A Visit to the Swan House

Although we've lived in Atlanta for a while, this was our first visit to the Swan House. It's a large historic house located on the grounds of the Atlanta History Center in Buckhead (a neighborhood of Atlanta).

The home's classical style makes it look older than its 80 years. Built in 1928 the house is considered relatively new even by American historical standards. However, Atlanta is quick to get rid of any building older than 30 years. So the Swan House is practically pre-historic considering its location.

Fortunately, the Atlanta History Center has been able to preserve the Swan House so that tourists, like myself, are able to explore the beautiful home formerly owned by the somewhat cultured and very wealthy Inman family.


Although the tour was over an hour long and it was a muddy walk to the home from the history center, Lauren and I felt it was only proper to wear heels to such a stately place. (Also, at a short 5'3", our vanity almost completely prevents us from wearing flats in public).

Outfit details: Lauren is wearing a H&M jacket, AA dress, H&M shoes and Ann Taylor purse. I'm wearing the same red Nordstrom coat from Saturday's post, Gap dress and H&M shoes.

I'm no expert in animal husbandry, but I believe the creature pictured below is a ram (which is a male sheep...I think). He was just standing around on the small farm located between the Swan House and Atlanta History Center. He was the only animal we saw on the grounds, which made me doubt the efficiency of the quarter acre farm. That being said, there is the requisite historic black smithy next door to the ram's house/shed/pen/barn/log cabbin(?).


Needless to say it was a very enjoyable - and educational - visit. I highly recommend a trip to the Swan House and its surroundings.

CL

Getting into the (Victorian) Christmas Spirit

We spent most of our weekend in West End Atlanta at our favorite house museum, The Wren's Nest. Saturday we helped decorate the house for Christmas. Don't believe me? Well, here's proof. And here's what we were doing Sunday:



We spent a good bit of our time in the kitchen making sure there was a continuous supply of hot cider, hot chocolate and coffee for the visitors and, uh, taste testing the cake, cookies, mini cheese biscuits and chicken fingers.

Here we are in the kitchen (apologies for our overly-earnest poses - all that eating dulled our desire to pose fashionably). Lauren is pointing out the bust of Mr. Harris himself placed regally atop the fridge. Note: fridge and Christmas dish towels not original to the house. Come to think of it, the whole kitchen is not original to the house.

Outfit details: Lar is wearing a jacket and boots from Tarjay and Cheap Monday jeans. I'm wearing a H&M coat, J.Crew sweater, Blank jeans from Rockit and thrifted boots.

Up next on our to do list: decorate our own apartment for Christmas. Time to bring out our aluminum tree!

CL

Family Time

Lar and I flew up to D.C./Maryland for Thanksgiving and have been unable to check up on the blog as frequently as we usually do in Atlanta because 1) we've been spending some quality time with the family and 2) our parents' computer is slow and cranky (it was a struggle just to upload the images below).

So we'll be responding to everyone's comments later on this week, but until then, here are some things that we've been up to for the past few days:

Lar and my dad heading towards the Pentagon to check out the Sept. 11 Memorial. The memorial itself is very impressive, but the website is oddly very unofficial looking: Pentagon Memorial.


The National Building Museum is probably one of my all time favorite buildings in D.C. and the exhibits are always fantastic. It's also located a couple of blocks from Chinatown, D.C. where my dad was born and raised so it has a special place in my heart.


Lar trying on some sunglasses at Cafe Hon in Baltimore (or "Bawlmore" for you natives).


Our parents took us to The Walters Art Museum (also in Baltimore). It has a very impressive collection for being located in a non-international city and puts Atlanta's art museums to shame. Part of the museum is an 1850s mansion known as the Hackerman House. The rooms are so elegant it almost made me wish women could still wear giant hoop skirts - minus the tight corsets and the subjugation of women.


Lar is peering up at the stained glass sunlight at the top of the stairs of the Hackerman House.


So there you have it. Proof that we haven't been sitting on our bums all day eating Thanksgiving leftovers and being too lazy to even scroll around our favorite fashion blogs. I promise we'll be back in real AsianCajun fashion once we get back in town!

CL

Ikat + Zara

My first purchase from Zara in Atlanta is this Ikat dress. Lately I've been noticing that Ikat patterns are everywhere and have been desperate to get my hands on something Ikat-ish. So you can imagine how happy I was to find not only a somewhat affordable Ikat jersey dress, but one that's kind of Balenciaga inspired.

This photo was taken while helping out at the Wren's Nest Christmas party. (I have no idea why I posed that way - it looks like I'm attempting to do a jig). Sunglasses: Target, dress: Zara, bracelets: from Brazil, leggings: American Apparel, flats: Delias.

Evidence of the current Ikat trend:

Balenciaga RTW Fall 2007 and Oscar de la Renta RTW Spring 2008 (photos from style.com)

Ikat couch (www.wallpapernews.com) and a swatch of fabric from Hancockandmoore.com

C.L.

Biltmore...than you!

You can't go to Asheville without taking a trip over to the Biltmore , "America's largest home." Built by Vanderbilt in the late 1800s, the home/mansion/palace has 250 rooms and a ridiculous amount of land. Some might call it a bit over-the-top, but I think of it as cozy. Actually, it's overwhelming, but we had fun walking around and enjoying the mountain air:
Lauren is wearing a dress from Target and her pair of Toms:

Lauren and a Biltmore lion:

Wearing my American Apparel poplin dress and leggings. Seeing as American Apparel clothing is sweatshop-free, I doubt Mr. Vanderbilt would approve. You can't build a 250-room house without exploiting a couple hundred workers!


CL

House Museums (and The Mount)

Since we were about 3, our parents used to drag us to every house museum in the metropolitan washinton d.c. area. I don't mean to apply we didn't enjoy these excursions (we were particularly fond of the gift-shops) and Monticello, Mount Vernon, and all of Williamsburg, Va. hold happy memories for us. Perhaps our favorite was the lesser-known Ladew Gardens. Not only did they have an excellent gift-shop and a very memorable raisin-bread creme cheese sandwich at their teashop, I distinctly remember lovely fountains and topiaries.
However, after googling Edith Wharton (see post below) I've realized I might have really enjoyed growing up in Massachusetts because of The Mount.

From this angle it rivals Pemberly (or at least as close as we'll get on this side of the Atlantic).