All posts by AsianCajuns

16 May 2011

Derek Lam and Braids

Hello dear readers! Thank you for your wonderful comments on the last post. It is definitely going to be hard to be apart from Lar for a few years, but we’ll visit each other a lot and still blog together – just in two different time zones.

Lar and I had a great weekend that included visiting a shooting range, going to see Bridesmaids, watching Eurovision, eating another delicious meal at Miso Izakaya, attending a baby shower at Watershed, going on a day trip to Chattanooga and watching season 2 of Twin Peaks.

Lar’s outfit: secondhand necklace, Zara tank and skirt, secondhand jacket, Jeffrey Campbell heels.

 

I love, love, love Lar’s Zara skirt. The pleats, the length and the color are all perfect.

But the best part about Lar’s whole outfit is her jacket. It’s a Derek Lam she found at Finders Keepers! She got it for less that $40, which is about a tenth of what it’s worth. That’s almost as good of a find as her Bottega Veneta bag.

Lar and I have decided we both want a hair style change. So we’re going to get our hair cut together in a few weeks. We’re thinking Alexander-Chung-inspired, shoulder-length hair. I suppose that doesn’t sound too drastic, but it’s a big deal for us since we’ve both keep our hair pretty long for the past 10 years.

Before I get my hair cut, I’m taking full advantage of the length – wearing my hair in braids, in a high bun or a sleek ponytail.

Cath’s outfit: Gap cardi, dress from Lulu’s, Aldo shoes.

I hope you all had a great weekend! Expect some future posts on our shooting range trip and Lar’s day in Chattanooga. And don’t forget to enter the Lulu’s giveaway!

Category: Uncategorized
20 Comments
29 April 2011

Our Royal Wedding (Experience)

We arrived in our Rolls of course (silly how our chauffeur forgot to take those brochures out of the driver door), red carpet rolled out, Kate and Wills sooo excited we had finally made it. I’m sure you guys caught it all on TV.

Okay, okay, the real life version: we got to the party at Piedmont Park a little past 6 am (we watched Kate walk down the aisle, bleary-eyed, from home). We had a sniff at some beautiful wedding flowers:

We tried on hats made by our local Grand Diva:

Drank champagne (more of those Sally Hansen strips on our nails- I’m totally hooked):

We watched the wedding via flat screen around the tent. Our beautiful hostess from The Piedmont Park Conservatory, announced raffle prizes while Kate and Wills rode to Buckingham Palace:

My absolute favorite part of the morning? The head sommelier from the St. Regis sabered the champagne when Wills and Kate had their first kiss on the balcony! And! They used the same champagne that the royal family had at breakfast – and we got a glass to ourselves. nomnombubbles.

Then we piled back into our Rolls Royce, told Jeeves to hurry over to Buckingham so we could catch the rest of the activities in person, and lived happily ever after

We aren’t big Disney princess girls, but a little bit of real life fairy tale never hurt anyone, eh?

Did you guys watch? Tell us what you did!

 

 

Category: Decatur/Atlanta
15 Comments
28 April 2011

AsianCajuns Love You. . . and Waris Ahluwalia

For the past week Savannah College of Art and Design (SCAD) in Atlanta has been hosting SCADStyle – a series of events that includes lectures, workshops and exhibitions celebrating style. The Sart was in town on Monday, which we unfortunately missed, but we made it to the lecture given by Waris Ahluwalia – jewelry designer, CFDA nominee, actor, purveyor of fine teas and all around Renaissance man.

Does he look familiar to you? If so, you’ve either seen The Life Aquatic, The Inside Man, The Darjeeling Limited or I Am Love. Or maybe you’ve read about his jewelry company, House of Waris. Or his collaboration line, Waris Loves You.

Waris talked about his evolution as a jewelry designer, his love of handmade objects and the craft of jewelry making. He spends most of the year in India and Europe working on his jewelry, but New York is his home – lucky guy. He’s very dapper, which is not surprising since he’s been voted best dressed by GQ and Vanity Fair. I love how he combined his dusty, dark blue trousers and blazer with pink dessert boots.

Lar and I were inspired by his style and confidence in his vision. We took notes throughout the lecture and passed notes back and forth to each other with things like, “Look at his boots!!!” “Where did he get his start up money?” “Where do you think he bought his boots?” “How inspiring!”

The lecture was finished off with this short video he originally shot for Style.com:

 

And no fashion celeb evening would be complete without an embarrassing photo request. And just for the record, Waris was all smiles and friendliness the whole night. I know he doesn’t look overjoyed in the photo with us – just like The Sart and Lar’s photo – but we figure celebs have to give off a serious vibe in their photos to be considered legit. At least that’s what I tell myself.

A big thanks to Waris for braving the Atlanta tornado weather and answering my two-part question!

Category: Decatur/Atlanta
7 Comments
28 April 2011

Three Cheers for Atlanta’s Flux Project Founder


Photo courtesy of Huffines PR

Lar and I are bummed we can’t make it to the Nexus Awards this year. Anything that supports local artists in Atlanta is our jam. That’s why instead of an outfit post, I wanted to do a quick write-up about the award. Atlanta Contemporary Art Center annually honors an individual who has made a profound contribution to contemporary visual art. This year the award goes to Louis Corrigan, the founder of Flux Project. Hip, hip, hurrah!

What is Flux Project? It’s an amazing program that presents year-round public art in Atlanta. That includes everything from outdoor dance performances to video installations to sculptures in public parks. My favorite project so far was Lima Lives! It featured a projection of a running zebra on the sides of buildings around town for a week in honor of a zebra that broke free from the Ringling Bros Circus in Atlanta last year. Lima even made it to Decatur at one point.

The next Flux Project, Rise Up, is a public art installation in Freedom Park featuring a sculpture made of borrowed ladders. I can’t wait to go check it out. Maybe Lar and I can get some good outfit shots by it.

And while I’m on the subject of art, the Inman Park Festival and Atlanta Film Festival are this weekend, which means the Decatur Arts Festival isn’t far off. One of the best things about living in Atlanta in the spring is all the festivals. There isn’t one spring weekend where Atlantans can complain about having nothing to do. If you get a chance to attend the Nexus Awards or any one of the upcoming festivals, drop us a line. Maybe we’ll run into you!

Warning: for those of you who are not anglophiles, hate the idea of royalty, find the hype around the royal wedding pointless, and are all around just a bitter person, do NOT read the post script.

PS: Lar and I just bought some brilliant headpieces (for $10!!!!) to wear to the Royal Wedding shindig at Piedmont Park bright and early tomorrow morning. We’re so excited!!! The official wedding program is available now. Apparently Catherine and her soon-to-be-father-in-law, Prince Charles, spent quite a while picking out the music, which will include a piece by Vaughan Williams – one of my all time favorite composers. For more information, check out the official Royal Wedding website.

Category: Decatur/Atlanta
2 Comments
19 April 2011

Small? Yes! Cool? Hopefully!

Hello dearest AsianCajuns readers! Did you think Lar and I had totally fallen off the face of the earth blogosphere? My deepest apologies! Our lack of blogging was due to a mix of post wedding craziness (who knew that existed?!), settling Lar in her new house, friends in town, going out of town, and lots of work, work, work, work. Things are quieting down now, which is good because I’ve been going through blogging withdrawal. It feels good to be back, reading your blogs and comments.

Now on to the point of this post. I’ve entered my little studio apartment in Apartment Therapy’s Small/Cool contest! It might not sound that exciting, but I’m a bit obsessed with Apartment Therapy and follow the Small/Cool contest closely every year. So even just seeing my studio on the Apartment Therapy website makes me over-the-top giddy. You can see my full entry here.

Entries have to include five photographs of the apartment/condo and a floor plan. Lar helped me clean and style my apartment for the amazing photos that Troy took. Of course we took a lot more than five photos, so I’m including some of the images that didn’t make it into my entry – like the close up photo of Jacques Rock Star (a prezie from Lar 13 years ago) above.

I ended up not including any photos of my closet or bathroom in my entry, which was probably for the best because
1.) no matter how much I reorganize my closet, it still looks messy and chaotic
2.) my bathroom is so tiny that it’s pretty much impossible to get a good photo of it. Troy was precariously perched on the tub when he took this one:

If I had planned on living in my studio for longer than a year, I’m moving out in a month, I would have painted the closet a dark, dusty blue/gray. Instead I kept the ugly, masking tape yellow that was painted on all the walls by the property management company right before I moved in:

I wanted to include this photo of the kitchen in the entry, but finally decided to use another one that looked less cluttered. Unfortunately none of my entry photos really show off my love of books – you can see a sliver of my bookcases the photo on the left:

And of course I still have my invisible bookshelves and jewelry board that I’ve had in my last 3 apartments – I wrote about them here in 2007.

And because I want to brag a little bit more about Lar’s styling skills, here’s what my couch area looked like before setting up the space for the photo:

Here’s what it looks like after Lar works her magic:

So thank you soooo much Lar and Troy – I would never have entered without help from both of you!

And thank you to any of you lovely readers who vote for me on Apartment Therapy. The apartment with the most favorites wins – here’s hoping!

 

Category: Cath's Style
24 Comments
1 April 2011

The Countdown(s) is On!

The wedding countdown is over. It’s come and gone. Thank you to all of you for leaving such sweet comments about Lar and Matt’s wedding. Believe it or not, Lar hasn’t had any internet or cell phone access since the wedding (she and Matt have been staying at a lovely vineyard in north Georgia) so she hasn’t even seen the photos yet!

I have to admit that it’s been depressing not having my sister around. So I’m counting down until her honeymoon is over. Is that weird? Either way, she’ll be back tomorrow – woohoo! She bought me two amazing gifts for being her maid of honor including these beautiful tights from Anthro:

It’s been coldish in Atlanta for the past week and perfect for some fancy tight wearing!

Another countdown? It’s less than a month until our friend Mike Killeen plays two CD release shows at Eddie’s Attic in Decatur on April 22. If you’re in the Atlanta area, make sure to come by that night.

Hope you all are having a wonderful week. I’m sure we’ll be showing more wedding photos here shortly.

And for those of you in the Chicago area, let me know if you’re free next week. I’ll be in town for a conference and would love to meet some of my fellow bloggers!

Category: Cath's Style, Decatur/Atlanta
14 Comments
29 March 2011

Best Wedding Photos Ever!

Ok, not the most eloquent title and I’ll admit that I am a little biased, but I think these wedding photos are amazing.

Aharon and her assistant Jackelyn were a great team and captured Lar and Matt’s wedding perfectly. Check out the rest of the first batch of photos on Aharon’s blog – they make me so happy!

Category: Lar's Wedding Stuffs
45 Comments
26 March 2011

Going to the Courthouse

The big day has arrived!! As promised, I wanted to do a quick post before all the craziness starts. There’s still so much that needs to be done.

I forgot to mention this in the last post, but Lar and Matt became legally married on Wednesday. They got their marriage license at the oh-so-romantic DeKalb County Courthouse. Look, the courthouse is also a fallout shelter!

I don’t think the marriage will really feel official until the ceremony today. Matt and Lauren are still saying things like “This is my fiancé, I mean wife/husband.” I think it’s so sweet. Gah. Listen to me getting all sentimental!

Here’s where they officially became married – in a hallway of the courthouse, by a judge with a stack of marriage license in his hands. It happened so fast that I had to run over and snap a quick pic in less that 5 seconds. Did I mention how romantic the whole thing was?

To celebrate the trip to the courthouse, we had a few drinks afterwards at Leon’s. There was a rake by the bocce ball court so I made Lar and Matt recreate American Gothic. Their version is a little bit happier and slightly more indie – I think Grant Wood should have used them as models for his original painting.

Lar’s dress is from Squash Blossom Boutique in Decatur, shoes are Nine West and the cardi is vintage. My mom made the beautiful flower arrangement and boutineer.

I promise this will be the last wedding post with amateur photos. The talented Aharon Hill will be taking photos from here on out.

By the time I post again, Lar and Matt will be on their honeymoon!

Category: Lar's Wedding Stuffs
31 Comments
24 March 2011

Model for a Day Judges

Thank you to everyone who commented on the last post. I’m so glad dress #4 is a hit!

Believe it or not, this post is not wedding-centric even though Lar is getting married in two days AND she and Matt just got legally married today at the courthouse (I’ll post some photos soon of them signing their marriage license).

Instead of wedding talk, this post is about what Lar and I were up to last Saturday. Can you spot us in the photo below?

Yep! That’s us on the left at the judges table. Impressive, no?

The folks over at Lenox Mall invited us to be judges for their Model for a Day contest. It was a pretty sweet gig considering all we had to do was sit at the judges table, maintain a look of importance and judge the contestants on a scale of 0-15. Actually we suck at looking serious and just ended up grinning eagerly at all the contestants. Anna Wintours we are not.

The other judges were really nice. In the photo below that’s Vinny (on the left) from Bare Escentuals, me, Lindsey from Banana Republic, Lar and not pictured is Anne from the Lenox Mall.

The reason for judging? The winning models get to walk in the upcoming Banana fashion show on April 2 that will be part of Lenox Square Mall’s Simon Fashion Now – a weekend of fashion on April 1st and 2nd. If you’re in the Atlanta area, click here for more info.

All in all it was fun pretending to be a judge and it was so nice to have a break from wedding planning.

A big thank you to Jordan and Mary Elizabeth with BRAVE PR for thinking of us!

(All images courtesy of BRAVE PR)

*  *  *  *  *

Things are getting a little hectic here for the wedding – especially since our mom is home sick with a fever – but I’ll try to get at least one more post up before the wedding. Thank you all for being so supportive and sweet!

Category: Decatur/Atlanta
14 Comments
20 March 2011

Bridesmaid Dress #4

Almost two months ago you all helped me choose my bridesmaid dress for Lar’s wedding. This one won out and I love it, but then I found this one (pictured below) last month on J.Crew’s sale site. It’s the perfect color and super flouncy (I’ll steam it before the big day).

I’ll be wearing it with the Manolos I found for $30 and this gorgeous necklace I got at Vivid Boutique in Decatur. At first I was worried that the gold necklace and silver shoes wouldn’t work well together, but somehow it does. What do you lovelies think?

I’m keeping the first dress to wear to the rehearsal because it was so close to almost perfect and so many of you liked it. And of course there will be lots of pictures of both.

Wedding decor update: Lar and I are almost done with hanging all of the tissue paper flowers we’ve made and my mom has made party hats for all of the busts in the house.

And just to add to the sweetness of the whole wedding decorating fun, Erica from Tinsel & Twine sent over some wonderful decor goodies. Here’s a preview:

Lar will show you guys the rest of the goodies in the next post.

Less than a week before the wedding! Matt’s parents have just flown in from Africa and we still have a huge to do list. Gah!

Category: Lar's Wedding Stuffs
28 Comments