We moseyed on down the road and landed at the “Antique Barn” owned by Clara, open year round and just full of old and new treasures. First I bought a fairly new wooden serving tray that Andy said was a good size for him to serve me breakfast on. Well that does it… I’m fixin’ this up and keeping it! While still at Clara’s I went outside to a tent and trailer and happily met Veronica, owner of “A Little Junk in My Trunk”. I had a great info. gathering conversation with Veronica while going through her “tricked-out” trailer. While very down-to-earth, she was just as free as she could be with her views of this semi-annual event and offered excellent insight.Veronica took me back inside and introduced me to Clara and we talked about vendor space for future shows. I also bought a T-shirt from Veronica that has a phrase similar to one my daughter and I have shared for nearly 30 years. Take a look…

Here is a picture of  Veronica and her trailer

Clara’s place

Back in the truck and before we could “hop” we were at a field full of tents so… Because the day was nearly over the parking attendant only charged us $2.00 of the normal $5.00 to pull in back and park. Here I met and talked with two interesting people. The first I am sorry to say I didn’t get her name but for recollection purposes I’ll call her “Stoop Lady”. Very nice, and during our conversation she showed me how she lived in her utility trailer during the show and what all she did to save money. **Note Her first trailer was not tall enough for her to stand up in to change clothes hence “Stoop Lady”. She has been widowed for seventeen years now and for the last 6 years this show is how she has made a living. ALL BY HERSELF!!! Needless to say, she told me YES in no uncertain terms, YES, this show AND the expense of it was worth it to her. A little while later in the same field I met 54 year-old Debbie. Also from Houston, where she is an auctioneer. Debbie had great stuff, all imported from India and all with hefty price tags. She told me that she had 8 containers brought over for this show and she has been doing this for the last 10 years. She also said YES it is definitely worth it. She says “it is better to have “New Stuff” that everyone wants now-a-days than just a bunch of antiques.”

A few shots while in a field

With everyone closing for the day we rolled out headed back towards the hotel and stopped for BBQ dinner. It’s the end of day 1 and we’re exhausted but excited about the prospects.

Day 2 – Left the hotel at 9:30 a.m. with a quick stop at Wal-Mart… cause they’re everywhere… to get a bath mat for the hotel shower and coffee for Andy. **Note – I waited outside. Wal-Marts traumatize me! Ha ha. Before we got back on highway 71 we stopped and I walked to the middle of the Colorado River bridge to take a few pictures.

Grassy banks with trees, and it’s not anything like the Colorado River that I’ve seen in Colorado or Nevada. But very approachable, even peaceful! 

Anyway… back on the road. Stopped back at Clara’s Antique Barn and OMG! Lots more info from Greg and Andrea. He’s a land broker and vendor. Learned that poor Clara’s husband is in a nursing home and she wants to sell her business and spend time with him. Then met Alexis Cowan. Alexis is a horse painting artist, and vendor at Clara’s. Check these out…

Alexis, Clara, Greg and Andrea

Next stop Warrenton. The streets are just lined with vendors and very busy with shoppers. First I met Lisa Johnson, owner of “Vintage at Heart”. She makes and sells amazing things made from barrels. She sells to catalogs everyday but says she wouldn’t miss this show. She started in 2008 with her creative ideas and now has I think she said she has 8 guys helping her fill her orders. REALLY well done. Loved it!! I purchased her “Wine for 2” holder and if I could have, would have purchased her Adirondack chair. LOVED IT TOO!!! 

In the very next booth someone tried to copy one of Lisa’s designs and I would say failed miserably. Lisa, you’ve got nothing to fear from him or anyone. Your stuff is great!!!

Marburger Farm was our next stop. We arrived at 2:15 p.m. $10.00 per person for an all week pass. We got parked and figured to start in the back corner and kind of zig-zag through all the lettered tents and named buildings. We started at 2:30 p.m. in tent #C………. at 5:00 p.m. we walked out of tent #C…Yep…still #C. Tried to get a burger but they had closed the grill so all we could get was the best lemonade in the world and a piece of Strawberry Cheesecake for me and Lemon Meringue Pie for Andy. That was dinner and it was Good!!! Anyway while inside tent #C we met Franco and Jennifer Zanetti, out of Atlanta, Georgia. Here to sell Vintage European trims (for which I have an obsession). Franco originally from Italy where most of the trims come from, is a comedian without borders. Just hilarious! Jennifer… an immediate kindred spirit. I’m sure we’ll become great friends. Anyway 1 1/2 hours we spent with them at their booth and nearly $500.00 later we left truly enriched!  We had a blast with them! Here they are… 

and …TENT #C 

just a few more shots…

Day 3 – Final day – The “Plan” was to go straight to Round Top, specifically to find the new “World Headquarters” of Junk Gypsy and to “Peacock Park’s new venue “The Rendezvous”. Then if there was time, stop back at Marburger Farm. Well… traffic was slow going in Warrenton and it gave me time to spot the cutest booth full of frilly clothing items and all I said was ooh, ooh, and Andy said “You want me to stop?” I said “Yeeessss”! I met the cutest girl named Libby, Owner and designer of “Flash and Trash” here she is…

Each item is uniquely designed using vintage and antique lace and doilies. CUTE  CUTE  CUTE!!! Libby graciously allowed me to take her picture and you can see for yourself. This talented girl has really got something! Look her up on Facebook at Flash and Trash.

Back in the truck and headed to Round Top we spotted the Junk Gypsy Headquarters just in time for Andy to slow down even more so I could take a couple of pictures. Here they are…

AND he made the turn without causing a traffic jam, unlike some others… Inside Junk Gypsy Headquarters was crazy busy and crowded but it was all fun. A bunch of Junk Gypsy Shirts and some iron handles and a book were my purchases then I thought I’d try to find the restroom before getting back on the road. I found it! In the back on the right behind a chair and with only a little sign half way down the door. I was so focused on getting in there that I totally disregarded the ladies standing and shopping at the table of jewelry next to the door. Well… when I reached for the door knob… In unison they cried out “there’s a line”!!! I apologized and took my place in line and they said they had done the same thing. We laughed and talked about a different kind of traffic jam. I love Junk Gypsy’s new Headquarters, but I think they need to consider adding a Junk Gypsy style out house for times when 100,000 plus – minus people might “come-a-callin”!! Here are a couple more pictures from Junk Gypsy…

Back on the road, heading into Round Top… Looking for “The Rendezvous”. Arrived at town square, found a parking spot and wandered around for about an hour, finally, Andy used his cell phone to look up Peacock Park Design’s blog to get the address of their new location here in Round Top. He found it and said we had passed right by it. So…. Back in the truck headed back towards Warrenton. On the opposite side of the highway and literally just 100 yards down from Marburger Farm we found it!!! We wheeled in and parked for free (thank you very much) and started checkin’-it-out. Gina, the owner had a large shed of Peacock Park inventory, ALWAYS GREAT STUFF, and around from that was where we met “Sistah-in-Charge”, (Owner) Melissa NewBould of “Bake Shoppe and Cafe”. We had the best chicken salad sandwiches on home-made bread yum and… I kid-you-not, a Texas-sized “Ding Dong”, that would make Dolly Madison go home with her tail between her legs. I have to say all this about the Ding Dongs because I don’t normally eat chocolate cake or anything resembling it. But Melissa… As some southerner is known for saying…. “As God as my witness, I will never pass up one of those Ding Dongs again!!! Excellent! Here you go… put it on a shirt. I get one though! LOL! I was so excited to FIND The Rendezvous that I forgot to take a picture of the front of it @#$%%&*. I’m still mad about that. But I got these…

I did not do The Rendezvous justice with picture taking. But I was just so excited I forgot myself. I didn’t get to meet Gina this trip and this may have been their 1st year, but I’ll bet that next year they’ll be on the map for good!!! AND with a vengeance! Gina, Put another sign out on the road that you see coming from the other direction so first-timers like me don’t miss you!

It’s 2:15 p.m. and I want to jump back across the road to Marburger Farm. So… by 2:30 p.m. we were parked and headin’ into another monster tent. We saw Ashley Ferguson again, and she saw us and welcomed us back again. Ashley runs the Marburger Farm show. It was amazing that with all she has to do that she would remember anyone! That was nice. In 2 1/2 hours we “zoomed” through 2 big tents and 3 1/2 small tents… exhausted and not wanting to miss out on one of those grilled burgers we smelled coming in, we went straight to the Marburger Cafe… to find it CLOSED!!! We had missed it again! Darn! So we had Black BBQ sandwiches and lemonade just as they were closing. I’ll tell you what! When they say shut it down they mean shut it down! Everyone is supposed to be out at 5:00 p.m.. At 5:10 p.m. we started the truck and headed back to the hotel. Great Day, Crazy, fun!

Andy worked every night in the hotel room drawing house plans and conference calling his clients but he really went out of his way to let me have some much needed vacation time! We talked about this trip, and overall what really stood out was how clean everything was, including the rest stops along the way. How very friendly and open everyone was. And how green everything is in this part of Texas. We had a great time, got a lot of work done and… We’ll be back in October!