feathers in our hair, flowers everywhere…

Thursday, my friend Laura’s road trip (follow along here) led her to Austin, Texas, where the geek cred runs high at the moment, and the herds of skinny black jeans roam through town.

We started at a trailer park since Torchy’s Tacos are “damn good,” and this month’s special is a Mr. Pink:

mr. pink taco at torchy's tacos

mr. pink sign at torchy's

Laura ordered a fried avocado taco,

fried avocado taco from torchy's tacos

and then we headed over to the Best Little Smorehouse in Texas,

otherwise known as La-Dee-Dah, the Airstream of Awesome,

the la-dee-dah airstream of awesome in austin

a place where handmade letterpress cards and feather headbands awaited us.

I gave the owners sweatbands with the logo of the community site I work on, and their reactions matched ours at the delightful headbands:

Laura and I have received compliments everywhere we’ve worn our new fascinators (the name this millinery should be called, my similarly fascinating friend Kevin tells me), including at the PBS Engage headquarters this week (where my other friend Kevin took this with Laura’s camera) at the Mooseknuckle Pub.

I do think Tyra would scold me on my weak pout below, but all attention should remain on the feathers, please.

Nearby La-Dee-Dah, Laura liked Sugar Mama’s “Marilyn Monroe” cupcake (with ethereal icing so different from D.C.’s CakeLove’s heavy buttercream) that I unwrapped more than the “James Brown” cupcake I maintain has a superior texture to any other in cupcake shops across the country.

cupcakes from sugar mama's (james brown and marilyn monroe)

Sitting beneath handmade aprons, we deliberated before journeying off to find vintage ballgowns (Mom, I’m including this one for you—it reminds me of one of Nana’s),

and padded rain jackets (not including this one out of deference to Jessica), only the first day in our Austin adventures (more soon about yesterday’s house party revelations in Texas brisket)…

Related posts:

  1. the hardest working cupcake in austin
  2. a path strewn with yellow flowers
  3. adventures in brisket

  1. MicaNo Gravatar:

    Austin looks like a fairytale land: feather headbands, ball gowns, s’mores, cupcakes, and tacos. I love each of those things more than the last!

    You have such a great way of capturing a city on film. I’ve always heard that Austin is fun and funky, but your post really shows that side the best. (FAR better than UT grad students telling me that they’re too busy and poor to enjoy the town.)

  2. KristenNo Gravatar:

    Thank you, Austin is magic. It’s hard to turn the camera off here :) just wish I could stay longer–

  3. jessicaNo Gravatar:

    hahah! so delightful!

  4. Vern M's ApronsNo Gravatar:

    I’ve not yet been to Austin, but I hear absolutely nothing but good things about it from people who go to UT there, all the way to people who just like to hang out in hip places. Everything you mentioned to eat seemed delicious… I really want some of those tacos now!

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Posted Sunday, March 15th, 2009, 1:40 pm * Filed in Beauty, Food, Travel, Video. * Tags: , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , . Follow responses through the RSS 2.0 feed. Leave a response, or trackback from your own site.