We spent most of our birthday at work, but we took a long lunch at Brick Store and then went shopping at Squash Blossom (hi, Jinah!). Cath was wearing one of her prezies from moi. Doesn’t she look great in this vintage dress from Ramona West?!

Dress from Ramona West, shoes are Dolce Vita, vegan bag from Vivid Boutique in Decatur.

Thanks for the birthday wishes, Everyone! So so sweet! It made our day!

ps- For those of you who asked, our mom was not expecting twins the day she delivered us. They pulled out Cath and I popped out 30 seconds later.

Hello dear readers! Apologies for being away from AsianCajuns for so long. Immediately after moving I had to go out of town for work and am still unpacking and organizing. I’m so lucky to have a wonderful twin sister that picks up the slack when I’m buried under boxes and furniture.

Outfit: Bf’s aviators, shirt from Limited Too (13 years ago!!!), American Apparel skirt, H&M belt and Dolce Vita shoes.

I have yet to unpack all of my accessories so my outfits have been a little bland as of late. The photo above was taken before the move when I still knew where my sunglasses and belts were. The shirt is from middle school (it was not as fitted back then), but I can’t seem to part with it because it’s so classic.

Picasso and Hepburn were fans of the black and white stripes:

Same goes for Audrey Tautou as Chanel (navy and white is equally as timeless):

As much as I love my 13-year-old Limited Too version, I’d like a black and white piece that’s a little less fitted. I love this Rebecca Minkoff shirt. It would look great tucked into a black pencil skirt for work or un-tucked with black shorts and a boater hat for the weekend.

It’s a little too warm in Atlanta to justify buying a sweater, but I love the boyfriend cut of this Vince sweater. I’m really tempted to buy the Gemma dress because it has a pocket in it – I love pockets in dresses!

Come to think of it, I’m going hold off on buying anymore clothes for a while. I need to find room for the clothes I do have. The “walk-in” closet in my apartment is more like an entryway into the bathroom. I think I’ll have to store my shoes under my couch – eesh!

I’ll be taking photos of my new place once I paint the walls and get the artwork hung. My goal is to have it all done by the end of the month. Here’s hoping!

After four glorious days in Ocean City, MD, I’m back home half a shade darker (I pretty much drown myself in SPF when I’m at the beach so I don’t get much of a tan), a few pounds heavier (drank a lot of Dogfish Head beer, got my fill of Utz potato chips and Tasty Cakes) and am ready for another vacation (there are hundreds of emails in my inbox at work that I have yet to tackle).

Cassius sunglasses, Torn tank and black denim shorts from the U.O. sales rack last summer.

I usually read nothing but trashy mags at the beach, but on this trip I mixed in some more substantial reading like Vogue and Dwell. I like to stick to summer dresses at the beach, but I seemed to have given away almost all of them last year. So my vacation uniform consisted of tanks, shorts, sunglasses and flippy floppies.

Maybe it was the four years he spent in LA or his love for thrift stores, but I think my bf has great beach style. You can’t really tell in this photo, but the thrifted shirt he’s wearing has pastel blue, pink and green threads running throughout it.

After attending a wedding in Baltimore, we vacationed in Ocean City because my family has a condo on 94th Street. Lar and I grew up going to the condo every summer and it’s wonderful. My dad and aunt bought the place about 40 years ago and it’s never been redecorated – shag carpet, faux wood paneling and avocado green appliances. Want to see photos? Just wait for the next post!

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Thank you so much to all of you for the lovely anniversary/birthday wishes for AsianCajuns! Your comments always make our day/week/year(s)! xoxo, Lar & Cath

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DIY ruffle t-shirt, Target cardi, J. Crew necklace, H&M belt, American Apparel skirt, BCBG pumps.

Lar and I both are always inspired by all the fashion and style diy bloggers, but we rarely try to copy any of the projects. I have no explanation for this. Laziness? Dreading the mess that comes with crafting? Lack of sewing skills? It’s probably a mix of all three.

Luckily, I have some very crafty friends that can get me motivated every once in a while. A few weekends ago Julia, of Squirrel and Fox blog and Heliotrope, hosted a craft day. She’s been playing around with some diy projects she found on Made By Lex and invited a group of us over for some sewing and mimosa drinking.

Julia guiding Ali’s fabric cutting. She used the zebra pattern as the ruffle on her black shirt.

I used an old light pink shirt to get fabric for my ruffle on top of a darker pink v-neck Lar picked up for me at Rag-o-Rama in Little Five Points for $10.

Lar and I took a beginners sewing class one summer when we both thought we might want to go into fashion design. We learned quite a bit in that class; like how to thread  a sewing machine, how to adjust the tension, how to make a pillow case and a pair of boxer shorts. We also learned that we weren’t too fond of sewing and that fashion design was probably better left to those who do.

Here’s a close-up of my shirt. It’s pretty sloppy, but layering it with a cardi and dressing it up for work seemed to hide a lot of the flaws.

Thanks to Julia for getting me inspired for the day! Maybe I’ll be up for another DIY project in a few months.

There’s nothing new about combining yellow and gray. I think the yellow and gray combination in clothes reached its peak two winters ago with the ubiquitous yellow and gray striped cardigan that every store in the mall sold. For some reason it wasn’t until I saw Sandra Bullock wearing the outfit below in The Proposal that I thought I’d give the color combo a try myself.

Image courtesy of AllMoviePhoto.com.

I have no idea why I was inspired by a kind of run-of-the-mill romcom and a kind of ho-hum outfit. Bullock actually wears some gorgeously tailored suits in the film (accessorized with Prada, Louboutin and Hermes), but I suppose those seem so out of reach for me. So the yellow and gray outfit must have stuck out in my mind for its practicality. I already had all the pieces to incorporate the color combination into a work-appropriate outfit:

I de-preppified the look with the lacy Rodarte for Target cardi and my new chandelier necklace from Rockit. The white tissue tee is from Urban Outfitters, Proenza Schouler for Target skirt (hand-me-down from Lar) and nude pumps from the now defunct Eviva shoe store in Decatur.

I think it took me so long to jump on the yellow and gray bandwagon because I was worried the mustard yellow would make my mixed-Asian skin look a little sickly, but somehow it works. Maybe I have just enough Cajun in me to make it a complimentary color.

My two year search for a boater hat is finally over!  Ever since the boater hat trend came about I’ve wanted to get my hands on one. Unfortunately two years ago my only options where real, $100+, haberdasher versions on ebay that I couldn’t afford or cheesy, costume emporium gondola plastic hats.

Bitten by SJP button up, H&M denim trousers, Nine West boots, and straw boater (see below).

I didn’t give up because I knew sooner or later Urban Outfiters et. al. would come out with more affordable, hipster versions and they didn’t disappoint! Enter Nasty Gal’s Straw Boater:

At $18 it fits nicely into my monthly fashion budget, which currently is pretty much non-existent.

As the weather continues to warm up I plan on wearing my lovely new boater with almost everything – shorts, skirts, dresses. I wore it to a Braves game the other day and got enough confused stares to make me think the purchase was more than worth it.

It’s been absolutely gorgeous this week in Atlanta – finally beginning to feel like spring and Lar and I are feeling a little less grumpy and stressed. Warmer weather means lighter layers and no more winter coats. . . for now. . . there’s the very slim chance that it still might snow in March.

This outfit is as unabashedly girly/Lindsey Price-esque as I usually get. Sometimes I wish I had more fun, girly dresses, but I’m always attracted to darker, simple silhouettes at the store.

Dress and cardi from H&M, Spanx tights from Kaleidoscope, boots from Carrefour in Murcia Spain seven years ago, Urban Outfitters hat, Ann Klein watch.

The outfit below is basically my fallback look for fall/spring weekends – skinny pants, boots and my faux-leather bomber, which is slowly peeling apart – damn you H&M for your low quality, but brilliantly trendy clothes!

H&M faux-leather bomber jacket, Uniqlo plaid shirt, AA tank, Cheap Monday cords and Naturalizer boots.

My typical hair routine is pretty boring (and not as low maintenance as I would like). I wash my hair every other day. On the days I wash my hair, I blow dry it straight-ish – on rare occasions I’ll whip out the straight irons – and on the non-wash days I usually create a sally and pull it up into a pony tail or leave it down.

Last Friday, inspired by Alexandar Wang’s Spring RTW hairstyles, I decided to try something new: The Sideways Braid.

Side Note: Sorry for the crummy photos. Lar is out of town, snow-shoeing north of Seattle or something, and I can’t figure out how to work the remote control/timer thing-a-ma-gig on her fancy camera.

The inspiration:

Now looking at the Alexander Wang runway photos again, I should have swept my hair down the front a bit more – and found a hair piece or something that would have given me a longer braid. But it already took me 10 minutes to get the braid angled right so I’m glad I didn’t fiddle with it any more than I did.

Ultimately my casual Friday outfit consisted of Alexander Wang-ish hair and a very un-Alexander-Wang-ish outfit: American Apparel oxford button-up, H&M cardi and belt.

I have to admit that I’ll probably keep this hairstyle for the weekends instead of a work day. The side braid has a tendency to want to slip apart during the day so I found myself re-braiding in between meetings to make sure the look was pulled together enough.

PS: I found this blurb on the Huff Po about the popularity of the Alexander Wang braids. According to the runway show’s hairstylist, the braids are popular because they’re “attainable” by the, uh, average woman. Harumph. I guess I just proved that.

I love seeing all the glittery-ness and jewel tones in magazines and catalogs this time of year. J.Crew features its sequin scarves and blazers, Urban Outfitters has hipsters decked out in satin, shimmery dresses and Sephora ads are packed with glittery eye shadows.

If I had the money, I’d be running around town wearing a sequin blazer over a dark teal satin dress and sparkly heels. Instead, I’m making do with what I have, starting with jewelry. Here are the items I wore on Thanksgiving:

Left to right: my “gold” Bitten ring that got bent at some point (it was only $6 so I can’t complain), thrifted “gold” bracelet with a burgundy velvet ribbon my mom used as a napkin ring strung through it, and and thrifted tassle necklace that I don’t wear often enough.

I’d really love to add even more sparkle for my Christmas party outfits. If I have time between all the gift shopping and work, maybe I can squeeze in a sequin/studded diy project somewhere.

It’s 1 a.m. as I’m writing this so that makes it officially Thanksgiving day. I love this time of year – especially the weekend after Thanksgiving because that’s the official start of the holidays for me. This Sunday I’ll be taking out my faux-aluminum Christmas tree and Christmas lights and trying to make our apartment as winter-wonder-land-y as possible.

This week I’ve been wearing clothing that helps me get into the holiday spirit. Exhibit A, red coat:

Drinking my first peppermint mocha of the season. Sooooo delicious. Tuelle wool coat, scarf – a gift from Italy, H&M black pencil skirt, and nude pumps from Eviva.

You can’t tell in the photo above, but I’m wearing a black turtle neck with the skirt. Since Lar and I are having company stay with us this week I switched my pencil skirt out for black leggings after work and cleaned like a mad woman for a couple of hours – only stopping to take an impromptu, Audrey Hepburn-inspired pose. I wonder if Audrey had also just finished scrubbing the kitchen sink right before she took this photo.

My cleaning outfit: H&M turtleneck, AA leggings, and Salvatore Ferragamo oxfords from Ebay. Seeing as there was no H&M nor American Apparel in Audrey’s day and given the fact that she was a famous movie star, I can only guess that her outfit is Givenchy or something equally as glamorous.

I’m thinking about wearing leggings today for all the eating I have in store. Hooray for elastic waistbands!

Hope you all are having a wonderful Thanksgiving – and a happy Thursday to all you non-United States-ians!