Category Archives: Miscellaneous

13 May 2013

I Won a Phillip Lim Bag!

Apart from a purple iMac in high school, this bag is by far the nicest thing I’ve ever won – ever! If you follow AsianCajuns on Twitter, Vine or Instagram – or if you’ve seen me this past week at all – you probably already know about this. Seriously, ever since this beautiful bag was shipped to my house, it hasn’t left my sight and if anyone comments on it, I blurt out, “It’saPhillipLimbag! Iwonit!!!!!” It’s buttery soft and super versatile.

New York & Co cardi • Michael Stars shirt • J Brand pants • Mia clogs • 3.1 Phillip Lim bag

Marc by Marc Jacobs sunnies • Target blazer • H&M V-neck • necklace from Sq/Ft • The Limited skirt • TOMs wedges

Fab’rik cardi • American Apparel V-neck • necklace from Mingei World Arts • The Limited skirt • heels from Kohl’s

H&M jacket • Forever21 top • Club Monaco skirt • Mettle necklace • BCBG heels

So how did I get so lucky? I took part in a Keep.com contest a few weeks ago where I created a spring inspiration board around the Phillip Lim bag. I entitled it Spring is Bright! and posted everything that I would purchase for the spring if I had all the money in the world. The board is all about neutrals with pops of color. See the whole board here. Are you on Keep? If so, follow me and I’ll follow you back! If not, get on it already!

If you do happen to have all the money in the world, or at least $750 to spend on a bag, you can purchase it here on Shopbop.com.

I feel like now that I have a Phillip Lim bag, the designer and I are basically on a first name basis 🙂 And yes, I have a cellphone charm!

On an unrelated note, I spent Friday evening on a Google hangout hosted by Snapshop Fashion and Seven Autumn Leaves – it was so much fun! You can watch the hangout here.

Also, check out Pocket of Presh’s coverage on last week’s Rent the Runway event at the W in Buckhead that I attended. It was so great to see so many Atlanta style bloggers!

Have you ever used Rent the Runway? I’m thinking about renting a dress for an upcoming wedding. I’ll keep you all posted!

_____________________

Dearest Lar,

I wish you could see my new bag in person! My only complaint? It’s so large that now I have an excuse to put everything but the kitchen sink in my purse. The other day it got so heavy that it left a giant indentation on my arm! I know, I know, first world problems.

I’m so glad we got to Skype twice this weekend. It always makes my day so much better when I get to “see” you!

xoxo, Cath

Category: Cath's Style

18 Comments

29 April 2013

A Short Trip to Denver

Cath

Troy and I flew out to Denver for a few nights last week for his cousin’s wedding. It was nice to take a mini vacation and get away from work and school for a little bit.

It’s all about the outdoors in Denver, but being a self-proclaimed city girl I love grabbing a map and exploring downtowns. We spent a long day in Boulder and the other three days bouncing around Denver.Usually before I visit a city I read up on it and make notes on all the places I want to go. I’m a planner. Troy is the complete opposite – he’ll talk to anyone and everyone. So, this trip, we got a lot of great tips from the locals. Combined, our different travel techniques usually make for an awesome vacation.

Below are some of our vacation highlights (note that we don’t have any photos from our last day in Denver because it snowed all day – not a highlight).

I love all of the independent shops in Atlanta, so that’s exactly what I look for when I travel to other cities. The candy and soda shop we visited was on Pearl Street in Boulder. Troy and I agreed that the next time we go out to Colorado, we want to spend a few nights in Boulder. It has a college town vibe, but it’s bigger than Athens, GA and a bit more polished. The other two shops in the photos were in the Highland neighborhood of Denver: Starlet and The Perfect Petal.

For this trip we left Toby with my parents and Wheatie with our friends, Alison and Greg (thank you guys!). We always miss our dogs so much that whenever we’re on a trip, we will run up to any dog we see on the street and pet it – not the smartest thing to do. Luckily Denver and Boulder are filled with dog lovers and dog owners. The owner of the pup in the first photo was giving out treats to strangers to help socialize her dog – he loved ~~the treats we gave him~~ us!

About 85% of all our trips – no matter where we go – are focused on food. Whether it’s eating delicious food, talking about food, planning out where we’re going to get our next meal, our main focus is food. Food, food, food, food, food. We love food, we love alcohol and we love food and alcohol together. How are we not both 400 pounds? Well, we try to cut back on eating when we’re not traveling – more on that in a few weeks (read: I’m going on a juice cleanse soon). From top to bottom, the food photos are from Oak at Fourteenth (our absolute favorite restaurant in Boulder), Uncle (Denver’s version of Momofuku) and True Food Kitchen (delicious, low-inflammatory food).

Other restaurants that we visited:

Colt and Gray: Troy and I stumbled upon this restaurant last year and have been dreaming about our drinks and meal there ever since. This year, we landed in Denver at 8 p.m. and were sitting at the Colt and Gray bar by 9:30 p.m. The bartender, Kevin, is fantastic and was the one who told us to try Oak at Fourteenth in Boulder.
Pizzeria Locale: a sophisticated, hipster-ish neopolitan style pizza place. Think gray walls, lots of subway tile, blown up photos of Italy and gorgeous fresh flowers. . . oh and the pizza is yummy.
Abo’s Pizza: What this pizza chain lacks in decor, it makes up for with its perfectly, thin-crust pizza.
Jack n Grill: Largest. Most delicious. Breakfast burrito. Ever.

Marc by Marc Jacobs sunglass • H&M faux fur stole • Etsy jacket (unfortunately the Etsy shop no longer exists) • Derek Lam for Kohls dress • Frye boots

The wedding was at Red Rocks, an amazing outdoor concert venue. All of the Denver natives at the wedding were fine in one layer of clothing, but I had to bundle up. I switched into heels for the indoor reception and totally forgot to take a full outfit photo of my Derek Lam dress – fashion blogger fail!

Penfield shirt • Gap jean • Longchamp bag • TOMs flats

I packed pretty light for the trip: 2 pairs of jeans, 3 v-necks, 1 button-up, 1 dress, 1 pair of boots (I wore on the plane), 1 pair of TOMs, 1 pair of heels, 1 fur stole, and 1 light-weight coat.

We’ve lucked out that for the past two years we’ve had a good excuse to travel to Denver. I hope it won’t be long before we visit again!

________________________________
Dearest Lar,

I’m a little envious that you and Matt were in France the same time we were in Colorado, but that jealousy is lessened by the fact that Denver is such a great city. I think if you had been my travel partner, I would have done less eating and more shopping. There were tons of items at Starlet that you would have loved. When it started snowing on the last day of our trip, I would start to complain and then remember that you’ve been dealing with the same type weather for six months. At least the next trip we’re all go on will be sunny, beautiful Italy!

Love you! xoxo, Cath

Category: Cath's Style, Experiences

17 Comments

22 April 2013

Temporary Nesting

Lar

Apart from missing family and friends, the hardest thing about living overseas is not being able to roost. I’ve always wanted to be one of those people that can live years out of a suitcase: nomadic and unattached to material possessions. But I’m a certified homebody. Ironically I haven’t had a place to put down roots in a long while. I’ve lived in a different flat or house every year for the past 10 years — two different flats in Edinburgh in 19 months — and it makes me antsy. The only way to combat that ruffled feather feeling is by nesting — no matter how temporary.

The flat we live in now is a teeny, inexpensive, brown-carpeted student flat right in the middle of town (our old flat was a bit more grown-up, but too cold). We rarely buy things for our temporary home because we save our extra cash for travel (as you read this, Matt and I are wondering around Bordeaux). But bare walls make my skin itch. So I made a few bits and bobs for the walls, covered my books (for the third time: here’s the first time and second time) and bought an azalea topiary that I hope I don’t kill.

Total budget for temporary nesting? Under $100. Here are the bits and bobs I use to cover up my naked walls:

The Lay of the Land

Now this next bit is mainly for Cath and might bore the socks of you guys. Ever since we were tots, Cath and I loved looking at floor plans. When we were old enough, we used to buy those magazines/books that had nothing but floor plans after floor plans in them. Isn’t that what all cool 13 year olds do?

And it wasn’t just voyeuristic floor plan ogling, whenever we stayed some place new (a B&B or friend’s house) Cath and I would record our new spaces by sketching up the floor plan. I think it was another way that we handled being away from our nests — a way of feeling in control of a new environment. Seriously, we are the poster girls for homebodies.

So this is a quick sketch for Cath to feel like she knows what I’m about day-in and day-out in Edinburgh — or at least get a sense of the space I inhabit thousands of miles away:

It’s not NYC or Hong Kong teeny, but it’s quite small for this city of Victorian proportioned tenements.

So tell me, are you guys nesters? Have you ever been nomadic and craved more roots, or vice versa?

—-

Dear Cath,

I can’t believe that we are even further apart this weekend. Denver and Bordeaux are roughly 5,000 (FIVE THOUSAND?!) miles apart. I can totally tell too — there’s more of a tug. No me gusta. I will drown my sorrows in wine — oh wait, I’m not drinking. Gah! Croissants? Nope those are not gluten free. I’ll just have to make do feeding my eyeballs with French architecture and pretend you are looking at somewhere similar? Bordeaux and Denver are a lot alike — said nobody ever. Wah wah.

Probably by the time you read this, we’ll be wrapping up our last evening in Bordeaux and you’ll be wrapping up your wedding weekend. I hope you and Troy are having a wonderful time. Tell me all about it.

Love and Wine-fumed kisses,

Lar

Category: Lar's Style

16 Comments

15 April 2013

In Between Workdays

Cath

Hello lovelies! First things first, thank you for your feedback from the last post. Just because we’ll be posting once a week doesn’t mean we’ll be any less dedicated to AsianCajuns. In fact, you’ll be seeing us more on other outlets like Facebook, Twitter and Instagram. And keep in mind, we’re just testing things out and feedback is always welcome!

So, I haven’t had a lot of free time this spring and feel like I’ve spent the past few weeks either working or studying. But looking back through my photos on my iPhone and point and shoot, I realized that I haven’t been as deprived of breaks and fun things as I made myself to believe.

For example? I’ve been to two Hawks games in the past three weeks, which is a record for me considering I’d never been to a NBA game before.
Hawks_game

Lar and I aren’t sporty people (we always hated gym class), but watching a basketball game live is so much fun! Plus, all of those sport/Olympics-inspired Vogue editorials, like the one below, have warmed me up to sports a bit.

I was in Mingei, one of my favorite local boutiques, the other day and fell in love with these pom pom necklaces from Thailand. I ended up getting the mauve colored one all the way to the right. It reminds me of this summery JADEtribe straw tote.

Last Monday I took a few hours off of work to go to K. Logan Hair Salon and get a gloss treatment and blow-out. I’m totally in love with the glossiness. It lasts for a few weeks and I feel like a Pantene commercial model. See my front curly-dos? Akia, the salon owner, created those with a hair straightener. Amazing, no? She said she’ll be hosting a class soon on how to create those curls yourself so I’ll let you know as soon as a date is set – for you local readers.

On Saturday, I hung out with some friends and listened to Troy play in downtown Decatur for Sidewalk Saturdays. Doesn’t he look so dashing? I have a couple of Vine videos of his songs so if you have an iPhone, follow me at AsianCajuns.

Nothing beats a work-break like hot, gooey chocolate chip cookies sprinkled with sea salt (the ones above are from Victory in Decatur). Kind of wishing I had a whole plateful of those in front of me right now!

After compiling this post I’m thinking I should get the Refinery 29 tote. What do you think? Hope you all had a wonderful weekend. Let me know what you’ve been up to!

________________

Dear Lar,

I hope you have a little more free time now that your stressful work week is in the past. You know how we were chatting about the Brit’s obsession with tea and cake? I was thinking you should start an herbal tea and gluten-free cake club in Edinburgh! I know it sounds a bit silly, but I’m sure you’re not the only one eating gluten free in Auld Reekie. Just a thought 😉

Here’s another random thought, Before Midnight is coming out this summer and the trailer is finally here! What do you think? I can’t wait to see it, but I also would rather just wait and see it with you. If you were in town we could have a Before Sunrise/Sunset/Midnight day and watch all three in a row. Wouldn’t that be wonderful?

Hope you have a stress-free week and can treat yourself to some gluten-free yummies!

xoxo, Cath

Category: Cath's Style, Decatur/Atlanta

10 Comments

12 April 2013

We’re Gonna Try Something New

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)

Category: General AsianCajuns Info

13 Comments

8 April 2013

Derek Lam for DesigNation at Kohl’s

Cath

I headed over to my nearby Kohl’s after work last Friday to check out the newly released Derek Lam collab. I’d been looking forward to this collaboration for a while since I’ve always loved the clean lines and Americanness of Lam’s designs (you can see his Fall Ready to Wear collection here). While I still think the ongoing Simply Vera line is still Kohl’s strongest designer collab, I loved the colors and easy fits of the Derek Lam DesigNation collection.

Derek Lam for Kohls

I first tried on the striped drop-waist dress because I’m always on the hunt for machine washable, jersey dresses that look pulled together enough to wear to work. The fit was a little tight on the bottom half, but that’s probably more due to my shape than the cut – at least it looks more relaxed on the model online. If I had had more time, I would have tried a larger size. I might go back and try it out when the prices have even been cut down more.

I tried on two of the pants that were at the store, the pleated crepe crop pants and the crop pants in Nightshade. I loved the fit of the pleated crop pants and almost brought them home with me, but I only had enough money for one item. The colorful crop pants didn’t fit nearly as well and actually hit below my ankle (I’m 5’3″ on a good day) so they looked more like high-water pants than cropped pants.

What did I end up buying? This bubble-hem dress in St. Teresa Atlantic:

I love how comfortable this dress is. I’ll be able to wear it to work if I belt it and pair it with a blazer and pumps and I can dress it down in the summer with flat, strappy sandals. The main reason I decided on the dress instead of the crepe pants was because I’ll be able to wear it to the two weddings that I have to go to this spring (expect a future blog post on that).

A lot of the pieces that I wanted to try on, like this chambray jacket and this tank, weren’t at the store. If the prices drop even more, I might save up some money and purchase those items online even if I can’t try them on.

Have you checked out the line yet? What are your thoughts? I’ll be keeping an eye on the collection online since Kohl’s usually has great sales.

______________________________

Dearest Lar,

Too bad the Rhianna’s collaboration with River Island isn’t as cheap as the Kohl’s and Target collections! I know you said you weren’t crazy about the Rhianna line, but I bet you’d like the Derek Lam collaboration. There’s a mesh top and skirt in the collection online that I could totally see you wearing. Let me know if you want anything and I’ll ship it to you – something tells me Kohl’s doesn’t ship internationally.

I hope your week ends up being less stressful than you anticipate. Can’t wait to Skype you again next weekend!

xoxo, Cath

Category: Cath's Style

10 Comments

5 April 2013

TGIF Link Love

Cath

Clockwise from the top: 1 / 2 / 3 / 4

Happy Friday! I’m keeping it simple today with some black and white inspiration (above) and a few links (below). What are you up to this weekend? I’ve got a lot of work and school work to do unfortunately, but Troy and I are going back to the General Muir and I can’t wait!

• Kate Mid is in Scotland this week (has she stopped by your flat for tea, Lar?) and naturally she wore a plaid coat.

• Life is Gouda – such a cute desktop wallpaper. Oh, and here’s another awesome wallpaper.

• Maddie was in Decatur this week! I wish I had gotten to see her in person.

• The perfect summer sandal.

• Have you heard about this? I can’t even imagine Lar and I being separated at birth.

• Love Audrey Hepburn’s ping pong style.

Category: TGIF Link Love

2 Comments

3 April 2013

Would You Wear A Baseball Cap?

Lar

There are some girls who can rock the sporty look, but I’ve never been one of them. Most likely because I’m afraid of spherical objects hurtling toward me (George-Michael Bluth back-turn anyone? That’s how I respond to a game of catch). So I’ve always shunned hats that relate to athletics and kinda associated them with suburban dads-wear — not usually a look I go for either.

And then Acne put their models in unbranded black caps a few seasons ago and this season J.Crew topped off their embroidered work-wear with one. So back in the summer I bought a cheapie version and pulled it out for the first time while I was traipsing around propaganda architecture in Munich.

What do you guys think? Baseball cap fans or no? I haven’t worked up the gumption to wear mine indoors yet (I kind of feel silly and like I have blinders on) or at work, but it’s handy outdoors with our rainy/snowy Scottish spring.

——–

Dear Cath,

Remember we bought those together? Have you worn yours yet? We should do a twin take and I promise to wear something more interesting than my puffer coat and Cos boots! We should do it soon because, blink, and you will be in the middle of too-hot-for-hats Atlanta spring/summer. I don’t even remember what that feels like any more: thick, humid, pea-soup air. Maybe you need a nice cool break in Edinburgh, huh? I promise cool weather in the middle of July!

xoxoxox,

Lar

p.s. Remember how we used to make fun of the guys in high school who wore perfectly molded baseball caps? I eat my words, 17-year old self!

Category: Lar's Style

8 Comments

31 March 2013

A Perfect Saturday

Cath

Does that title sound too saccharine? Apologies if it does. My Saturday wasn’t pink princess/magic unicorns/rainbows perfect – I did have a meltdown for about an hour in the afternoon – but it was all around a pretty great, perfectly lovely Saturday.

One of the main reasons it was a perfect Saturday: it was warm enough outside for me to go frolicking about in a t-shirt without a jacket (recognize the t-shirt design?).

Hipster dog t-shirt c/o Skip N’ Whistle • The Limited skirt (ancient) • Feiyue sneakers • Claire Vivier Messenger Bag • Marc by Marc Jacobs cat eye sunnies • Nail color is Butter London Jasper c/o Buff in Inman Park

Because of the warm weather I didn’t have to blow dry my hair. Instead, I slicked it back into a braid clump. . . thing. . . I’ve got to think of a better name for this hair style. . .

Troy and I slept in so late that we had to call around and see who was still serving breakfast. Huzzah for Oakhurst Market! Troy begged them to make us two breakfast sandwiches even though it was well past breakfast/brunch time. So our first real activity of the day consisted of us walking the dogs over to the market, sitting outside and stuffing our faces with croissant, cheese, bacon and egg deliciousness.

Next up: taking the dogs to the dog park. Somehow taking the dogs to the park makes us feel like we’re good, responsible dog owners – and then we feel like complete failures when our dogs won’t go play with the other dogs and just prefer to hang out near us.

Not pictured here is our second half of the day (except for this IG). We ended the evening with a trip to the General Muir, a local delicatessen/restaurant that is amazing! Troy and I must have spent at least three hours there chatting up the bartender, ordering drinks and munching on so much food that we had to roll ourselves back to our car. Needless to say, our walk to and from the dog park and market in the morning was not nearly enough to balance out the thousands of calories we consumed at dinner, but it was worth it. If you live in or near Atlanta and haven’t been to the General Muir, what are you thinking?!?! Get over there now! I wish someone had told me how amazing it was weeks ago (it’s only been open for about a month or two)!

_________________________

Dearest Lar,

I can’t decide at which moment I missed you the most on Saturday. It was either during my trip to General Muir because I know how much you would have loved the atmosphere and amazing food (four words: homemade ice cream sandwiches) or maybe it was during my meltdown. I think you would have been able to talk some sense into me during my, uh, minor temper tantrum. Do you want to know what it was about? It’s actually embarrassing to type it out. I spent an hour pouting because Troy pointed out that we wouldn’t have enough time that evening to do everything we wanted/needed to do and also go to Old Navy. Yes, I wanted to go to Old Navy – don’t judge. There are a couple of things I’ve seen online that I’ve wanted to try in person and figured I’d have plenty of time to make a trip out to the store on Saturday. When I realized I wasn’t going to be able to do so, I did what every 29 year old does, I pouted – like a little brat. If you had been around you would have been able to talk some sense into me – or maybe you would have just whisked me away to Old Navy. *sigh* we’ll never know! Either way, it was definitely not one of my proudest moments.

I’m so glad we all got to talk as a family on Easter and you got to virtually knock eggs with us. Perhaps we’ll all be living closer to each other by next Easter? I hope so!

xoxo, Cath

Category: Cath's Style, Decatur/Atlanta

20 Comments

28 March 2013

What To Do In Munich

Lar

I highly, highly recommend putting Munich on your to-see list. It wasn’t on mine, but two of our besties live in Munich so we thought “what the hey.” Now I’m a big fan. Here’s why:

• Everyone is uber friendly (and speaks English far more fluently than me — darn these multi-lingual Europeans!)

• It’s the cleanest city I’ve ever been in

• The public transportation is dreamy! It goes everywhere, isn’t massively expensive and is also uber clean

• The bakeries. The. Bakeries. So delicious. I think I much prefer them to any french bakeries I tried in Paris last year. My new favorite? The pretzel croissant: a bit of the heft and salt of a pretzel mixed with the lighter fluff (but not too much butter) of a croissant

• Roughly a million art museums

• If you are a beer fan, it’s just as cheap as drinking bottled water

• Beautiful architecture that looks strangely much more Italian (baroque) than stereotypical Bavarian — and all these buildings are awash in subtle pastels: minty green, blushing pink, buttercup yellow.

Let us know if you have been, lovely readers! And what do you like (or dislike) about Munich. How does it compare to Berlin? I’ve always fancied a trip there too.

——

Dear Cath,

Seriously, your kind of city: clean, orderly, amazing public transport, beautiful and noooo cockroaches! What more could you ask for? We should brush up on our German — not because we would need it there, but to feel better about ourselves whenever you run into a German who speaks English, French and Mandarin fluently (fist shake).

If I could, I would air mail you a pretzel croissant in an instant! So many reasons why we really need a teleportation device. Argh.

Miss you oooooodles!

Category: Experiences, Lar's Style

26 Comments