Round Top...well almost

The vintage nerd in me strikes again! I headed to Round Top on Sunday to explore the miles and miles of junk for some hidden treasures. We actually went to Warrenton, which is outside of Round Top, they tend to have better deals, and defintely better characters (people watching is a must on these kinds of trips). For those of you that don't know, which again is probably most people, Round Top is a small town near the Brenham area that hosts one of the largest antique shows in the country. They put it on in October and March, they are so smart to do it when the weather is best. Here's a link to the shows website so you can see what I mean.  http://www.roundtoptexasantiques.com/index.html  If you are a serious collector or designer than you should never miss this but as a novice designer and really just a lover of vintage I opted for Warrenton, which also has great deals and isn't quite as stuffy. Digging through lots and lots of junk is part of the fun right? Here's a link to what goes on in Warrenton:  http://www.antiqueweekend.com/indexmain.html 

So driving through windy roads and small towns to get there would have been lovely enough but as soon as we opened the doors we realized the temperature had changed from the 85 degree Houston weather to the low 70's, it was perfect for outdoor junk hunting! We started out walking through one of the indoor buildings, which had some great pieces, but mostly too expensive and quickly headed outside to find some deals.

The first items I saw, I had to document this moment, they were just too special. Arn't they just lovely? Don't you want a velvet portrait of your pup?

I found some Baylor pride! This booth had literally thousands of pennats from 1900-now. This Baylor one was from the Bluebonnet Bowl They were a bit pricey but they were in awesome condition, sic em bears (sorry i had to).

Outside we had must better luck right away. We ended up around all the architectural salvage booths, which were INCREDIBLE. Doors and beams and windows, oh my! I'm not gonna lie I felt really cool walking around there with the many designers and architects there looking for items for their projects. Someday hopefully this will be me! There was fantastic furniture, doors, pieces from old buildings, tables, chairs, light fixtures, and all kinds of other repurposed items! It was soo much to take it!

When is a door not a door? When it's ajar.

Love it. Embrace it. you know you want to.

If only I had a giant white wall to mount all of these on.

In case you didn't know which state we were in.

I LOVE old doorknobs! I did find some glass ones that I'm going to use for a project (more pictures to come) but these just have so much character.

I loved soo soo many things but there were also some things you just think, "umm excuse me, are you really trying to sell this to the general public, ARE YOU CRAZY??

I hate to admit it but I kind of like this chair, haven't you always wanted to answer someone who asks you " Whatcha doin" and say in all seriousness " Just hanging around"

The cast of Golden Girls was selling their furniture, they didn't seem to have any takers.

Light fixture stolen from Area 51

love.

The road goes on forever and the party never ends

 

i wanted this sooo bad...cause really where CAN'T you use this?

I did end up finding some good treasures, including (don't think i'm crazy) this old TV!

Yes, it's ok if you think I'm crazy but I love it! The vendors were trying to tell me to use it as an aquarium. I quickly vetoed this suggestion: electrical wires+water= no thanks. But I am most likely going to use it as a decorative side table, it needs a little refinishing but it was super cheap and in great condition! All in all it was a fabulous day in Warrenton, the weather was great, we found some treasures, we left before my feet REALLY started to hurt, and stopped for a DQ dipped cone on the way home. Can you get much better than that? Here's a few pics of the other things I brought home with me:

Dr. Pepper crate

Super cute 60's glasses and doorknobs

There are really 4 of the glasses that match with the pitcher

Canada Dry crate

this was my favorite picture of the weekend, i admit i tweaked the colors a little bit but how cool are the colors on the chair, even if they are just different colors of rust?

I like nonsense, it wakes up the brain cells. Fantasy is a necessary ingredient in living, it's a way of looking at life through the wrong end of a telescope. Which is what I do, and that enables you to laugh at life's realities.
-Dr. Seuss

The Traders Village Experience

So, being that one of my favorite magazine's is Flea Market Style, natually I decided that I needed to explore one of the largest flea markets around the Houston area, Traders Village. So, bright and early Saturday morning before everything else I had to do that day I decided to venture forth and try to discover some one of a kind finds. Trader's Village is known as a giant flea market that, according to their website, is fun for the whole family. I didn't know how a flea market could be fun for the whole family, but I was about to find out.

The infamous sign

Cars as far as the eye can see. I'm not kidding this parking lot was HUGE, and it was FULL.

So as you can see there were thousands and thousands of people at this place, getting me much too excited. Walking in from the parking lot I spied countless cowboy hats and cut off overalls, many missing teeth and some new creative clothing choices. After venturing inside, aside from the people watching it was a major let down. There were a few semi-interesting things but mostly it was just a outdoor walmart with funnel cakes and a carosel. So, when your kids get tired of walking around, just send them to the carosel or the rock climbing wall, but be sure to do it before they get their funnel cake, corn dog, and icee (or things could get messy!). Just walking around and looking at all the people and what was being sold was quite entertaining. You could leave there with a dog, snake, sofa, bubble machine, pajama jeans, socks, and magic crystals and wouldn't have had to spend all day finding all those at different places! (note the sarcasam in this sentence) I've added a few of the best and the brightest from Trader's Village for everyone else to enjoy too.

Yes those are Texas wind chimes

Have you ever wanted to sit in the palm of a hand?

Need a six pack of bras?

No words needed.

Luckily, this morning did not end badly. Before I had other places to be I stopped by another antique store on my out. It was a completly different experience! I was a tad worried when I walked in and there were security cameras, giant display cases with thousands of dollars worth of glass and silver, and the urge to hold on to my purse in the off chance it should swing around and hit some priceless antique that I could never afford! But the deeper I dove into this place, the better the junk AND the prices got! I ended up finding two frames, some Texas postcards, an old typewriter tray and the coolest old wooden Dr. Pepper sign. The sign is my new favorite find, it's so art deco and cool I LOVE it!

If you live in Houston, you need to check this place out

Hello beautiful. This is my new (old) Dr. Pepper sign. I think part of it is missing but it's so awesome anyway. Dr. Pepper's motto used to be drink it at 10-2 and 4 and if you can see it has a clock with a 10-2-4 on it. And yes, I might be doing a little minor bragging that I found this for such a good price!

Arn't these so cute? They were super expensive but I just love them!

It ended up a productive morning!

So all in all it was a great morning, even if Traders Village was a bust. It was defnitely an experice and I'm glad I went, but I may not go back any time soon. I do love all my new finds though and can't wait to find awesome ways to reuse them.

What's old is new again!

So many to choose from!

I don’t know who decided that girls should wear earrings? I know they look pretty and can add the finishing touch to any outfit but they inevitable get tangled in whatever box your keeping them in, one gets lost never to be seen again, or the backs disappear into the black hole along with your other sock and that pen you can never seem to find. One more problem, and I promise there is a point to this vent session, but I forget which things I do have and wear what I wear everyday. I decided to find a new way to store my earrings this week. I had a vision for a cute little frame with mesh to do the job.  I had found an old frame at an antique store for $1 a few months ago but it was black and kind dingy looking. I spray painted it a sage green and then scuffed it up a little bit to make it look more vintage. It must have been fate because after scouring my garage I found the perfect roll of mesh screen, cut it to fit the opening in the frame. I  stapled the mesh to the back of the frame and voila! ( and really who doesn’t want to use a staple gun?) After adding the earrings and putting it on a clear stand, I now have a perfect addition to my dresser to display all of those earrings I thought were lost, tangled, or buried in a drawer! The problem now is there are too many to choose from!!

 

 The frame to start with

Now with the spray paint added (note the colorful drop cloth from other previous projects!)

This was my favorite part because I got to use the staple gun!

Almost finished

Voila! So many earrings to choose from, who knew! They will never be forgotton or tangled again.

A Little Blog Love

Wow! I can't believe that it's already March! My poor little blog has been neglected these past few months. So I decided to give my blog a little Valentines lovin and  dedicated this post to the coolest and most inspiring things that I've seen so far in 2011. Obviously most of these things have to do with either home decor or some kind of craft. This should not really be surprising to anyone that has met me. I'm that girl that buys 100 Flea Market Finds and Elle Decor instead of Cosmo or Vogue. Yep, want to find the way to my heart? It's called a Michaels or Hobby Lobby gift card and if you ever need a paintbrush, I'm your girl.


Company C: I absolutely LOVE almost everything from this manufacturer! Mixed with some great neutrals all of the color and pattern can add fun and personality to any room.

They have such bright and fun rugs and bedding, how can you not feel happy when you look at them!




Not to be outdone with the bright colors CB2 has great great furniture, bedding, and accessories that are both modern and playful.

How cute and chic is the little yellow sofa?

YES, this bedroom is super cute

I want everything from the books to the chair, and of course the dog.

The cutest dog bed i've ever seen!

Spoonflower:

Ok, if you were just looking at the pretty pictures before, STOP and read this now. Spooflower creates fabric out of your own desings. That is not a joke. You get to create your own fabric. I repeat you get to create your own fabric. So basically this means you have control over fabric, that you can you in your house or wear, that is entirely professional and looks great. It really boggles my mind, and also makes me really excited at all the ideas I could come up with. They also sell other fabric and styles designed by other people but I think that this concept is truly genius, and I'm jealous I didn't come up with it first.

This kit is fabulous!They have all sorts of tools to help make sure you never get burned with a hot glue gun. As I'm sure everyone has experienced, the hot glue gun can be your worst enemy, especially if it's late at night and your not paying your full attention to where all that glue is going. This kit is obviously one of my favorite things in 2011 so far.

Ok that's it for now but I have more fun things and new project pictures I'm putting up soon!
AND a little self promotion never hurt anyone so PLEASE PLEASE check out my Facebook and Etsy pages, and tell your friends! I love paiting and creating so my dream is to be flooded with people wanting custom stuff!

Nothing great was ever achieved without enthusiasm.

                                      -- Ralph Waldo Emerson

Saddle Up Cowboy

Ok so here’s a confession: I’m no good at blogging. Trust me, I’m not.  I’m working on but to be honest sharing all this info is kinda scary. Being vulnerable to what other think of you can be a daunting task. But in the famous words of John Wayne: “Courage is being scared to death... and saddling up anyway.” So get ready cowboy cause away we go!

I figured the best way to start was to try and challenge myself to be more creative. To think even farther outside the box and explore what my brain is really capable of. So to do that I’ve given myself a creativity challenge (I will explain it a little later). But first I wanted to show the definition of inspiration. It’s a word that designers and right brain thinkers use a lot but the real meaning get lost sometimes. Here’s Wikipedia’s definition:

Inspiration refers to an unconscious burst of creativity in a literary, musical, or other artistic endeavor. Literally, the word means "breathed upon," and it has its origins in both Hellenism and Hebraism. The Greeks believed that inspiration came from the muses, as well as the gods Apollo and Dionysus. Similarly, in the Ancient Norse religions, inspiration derives from the gods, such as Odin. Inspiration is also a divine matter in Hebrew poetics. In the Book of Amos the prophet speaks of being overwhelmed by God's voice and compelled to speak. In Christianity, inspiration is a gift of the Holy Spirit.
In the 18th century John Locke proposed a model of the human mind in which ideas associate or resonate with one another in the mind. In the 19th century, Romantic poets such as Coleridge and Shelley believed that inspiration came to a poet because the poet was attuned to the (divine or mystical) "winds" and because the soul of the poet was able to receive such visions. In the early 20th century, Sigmund Freud located inspiration in the inner psyche of the artist. Carl Gustav Jung's theory of inspiration suggests that an artist is one who was attuned to racial memory, which encoded the archetypes of the human mind.

Sorry for the long definition, but you get the picture now. I would love to write the rest of the history of concepts about inspiration, because as a bit of a history nerd I think it’s cool but whatever that’s not really my point anyway. At this point of reading this if your wondering where I’m going with this whole thing bear with me I will get there I promise. But if your interested here’s the link:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Artistic_inspiration .

So remember I said something about a creative challenge earlier right? Well here goes, PSYCH! Haha I had to, were not quite ready for that part yet but we are close. Take a look at this picture:

 It was taken while I was still at Baylor on an infamous trip to try to find George Bush’s ranch out in Crawford. It was one of those spontaneous and awesome adventures that you can have in Waco Texas, cause what else is there to do on a Sunday afternoon? With no directions and lots of wrong turns we eventually found it! We also found road blocks, secret service, and protestors. Yeah as the four girls in the convertible mustang, we drew absolutely NO attention to ourselves, yeah right! Here are some pics from that epic trip.

 This is Cari and Amy soo excited that we found Crawford

 Of course we had the top down

Adventure!

But that is a side track to the real story of the picture.We were lost on our way to find something and ended up finding this scene. Out in the middle of nowhere between Waco and Crawford is this undisturbed peaceful place where this picture was taken. Shouldn’t that say something about life? While we are lost and we don’t know where we are, we find something beautiful that can make us remember who we are and what life is all about. As someone who is somewhat searching for a direction this shot says, I may think you only have one road to follow, but if I keep going I will find that many roads will open up to me and that I can dream as big as the sky. That may sound a bit sappy but I said I was all in like John Wayne earlier so there it is, one girls interpretation of something so ordinary but so wonderful.

Here is the picture again but this time it’s in sepia tone.

This picture is the same picture but it makes me think something completely different. Replace all the warm fuzzies of the last picture with “Look out Toto run for the storm cellar cause’ there’s a twister a comin’”.  From someone who’s seen the Wizard of Oz multiple times a year for her entire life how could the iconic images from the movie not remind you of this picture?

Because the Wizard of Oz story comes to mind the Crawford image becomes a totally different image. I can see the calm before the storm. The almost eerie peace that comes right before chaos reigns and the world is thrown head first into upheaval. It throws that “life is short” phrase into my head and that I should throw on some red sparkly heels and follow the yellow brick road…well maybe not that last part but the red high heels are a must! It’s amazing how just a color change can alter the interpretation of this picture.

THE CHALLENGE:

HERE IT IS! I’m not joking this time. I am challenging myself to a creative task. If anyone else wants to take up this challenge to I would be more than excited, and I think you should! Here it is: Take this picture, in either form and create something from nothing. I mean to use this picture to inspire. From sketching to reality this has to be something that comes straight from the creative mind. How else can we utilize and harness the creativity that each of us has if we always buy something instead of make it or use someone else’s ideas all the time instead of our own. Ok stepping off my soapbox now, but that is the challenge and I hope that some of you try it so that we can share and collaborate ideas! I will be posting more later this week of sketches and designs and let you know what I come up with.

I’m finished with this ride but John Wayne was in a lot of movies and on a lot of horses so I guess that means I will be posting again soon!

 Love,

CAT

“Don’t think. Thinking is the enemy of creativity. It’s self conscious, and anything self-conscious is lousy. You can’t try to do things. You simply must do things.”- Ray Bradbury