abby try again

busy byrd

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 Watching The Byrd Collective work the other day.

Hope you enjoy!

Happy Monday.

 

Contigo by iphone

 

My birthday dinner at Contigo Austin, shot on my iphone.

I highly reccommend this kid friendly (and dog friendly) place! There is a gorgeous park across the street complete with a waterfall and blooming wildflowers. You should make a whole afternoon/evening of it.

We had ox tongue sliders (that were much more delicious than I'd thought they'd be), mussels in a green garlic sauce (amazing), and a cold potato, beet and arugula salad (better than it sounds). We skipped dessert as we had a cake waiting at home but the local strawberry shortcake sounded pretty incredible.

I had a sort of revelation that evening, as we walked among the flowers in the park. I'm actually really sort of starting to love Texas. It feels good.

Thanks for the birthday wishes. Happy weekend, folks.

trying it out

 

Yesterday I came home from some errands to a presnt from James. The present was a new Canon DSLR. I am super bummed that my trusty Yashica film camera is no longer with me, but I'm thrilled to jump into a digital world. I do love film but with a baby it is a lot of trouble.

These shots are from a little walk we took around sun up this morning. Some are very blurry and not quite right, but all together I'm pretty happy. I can't wait to learn more about this camera and get shooting again.

* * * * *

Thanks for the kind words about Feliz. Feels good to be up and running again.

Happy weekend to you.

Feliz

Hello again!

I have some fun news. Natalie and I have been working on a project for months now (gosh actually talking about it for over a year) and it's finally ready. We happily present to you: Feliz.

Feliz will be a whole weekend full of activities. We're having a meet and greet party at our sponsor store, West Elm (and maybe another fun get together but that's hush hush for now), workshops on Saturday and a holiday sale on Sunday. We're already working with about a dozen artists but we're taking applications for more!

If you've followed this blog you know I've done some events in the past. Those events usually featured artists that were chosen before announcing the event itself. This time around we wanted to open it up to others to try and find some new great talent (or maybe some old great talent we just didn't think to ask;). We are so excited to share the details with you over the next few months.

We are thrilled to be hosting this here in Austin. This whole planning process has been such a great way for me to get to know this city better and I can't wait to share more about that.

A huge thanks to Natalie for bearing with my new Mom brain and for being a super inspirational partner.

Thank you for reading, following and commenting. It may sound a little cheesy but you all have helped me through this transition into motherhood and a new life more than you'll ever know.

Thanks for taking the time to check out Feliz!

migas

Here's a non baby post for you.

If you are in Austin it's likely you can't travel more than 20 feet without running into a restaurant, liquor store, taco truck, deli, coffee shop or other place that sells breakfast tacos. They come in all shapes and sizes; almost always wrapped in foil and served with a little side of hot sauce. My favorite breakfast taco is a migas taco.

Migas tacos can be utterly flavorless, super rich, made with terrible american cheese or even no cheese at all...or they can be extremely delicious. My old standby was the Jess Taco from TacoDeli but I've found a new favorite that makes the Jess seem tasteless and bland. My new favorite migas taco can be found at this ridiculously over the top restaurant. It's totally worth dealing with the kitsch to try it. Be sure to ask for avocado on top and grab lots of salsas at the salsa bar.

And of you are missing my baby talk...I'm back to blogging over here.

something fun

So I mentioned last week that I was able to peek around the new Paloma's Nest Boutique and over here you will find a special little sneak peek and a great q&a with owner Caroline Colom Vasquez.

Thanks to Ez of Creature Comforts for letting me guest post and a big thanks to Caroline for taking the time to show me around her new boutique and for answering all of my questions.

For those of you in Austin, the boutique open Wednesday (tomorrow) and there's a grand opening party on Thursday! For more details about the event click right here.

All right...I'll be away from here for awhile...thanks so much for reading and have a great week friends!
 

summer time

I don't care what anyone says-it's summer here in Austin.

Happy Tuesday!

another look at Leah's studio

Hello everyone.

You may remember several weeks ago I posted a little sneak peek into Leah Duncan's studio. I promised I'd be back with more about her and some more shots to share...well here's that post finally :)

Leah is one of those artists that can easily inspire. After working in the graphic design business, Leah picked up and moved to Austin-then taught herself how to draw, how to sew and how to design patterns. Since 2008 she has been a force to reckon with; producing countless patterns, illustrations, paintings and prints. Not only does she produce beautiful things to hang on the walls but she makes tea towels, scarves, pillows, journals, t shirts produced by Target and hopefully many more things to come.

The ground floor of her home is her dedicated studio, filled to the brim with all of her creations. It was such a dream to be in it; photographing all the goodness. When I visited Leah was hard at work designing patterns for her Surtex booth (which looks great, right?). 

I hope you've enjoyed this little peek inside Leah's world. You can visit her blog here, her etsy shop over here and her main website here.

Thanks for letting us look around, Leah!

(p.s. if you are bored and want a peek inside some other studios that I've photographed-check this out)

 

Renegade Recap Part One

Hello friends! I hope you all had a lovely weekend. I am happy to report that we had at grand time selling (and looking and trading and buying) at The Renegade Craft Fair this weekend. Sadly I only took a couple of film photos and actually left my camera at home on day two. I did take these shots with my camera phone-so I hope you'll enjoy these little sneak peeks into the fair. I'll be posting later this week with more favorites. The shot above is part of my own display.

 

Here's the WonderCraft.

 

This is part of Leah Duncan's gorgeous set up. I want all of those pillow cases and tea towels. How can you pick just one?

Loved this bright display by Little Things Studio.

 

Met the lovely lady behind the beautiful jewelry line, Coatt. 

 

 

My pal Miss Natalie made an awesome pallet wall for her display.

 

I bought the cutest little penguin from the folks behind Mr. Sogs Handmade Creatures.

 

 

Was tempted to get one of these fun necklaces from Homako.

 

And was floored by the mini shop booth built by the team behind Paloma's Nest. Seriously, it was like walking into a little boutique. It was so lovely.

So these phone photos may look a little funny, huh? That's because I signed up for Instagram-an iphone app that allows you to share with others and use fun filters. I adore it!

All right, I hope you've enjoyed this fun recap of the fair. Today I'm loading my bigcartel shop with leftover prints from the sale and everything will be clearanced priced from later today until June 14. After that I'll be shutting down for a bit-I'm taking a break to visit family and celebrate a special wedding.

Happy Tuesday everyone!

p.s. I failed to get an iphone pic of my lovely booth partner-Paper Pastries. I so enjoyed sharing a booth with Margaret (and Tony). Be sure to check out her great blog here. 

SOON

WOW!

So next weekend, May 21+22 is a big one, I'll be participating in the Renegade Craft Fair here in Austin, Texas. Over 200 other artists will be there selling ceramics, fine art, hand made clothing, paper goods, jewelry and so much more. My table is very close to the entrance-booth 84. I will be splitting a space with Paper Pastries. It should be lots of fun. Come by and say hi!

It is free and open to the public from 11m-7pm both Saturday and Sunday. There will be bands playing, food for sale and crafts you can participate in, too. The artists are some of the best in Austin and many others visiting from around the country.

This is my last event before I have my baby (which happens in the begining of Septmenber if all goes well). I will have all of my prints, cards and bookmarks on sale. It'll be a maternity leave blow out, ha ha! It'll be a bit bittersweet, but I'm sure after my baby's a bit older I will get back into the swing of the shows.