IN AUSTIN . . .

frown smile in full effect, go me!

OKAY SO CAN WE JUST TALK ABOUT AUSTIN FOR A MINUTE!?

Once upon a time when I was just a wee babe, Sir Brandon the Texan was studying accounting at UT Austin and watching a lot of James Bond movies with his roommates at 3AM.

I wasn't really a baby but I may have only been a freshman in high school. 

He probably also ate his body weight in queso. This seems like an easy assumption to make.

Now, having never been to Austin myself, nor in any part of Texas, really, I used to hear tales of his Austin and feel happily indifferent to the deal and never think anything more of it.

UNTIL. 

I flew to Austin for SXSW for a super hot minute to speak on a panel, Furniture Is The New Fashion, with Jenny Morrill, co-founder and CMO of Move Loot. (You can see the project we did that sparked our panel here! Oh gosh, that was maybe the most fun I've ever had on a collaboration. Ever.)

First of all, furniture IS the new fashion. In case you were wondering. Increasingly I feel in my life that I get more satisfaction from experimenting with the look in my home than I do with my clothing. I know how I want to dress my body by now--I mean, I'll only have this one body for the rest of my life and I've mostly figured out its coloring and proportions and there's not going to be too much changing between now and the grave, but with a house! A house is always changing. And its base tones are super easy to switch up, unlike skin tones. Especially considering how often we've moved, and how easy it is to work within that basic square shape we all get to live in. Our homes are definitely these perfect canvases and our furniture is easily the new fashion. Easily. 

Second of all, when I say I flew to Austin what I really mean is that I actually flew to Seattle, and then I flew to San Francisco, and then I flew to Austin. 

Thank you, airline industry.

But if you follow the trends within both industries (back to furniture / fashion) it's easy to spot how eerily they seem to echo the other. Fast fashion / inexpensive furniture / freedom of experimentation giving way to more sustainable shopping / quality-over-quantity / researched decisions -- consumers consume furniture now in the same ways we've lately been consuming fashion. Our options are limitless! The possibility for self-expression endless! We're showing off our homes to our friends and followers on social media now more than ever! Come on in, I'm proud of my kitchen!

Anyway. 

The highlight of SXSW, if you don't count our panel, were the puppies.

Brace yourselves.

WUT.

The one on the left is named Edward Cullen. No I know. Don't you want to squoosh him.

Woogle woogle woogle.

They were part of a St Bernard rescue group there to promote the Mophie. It was a cute deal, wherever you were in Austin during South By if your phone battery was dying, you could tweet out a help request using a certain hashtag and then a Mophie employee with a rescue St Bernard would come and find you and charge your phone for you. While you played with the puppies. Duh.

Clearly this and the micheladas were the highlight of my weekend.

MICHELAAADAAAAAAAAS.

I also got to visit with Stephanie Beard, owner of esby apparel, and eat Vietnamese fusion and play Pretty Woman in her store for a couple of hours. I tried literally EVERYTHING on. It was the best kind of morning. 

Stephanie specializes in the kinds of clothes that makes the woman under the fabric shine through. I can't think of a better way to describe that. You know that mix of effortlessness and perfectly executed shapelessness that says "don't notice my clothes, notice ME." But don't be dorky or anything, Natalie.

Her store is beautiful and right across the street from Elizabeth St, so do as Stephanie instructs and get the almond croissant plus the vegetarian breakfast bahn mi. Sub the egg whites for regular scrambled eggs and add some avocado. She's right about that. And then mucho sriracha. Oh man I'm ready to go back right this minute.

She also introduced me to Topo Chico.

Thank you Stephanie! I want your chair!!!!!!

After that I met back up with Jenny and her friend for gelato at Dolce Neve, and then we explored South Congress for some shopping + thrifting in the perfect 85-degree weather.

We finished up at the Hotel San Jose for more micheladas in the sunny sunny sunshine (MICHELAAADAAAAAAS) and then a quick Uber back to the airport for the red eye home. 

When I landed in Idaho, there was snow on the ground.

See ya indeed.

I'LL NEVER LET GO, JACK

Uh, just some photos from our gator trip last month in NOLA. 

That is all.

IN NOLA . . .

Get ready for some photos of gumbo!

The tourism board of New Orleans sent me an email earlier this year asking if they could bring us to NOLA to visit their city. This is one of those instances where I read an email and then laugh at it, like, what the hell is my life these days, and then immediately write back and say "OMG YES PLEASE."

It was the perfect break in the middle of moving and it felt so nice to have something to look forward to when I was stressing over packing + planning + ripping up roots. So, a huge triple thank you to the tourism board of NOLA and to the entire city of New Orleans from the Holbrook Trio for giving us such a neat experience.

There is no way I could ever do this city justice, but after the break, a few thoughts + photos from our time in New Orleans.

Oh man! I don't even know where to start! There is so much history + culture packed into that city, it is pure eye candy + brain candy + ear candy. NOT TO MENTION BEIGNETS. It was a dream come true to finally see the city in person. 

(Next time we're taking bikes!)

Of course we weren't able to do everything we wanted to be able to do. I think of all the little corners of the city off the beaten path I could have explored + the little hole in the wall restaurants that could have served me some really intense crawfish + it makes me want to go back immediately + stay for a month. But we were a trio of first timers, and we wanted to see all the big classic sights, while hopefully preserving a little chunk of time for wandering. There is probably no better city in the world for wandering around in than New Orleans. 

Ah shoot I think I easily took 500 pictures in the French Quarter alone. 

I loved how the street names were listed on street corners in the French Quarter three times each--tiles on the sides of the buildings memorializing the names of the street during the Spanish rule, traditional street signs memorializing the names of the street during the French rule, and the actual street names as recognized by the United States Postal Service on tiles on the sidewalk. 

It was sobering to see so much of the devastation from Hurricane Katrina still around, even ten years later. It's such a big job to put a city back together again, we watched it happen from our comfy roost in NYC--that Freedom Tower is only barely up + finished just this year. From the highway around town we were given a super generalized tour of the destruction and subsequent rebuilding efforts, and it was amazing to see the love + dedication we have as a human race to picking ourselves up when things knock us down, and how much work there is left to be done. There is so much culture down there that needs to be preserved. It's a real big job.

HERE! Ok ok. Here in front of Marie Laveau's apartment houses you can see the Louis Armstrong arch at Congo Square. All of my favorites in one shot! The weekend following our week in NOLA was the Satchmo Summerfest and we weren't able to catch it, and I could have been devastated BUT! Brandon reminded me of the Lionel Hampton International Jazz Festival here in Moscow, and anyway, xylophones.

New Orleans is just flippin charming. The general pace of life, it wasn't even a day and a half in and I was fully prepared to stay there the rest of my life. 

However. Humidity bloat is real. Let's be honest.

Those palm leaves! 

There is a little needlepointing joint right there called The Quarter Stitch that is SO WORTH THE VISIT. I walked in and fireworks burst outta my face. 

Um, hells bells it was hot.

SOUVENIRING /

I know this is dorky but us Holbrooks like to walk through every damn souvenir shop in existence when we're traveling somewhere. Buy me some flipping alligator jerky already.

MUSIC IN JACKSON SQUARE /

HEY this part I could get used to for sure! All those brass instruments! And those sweet young boys playing them!

Drop a dolla in the bucket

The boy is just becoming interested in music lately. He loves to mime different instruments when we're driving around in the car listening to the radio (CAR DANCE PARTIES), so every time we'd see a musician on the street we'd make a big long stop of it and answer all sorts of questions about all sorts of things. He's pretty cute. What will I do when he discovers sports I will be so useless to him. 

THE WINDSOR COURT HOTEL /

We stayed at the Windsor Court Hotel in a perfectly enormous suite that had two enormous vanities flanking the restroom and two separate entrances to get there. Most mornings Huck would get his preliminary calisthenics in by racing laps around it like a lunatic. We watched a lot of cartoons. Cartoons these days are pretty funny. The Windsor was fantastic. Recommended.

  

WE ATE ALL THE FOOD /

Including fried oysters at Cochon! I am so the bravest ever!

You can stop in cute spots for beignets all over the city. But you really do have to go with Cafe Du Monde, there's just no way around it. They aren't even the same species, the Du Mondes and the non Du Monde beignets.

Ahh there we go.

The best seafood gumbo of my life I had at The Gazebo Café. It's right between Du Monde and the French Market. Live music, heat so swampy it steamed all the wrinkles out of my clothes.  

Speaking of The French Market! BUY ME ALL OF THOSE HATS, BRANDON. (That's not sweat on that boy -- it's a cup of water dumped on the head. Staying cool the old fashioned way! Haha.)

Second gumbo runner up: Gumbo Shop! Get the bread pudding! 

Christmas card worthy.

We tried to walk home from Mandina's, but not even a few blocks down and an enormous thunderstorm broke out and we got fully drenched in seconds. We lucked out and found just the right bus line to take us home. It was raining so hard that the water pooled down the bus windows like Venetian curtains, and with the air conditioner on full blast the hairs on our arms stood up on end. Huck + I shivered and cuddled together in our wet clothes, and Brandon had a friendly conversation with an old toothless lady who had very strong opinions on where to get the best gumbo, it was kind of a beautiful moment.  

CEMETERY TOURS + VOODOO SHOPS / 

Who-do? Voo-doo! 

Sorry.

Let's get this out of the way right now. Nic Cage bought this tomb for himself. 

Nic, thank you for being ridiculous. I love you. 

The voodoo / priest-y priestess-y history in New Orleans is SO COOL. I've been known to take way too much stock in astrology and crystals and talismans and junk, but I am only a spectator here. I still got a little buzz every time I got to stop + peek through a voodoo shop. Best one: Marie Laveau's House of Voodoo. I really do think those early priestesses were onto something down there. All religion aside, they really owned that city, man. 

Hi, I'm in an episode of The Originals! These photos are from St Louis Cemetery #1. Lafayette Cemetery #1 in the Garden District was my favorite by far. This whole baking in a tombstone like a pizza and then turning into dust thing is creepy and fantastic.

PRESERVATION HALL / 

Preservation Hall!!!!!!! This was such a fun night.

The way that boy's face lit up when the band started playing! It was one of those mom moments that I'll always remember. And then he was out cold by the middle of the second song. This child can sleep literally anywhere and through anything. #thankyourstrollernaps

Brandon told me later this was practically a spiritual experience for him, we highly think it can't be missed. It was easily 100 degrees in there with all the people packed in so close.

Also quite spiritual were the gyros next door!!! YUM.

CITY PARK /

On possibly the hottest and swampiest day of them all, we wandered through City Park. We stopped and played at  Storyland and we rode a couple rides at Carousel Gardens. We tried really hard not to melt.

Um, hells bells it was hot. 

SWAMP TOUR /

Can I just tell you though. The best part, I think for all of us, was the swamp tour. Holy mother of pearl. We had a pontoon all to ourselves (it's not really called a pontoon), which meant we got to ask the most ridiculous questions of the tour guide, and pet a wild pig (!!!!) and even feed a marshmallow to a gator. (Me and those gators have mucho in common). It was GRAND. 

GATORS!

WE DID GO TO BOURBON STREET /

Mmmeh.

BUT EVEN BETTER, GET A SITTER, GO TO FRENCHMAN STREET /

Now we're talking! Perfect amount of seedy, really great music, real good hot dogs.

Down near the entrance to Frenchman street there's a great thrift store, full of what I assumed might be costume + movie set supplies by the looks of it. I spent an entire hour in there poking about through the dust while the city got a smattering of afternoon rain and I think it's one of my favorite memories of the trip.

IN CLOSING, IS NEW ORLEANS A KID-FRIENDLY TOWN? /

You know what, I think it's really more a matter of if your kid is New Orleans-friendly. There were maybe five minutes total of the trip where I thought to myself, "eesh," but pretty much you're going to find that anywhere and the vast majority of the fun things to do in NOLA are fully family-friendly. So if your kid likes live music, is happy with walking around, enjoys playing at playgrounds + visiting hotel pools, seeing zoos + aquariums + eating lots of doughnuts, well. You might have yourself a New Orleans-friendly kid. 

Fireworks our last night from the balcony of our room. In my undies. And compression socks. lol. #secksy

Thank you, NOLA! We had a hell of a time!