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