While I was in Texas I was able to hit some pretty good thrift stores in Austin, some vintage stores, and various antique malls and flea markets.

Overall I found Austin to be overpriced and somewhat picked over … with a few exceptions.

Room Service Vintage has two locations and both seem to carry about the same sort of items: ’50s, ’60s, and ’70s clothing, dishware and furniture, at reasonable prices.

Cream Vintage has very fairly priced vintage clothing, with a slant towards ’70s hipster t-shirts and Levis turned into miniskirts. Bright and cheery, and they also do rock shows.

La Luz Home and Fashion carries midcentury modern furniture, vintage clothing and glassware. Clean larger space, fair prices.

Austin has tons of thrift stores and I managed to hit about 15 of them. I only purchased one item, but I think if I lived in Austin and could hit them on a more regular basis they would yield some good items.

While in Dallas I hit a GREAT hipster antique mall, with what looked like about 15 vendors, called Dolly Python. If I would have been flush in cash and ready to mail items home, I would have picked up a huge pile of junk. This is a great place if you want to find a vintage pair of cowboy boots or some ’60s clothing. Well worth a stop if you are in Dallas.

One place that I found super shocking was Beckie’s Antiques and Tobacco in Dallas.

WTF? Yeah, I need a Heywood Wakefield dresser and a carton of Camel 100’s. She was closed when I drove by, so I can’t give you a full recap.

Around the halfway mark out of Dallas we stopped at a “barn sale.”

This turned out to be another perma-sale under a very large carport/covered porch. They had some all right stuff, but no prices. Not one person came out of the house to help us and I don’t think anyone was even home.

Earlier in the week someone had mentioned that we should hit the Austin Flea Market. My boyfriend and I both wanted to get leather belts with our names stamped in them and we heard that this would be the place. When we drove up there was a line of cars to get into the parking lot.

This place was insane. It was all crazy Mexican items (in a good way). They sold new everything. Tires, corn on the cob, cowboy boots – you name it. Nothing was old, so that was sad, but it was cool to walk around and people watch. I loved this booth filled with lace for dressmaking.

We both left with belts, so it was a good end to the vacation.