Magpie Ethel

Yes Ma'am This Is The Round Top Round Up

We left Austin Sunday morning.  Let me just say that the security at Austin airport took forever to get through.  We had a six a.m. flight and the lines were long and we stood in line for over half an hour as we siphoned through one, sometimes two attendants.  Our flight home was uneventful. No Amazing Race sprint on the way home.

Here are my Round Top thoughts and tidbits on the show.

TEMPERATURE.  Amy and I shopped for three days with cold, chilly, damp weather (in the 50s).  The last day at Round Top it was in the high 70s and warm.  I hate to admit it but I am glad we had some cooler weather. (I wish we had been prepared for the cold).  It was draining to be out in the sun all day shopping.  I can't imagine shopping the fields/shows when it is in the high 80s or 90s. I am going to quit whining about the cold weather.

PRICES.

The prices in some spots were high.  Amy and I had two different agendas when we shopped. She shopped primarily for resale.  I shopped for crafting and collecting.  We did find some good prices, but to shop for resale was definitely harder.

PACKING.  I packed a suitcase within a suitcase. (Amy did the same thing) I checked my luggage.  I filled both the big suitcase and the suitcase within (that now became my overhead carry on) for the return trip. I also had a few items in Amy's bags. My suitcase was 45 pounds on the return and Amy's wss 48.  We thought about buying a suitcase down there for the return, but it was just as easy to haul two down.  You can ship items but it was easier to bring them home with me. We also witnessed women at Walmart buying rolls of bubble wrap, packing tape and boxes.  I wonder if the Walmart in Giddings ran out of that stuff. There are places to ship, but we never had to look into that.

I took this photo with my cell phone. You can see how packing my one suitcase with my snowman head was a challenge. I had it in a box in the suitcase to keep it from crushing.ACCOMMODATIONS  Book early.  We booked our hotel in January for our trip in April. Lots of things were full at that point.  We stayed in Giddings which was about 20 or 25 minutes from the action, but it was not a bad drive (and we could grab coffee on the way in each morning).

TIDBITS.  I loved the Texas scenery.  The month of April had fields and fields of bluebonnets. Everything was green.  We saw deer on multiple occasions.

I loved being called Sweetie. I loved being called Ma'am.  I loved the accents. Everyone was so friendly.

I would do this trip again for sure. One of my blog readers who has been to the event on multiple times described it as a fair or carnival atmosphere. I totally agree with her.  It was an unique experience.

Thank you for the hospitality Texas...y'all come back soon...I sure hope too!

You can also read Amy's (my travel companion) funny post on Round Top here....she did not whine about the weather at all!

Round Top Antique Fair - Day Six

We left the Round Top area today. Our flight tomorrow morning is at 6 a.m. so it seemed easier to spend the night in Austin near the airport and just pop over to catch our flight.  The traffic in Round Top was also getting worse with the weekend crowd. Last night the tiny two way road was bumper to bumper in each direction. I can't imagine how it was there today. 

The day was beautiful. 80 plus degrees and blue skies. Amy and I had never been to Austin before. 

We hit S. Congress Street which is a bit of a hipster area in Austin. Two friends from Portland told me that Uncommon Objects was a must see antique shop.  A restaurant that was recommended, Guero's Taco Bar was right across the street from the shop so we had a great taco lunch before we headed out to Uncommon Objects.

Uncommmon Objects was awesome. Amy and I think it is one of our favorite antique/vintage shops that WE HAVE EVER BEEN IN!  They don't allow photos, but we asked permission and they said yes.  This shop is eye candy big time....display after display was crazy interesting. 

Lambs and a cluster of galvanized watering cans hung from the ceiling and greeted me from this booth.

The displays all focused around a particular color scheme for the most part in each booth.  You went into a booth that was primarily blue, industrial or pinks etc.  The booths also had displays that went clear up to the very high ceiling. It was such a fascinating store to shop.

Some of the prices were high. But many were quite affordable. I found some great treasures here. More to add to my very, very full suitcase.

Quite a few of the booths also had these clip on style lights scattered throughout. It made the booths more inviting and there were no dark corners.

Lots of blues and greens in this spot.

This booth was a carnival like world.



Red, white and blue industrial.
I was also a fan of how jammed packed each booth was.  If you have read my blog for any amount of time you know I don't really decorate simplistically. The more the merrier in my world, and these booths offered lots to look at.

I wanted this bouquet of wool flowers, but it was too spendy for me.








I don't think I can ever got to Austin again without a trip to this magical store.

We left the S. Congress area and hit another antique mall in Austin. Here are my finds from the day.

A squeaky toy lamp and a Santa squeaky toy. I have never seen a lamp like this before so it a fun addition to my collection. (Uncommmon Objects finds) The chenille chicks were found at UO.  I broke my rule about plastic feet on chicks, since I fell hard for their gangly long necks. One more pig for my collection. That makes three that came home from Texas with me. A old cake topper. The tag said it was a wedding cake topper but there is no groom.  Perhaps it is for communion?  I loved her beaded body and did not care if the groom had gone astray.
Last but not least my find that absolutely screamed my name. Found at UO...a spun head family and the old lady in the shoe!

There was an old woman who lived in a shoe.
She had so many children, she didn't know what to do;
She gave them some broth without any bread;
Then whipped them all soundly and put them to bed.

I am not a fan of the spanking spun head figure, but it was just to silly to pass up since I have an addiction to spun heads.

It is marked made in Japan and the shoe is adorable.
What a week it has been!  I could not have asked for a better travel companion. Amy and I got along like two peas in a pod.  Yeehaw...what a marvelous trip...I want to do it again!

Round Top Antique Fair - Day Five

We woke up to 38 degree temperature outside.  Fortunately the day was supposed to warm up into the 70s so I actually packed sunscreen in my backpack today!  This was our last day at Round Top so we were determined to make the most of it.  We parked in a church parking lot and paid $5 to do so. As we handed the fellow our money he told us to have a "blessed day". We hoped that we would be blessed with fun vintage finds!

It warmed up to the high seventies today and it was amazing how much it changed the mood of the vendors and shoppers.  Everyone was happy and smiling. I think I even skipped as we shopped! It was much more crowded today with the weekend crowd coming in, and all of the vendors were open and quite a few were ready to bargain or had signs out with discounts.  We shopped the Warrenton area and the fields and shows there for a second time. Vendors that had not been there earlier in the week were there today.

I love this doily couch that was for sale. I don't know how practical it was for everyday use, but I may try and do an ottoman with the same idea.

The Junk Gypsies had a booth set up. They have a prom on Thursday night that people dress up for, but Amy and I passed on that event.If I had that beach house that I want, I may have bought this drum for the graphics.

We met up with Sue and shopped with her some and enjoyed a BBQ Lunch together.  We actually ate at this BBQ joint twice during the week as we liked it so much.

The fellow just screamed Texas and seemed perfectly posed for this photo. Isn't that the coolest cabinet with all the drawers?  It was $2500 if I remember correctly and was TWO sided. It had drawers on the reverse side as well. It would not fit in my suitcase.  The cowboy also shared that he had a shiner under his sunglasses...what characters we met!

I had to share this crazy rolling cart.  IT IS A GARBAGE CAN WITH WHEELS.  I did a double take since it was so big.  The woman had fancied it up with fabric, but it was funny to see her puling the can along behind her. 

I have the figure on the left, Penny Pineapple and was fun to see her joined by a couple of her fruity friends.  She was priced at $150!  I did not pay that much for mine.

I have to say it was a crazy good day. Amy and I found a booth with lots of Christmas at a discount.  I found some of my favorite finds of the week today. It was good. It was sunny. I was happy. We shopped ALL DAY LONG.

Here are my finds.

That is a tomato squeaky toy. Amy and I thought he was chalkware, but he is rubber and squeaks. Some ice cream dixie cups, a big old bunch of pilgrim spun heads, and another pig for my collection.An assortment of Easter friends and a ceramic duck in pink. These eggs were one of my favorite finds. They are vinyl balloon eggs that are blown up. Some are a bit deflated, but the graphics are great.  I have never seen anything like them before. These were my first purchase of the day. Vintage Christmas. Santa figures, reflectors and the greatest grinning Snowman that will be crafted into a putz style house. Some reindeer for crafting and a ceramic head angel. I love this little polka dot suitcase. It will be part of my Fourth of July display.
Another favorite find is this absolutely darling little gal. She has a tiny vase next to her.  She is marked occupied Japan on the bottom. Dang charming.

A sweet little chalkboard that I will also use for a display.

This was my other favorite purchase. I have a thing for vintage children's shoe boxes.  This one had great graphics and I love the JC Penney logo on the end.  The shoes that came with it are just as sweet with tiny bunny cutouts on the toes. The box and shoes were in a booth for 20% off and I paid $4.  So happy!

Amy and I were giddy after a good day of shopping.  We decided to live dangerously and  break the rule of dinner before dessert. Royers had a coffee shop, the Pie Haven. We deserved a slice of pie after a good junking day. I had butterscotch chip and Amy had what she declared to be the best pecan pie she had ever eaten.

It was another long 12 hour day for us. We got our money's worth with our Royers ice tea cups (purchased earlier this week and mentioned in another post) and filled them up about three times.  We were blessed with some good vintage finds.  Yeehaw, it was a good day.

 

Round Top Antique Fair - Day Four

Day Four - Thursday

We woke up to another gloomy day.  What was up with this weather?  We had checked the long range forecast before we left and did not see this coming when we packed.  It did not get above 60 all day.

We decided to hit Marburger one more time and it was fun to browse again. We hit Texas Rose across the street from Marburger and bought some fun stuff for a decent price.  We visited with the nicest dealer there and she suggested we visit some of the surrounding towns and their shops and gave us some ideas for lunch.  I must say that we really did meet the nicest, friendliest people.  I enjoyed the Texas accent. I loved being called Ma'am a gazillion times in such a sweet way...not due to age.

We drove out towards Fayetteville and hit two super dud sales that had signs directing us to them.   We had lunch in Fayettville at a great lunch spot called Joes.  We both had Chicken and Sausage gumbo.  It was good and warmed us up.  We drove around a bit and saw this wonderful house for sale by owner.  We liked the weathered look and decided if we moved to Texas and bought it, we would leave it as it. 

We then drove to La Grange and Smithville and browsed what antique shops were open.  There were quite a few shops that had "closed" signs...odd for a Thursday afternoon during Antique week. I think I bought one thing.

We headed back up towards Warrenton and had the GREAT PLEASURE to visit with Sue from Vintage Rescue Squad!  We sat and had dinner together and Sue suggested some favorite spots for some after dinner shopping. It was so nice to meet the person behind a blog I have followed for so long.  A definite highlight of the trip.  (this photo was taken on Friday when it finally warmed up! That is me, Amy and Sue)

Amy and I put in another 12 hour day.  We headed back to the hotel and each made a big mug of tea and got out our iPads to catch up on life.

My finds for the day were pretty good! A green metal shoe rack (sitting on its end)

Chicken feed dime holders and a clothes washing plunger.  Yes, I purchased and brought a vintage plunger back from Texas.  Did you notice the chippy red and blue and the floral shape?  I have a project in mind.

Christmas reflectors, metal letters XO XO and some millinery fruit. A couple of wax paper dixie cups as well as a bunch of basket design cups to be repurposed. I like the horseshoe on the top of the BINGO cards.

The sweetest little NOEL light.

A happy bird with a crown!
Today was a decent day. We are excited to see some warmer temperatures predicted for tomorrow.  We are also looking forward to shopping with Sue a bit.  Hitting the fields one more time tomorrow.  Hope we get lucky!

 

Round Top Antique Fair - Day Three

DAY THREE - Wednesday

Amy and I had higher hopes for today. We decided to hit a show that was opening that morning called the Carmine Dance Hall.  You paid $10 admission, but that also let you into another show called the Red Barn.  We also wanted to hit Marburger today.  Our agenda was set and we once again dressed in layers. It was drizzly and we had rain all day. The high of the day was 55.  We did not expect such chilly weather so were not entirely prepared for it.  I brought two pairs of capri jeans, but still was chilly.

We got our morning coffee and arrived at Carmine Dance Hall half an hour early for a 9 a.m. opening.  We were the only people waiting. That was not a good sign. It was a darling old dance hall.  There were men out back BBQing as they were selling food later in the day.  It was fun to sit and watch the birds and smell the BBQ waiting for the doors to open.

We were first and second in the door. There were probably 15 of us lined up to go in.  It was a bunch of older dealers that really did not have what we wanted.  I did get lucky with one item and Amy and I hoped his smiling face would set a tone for the day. (this snowman is big, probably 18 x 18 and he came home in my suitcase....he is darling. I was told he was originally on a lamp post)  We were in and out of this show in NINE minutes.

We drove to the Red Barn show next.  It has a huge line when it opens and we were hoping it had cleared.  There was no line and we walked right in.  It is a very high end show.  The prices were CRAZY!  Some really fun booths and some that had stuffy antiques that had no appeal to us.  We saw vintage tablecloths for over $100.  There was a booth of Christmas which was awesome, but the prices were insane and things were in the hundreds of dollars.  We cruised all the aisles quickly and left discouraged with what we saw and the prices. 

We went to Marburger next.  It was the second day of this show. Admission the first day is $25 for a four hour window of early shopping (10-2), after that is is $10 admission which is good for as long as the show runs (Tues-Sat).  This show is supposed to be very high end and is known for having great displays.  We were not expecting to be able to buy much, but wanted to hit the show none the less.  We paid our $10 admission and went to shop.

The first few tents (8 tents total plus outbuildings) were not our style at all. Big over-sized fine furniture and lots of expensive fine items.  We were a bit worried, but persevered...we found items. The prices were decent.  There was lots of fun stuff to look at.  Our mood lifted.

This booth was Willow Nest.  Linda used to live in Portland and I went to her shows at home, so it was fun to see a familiar face.A big old boat anchored this display.

This swan was a favorite. It was huge and was a store display. It had a hook in the back to suspend from the ceiling and the wings were wired to go up and down. It would not fit in my suitcase and it was over $2000.
Amy and I both fell in love with the jewelery at Skip 2 My Lou. Janet re- purposes vintage items and we loved her quirky pieces.  We both bought something for ourselves. Janet was a doll and had the greatest southern accent.

Janet's jewelery was all displayed on old photo cards and on the backside she had written what she had used to create the piece as well as a title or little story about the piece.

I bought quite a bit at Marburger.  There were high dealers, but there were things that were affordable. The items offered were great and this was my favorite stop so far. 

We left Marburger and stopped at another show.  We decided to try shrimp and butter-beans for lunch from the food vendor there. The kid that served us had SPURS on his boots!  We were so chilled that we ate lunch in our car.  It was still drizzling.

We had dinner reservations that night at Royers.  They started taking reservations for antique week a few weeks prior and I had marked it on my calendar to call.  We had some time to kill and decided to drive out and check out The Prairie which is owned by Rachel Ashwell.  We could also crank the car heater as it was still drizzly and we were chilled to the bone.

Texas was beautiful with all the bluebonnets that lined the roads.

We were glad to have Royers reservations for dinner. There was a big crowd to get in and they do family style seating. They offer 4 reservation times each night and basically serve wave after wave of customers.  It is a small restaurant but it was soooo good. They are famous for their pies, so we had pie for dessert. I had coconut lemont chess pie and Amy had Texas trash pie. They make good pie.

We had put in a 12 hour day.  We headed back to the hotel. 

Here are my finds for the day. An old enamel heater to be repurposed in my bathroom.

Ribbon spools, a bluebird baby rattle, a spun head bunny and a celluloid flower pin.

A collection of tiny children's tin cups.

A dime saver (dime kitty) with super cute graphics, velvet fruit embellishments  and an old paper Easter basket.

An assortment of old store stock doll hats.  This was a favorite find.

They will be fun to figure out how to display. I put them on coffee mug holders for this photo.

A trio of handcrafted egg heads. The heads are made of blown eggs and I loved their silly expressions and crazy hats.  This is my necklace from Skip 2 My Lou. It is made from an old celluloid baby brush, a victorian bird pin, vintage beads, austrian floral pin and a rhinestone heart pendant. It is titled "When Birds Fly Hearts Soar."

A tiny bunny tin plate for Easter decorating.
Today was a much better day.  I am hoping for warmer weather tomorrow so perhaps this give-away fan from Marburger can be put to good use!

 

Round Top Texas Antique Fair - Day One and Two

I had the best time in Texas at the Round Top show. It was one of those weeks that I will never forget. I am hoping to share all I learned and saw during the show.  It was WAY more than I expected.  There were good things about it and bad.  It is huge. This is a two week event with multiple shows that open and close.  We hit the second week of the show.  Amy and I had lots of discussions about how to approach explaining it all.  Make sure you check out what she has to say about it as well.  My Texas posts ARE WORDY AND LONG but I am going to do a day by day blow...diary style.

Day ONE (Monday)

We left Portland, Oregon early on a Monday morning. Our flight into San Fran was delayed because of SF weather. When we landed in SF we had about FIVE minutes to catch our connecting flight to Austin.  Luckily the gate we landed at and our departure gate were only about 10 gates from one another.  Amy and I sprinted from our flight to the next gate.  I have never run through the airport like that to catch a flight.  As we neared our departure gate it was announced that it was the last call for the Austin flight. We made it with probably a minute to spare.  I felt like I was running the Amazing Race.

We got to Austin and got our rental car. We were starving and headed to a nearby BBQ restaurant for our first Texas meal.  We ate at Iron Works BBQ.  We sat out on the deck and ate BBQ chicken.   It was good.  We were starving.

We were staying in the small town of Giddings, Texas which was about an hour outside of Austin.  We stopped at a Walmart to pick up a case of bottled water and other supplies for the week. (Giddings actually had a Walmart).  We grabbed an Amy's ice cream for the road and made the drive to Giddings and checked into our hotel.

DAY TWO (Tuesday)

We were giddy to hit the vendors and different shows. We were out the door before 8 a.m.  It was chilly and we wore layers.  We picked up the Show Daily which has a map and a schedule of all the shows.  They are pretty much everywhere and are easy to find.

The inner pages have a map of the shows and area. We consulted it multiple times during our week there. You can see how dense the area is with vendors and shows. (double click on photo for a bigger view)

The map above folds out to show even more detail and more vendors.  The show is basically a long country road with vendors and towns.  It is about 12 miles from one end to the other. You drive through the towns of Carmine, Round Top and Warrenton. Small towns nearby also have tents with vendors set up.  There are vendors everywhere.

This was our first stop of the event. I found nothing. Amy bought something.

From here we drove to La Bahia. It is a show and I bought my Easter cups there.  From there we drove into the Warrenton area. We found a spot to park for free. (There is a lot of $5 parking) We walked from show to show hitting Coles, Northgate Field, Clutter, Bar W Field, Tin Star Shed, Zapp Hall,  Das Blaue Haus Field, Campbell Building, Renck Yard and other vendors set up here and there.  We got discouraged.  The prices were high.  It was cold..we wore our layers ALL DAY.  Marburger (a giant show) had opened that morning so many of the vendors had hit that and did not have their booths open to shop.  We had great BBQ for lunch.  We bought a Royers ice tea cup for $5 (thank you Pam for that tidbit) that you can fill up as many times as you want. (we did that later in the week when it warmed up)

A darling manequin tried to charm me into buying her.  This was in a building up near Carmine. She was price at $400 plus.

Loved this door.

In the late afternoon the skies started getting dark and the wind picked up.  Thunderstorms were predicted for the night. Vendors were tying everything up and starting to close early.  We decided to head back to the hotel.

Here are my finds for the day after a whole long day of walking the fields and shows.  I mentioned the Easter cups in a previous post.  The lattice metal item on the left is a bank and will become a base for something.

The plastic pig banks will fit into my collection and I liked that it said GREETINGS from your Teacher on the side. I would love a teacher like that.

My favorite find of the day was this chenille bird.  I love how it is perched on the branch.  It was in a booth at Coles with no price.  SO MUCH  stuff was not priced and you had to ask.  This fellow set me back $2 and made my day.

Every night Amy and I sat in our separate beds in the hotel and surfed the internet on our iPads.  While we sat in bed on Tuesday night the television kept cutting into national weather warnings with SEVERE weather advisories for our area.  Lots of lighting, thunder, rain and severe winds.  We also listened to the weatherman use the phrase "Turn around don't drown" many times due to the amount of rain and accumulating water.   I had never heard that before.   We went to bed hoping the weather would clear up by the morning.