Soda crate cubbie

Shopping at Warrenton is so fun because the vendors bring such cool stuff to sell! I found a vendor on the top of the hill that was selling pieces of old soda crates. Yep, I will take 7 of them, thank you! 

I took this one and made a cubbie with it. It took a bit of planning, but I figured it out. Martha Stewart has nothing on me!! LOL

Warrenton draws me like a magnet

On Friday, my sister and I got up early and drove over to Warrenton. We saw houses for yard birds . . .

 . . . and houses for song birds.

This bench had so much cool all over it. It would be perfect on someone's front porch. It wouldn't be for mine because we barely have a porch on our house.

I even saw my sister kiss a pig. It belonged to Oleta of My Pig Flew. I scritched its snout. I certainly had no interest in kissing it even though it was a friendly pig. I guess most pigs are and I hear they make good pets. I just would have to be paid or lose a bet to kiss one.

I even spotted a metal weinie dog.

I bet Mike Wolfe would be all over this one!

Some people are just plain genious. How fun would this be as an entrance to your side yard?? I saw many, many more really fabulous items, but as usual, my camera stayed in my backpack most of the time.

Now Saturday was another story. My sister had to work so she couldn't join me for a second day of shopping fun. The radar made it look like the rain had moved east, so I decided to drive back over there only to have the sky opened up and dump some much-needed rain to the area about an hour after I arrived. It made shopping incredibly challenging. I wouldn't recommend it. You have to be made of tougher stuff than what I am made of.

The ladies that I usually see at Warrenton have moved over to Marburger Farms which opens tomorrow. I sure wish I could be there!!

Mega-shopping in Warrenton

Part of the fun of shopping at Warrenton is the friendly faces I see. Here, I am standing with Debra, Robelyn, Cindy, and Sandy. People come from all over to participate in the fun. I wish that I could bottle all of the creativity that is wandering around the place. I also wish that I could post the links to their blogs, but Blogspot is being a brat not being nice today.

I also stopped in to see Theresa. She hosts a super blog party that I love to attend. I sadly missed it this year. :( My time was split between seeing my Mother-in-law, my parents, and SHOPPING!

Since I only got to shop for 2 days this time, I didn't get to go everywhere I wanted. Most of the people in this line were headed to Marburger Farms. Maybe next time. There were cars as far as the eye could see. It took us about 15 minutes to travel 1/2 mile.

You never know what you will find. If a giant moose is on your shopping list, you're in luck!

It's amazing how many lovely treasures can be packed in one tent. I filled up the back of the truck at this spot.

This sign would be fun at a birthday party. I would have liked taking more pictures, but when I am shopping, I am on a mission and forget to take my camera out of my pocket.

I found the perfect way to cool off at Hilltop. Now we're talkin'! It sure was nice to sit in air conditioning for awhile.
Apparently, they move the cows to another location during Antiques Week since cattle do not normally go shopping. Better watch where you step. We are in Texas!

Warrenton is Party Central

One party that I really don't want to miss is Theresa Cano's blogger party that she hosts during the Antiques Show at Warrenton. I am already looking forward to the next one. I even stayed an extra day so that I could attend.

Robin of Magnolia Pearl stopped by to hug Theresa's neck. If you haven't seen Robin's designs, then do yourself a favor and check them out. She has a style all her own and it is magnificent.

Malisa of Pent Up Photos and Theresa. Malisa takes some really cool vintage-looking photos.

During our party, Michelle Delgado of Wonderfaux Studio gave us a demonstration of how to use Annie Sloan chalk paint. The paint, along with her techniques, gave a nice look. I may have to give it a try.

Karen and I had a nice chat and I hope to see her again at the next party.

I also had a nice time visiting with Carolyn LeCrone of CarLe Etc.

Carolyn was a special guest of Theresa and displayed her treasures at the party.

Photo courtesy of Anne Lorys

Me, Theresa Smith (TOT) of Time Worn Interiors, Anne Lorys of Fiona and Twig, and Amy Boland from Gypsy Chix.

Dixie of French Lique had just purchased this awesome frame. Do you see the hint of green around my eyes? LOL

I met several other fantastic ladies, but it got dark and I don't get good pictures without good light. Oh, well! It's really surprising that I got this many pictures. I am usually too busy gabbing!

HGTV at Warrenton

Look who I ran into this time at Warrenton: Emily Henderson! For those of you who have been living under a rock, Emily is the 5th season winner of Design Star on HGTV. She was here to not only promote her new series, Secrets From a Stylist, but to help promote a new HGTV show featuring Junk Gypsy. I figured that she would be absolutely melting in our Texas heat, but she held up pretty good. I enjoyed visiting with her and found her to be very personable and welcoming.

HGTV's tent had all kinds of creativity and SWAG. I picked up a pink hat which came in handy with the scorching sun we had.

They offered an old door for us to make our mark on. I signed my name just above the H. I rather enjoyed that.

In November, HGTV will premier the new Junk Gypsy show. I can't wait to see it. I really love their style.

If you ever get a chance to go to Warrenton, do it! It is so much fun. They always have a Fall Show and a Spring Show. Hope to see you there!

Blogging friends

You meet a lot of nice people while blogging and that is where I met Jan Thomason. We are both Texans, but you know how big Texas is. She lives hours away from me so we hadn't actually met until we made plans for lunch at Warrenton last week.

We have commented on each other's blogs and have kept up with each other that way. We both have sons named Clay and I told her a story about mine. When my clay was in junior high, our neighbor was having a swimming pool dug and Clayton thought that all those truckloads of dirt would make a great dirtbike jump in our backyard. I was busy in the kitchen cooking dinner when I saw this huge truck dumping a massive amount of yucky old clay on our lawn. I told Clayton we didn't need that kind of dirt in our yard. It was clay; worthless dirt. He said, "Mom? You named me after worthless dirt?" After she read that story, she signed her note to me, "Jan, Mother of Worthless Dirt". She has a great sense of humor.

We thoroughly enjoyed our IRL (in real life) meeting. Jan was out shopping with her friends Julie and Annette. It was a pleasure to meet them and share our Warrenton shopping stories with each other.

Theresa Cano hosts a wonderful blog party each season near her booth just outside of Zapp Hall. We get to meet our fellow bloggers in a face-to-face. I didn't get to make it to this last one. I had some orders that I had to rush back home to fill. Such is life.

Chatting with Carolyn and Debbie

It was a very brief chat since I was limited on time this trip. I had to get my shopping done and then zoom back home to get some special requests completed for one of my booths in Corpus Christi. I had furniture to paint and Halloween items to create.
I got to meet Carolyn Westbrook. She has a lovely book called The French Inspired Home. She did a book signing at Theresa's blog party. Her and Debbie were visiting at a cozy little table near Zapp Hall. I got to sit down with them for a brief chat and a couple of pictures.

Debbie is such a hoot. If we lived closer, we would definitely "hang out". You can visit her blog here.

Zapp Hall is Party Central

COURTESY OF PENT-UP PHOTOS

I agree with Malissa. Zapp Hall is definitely Party Central.

Malissa makes darling photos and postcards with a definite vintage feel. She was set up near Zapp Hall, too. My favorite haunt. It was very nice to meet her. It was also nice to meet her right-hand angel, Rhonda. You should stop by her blog and see what she has been up to.

PHOTO COURTESY OF DAVID THE SNAKE LOVER

Malissa had quite a time leading up to the show. She is a real trooper. Her husband took her sick dog to the vet and ended up going into a diabetic coma. He is doing fine now, but it was a very, scary time for them.

Heidi and Tricia

These girls travel in style and they drove all the way from Arizona to participate in the Fall Show at Warrenton. It was quite an adventure to get to Texas. They took some wrong turns, drove for hours, got stopped by the border patrol, pulled over by the Fredericksburg police, and even ran over a poor little raccoon that was jaywalking.

Meet Heidi Martincic of Paris Montana. She makes gorgeous vintage eclectic salvage jewelry that she sells out of her adorable little vintage Airstream.

My hat is off to any girl who can pull her own trailer! The Houston Chronicle did a nice article featuring Heidi.

You can visit her beautiful blog here.

This is Tricia of Vintage Bliss. She has been published in Somerset Home and Somerset Studio magazines. Tricia teaches classes on scrapbooking, stamping and mixed media art.

You can visit Tricia's blog here.

Just call me Gabby

I actually enjoyed my second day of shopping way more than the first. I think it's because I found a few good pieces the first day so I could relax, have fun and take it easy. You just don't drive that far and drop everything just to come home empty-handed. Some of these pictures are mine, and some of them are David's (Mindy's boyfriend). David takes great pics.

The area around Zapp Hall was where I headed first. For those of you that don't know, Zapp Hall is where it is happening. I was about to stop and say "hey" to Debbie, but she was in deep conversation (imagine that!) and not wanting to interrupt, I went and visited with Courtney and Sarah.

Sarah was doing some last-minute touches. I think she is very talented to be able to use a curling iron without a mirror and outside to boot.

They make lovely handmade jewelry out of vintage items. Their displays were awesome.
My next stop was to see Mindy of Primtiques, a. k. a. "The P". I don't know how she does it, but she consistently finds unusual, awesome items. She has been know to flag down trucks. Sometimes you have to be bold to get the "good stuff".