Cath and I have been trapped in our respective homes this weekend painting (Cath her closet, moi my kitchen). But we managed to slip in a bit of sister time and do a bit of (window)shopping and get a little nosh.

On Cath: Target hat • Alternative Apparel T-shirt • Thrifted belt • J Brand jeans • Mia clogs • thrifted Longchamp purse

On Lar: Target sunnies • French Connection for Sears cargo vest • Snooser Looser quarter-holder necklace • AA shorts • thrifted Anne Klein oxfords

We didn’t have much time after “licking the windows,” so we hopped on over to one of our favorite restaurants/markets in the Highlands for a quick tasty treat. Unfortunately, our flaky pastries were a bit bitter – in the metaphorical sense. Upon purchasing said goodies, I was given the incorrect change. When I explained the situation (“oops! think you forgot a dollar”), the mademoiselle behind the counter said “I’m sure I gave it to you, but I guess I’ll give you another one.” Right O. This was after repeating my order a few times (“Two raspberry croissants, please!” Very complex) because she would start talking to other wait-staff mid-order. Alrighty roo.

On to Kitcath and her ill-fated cafe-au-lait ordering. After purchasing said drink (with a card, smart lady), Cath was standing near the register, stirring in her sugar, when the same charming mademoiselle said, “Did you take the receipt you were supposed to give to me?” Mind you, she could have said “Oh! Did I give you the wrong receipt?” Or even, “Is there a chance I gave you both copies of the receipt?” She decided against the less accusatory tact and went straight for the I’m-not-very-good-at-this-whole-customer-service-thing route. She did manage to find the receipt by the register a few moments later. Well done.

Nothing earth-shatteringly rude, ’tis true. But it was enough to turn us off our ‘au laits and $3.50 croissant, and actually make us think this isn’t a place we’ll be returning to any time soon. We have had pretty good service at this establishment in the past and the food is pricey but worth it… until today.

Has that ever happened to you? Just a mini bad experience that taints a place? Locals, if you know where we’re hinting/talking about, let us know what you think! Maybe we’re being too quick to judge.

Poor, unwitting, raspberry croissant! It wasn’t you, it was your madame!

On to the next sister adventure! (We promise they’ll be more Southern charm next time and less peeved AsianCajuns ).

Happy Friday, lovelies! Thank you for the wonderful comments from the last post. Cath and I don’t really like to think about the moving-away-from-each-other part of this exciting Scotland move, and all of your words are so encouraging! Once I move to Scotland we do plan to change AsianCajuns a bit. The blog will be more like letters to each other about our experiences across the pond. We’ll still have fashion and food galore, but just shaken up in a slightly different format. Whatcha think?

In the meantime… food! Apart from spending gobs of time with our peeps, Matt and I are trying to eat our way through Atlanta and Decatur. This is not the most cost-conscious thing to do, but we are using the excuse that our kitchen is all torn up and unusable, so we might as well try all those delicious food places we have yet to lick our chops at. It’s a bit like playing tourist in your own backyard (cameras strapped-around-necks included).

We managed two yesterday. Delicious!

First up, Bell Street Burritos inside of the Sweet Auburn Curb Market (how is this place not more of a tourist/local destination?! It is ah-mazing!). To be truthful, Matt and I found the burritos a little on the bland side, so make sure when you go to bring a bottle of your favorite condiment: mine is Hot Squeeze. Burrito, meet Hot Squeeze. Hot Squeeze, meet Burrito… Match made in heaven, that.

Next up: Cakes and Ale’s Bakery in Decatur!

On Lar: thrifted Brooks Brothers shirt • Zara shorts • Deux Lux purse • Mango booties • Target sunnies

We’ve been so impatient for their grand opening that we decided to pop in yesterday during their soft launch. Come next week they’ll have pastries and sandwiches galore. We whetted our appetites with a peach tart, rosemary monkey bread (oh-so-gawdly-good) and some coffee.

Matt and I also plan to hit a few other places that need to be drooled over before we leave town: Holeman and Finch, Cakes and Ale (the restaurant), Sugar-Coated Radical, more Miso Izakaya of course, and a number of places off Buford Highway and in Duluth. Locals, any recommendations to add? We’d love to hear them!

What do you guys have on tap for the weekend? If you’re free and fancy a hop over to the West End (of Atlanta), I have a few handy paintbrushes that would love to be put to work in my kitchen! I kid! (I think). Here’s my plan: paint one more layer on cabinets, reward with Grindhouse burger, paint kitchen walls, reward with dim sum. Good plan, right?

It might seem like really bad timing on my part: 1) make plans to move abroad, 2) redo kitchen a month before leaving. Recipe for disaster – oh and I hate disastrous recipes. But we aren’t as crazy as we sound (or so I like to think). My hubs and I received a generous monetary gift from my in-laws for our wedding. Said in-laws have oh-so-wonderfully agreed to stay in our house (in our hood) while we are away. So we thought, why not make the kitchen more usable?! By usable we mean: installing a dishwasher and ripping out old uneven countertops and generally making the space less of a dark cave.

So we went marble shopping yesterday!

Look how excited I am by the marble slabs (above) and how steadfast and assured Matt is by this swirly granite (below):

Sadly, we learned that just days before our arrival to the Slab Farm (that’s what Atlanta Kitchen and Baths calls it), a worker had been moving all the lovely marble in our price range and broke it! Luckily said marble mover was not hurt (phew!), but we had to leave empty handed (sigh).

We needed some sort of consolation prize, and luckily the Slab Farm is just steps from one of my favorite bakeries in the whole wide world: Southern Sweets.

Wow! is right, piggy chef. Consolation prize: rustic cherry pie – ooooo I’d loose my marbles any day to  eat this! Slice of heaven, this is!

Can’t resist, must show you another shot:

It’s a lovely space. I believe one of the bakers is an artist, there’s an artist studio tucked off to the left of the shop, and wonderfully colorful paintings covering the walls. And you can eat your slice of pie on a soft buttery leather sofa. Delightful!

Oh, right, ahem, back to the kitchen. Please do not judge this photo below. This is the state of our kitchen at the moment: cabinet doors off, souls bared. Eesh! Can you tell even the camera could barely stand to look – just a quick blurry glimpse.

The plans are to prime/paint/demolish and then have the countertops and backsplash installed so it looks a little something like this:

(This is just one of many inspiration photos I’ve gathered, and I’m sorry I don’t know where it’s from. If it’s yours, please let me know and I’ll drop a link in straight away).

So that’s my weekend(s) job! What you lovelies up to?

Cath mentioned this in the last post, but we’ve been trying to maximize our sister time before I move to Scotland next month. Even though I’m a West Ender now, we both work in Decatur, just about a 5 minute walk apart – yippee! So we try to meet up for lunch at least once a week.

These pics are from last week’s meet-up at Sushi Avenue – nom nom nom. I’m actually a sushi wuss. I only eat uber-americanized pieces like California rolls and crispy shrimp rolls. Cath has much more sophisticated tastes and goes for the raw fish pieces.

Hope you, lovelies, are having a wonderful week! Let us know what you’re up to. My brain has been a bit fuzzy with all this upcoming move stress, so I’m sorry if this is a short babbly post. Any tips for mid-week de-stressing? Happy hump day!

On Cath: thrifted Longchamp bag • H&M tee • Gap skirt and flats • necklace from clothing swap • bracelets from local artisans • Agnes Scott ring

On Lar: Dress worn as top from Creatures of Comfort • Citizens of Humanity skirt • necklace from Spotlight Boutique • sandals from Squash Blossom boutique

That’s my “Hey there, Sailor Friday” look. Okay maybe I need to work on it a little as to not scare Friday away, but regardless you get the “I’m excited!” memo.

Cath and I started the weekend early: Thursday for lunch to be exact. We invited our good friend and fellow blogger Eli to come down and try the new No. 246 restaurant in Decatur.

Doesn’t Cath look like she dressed for 246? She looks perfect!

On Cath: Freebie sunnies • Squash Blossom top • Limited skirt • Dolce Vita shoes • thrifted Longchamp bag 

 On Lar/moi: thrifted blouse (love the fans on it) • Zara skirt • Ashley Watson recycled leather bag • Hunter boots

You hear Cath and I wax poetic about Decatur all the time (it’s been our “home” town for the past 10 years): one of those small towns that happens to be six miles from the heart of a big city (Hotlanta!), a festival every month of the year, great boutiques, great food, great people, etc. Well, since I got married back in March, I actually haven’t been a true Decaturite. Now I’m a West Ender.

As a West Ender that means I’m a true Atlantan, just south of downtown. It’s not a neighborhood that a lot of Atlantans know much about, or if they do I usually get that “I hope you carry a gun on you” nose wrinkle when I tell people I live there. It’s true that the West End has seen wealthier days, but that doesn’t mean that as you roll through town you should lock your car doors twice and not make eye contact. West Enders are even friendlier than Decaturites (when Cath and I first moved to Decatur from DC it freaked us out when people whom we didn’t know would wave and smile – you just don’t do that in DC).

The West End is also awesomely historic. Most of the homes are brick bungalows built in the 1920s or gorgeous Victorians and Queen Anne homes built during the turn of the century. It’s home to my favorite house museum in the world The Wren’s Nest (you know how much we love that place – our latest adventure there was my Out of Africa inspired wedding photo shoot). The West End is Atlanta’s oldest suburb (originally a white affluent ‘burb) and is now home to a number of African American cultural centers like Hammonds House and The Shrine of the Black Madonna.

The West End is not the neighborhood to go to if you want Starbucks and high-end shopping malls. It’s the opposite of big box stores, neatly manicured strip malls, and homogeneity. Instead it offers plenty of mom and pop shops, soul food restaurants, and a Krispy Kreme.

Before I leave for Scotland, I’ll try to give you a few more peeks of The West End. These photos were taken on a little side road dividing The West End of Oakland City, in front of a mural of Brer Rabbit and (a menacing/trickstery-looking) Brer Fox hopping along to The Wren’s Nest.

On Lar/moi: tank top from Khol’s • French Connection for Sears skirt • Target belt • Ashley Watson purse • Ring from Heliotrope • Turquoise necklace from June Shin • Orange beaded necklace from a clothing swap

I usually like being a graphic designer by day and a blogger by night, but sometimes I feel like I live my life by the unnatural glow of a computer screen. I’m sure a lot of you can relate!

The thing is, I miss creating things with my hands (drawings, paintings, props, etc.) and I’ve been yearning to break out of my computer rut for a few years now. I’ve been dreaming of being a stylist (you know like  Tim Walker or Annette Joseph). I need to start as a stylist’s lacky – schlepping around furniture and props – and learn how to create an enticing world, communicated in a few photographs.

This past weekend, my uber-talented wedding photographer Aharon Hill asked me to style an inspiration wedding shoot (faux couple, faux wedding). I didn’t want to do the usual rustic charm wedding (barn, chalkboards, bunting, ball jars) – very sweet, but I wanted to try something a bit different. I took my inspiration from one of my all time favorite movies:

We had no budget and only 12 days or so to coordinate an Out of Africa wedding. I started sketching ideas and pulling together props, and Aharon roped some great vendors into helping us. (Below: my props took up a good part of my dining room and the entire interior of my car).

Finding a couple to be our Karen and Dennis was a little tricky, as was making a wedding cake appear, and telling Georgia to look like Kenya (“Less kudzu, more lions in the grass!”), but here are the result (see more photos on Aharon’s blog):

Photography: Aharon Hill
Styling: Lar
Location: The Wren’s Nest, Atlanta, GA
Flowers: Gardenia Floral Design
Paper goods: Calliespondence
Caligraphy: Carol Gray Calligraphy
Wedding cake: Miss Mamie’s Cupcakes, Cakes and Such
Models: Jackelyn and Miguel

Hello lovely readers! Cath here. It’s been a while. Lar has been wonderfully blogging away while I’ve been painting and reorganizing my house. Well, the painting is done in the living room and kitchen, but I’m afraid the organizing will take a while. The good news is I think I can juggle blogging and organizing much better than blogging and painting.

This weekend has been a busy one. Those of you that follow us on Twitter know that Lar styled a shoot with her wedding photographer, Aharon Hill. I came along as Lar’s assistant/intern/lackey. It was hard work and Lar is definitely much more cut out for the work than I am, but at the end of the day we had so much fun turning a green patch of grass into a romantic African safari. We promise to link you over to Aharon’s site once the first few shots are up. I can’t wait to see them.

The photos in this post are actually from last weekend when we sweated a whole lot less than we did today. The weather last week almost felt like spring so I took a break from painting/organizing and met up with Lar – and Boo Radley – at Duck’s Cosmic Kitchen.

Lar wore her Walgreen’s straw fedora, her new dress from Squash Blossom and Jeffrey Campbell boots. (Sorry for the blurriness. We used my phone to take photos and the camera lense never stays clean in my purse).

I wore my AsianCajuns necklace, Madwell top, UO denim shorts, Target belt and faux-Ray Bans that I got for free years ago at some event.

There are so many great dog-friendly places in Atlanta. The owners of Duck’s love dogs and always bring out a bowl of water and a biscuit for our pups.

Look how happy Boo Radley is after a morning at Ducks:

I hope you all are enjoying your weekends and staying cool with plenty of pool parties, iced tea, and lots of lounging around on shaded patios.

(Had to throw in this last photo of Boo. Lar caught him looking up at her as she was munching on her brunch).

On Cath: My Name necklace (Cath got us each an AsianCajun necklace for our bday! Thanks, Kitcath!) • thrifted top from Finders Keepers • Frye shoes

On Lar: LNA dress • French Connection for Sears vest • necklace from Squash Blossom boutique • Unleashed shoes

At least once a week Cath and I, our menfolk and our local foodie blogger meet up at Miso Izakaya.  This seems a little extravagant – not that Miso is too pricey, just definitely more costly than beans and rice at home – but Cath and I love good food. So these photos are taken at our favorite watering hole.

If I didn’t have such a wimpy stomach, I would weigh at least 80-100 more pounds than I do today. I especially love desserts. I wanted to be a pastry chef after my dreams of being a ballerina soured when I was 17 (Can’t dance?  Chocolate and butter sound better anyway!). And ever since I was a wee lass, I’ve taken copious photos of what I eat, especially when I travel. Even before digital cameras I would come back from a trip with hundreds of photos displaying heaping plates of deliciousness. Goes without saying, but: nom, nom, nommmmm.

Aren’t these shoes gahhhhhh? They are from a new boutique in our lovely Decatur. Cath and I write for the Decatur tourism blog every once and a while, and the Cath’s latest post is all about Spotlight Boutique and their shoes!

I know I’m supposed to be getting rid of things (and I did just donate all my closet purge stuff today), but these shoes are so tempting. Great for walking Edinburgh’s cobbled, rain-slicked streets and hiking in the Highlands, no?

Speaking of closet purges, thanks for all genius ideas in your comments from the last post. I’ll get in touch with all you local ladies soon about a clothing swap – great idea! Cath and I will hatch a plan.