Austin, Tx – Part 2

January 14, 2013November 11, 20142 Comments

On our second day in Austin, we really didn’t take that many pictures, on account of the majority of our(my) time was spent shopping. The first evening had also fooled us into thinking it would be a lot warmer in Texas than it actually was. After shopping for about 1 hour I had to go back to our hotel to change into something a little warmer. Which was disappointing, as I was wearing one of my favourite dresses that Meg and I actually share custody of. We both fell madly inlove with this dress in the summer and decided to purchase it together.

We were lucky enough to be staying on South Congress Ave, which is home to an abundance of vintage and antique stores, and some delicious ~~wildly unhealthy~~ food. It was a bit unfortunate for Matt, as generally most vintage stores carried only women’s clothing. I am however, quite fortunate to have a boyfriend who will never complain about my lengthy and tedious quest to pick and try on clothing. Uncommon Objects was one of my favourite stores. It was a bit overwhelming at first, but if you have the time and patience, you can leave with some pretty amazing antique finds. I didn’t buy anything for myself, but I bought a little jewellery box from 1912 for Meg.

Austin also has an amazing array of food trucks. Gourdough’s has some pretty insane donut selections – yellow cake batter with fudge, apple pie filling with cream cheese icing, caramel and peanuts. Mighty Cone puts just about anything in a cone – chicken, shrimp, hot dogs, avocado. It was also vegetarian friendly which I thought was nice.

our hotel

yummmm! Gourdough’s!

In the evening we went to see The Body Shop at The Alamo Drafthouse Cinema. I don’t normally like going to see movies while I’m on a trip, but Matt had told me about this theatre, and I knew we had to go. They have a full dinner and drinks menu (and bottomless popcorn!!!) that you can order from at any point throughout the movie. I wish Toronto had something like this. It makes the experience of going to a movie an actual event. Before the movie we took a walk around downtown Austin, and took a peek inside The Driskell Hotel built in 1886, which is said to be haunted.

Next week I’ll share with you my third and final day in Austin. For the time being I’ll dream of that delicious donut that made my teeth sting so much. Hope you all had a great weekend. Mine was filled with lazy TV watching and silly card games with some good friends.

*photos by Matt and I

First Outfit:

Dress: Vintage
Tights: Target
Cardigan: UO
Shoes: Bass
Bag: Vintage

Second Oufit:

Shirt: Vintage DKNY
Pants: Cheap Monday
Trench: H&M
Socks: Target
Shoes: Bass
Bag: Vintage
Beret: Thrifted

Austin, Tx – Part 1

January 7, 2013November 11, 20144 Comments

As a Christmas gift this year, my wonderful boyfriend Matt surprised me with a trip to Austin, Texas to ring in the New Year and spend a couple days thereafter enjoying this beautiful (and friendly) city. One thing I knew I wanted to do during our trip was see a small western town. So with the help of the wonderful people working at our hotel, we got directions to a town that we could visit for a day trip. Matt had rented a car for the trip, which was a true life saver. I doubt we would have seen as much as we did without it. Especially, Wimberley, Tx.

Wimberley, located in Hays County, Texas, is a quaint town about 40 minutes outside Austin. The concierge at our hotel told us to take the scenic route to get there, and I am so glad we did. Looking out the car window all you could see was sprawling lands that went on for miles and miles. My excitement reached an ultimate high when we got to Wimberley and drove on a small gravel road right through a river (!!!) Unfortunately it was New Year’s day, so almost every shop was closed in town. But some friendly locals told us of some places we could visit, if only to see the old buildings and shops. I would just like to say every single person I met in Texas was incredibly friendly. They are some of the most hospitable people I have ever met. It was one of the first things we noticed. You were welcomed into almost every store/restaurant with a big friendly hello and smile. It felt wholly different than Toronto. I even heard a person say a genuine “Yeehaw!” This excited me more than it should have.

Here are a few photos we took in Wimberley. I apologize for the blurryness of some. My (also wonderful) parents bought me a DSLR for Christmas and I was still getting the hang of it at the beginning of the trip. So much to my dismay, a large number of photos from Wimberley turned out blurry.

wimberley7

After Wimberley, Matt wanted to have dinner at the infamous Salt Lick located in Driftwood, which we were told was not far from Wimberley. Being a vegetarian, there was very little to eat. I had some delicious mashed potatoes and coleslaw. But Matt got just about every barbecued meat they had to offer (or at least it seemed that way to me).

I’ll have a few more posts to share with you (I have not even said anything about Austin!!!), as I took about 500 photos during our trip. I hope you all had a great weekend!

*Photos by Matt and I

Dress: Vintage
Cardigan: Vintage via Public Butter
Necklace: Gift from matt’s mom
Socks: U/O
Shoes: Miz Mooz borrowed from Meg
Bag: Vintage via Junction Flea

Home for the holidays

December 24, 2012November 11, 20141 Comment

I am currently spending the holidays at my parent’s home in Ottawa, ON. I always look forward to this time of year, not only for the fridge stocked full of foods, but being able to spend time with my family. That has really become something special to me – now that I have lived in Toronto for the last 5 years. Ottawa to Toronto really isn’t that far of a distance, but you would be surprised to know how difficult it truly is to find time to see each other. I always enjoy coming home to see my brothers and our 3 family dogs, decorating the tree with my mom, watching old Christmas movies and baking (also eating) delicious treats – this year we are making a real red velvet cake, with beets and all, and a pumpkin dump cake (it is not quite clear to me what this is yet).

My mom had heard about the Tin Barn Market, and asked me if I would come with her to check it out. The Tin Barn Market is a pop-up shop located in the small town of Almonte, about 1 hr outside Ottawa. Originally, it was only opened from November-December for the holiday season, but this year they had opened for the summer and decided to extend their shop until, well, now. They sell antiques, but focus mostly on re-worked and re-purposed antique/vintage housewares. I probably got my love for antiques from my parents, as they get just as excited about these things as I do. It’s nice to share something like that with them. We ended buying quite a few things, which I think will be nice additions to our homes.

After the Tin Barn Market, we took a little stroll around Almonte. It is a historical town, with a lot of it’s original buildings still standing. They have been turned into modern restaurants and banks, but their exteriors still look to be in their original condition. We checked out the falls by the old mill, and I of course had to check out some of the downtown vintage stores. There is always something wonderful about small town vintage stores, not as many hands have picked through the racks, so you can always be sure to find something pretty great.

I hope you are all enjoying the holidays. It may be a little quiet around for the week as both Meg and I are spending what little time we have with our families until we return back to the ~~much warmer~~ city of Toronto. We are however, both very excited to share our Larkspur Winter Vintage ’13 photoshoot with you all this coming Thursday. So be sure to check back.

Happy Holidays!!!

Posted by Alex

The Scadding Cabin

December 3, 2012November 11, 20144 Comments

Last Saturday, Alex and I went for a walk, determined to take some blog photos despite the cold. We walked over to The Scadding Cabin which is just down by Lake Ontario, at the bottom of our street, and the light was so perfect, we decided it would be fun to take film photos instead of digital ones. Neither of us know a thing about photography, so we just kind of let the scenery and the sunset do all the work, and we are pretty happy with how they turned out…. It made us both want to learn a thing or two about film cameras, though, so that we can take even nicer ones in the future. These are our favorites from the roll of film we finished.

The Scadding Cabin, as far as I can tell, doesn’t have a very exciting, or scandalous history (except, maybe for the fact that John Scadding was killed by a falling tree), but it is the oldest building in Toronto!

The cabin was build in 1794, by John Scadding, who managed Colonel John Graves Simcoe’s estate back in England. John Scadding followed his employer to Canada in 1792 and built himself a tiny little one bedroom log cabin which burnt down, so he built himself another one, which is this one here. The cabin was moved from the east bank of the Don River, where it was originally built, to the Exhibition grounds, by the York Pioneers and Historical Society as a historical exhibit for the first Industrial Exhibition.

Apparently they open the cabin up for visits every year at the Canadian National Exhibition, which Alex and I actually went to this Summer, but we must have been too distracted by tilt-a-whirls and broken down fun houses to notice. Maybe next year we’ll take a peek inside.

Outfit Details:

Alex:

Velvet floral jumper, blouse, belt and bag: Thrifted

Watch: Nixon

Black desert boots: Aldo

Meaghan:

Sweater: Brandy Melville

Skirt: Urban Outfitters

Tan chelsea boots: Asos.com

Posted by Meaghan

Pingle’s Family Farm

November 26, 2012November 11, 20142 Comments

I’ll take any excuse I can to get out of the city once in a while, even if it’s just for an afternoon. So, when Kira suggested that a few of us go to a pumpkin patch to pick pumpkins, I didn’t think twice.

Pingle’s Farm is about an hour outside of Toronto, to the East of the city. I have a bad habit of romanticizing outings like this before they happen, and I have to admit I was definitely hoping for a tiny little farm with an old, pretty farm house and a family (with a dog) that greets you as you arrive. Like most things, though, Pingles was busy and full of lots of families with kids and everything was more modern than I expected. The land itself was sprawling and scenic and all kinds of Autumn picturesque, and once we took the tractor-pulled-wagon ride out to the actual pumpkin patch it was quiet and nice and we spent a little while just walking around deciding which pumpkins were the funniest looking, sipping coffees and enjoying the nice weather. At one point, we ventured into the corn maze, which I actually haven’t done since I was a kid. I forgot how quickly you end up lost. We made our way out, though, and tried to sneak into the apple orchard, but an old man saw us and we got nervous and turned right around.

The farm is only about ten minutes away from one of the greatest flea markets in the Toronto area, but we weren’t able to make it before it closed, so we’ll just have to go back again soon! I’m sure it will merit a blog post all it’s own – as will the lifetime supply of soup and cookies and muffins I’m going to make with all this pumpkin!

-Meaghan