Flea Shopping at Round Top

Have you ever tried to explain to someone what flea shopping is? It's more difficult than you'd imagine. Especially to your husband! He doesn't get the concept of "treasure hunting" through someone else's junk. This store's name perfectly describes my husband's feelings:


Clutter. Its true. Its a fine line between fabulous decor & just plain CLUTTER! My trick is asking myself two questions before any purchase.
#1- Will I regret walking away from this? Non-buyers remorse is usually WORSE than buyers remorse, for me anyway.
#2- Where will I put it? I have to know where I'll put it BEFORE I take it to the register. A fabulous find becomes just plain clutter if its sitting on the floor in the corner of the room (or in a to-do pile in the garage) waiting for you to decide what to do with it!

So on to my quest:
We came across another blog that told us about this tiny town, practically in nowhere Texas called Round Top. Population 77, but that may be including pets. The town comes alive twice a year for the biggest flea market experience you'll ever find! Miles and miles of "treasures". It doesn't officially open til this weekend but we were anxious to find the goodies before they were all gone. Venders set up early & the crowds get rowdy on the actual opening weekend, so we've heard. We had a mission. We were out to find coffee tables, side tables, benches, and a few photography props. And above all else- WE MUST FIND THE PERFECT PIE SHOP! If you know my family you know of our love for all things chocolate & our second love.......pie! We grew up with mom sending us to bed with m&m's in cupcake foils & woke up with homemade peach pie & icecream. Mom believes that peach pie is the perfect breakfast. I have to agree! I mean its got fruit & if you top with icecream its got your dairy! So to honor our family tradition, we started the trip with an ode to pie. This is the mother of all small town cafe's. It was rustic, tacky & just plain perfect! Royers Round Top Cafe is one of a kind and was worth the 5 hour drive just for their Chicken, Bacon, Cilantro, Salad Sandwich & their Pie sampler. They charge extra if you DONT get the icecream on with your pie. How great is that! Here is a picture of our pie sampler. Blueberry, coconut, pecan & apple pie were the four that we chose & devoured!

So after our stomachs were full we set out in the 91 degree but feels like 108 with humidity weather. It was brutal and we sat down every chance we got. No pain, No gain!

We were on a mission to find these pallet carts to use as a coffee table. They have them at Potterbarn and Restoration Hardware. We found lots of them & they ranged anywhere from $200-800. By the time we found it for $200, our car was already packed full!

Renee & I absolutely love the look of this as a coffee table. My style is definitely Urban Industrial. While Renee simply loves anything repurposed & simple. We searched through miles of tents, some are way expensive! While others are simply locals renting space infront of their homes.


You'll find tents set up all along the roadside from Round Top to Warrenton. You'll even find a few decked out beauties like this.......

In case you're wondering...... she is for sale! Apparantly the owner of this store makes one and sells it every few years. Wouldn't this make an awesome Sweet 16 gift for your teenager?!
I'm thinking my hubby needs a new car soon. Maybe he would like more heads to turn his way!
Our car didn't look much better on the inside after we filled it with our beautiful finds!

So mark your calendars for March 2011. Book your hotel early. We had to book a hotel in Brenham about 20 minutes away. Come out the weekend before it opens and bring a trailer, some coke zero & a whole lotta cash! You're in for a treat!

wannabe Halloweeners

I can't believe I'm about to post this picture. I mean this tops ALL embarassing moments. You see, hubs and I really want to be into Halloween, but we're just not! It's like kids in Highschool who want to be cool, but just can't pull it off. That's us trying to pull off being into Halloween. It's an attempt, but a lame one at best! I have to tell you what started off our bad dressing up experiences- it was October 31, 1996. Just a few days before hubster proposed & if I didn't run after this event, I must be a keeper! Soon-to-be hubs invited me to take his neice and nephew trick or treating. "Ahh, how cute is that?" I thought. I show up and he is dressed as some guy (don't know which one, never plan on knowing either) from Star Trek. He had this whole jump suit that was black & red with the whole emblem and everything. His sister and her husband were also dressed up in Star Trek jump suits. I thought, "Ok, they must totally be into Halloween, that's cool I guess." Then his sister proudly pulled out a spandex jump suit for me! Oh wow! Spandex? But you don't know my size, we just started dating! What could I do? His sweet sister had made all the costumes! So I put on the tight in all the wrong places and baggy in all the wrong places jump suit. It was about 3 inches too short in the body which made it ride up all night long. Just imagine. Uncomfortable! And then my I-can't-believe-I-didn't-run-away-hubs pins a Star Trek emblem on me. It was just like pinning a corsage on a prom dress. He was so proud! Then icing on the cake, it was a talking pin-corsage (I mean, why wouldn't you buy a talking one? I would expect nothing less!). Hubs literally beamed as he pushed the button that said "Beam me up Scotty!" You should've seen the look on his face. So happy! I'm afraid to know what my face looked like, but I remember eyeing the front door like I've never done before! So, happily we went trick or treating. Why was I happy you ask? I was happy I was finally in the dark with my wedgy giving cat suit! Fortunately for me I have no pictures to remember that interesting Halloween night. I'm left only to remember my permo-wedgy! It took me 9 years later to dress up (recover) again for Halloween. But again, completely unsuccessful! This was us 3 years ago. I think I want my Star Trek outfit back after my sister (who was kind enough to document our lameness!) sent me this picture! I have a feeling we looked better as Star Trekkies than we did attempting to dress as Dwight & Angela from the Office.
I still get the shivers when I look at hubs dressed as Dwight. And not good shivers! That whole night I avoided making eye contact with him, because I was literally afraid I would never be attracted to him again! I however, wasn't any better looking as Angela. (shivers again) Ewwww! So this is our last attempt at dressing up. You can see this just isn't our thing. We wanted it to be our thing but we just came off as creepy with a side of homeless. So here is my idea if you want to host a Halloween Party and maybe even invite us: Do yourself & your eyes a favor and don't make it a Costume required Party! But if you still insist on having a Halloween Party here is an idea. Have each guest bring an outrageous costume (I've got some nice Star Trek spandex ones if you need something) wrapped in a paper bag. When all your guests arrive, place them under a chair and play musical chairs. When the music stops each person grabs the costume under their chair and that's what they wear for the night. I think it sounds fun, but then again I dressed up as a Homeless librarian/Angela.

Happy Halloween planning everyone!

mom's off duty

(photo from flickr: here)
I would like to formally apologize to all the people I may have judged BEFORE I had children. The times I thought "how hard is it to comb your kids hair before you leave the house?" Or "Really? You thought it was ok to have your kid come to the mall in a Halloween Costume in August?" Or the times I may have given a slightly horrified look as your child lay on the floor of William Sonoma screaming bloody murder and kicking everyone who tried to walk over her/him. Maybe, even the times where I uttered something under my breath as you talked baby talk to your child and asked permission from your child "can daddy have a tasty of your lollipop?" Really dude? You know if you talk like an idiot- your kid turns out to be an idiot. Not that I would say that or anything! (Mom- do any of these stories vaguely remind you of your sweet grandchildren?) To all those children I thought were homeless as they shopped with their moms at Walmart. I'm sorry. Your mom's weren't lazy. (Well, some were) They were just off duty for a minute. You see off duty is a fantastic coping mechanism for the mom's to let go of all our guilt for NOT pinning you down and doing an elaborate hairstyle. Off duty is our way of winning some and losing some. I used to think it was highly rude that my mom would yell "Off duty!" thru a closed bathroom door. But now I realize it's a mom's way of saying....... "I can't be nice anymore. I have been nice for 15 hours now, if I were any nicer I'd be Mother Teresa!" I remember talking to a friend who told me that she was going to have a baby when every room in her house was decorated perfectly and she had gone to two different countries and she had a year of savings in the bank. I remember laughing outloud. After her look of horror, I realized she was NOT kidding. (Strangely, she never wanted to hang out after that......) But the thing is- motherhood is payback. Even if you were an amazingly adorable and cooperative child, hint hint, you're gonna get a dose of motherhood. You are sentenced to the next 18 years of showering with barbies and matchbox cars and bathroom breaks with fingers under the doors and conversations thru the closed door because they can't wait 30 seconds. (Oh yeah, 30 seconds is all you get honey!) But through it all, I can't imagine my life any better than when my kids hug me and (naively) tell me that I'm the best mom ever! Oh how it's been worth every dirty diaper, 3 am feeding, 2am emergency room visit, embarrassing tantrum in public to hear those words! Even now, as I type this, my girls who have been in bed for 1.5 hours are still having a conversation about their wardrobes from their SEPARATE bedrooms. To all those moms I judged, I'm sorry. I no longer judge you. I AM YOU! And every night at 8pm, just to stay a little sane, I go off duty. And when I wake up in the morning......... I'm Mother Teresa again. :)

my biggest mistake!

You know those blogs that after reading them you go into a fetal position and scream outloud "WHY?! Why is everyone else amazing and their homes are beyond perfect and they serve 3 gourmet meals and then have time to sew masterpieces and paint murals all in one day?" And you rock yourself to sleep next to 6 piles of unfolded laundry that are so crumpled you have to smell them to remember if they're clean or not. But I digress...... my point is- My blog posts are here to make you feel better about your mediocre lives with your captain crunch dinners, your store bought bedding and your hot-glued drapes. Here is my embarassing mistake that will make all of your problems look like unicorns & cotton candy. This is embarassing folks. Like skirt shoved into pantyhose bad! These couches have haunted me for almost the last decade. I'm not sure I remember even liking them!


And I have no idea what possessed me to not only buy them 10 years ago, but (and this is the most embarrassing part) have them CUSTOM made! I picked out the fabric. I picked out the coordinating fabric pillows. The worst part is that I paid a fortune for them! And then came the nightmares, the buyers remorse, the "where can I hide these hideously oversized monsters?" I've desperately wanted these plaid vomits to simply go away. Somehow get lost on the moving truck. Maybe there's a fire and they're the only thing that burns. But no. These couches survived the move & were unfortunately the ONLY furniture that wasn't destroyed by the movers. Now most people would think, "Just buy new ones, get over it. What's the big deal?" But I'm cheap. I can't throw away something that's in good shape & I certainly couldn't if I paid alot of money for them! So they sat there in my game room, hiding from hopefully anyone who entered my home. When children wouldn't come down from the game room when they're moms would come to pick them up. I would silently scream and imagine myself shoving my friends aside, racing past them to be first up the stairs to get their children so they wouldn't have to witness my "worst mistake". Please don't judge peeps. I am well aware of my hideous mistake. I've lived with it for 10 years now. I mean, how can you even decorate around it. Hunter green vomit is everywhere! Do I pull out some dead flower swags and brass/glass tables and throw a mauve blanket on it? Do I put up a matching plaid wall paper border and pretend like the Scottish Kilt look is totally in? Or....... do I wait and dream and drive to Costco on a crazy Saturday. And walk by the leather couches dreaming of them and all the sticky fingers and spilled milk they can handle, and sigh. And then, after 6 months of looking at these couches, they called me. "We went on sale just for you!" A sale at Costco? That's right! I got BOTH all leather (NO PLEATHER) couches for a smokin'-hot $800! Both of them!

When I saw this deal I squealed! I frantically told my daughter to find her dad. I couldn't let anyone steal this awesomeness! I covered my arms over the couch and tried, unsuccessfully, to rip the sale tag off. I flagged down not one, but 3 workers. I tried to act casual when people would walk by me, like "no crazy awesome deal here peeps, move along already". And then when no one was looking I would jump up and down and imagine torching my green hulks back home! (Sigh) My babies are home, my nightmares are nicely waiting at Good Will for some unfortunate home to throw up in. So now on to decorating.

I don't know what to do. I never thought this day would come, where I could allow friends to see this room. What should I do? I'm terrified of making another costly mistake. So for now this is what my room looks like. I have two pieces of furniture that I'm in love with and have to work into this design. My red cabinet, made by hubby for Mother's Day to hide toys. And this cream tv armoire that hubs also (and my dad too) made me. I love them both. I also designed them both. They somehow redeem me in design & they're fairly inexpensive since hubs did all the work! So tell me what to do people. I just had the walls painted Classic Silver (Behr color but Sherwin Williams paint). I have a fire red cabinet and an antiqued cream armoire. This could be another disaster, but I'm hoping for some suggestions. Especially for wall art and drapes!

Go to bed people. Dream your sweet dreams. The Scottish Plaid Green Goblins have gone to a better place. To be continued......

photo shopping

It's that time of year. The weather is changing and fall is approaching. I'm planning my fall photoshoots and am trying to come up with ideas for my family photos as well. Etsy.com is a great place to find ideas and here are a few photo props I've purchased or dreamt of purchasing.

You can find the darling diaper cover here

Um. Could you just die over this bib necklace. This screams me! She sells the instructions here
Same girl as above sells the instructions for this darling skirt. Ruffles get me everytime! Find it here

I can't forget little boys either. Ties are boring? Apparently NOT, at least with these darling fabrics. Get them while they're hot here!

Can you say UhhhhhhMAZING! These headbands are so sofisticated your child will be better behaved just by wearing it! You can find them here

Now that I found some accessories- gotta find the perfect outfits to go with them! I know. You're probably saying "duh- you buy the outfit first, THEN the accessories!" That was the old rule of thumb. When you're wearing this kind of bling honey, it doesn't matter if you're wearin' your birthday suit. You're gonna look UH-Mazing!