On fait du shopping

My brother and I went to some after-Christmas sales Saturday and ended up spending the whole day on South Congress Avenue in Austin. Below are our favorite places from the day. I highly recommend these and others!

Prototype Vintage and Design

Prototype is actually two different stores; the home design store and vintage boutique are separated by Feathers, another of my favorite South Congress second-hand shops. On Saturday, I literally picked through every rack of clothes at Prototype. This wasn’t a tedious task at all, though, considering that the store is so well edited and that all of the pieces are in very good condition. Even better, the price point for most of the pieces (about $20=$70) is extremely reasonable.

I was REALLY tempted to buy this camel-colored turtleneck tunic from the 70s, but the fabric was way too itchy – 70% nylon acrylic/30% mohair is not a good combo.

I did end up buying this amazing leather 1950s trench coat. It fits like a dream, is in perfect condition, and it was only $54! I couldn’t believe it. I definitely didn’t need another coat, but couldn’t stand to pass it up.

Friends of Sound

We would have never known this shop existed if my dad had not somehow stumbled upon it -- its façade is very unassuming and, frankly, a little sketchy. Located just behind Prototype, the record store sells extensive collections of jazz, soul, electro-pop, etc. The place is kind of a hole in the wall, and you have to be willing to search, but I think it’s worth it. My brother walked away with a rare Jay-Z single that neither of us had heard of before.

Hovercraft

was our third pick of the day. This vintage redesign store just opened a few months ago, and is, again, very well edited. After doing quite a bit of damage in Prototype, I forced myself to buy this red and black knit sweater vest circa 1990 (which I’ll get pictures of as soon as I have more batteries for my camera!) and pass on these two gorgeous Ben Sherman dresses. I'm planning to go back once I can think of a good excuse to go shopping again...

I’m visiting Houston right now and probably won’t have time to post until the weekend. But hopefully I’ll have good New Years Eve pictures to share by then :D. A bientôt!

Etait hiver

Joyeux noël, tout le monde! Today was Maggie’s first x-mas :D She got so excited while opening her stocking that she gave herself the hiccups. So cute! She is now the owner of a brand new pink feather duster and a bag of kitty treats (whose main ingredient is apparently taurine…is that really a good idea?)

Since virtually everything is closed on Christmas day and sometimes even Christmas Eve, I’ve been spending a good chunk of time watching movies with the fam and a couple of TV shows. Voila:

Valley of the Dolls

is a Technicolor-esque film circa 1967 about three glamour pusses in show business and their respective paths to taking “dolls,” which appear to be the Xanax of yesteryear. It’s strangely relevant to the present, although I was distracted most of the time by the characters’ timeless wardrobes.

United States of Tara

is a television series on Showtime starring Toni Collette (of Little Miss Sunshine) who is a mom with multiple personality disorder. Her alter egos include a teenager roughly the same age as her daughter and a rifle-sporting man named Buck. I watched the first episode on the Showtime website and added the rest of the first season to my Netflix queue.

http://www.sho.com/site/order/preview.do#/US_Tara_s01_e01

En Soap

I watched this movie last winter break, but it's too good not to talk about. It’s a Danish film about a woman who, after her leaving her husband, moves into a new apartment and starts falling for her neighbor. The catch is he’s impatiently awaiting approval from the government for a sex change. It doesn’t get more romantic than that, does it?

Five inspirations

1. Minnie Driver in Good Will Hunting

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qkYlZNI9S4U

2. Danish design

3. This photo of Jessica Biel

Gear Magazine

4. Hasselblad cameras

http://www.hasselblad.com/mastersPublicJury

5. This scene from Paris, Je T'aime

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=00jJ6IHRflg

Recession, je t'adore

Remember that store-closing sale at Scarborough’s that I posted about a couple weeks ago? I was driving past the boutique yesterday and saw that they were having an even BIGGER sale. Figuring I would give it another go and maybe buy a couple of the dresses I held off on last time, I gave into my impulses and headed inside.

I ended up passing again on some Shelli Segal summer dresses, but what I did find were some old displays from Lancôme. One of the women working there said she would “give me a deal.” I eventually decided on three sets of these tablecloths that were originally meant for makeup counters. Scarborough’s had a surplus of them, and a lot of the packages hadn’t been opened yet.

I got two sets of the white cloths and used one of them as curtains in my bedroom at my parents’ house.

I also ended up with a set of these purple and green ones that will likely turn into table runners one day.

And the best part is that I got all three sets for a dollar! Not too shabby at all.

En hiver

Before I go home to north Austin tomorrow, I’ve been tying up loose ends and doing things I never made time to do this semester. (One of which was bargain hunting with my mom…but that’s a post for another day.) Between selling back textbooks and taking Maggie to the vet to get shots, I finally printed out a few photos and put them around my room at school.

These are photos I took of the butterfly display at the Neiman Marcus in the Domain last weekend

This is a picture I painstakingly forced my boyfriend to take with me. We used a tripod that I recently inherited and that is literally older than I am and the trusty self-timer setting on his camera. The quality of it kind of reminds me of Bergman’s Scenes From a Marriage

I also reattached these finger hooks I’ve had laying around for a while. I got them at Toy Joy, a local Austin toy store, a few years ago. They’ve turned out to be surprisingly handy.

Until next time, mes chers!

Let me tell you what I do when my day is over…

In between now and the last time I posted, I was busy having the best week ever :D

Good things about this week:

1. My semester is over!!

2. Finals this year weren't as exhausting/awful as I had been led to believe.

3. I got a really cute top at Zara today.

4. I found out I'll be interning with Linda Asaf this spring!

Linda Asaf

is a wedding/formal dress designer based in downtown Austin. She used to sell her dresses to Neiman Marcus, Nordstrom, and boutiques mostly in Dallas/Atlanta, but she started her local business in Austin about four years ago.

I’m extremely excited to be working with her next semester. Apparently I will be getting to do a little of everything: designing, sewing, business management, etc.

At first when I went to talk to Linda, I was afraid she might be a kind of Kelly Cutrone of wedding dresses, but she’s very nice and approachable. Can't wait till next semester!

images: http://www.lindaasaf.com/

J’étudie, j’étudie, j’étudie (mais pas vraiment…)

Tomorrow is the first official day of final exams here at UT, and there’s a lot of stress in the air! Maybe I’m just starting to get burned out seeing as how it’s my junior year, but I feel like I’ve been really distracted this semester.

Exhibit A – Government:

(Like the freckles? This is how I imagine little German children to look...)

Exhibit B – French Business:

Ecoutez

In the hopes to motivate myself to work, I’ve made myself a new playlist for studying.

The Life Aquatic

soundtrack, almost in its entirety, has been a faithful favorite of mine since I started college. The composer, Mark Mothersbaugh, is a genius! I’m pretty certain he’s scored every Wes Anderson movie, and he also created the theme song for Rugrats, one of my favorite Nickelodeon cartoons growing up.

Anamanaguchi

It takes a specific type of person to be able to study while listening to Anamanaguchi; the first time I heard them, I thought I was going to have an aneurism. I do NOT recommend them for workout music. I don’t have their full album – just a few songs I stole from my boyfriend’s iTunes, but the few songs I do have (“Video Challenge,” “Fast Turtle,” etc.) remind me of 1990s Nintendo.

J’écris depuis longtemps

For the sake of time (because I guess I should at least contemplate starting to study), I’ll just list a few other songs I think are worth checking out:

“Snowflakes are Dancing (Claire de Lune Remix)” – Isao Tomita

“Just like Honey” – The Jesus and Mary Chain

“A Higher Place” – Royksopp

“Sweatshop” – Brazilian Girls

“In the Morning” – Junior Boys

“Tommib” – Squarepusher