Organza Bonanza!

I'm not sure what it is about organza that I love so much -- it's just so charming and fabulous!  Whenever I find organza trims, I have to have them.  I've been lucky lately and have added a bunch of great trims to my stash:

All of these and more are in the shop, available by the yard, with more coming soon!

Round Top/Warrenton Texas Antiques Fair

Well, we are back from a wonderful buying trip to the spring Round Top area antiques fair.  This year we had the good fortune to spend the night at a friend's ranch (thanks, Marilyn, and thanks Mom, for hooking us up!) so we were able to spend 2 full days searching the fields for great finds. 

It was an amazing trip.  I didn't find nearly as much lace as I hoped to find, but we found so many other great things that it more than made up for it.  I was so distracted by all the great stuff that I forgot to take pictures!  So, I'm sorry that I don't have more pics for you.  But here are some of the highlights:

We found some AMAZING linens:

 

And one seller had this amazing collection of vintage shakers.  I couldn't believe the colors!  I bought a small pink and a small blue shaker, but I'm already kicking myself for not buying more:

And I was shocked to find a vendor who not only had a huge set of the vintage Spode Mayflower china that I collect, but also a massive set of a coordinating pattern -- Spode Strawberry -- that I had never seen before.  She even had a punch bowl!

 

I was a bit overwhelmed by it all, I admit.  China is a huge weakness of mine.  I did not buy the punch bowl, as it was just too expensive for me, but I did buy the set that she had priced all at one price:

Um..... that's a LOT of china, no?  We packed it into 5 huge boxes (thanks Kari and Mom for the packing help!) and just barely got it all into the van.  I still can't quite believe my luck at finding this wonderful pattern.  Yippee!

But not all of my finds were as high-brow.  Another favorite purchase was the "vintage" 1980 Darth Vader cake pan:

 

There will be a Darth Vader cake, very soon!  I'll be sure to post pics.

We enjoyed lunch at our favorite barbeque spot, where I had a baked potato loaded with brisket:

 

And of course, we saw some really interesting things:

 

Usually, I pick a "weirdest item of the day," but not this year: this year, I'm sharing with you the "weirdest exchange with a rude vendor," instead.

Now, before I tell you this story I want to say, in full disclosure, that I have been a vendor at many shows over the years, and I know that buyers are sometimes rude and as a vendor there is a lot you have to deal with.  That being said, here's the story:

Early Friday morning, Kari and I hit the fields ready for our second day and super excited to find new treasures.  One of the first booths we entered was very cute -- a huge space (at least 3 times the usual size) and packed full of wonderful old finds, mostly in whites and creams.  The vendor was still finishing her set up, but she welcomed us in to look around.  We oohed and aahed over how wonderful her items were, and Kari spied a few things that she wanted to buy.  I did a loop of the space and noticed about 3 pieces of lace -- all nice, but I was looking for more.  So, as I always do, I asked if she had more lace that she hadn't had time to put out yet. 

And the following exchange ensued:

Vendor: "Oh, I have 2 bins just full of lace!"

Me [very excited now]: "Great!  Do you mind if I take a look?"

Vendor: "Oh, I have some ladies who always shop with me on Sunday and they buy a lot of lace from me."

Me: [confused silence and some blinking in surprise]

Vendor: "I just put these other pieces out last night."

Me: [more confused silence]

then I say, "well, I'm here to buy now if you are willing to let me see the lace."

Vendor: "I understand. " Then she turns her back on me and goes back to setting up her booth.

Kari and I exchange incredulous looks, then immediately exit her booth, buying nothing, of course.

So here's the thing -- why tell me you have TWO BINS OF LACE if you have no intention of selling to me?  Why not just say, "No, all that I have is what is out."  Why on Earth would you tell a customer, "Oh, I have tons of what you're looking for, but I'm not going to sell it to you!  In fact, I'm not even going to let you look at it."  I mean, why are you open for business with an attitude like that? 

It's been two days since this happened, and I'm still amazed by it!  Weird, weird, weird.

But in any event, that was a minor hiccup in our trip -- we had the best buying trip ever, and came home with loads of fun stuff!  I will be busy getting new laces and trims into the shop (not to mention trying to find a place for my new china -- I think I'm going to have to part with some of my other china; no room to keep all of it).  When we go back for the fall show, I promise to take more pictures!!

Bookmarks for my Bookworms

I haven't had a lot of time for creating lately, but I bought some new scrapbooking supplies that I couldn't wait to use!  My older daughter saw the chipboard embellishments from this line and fell in love with the gumball machine, and that got me thinking: rather than use the chipboard for a scrapbook page that would rarely be seen, I decided to make bookmarks that my girls could use and enjoy every day.  This darling paper, with its vintage book design, is just the perfect thing for a bookmark!

I added some embellishments from my stash -- no reason a bookmark can't be girly, right?

I also decorated the back, adding some pretty papers and making a little pocket with a secret note in it for each of my girls.

This was a quick, fun little project!  It was fun to make something again!

Antique Lace Happiness

I'm lucky to have piles of "new" (new to me) lace on my office floor -- big piles of every type of lace you can imagine!  What a super way to spend an afternoon, sorting through all of these wonderful old treasures!

I find it both exciting and calming to sort through and organize these types of new finds.  Is that weird?  :)

Most of these goodies will find their way into my shop (some already have!), but others I just won't be able to part with.  I hope to add to the piles later this week in Round Top!

Vintage Wedding Dress Lace Tags

I've whipped up a few more tag kits (what better to do while catching up on many hours of Syfy on my DVR?).  For these I decided to go with a vintage wedding theme, though these ivory and cream laces could be used for all sorts of projects.

They're all wrapped up with blue lace and ready to go!  You can find them in my vintage weddings shop.

In other news, later this week Kari and I are headed to Round Top and Warrenton, Texas for the spring antique show.  Stay tuned for photos from the show and peeks at all of our (sure to be) exciting finds!

New Vintage Lace Kits -- Shop Update

Just popping in to share a quick shop update: I've put together these new vintage lace kits, and they're available now in the shop.  Each kit contains 2 hand stamped tags, and each tag has 4 yards of Valenciennes lace -- for a total of 8 yards of lace per kit!

Happy Creating!  :)

Houston Livestock Show & Rodeo

This past weekend we attended the Houston Livestock Show & Rodeo, as we try to do every year.  It was a beautiful day with glorious weather -- and enormous crowds!  If you've never been to the Houston Rodeo it's hard to imagine the scope of this event, but believe me, it is massive.  It takes place over almost 3 weeks, with thousands of people in attendance each day.  The day we attended, there were 71,000 people at the rodeo!!

The livestock show takes place in the huge Reliant Arena.  The girls enjoyed viewing and petting the animals -- we'd never seen pigs this big before, and the girls had never been that close to a Longhorn!

We also enjoyed walking around the carnival; though it was so crowded that it was hard to move at times!

After several hours of walking and enjoying the exhibits and the carnival, we went inside Reliant Stadium for the rodeo and a performance by Selena Gomez.  

 

As you can see from the pictures above: this is rodeo on a HUGE scale!

The best thing about the Houston Livestock Show & Rodeo is that it is all for charity -- over the years, the rodeo has raised millions of dollars to send literally thousands of kids to college on scholarships.  It's an enormous undertaking that does an enormous amount of good.

The second best thing about the rodeo is carnival food -- specifically, fried carnival food. Each year we endeavor to try something new.  Two years ago we tried fried Oreos -- yum!  Last year we tried fried Snickers -- double yum!  But this year we tried my new favorite: fried Moon Pie!  Think Moon Pie, inside a warm beignet, with powdered sugar on top.....   Wow.  [It was too dark by then to get a good picture of it, sadly!]

If you're ever in Houston around rodeo time, don't miss it!