a visual feast for your eyes. true story.

Wow.  It's been quite the week and I'm slowly starting to get back into the groove of my "normal" life.

It all started when my mom came into town last Sunday.  She keeps waiting, along with our other patient family members in Utah, to find out when we will finally book our tickets for holiday travel. We aren't quite sure if we will be going up for Thanksgiving or Christmas or both? or sometime in between?  Hmmm... always a predicament.  Especially when yours truly HATES to get on an airplane (especially when she has two babies in tow).  My motto is this:  if we're gonna do it, let's DO it (and stay for a while to make it worth the craziness).

So, alas, we stay undecided while my mom takes action and books herself a trip down here.  These babies aren't really babies, after all.  They are growing like the weeds in our backyard.  Side note: Texas grass grows REALLY tall if you neglect it for a few weeks in a row.  Seriously.  When I look outside I almost always break out in song, "OOOOOOOOOOklahoma, where the wind comes sweepin' down the plain..." In Aaron's defense, he always wants to go out and take care of it, but I almost always can convince him to stay inside and hang out with us.  Sorry.

ANYWAY, my mom came down to Texas.  It was TOO short of a visit, as always.  She flew in late Sunday night and we played and played until late Thursday afternoon.  During that time, we (my mom, Calvin, and I) decided to gear up and travel 2 hours and 45 minutes away to ROUND TOP, Texas.  Ever heard of it?  Population: 77 is what the official sign says.  No joke.  But, did you know it is home to one the top 10 best antique shows in the country according to Country Living?  True dat, yo.  Here's some pictures from their website.  But, I've included some from MY camera if you'd like to take a gander.

The one they spoke of is at Marburger Farms.  In the end, us LOW rollers decided it wasn't worth the price we paid for entrance ($10/each) and the prices at this show were CRAZY high.  I mean, like, drop your mouth open and go, "NO WAY!? Are you serious??!" prices.
So, that was a definite buzz kill.
Of course I coveted MANY items, but given our bank account situation, I decided that I'd better refrain.  It was sad. We decided, in the end, this is a good place to go if you have a few hundred dollars to spend on some great conversation pieces for your home.  Not for someone looking to spend no more than $50.  hA!  :)  Go, us, go. 

Calvin, on the other hand, was a champ.  Everyone smiled and applauded his good behavior.  Of course, he'd flash them his winning cheeser and they'd start "oooh-ing and ahhh-ing".  The only strange thing is that he didn't want to nurse ALL DAY LONG.  And, friends, it was a long day.  We'll talk more about THAT lovely situation later.  But, all in all, the day was good and we had a good time with each other.

Nana Nise looks great.  Melissa? Not so great.  Since this was pretty unflattering of me, I decided to make this photo TINY.  But, it's proof that we were there

 And, so we begin the photo tour.  So many great ideas and fun things to see.

great idea to cut up lace doilies and create a garland!  oh my!  What a fun idea!  Totally want to do something like this ASAP.

I've been into cool storage ideas lately, so don't be mad if you see a ton of great storage pieces that I saw.

a close up shot. 

Ahhh, old mail sorters.  That would be AWESOME in my life.  Now, where to put it?  hmmm...

okay, crafters, this was an AWESOME idea that we found.  Those are paper flowers made out of... wait for it... old sewing patterns!?!  That's how they have the lovely fragile petals are made.  Amazing.  And, so cool b/c you can see snippets of the pattern's text and line drawings.  We loved it.

Shout out to Martha Stewart for highlighting vintage maps in her magazine this summer.  Love these.  Of course, b/c they are so popular, the price was pretty high too.  Boo.

So many great vintage blocks.  At $3 a block I debated about buying THREE to spell Cal's name.  But again, I'm a cheapo and decided to not.  Oh boy.  But, look at the lovely shout out to my brother, Jesse!  Someone had already assembled his name.  Too fun!

Again, more cool storage.  And, my mom suggested that with some handiwork in the lumbar yard, we might be able to craft something similar to this for ourselves.  And, a plus, we wouldn't have to scrape who-knows-what out of each of the cubbies.  ??  Maybe a good idea ??

Too cute.  The little man tap danced as the record played.  I thought this was darling and even pulled out the video camera to film it for little Tillie.  She loved watching it, as did we.

Another great idea to "copy".  Long sticks and nail them together to make a star.  Awesome.  I love it.  And, I might even paint it red.  Pretty cool idea.

 

My mom was in love with this chalk board.  And, it was a pretty "reasonable" price they were asking.  But, by the time you figure in packing it up and shipping to Utah---we decided it probably wasn't worth the cost.  But, here's the picture of the "almost" purchase from Marburger Farms. 

loved these great prints.  Could be a fun design project to replicate?  I love the "Be A Good Loser"  hA!!!  But even better is the "Which is Manly?"  hA!!

So charming.  I love all these old swimsuits framed.  Can you just see this in an Old New England amazing house somewhere?  And that bright yellow wall?  Awesome.

I wanted this baby so badly.  So cool to store all my big paper in and old pieces of artwork.  But, again, the price-tag was too steep for me.  It was $950 I think.  She said she'd be able to talk it down to around $750, but still, couldn't justify it.  Maybe one day I'll find one on Craigslist for $20?  Here's dreaming...

Remember the Champion Child named Calvin?  Yes, he'd been sitting in his stroller at this point for 4+ hours and this is what he was doing.  Amazing.  He loves a good round of Peek-A-Boo.  Too cute.

BUT!  In case you are thinking it was a TOTAL BUST, think again.  I had researched online before-hand that there were many antique fairs that pop up all along the route, with some good hidden treasures----but if you only have one day to shop, the Marburger Farms location is where you should spend your time.  Well, pretty disappointed, we decided to leave after lunch time.

The San Marcos outlet mall is on the way home, so we thought, "Why not stop there and try our luck?"

But, as we were driving out of town, I had my mom drop me off *just in case* there seemed to be anything worth our while... SO GLAD we did.  Seriously.  The prices of the same items were a FRACTION of the cost.  Literally.

Loved this shield and thought it'd be perfect in my house.  It was about 2.5' x 3.5' and he was selling it for $59.  Maybe I could have talked him down, but alas...

I wanted to buy one of these to store my paint brushes and pencils and pens in... similar to the Mexican wooden sugar cane molds found here.  Only $9, but alas...  In hindsight, I should have done it.  Boo.

I was thinking it would be great to buy two of these chairs for my front porch.  Tillie and Cal would love them, I was sure.  And, the price tag wasn't too bad.  $15/each and I probably could have talked him down a little bit more.  But, remember, I'm a tight wad.  So, I walked away snapping a picture as I left.

My mom ended up purchasing these AWESOME gourds and trough/bowl thing.  I loved it, and she loved it even more than I did.  It will be on her kitchen table.  And, it fit perfectly in her suitcase.  SCORE!

A close up shot, if you will.  great colors, right?  Apparently, the guy goes twice a year to the Czech Republic to pick these things out.  Pretty cool, if that's true.  :)  To get a feel for the size, the big orange one is about 24" wide.  So cool!

and more cool shaped gourds.  They had bins of dark green ones, eggplant color, bright red, mustard yellow... it was awesome.

The guy carved some of them into Jack O'Lanterns.  Pretty clever.  And I was REALLY close to purchasing some for myself.  But again, I was strong, and kept my wallet zipped up.  I'm maybe a tad bit sad for not grabbing at least ONE of them.  I hate carving pumpkins b/c of the smell/mess/etc.  But this one would last forever.  Hmmm... maybe next year?

Another close up.  Pretty cute.

So, my mom got a great find.  But, did I?  The answer is yes. I knew I wanted to find some great maps or some fun globes.  And, I found the latter.

As I was looking at some globes, the minimum prices at the Marburger Fair were around $130, but I found plenty of others at the side shows for around $30 in the same condition (I was able to talk them down a little).  (and yes, I know, some globes are older=more valuable, but for the lay man who just wants cool colors and sizes, I'd recommend the cheaper route, obviously)

Anyway, here's what I ended up with.  I already had one globe at home and thought that 3 would be a good number to start a collection with.  So, I purchased TWO.

here's the one I had before I went.

Here's one of the new ones.  Love that this one spins both directions. And the blue is a cool blue.

 

Then here is the next one I purchased...

Unfortunately, the second one I bought is almost EXACTLY like the globe I already had at home. hA!!  No wonder I liked it.  Same size, same company, same blue, different year.  And the new one is a cheaper one with a plastic stand.  Oh well. 

here's the comparison.

I guess I'll have to have a bigger collection to hide my blunder.  Too bad.  :)


So there you have it.  Was it worth the trip?  Yes, because it was fun to see some fun ideas and spend time with my mom.  Would I go again?  sure.  But, I probably wouldn't spend time at the big Marburger one, because, as you saw, I'm cheap.  I'd plan to be there first thing in the morning at the little fairs around the area instead.

So, let me know if you go next Spring, because maybe I'll join you!

Ta ta for now.