austin (part two)

people have been asking ann and dabney how on earth they wound up in austin, texas this month. besides two free plane tickets, they had never been to austin, or texas for that matter, and it seemed like a good enough place to go as any.

plus, austin is a crafty place, which seems to suit its (and ann and dabney's) oddballness just fine. home to the notorious austin craft mafia, it is chock full of creative people and stores that sell handmade things. ann and dabney went searching for all the stores they could, and were lucky enough to meet some great people in the process. and hey! they even crashed a party.



one of their first stops was parts & labour and creatures boutique, located on south congress. lizelle of parts & labour kindly invited them to a party later that night to celebrate the store's second birthday. there, they met the friendly anne marie, carly (who organizes stitch austin), and talena (co-owner of parts & labour).

on sunday, they popped by sparklecraft studio, which opened its doors for the day for a studio sale. tina is so frickin' nice, they couldn't stand it. somewhere this week, they heard that tina is one of the hosts (along with other members of the mafia) for stylelicious, a new show on the diy network. another reason for ann and dabney to subscribe to the channel...

in one of mercury design, ann and dabney gleefully ran into this: the art-o-mat.





an art-o-mat is a converted cigarette machine that now sells art, the proceeds from which benefit non-profit organizations. both ann and dabney had heard mention of such a thing, but hadn't yet seen one in the flesh. so, they gave it a whirl.


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