don juan's reckless daughter takes on Austin, TX

Truthfully, I've been back home for a few days but it took a few days to figure out what to post from the Austin portion of the roadtrip aside from millions of band photos. I had a marvelous time in Austin (despite my being sick), it was just as warm and as interesting as I had hoped.  To me it's a hybrid of Seattle, San Francisco and the best things about the American South.  I spent the majority of my time in the South Congress and Downtown areas but there were cool places to see even on the eastside where our awesome rental house was located.  Still, I have to say South Congress was my favorite so... that's the focus of this post.

"The Brit's" band  had a few show's at Home Slice Pizza's music showcase and they had an amazing greenroom for the bands with lots of free pizza, comfy couches and most importantly heaters! It sort of became our home base.

I did a little bit of investigating before heading to Austin and found this very helpful site called "vintage around town guide".  

I had a few places highlighted on the map prior to my visit and it just so happened that the majority of them were on or around South Congress which helped me make the most of only a few days in the city.  I highly recommend that map if you are into vintage and plan to visit Austin in the near future!

Feather's Boutique was great but it was one of the stores I knew about long before this trip. I must say, my first visit was a success... I bought an adorable dress (which will get an outfit post soon) and met the lovely Nikki who works there, handles the blog and also did an Austin City Guide for the Urban Outfitters blog a few weeks back - I may have scared her with my half-missing voice and sniffles but she was oh-so-sweet.  She also let me know that they post pictures of items for sale on the feathers blog and they will ship! so I thought I'd pass that on to you lot. thanks, Nikki!  (interior shot of  feathers via flickr...)

We went to a few more shops along the main drag (vintage or otherwise) and they were all pretty cool but I didn't find much of any thing.  Cream vintage does do in-store alterations which is interesting but there was nothing in the store that worked for me.  Still worth a browse.  Then we ended up in a store that really deserves its very own post, Uncommon Objects...

Probably one of the most unique and coolest (for lack of a better word) store I've been to anywhere. Top five for sure. Uncommon Objects carries mainly antiques, gifts and wonderful knickknacks.  It's not so much that they have the coolest items ever (though they are all pretty darn great), but the way they have them displayed and the sheer quantity of interesting things simply boggles the mind. It's like the blog "the snail and the cyclops" come to life and that could never be a bad thing! Though they do not allow photographs normally, after a brief chat with one of the owners and an exchange of cards I was able to snap a few cheeky shots to share with my lovely readers!

(I bought those feathers and the vintage glass vase they sat in for my room...swoon!)

I could have spent hours (literally) in this store - I'll post a few more pictures on my flickr this week if you care to see more. Thanks to Uncommon Objects for being so great to me! I'll be back someday soon!

There were so many great eateries in Austin too.  Sadly, I wasn't in the biggest eating mood but it all looked and smelled delicious. We passed by the Hey Cupcake Airstream about ten times and I was really tempted, that and I have a huge thing for Airstream trailers and if I were to live in one someday I will basically have made it in my book! However, I did eat or had friends eat and enjoy the following places:  Home Slice (mentioned above), South Congress Cafe, Crepes Mille, Güero´s Taco Bar & Jovita's (Mexican). There were also lots of great coffee shops which both surprised me and made me miss living in Seattle another great coffee town.

As I mentioned, I have SO MANY band photos and I will post them on my flickr as well but not here because this is already an EPIC POST. But here is a shot of the lead singer (aka Doll) from Doll & the Kicks (UK) that I took because her outfit was stellar and she was very sweet.

and, finally, the one shot of me from pretty much the whole weekend.  I don't like being photographed when I'm sick (for obvious reasons!) but thanks to Miss Kristin for your help with this one! sorry if I was a pain!

Ok, I'm sure your bored by this point and I need a break anyhow! I highly recommend visiting Austin and I'm excited for Andrea who will be moving there soon!  Thanks to all the wonderful people we met! We'll be back...

(first pic of night skyline & store front pics from flickr the rest by me)