Lots and lots of ACL photos.

I spent all day Thursday and part of Friday moving, so when ACL fest rolled around I was already wiped out. But I managed to pull it together cause it’s ACL!!!! Josh and I saw some great shows, laid on our blanket at others and just overall had a great time. My favorite shows were The National and Yeasayer. Such great energy at both.

I took my little Canon Elph to the festival.. so low light photos were a bit challenging, and my zoom didn’t really allow for fantastic band  close-ups, but I tried to be creative with my photo taking.

And so I present to you… my view of ACL 2010.

Josh and I went to the Texas Monthly BBQ Festival on Sunday to sample lots and lots of meats. In preparation, on Saturday night all I had for dinner was some chips and salsa. I think it worked, cause I was able to stuff my face with so much bbq the next day. I got to try bbq from so many places around the state, especially places I’ve been wanting to go to like Cooper’s in Llano and Snow’s BBQ in Lexington. Both delicious.

Last Thursday, the lovely bloggers from Apartment Therapy in Austin held a gathering, and House + Earth on West 6th Street was nice enough to host us and provide a tour of their showroom (thanks Scott!!!). If you haven’t heard of House + Earth (and I hadn’t.. they just opened recently).. this is a place you should keep an eye on and visit!

They sell eco-friendly products for when you are building, remodeling, etc.. all sorts of stuff. I was super-impressed by the safe insulation made from denim, flooring they sell made from old wine casks and the cork options. I want the cork.. you’ll see it in the photos below. So much stuff.. too much to even talk about and remember. I wish I owned a home so I could buy a bunch of their stuff to remodel. BUT, they still have stuff for you if you are a renter. One thing especially is their line of eco-friendly cleaning products. Super-inexpensive, and you bring back your bottles for low-cost refills. Great for the environment as less plastic bottles end up in our landfills.

I could say SO much more about this place, but instead.. I’ll let my photos do the talking from here on out.

Thanks to Austin Monthly, I got a pair of tickets to the Hill Country Food and Wine Festival Sunday Fair out in Driftwood. And thanks to the great advice of a friend already out there, I chose my clothing wisely. I donned boots and a sweater and Josh and I headed out. I was originally contemplating sandals. I would have had my feet submerged in mud in the first ten steps.

We drove out to Driftwood to the Vineyards at Salt Lick and parked, got our map and found out one of our favorite wineries had a booth! Four Vines Winery out of Paso Robles, California. We’re actually members of their wine club and have visited the winery, so it was great to see them. We headed to their tent first and had a delicious tasting. We wove around that tent, tried some more wines, had some delicious food from Dagar’s Catering. Then we discovered the Spirits Tent. A whole tent dedicated to liquor! We had a couple of tastings there including a very delicious drink from Balcones Distillery and Deep Eddy Sweet Tea Vodka, which is great and does not contain HFCS.

We went around the Whole Foods and Texas Monthly tents tried some more delicious wines, great food and sweets. Big notables — Kellie’s Kandies & Cookies were soo tasty and pretty. Blue Note Bakery had delicious chocolate bourbon squares, and Whole Foods had a delicious cold sliced lamb salad.

To end our experience, we hopped into the food demonstration tent to see Chef David Bull prepare Green Chili Buttered Bandera Quail, and then we each got our own plate! Mmmmm.

What happens when you get a bunch of food bloggers out for a potluck? A delicious lunch filled with variety, inventiveness and genius, that’s what. It was so nice to see some of the bloggers I’ve already met, and talk to a whole bunch of new bloggers whose blogs I have been reading, but hadn’t had the opportunity to meet yet.

I didn’t really plan on taking so many photos.. but with all the amazing food (and drinks).. I couldn’t help myself!

If this weekend was any indication of what’s to come this year in Austin, I’m very very excited. The weather was warm and blue skies were abundant. On Sunday afternoon, we headed out to the Zilker Kite Festival. Once we made it through insane traffic and parked, the walk to Zilker Park and around the festival was wonderful. We had our puppy who of course wanted to make friends with everyone, and she and I relaxed on the grass and watched Josh fly his snazzy Yu-Gi-Oh kite.