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Behind the scenes

Never in my wildest dreams did I think we would start our own company. Neither one of us are particularly entrepreneurial or big risk takers. However, learning to live with endometriosis, finding a way to help other people with painful periods, AND shine a light on the lack of research around women’s health and women’s pain — we are MO-TI-VATE-D.

We both work full time jobs in other industries, but we come home at night and hustle on Semaine because it feels right. It’s work, but it feels like important work that needs to happen and we want to make happen.

Oh and conservative Alabama representatives curbing women’s rights with your ignorant, misogynistic anti-abortion laws? You just make us work harder.

nyc-bts3

In two weeks, Matt and I are traveling down to Atlanta to meet up with Cath to Semaine it up! We have a photo shoot and video shoot lined up and we’ll get to meet some of our lovely beta testers. For the past couple of months we’ve asked women to give us feedback on Semaine and we can’t wait to talk to some of them in person.

Cath and I also take our Semaine supplements and have done so for almost a year now every time we have our period. We are the first guinea pigs and always plan to be every time we make any changes to our ingredients. Our biggest wish is that Semaine will reduce pain for others like it does for us AND our second biggest wish that it encourages pharma and medical industries to sit up and listen. Women’s pain should be taken seriously and investigated – not just get shelved by a bunch of men sitting on medical boards or running drug trials.

Our next dreamiest dream is to have Semaine launched by Fall/Winter 2019 — eek that’s soon! But before the dream comes the hustle, so we hustlin’. Let us know if you have any questions as we do the hustle shuffle.

nyc-bts6

 

Why hello there

Holyschmoly it’s been a minute! The longest hiatus Cath and I have ever taken from AsianCajuns since we started as a blogspot in 2007 (I just looked and our AsianCajuns birthday is April 26, 2007 — we are blogging tweeners!).

But what has been happening since 2017, you might (or might not) be asking. Life and things:

Cath is still in Atlanta, living in a lovely little rambler with her pups Toby (and her mantel was featured in Design Sponge recently — whhaaaat.). Matt and I are in Seattle in a one-bedroom apartment with roughly 30 plants. Our day jobs are a little more managerial (i.e. eat up more time than they used to): Cath is a director of economic development in local gov and I’m an art director at the University of Washington.

apartment-inspo

We’re still big Marie Kondo fans (though funnily enough, neither of us finished the Netflix series — we preferred her books) and try to live thoughtfully and minimally. Like the rest of the developed (and privileged) world, we aim to use less plastic these days and eat more green things.

Cath and I have lived in separate cities now for almost eight years and really hate that fact. One day, in the not too distant future, we plan to rectify that. We try to meet up a few times a year and most recently we were in NYC working on our side hustle.

nyc-asiancajuns

Speaking of our side hustle, it was born from our continued experience of living with endometriosis and realizing that we want, more than anything, to empower other women (and non cis-gendered people with periods) to demand better when we tell our docs we are experiencing pain. Enter, Semaine!

Semaine-health

We’re developing an anti-inflammatory supplement with Matt (he’s a biologist at the UW) to help people with painful periods.

AsianCajuns has always been a place for us to write about the things we are feeling passionate about whether that’s food, Atlanta, travel, style, minimalism or health and social justice. And even though blogging is less of a thing now (heyyyy instagram — we too old for the snappy chats), we want to get on here and natter away.

So hello again, interwebs! It’s good to see you again (from this strange, long-format platform that people maybe, kinda still use). Give us a shout if you still here with us!

Love,
Lar

 

 

Living with Less is a Luxury

(Above: our Aunt Nancy, grandfather and Dad in the mid-1940s in Chinatown D.C.)

Having the choice to live with less (paradoxically) is such a generous idea, don’t you think? Choosing to get rid of what you own because you have so much, is a luxury — a generous lifestyle of surplus. Cath and I have been so lucky to have always grown up with enough, and then some.

We’ve never been truly hungry or without basic comforts. And I do see the minimalist movement as something that people like us can easily do because we’ve always had enough and never had to go “without.”

Gratitude for the stuff you already have and love is a huge part to learning to live with less. But there is also gratitude for the whole concept: that we get to have this choice and it’s not one forced upon us by circumstance.

Growing up, Cath and I did not just have enough, we had more than enough. Part of this was because our dad grew up without very much. So not only was our kitchen always stocked with food, we also had an additional closet in our laundry room full of food too. Cath and I jokingly called our family’s linen closet a mini pharmacy because growing up, our dad would stockpile soap and toilet paper and shampoo whenever it was on super sale. When I was little, I remember being so confused when I was at a friend’s house and they ran out of paper towels — how was that possible? Where was their extra closet of back-up supplies?

Diddy1(Above: A family friend, our Dad doing his best Robert De Niro and our Aunt Nancy)

Our dad grew up in a small one bedroom apartment with his parents and five siblings in DC’s Chinatown. He’s never mentioned not having much, but we know he didn’t. And as we got older, Cath and I realized part of the reason why we had these extra reserves around the house was a direct result of not always having enough.

It’s so easy to get caught up in the current minimalist trend — capsule wardrobes, nothing superfluous, etc. —  but I think it’s always nice to be able to put lifestyle pursuits in perspective and realize how lucky we are to feel the freedom to live with less.

So whenever I’m bemoaning the fact that my closet isn’t perfectly monochromatic or my kitchen utensil drawer would make Marie Kondo blush, I remind myself how ridiculously lucky I am to make these choices. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you.

Slipper weather*

fall apple-cider robe slippers-sorel slipper-weather

Seattle is known for being rainy and grey, but last week we had beautiful weather. Crisp blue skies and just enough of a chill for a jacket and a warm mug of apple cider. But all the fall loveliness made me realise I was lacking two fall/winter essentials: a cozy robe and fluffy slippers.

I hopped onto Shopbop‘s site and immediately fell for this fleece robe (it has pom-poms!) and these warm faux shearling slippers. I spent all Saturday morning (and — ahem — afternoon) curled up on the couch wrapped in fuzziness. My hibernation skills are going to be on form this winter.

If the cooler weather has you dreaming of a new item or two for your closet, check out Shopbop’s Friends and Family sale. You get to take 25% off your order if you use the code INTHEFAM25. The sale runs from Midnight on Tuesday until Thursday at 11:59pm. Happy cozy-Fall shopping, everyone!

shopbopsale

*Disclaimer: this post promotes our sponsor Shopbop. By clicking on the ad on the right to make any purchases, Cath and I get a small fee — which will help us continue to grow AsianCajuns. Be ready for cha-cha-cha-changes in the near future!

Charleston

Charleston

“I refuse to accept the view that mankind is so tragically bound to the starless midnight of racism and war that the bright daybreak of peace and brotherhood can never become a reality . I believe that unarmed truth and unconditional love will have the final word.”

— Martin Luther King, Jr.

I’ve been feeling so sad since Wednesday night’s shootings. Maybe using a Dr. King quote seems like a cliche, but it made me feel hopeful even though the horrendous act committed in Charleston seems like such a destruction of that very progress MLK believed in. For a man that had seen so much evil and hate to still trust in a reality of love and brotherhood, is so immensely inspiring. As inspiring as the survivors forgiving a man that has caused so much pain to so many people.

See Ya 2014! Hello 2015!

Hello dear readers!

First of all, thank you for spending another year visiting with us! It’s hard to believe that AsianCajuns.com has been around since 2007 and you all have been such amazing, loyal readers. Thank you, thank you, thank you!

Things were a little slower this year on the blogging front. Lar spent a good chunk of the beginning of the year recovering from her surgery and I spent the last half of the year slammed with school work and stressing over being a new homeowner. You know how people always say they need a clone to get more things done? Well, I do too, but I have one! Lar has pretty much been running this site for the past 5 months and I’m so grateful for it. I have no idea how folks blog on their own. How do you do it without a twin?

Lar and I should be picking the pace back up in 2015. I’m only taking one class this semester and Lar is fully recovered and one of the healthiest people I know (seriously, she lives off of green juice). So all in all, we’re ready for the new year!*

AsianCajuns 2014 list

One of the best parts about 2014 was having Lar stateside for about a month in January. She and Matt were in Seattle for a few weeks right before her surgery. Troy and I got to visit them and finally introduced Lar to amazing sushi! Lar also came home for a visit in August, which was the last time we were together. Gah! Feels like years ago!

AsianCajuns together 2014

Now, let’s talk about food. We featured it a lot on this here blog in 2014. AsianCajuns has evolved from a fashion blog to a little-bit-of-everything-but-a-lot-of-food blog. How’s that for an elevator pitch? I want to add a bit more fashion/design back into the blog this year, but there will always be plenty of food pics, trust me!

AsianCajuns Eats 2014

I’m not an overly optimistic person, but I am looking forward to 2015. Buying a house and working my butt off in 2014 were both rewarding, but I’m ready to have a bit more fun. That being said. . .

*I’m starting 2015 like Lar did last year – with surgery. I know I briefly mentioned it before on here, but I don’t like going into detail because I’m not a big fan of feeling feelings and writing about emotional stuff (Lar is better at it than me). Long story short, I’m basically getting the same surgery as Lar did last year for Endometriosis. My case isn’t nearly as bad as her’s, but there’s a lot of unknowns. Basically the surgeon doesn’t know how bad off I am until I’m on the operating table. The good news is I have an amazing support system of friends and family in Atlanta and I feel really lucky about it all. I’m only mentioning the surgery because it might mean I won’t be blogging the first few weeks of 2015. Although I might try to take a stab at blogging a few days after surgery when I’m high as a kite on pain meds – could be entertaining!

I hope you all have some super fun plans for the evening (BTW, eating pizza with friends on the couch and watching the Times Square ball drop on TV does count as super fun in my book). Be safe and see you next year!

xoxo, Cath

This Week: KonMari Method and Curly Hair

St Giles
Lovely St. Giles on a blue-skied day in Edinburgh

Hi Cath!

I’m so sorry things have gone quiet on my end. As you know, outside of work, most of my brain power has been used on two things:

• Becoming a tidying disciple of this book

• Figuring out what to do with my “new” curly hair

Those must seem like luxuries to you as busy as you are: full-time work, two work-heavy classes at night, saving for your surgery, taking care of your pups and your fam, your new house, going to the gym. I seriously don’t know how you do it.

Since I only do about 32% of what you do, I’ve had time to throw myself into Marie Kondo’s method of discarding and then arranging your house AND watch endless Youtube videos on what to do with wavy/curly hair.

I will write a proper post all about Marie Kondo’s book, but in the meantime here is a sneak peak before and after:

KonMari method

And here’s what my hair looks like most mornings after I’ve slept on it (photo does not show copious amounts of frizz) — Sorry about the weird glow on my face. That would be my sun lamp:

Wavy curly hair

Sara and I tried out Heads and Tales gin bar the other night. Mine is the pink cocktail which was smoked grapefruit and gin. The “smoke” came from a few squirts of peaty whisky around the rim of the glass — and you know how much I love my peaty whisky!

Heads and Tales

After tidying all weekend, we did take one break to go to our favourite new local café called Milk. Our favourite is their rosemary egg and mushroom burrito served with wild rice and a chopped cabbage salad:

Milk Edinburgh

Apologies for the state of most of these photos. I’m home mainly when it is pitch-black outside (the sun rises around 9 am and sets before 4 pm). I’ll do a proper post on the KonMari method if you want to see all the changes it’s made (I know I sound like I’ve drunk the kool aid — I totally have).

Hope the week is treating you well and cutting you some slack.

Love,
Lar

 

Sometimes Edinburgh feels like Italy

lunch al fresco

Dear Cath

You know how I was just bemoaning the fact that Edinburgh can be so miserably oppressive in the winter? Well, the last few weeks have been amazing. I mean, it rains a lot and we have gray days, but it’s not been cruel, ruthlessly windy and cold. And it’s the end of October!

In fact today is windy and rainy, but it’s warm-ish. And it feels wooonderful. And last weekend we actually sat outside in the sun for lunch. Our first summer in Scotland we couldn’t do that once. In summer.

Matt and I have been even more wary of this approaching winter because we won’t have our usual reprieve in Atlanta for Christmas. I don’t like thinking about not being together, but my fingers and toes are crossed that this will be the first and last time we spend the holidays apart. And in the meantime I’m sorry you’ll have to hear me give you constant Scottish weather reports.

Winter closing in isn’t all bad though. I love the drama of the light at this time of the year. As the sun makes it’s slow descent, the angle of the light is so intense. Yesterday I went strolling through Princes Street Gardens and up Castle rock just as the sun was setting behind the castle. Soon that will be happening at around 2:30 or 3pm, but for now it’s still at a reasonable 5:30pm and looks beautiful.

tree train edinburgh fall light

I hope you are having a wonderful weekend and are getting a touch of autumn in Atlanta. Can’t wait to chat later today!

xoxoxox,

Lar

 

 

Today

Edinburgh sky

Dear Cath,

I took this waiting at my bus stop after work this evening. Bus rides are bumpy and irritable in Edinburgh — all cobblestones and constant road works. But I followed the sunset home. It was just dipping below the horizon as we turned onto York Place and everything it touched was daubed in gold.

Love you,

Lar

p.s. Still plowing through that Marx bio (my Kindle says I’m only 43% of the way through. Liar.). I learned today that Marx’s uncle, who repeatedly denied his nephew much-needed financial relief, was the founder of the company that would become Philips Electronics. An irascible, not-too-fond-of-Marx 19th century Dutch man. One degree of separation between the Communist Manifesto and an electronic shaver. Heh!

 

Winter is coming, but not if I can help it

Edinburgh-castle-fall

Dear Cath (and readers!)

Holy schmoly it’s been weeks! I’m so sorry so much time has gone by and I haven’t posted diddly-squoo. And, no, you should not have been posting. As I’ve mentioned in emails, your life is about 15 times (that’s a conservative estimate) more busy and stressful and more social butterfly-full than mine is.

My only excuse is blind panic. My brain has, fairly dramatically, switched into winter-is-coming mode. The sunlight has perceptively shifted and we are on the speedy downward tilt toward winter. Days where the sun barely peeps over the horizon and even then it’s away again in five hours. The darkness is coming. Nooooooo.

Princes Street Gardens dusk

I keep trying to deny it, but my brain chemistry won’t be fooled. Already I feel more inclined to huddle under blankets and watch Netflix all day while I bat away those annoying gnats of Darkness, Gloom, Sunlight-is-dead buzzing around my head.

Always my first course of action is denial (aka binge Netflix watching). But this year, Matt and I are trying something new . The Gym.

I know you’re like an amazing working-out-er now, Cath. You wake up at 6am and go to the Y and lift weights. You do like four classes of Jazzercise on the weekend (and work full time and go to school practically full time). So very inspiring!

Before joining The Gym (has to have caps because it feels momentous and still a strange thing) all I did was jump on my mini trampoline (oops, I mean rebounder!) for 10 minutes and then did some downward dogging. I was/am intimidated by The Gym. All those people running and stepping and moving their arms on these clunky, mean looking grey machines.

You know why else I’m intimidated? The playground. Remember how when we were little and didn’t like to share the playground with other kids (we were extremely shy)? That’s how I feel about the gym. I get intimidated by all those people moving in athletic ways and it totally makes me want to retreat to the park bench/corner-by-the-lockers.

But I’ve been pushing myself to do things, even with other kids on the playground, because of the SAD brain. It needs all the help it can get.

YES-independence

Matt sent me this great article from the Nytimes about how exercise helps depression. I know we’ve heard that before but these scientist at a university in Sweden did some studies on mice (poor guys) and tried to tease out what exactly was happening in their brain chemistry.

How do they know when mice are depressed? They give up trying to get out of the cold water maze. They just sit there. That’s me! During a Scottish winter! Getting colder and more depressed.

And apparently, what happens when the rats exercise is they produce an enzyme called PGC-1alpha1 that makes these guards that combat this mean substance called Kynurenine which basically inflames your brain and leads to depression (and is caused by repeated stress). So the no-longer depressed mice fight through the maze and start caring about eating their sugar water again. Happy ending, phew!

So even though I still feel like an alien in the gym, I just keep thinking I’m calling up my PGC-1alpha1 guards. And I do actually think it might be working. “Kill those #%$@ing Kynurenine dead, PGC-1alpha1s!” Its a mouthful of a mantra, but whatever works against the cold water maze of a Scottish winter is good.

Lar one for one

And I can tell it must be working because I feel like doing (slightly) more than just watching Netflix during my free time. I’ve even (overly-ambitiously) started five books. Three of which I plan to finish! Maybe. Okay two. One’s our Women in Clothes (aren’t you loving it?!) and I will finish that. Two is a biography on Marx and his wife Jenny (probably won’t make it through that one — I’m a terrible nonfiction reader). Three is The Cornish Coast Mystery which is like a cozy Agatha Christie. There are also some feel-good books by Marianne Williamson and Gary Zukav to help with the 1alphas1 (as yet untested on mice however).

I think there is a good chance that I might retreat to the world of Netflix/toast/blanket/couch hibernation mode by December but if I can stave it off until then, I’ll consider it a job well done.

I hope with all you have going on and even though you feel so very stressed out, that the one upside to being so busy is that your brain doesn’t have time to mess around with winter blues. I do so hope that’s the case.

I miss you so, so very much!

Love you like happy mice like sugar water,

Lar