Our House?

Old is in. Distressed is the new shiny. Nowadays, retail shoppers beyond pickers and junkers appreciate the look of aged, weathered, chipped, and rusty/crusty decor. This is evidenced not only by the vintage vignettes displayed in stores like Anthropologie, but also by the influx of manufactured furniture and accessories designed to look old in stores that sell nothing but new.

Best Antique Mall Around

I can hardly believe that the first of August is next week! How is that possible? Summer clothes are on clearance, patio furniture is gone, and the smell of new school supplies hits teachers like a ton of bricks as they enter Target. But you know where there are deals and new merchandise daily, but without that new plastic smell? At the Austin Antique Mall! 

I often write about places I shop, and I can't remember the last time I showcased my very own mall. I go there often, especially in the summer, but most times I head straight to my booth to do my restocking and rearranging before they close and lock me in (if you haven't seen that post, it is worth the read!).    

Air-conditioned fields of gold at Austin's City-wide

This past weekend was the Citywide Garage Sale in Austin; it was the equivalent of a trip to Warrenton in terms of the quantity of great stuff I got, and even had the added luxury of concrete flooring and air-conditioning! I nearly forgot about the sale, but luckily they send an email the morning of, so I managed to get there by about 9am. Whenever I go, I splurge and spend an extra $5 to enter during the early-bird shopping time, and it is always worth it. This past Saturday was no exception. It was pretty slow until well past 10, and I spent nearly three hours shopping and talking to lots of my favorite vendor friends. 

The first place where I spent quality time was at a booth stuffed to the brim with industrial and old school finds that are literally from an old school. I immediately bought an old locker basket and started talking with the vendor, who was very nice and offered to hold another purchase along with my basket. 

Summer Projects

Since returning from my road trip, I have been relatively productive. There are lots of projects that I don't get to during the chaos of a school year, so I love checking a few things off my list now that it is summer. 

New Orleans, Take II

Hope you all had a wonderful 4th of July and holiday weekend!

I have several great posts to share, but somehow just can't seem to get them written...I am two weeks behind, but better late than never. I have been home from my road trip for two weeks now, but this post will once again feature some great architecture and design from the old south, New Orleans. It  might sound weird that my road trip to IL from TX led me through New Orleans, but my hometown is just off I-55 in IL, and New Orleans is straight down 55 about 13 hours and then a little east, so I combined two trips into one by coming back to Texas via New Orleans to make a stopover to see good friends Aden & Dan and their sweet new baby boy Britton. He was so excited to see me!

 Isn't he adorable?! 

Aden and Dan are great hosts and took us on a lovely tour of the Garden District in New Orleans. We passed several walking tours, but didn't need to join one as Dan knew so much about the rich (quite literally) history of this beautiful section of the city. I wish I could remember all the facts that he shared, but two weeks have come and gone and I can't remember which celebrities lived where at this point! But we saw the houses of John Goodman, Anne Rice, Sandra Bullock, Nicolas Cage, and the parents of the Peyton and Eli Manning...here are pictures of those homes and more:

 

This one was for sale and only costs a cool $5 million.

 

 

 

 

 

 

Love the ornate wrought iron fence - fanciest corn stalks and ears of corn I have ever seen.

 

 

 

 

 

 

And after that we went to the 'artsy' district and saw this:

before we attempted to get these:

 

But alas, they were already closed.

Hope you had lots of cool summer treats this weekend!

Have a chic week,

~Sarah