Dogs are all over the Antique Show. Dealer dogs, shoppers’ dogs, the occasional box of puppies for sale, and of course, there’s the dog art. Want to take a short walk together, accompanied by some haiku poetry I’ve found?
My human is home! / I am so ecstatic I / Have made a puddle
How do I love thee? / The ways are numberless as / My hairs on the rug
I sound the alarm! / Mail carrier come to kill us all / Look! Look! Look! Look! Look!
I am your best friend / Now, always, and especially / When you are eating
I love my master; / Thus I perfume myself with / This long rotten mouse
You may recognize the players in this story because they’re both crushes already; The Rendezvous and Old World Antieks. Whether you do or don’t, no matter, I think you’ll enjoy the tale and the photos. Here’s how it goes:
Once upon a time a few months ago, Gina put up three tiny cabins on her Rendezvous property and commenced to decorating them. But three cabins turned out to be a lot of cabins, so she got to thinking… and then invited Brian and Amy from Old World over for a friendly night of poker and strawberry shortcake. A good time was had by all, until finally Amy called ‘last hand.’ No one’s sharing the details from there, but in the end Brian and Amy were out by the pond decorating the heck out of one of Gina’s cabins with treasures from their warehouse and showroom in La Grange.
OK. All that is probably a big fat lie. I have absolutely no idea how this wonderful creative collaboration/debt payoff came to be. Again, no matter, the spaces are beyond fabulous and I’m already jealous of the lucky shoppers who’ll nab them for the next Show. (If you want that to be you, contact Gina through her website at the top of the post).
First up are photos of the cabin decorated by Brian and Amy at Old World. I’m going to start with a tour of the interior, but be prepared for the exterior shot. If all this goodness can fit in there, just imagine what we could get into your proper house or apartment!
Isn’t the outside shockingly modest? To be fair, we should remember that I was clomping around in sticky mud stealing a peek at the cabins in their unfinished state. I’m sure some darling soft and hardscaping will be coming along as a final touch. But even with the mental airbrushing of a big old horse statue and a bunny cart and an amazing concrete aviary and lots of happy roses, it’s still wild to see how much can be done inside the walls of a homely pre-fab shed.
If you can stand more amazingness, here’s one of Gina’s. So fine.
If you’ve been shopping at Blue Hills during the last few shows, and I certainly hope you have, you’ve surely seen Adele’s atelier-styled booth. It’s a dynamic space for sure, with rushing B&W horse photos shown alongside soft abstracts and colorful columns.
Dd you know that the American Cutting Horse Association is just right down the road from Round Top in Brenham, TX? Cutting is one of those sports I think of as pretty obscure but turns out to be quite competitive and popular. Apparently tens of millions of dollars are won every year by folks who know how to cut for shape and stay off the back fence.
Roller pigeoning is another good example of a hidden sport. It’s the one where you compete for points based on how many times your pigeon rolls over while in flight. It makes me feel better that you’ve never heard of it either. I only know of it because our old neighbor bred bunches of rollers in an elaborate backyard aviary and traveled all over the country to participate in tumbler tournaments. (I hope you clicked on this last link because that video of those Birmingham Rollers in action with The Verve’s Bittersweet Symphony as background music is extremely soothing and would make a sweet little screen saver). Anyway, he’d let his pigeons out for morning practice sessions over a highway near our neighborhood. While they were out it wasn’t unusual for him to lose one or two to hawks, which seemed sad to me but not so much to him. All part of the sport, he’d say.
The Lone Star Gallery is a star to me because during the antique off-season it runs Texas Trade Days on the second Saturday of every month. It’s such a comfortably chilly time to shop Warrenton. See how the shoppers in the picture below are wearing parkas? Probably even socks! How many women in socks do you see during the Spring and Fall Shows?
The Lone Star takes up a couple of big buildings that at one time housed antique cars, and it’s a great mix of tidy booths and big old tables piled with things like aprons. I use it as the foundation of my winter weekend Round Top Field Trip agendas. I just add some pie, some culture and a stop at my usual year round retail faves and I’ve got a real nice day on my hands.
Of course you can also shop the Lone Star during the Show weeks. It’s nice and chilly then too. A/C!
My office was once in a toolshed in our backyard. It was all silk-purse tricked-out with nice paneling and a huge window, but we still called it the “Sow’s Ear.” The best part of the space was the no-sew (is there any other kind in my world?) window valence I made out of old aprons. You should try it. Just get a rod or a branch or a pipe or whatever and then use the apron ties as tab ties. It sounds kind of over-countrified, but if you use the right aprons it can look better than you’d think.
Have you heard about that One Red Paperclip guy who turned a paperclip into a house in fourteen online trades? My favorite was his trade of a year’s rent in Phoenix, AZ for an afternoon with Alice Cooper.
So how about a Texas Trade Days Trade Challenge? Buy something like the treasures in the photos below and see what you can trade it into. Good luck!
I could love this place because it’s steps away from so many of my other Round Top crushes. Or because the folks here are so special. But my favorite thing about the Round Top Inn is that it’s so darn stylish. If you ever wondered what the “Round Top Look” is, this is it. So while you scroll through the pics, I’m going to take a page from The Interior Style Hunter’s Instagram feed and just rattle off all the things I like and want to be sure you see. You in? OK, here we go:
Biggest tree ever. Perfect yellow exterior paint color. Perfect Texas sky color. Pathways. Split rail fencing. A squirrel catcher on the bird church.
French doors. Black on white. A crock on rock.
Shiplap ceiling. Pillows on a pew. An interior mailbox. Casual flowers. The big bay window with a view of the longhorns across the highway. A wishin’ well. Rows of white mugs.
A touch of France. Gray on white. Bavarian grain sacks on squiggles. Fresh lilies. Cable TV with a remote. Sunshine through the windows. Complimentary issues of Sweet Paul. Shiplap walls. A deep spool chair with a twisted barley floor lamp. The under the stairwell candelabra. (Did any of you see that episode of Amazing Race?)
The mod moment! A bedside hat beside a striped headboard with nailhead trim. Lots of linen. Lots of pillows. Lariat chairs with belt buckle lumbars. A huge mirror above the headboard. Those dear deer.
Lots of lavender! The kilim square pouf. An eyelet bedskirt. The framed scarf. A super tall headboard on a narrow bed.
And finally, the baths. The sad raincloud window. The linen tuffet chair. The vessel farm-style sink. The pocket door. The oystershell mirror. The marble backsplash. And most of all… the get-your-heart-racing-oh-my-gosh-you-scared-me Welcome Ram!
The good news? You've discovered The Crush List. The not so good? I haven't been actively posting here for a few years now, which means the never terribly reliable details about my crushes are even more unreliable. Antique vendors have switched venues, shops in town have moved or passed on, donkeys may or may not be in the same front yards... In spite of the risks of massive misdirection I've left the site up in hopes that it still achieves its goal - to inspire you to visit Round Top for the Antiques Show or any time you have the time.
With that said, I leave you to explore this random list of my very favorite things about my very favorite place. I’ve tried to capture the area’s special pieces and parts. Some are big deal, some are small gestures, some are legendary and some are just tiny pip and squeak.
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