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