While I spent most of my weekend doing laundry and school work, I did take a few breaks. On Friday I saw Brave with some girlfriends, Saturday evening I went to hear Troy play at Harbour Bar in Decatur and then did the following on Sunday morning:

1.) A GIANT branch fell on the deck of our house Saturday evening preventing the dogs from going out into the backyard. Instead of trying to move the branch, Troy and I decided to take the pups out for a stroll around the neighborhood.

For those of you who aren’t familiar with Oakhurst, it’s a neighborhood in Decatur that has a handful of shops and restaurants at the intersection of two roads. Decatur is only four square miles and Oakhurst is less than half of that, which really gives it a small town feel. The photo above makes it look more suburban than it feels.

2.) We decided to stop halfway on our walk to have brunch at Steinbeck’s – a great local pub that has better food than most restaurants.

The above photo of me isn’t an outfit shot, but for those of you who are interested, the scarf is from Anthropologie about 8 years ago and the necklace is a June Shin/ Jess Swift collaboration (similar here). The sunglasses are the same trusty Michael Stars that I’ve been wearing all summer – large enough to mostly hide the fact that I’m not wearing any make-up.

3.) I ordered the Tofu Scramble and Troy ordered ‘Da Breakfast Bowl. We shared two mimosas, which seemed like a healthier decision than each ordering a mimosa. I’m not sure why. Logic is not one of my strong suits on a Sunday morning.

4.) After brunch we walked across the street to Oakhurst Market to pick up a bottle of water before heading to the. . .

5.) Oakhurst Dog Park! Toby and Wheatie finally got the chance to run around, while we stood in the shade gulping down water.

After all that I really wanted to go home and take a nap. If only! I spent the rest of the day straightening up the house (although 24 hours later there’s no evidence of that) and doing stats homework.

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Dearest Lar,

Only 19 more days until I leave for Scotland!!! I can’t believe it’s coming up so soon – mostly because it feels like my stats class will never end. Once I’m done with my final, the trip will feel a lot more real.

Speaking of class, I’m so impressed with everything you’ve done at Scenehouse. I can’t wait to see your model in person!

Just for kicks, here’s a another photo of Tobs at the dog park. He’s totally in his element (note the muddy paws). For some reason he’s a lot less scared of mother nature than the indoors. I just can’t relate to that.

I hate that I didn’t get a chance to chat with you on Sunday. Let’s have a Skype date this Saturday, okay?

xoxo, Cath

As a late birthday present, Troy took me to Rhodes Hall because he knows how much I love house museums. Rhodes Hall was the retirement home of Amos Rhodes. That’s Rhodes as in Rhodes Furniture – still bringing affordable furniture to the masses!

Check out how my hair went all limp in the heat. I swear it looked a little bit better when I left the house for the day. A little. . .

Secondhand top • Urban Outfitter black denim shorts • Dolce Vita sandals • secondhand necklace and bracelet • Michael Stars sunglasses

Rhodes Hall was built in 1904, designed to look like a (small) German castle, and is now one of the only remaining mansions that once lined Peachtree Street in Atlanta. It’s sandwiched by skyscrapers and across the street from a Shell station, but you can’t tell in the photos below. You can almost image what the estate looked like at the turn of last century when it was 114 acres:

The Victorian era isn’t my favorite, but I still loved exploring Rhodes Hall. It’s always entertaining to see what the rich liked to spend their hoards of money on. For example, Mr. Rhodes had the windows by the main staircase painted with images of the confederate army almost forty years after the war ended.

My favorite room was the pink parlor with the elaborate chandelier. Well played, Mrs. Rhodes, well played.

Today Rhodes Hall is one part house museum, one part event space and one part headquarters of The Georgia Trust. If you live in Atlanta or are visiting the city and love house museums as much as me, head to 1516 Peachtree Street (across from the Shell station) and take a tour.

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Dearest Lar,

Touring house museums always reminds me of our family vacations. I think it wasn’t until I was 16 that I realized most families didn’t plan their vacations around historic homes.

Only 26 more days until I fly to Scotland to visit you! We’ll have to do some house/castle tours in addition to going to Spoon. I can’t wait!!!

xoxo, Cath

It’s been so hot here in Atlanta – and for most of the country – that I’ve been sticking to indoor activities only. See the outfit photos below? See how they were taken outside? Yep, I’m sweating buckets and I was only outside for a few minutes. It’s pretty amazing I didn’t have to photoshop out the sweat dripping off my nose!

Dress c/o Savannah Rae • Dolce Vita shoes • Claire Vivier bag • Michael Stars sunglasses

Troy and I decided to take advantage of a Scoutmob deal and have a date night at Fernbank Museum’s Martinis and iMax. It was perfect for many reasons, but mostly because it was indoors. I also got a chance to wear my new Savannah Rae dress. I love maxi dresses, but they’re usually too long for me. This one was just a wee bit too long and I didn’t have the patience to get it altered so I just tied it in a knot – tada!

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Dearest Lar,

I bet you can’t even imagine what 105 degrees feels like since you’ve been cold for almost a year! I wish I could bottle up some of this heat and send it to you.

Wasn’t it weird celebrating our birthday apart? I don’t think it will feel official until we celebrate it together in Scotland.

Hope you’re having a great week at school! Is that what you call it, school? That makes it sound much more elementary than it is. Classes? Set design course? Whichever. I can’t wait to hear more about it!

xoxo, Cath

While Lar is taking set design courses (so jealous), I’ve spent this month taking an accelerated statistics course for my masters program. Needless to say it’s not fun – but it is time consuming! So I’ve spent more time doing school work than taking outfit photos and blogging. My apologies, dear readers!

In place of an outfit post, I thought I’d do a short blurb about my Instagram photos. If you don’t follow me already, you can find me at AsianCajunsCath. No, Lar doesn’t have an account yet seeing as she uses an old brick-of-a-Nokia phone, but hopefully one day she’ll join the world of smart phone users!

1. Outfit of the day close-up: necklace from a clothing swap, Michael Stars t-shirt, Michele watch, J.Crew skirt (that hasn’t held up very well – Instagram evidence here)
2. These gorgeous sparkly tops are actually reflective bike vests made by Vespertine and found at Houndstooth Road in downtown Decatur.
3. Troy and I ended being pants twins the other day. His are from H&M and mine are Forever 21. I’m always worried that we’ll end up like those couples that dress the same. Thank goodness I didn’t wear my Chuck T’s that day! My heels are from Madewell via Shopbop, in case you were curious.
4. Bacon Cashew Caramel Corn at Colt & Gray – an amazing restaurant Troy and I found on our last night in Denver.

5. Still trying to drink green juice as often as I can. I try to make a double batch each time so I can have one jar later in the day or the next morning.
6. Still very happy with chevron stripes in my closet. I’m itching to do another chevron project like this watercolor.
7. Boo Radley, my parent’s dog, joined us on our picnic at Stone Mountain last month.
8. I don’t usually wear a lot of pink, but the other day I ended up wearing nothing but pink accessories: Unleashed espadrilles from Shopbop, my zebra scarf from a boutique in Edinburgh and an old J.Crew necklace.

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Dearest Lar,

I always think it’s so funny that you work on computers all day and yet have no desire to get a smart phone! I fear these set design classes will just make you even more of a luddite – I mean, the studio doesn’t even have the wifis!

I miss you on Skype too! I demand that you write me a detailed email everyday 😉 As part of your course are you going to go see a play this week? Remember when we went to see Matthew Bourne’s Play Without Words at the Festival Theater? I loved that play. . . without words!

Is it nice to be back in a learning environment? As much as I bitch and moan about statistics and homework and tests, I’m still happy to be back in the classroom.

Let me know when you have time to chat this weekend. We definitely have to Skype on our birthday!

xoxo, Cath

For years I’ve been reading about a Trappist monastery located just outside of Atlanta. It always fascinated me since Trappist monks sound so exotic and medieval to me. Prior to my visit, I thought Trappist monks were only in Western Europe and made delicious, Belgium-style beer. I know, my religious education is clearly limited and pretty shallow. So this weekend I decided to broaden my horizons a bit and visit the Monastery of the Holy Spirit.

Luckily for me, the Monastery of the Holy Spirit has a brand new Monastic Heritage Center/Visitors Center, which provides a kind of Trappist/Monasticism 101 course. You can watch a 20 minute video on the Order of Cistercians of the Strict Observance (i.e. Trappists) and how this particular monastery was originally founded in Kentucky and later moved to the Atlanta area in the 1940s – the first native-born Trappist foundation in the U.S.!

It’s been so hot in Atlanta that I was going to just wear a summer dress for the trip, but something about bare shoulders in a church/abbey/place of worship just didn’t seem right. So I wore a sheer-ish button-up on top and sweated non-stop throughout the day. Summer layering doesn’t really work in the Georgia heat.

H&M top • dress from Rockit Boutique • Birkenstocks • Claire Vivier purse from Shopbop • AsianCajuns name necklace

After visiting the Heritage Center, which includes an impressive bonsai garden, a visit to the barn – the original location of the monastery – and a gift shop, I cooled off at the Abbey Cafe – complete with free wifi, French sodas and fruit cake made by the monks of the monastery.

There was monk at the gifts shop that was such a good salesman that I ended up walking away with two jars of apple pie filling and a pound of honey. I don’t even bake.

So, despite the 100 degree weather, my general lack of religiosity and currently being in possession of an overabundance of pie filling, my “sojourn” (Lar’s words) to the Monastery of the Holy Spirit was one of the best day trips that I’ve gone on in a long time. If you’re in the Atlanta area, I highly recommend a visit. The monks are incredibly welcoming and are open to people of all faiths. Let me know if you go. I’d love to hear your impression of the place.

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Dearest Lar,

So a trip to Conyers, GA is no comparison to a weekend in Oxford. You know, for a brief second while reading your Oxford post I actually thought I had been to Oxford before just because we’ve watched Brideshead Revisited so much. Isn’t that awful? Not only am I not educated in religion, I make up places that I’ve been to based on the film-version of books I’ve seen. Philistine? Indeed!

Nevertheless, I was really impressed by the monastery. I’d love to go back and visit when you’re in town. Of course it’s nothing compared to the impressive architecture of Oxford, but I suppose simplicity is the whole point of the monastic way of life.

I can’t wait to hear how your first day of class went! Hope you’re currently in a deep sleep – it’s 5:02 a.m. in Scotland as I write this.

Sweet dreams! xoxo, Cath

I had a glorious weekend that was equal parts productive and fun. The productive part? My friend and I had a joint yard sale where I got rid of half my bag collection – I really only need five black purses, not ten – and other odds and ends. The fun part? The Atlanta Indie Craft Experience on Sunday:

H&M jumper • Lar’s Bottega Veneta purse • shoes from Shopbop

I.C.E. Atlanta is like a giant Etsy festival – talented crafters as far as the eye can see. This year it was held at Ambient Plus Studio and the Good Food Truck was parked outside so I was able to get my hands on an Island Cone: spicy tamarind cone filled with cold Jamaican jerk sweet potato salad, coconut rice and topped with mango sour cream. Soooo good.

So it was great weekend followed by my first day back at school, ugh. At least there are two huge events to look forward to this week. Lar and I are hosting a Google hangout on Thursday at 6 p.m., so make sure to follow AsianCajuns on Google+ and we’ll give more details soon. The second event is the Style Bloggers of Color Conference/Mattiepalooza this weekend. I can’t wait to see my fellow Atlanta fashion bloggers – they all prove this wrong!

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Dear Lar,

I wish you could have explored the Indie Craft Experience with me and Alison. You would have been inspired by all the creativity in the room. I bought you a little gift that I’ll be sending you as part of a little birthday package.

It was actually in the 60s on Saturday morning when I was working at the yard sale and I was cold! I think my skin is way too thin for Scottish weather. When I’m come in August, you’ll be the one wearing shorts and I’ll be the one wearing fleece-lined pants and a winter coat.

love you! xoxo, Cath

Skype is really just a tease. It makes you feel like you’re staying in touch because you can see each other and hear each other, but sitting in front of a computer chatting is nothing like sitting on the couch together chatting. For one thing, we can’t even really see each others whole outfits! And like you, I forget to tell you all the little menial things I’ve been up to because if you were here you would already know about them. I loved your Dear Cath post so much, that I decided to do the same for you – even though I don’t have any glorious food photos (can you take me to that pho restaurant when I come to visit?!).

Last week Cathy hosted an event at the Buckhead W. I was super classy and immediately made a beeline for the bar (the specialty drink was some type of pineapple mojito) and then plopped down to get my nails done by one of the Bliss Spa ladies. Maybe it was the mojito or the party’s summery theme (Sunglasses at Night), but I decided to throw caution to the wind and get my nails painted bright yellow. Not sure what expression I was going for in that bottom photo. . .

Last weekend Troy and I walked over to Sun in My Belly for brunch. Remember how delicious the honey glazed bacon is? Would you still order it even though you’re not eating as much meat anymore? I thought I was being so discipline by ordering the fruit and granola, but right when the waiter was about to walk away, I blurted out, “And a side of honey glazed bacon!!!!!” Here’s me in my post-bacon-feast glow:

Tunic from Squash Blossom, Blank Denim shorts, Claire Vivier bag and an old pair of Birkenstocks.

For the past two months, Troy and I have become obsessed with Mezcalitos in Oakhurst. Even though we’ve lived within walking distance of the place for the past two years, we only recently went there for the first time and now we’re hooked. The margaritas are delicious – no fake mix stuff – and the veggie tacos are really filling. We usually sit outside and I always think about how you can’t even picnic in Edinburgh without wearing five layers under a windbreaker. As cheesy as it sounds, I wish I could bottle up the warmth here and send it your way.

For the past few weeks, Starbucks has been celebrating Frappuccino Happy Hour with half price fraps between 3-5 p.m. Each day there’s been a different photo contest theme and on Day 6 the theme was Twins. TWINS! If only you still worked in Decatur, I would have made you meet me at Starbucks so we could have taken a photo together. Instead I took this one:

Yep. Took a photo with my phone, put it on my computer and then took another one. This is the kind of hard work I have to do when my twinie isn’t around! Anywho, Starbucks posts the top ten photos each day on their Frappuccino FB page and mine was one of the top ten for Day 6!

On to other exciting news: I finished painting the chevron stripes on the wall in my closet! I know I already sent you some pics, but here are the before-ish, during and after images:

I’m really pleased with the result and now I’m itching to cover all other surfaces in chevron stripes. If only I could paint our deck! It was a bit time consuming, but this post really helped as did listening to him on repeat while I worked.

And last, but not least, a quick Toby update. It looks like he and Wheatie are totally best buds now. They each have their own beds, but always decide to share one at night (please ignore the giant dirty laundry pile in the background):

I’ll be heading to Denver for a few days so we might not be able to chat on Skype – not sure what the internet situation will be like. Nevertheless, I’ll bring my laptop in the hopes I will be able to Skype you and write a post.

xoxo, Cath

The title sounds more complicated and hoity-toity than reality. Lar, being the sweet twin sister that she is, got me this dress at Spitalfields Market in London in February. So when people ask me about the dress and I tell them that it’s from London, it makes me sound like I’m some jetsetter that goes shopping on Bond Street – if only! I’d settle for some good, solid window shopping on Oxford Circus if I could even afford a ticket to London!

I wore my “London” dress out on a date night (you can tell it’s a date night because I bothered to put on lipstick). Troy and I went to Cakes and Ale for dinner (note to the locals: get the trout for two, you won’t be disappointed!) and then Colbeh Persian Kitchen and Bar for after-dinner drinks and then to Steinbeck’s for post-after-dinner drinks. I know, we’re gluttons! But we don’t do it every night week.

That’s my arm party in the photo below. I’m a little late on the trend and only did a tame version at that with three pieces. The watch is so old that it doesn’t even work with a new battery. When I brought it to a jewelry store to get the battery changed, the sales clerk said it wasn’t even worth repairing. Harumph! I still like it because it’s my only piece of silver and gold jewelry so I still wear it all the time. You should see the looks I get when people ask me for the time and I have to scrounge around in my purse for my phone while wearing a watch.

I love any dress with pockets – and I mean it. If a potato sack had pockets, I’d belt it and wear it everyday. Not only does this dress have pockets, it has zips!

And if zippered pockets weren’t enough to delight me, the waistband is elastic! I might as well be wearing yoga pants – perfect for big meals and, uh, some light drinking.

Outfit details: Spitalfields Market dress, Mettle necklace, Madewell shoes, BCBG OMG bracelet, Ann Klein watch, Shashi bracelet.

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Dearest Lar,

Thank you again and again for my lurvly dress! I got so many compliments on it – even one compliment where a guy said “I like how it’s kind of sheer, but covered up!” Sheer?! I freaked out a bit – and was a little creeped out – but Troy assured me that it’s a perfectly opaque dress.

Are you going out for high tea this weekend? I am! Troy, mom, dad and I are going to try out Cozee Teas, a new teashop in Decatur. I’ll report back, but am not going to hold my breath for real clotted cream!

love, cath