Greetings from Charleston!

Cath and I are taking a long weekend up to Charleston, and we're bringing you with us! We'll both bring our mac babies and set them up on the beach and blog from under a palm tree. See you on the other side of our five hour car ride- woohoo!

Happy Friday!

xoxo,

Cath and Lar (aka The AsianCajuns)

p.s. We'll be back Sunday and post the June Shin contest winner. We've loved reading all your birthday wishes.

p.p.s. Locals, make it out to Eviva this weekend for the closing sale if you can. Cath just got a pair of Seychelles for $60, and I got a pair of Frye's (ooo lalalaaaa) for $109 (over 50% off). Go, make good.

Tag Time: 6 Things

Our friend and author of In Her Twenties tagged us a few days ago and, seeing as I've made it a kind of mini-resolution of mine to be better at tagging, I'm determined to complete this tag before a whole week has gone by. That being said I think we might have done this tag before, but since I can't remember, surely no one else can! So here goes:

The Rules:

1. Link to the person who tagged you.
2. Post the rules on your blog.
3. Write six random things about yourself.
4. Tag six people at the end of your post and link to them.
5. Let each person know they've been tagged and leave a comment on their blog.
6. Let the tagger know when your entry is up.

My six random things:


I love SPAM (not the email version).


I've kept all of my old pointe shoes and have no idea what to do with them.


I'm part Chinese and part French/English/Irish/German, but I'm obsessed with anything Scottish.


I love maps.


I don't own a TV, but watch shows on Hulu.com all the time.


I would love to visit Stockholm.

I'm tagging:

Already Pretty
Hiking in Stilettos
June Shin
On Dressing Up
The Leila
This Wheel's on Fire

All photos are from flickr.com.

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

J.Crew Travels

Lauren and I are both unapologetic homebodies - there's nothing better than curling up on the couch with a book and a hot cuppa. But we also share a wanderlust that is never satisfied. These contradictory characteristics can sometimes make us downright miserable - always longing to travel when we're home and always wanting to be home when we're traveling.

After studying abroad for a year in college I think we both figured out how to enjoy traveling without missing the comforts of home too much and being at home without constantly wanting to be elsewhere. However, our study abroad experiences were over four years ago and I'm now getting desperate for a real trip. (Visiting home and going to business conferences don't count.)

Unfortunately with rising food costs, $4 gasoline and an incredibly weak dollar, it doesn't look like I'll be traveling anytime soon. These romanticized images from J.Crew's September catalog (taken in Prague) are the closest I'll get to a European vacation in the foreseeable future.



Our only upcoming traveling plans is a camping trip at the end of September. More on that later...

CL

Day Trip to

This past month has been so busy that, not only have I not had much time to blog, but I've fallen far behind on posting images that I've taken from the beginning of the summer. Since this week is turning out to be as hectic as the previous three, it's a good opportunity for me to publish some old posts that I've been meaning to put on the blog for the past two months (including this post you're reading now).

Athens, GA is the quintessential college town and a perfect day trip from Atlanta. It has great, independently-owned shops and restaurants that are usually cheaper than their Atlanta equivalents and the city is home to an amazing music scene.



Agora (pictured above and below) is my absolute favorite shop. With over 50 different vintage dealers, I could spend a whole afternoon in there without getting bored. Hell would have frozen over the day I leave Agora empty-handed.



On my most recent trip to Agora I purchased a white 70s dress with black detailing, a cylindrical black and silver ring, and a pair of pink wayfarers for Lauren.



Every time I go to Athens I end up visiting with my boyfriend. He loves the coffee shops, but hates shopping (can't blame him). So, before the summer is up, I'm determined to take Lauren over to Athens for the day so we can do some serious shopping, coffee drinking, eating and music listening.

CL

Inspiration: Anthropologie

We've been big fans of Anthropologie for over ten years. Of course this doesn't mean that we've bought much from there (who can afford a $178 night gown?). Nevertheless, the feminine/world-traveler lifestyle feel of Anthropologie stores is right up our alley. The clever window displays and rustic interior designs are always great sources of inspiration.
The window displays are the same at every location (whether you visit the Anthropologie in NYC or ATL), but the interior displays vary. Having frequented a number of Anthropologies around the country, I can say without a doubt that the Rockville, Maryland store has the most creative interior displays.
After a four-day business trip in Philly, I took the train down to Maryland yesterday to visit my parents and had a chance to stop by the Rockville Anthropologie. Below is proof of the creative genius that you'll find there.

Hanging from the ceiling in one of the alcoves are these blue paper vines. My dad pointed out that they were cut by hand because each one is varied. I can't imagine how long it took to cut them all! I love how they create this great underwater/jungle-like effect:

This is one of my favorites. It looks like the decorator used a white paint pen on black craft paper to create the "wallpaper." Take a closer look (upper left side of the photo) and you can see two book spines were sawed off and glued to the illustrated shelves to add texture:



All the different door knobs for sale are displayed on this charming, hand-painted sandwich board:


Burlap is gathered on the walls to look like soil. The vines and vegetables are made out of felt:


I love this little sign on the underwear table:


Bottle caps are flattened, painted, and stuck into round pieces of wood to serve as price tags:

Just looking at these photos again makes me want to start a craft project. Maybe I'll paint something or embroider a pillow or flatten some bottle caps and glue magnets to the back of them. Whatever I decide to work on, I can't wait!

CL

Eat.Shop.

I love looking through city guides. I've planned whole trips and have found some of my favorite shops with them. So you can imagine how happy I was to stumble upon the Eat.Shop series. I found Eat.Shop Atlanta at a local bookstore. It has a great listing of locally-owned shops and restaurants and each page has a grouping of colorful photos from the featured businesses. Of course the guide is narrowly focused and doesn't include great landmarks like The Wren's Nest or the Cyclorama, but it would make a nice addition to anyone's travel-planning book collection.

You can purchase your copy at www.eatshopguides.com.
CL

A Trip to Oakland

With our parents in town for Thanksgiving we decided to show them the not-so-touristy sites of Atlanta. To a non-Atlantan, taking visitors to Oakland Cemetery might seem a bit morbid, but really it's an amazingly beautiful - and airy - place.

Oakland Quick Facts:

• 88 acres, located southeast of downtown Atlanta.
• Burial place of Margaret Mitchell, author of Gone With the Wind, golfer Bobby Jones, Joseph Jacobs, creator of Coca-Cola and Maynard Jackson, first African-American mayor of Atlanta.
• The cemetery was expanded to its present size in 1872 to provide more burial space for Confederate soldiers.
  

On Lauren (left): H&M jacket, Cheap Monday jeans, Target boots. On me: H&M jacket, American Apparel poplin tunic and leggings, Payless boots.
The cemetery is packed with ornate mausoleums:

The Lion of Atlanta guards the nearly 3000 Confederate dead:

More photos from our non-touristy adventures to come.

C.L.

Isle of Skye, Prepster Style

To say that Lauren and I are a little obsessed with all things Scottish is an understatement. We studied in Edinburgh for six months in 2004 and have been completely head-over-heals in love with Scotland ever since.

I get excited anytime I see anything Scotland-related. Fashion-wise, I loved Marc Jacobs and Alexander McQueen's Scotland-inspired RTW lines from a few seasons back and now I'm enjoying J.Crew's take on the highlands:

If you visit J.Crew's website this holiday season, you'll be welcomed with a short video about the holiday fashion shoot on the Isle of Skye, A Highland Holiday. It has all the cheesy, touristy Scottish elements (hills covered in heather, bagpipes, tartan) making it a modern day Brigadoon and the narrator has this great Scottish lilt that makes him possible to understand (and proves he's not from Skye).

Although there are few authentic Scottish things in J.Crew's version (I don't think Skye has ever been that sunny), it's still great to know that the mythical imagery of the highlands still influences today's fashions.

As I've mentioned many times before, J.Crew's clothing is too preppy for my personal style (and the inflated prices are a turn-off), but their images are always great - especially when two west highland terrors and a highland "coo" are added to the mix.

C.L.