Need a little weekend break? Cath and I made this little video while we were in the mountains of North Carolina a few weekends ago with Ali (the gorgeous blond in the video). Want a bite of caramel apple? A steaming spoonful of chicken soup? A drive through the mountains, sniffing the crisp autumn air? An encounter with a bear (or maybe that’s me in my faux fur coat)? Play this little video:

p.s. The music in the video is by Camera Obscura… an entirely underrated Scottish band.

Happy, happy weekend, everyone! Let us know what you’re up to and if you came on our vlog-cation with us (cheesy, I know, I’ll work on it ). If you are anti-vlog, you can see “the stills” from our mountain vacay in this post.

Lar and I have figured out that if we meet up after work, we can manage to get a few outfit photos in for the blog.  I was working late today so she came to visit me at my office.

I love Lar’s color combination of red and turquoise – gorgeous! Her dress is from Ramona West, Old Navy cardi, J. Crew belt and Frye boots.

She found this awesome clutch at a second-hand shop in North Georgia. I think it’s the perfect over-sized clutch.

I started the day out with my nude pumps, but I had a couple of errands during the work day so the chuck-t’s came out. The sweater is from J.Crew (ages ago), the scarf was picked up in Egypt by my lovely friend Ali, Michele watch and Gap pants that are supposedly “cropped” pants. . . hmmmm. . . .

Hope you guys are having a good week. Mine has gotten much better now that I have the GRE behind me ( I took it on Monday and have been studying like a mad woman) and Lar came over to, er, help me at the office.

Lar is a graphic designer and I’m a municipal government worker. We almost never have to wear suits to work, but we try to keep some level of professionalism with our office wear.

On Lar: secondhand jacket, Blank cords and Frye boots.
On me: H&M cardi, silk tank from Jac Boutique, Alexandar McQueen for Target pants, Dolce Vita shoes.

Here’s how we would react if you told us that we’d have to wear a suit with pantyhose and pumps to work.

Halloween has come and gone. Bring on the holiday season! Lar and I are buying each other the same pair of booties for Christmas, but I’ll save that for another post

So after Lar’s trip to Scotland and my trip to L.A., we were finally reunited last weekend and made sure to make the most of it with some quality sister time. Sister time usually involves a lot of shopping (mostly of the window variety) and eating at our favorite Atlanta spots. For example:

1.) Drinks and dinner at Leon’s. We’ve mentioned Leon’s a couple of times mostly because we love any place that serves bacon in a glass, but the pub also has a great selection of beer and an amazing mixologist. We tried out the all new Decatur-based Wild Heaven beer. Sooooo good.

2.) After a big brunch on Saturday we headed over the North Highland/Little Five Points area for shopping. Very little slows us down when we’re on a shopping mission, but the smell of Top Chef’s Hector Santiago’s burritos stopped us in our tracks. Every weekend he sets up shop across from his restaurant (Pura Vida) and sandwich shop (Super Pan Latino Sandwich Shop) and makes the most delicious burritos ever. We were still too full so Lar and I sipped on some aqua fresca.

3.) We’re suckers for used book stores. The Book Exchange on North Highland is one of our favorites. I’m a borderline neat freak, but something about a space that’s completely covered in books makes me feel right at home.

4.) You can’t walk along North Highland without stopping for the King of Pops. Atlanta locals know all about these $2.50 Popsicles - homemade deliciousness worth every penny. Lar had the Mandarin orange basil and I gobbled up my blackberry mojito pop.

I realize now that we really only took photos of what we ate last weekend, but rest assured that we were successful in the shopping portion of our sister time too.

Alas, this weekend Lar and I are separated again – boohiss. I’m at a conference in Fort Worth and she’s traversing the North Georgia mountains with some friends. Hope you’re having fun Lar! Do you want me to bring you back some cowboy boots? How ’bout a pink cowboy hat with a tiara on it?

So this is AsianCajuns 3.0. What do you guys think of the redesign?! I wanted to create our own AsianCajun theme – so I did! And when I say “I” I mean my master programmer friend Chris did all the coding behind the scenes and I got to make it pretty (my day job is Graphic Designer). I mentioned this change a few months ago, but finally got my act together this weekend.

I was probably inspired by this guy on Friday night:

And…. tadahhhh…

Scott and Garance (first-name basis now of course) were both wonderful just as you all said they would be. Thanks for convincing me to go! And everyone who I met at Hagedorn, it was so nice to see you in person and not just on the internet. Cath and I would love to have a real meet-up some time.

I hope you all are having a wonderful weekend too! What have you been up to? Do tell!

As I’m writing this Lar and her bf are flying across the Atlantic to Scotland – my favorite place on earth. They’ll be meeting up with friends and staying in a cottage on the west coast north of Glasgow and finishing their trip in Edinburgh. Not only am I insanely jealous, I also already miss Lar like crazy.

To distract myself I’ve decided to focus on some fun stuff.

1.) AsianCajun playlist on Songza!
Songza is like Pandora and every social media site all rolled into one. You can create a playlist and then friends can add their own songs to it.  Listen to the AsianCajuns Songza Playlist and add your favorites to our hodge podge of songs. I’m obsessed with this site and listen to it at work all the time now.

2.) New Ann Taylor Concept Store in Atlanta
In honor of the store opening, our Atlanta readers will receive a 20% discount at the new Lenox mall store when they say “There’s a new Ann in town” at checkout. The deal ends on Sept. 5. Make sure you get over there – I’ll be visiting tomorrow!

3.) Atlanta Bocce Ball!
The inaugural season of the Atlanta Bocce League starts Sept. 15 and continues every Wednesday night at Piedmont Park. It’s a co-ed league with league bars and drink specials every week. On top of all that, Whynatte and Esperanza, two of our favorite local companies, are league partners.

4.)Imogene + Willie
I’m trying to figure out when I can make a special trip to Nashville just to check out Imogene + Willie. The store sells the designers’ premium denim (they suggest washing denim in the tub or a creek) and other lovely Americana items, like vintage cowboy boots, in a beautifully retro-fitted gas station. I love the videos on their website including this one:

For the past month Lar and I have been meaning to enter in Atlanta Magazine’s Head to Toe contest. The only problem? We don’t have any recent photos of us together. Lucky for us, my bf is something of a Renaissance man: musician, photographer and photoshopper extraordinaire.

We spent Saturday afternoon in the million degree heat trying to find good spots for photos. Here we are unintentionally posing as an updated version of American Gothic at Leon’s. Lar is wearing her gorgeous secondhand silk shirt with a necklace her bf got her from Snoozer Loser. I’m wearing a summer dress from Kaleidoscope Boutique with a Rodarte for Target cardi and Forever 21 sunglasses.

Even before we started taking photos, my bf had the brilliant idea to do a reflection shot made possible with some Photoshop magic.

The contest voting seems to be a bit wonky (everyone has very low scores), but if you could vote for us on Atlanta Magazine’s site we would be forever grateful. Thank you to everyone who has already voted! Also, let us know if you enter and we’ll vote for you too! The contest ends on July 31st.

We are July 1st bebes! So we hope you guys are having a great day too as we commemorate the moment 27 years ago when the doctor said “oh my god, there’s another one.”

Cath is on the left, I’m on the right. We’ve always been really into licking the icing off of candles. We also happen to be wearing rompers and blunt cut bangs in this photo- just 23 years ahead of the trend.

Happy July 1st, Lovely Readers!!!

Decoupage wall art of Frida by Ana Maria Gonzalez from Mexico.

A few months ago, Cath and I got this really sweet email from Novica; an online shop in association with National Geographic that sells gorgeous wares from artisans around the world.

We get a handful of emails everyday with “special deals” or “VIP information” but we rarely pay too much attention to them. If someone sends us an impersonal promotional email or even a freebie, we don’t just automatically snap it up in our greedy little blogger mouths. We have to like it, and we have to think you guys will find it interesting too.

In the case of Novica, we really like what they do. Not only do they represent artisans from around the world and offer a vast variety of beautiful hand-crafted products (from furniture to jewelry), but they also support microfinance loans. Hillary Clinton is for them, Madeleine Albright is for them, and they have the potential to pull families around the world out of poverty.

Even if you aren’t sure about getting involved in a microfinance loan (read more about them here and here), just shopping for yourself supports an artisan from Mexico or Bali or Thailand or West Africa… The prices are super-reasonable and the products are one-of-a-kind.

Leather bracelet by Khun Boom in Thailand ($31.49).

Turquoise necklace by Nareerat in Thailand ($37.95).

Batik scarf by Yuna Kristina from Bali and Java ($39.98).

I love it when my consumerism gets the better of me and it ends up supporting artists that live in far-flung places. It makes me feel like maybe the big bad consumerism monster isn’t always so bad after all. What do you guys say? Would knowing that you are getting something beautiful and supporting global artists motivate you to shop at a site like Novica more than say picking up another overpriced accessory at Urban Outfitters?

Lar and I haven’t done a give-away in a while, so we’re really excited about this! After discovering Shabby Apple through Dressed Up Like a Lady, we’ve been hooked and now we can get you hooked too.

One lucky reader will get this fabulous Shabby Apple summer dress:

Readers, meet the Shabby Apple Tuileries dress. Gorgeous, non? This is the point where I’d write something impressive in French to stick with the theme, but Lar is the only one out of the two of us who actually took French. So instead, I’ll post another photo of the Tuileries:

To enter the give-away, leave us a comment on this post telling us your favorite item (dress, accessory etc.) on Shabby Apple and why and we’ll randomly pick a winner. Also make sure to leave your email address or a link so we can get in touch with you.

Good luck – and all that!

ps- We’ll choose a winner Friday and post about it Saturday. Comments for this post will close at 11:59 pm on Thursday.