1 May 2013 - 11:58
No, I’m not talking about the kind of treasury that handles money and property. Or whatever. This is the fun kind of treasury. Inspired by the amazing longhorn. necklace in this month’s A Beautiful Mess giveaway, I combed Etsy for some of the best Texas-related lovelies made by folks in Texas and beyond.
I absolutely adore all of the Austin prints.
Something strange has happened to me over the past year or so. I now long for a pink bungalow with vintage furniture, a porch with a ceiling fan, upcycled cowboy boots, and cast iron Texas trivets in my kitchen. I’ve been infected with Texan-itus. The only cure is awesome Texas decorations and eating more tacos.
ETA: On a related note…
I just saw this amazing guest bedroom redesign on Pinterest and I WANT IT:
Guest Bedroom Makeover by Emily Henderson
29 April 2013 - 13:20
This weekend Charlie and I headed over to MonkeyWrench Books for the World Wide Vegan Bake Sale in Austin. Yummies and noms! I wrote up a thing about it here, but here are some lovely pictures that didn’t make the article.
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25 April 2013 - 14:06
I have this bad habit of frequenting Half Price Books shops around Austin. My personal favorite is the one on North Lamar. I’m not sure what the deal is, but every once in a while they’ll have, like, 30 Doctor Who Target novelizations. I found these the last time I was there:
Don’t worry. I bought a good handful of them!
The other locations tend to have New Who stuff, like those Doctor Who Encyclopedias and weird paper-doll-like books that you can make sonic screwdrivers and psychic paper with. Which is fine I guess, but kind of boring.
The Cedar Park Half Price Books is like this. They only have new stuff with David Tennant’s face plastered all over everything. But they did have this attached to one of their bookshelves:
I love this for a number of reasons.
1) Disney Princesses do make really great Doctors!
2) Girl from Brave as Six? It’s like a beautiful melding of Six and Mel.
3) Rapunzel’s hair. It’s the scarf.
5) Not only is there gender-swapping at play, but different ethnicities, races, and body styles are present.
5) The artist is given credit!
6) It’s just plain adorable.
Kudos to the Cedar Park Half Price Books for having a nerd on staff!
For a better-quality version of the fanart and info on the artist head over to The Mary Sue.
24 April 2013 - 08:25
I feel like I never really had a grasp of living life in Austin until I started dating someone that also lives in Austin. Because I’m vegan I’m not the most adventurous eater-outer, which means there are tons of yummy things in town that I just haven’t experienced yet. But when I started dating Charlie I ended up eating more tacos in two months than I’ve probably ever eaten collectively in my life until I met him.
In the Chicago suburbs tacos aren’t really a go-out-to-eat-them kind of food. You either go through the pain of making them yourself or get crappy ones at Taco Bell. Downtown has more authentic Mexican places to get tacos but they rarely use vegetarian beans or do cool stuff like deep fry portobello mushrooms and avocados. (Also I haven’t lived in the Chicago area for nearly ten years, so that stuff may exist now and I’ve missed it!)
I’ve discovered that tacos are a quintessential Austin food. Highly customizable, highly variable, small enough to eat while walking/talking. They’re a social food. And Torchy’s has very quickly become one of my favorite places to get them.
I pretty much got that silly InstaFood app just for taking pictures of Torchy’s Tacos. Somehow I’m not sick of them yet; the only options that are almost vegan are the Fried Avocado and The Independent (hint: get them without the carrot stuff, 3x tastier).
The Fried Avocado is probably my favorite, sans cheese and sauce. I’m guessing they’d be fine with substituting different sauces but ordering vegan is already fussy and I get self-conscious about it sometimes. Charlie always goes for the Fried Avocado. And chips and salsa, of course. I love that they put out sliced lemons and limes for drinks so I can have my favorite drink ever, Diet Coke with lime.
We mostly go to Torchy’s North (620), because his place is in West Austin. But I have gotten plenty of tacos from Torchy’s UT and Spicewood Springs locations. I think the Spicewood Springs spot has the best vibe. The last time we went there was the Louisville/Wichita St. game. And there were plenty of perfectly positioned flatscreens to watch the game. Lovely.
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So what is “The Weekly Texan”? I’m hoping this will become a weekly feature on the blog that talks about different Austin things, though I have a feeling it will be mostly about food! But now that I’m out and about in town more I want to share some Austin stuff with my readers and friends, many of whom I know do not live here. I hope you enjoy!
16 April 2013 - 14:45
Very happy to announce that the second issue of Vérité, a magazine on off-beat, independent, and foreign-language cinema is now available!
In fact, you can read it right here! For free!
I have very conveniently bookmarked the digital magazine on the first page of my article, “SXSW: The State of Independence,” which is my first contribution to the mag. I had a great time talking to Lauren Modery (“Hipstercrite”), new Austin friend J.C. De Leon of Arcanum Pictures, and my old friend from my Indy days Austin Reedy. They were very kind to answer my questions about SXSW and I hope you enjoy the feature!
