Austin Junk

While we were in Austin, I had a chance to check out a few vintage shops, antique stores, and thrift shops. Y'all know how much I like to look through other people's old crap! HA! The first one that we went to may have been the most interesting. It was called Uncommon Objects and had a LOT of offbeat stuff.

I picked up this little flower frog for $8. That's so much cheaper than I've seen them around here! Not only that, but they had a lot of them, in all sorts of sizes and shapes too. It's really heavy though, and those spikes are sharp, so I'm terrified I'm going to drop it and then try to instinctively grab at it.

The card I made today. Actually, I made a bunch of them because Sawyer got some gifts recently and I need to get them out! I totally got the idea from my friend Susan, who got it from an email she got from Hero Arts.

We checked out few more vintage stores outside of downtown. I found this cute vintage apron at one called Hog Wild for a mere $12. We had stopped at one called Room Service that I found in a Guide to Local Businesses that was in our guest house, and happened to see Hog Wild across the street.

It's all hand embroidered and sewn by hand. I loved what they did with the two sizes of rick rack, and how sweet is that red gingham? I just think that it's so much fun to go into those stores and see stuff that you remember from when you were a kid.

This lovely I spotted in the window of a shop called Flashback that was next door to where we had breakfast one day. I went in and was greeted by a serious treasure trove of vintage clothes and accessories. If you could wear it, they probably had it there. I was sad that most of them were teeny tiny sizes. The antique metal F wasn't priced, but the owner sold it to me for just $5. She also told me a funny story about a wasp sting. You had to be there. :)

We drove by this place called Out of the Past and stopped because it had a lot of cool looking stuff outside in the parking lot. Holy crap was I totally not expecting what I saw when we stepped inside. See that photo? This place was HUGE and full of narrow aisles made of old bookshelves and random furniture, each piled as full as you see here. Stuff was casually sorted into sections - such as the toys were mostly all together, the Fiestaware was mostly all together, the milk glass was mostly all together, the records were mostly all together... you get the idea.

Nothing here had a price tag, which I found to be very frustrating. Very rarely do I see an object that I have to have regardless of the price. I like to use the price as a gauge of how bad I really want the item! It was a total pain every time I found something interesting to have to go find the shopkeeper and ask her "how much" and watch her pull a number out of the air. Usually, it was a number too high for my cheap self, which meant that I then had to take the item back to where I found it and figure out how to get it wedged back into it's pile without causing an avalanche.

This was the front counter. The photo does not do it justice, I swear. I love the sign that tells you not to touch or it will all fall down. This place was just insane!

I did leave with two things though. First, I got this typesetter's drawer. I've never seen one this small before and it was only $8. The full size ones are usually around $35. I want to do something like this with it. I also ended up buying a toy metal car for some baby who refused to leave without it. The doors and trunk opened so he was smitten. That set me back $3, but since he had found a dollar at Target earlier in the day, I figured he chipped in some.

Finally, we stopped at a place called Thrift Land. It had the usual stuff you'd expect to find in a thrift store. They had some filigree edged milk glass dishes but they were poorly made. The molds didn't leave clean edges and those were kind of sharp, which was a bummer. I ended up leaving with a milk glass Pyrex pie plate to match the one my friend Suzy gave me as a gift, and this sweet little mirrored tray. I wish I had a bunch of pretty perfume bottles to put on it, but I only ever buy one bottle of perfume at a time. I put some lotion and a mini-tiara on it instead! I just think it's so pretty and girly.

I had really wanted to find one of those metal 3-d stars that people put on their houses up there, but the only place I came across them was at Out of the Past and she wanted too much for them. Hers were all rusty too and I think I'd like to paint mine. Ah well, maybe next time!