I’ve been pretty annoyed with Atlanta’s spring weather lately. We’ll have one gorgeous, warm, sunny day followed by a week of cold, drizzly days. This weekend isn’t going to be too much better – high in the low 60s (that’s cold for this time of year in Atlanta) and rain on Sunday.

Since I won’t have a great weather weekend, I’m going to make my own pretend weekend from photos that I’ve taken with my phone throughout the past few weeks on days that had perfect spring weather.

Eating brunch at Sun in My Belly with Lar (she’s wearing a dress from Target, the bottom half has a floral pattern on it).

I approve of any place that serves water in mason jars and long, skinny sugar packets always remind me of Europe.

My bf has about seven jobs and one of them is photographer. A few weekends ago he took some head shots for our friend in East Atlanta Village.

I use to study at Joe’s in EAV all them time in college. It’s the type of place where you share tables with strangers when it becomes too crowded and kind of reminds me of the Elephant House in Edinburgh. I couldn’t capture it in this shot of the ceiling, but God is reaching out for a cup of coffee.

My bf sitting outside of Sun in Belly (on a separate occasion).

So for my pretend spring weekend I’m taking two trips to Sun in My Belly, a photo-shoot in East Atlanta Village and coffee at Joe’s. Not too shabby! What do you guys have planned for the weekend (pretend or real)? I hope you’re having some real spring weather!

Photo by Pam the Nomad.

I hope you all had a wonderful, wonderful weekend! On Saturday we had a tantalizing glimpse of spring here in the ATL (70s and sunny). My bf’s family were in town, so we spent the day taking advantage of the free tours the Atlanta Preservation Center had along the historic Auburn Avenue.

These first three photos of this post are taken by my bf’s talented photog sister. That first one is of me sitting outside of my new favorite place- the Sweet Auburn Bread Company. You have to try their sweet potato muffins! Or if you like something a little richer, the sweet potato cheesecake cooked on top of a thin layer of biscuit is out of this world! Bill Clinton agrees.

Photo by Pam the Nomad.

What makes Auburn Avenue so sweet? Cheesecake! Oh yeah, and gobs of toe-tingling history. Ebenezer Baptist Church is here, so is Martin Luther King Jr.’s childhood home, which is down the street from Big Bethel, the Royal Peacock and the Sweet Auburn Curb Market (still in operation today).

Photo by Pam the Nomad.

Above is our lovely tour guide Mary from the Atlanta Preservation Center telling us about the Royal Peacock’s famous performers and clientele: Louis Armstrong, Muddy Waters, B.B. King, the Four Tops, Ray Charles, James Brown, Sam Cook, Little Richard, Aretha Franklin, The Supremes, Joe Lewis, Jackie Robinson, Otis Redding, Wilson Pickett, Ike and Tina and and Gladys Knight. Amazing, non?

That’s Cath sitting on the steps of Big Bethel AME Church. Historically the church was a spiritual home as well as an unofficial city hall of Sweet Auburn and a landmark for party goers (you could spot the glowing “Jesus Saves” signage on the spire from anywhere in Atlanta).

Atlanta definitely had its very dark and abysmal moments in history, but I love living somewhere with a diverse culture and past. And if the slow revitalization of Sweet Auburn is any indication, I think this city is on track for more toe-tingling goodness.

What did you guys do this weekend? During our rainy Sunday, my bf and I stayed indoors and watched C-SPAN for hours and hours until the health care bill(s) finally passed. Anyone else watch? We kept hoping the House would be as entertaining inspiring as the House of Common debates we sometimes see. I don’t think the orange hues of Rep. Boehner would be allowed near the Houses of Parliament, do you?

What a great day. Chinese New Year AND Valentine’s all in one day.

This morning our family did what any self-respecting Chinese – or part Chinese – group would do on Chinese New Year. We headed over to Oriental Pearl for some dim sum – nom, nom, nom.

You all know AsicanCajuns.com isn’t a streetwear blog, but Lar got up the guts to ask this fashionable young gentleman if she could take his picture.

And his hat totally completes the look:

Even with the proper Chinese New Year garb, no celebration would be complete without a dragon dance.

When Lar and I were young, our family would take us to Chinatown in D.C. for Chinese New Year. This year is the first time we celebrated the holiday in Atlanta. At first I was skeptical because there isn’t any Chinatown in Atlanta, but there are the suburbs of Doraville and Chamblee AND there’s always Buford Highway!

All in all, one of the best Chinese New Years I’ve had.

Now on to the Valentine’s Day bit. Hope you all are having a great day!

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!

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

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!

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!

Cath and I have repeatedly babbled alluded to our love of Scotland in previous posts. We don’t even have a drop of Scottish blood in us (Irish, English, French, Danish, German, Chinese but no Scottish). Our Scot-o-phile-ness stems from living/studying in Edinburgh and traveling around Scotland for six months back in 2004.

We haven’t been back for – eesh! – six years, but Cath and I always say we would move there in a heartbeat given the opportunity.

One way for us to maintain our connection to our Scottish “roots” is to celebrate Robert Burns Night every January 25. Who is/was Robert Burns, you ask?! Why he was the fellow who wrote “My love is like a red, red rose.” and “Auld Lang Syne”- so in a nutshell he is a famous Scottish poet from the 19th century.

And how does one celebrate Robert Burns Night? By drinking whiskey, eating haggis (it’s really good, I swear!) and attending a (digital) ceilidh (pronounced “kay-lee”). Here we are at the ceilidh doing a traditional Scottish jig in traditional Scottish tartan (click here to see us “dance”!):

Cheesy, we know. We thank you for sticking with us, lovely readers, through our fashion loves and more eccentric tastes.

A couple of days ago, Lar and I received an email about the soon-to-be-launched Scoutmob, “a curious guide to mobile deals for the Atlanta explorer.” Well, we love curious guides, we own mobiles AND consider ourselves Atlanta explorers (see?), so what’s not to love?

Scoutmob launches tomorrow (that’s Wednesday, which is in about an hour – eek!) for us Atlantans. All you have to do is enter your email here or download the free iphone app and you’ll get daily local deals sent to your phone. There’s also a promise of upcoming Scoutmob events and happenings so we’ll keep you posted.