Thompson Family-Life

Austin: Vintage

One of the biggest things I loved about Austin was the vintage shopping. I've never seen so MUCH of it in such a concentrated area. And i know we only skimmed the surface. Most of what we saw was around South Congress and Guadalupe.. we mostly went by this awesome Vintage Guide around Austin, but we missed a lot. Can't wait to go back. :-)

Another great thing about Austin Vintage was the amount of vintage *clothing* stores. I actually walked away with 2 dresses and a cute shirt. It was SO nice to be able to try things on. I'm always making mistakes when I buy vintage clothing online because I can't try them on. I was in heaven.

The second best thing was that most of the stores were very affordable which was very refreshing.

The first shop we went into was the MUCH recommended Uncommon Objects. It did not dissapoint. This was one of those places that if you blink, you might miss a priceless treasure. I want to go back there again! It was beautifully curated as well. Not your average vintage store. It was beautiful. I asked permission to take photos because I could tell it might be one of those places that cares if you take photos or not. The owner was very nice and appreciative that I asked and granted me three photos max after I told him I wanted to blog his store. ;-) (Note to self: Design some blogger business cards asap!)

Here's what I got:

 

 

This shop was super cute.. lots of kitschy vintage and the owner was a bit eccentric and charming. I fell in LOVE with these portraits and inquired if they were for sale, thinking that 2 would be super-cute in the boys joint room... but alas, they were family portraits of the owner and his two brothers! :-) Not for sale!

 

 

He asked me which one I thought was him and after a few seconds I guessed the one on the far left.. and I was right! I'm very good with faces, but horrible with names. :-) These portraits make me want to have some done of the boys. I love the vintage feel to them of course, but also the sort of awkward quality to them. : ) Would love to capture this age of the boys.. it's such a cute age.

Unfortunately I can't remember the exact name of this shop, but it's on South Congress if you visit!

This next shop was I think on Guadalupe. It was definitely more of a rough-around-the-edges shop.. off the beaten path. The owner was super rad and had a Barry White voice. I know this because he had an intercom system in the store and when we were browsing toward the back of the store, all of the sudden his voice bursted over the intercom telling us something, I'm not sure what. I think I was too caught off guard by the whole thing. It was hilarious. Toward the back of the store was a lot of this..

 

This was the backyard of Amelia's RetroVogue & Relics. (I'm pretty sure this is the name of the store... I'm going by memory and the map!) This lady was super charming and informative and told us lots of history about some of the items in her shop. The shop is in this old house and when you step out into the backyard you see this...

 

 
Yup, an  Airstream in the backyard. AWESOME. I also loved her miscellaneous vintage lawn furniture. I've been keeping an eye on Craigslist for some chairs like these.  
    
Next door was an amazing record shop.. again I'm going by memory but I'm pretty sure it was End of an Ear. I've been thinking of maybe buying a record player for the boys so they can listen to music. We actually don't have music playing much in the house, it always seems like the TV's on instead (something I'm trying to change!) But i think with a record player, it would be a more tangible experience than playing songs from iTunes on the computer. I looked in this record shop for some children's records, there were a few. I'd love to start collecting some and make a decision on a record player.

   
 Prototype Vintage Design (furniture & fashion) was right off South Congress. AMAZING furniture & housewares.

 
  
 

I think Austin is going to be one of those places that I go back to visit often. Next time I'll take Ethan with me. Kind of like NYC was for us a few years ago. We would go every year. I want to go back and uncover more treasures in Austin. Soon.      

Giveaway from The Fabric Bar!

I've got a giveaway from one of my favorite stores, The Fabric Bar, who is also one of our May sponsors!

When I first went to this site, I totally fell in love with the site design. I mean, look at their little illustrated sewing girl? The CUTEST. I plan on working on my own website this summer, so I love finding creative sites like this to spark inspiration for my own!

 

Shown Above:

Cram Cream tray

Decole Water Thermos

Paper Doll Bunnies Fabric

Heidi Kinney Fabric (of My Paper Crane)

Camera Case Wristlet PDF printable pattern

Farm Linen Sewing Tape

Shinzi Katoh Dishcloth

Sweet Apples Fabric

Harlequin Fabric

Limited Addition Nelson Marshmallow Sofa Miniature

Merry Apron Pattern

Parfait Dress Colette Pattern

Little Heads Kokka Fabric

Shinzi Katoh Fork Set

As you can see, they carry such a DIVERSE inventory of CUTENESS. It is chock full of retro, japanese and kawaii goodness. And it's not just fabric! Bento boxes, beautiful patterns, Shinzi Katoh galore, insanely cute linen tapes & even some miniature Mid-Century Modern furniture! To die for! (sadly not Blythe scale but still super cute!) I actually saw that same Marshmallow Sofa (in full size!) at a vintage store yesterday!

They also have a great selection of printable patterns which is such a fab idea.. you don't have to pay shipping! Just print at home. :-)

Soooo, for the giveaway! Amy at The Fabric Bar is giving away a $50 gift certificate to her store! How awesome is that? You can pick whatever you want. There's so much to choose from!

TO ENTER this giveaway this is what you need to do:

Please leave a comment that includes your email address (please type it in with your comment.) Also, to double your chances of winning, tweet about this giveaway (link to it) or link to The Fabric Bar shop on your Twitter. Post a separate comment here with a link to your Twitter as proof that you tweeted. ;-)

I will pick ONE winner at random and will announce that winner on Friday!

Also! Amy is offering 10% off if you spend $50 or more just for Thompson Family readers. :-) Input this code: kitschy10 (Offer good through this Friday).

****************************************************************************************

 

If you are interested in being a sponsor yourself, please e-mail me at thousandclowns(AT)yahoo.com for more info. I'm taking sponsors for June NOW! June starts tomorrow. :-) We are very reasonably priced and your sponsor post will be beautifully designed, going above and beyond the typical sponsor blog post. 

(P.S. THANK YOU for all of the kind comments about my little sewing nook! They meant a lot to me! :-)

sewing nook

I'm pretty thrilled to finally have this little area completed. With a home in transition with lots of redecorating and painting, it's nice to have some projects completed. (Thank-you Ethan for your power tool & painting help :-)

The original chalk drawing of this young girl I found on Etsy for $12. I consider it one of my favorite vintage pieces. I often wonder who the drawing is of and where she is now. It also makes me nostalgic for all of the drawing I did growing up. It makes me sad that that part of my life has really come to a stand still. I haven't drawn much at all since college, but I remember doing many, many drawings much like this one of various models in my figure drawing classes (which were always my favorites). I would love to start a collection of original portrait paintings and drawings. That would be a dream! The human face and figure was *always* my favorite thing to draw, from the time I was a child (well, aside from animals of course!) til the time I was studying art in college.

 

 

 

 

 

 

Margaret fits in quite well with her watermelony pink hair...

 

 

(sorry for the inconsistent color casts on these photos. I took them in the morning light and from every angle I shot, there was a different color cast going on. I do use photoshop actions to try to give them a consistent look, but that doesn't always happen. ;-) Thinking I might need to get my studio lights out for my interior shots since our home is pretty dark. I find them intimidating though!)

Finds:

- Cabinets: IKEA covered in vintage wallpaper

- Desk: Target from a few years ago. Bottom drawer covered in vintage wallpaper.

- Chair: Liberty of London from Target

- Floral Baskets: Liberty of London from Target

- Wire basket: vintage

- Tin Camper: vintage

- Spool rack: Michaels, primed & spray-painted yellow

- Spool original art from: Michele Maule

- Vintage Barbie Case

- Vintage child's sewing machine

- Paper lanterns: Ebay

- Butterfly Wall Art: Vintage, with outer frame spray-painted yellow

- Young girl original art: Vintage

what we've been up to & winner & sales

I've been pulling together the decor for my little sewing nook... lots of spray-painting, wallpapering and cute-ifying...

 

 

 

 
 
 
 

The boys and I have been doing a lot of this...

It's beginning to feel a lot like summer around here.       

More pics to come of the studio. It's shaping up to have a very sherbet-y color palette which suits these summery days perfectly.

The winner for the Love Colour Tights & Funky Finds giveaways is:

Oooh, those tights are love!

meganlloyd913@gmail.com

Posted by: Megan Michelle | May 21, 2010 at 08:05 PM

Yay! I'll be in touch!

 

Also! Be sure to check out my feature over at the Daily Digi.. there is a coupon code to my Jessica Sprague & Two Peas shops in it for you! 20% off! Read through my interview to get to the codes. :-)

Austin: Toy Joy

A lovely blog reader recommended this store, Toy Joy, to me (THANK-YOU!) I had it on my "list", but had sort of forgotten about it, until we stumbled onto one day! I had gone to their website before our trip and couldn't nail down the "feel" of the store. "Was it geared more towards boys and their geeky toys?" I wasn't sure. But I feel VERY grateful that we stumbled onto it that day because we might have not gone. 

The actual store is QUITE more than my initial impression on their website. IT WAS AMAZING. Kawaii heaven. I kept dreamily saying to myself "This is what Tokyo is like, I bet". Just a small little taste of Tokyo. Consumer heaven. ;-)

This store had so many cute Kawaii unnecessary junk treasures, it was mind-boggling. Take a gander...

 

 

 

This place was a boys' heaven (as much as a girl's, i'll get to that in a minute)... I was SO wishing Cooper could see it! One day I will take him there to shop. They had all of these towers and towers of cubbies of little junky toys, and on each cubby they had written up a cute description about each toy. I wish I could've taken more photos, because they were so funny. But when I'm taking photos in shops (when I haven't asked permission first) I'm usually waiting for someone to bust me for taking pics that I try to keep it to a bare minimum! If you look closely, you can read some of them...

I especially love the "Plastic Children" one. ; )

They had SO much Dumpling Dynasty I was drooling. I looove, love, love this company. The illustrations are some of the most inspiring I've ever seen and combine so many things that I love. The little kits are the most darling things and would make such great gifts! I bought one for myself actually! (haha) And a little zipper pouch as well. Because one never has enough zipper pouches, am I right? I bought this one a few years ago. One of my favs.

Be sure to look through all of their products on their site. You will be inspired.  

So you'd think after all of this (and believe me there's SO much more that I didn't take pics of) that that would be enough? Well there was a little room off to the side that we went into at the end that almost made me hyperventilate. (added exaggeration there for effect)

First, it was a Hello Kitty Heaven. I mean, what little girl, I mean, grown woman, doesn't love Hello Kitty? It was like floor to ceiling Hello Kitty and more.

But then around the corner I saw this:

 
Is that a Blythe doll I see?

I couldn't believe it. I never EVER see Blythe dolls just out and about! The guy behind the counter told me they are one in a handful of retailers that sell Blythe in the U.S. So this was a treat! Of course they were overrpiced, but still fun to see. And it was ReMent heaven. Never seen so much of it in person. I actually didn't buy anything, but it was so much fun to look at.   

Toy Joy told me that they plan on adding more products to their online shop, so be sure to check back if you're a Kawaii-lover. Here's their flickr group if you want to see more.