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.

As promised in the previous post, below are a number of photos from the condo Lar and I grew up going to every summer at Ocean City. I love the place. My dad, along with one of sisters and his brother, purchased the place in the 1970s, decorated it and took such good care of it that hardly anything has changed – or needed changing.

The bumper pool table is the first thing you see when you walk in the front door. And yes, that is plaid kitchen wallpaper in the background.

Most of the condo is covered in faux wood paneling and an amazing yellow and white shag carpet.

The sliding glass doors in the living room behind me open up onto a large balcony.

Here’s a closer look at the kitchen wallpaper, the avocado stove and yellow counter tops.

Apologies for not tidying up before taking this photo, but it’s the only one of the living room that shows off the orange arm chairs. The TV isn’t original to the place, but it gets as few channels as its predecessor.

I love this photo of the stereo and box of pastels. When we were young my dad would always tune the radio to the oldies station. I still always think  of the beach condo when I hear Otis Redding, Marvin Gaye and Aaron Neville. The pastels are my mom’s. She always had us doing fun art projects even on vacation.

With only a couple of fuzzy channels on the TV, my bf and I played A LOT of card and board games on the one day it rained during our stay. Although the box seems to be missing, the monopoly game is mostly intact and so old that the houses and hotels are actually made out of wood – not plastic!

The beach condo has always had a hodge podge of sheets for all the beds. There are exactly four different sets of sheets represented on this queen-sized bed – not to mention the retro bedspread!

The guest bathroom is covered in this fantastic floral wallpaper. They just don’t make wallpaper like that anymore.

I think even the designers at Ikea would find the guest bedroom room inspirational. I was so tempted to take the lamp home with me.

My trip to the beach last week was the first time I stayed at the condo in nine years and as close minded as it sounds, it was so nice to see that not much had changed. I’ll be completely heartbroken if the shag carpet, orange arm chairs, bumper pool table, daisy wallpaper and stereo are ever replaced.

Sorry Cath and I have slowed down this week. Civic duty abounds in the AsianCajun household: Cath has been working late hours (Strategic Planning for the City of Decatur- woohoo) and I’ve had jury duty!

In between sitting through voir dires and thinking about a vision for Decatur in the next ten years, I’ve been reading about central Asia. My bf and I plan to hit up at least Mongolia and Kyrgyzstan next year, so I’m trying to brush up on my central Asia history (when I say “brush up,” I mean “learn from scratch”- apart from some Genghis Khan references in high school, I knew very little about The Stans and Mongolia).

Here’s where the abbreviated art history lesson comes in! Guess how old this photo is:

Here’s a hint: this man is the last emir of Bukhara (in what is now Uzbekistan). I know! That wouldn’t have helped me either!

It’s taken in 1911. 1911!!! The most amazing thing is that this photo was not doctored in Photoshop or even tinted back in the day by the original photographer. Sergey Prokudin-Gorsky received permission from the (last) czar, Nicholas II, to document the Russian Empire. Not only did Prokudin-Gorsky take over 3500 photographs (about half have survived and are housed at the Library of Congress), he also found a way to kinda/sorta take/create colored photographs while traveling around an exhaustive empire. He actually had a dark room built in a train car. Pretty spiffy, non?

I think black and white photography is beautiful, informative, and sometimes haunting, but there is something about seeing a subject in color that makes them seem more present and alive.

Here are a few more examples of Prokudin-Gorsky’s work to delight your workweek-wearied eyes:

These photos also capture the diversity in the Russian Empire/current central Asia.

We hope you guys have a lovely weekend! We’re off to Baltimore (and then to the beach for Cath) for a friend’s wedding- ’tis the season! What do you guys have planned?

ps- You can see a complete visual listing of photographs here. For larger images, enter the number in the LOC search bar.

Dear Readers,

Cath and I just realized that around this time three years ago, we  started AsianCajuns: April 26, 2007 to be exact.

We started AsianCajuns because we wanted a creative outlet that would act as a foil to our 9-5s. We didn’t expect anyone to read it. We had no intention of just writing about fashion (we talked about Edith Wharton and mint juleps). We were inspired by Susie Bubble and Agatha from Style Bytes (two of the three blogs we read at the time). This was before outfit aggregators took off and eveyone started documenting their outfits through fashion blogs.

Looking back on our posts from three years ago we realize we had a bit more variety. We do love fashion and style, but Cath and I agree that the old posts we are less interested in are the ones just about an outfit or a piece of clothing we’ve bought. So, from here on out we’ll try to stick to our varigated roots a little better. That said, we do like seeing how our styles have evolved from our 23 year old selves to now (the shoes are definitely taller):

For those of you that can stand a little more navel-gazing and reflection we’d love to know how long you’ve been reading AsianCajuns and what keeps bringing you back. We would continue AsianCajuns even if our mom was still our only reader, but the wonderful fellow-bloggers we have “met” and local readers we run into have made this experience deeply satisfying. I think most long-term bloggers have felt the desire to throw in the towel at some point (especially when things begin to feel more like a chore and less like a creative outlet). What keeps us going is you guys- so, from the bottom of our hearts, thank you, thank you, thank you!

Cath and I are making plans as we move out of our toddler years. We hope to expand into video, highlight more of the glories of Atlanta/Decatur, and keep the posts varied and inspiring. A redesign is also under way. so stay tuned!

Thank you for three awesome and wonderfully fulfilling years on the internets, readers!

Much Love,

Cath & Lar
The AsianCajuns

Okay, I know the Outfits of the Week have been a little music-centric lately, but I’ve been trying to update my stale playlists and there are just some amazingly inspiring chantreuses. I really like how Janelle Monae, like Patti Smith, has a very calculated and streamlined look. In fact, I’d go so far as to call Monae’s “look” a uniform: tuxedo shirt, oxfords/saddle shoes, tuxedo pants, coifed hair.

View the full Polyvore set here. That tuxedo shirt is a K by Karl Laggerfield for under $100 (as is everything in the set)! I’m a little unsure if Monae would actually where these Kenneth Jay Lane earrings, but they are black and white and add a nice texture to the crisp tuxedo pants and shirt.

Cath and I have a soft spot for Monae not just because she is talented and creative, but her artistic birth happened in Atlanta, and she’s a shortie like us. She’s a five foot powerhouse, and featured in the April 2010 shape issue of American Vogue (see below).

Now, I promise this video of Monae’s latest single will totally make your Monday. And if you get a chance to see her in concert, you should (Big Boi joined her on stage to perform “Tightrope”)! We saw her uber theatrical performance last Tuesday. The best $14 I’ve ever spent.

Let me know what you guys think! And happy Monday!!!!

Congrats to our talented writing friends Tom and Jamie for their new boutique editing and writing partnership Chronicle. And thanks for the uh, flattering pic and AC shoutout on the company’s homepage – woot! We think Chronicle is the start of great things to come for these guys.

• Young Blood Gallery & Boutique’s Jolene makes us wish we had a cat of our own.
• Lar and I are determined to make it over to the Civic Center at some point this month for the Diana: A Celebration exhibit. In conjunction with the exhibit there will be a cocktail hour every Friday in April from 5-8 p.m. Visitors can sip martinis while looking at family heirlooms, mementos, paintings and photos of the people’s princess.
• We’re completely addicted to Kate Bingaman-Burt’s Obsessive Consumption blog – ink drawings of her daily purchases and now available in book form.
• Lar and I couldn’t stop laughing after being introduced to these Sassy Gay Friend videos. I mean seriously, Juliet would not have killed herself if she had a sassy gay friend. H/t: Nate, our sassy gay friend.
• I love the library setting of Shopbop’s Marc by Marc Jacobs spread – it makes me want to dress up in patterned dresses, wide headbands and chunky platforms and head over to my local library for some good spring break reading.
• Folk artist Butch Anthony is inspirational in every way. Just to name a few things: he has a discipline dress code (denim overalls), is a self-taught artist, built his own house/cabin, and is the founder of Doo Nanny, an annual alt/folk art micro festival in Seale, Alabama.
• Props to the First Lady for wearing a $60 Talbots blouse the other day!