Thursday, November 5th, 2009 - a day which will live in design blog infamy. The creative forces behind
Design Crisis,
Designers' Brew, and If The Lamp Shade Fits came together in Austin, Texas for one helluva weekend.
To get the party started, Karly met Molly and me at the airport with giant water bottles filled with cocktails. As I was coming down the elevator to baggage claim, there was KP shaking the beverages like huge maracas. I was instantly in friend. We stayed up until nearly 2am catching up. It was like coming home to sisters you didn't know you had.
The next day kicked off with brunch at Trudy's, a Mexican restaurant with a huge covered patio. Wally, the world's dearest waiter served us a boatload of cocktails fueling us up for an afternoon of vintage shopping. KP and EB then took us to
South Congress, the world famous vintage, thrift, and gallery street.
Uncommon Objects is an upscale antique mall with incredibly merchandised seller booths. We all did our best to talk Karly into this oddball Mt. Rushmore family portrait, but she couldn't think of a single spot for it in her magazine-worthy home.
I picked up the brass tray and metal basket-weave pencil cup there. The bracelet and small plate are from
Mercury - hands down the most fabulous design store in downtown Austin.
That night we all gathered for dinner at Karly's house and were joined by Andrea from
House of Slappy. She is expecting a baby boy later this winter and looks incredibly radiant. We had such a fantastic time talking that dinner didn't wind down until after midnight.
Saturday afternoon was reserved for skeet shooting. Save Erin, none of us had ever even held a gun. We were fortunate enough to have Texas' most patient instructor, Joe, former pastor and interior decorator (don't ask). We each managed to knock several clays out of the sky. I have the fever and must convince my Prius-driving liberal-votin' tree-hugger of a husband that I desperately need a firearm.
Afterwards, we headed to downtown Austin to luxuriate in some upscale design showroom shopping. We stopped by Ligne Roset and I got to roll around on a Togo for the first time. There would have been video, but the manager was a friend of Karly's and I didn't want to embarrass KP.
We each manged to spend tens of thousands of imaginary dollars in a matter of minutes. I still don't understand why Karly wasn't willing to sell a kidney to fund the purchase of this chair.
After feeding Ike, Erin joined us for dinner at
Opal Divine's. We parked it on a picnic table outside for three hours and ate and drank our asses off.
We stumbled a few blocks over to
Malverde, designed by the prolific Austin-ite
Joel Mozersky. An incredibly gorgeous place, inexplicably filled with douche-tastic patrons dressed like Kevin Federline.
After finding our sea legs again, we headed to Rain, a gay bar with a great disco ball treatment in the entrance to which my photo does not do justice. We laid claim to a cabana lounge and watched the fun. The little guy on the right cruised by in his BVDs offering shots for $3. It's been a while since I've been served by a man in his underwear.
Sunday was our day of rest. We enjoyed a late breakfast and then dropped Molly off at the airport. KP and EB took me to an over-the-top toy store to get a present for The Pea. We picked up tacos on the way back to Erin's place and spent the rest of the afternoon hanging out with baby-licious Ike and watching "Kung Fu Panda." Around 6pm, Karly and Erin took me kicking and screaming to the airport. I've never seen three days pass so heart-breakingly quickly. Well, there's always Round Top in the spring...
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A couple of weeks ago I made reference to some good news I couldn't wait to share with you, Dumplings. Well, today is the day I can tell you that La Lamp Shape has been mentioned in an article on Denver design in the December issue of Elle Decor.
