2 My First Blog Post - Antique Weekend

Howdy!  My name is Kari, the voice behind The Paisley Texan Creates.  This blog has been in creation for almost a year now, something I put on the back burner and never got around to.  I guess a bug finally bit me and I was inspired to jump on the blog bandwagon.  So, here I am, putting myself out there.  For those of you who have your own blog, sell your own personal creations, etc, probably understand the fear of stepping out and {as I said earlier} putting yourself out there.  It takes a lot of faith, love, lots of cheerleaders cheering you on, and the willingness to take a leap of faith and just be you.

That's Me <3

What is The Paisley Texan Creates?  I'm not sure exactly.  I anticipate it being about my many DIY projects {that get done in between being a stay at home mom to two gorgeous girls and amazing wife to an amazing man}, the different cooking adventures I take after being inspired by Pinterest (my nap time addiction), the things that inspire me, my love of junking, my amazing blessing of being a stay at home mommy {and the many funnies I get from some silly girlies on a daily basis}, my daily walk with my heavenly Father, and anything else that suits my fancy.  I hope you will come along for the ride and see what The Paisley Texan Creates next. 

So...my inspiration for my first blog post came in my anticipation for Antique Weekend.  What is Antique Weekend you might ask?  Are you kidding me?  You don't know what Antique Weekend is?  Antique Weekend is actually 10 days of miles and miles of antiques, food, junk, and fun in Round Top/Warrenton, Texas.

After some research to see where Antique Weekend started, I figured out that we have to thank Miss Emma Lee Turney.

Miss Emma Lee Turney

Miss Emma began Antique Weekend over thirty years ago in the Round Top Rifle Association Hall when her and her company, Antiques Productions, were asked to do an antique show in a little German town that was quietly being restored, Round Top, Texas.  One article I read said that she was asked by some "esteemed" ladies of the Round Top community to help them solve the problem of the high falootin' Houstonians peeking in the windows of the quaint little town on the weekends, from there it's all history.

Now, the itty bitty town of Round Top, population 77, is a huge 10 day event bursting at the seams with 1000s of merchants.  'The massive gathering draws thousands of visitors to the area. No one knows how many, but estimates range from as low as 15,000 to pie-in-the-sky guesses like 50,000. Either way, that’s a lot of shoppers to be absorbed by a town of 77.'

So, after our little history lesson {I promise to be more fun and less history in the future ;)}, I had no idea all of the history behind THE Antique Weekend, but what I do know is that I love it, look forward to it, plan for it, block the last weekend of it off a year in advance, and anxiously await the time to come {almost like Christmas, it's that close for me and I love Christmas, it's a BIG DEAL!}.

So, let me see if I can give you a little idea of what it feels like to embark on Antique Weekend.  You wake up, stretch, and realize it's here.  That day you've been waiting for {like I said before, waited for like a kid waits for Christmas morning}, it's finally arrived.  You get up, put on your specially made, homemade, made by hand, agonized, designed, sewed, and loved making, Antique Weekend shirt {thanks to an amazing tutorial found by your bestie [on Pinterest I'm sure], tutorial coming in a future post}.  You do your hair, even though you know you are going to sweat and have it in a ponytail the first hour in.  You still get gussied up because hello, it's THE Antique Weekend!  So, you're finally in the car, truck, minivan, moving truck, box truck, whatever you've decided will get you to the holy land, THE Antique Weekend.  You drive through the home of Blue Bell, Brenham, TX {very cute little town/downtown, take a weekend and visit, super cute!}, and continue on 290 out of town.  Slowly, you start to see signs for the upcoming greatness.  As you drive in on Highway 237, and bask in the glorious landscape that is Fayette County, you see the first show.  You think, "Okay, I'm in heaven.  I've arrived."  Little do you know, you haven't seen anything yet.  Traffic starts to slow down, hasn't reached a crawl yet, like rush hour in the dreaded big city Houston, but its moving slow for these little back country roads.  You drive along, passing the "smaller" shows {if you can really call them "small"}, anticipation growing as you slowly advance on Warrenton.  If you pay attention and look to your left, you will see the future world headquarters of my favorite junkin' gals, The Junk Gypsies, in Round Top {Hallelujah!!! Can't wait to explore their little piece of heaven in the Fall when it opens!!}  In your excitement, you realize that traffic has now come to a stand still and you are in a cute little town, Warrenton, where you see cops on horses, smell some amazing food, see tents and "stuff" as far as the eye can see, and multitudes of fellow junkers and antique lovers looking for their latest find.  You then realize that you have NOW arrived, FINALLY, it was well worth the wait, you can definitely be sure, and as if you have ants in your pants, are itching to find a parking spot and get after it. 

This year we parked at Bar W, the start of Warrenton, and trucked along to the edge to see our favorite dealer, and friend, Anne.  Along the way we got a little star struck, some of you may have noticed that I'm a huge fan of The Junk Gypsies, these talented ladies had a show on HGTV this year by the same name, The Junk Gypsies.  They introduced America to the love of junk, Junk-o-Rama Prom {held the last Thursday of Antique Weekend at Zapp Hall}, and taught us how to take unusual pieces and make them at home in your home with a little paint, elbow grease, brain storming, and flair that sometimes only a Junk Gypsy can see it seems.  They give you that fire to want to find someone else's trash and turn it into your own amazing treasure.  They teach you to appreciate the ability to recycle something and make it look totally brand new and that YOU can do it.  See, I'm totally star struck {definitely not obsessed, totally not!!}.  

As we meandered through Bar W, towards Zapp Hall, and into the heart of Warrenton, we were walking through a booth {couldn't tell you the name for the life of me} and who do we stumble upon???  Mr. Sikes, aka "The Junk Gypsies Dad".  I look at my friend Allie and whisper {I was positive I was whispering!}, and said "Check it out! It's the Junk Gypsies Dad!!! OMG!!"  She turns around, looks, giggles, and says "Hey."  Totally cool, right??  Um, no, I giggle a little, awkwardly I'd have to admit, and say "I was just telling her that it was actually The Junk Gypsies Dad!"  This all being said in my super excited voice, that I was totally trying to reign in and sound cool and totally NOT star struck. We walk off, waving, giggling, star struck.  Allie then informs me that she heard Mr. Sikes say, "Um actually I'm Amie and Jolie's dad."  Geez, total fail!  So then, my sweet little ole' self felt like a total dork!  Junkin' must continue, so we kept on truckin', and put our amazing moment of meeting THE JG Dad in the back of our minds.  We eventually found our way to The Junk Gypsy tent, which by the way was extremely packed full of women!  We weeded our way {and boy did we have to weed} through the mountains of women to the back of the store to seek refuge and hopefully find a coveted JG souvenir.  As we are perusing, who do we run into, again??? Yep, you guessed it, THE dad of THE JG gals, again, seriously???  And, as I'm hoping he surely won't recognize us, yeah right not recognize the girl with the pink John Deere hat on and rockin' junk tee made especially for Warrenton ;)...Yep, he recognized us and says, "And we meet again."  As I hang my head in shame I say, "I'm so embarrassed."  He asked why, and I explained that I got a little star struck when we saw him before, but I felt for sure he was used to it by now.  He assured me he wasn't, but to not give it another worry.  I told him, "We just can't help ourselves.  We love your girls so much."  To that he responded, "Well I do too!"  So, I think we smoothed it over, I think.  If not, Allie's junkin' wagon stole Amie's heart, which she bumper sticker'd up with original JG bumper stickers, so I'm sure our clumsy, star struck selves, were forgotten, surely, right??

The Junk Wagon

All in all, it was a magical, amazing, wonderful, not enough words in the world can describe, day.  If I haven't persuaded you yet, just take my word for it, if you have just a smidge of love for junk or antiques, you MUST make the Spring or Fall show in the very near future!  You will not be disappointed, I swear on my precious, junk lovin' heart! 

Stay tuned for what The Paisley Texan Creates next...

Loves and hugs!!

   

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