Tag: antiques

Saggy, Baggy Starfish

This past weekend I headed back to the Round Top Antique Festival which is a semi-annual event in my world. My friend Kathleen drives up from Houston and we invade my sister’s house as our home base before we venture out to begin trekking through miles of antiques, treasured vintage items and eclectic art objects.

I am at a point in my life when I really don’t “need” anything but this year I was in search of a butter dish that was wide and tall enough to house a large block of butter rather than just one stick. The Kerry Gold butter needed a house!

On my treasure-seeking journey, the artist in me is drawn to the expertise exhibited by so many vendors in their marketing skills. I am entranced with the vignettes they create and they inspire me to want to cleanse the entire palette of my condo and begin again anew.

Plein Air Paint Box
Unusual art objects
An enlightening moment! Very creative, one-of-a-kind lamps

So I found my butter dish…check! But there is always one something that I believe I can’t live without and for me this trip it was the saggy, baggy starfish. It was love at first sight and the beach bum in me could envision him ensconced with my huge basket of scavenged sea shells surrounded by sponges, feathers and other nature objects de arte that I have collected over  decades of beach trips.

The Butter Dish

No trip to Burton is complete without visiting one of my favorite stores called Leftovers. The store owners are nothing short of genius in their merchandising artistry and no trip can end without strolling through and absorbing all the beauty created with old, new and found objects. My every visit purchase here is their goat’s milk soap that comes embedded in a soft sea sponge and both my daughter and I are addicted to this soap. A visit to their store is similar to taking a designing course from a world-renowned interior decorator.

So here are some Leftover displays that caught my eye on Saturday.

The Antique Weekend runs through April 7th. I highly recommend a visit if you like a good treasure hunt!

Happy Hunting!!!

by Categories: Musings, UncategorizedTags: , , Leave a comment

From The Front Porch Looking Out

This past weekend I traveled to Burton Texas to spend some time with my sister and meet up with my friend Kathleen to explore the many wondrous objects being displayed for miles and miles as part of the Round Top/Warrenton Antique Festival. We scoured different booths at img_9009various locations for the past two days not really seeking anything in particular, but there always seems to be something that calls to me. I recently began rearranging a room in my home as an art studio and on this trip, baskets seemed to jump out and scream to be added to my studio as organizational tools for the wide array of art supplies that I have accumulated over the years on my artist journey.

Late afternoon we drag ourselves home to my sister’s house to review our purchases, share a meal and fall into an exhausted sleep in preparation for the next day when the scavenger hunt begins again.

img_8991
Burton Ernie

A frequent visitor to my sister’s home is a permanent “fowl” resident of Burton. Nicknamed Burton Ernie (a play off of Bert & Ernie I believe), he struts through yards looking for bugs and many times eats my sister’s kale, honks loudly scaring unsuspecting residents, and roosts on a neighbor’s shed roof each night leaving behind a predictable mess.

Early morning coffee on the “front porch looking out” gave me an exciting moment this visit. As soon as I stepped out of the front door onto the wooden porch, I caught a quick glimpse of a very large bird flitting around in a tree in the next door neighbor’s yard. It was very early, sunrise was breaking and there was Mr P.W. (AKA Pileated Woodpecker) out and about early looking for his breakfast. My binoculars brought him up close and personal and once again I was totally captivated by my favorite woodpecker. He flew across the street to another very large tree and off I went in pursuit, my robe flapping, binoculars bouncing and my camera on and ready to try to capture Mr. P.W.. He moved quickly from limb to limb and I had great difficulty trying to capture an image of him. But capture one I did. Not the best lighting and not the best photo I would have liked, but I managed to capture the moment….a moment I had been seeking for many, many months.img_8993

The birds were shy this weekend. Using the straggling leaves still clinging to limbs to hide and turning away from the camera shutter, Eastern Bluebirds, Cardinals, Black capped Chickadees, starlings, hummingbirds, red bellied woodpeckers and a squirrel busily collecting pecans to store for his winter’s stash, comprised a steady parade this morning from the “front porch looking out”.

My quest for the perfect Mr. P.W. photo-op will continue. But for this moment, I am at peace….

Happy bird searching!!!!!

by Categories: MusingsTags: , , , , , , , , 1 Comment