gurgle). But it is a gorgeous place: lots of mansard roofs and boulangeries and cobblestones. It’s Paris on a teeny scale and without the Eiffel Tower. And to us sun-starved Scots it was a dreamy fairy-tale land where the wind is but a breeze and you can actually feel the sun on your skin — oh and eat strawberries that were picked locally! Ooo. La. Laaaaa.

—–

Dear Cath,

So sorry to be so MIA this weekend. I feel like we haven’t talked in forever when we don’t have our weekly skype dates. I was completely useless and broken yesterday with the endometriosis clobbering me. I’m really going to try to stick on this crazy healthy diet, but I’m more than a little discouraged that this past month of being so good didn’t seem to allay any of the pain.

Speaking of all things healthy: Juice queen! So this is day five, right? How do you feel? I can’t imagine juicing for one day let alone 5 or 30! Inspirational is what you are.

It’s so strange to me that for 18 years we had almost the same experiences to match our genetic make-up and now all the sudden you’re in Denver the same weekend I’m in Bordeaux. Does that strike you as weird? It seems wrong — like part of me didn’t get the message that we were supposed to be eating croissants and not hiking around snowy mountains.

Miss you so, so much and lets talk soon okay?

Love you!

Lar

Apart from missing family and friends, the hardest thing about living overseas is not being able to roost. I’ve always wanted to be one of those people that can live years out of a suitcase: nomadic and unattached to material possessions. But I’m a certified homebody. Ironically I haven’t had a place to put down roots in a long while. I’ve lived in a different flat or house every year for the past 10 years — two different flats in Edinburgh in 19 months — and it makes me antsy. The only way to combat that ruffled feather feeling is by nesting — no matter how temporary.

The flat we live in now is a teeny, inexpensive, brown-carpeted student flat right in the middle of town (our old flat was a bit more grown-up, but too cold). We rarely buy things for our temporary home because we save our extra cash for travel (as you read this, Matt and I are wondering around Bordeaux). But bare walls make my skin itch. So I made a few bits and bobs for the walls, covered my books (for the third time: here’s the first time and second time) and bought an azalea topiary that I hope I don’t kill.

Total budget for temporary nesting? Under $100. Here are the bits and bobs I use to cover up my naked walls:

The Lay of the Land

Now this next bit is mainly for Cath and might bore the socks of you guys. Ever since we were tots, Cath and I loved looking at floor plans. When we were old enough, we used to buy those magazines/books that had nothing but floor plans after floor plans in them. Isn’t that what all cool 13 year olds do?

And it wasn’t just voyeuristic floor plan ogling, whenever we stayed some place new (a B&B or friend’s house) Cath and I would record our new spaces by sketching up the floor plan. I think it was another way that we handled being away from our nests — a way of feeling in control of a new environment. Seriously, we are the poster girls for homebodies.

So this is a quick sketch for Cath to feel like she knows what I’m about day-in and day-out in Edinburgh — or at least get a sense of the space I inhabit thousands of miles away:

It’s not NYC or Hong Kong teeny, but it’s quite small for this city of Victorian proportioned tenements.

So tell me, are you guys nesters? Have you ever been nomadic and craved more roots, or vice versa?

—-

Dear Cath,

I can’t believe that we are even further apart this weekend. Denver and Bordeaux are roughly 5,000 (FIVE THOUSAND?!) miles apart. I can totally tell too — there’s more of a tug. No me gusta. I will drown my sorrows in wine — oh wait, I’m not drinking. Gah! Croissants? Nope those are not gluten free. I’ll just have to make do feeding my eyeballs with French architecture and pretend you are looking at somewhere similar? Bordeaux and Denver are a lot alike — said nobody ever. Wah wah.

Probably by the time you read this, we’ll be wrapping up our last evening in Bordeaux and you’ll be wrapping up your wedding weekend. I hope you and Troy are having a wonderful time. Tell me all about it.

Love and Wine-fumed kisses,

Lar

April 26 is our AsianCajuns 5th birthday — yahoo! So what better time to shake things up?

If you guys are like us, you are reading fewer blogs and blog posts (we still love them though!) and spending more time on Facebook, Pinterest, Instagram, and Twitter. When we do go to our favorite blogs, it’s with less regularity. Instead of checking in daily, we visit less frequently but stick around longer to catch up on posts. Are you guys the same?

Anywhoddles, that got us thinking. We’d like to use our wee corner of the internet here on AsianCajuns to write well-crafted posts once a week — still about whatever strikes our fancy (you know the usual: twin stuffs, a bit of fashion, a good dose of travel and out-and-aboutness). In between posting, we’ll be sticking our link love on Facebook throughout the week, updating our Pinterest boards regularly, and Cath will be instagramming and tweeting away (I needs to get me an iphone!).

We want AsianCajuns here for when you want to sink your teeth into something meatier (more than 140 characters and not just photos of what we’re eating and buying). We’ll keep the snippity snacks on our social media sites and the main meal here.

Thank you guys for coming along with us these past five years: evolving with us and giving us a wonderful community online and in the real worlds. We hope you like these wee tweaks we’re making and continue to enjoy whichever bits of AsianCajuns you choose to visit with us.

xoxox,

Lar (and Cath)

There are some girls who can rock the sporty look, but I’ve never been one of them. Most likely because I’m afraid of spherical objects hurtling toward me (George-Michael Bluth back-turn anyone? That’s how I respond to a game of catch). So I’ve always shunned hats that relate to athletics and kinda associated them with suburban dads-wear — not usually a look I go for either.

And then Acne put their models in unbranded black caps a few seasons ago and this season J.Crew topped off their embroidered work-wear with one. So back in the summer I bought a cheapie version and pulled it out for the first time while I was traipsing around propaganda architecture in Munich.

What do you guys think? Baseball cap fans or no? I haven’t worked up the gumption to wear mine indoors yet (I kind of feel silly and like I have blinders on) or at work, but it’s handy outdoors with our rainy/snowy Scottish spring.

——–

Dear Cath,

Remember we bought those together? Have you worn yours yet? We should do a twin take and I promise to wear something more interesting than my puffer coat and Cos boots! We should do it soon because, blink, and you will be in the middle of too-hot-for-hats Atlanta spring/summer. I don’t even remember what that feels like any more: thick, humid, pea-soup air. Maybe you need a nice cool break in Edinburgh, huh? I promise cool weather in the middle of July!

xoxoxox,

Lar

p.s. Remember how we used to make fun of the guys in high school who wore perfectly molded baseball caps? I eat my words, 17-year old self!

I highly, highly recommend putting Munich on your to-see list. It wasn’t on mine, but two of our besties live in Munich so we thought “what the hey.” Now I’m a big fan. Here’s why:

• Everyone is uber friendly (and speaks English far more fluently than me — darn these multi-lingual Europeans!)

• It’s the cleanest city I’ve ever been in

• The public transportation is dreamy! It goes everywhere, isn’t massively expensive and is also uber clean

• The bakeries. The. Bakeries. So delicious. I think I much prefer them to any french bakeries I tried in Paris last year. My new favorite? The pretzel croissant: a bit of the heft and salt of a pretzel mixed with the lighter fluff (but not too much butter) of a croissant

• Roughly a million art museums

• If you are a beer fan, it’s just as cheap as drinking bottled water

• Beautiful architecture that looks strangely much more Italian (baroque) than stereotypical Bavarian — and all these buildings are awash in subtle pastels: minty green, blushing pink, buttercup yellow.

Let us know if you have been, lovely readers! And what do you like (or dislike) about Munich. How does it compare to Berlin? I’ve always fancied a trip there too.

——

Dear Cath,

Seriously, your kind of city: clean, orderly, amazing public transport, beautiful and noooo cockroaches! What more could you ask for? We should brush up on our German — not because we would need it there, but to feel better about ourselves whenever you run into a German who speaks English, French and Mandarin fluently (fist shake).

If I could, I would air mail you a pretzel croissant in an instant! So many reasons why we really need a teleportation device. Argh.

Miss you oooooodles!

Cath and I very rarely dressed alike when we both lived in Atlanta together. But wearing the same thing now that we are 4391 miles apart (who’s counting?) makes me feel at least a smidge closer to Cath. Twin power … dressing!

We didn’t plan a whole outfit together — just one item. In this case it was a blue Uniqulo sweater from a few years ago. Cath accessorized with red lippie, a dashing hat and stripes. I swaddled my torso in the sweater and tucked it in a skirt to create a faux wrap-dress. The outfits look completely different even though the essentials are similar: black skirt, booties, and a long gold necklace. What a difference 4391 miles makes! (sniff, sniff).

—–

Dear Cath,

We’ll be on our way to Munich when you read this. It’s 4774 miles from Atlanta — so a few hundred miles further away — harumph. But I will totally What’s App you when we get there and take photos of beer gardens and fairy-tale castles and Alex and Dexin!

Tschüs!

xoxoxox,

Lar

• What we’ll be reading this weekend: the latest issue of Gentlewoman

• Make like an AsianCajun and celebrate Holi in Lafayette, Louisiana on March 30!

• I so wish I was going to be in the states for this book tour. Tell me you guys are going to see Maddie on Things.

• How Cath and I want to dress for spring.

• Can’t wait for your first glass of rosé as the weather warms? Turns out it’s good year ’round. (Psst, I did the illustration for this article).

• What are we going to do without Google Reader *sob*? Maybe become legit bloggers by finally getting on Bloglovin (hence our link at the bottom of this post!). Also, here are 6 alternatives.

• The easiest kale salad recipe ever.

• This is something we can get behind: The 10-Year Hoodie. It’s made to last a lifetime.

• Parks and Rec fans, I give you the Ron Swanson quilt.

Follow my blog with Bloglovin

This is the pic of Cath that’s in the latest Redbook. Taken by the oh-so-talented Cameron of Atlanta Street fashion, Cath is featured with a number of other lovely ladies from around the world who show you how to rock blue jeans (jeans that are blue?). See the rest of them here.

——

Dear Cath,

1) This makes me miss you like whoa.

2) I love how Redbook features a diverse range of street stylers — not just fashionistas/modelistas. There needs to be more of that on the intertubes and in mags.

3) Must get me a pair of cobalt jeans — and a Wheatie.

Miss you like mad!

xoxoxoxx,

Lar