So you know we’re headed to Texas for Round Top Antique Week, and you know I can’t quit talking aboutMarburger Farm, but once you’ve been to Marburger there are about 2000 more vendors in 300 more venues over a 25 mile region that you might want to check out.  The biggest, brightest, sweetest & HOTTEST of them all is the Junk Gypsies of course!!!

We love these girls {2 sisters & their mama} to no end… their big hearts * road-trippin’ * free lovin’ mantra gets all of our juices going and I’m about as excited to see them as a kid visiting a candy shop.

So, if you’re headed to Round Top Antique Week make sure you stop by the Junk Gypsy tent… it’s in Warrenton, Texas on Highway 237 {MAP HERE}.  Their space is right on the highway so you won’t miss it, I PROMISE!!!

And if you happen to be in town on Thursday, April 1st then there’s a little shin-dig you ought to attend.  Ok, it’s a BIG shin-dig ~ the now legendary Junk Gypsy Prom.  A few years ago the Junk Gypsies were hanging out in Warrenton during Antique Week and started noticing all of the prom dresses that were being sold… it made them kind of blue to think of all of those lovely old dresses, cherished so much for one big night, then never worn again.  So on a whim they decided to dress up one night, crank some tunes and have a cocktail or two. 

Several years later it’s the biggest night Warrenton, Texas sees every spring and every fall.  Don’t know what to wear??  There is no dress code, just put on whatever makes you feel HAPPY and full of LIFE and join in the fun!!  {We posted a ‘what to wear to prom’ GUIDE last year right HERE}  The John Evans Band will be there, along with tons of antiques, crazy junkers, and lotsa’ dancin’ fools!!!  I cannot WAIT!!!

For those of you who can’t make it to Texas this year then you can still feel the Junk Gypsy Love on their awesome website, Gypsyville.com. 

You can also follow the Junk Gypsy Journey on their BRAND NEW BLOG right HERE.

Right now the girls are decking out a vintage 1953 Flying Cloud Air Stream trailer for Miranda Lambert’s Roadside Bars & Pink Guitars tour that is about to begin…  It’s going to be ah-mazing so hop on board and check it out!!

** Click HERE for more about the JUNK GYPSIES **

** Click HERE for more PROM PICS **

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Round Top GUIDE

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If you’re in the Ft. Worth area this weekend be sure to check out the 47th Annual Dolly Johnson Antique & Art Show.  The show is under new ownership with our friend Jan Orr-Harter.  Jan has worked hard to revitalize this event to be a must-see show with top vendors.

This Friday & Saturday, March 12-13, 2010 the show will move to a larger exhibit hall at Will Rogers Memorial Center in Ft. Worth, Texas. The event will welcome antiques of all eras and styles, from Pilgrim Century to Mid-Century Modern. There will be art and antiques from France, England and Italy. There will be American Colonial and Spanish Colonial. Look for Garden, Industrial, Retro, Textiles and Jewelry, as well the top-quality American primitives and western antiques for which the show has been loved all these years by a strong regional audience.

** Click HERE for other EVENTS **

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Calling all BLOGGERS!! 
Marburger Farm has tickets just for y’all…

If you are an ANTIQUE * JUNKIE * VINTAGE * DECORATOR * ROAD TRIPPIN’ Blogger and you are planning to attend Round Top Antique Week ~ and blog all about your BIG adventures along the way ~ then Marburger Farm would like to know about it and comp your admission to the Marburger Farm Antique Show.

Marburger Farm is the premiere shopping venue during Round Top Antique Week.  The event covers 43 acres and almost 400 antique vendors who bring everything from fine European Antiques to Industrial Country Antiques to Recycled Art.  The merchandising and ideas that come from Marburger Farm are on the forefront of trends you’ll be seeing in the Antique and Vintage Marketplace.  This is an event that you SHOULD NOT MISS!!

So here’s what you need to do to receive FREE ADMISSION to Marburger Farm for this Spring ‘10 Round Top Antique Week… Just post about your upcoming trip to Round Top, and your plans to attend Marburger Farm Antique Show, then leave your URL in the COMMENTS section below, and voila ~ you’ll win TWO TICKETS.  Tickets are limited so y’all hurry.  THANKS!!!  Holler at me at cactus_creek@hotmail.com if you have any questions… fancy

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In FIVE short weeks we’ll be in Texas for Round Top Antique Week… one of my very favorite venues to visit during Antique Week is Marburger Farm. 

Marburger Farm covers 43 acres with TEN football-field sized tents and a DOZEN historical buildings filled to the gills with every kind of VINTAGE TREASURE * TREASURED ANTIQUES & FUNKY Art you could hope to find in one setting!!

This Spring ‘10 Marburger Farm will open on Tuesday, March 30th for early buying from 10am till 2pm.  This is serious shoppping, y’all, seriously the best of the best!!  Admission for Early Buying is $25/person.

MARBURGER FARM
Tuesday, March 30th ~ Saturday, April 3rd

Tues, 10 – 5
Wed – Fri, 9 – 5
Sat, 9 – 4
General Admission
$10/person

Admission is good all week.  They offer free parking, shuttle services, a nice place to rest during the day, & DELCIOUS food!!!

What’s in the water at the Marburger Farm Antique Show?
It just might be the fountain of youth.

On March 30 – April 3 nearly 400 exhibitors will arrive in Round Top with antiques that are cutting-edge, fusing quality with youthful hip. Those in-the-know have noted that the show attracts plenty of younger shoppers who enjoy being outdoors, visiting with friends and chasing down the bargains that are bound to be found in the mix.

The latest news? The dealers at Marburger Farm are getting younger too.

At age 29, Dakota Pratt will come from Los Angeles for his fourth year at the twice-yearly Marburger Farm Antique Show. Coming with him will be the folk art and furniture that he creates from antique tractor springs, vintage bottle caps and other reclaimed industrial fragments. And, if past shows are any indication, he won’t be going home with them.

Exhibitor Kim Hoegger of Kim Hoegger HOME in Dallas will bring garden antiques, including architectural concrete planters and statues, as well as her younger perspective on the appeal of antiques. “I don’t buy an antique because it’s 18th or 19th century,” she says. “I buy it because it appeals to me and because I love it and I know my customers are going to love it. I think that younger dealers focus on the look of something, not the history. If it is beautiful and useful and clients can appreciate it for being gorgeous—that’s enough for me.”

Dealer Brandon Nelson of Three Oaks, Michigan agrees. “I’m all over the map in terms of periods. I respond to things visually and viscerally. While I’ll bring some production pieces, I’m especially looking for one-of-a-kind, out-of-step pieces.” For the spring show, Nelson will offer a primitive carved maple head, about 100 years old, with, he says, “a stunning presence.” His booth will include industrial antiques, advertising signs, architectural salvage and Americana mixed with mid-century modern.

In her eighth year in business, jewelry dealer and designer Michelle Billette from New York says that “Marburger Farm is a steep learning curve. But there are lots of younger dealers and designers there now. It’s a community and you’re surrounded by inspiration with all the expertise and innovation of other Marburger Farm dealers.” Billette will bring antique jewelry, both Tiffany and vintage costume jewelry. She will also bring a collection of French drawer pulls and other delicate brass hardware that she has dipped in gold and fashioned into cuff bracelets. This “fusion of old and new,” as she puts it, “is a way to bridge the past, that you couldn’t improve upon, but to change the context of the pieces.”

Changing the context of the pieces. What else can you expect from an antique show with a presence on Facebook, Twitter and YouTube? And behind the scenes, the youthful owners of the show continue its original emphasis on finding the most adventurous and creative dealers anywhere and giving them time and space to create displays of antiques that inspire and delight shoppers of all ages.

That’s on top of offering a third food pavilion, an expanded parking shuttle fleet, wi-fi, on-site shipping, an ATM, air-conditioned rest-rooms and stirring into the mix special events and souvenirs like the Marburger Farm T-shirts that read “Peace, Love & Antiques.” Special events include Jo Packham, creator and editor of Where Women Create Magazine, signing copies of her inventive new publication, along with Gina Galvin of Peacock Park Design, whose workshop is featured on the spring cover. Marburger Farm welcomes the debut of the new book, The Parisian Cowboy’s Guide to the Round Top Experience, as well as a live radio broadcast from the show on Thursday April 1.

While the waters of Lake Marburger may hold a fountain of youth, plenty of long-time, experienced dealers populate the ten giant tents and twelve historic buildings of the Marburger Farm Antique show as well. But their spirit is cutting-edge, progressive and lively. As dealer Randy Farmer of Nashville’s Artifact Antiques puts it, “The dealers at Marburger Farm are friendly and excited about what they do. There’s not an old curmudgeon in the bunch.” As they tweet on Twitter, that’s pretty darn awesome!

The Marburger Farm Antique Show opens Tuesday March 30 for Early Buying from 10 am until 2 pm for $25 admission. Regular $10 admission begins at 2 pm until 5 pm that day. Parking is free and your admission is good all week. Shopping continues on Wednesday, Thursday and Friday from 9 am until 5 pm and on Saturday, April 3, from 9 am until 4 pm. All area shows will maintain their regular schedules and still get you home in time for Easter Sunday. For maps, photos and information on tickets, groups, the Marburger Café and special events, see roundtop-marburger.com.

** Click HERE for our **
Cactus Creek Round Top GUIDE

** Click HERE for more about **
Marburger Farm

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Every spring and fall for the past couple of years I have had the opportunity to head to my home state of Texas for Round Top Antique Week. In just six weeks we’ll be headed there again to meet up with old friends and make new ones, to eat and drink and be restored. And of course, we’ll be there to SHOP. Over the next few weeks I’ll be counting down and writing a little about what I’ve learned about Round Top Antique Week over my last few trips. One thing I’ve learned for certain is that I’ve only scratched the surface…

Let’s start with the HISTORY OF ROUND TOP ANTIQUE WEEK…

So what, exactly, is Round Top??  First off it’s a small Texas town, population 77+, located in Fayette County.  ONE hour East of Austin, an ONE 1/2  hours West of Houston, and FOUR hours south of Dallas.  The Round Top Antique Week, as it is often called, began over thirty years ago in the Round Top Rifle Association Hall, when Miss Emma Lee Turney {left} and her company, Antiques Productions, were asked to do an Antique Show in a little German town that was quietly being restored, Round Top, Texas.

The show quickly became a social event for Houston socialites as they retreated to charming Round Top every Spring and Fall.  The show was still small but it was the cream of the crop in quality dealers, and had the leaders and financiers of Houston buzzing.  The fresh air and country-style shopping gave the society folk a chance to let down their guard, pick for their beautiful homes, and even guzzle a Shiner or two beneath the shade trees.  {For a wonderful interview with Emma Lee Turney, and her account of the Round Top Antique Fair, click HERE}.

Round Top is no longer ONE SHOW.  {The Map to the left will be updated regularly!!}  Over the years it has become a 10 day event featuring 1000s of merchants spread out over four small towns: Round Top, Warrenton, Carmine and Shelby.   The Round Top Register guesses that there are now about 35 separate shows with at least 2,500 dealers.  Not to mention the surrounding fields, warehouses, and tents covering cow pastures and black tops…  Round Top Antique Week takes place every Fall and Spring with the next show beginning WEDNESDAY, March 24th, 2010 and running till April 3rd, 2010!!

So what ever happened to Miss Emma Lee Turneyand the original venue??  A couple of years ago Miss Turney sold the Original Round Top Antiques Fair to Susan and Bo Franks.  They have maintained the standards set forth by Miss Turney by hosting an exceptional quality of dealers, providing stellar service and adding two new shows in the Summer and Winter. 

The Original Round Top Antiques Fair now consists of two venues: Carmine Dance Hall and the Big Red Barn, plus two HUGE tents.  While the venues are close in proximity, the luxury of a transport and porter is provided to help you get to and from the parking lot.  Food from Royer’s Cafe will also be available {mm, mm, good!!}. There is a $10 charge per person, but the ticket is good for all four days of the show at both of the of the Original Round Top Antiques Fair venues & tents.

Last but not least on our itinerary is the Round Top Folk Art Fair& Creative Market.  After 40 years of Round Top’s biannual Antique BONANZA, Miss Emma Lee Turney is still in the biz producing this show which features “contemporary artisans in many areas of interest including woodcarvers, tinsmiths, custom and twig furniture makers, needle workers, creators of folk dolls, custom floor cloths, bird houses, paintings, country-style fashions, is a source for custom-made accessories, all to enhance the country lifestyle.” 

Click on the boxes below for MORE INFORMATION about Round Top…

Click HERE for Cactus Creek’s Round Top GUIDE

Click HERE for more from Round Top Dealers

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“We are those who would rather re-imagine and re-make the old than lust after the new. We are the lovers and re-purposers of the material culture of the past.” Jan Orr-Harter, the new proprietor of the Dolly Johnson Antique & Art Show.

I am acquainted with Jan Orr-Harter from my trips to Round Top Antique Week where Jan sets up her antique business, Hot Tamale Antiques, every spring and fall at Marburger Farm. I always look forward to seeing what Jan brings to the show because it is never happen-stance. Her passion for antiques and her attention to detail always guarantee a brilliant selection of goods {read about her process for selecting items HERE}.

Recently Jan took a leap of faith and purchased the Dolly Johnson Antique & Art Show which will celebrate it’s 47th year this March 12 & 13, 2010 in Fort Worth, Texas. The show’s 75 dealers will offer antiques from “Pilgrim Century to Mid-Century Modern. There will be art and antiques from France, England and Italy. There will be American Colonial and Spanish Colonial. Look for Garden, Industrial, Retro, Textiles and Jewelry, as well the top-quality American primitives and western antiques for which the show has been loved all these years by a strong regional audience”.

Sooo… mark your calendars now and stay up to date on all of the vendors through Jan’s new blog right HERE. She is an extremely talented writer and, whether you can make it to the show this year or not, I know you will enjoy getting to know Jan via her forthcoming posts.

p.s. All pics came from Jan’s home… I love the colors, it looks so warm & cozy. I would expect no less. Thanks Jan!! xo,fancy

** Click HERE for more about **
Hot Tamale Antiques

** Click HERE for Cactus Creek’s **
Round Top GUIDE

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There is a slow buzz starting… people starting to make travel plans, piggy banks being filled, and shopping plans being formed.  Round Top Antique Week begins in less than 12 weeks. Whoa, how can it be?? 

For those of you who aren’t familiar, Round Top Antique Week is a semi-annual event that takes place in Texas {between Houston and Austin}every spring and fall.  The original Round Top Antique Week happened in Round Top, Texas, but now extends to several other little towns in the area including Fayetteville, Carmine and Warrenton.

One of our very favorite things to do while at Antique Week is to visit Marburger Farm Antique Show, an enormous venue that includes almost 43 acres, and over 350 vendors, all offering exceptional treasures from flea market finds, hip art, to exquisite antiques.  I saw a note today that the Maine Antique Digest had published a story about Marburger Farm right HERE, so I thought that I would pass it along.  Thanks Sundie/Vintage Sculpture!!

Soooo… start getting your boots shined {or sneakers for you serious shoppers}, your aviators cleaned off, and your shopping lists ready.  In 12 SHORT WEEKS we’ll be in Round Top. Waaaaahooooooo!!!!!

STAY TUNED for our semi-annual Round Top Countdown starting soooon…

** Click HERE for more about Marburger Farm **

** Click HERE for more about Vintage Sculpture **

** Click HERE for Cactus Creek’s Round Top GUIDE **

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This Thursday, December 3rd, 2009, will mark the 25th year that the National Finals Rodeo {NFR}has been held in Las Vegas, Nevada. For those of you not sure, the NFR is the grand~daddy of all rodeos when the World Champion Cowboys & Cowgirls are crowned for the year.

In addition to stellar rodeo performances there are a zillion concerts, events & SHOPPING venues you wouldn’t believe!!

** Click HERE to read about the different SHOPPING VENUES **
& where we shopped last year!!

If you’re headed out there be sure to visit our friends Andy & Aaron Sanchez at Cowboy Christmas {that’s in the Las Vegas Convention Center}.  This year they are bringing their extraordinary coffee table,“Paseo De Plata”, or The Path of Silver {pictured above} which was originally designed for Cody High Style. The bi-level coffee table is made from reclaimed Redwood burl and displays a colorful abalone shell representing a mountain spring lake. The lake spills over onto the lower level in the form of strung pearls. The pearls flow into another Abalone lake, which in turn spill into a stream of silver.

Don’t miss your chance in Vegas to see Andy & Aaron Sanchez’s work in person, and also to meet them. They are such good, talented people, and they love to share the stories of each peice of furniture that they design.

** Click HERE for more about Andy & Aaron Sanchez **

Also in Vegas for the next ten days is Craig Bergsgaard, a talented sculptor who is also a story teller at heart.  Craig is also going to be  at Cowboy Christmas {Las Vegas Convention Center}.

** Click HERE for more about Craig’s Sculptures **

Oh, how I wish that Vegas was in the cards for me this year but unfortunately it’s just not going to happen. Y’all have so much fun!!! Be safe & enjoy every moment… xo,fancy

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Only TWO more days till the Honky Tonk Holidays event in College Station, Texas!!  If you are anywhere close to College Station this Friday & Saturday {December 4th & 5th, 2009} then you better head on down to * get it on * with the JUNK GYPSIES & the Dixie Chicken!!!  

The Legendary DIXIE CHICKEN and the JUNK GYPSY Company plan for a not-to-be-missed HOLIDAY event to benefit child advocacy center.

The DIXIE CHICKEN, a 35 year old tradition, and the JUNK GYPSIES, a Texas-based mother-daughter design trio, have joined forces for a Honkytonk Holiday Roadshow. Complete with vintage Dixie Chicken memorabilia, custom-designed Junk Gypsy gear for Holiday shopping, beer, burgers, and an old-fashioned street dance. So come on out and shop Texas!

For More INFORMATION CLICK **HERE**

My heart is breaking that I can’t be there, in my very own college town, with the fabulous Junk Gypsies and of course, The Dixie Chicken {the beginning & end of what a college DIVE is supposed to be}.  Hope y’all have a blast!!!! Send lotsa’ pics… love ya’, fancy

** Click HERE for more about Honky Tonk HOLIDAYS **

** Click HERE for more about the Junk Gypsies **

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I have recently become acquainted with a couple of uber~talented artists here in the KC area.  They are Beautiful * FUN * Creative women with spot~on Rustic * Western * Vintage STYLE.  This weekend they are all going to get together and steal my money.  Oops, what I meant to say is that they’re going to have a killer Holiday Variety Market that will fill 98% of your gift giving needs {no white socks for Grandpa, otherwise you’re golden}.

Holiday Variety Market, which will take place south of Kansas City in Stilwell, Kansas, is a cozy little marriage of local artisian products, local music, farmers market & vintage market. 

Don’t miss this, y’all ~~  it’s going to be a dandy!!

thanks, melinda…xo,fancy

** Click HERE for more GIFT Ideas **

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