Hope you all are having a wonderful day with friends and family. We’re celebrating the all-American way – a day early. . . in Scotland with friends, lots of food, and no football 🙂 How are you celebrating?

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Tomorrow I’ll be on a plane heading to Scotland to see my wonderful sister. Last time we were together was in Italy this past August (see photo above), but it was shortly after Lar’s surgery and we didn’t get a chance to hang out much.

These next six days are going to be filled with so much sister time/AsianCajuns amazingness and I can’t wait to share the pictures with you all. We won’t have much internet access, but don’t worry, I’ve already scheduled a couple of posts ahead of time – including a giveaway.

I also plan on stealing my brother-in-law’s cell phone during my trip so I can update my Instagram daily while in Scotland.

I don’t usually like to advertise the fact that I’m a romantic at heart. The aversion probably stems from the eye-rolls I get when I say I like romantic comedies (French Kiss, Notting Hill, You’ve Got Mail are just a few favorites) or when I talk about my love of Jane Austen novels and people who don’t get Austen’s writing dismiss it as literary, romantic fluff. Well, enough is enough! I’m owning up to it and proud of it. I’m a romantic!

So when DUO Boots put a call out to bloggers to write about their favorite love story, while also tying in their new line of boots, I thought, “Challenge accepted!”

My favorite love story? Does it get more romantic than Elizabeth Bennet and Mr. Darcy in Pride and Prejudice?! I think not. And I know I’m not alone since I have so many friends who are as obsessed with the story as much as I am. Also, a Google search of “Pride and Prejudice” brings up 28.9 million results.

It’s my favorite love story because the love between Elizabeth and Darcy is based on respect and kindness. And here’s where I’ll redeem myself for you non-romantics. The respect and kindness doesn’t come from some lovey, dovey courtship, but a whole mess of misunderstandings that stem from – wait for it – pride and prejudice. The story is so good that it’s been rewritten millions of times – Bridget Jones, You’ve Got Mail, and Lost in Austen are just some of the most recent renditions.

Needless to say, Elizabeth Bennet is one of my all-time favorite heroines. My obsession with Pride and Prejudice started in high school and I remember attempting to be more like Elizabeth – confident, smart-witted, optimistic, and able to laugh at herself.  I also tried to dress like an updated version of her. It wasn’t as nerdy as it sounds since I was pretty subtle about it. I still remember a fitted, cropped, long-sleeve sweater from Anthropologie that I wore all the time (over a long shirt, thank you very much) because it was reminiscent of something a Jane Austen heroine would wear.  Ok, it was bad. How did I even have friends in high school?!

But now I have a chance to redeem myself. Here’s a lovely, current-day outfit that I think is very Elizabeth Bennet – including a pair of DUO boots:

Modcloth Sketched Exhibit Dress • Club Monaco postcard set • Madewell duffle bucket bag • Topshop coat • Gorjana Vine necklace • DUO Flore tall boots

Couldn’t you image Elizabeth Bennet in 2013 walking about the English countryside in a pair of knee-high boots and 3/4 length coat, or writing a postcard to her sister Jane? Trust me, this is much better than my cropped sweater outfit from high school.

Don’t leave me hanging here, dear readers. Are you a romantic? Are you a fan of Pride and Prejudice? If you’re a blogger, you have until Friday to enter DUO’s contest. See the details here and let me know if you enter. I’d love to read about your favorite love story!

_______________________

Dearest Lar,

Do you remember the sweater from high school? You had your own version of a cropped, long-sleeve sweater. It was cream and had large button snaps. I don’t know how I can remember that and then have no memory of what I wore yesterday.

DUO is based in the UK so maybe you’ve heard about them before. I love these images on their Facebook page that were taken in Edinburgh:

Pretty cool, no? Looking at these photos somehow makes me feel closer to you – and soon I will be! Reunion in Scotland in 14 days!!!

xoxo, Cath

Hope you all have a wonderful and safe Halloween!

I didn’t get it together enough to figure out a Halloween costume, but I’ll be passing out candy in my neighborhood at my friend’s house tonight. Before then, I’m picking up a 2014 Toyota Corolla for a weekend adventure (follow me on Instagram – or wait for a future blog post – for details) and afterwards I’ll head over to the Brick Store where my friend will be playing a Wes Anderson DJ set – woohoo!

Some links to get into the holiday spirit:

• Love the chalkboard art image in this post? Check out the Lily & Val shop on Etsy.

• Lar dressed up as a good luck cat for a party this past weekend and spent $0 on making her costume!

• Make some delicious Blood-Orange cocktails this evening.

• Loving Google’s Halloween doodle.

• My two favorite Halloween films: Hocus Pocus and It’s the Great Pumpkin, Charlie Brown

• I’ll never get tired of seeing dogs dressed up in costumes.

Yep, Lar and I turn 30 today! I hate not being able to spend the day with her, but we’ll be celebrating together in Italy next month so I can’t complain.

In honor of the day, Lar and I put together a list of 30 things that we love:

1. Friends and family near and far
2. Traveling together – Seattle, New Orleans, Paris, Edinburgh
3. Our mom’s gumbo and Peking Duck
4. Skype and What’s App – it’s how we stay in touch!
5. Eating out with friends – there’s nothing better than good food and great company
6. Beach vacations – see: Ocean City and Tybee Island
7. Books – reading books, book festivals, book signings, book stores, book clubs
8. Jeeves and Wooster
10. The Wizard of Oz – our first favorite movie, we’ve amassed a large collection of Oz memorabilia
11. Art – history, museums, making it
12. David Hockney’s landscapes
13. Aunt Nancy’s almond cookies
14. All things British – we’re major Anglophiles
15. Jane Austen novels
16. Tea time – as in drinking cups of tea, not supper time
17. House museums
18. Wes Anderson films
19. Shopping at/ discovering local boutiques
20. Audrey Hepburn’s style – Lar’s take, Cath’s take
21. Meeting other bloggers
22. Dressing like twins
23. Trips to the Highlands – Scotland and North Carolina
24. Cake – chocolate for Lar, ice cream for Cath
25. Pretty things – we’re girly girls at heart and try to surround ourselves with beautiful things, even on a budget
26. TV shows: The West Wing, Gilmore Girls, Twin Peaks, Pushing Daisies, Arrested Development, Poirot, Luther
27. Ruth Bader Ginsburgh
28. Pink – the color
29. Drinks – White Russians (Lar), Old Fashions (Cath) and Hot Rum Cows
30. YOU, our reader!

 Photo credit: Andy J. Scott

Hello, dear readers! I don’t think we say write it enough here, but having you in our blogging lives makes us so incredibly happy. Reading your comments, “meeting” you through social media, or – even better – meeting you in real life is just the bee’s knees. So, if you’ve been following us via Google Reader we wanted to make sure that you know you can find us on Bloglovin’ once Google Reader goes to the big browser in the sky July 1st (sob!).

We’re big fans of Bloglovin – love the interface and are all about the fact that Bloglovin’ visits count as page views for us. We’ve also heard Feedly is a great option as well, but haven’t tried it yet. Drop us a line and let us know what you’ll be switching to.

Cheers,

Cath & Lar

April 26 is our AsianCajuns 5th birthday — yahoo! So what better time to shake things up?

If you guys are like us, you are reading fewer blogs and blog posts (we still love them though!) and spending more time on Facebook, Pinterest, Instagram, and Twitter. When we do go to our favorite blogs, it’s with less regularity. Instead of checking in daily, we visit less frequently but stick around longer to catch up on posts. Are you guys the same?

Anywhoddles, that got us thinking. We’d like to use our wee corner of the internet here on AsianCajuns to write well-crafted posts once a week — still about whatever strikes our fancy (you know the usual: twin stuffs, a bit of fashion, a good dose of travel and out-and-aboutness). In between posting, we’ll be sticking our link love on Facebook throughout the week, updating our Pinterest boards regularly, and Cath will be instagramming and tweeting away (I needs to get me an iphone!).

We want AsianCajuns here for when you want to sink your teeth into something meatier (more than 140 characters and not just photos of what we’re eating and buying). We’ll keep the snippity snacks on our social media sites and the main meal here.

Thank you guys for coming along with us these past five years: evolving with us and giving us a wonderful community online and in the real worlds. We hope you like these wee tweaks we’re making and continue to enjoy whichever bits of AsianCajuns you choose to visit with us.

xoxox,

Lar (and Cath)

Photo Credits 1 • 2 • 3 • 4 • 5 • 6

Apparently twins are trendy now because Marc Jacobs sent models down his Louis Vuitton runway in pairs. Phooey, I say. Twins are always in.

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Dear Cath,

Looking at these images makes me miss you so very, very much! I’m so jealous all these people get to sit/stand/walk next to their twinie. Do they know how good they have it?

Your Green-eyed Twin,

Lar