Tis the Season.........for Birthday Parties and Round Top, Texas!

You may wonder what birthday parties and Round Top, Texas have in common.

In my world, a lot.

My younger daughter was born on March 30, and each year I am faced with the dilemma of when to head over to Round Top and when to celebrate her birthday! Dealers begin setting up in the surrounding towns and at different shows around mid March, and then continue on into the first weekend of April. Each year I plan a little differently - sometimes to go early and "hit the fields",  as we say, and some years I go later, and go to Marburger Farm and the original Round Top Show. 

Both of these images were taken from a fabulous website with the best guide to this season in Texas.

The Cactus Creek Daily, edited by Texas native, Fancy Smith, is full of great tips on antiquing as well as other design and decorative info. Check out the website for a great read!

Did I mention that March 30 is also our anniversary? So, every spring it gets just a little touchy as to exactly when Mom heads out to go antiquing.

So, first things first - this weekend we celebrated my daughter's 16th birthday.....shhhh.... I know the 30th isn't until Tuesday, but we decided a Friday night was better for a party than a Tuesday anyway.

I set up tables and chairs on the back porch,  flung an assortment of cotton tablecloths over them, and finished them off with a few candles and Gerbera daisies in shallow, round pots.

With the help of my talented and creative friend,John Phelps, aka "JP", we had a true southern dinner for 30 teenagers - complete with a roaring outdoor fire and lots of tunes. We served fried chicken, twice baked potatoes, mac and cheese, green bean casserole, and drop biscuits with chives and bacon. As JP called the event, "Hannah's Carbo Load Birthday Dinner".

Oh, and carrot cake with cream cheese icing and a vanilla cake with chocolate mousse filling!

  In spite of a bit too much wind, we had a perfect evening for outdoor dining and it was just cool enough have a fire. Texas weather is unpredictable and often we go straight from freezing to death to positively burning up, so it is so nice to actually have some weather that is neither too hot or too cold.

Hannah and Dad try to light the candles in spite of the strong breeze - lots of hands to block the wind!

So, a wonderful time was had by all,  and now I can think about next week and my trek over to some  the best antiquing ever! 

After waking my precious baby girl up on Tuesday morning, wishing her a wonderful birthday and of course, wishing my husband a wonderful anniversary day as well, I will head east on Highway 290, through Austin and on into the next prettiest part of Texas (next to us, the actual hill country).....through the rolling hills and on to the the fields, of wildflowers and antique dealers!

First stop will be Marburger Farms, as the it opens on Tuesday morning. Last fall I found several treasures at this show and learned of a funny coincidence after writing my following blog post, as well.

I wrote about this dealer, Mary Jackson, and about several items I bought from her. Little did I know that Joni of Cote de Texas fame, bought the clock that is in this photo. Only later did she write to me that I had a picture of her clock! We did not see each other at the show, so I guess she came along after I shot this photo and bought her clock! There are so many dealers there, though, so it is funny that she and I would buy from the same one!

I don't remember whose booth this was, but I do remember thinking that big pink iron piece on the wall was so cool. Wonder who got it and where it is now?

Loved all the beautiful things in this booth. The show is too large and the variety too vast to possibly cover in one blog post.

I snagged this photo below from Fancy, too, because Richard Schmidt  is an amazing jewelry designer whose work I just love. I bought several pieces from him a year ago and look forward to visiting with him and his lovely wife again. 

You can find Richard on the square in the actual town of Round Top during the shows. He and his wife are delightful and so, so talented. I learned of his work originally from my sweet sister in law, Tanya!

Photo  Richard Schmidt Designs website.


As much as I love all of the venues during this antiquing season in Texas, I am sentimental about the original Round Top Antiques Show. I have shopped it for years, helped my dear friend and seasoned antique dealer, Barbara, with her booth for many years,  and sold at the show in the red barn a few times. I always love seeing the show and it never disappoints.

Photo by Tre Dunham in Texas Homes and Living

 My good friends, Randy Nicholson and Joe Dobbs, always set up a spectacular booth, and this one a few shows back was a showstopper. I wanted these wonderful horses, but they were already sold and going to Belgium!

There are those who believe that the only true treasures (aka bargains) to be found are in the fields and not in the organized shows. To them I say,  you really, really do not know what you are missing. There are so many dealers from so many places who set up in the various shows, and there are as many different styles and antiques as there are dealers. 

The Round Top show is no different. Yes, you will find the very early, very expensive, museum quality American antiques at this show, and those certainly have their place in the hearts and homes of many collectors, but you also find the vintage, the quirky, the trendy. There are some amazingly talented dealers who set up the most beautiful and creative booths and I love seeing every bit of it!


Two old friends, and one time Fredericksburg locals, Ed and Michael, have the fabulous shop, Leftovers in Brenham, Texas...just down the road from Round Top.

Photo from Leftovers Home and Mercantile, Brenham, Texas


They also set up in the big red barn, part of the original Round Top Antiques Show, and always have an amazing booth full of unusual and fabulous finds!

I could go on and on about all the great dealers and shows I am about to visit, but it is late and a girl must get her sleep to build up endurance for the antiquing journey.

Stay tuned for a report when I get back, and thank you to those who read this far and never give up on me when I don't post for days on end. Life gets in the way sometimes, but I do love this blog thing when I can get to it. 

Good night, but not good bye.



 

Paintings, Pottery, and Pumpkins - Artists Debra Gunter, Otis Dozier, and Ford Ruthling

If you know me, then you know I can get a little tangential at times, especially if I am excited or really interested in something. One thought or idea leads to another and soon I am wondering aloud "Now why am I telling you this?" or "How did I get on that subject?"

So, here is my new painting, still unframed, propped on the mantel, and sharing it with you will lead us into art and fruit and back to Mexican pottery (which I never really finished due to extreme frustration!)

My very talented friend, Debra, is the artist. The painting has been on display, along with other fabulous pieces by Debra and a few other talented artists, at a local bakery and cafe for a while. I fell in love with it months ago and tried to resist buying it (for practical reasons, like my house is full - silly me!) but, alas, it waited for me until I just couldn't resist any longer! If you noticed details in my earlier photos, you may remember a lovely bluebonnet painting hanging over my fireplace. It came with my husband when we married (one of those package deals - he married me AND my daughter; I married him and his animal heads , furniture and HUGE stereo speakers), and while it is a fine painting, it is too predictable and traditional for me, and has been moved to the hallway leading to our bedroom.

Debra's painting is so colorful and full of that Mexican influence that I am drawn to. I love her style and palette.


This is a painting by an old Texas artist named Otis Dozier (1904-1987). He was part of a group called the "Dallas Nine". They were recognized in the 1985 exhibition entitled "Lone Star Regionalism" at the Dallas Museum of Art which payed homage to the abundant and uniquely Texan legacy that this group cultivated and sought to pass on. He has become quite collectible over the years and there is a wealth of information on him as well as the other painters. (I could do an entire post just on this group.) I bought this particular painting from his estate and am very fond of it. It may seem redundant hanging in my living room with Debra's painting, but I love that his was done in the 1970s, in his older years, and hers completed just a year or so ago, in her early years of painting. I seem to be drawn to fruit as subject matter as you will see in my other collections.


Just a glance at a bowl of vintage stone fruit(surprise, Italian, not Mexican!), old blue stone grapes, and a Mexican burnished pot from Tonala. The tin floral arrangement is also vintage Mexican.


As my girls say, "Random, Mom" , but here we go. What do you do when the creative urge hits and you are totally "losing it" with anything related to the computer and you just have to do something new in your own home, right now! (tell me I am not the only one with this disease!) I usually re-arrange furniture or start designing pillows! Last week I was in San Antonio for an art class and had a little time afterwards to wander through a few fabric stores and poke my head into a Pottery Barn.

Let me digress........(see, I told you) A few months back Joni (former sister in law, new friend and blogging queen, Cote de Texas) and I had an email conversation about my frustration with my living room. I moved into this house, threw everything together, and then ran out and bought new pillows - Thomas Paul, big, bright trendy colors - and thought they would mix in with what was already a variety of styles. I wanted to buy something from my friend who had just opened a new shop called "RED" (fabulous store - visit it at www.redinfred.com) and I wanted a breath of fresh air - something different and new. The mix just never felt right, though, and I realized I have to be true to my style, regardless of what is "fresh and new". Joni provided clarity and we talked about tying colors and fabrics together in a room - basic stuff that I forget in my excitement and impulsivity sometimes.

Okay, back to the pillows. I found a great looking, inexpensive cotton/linen woven fabric is a blue and cream animal stripe. Loved it - bought a few yards. When I walked into Pottery Barn I spotted these great floral linen pillows - what do you know! they work perfectly with my new fabric. Talk about immediate gratification! No fabric to order, good looking linen that cost pennies compared to anything in a showroom...........

I got back to Fredericksburg, called one of the workrooms I use, and voila! new pillows. Did I mention the burlap end pillows from Pottery Barn that I added a strip of the blue/cream fabric on to customize the look? For today, I am very happy with the results.


Look! over there in the wing chair......one of the great pillows from "RED" that just doesn't work in my room! It is gone now, and actually the wing chair is going to be slipcovered in a blue and white ticking to get everything back on course with "my style"! (and yes, there is that bluebonnet painting, too)

Oops - there I went again. I actually took this photo to show you the Mexican fruit banks in the old carved wooden bowl on the coffee table. (Surprise, those are old Mexican tin candlesticks on the table too!) The fruit banks are from the 1920s -1940s and are from Tlaquepaque, Mexico.


These vases are some of my absolute favorites! When I was first attracted to this pottery, someone called it "Mexican majolica". I don't think that is any sort of official name, but the glaze is similar to English and French majolica, as I mentioned in a previous post. This is referred to as drip ware in the books on the subject, and is from Oaxaca. I am crazy about the applied flowers on the vases!


This is the photo of the plate rack in my breakfast room that just refused to publish the last time I discussed Mexican pottery. It is a mix of old and new pottery from different regions. I have gathered these pieces for years from all over the place. At times I have grouped my pottery by color, sometimes by style and region and sometimes by function - like all of the teapots together on a shelf or in a hutch. I thought about regrouping for this post, but decided to keep my pictures and information general at this time.


Finally, I plan to surround this original print ("Cows Have an Inner Light" / "Remembering my Grandmother - Frieda Maurer") by Ford Ruthling , 2001, of Santa Fe, N.M. with Mexican plates. I have not finished, but wanted to include the photo of my upstairs hallway, painted in bright melon and home to yet more colorful, vintage drip ware from Oaxaca, Mexico!

If you are interested in learning more about Mexican folk art or any of the artists I have featured, I am happy to refer you to great educational sources for more information. Just let me hear from you!