Yeeeeee Haaaaaaaaaaaaw!!!!! Texas, Here We Come!!!!!!

Matt and I are flying out tomorrow for Mecca and MECCA. Mecca is Round Top/Marburger for buddies Patrice, Molly, and me. MECCA is for Matt and later me and eventually Paul a.k.a. Bryan/College Station, Texas. Hometown-born and raised. Home of my two older boys, Lucas and Justin and our girl, Kristen. Home of my heart and soul.

But first, Matt will stay with his bros in B/CS while the girls and I stay at friends' farm!!! near Round Top-beautiful, relaxing, and close to all the fun. Check out the map, above, this thing is BIG. Patrice and Molly are going today, getting there early tomorrow, and getting a lay of the land before we all meet at the farm to primp for the Cowgirl Prom tomorrow night, so they are doing the leg work then I'll just fall into step on Friday.

One little vignette photo of one of 100's of booths...

...and another out of...did I say?...hundreds of booths-Mecca.

We've spent lots of time putting together our prom outfits, can you see why? We don't want to look like wallflowers so we've used these pics as inspiration. You need not worry about seeing lots o' pics of us. You can see it's a pretty subdued event-HA! We are SO up for it!

The Junk Gypsies, hosts of the Cowgirl Prom and fabulousness in its pure essence...AND they are from my hometown, CS!!!! I can't wait to meet them; curtsies will abound. Are they sumpthin' or what?

Gifts I have prepared to present to the Gypsies. I shall not show what's inside as I plan to make more for sale in the shop as soon as I get more of the base of the items. BUT I purchased these antique ice cream boxes at The Pink Cabbage! Have you ever seen cuter gift packaging?

In case you're not getting my hint, here's a good one. Above is a table I snagged from The Pink Cabbage. How cute is this for only $10?! Okay, my point...while I'm at Round Top you don't have to pout and envy me you have a fab place to go find GREAT stuff like this table or the antique ice cream boxes or, or, or...

...come on, so me...robin's egg blue and white CHECKS which totally go with my porch decor'. I have been having fun distraction myself until I leave by playing rearrange in the house, and, ummmmm, oh yeah, taxes...grrrrrrrrrrrrrr.

Okay, grasshoppers, get out there and get some good stuff. Help the economy but also save big bucks and get big bang from your bucks by checking in at THE PLACE TO SEE AND BE SEEN-The Pink Cabbage. Also, check in for fun details of my trip, hopefully, as I go along but also when I get back. I hope to be bringing back some Round Top to offer to y'all at first-come-first-serve!

I Got Mail from home!!!!

I love when I "forget" that I've ordered something then I'm surprised (no quotation marks, I really am surprised) when I get mail. Today was one of those days and such a good on for it at that. On this gloomy, cold, rainy day and no end of winter in site (yes, still, yesterday we got in the 60's and saw some sun part of the day too-yippie!, but that's been it for us so far this "Spring"), this was a very bright spot in my day.

From Tina at {Glue on my Fingers, Paint in my hair}, a girl from my hometown. I'm guessing she was in kindergarten when I was in high school or worse...I'm going to try my best to find out all the scoop and meet her when I'm there next week. Check out the soldiered piece on the ribbon wrapping the "real treasure" inside. Oh yeah, that's going on a jewelry piece in the next half hour, tops..

Then Voila!!!!! here's the fab soldiered necklace I ordered from her at her Etsy shop ! How fab is this and just in time for me to take to Round Top and the Cowgirl Prom!!!

Another view, more close-up but not as good...it's gonna look best on my gown (gown is the operative word as I'm starting with a night gown, no, not flannel, lace-uhu. That's all I'll say for now but I'm making up for the dorky dresses my mom picked out for the dances I went to in junior high and high school. Sorry, Mom, but just because it comes from Neiman's does make it right; your taste back then ran towards the matronly, upper crust New England or Neiman's-in-Amish-country look. But I digress drastically.) at The Cowgirl Prom hosted by the Junk Gypsies. See link on right. Anyway, I'm a comin' to town, Miz Tina, and I wanta meet ya'. Pics? Oh yeah!!!

Nene and Woody's New Digs

I know y'all love it when I blog about Nene's new decors so I'm not here to disappoint. Yet another move recently, a rental this time as their house sold before they have even started to build their own home. Dare we say "their" house? They are in an interesting neighborhood, oh so much closer to me than before!, and I had to laugh hard when I walked into the door to be greeted by the above. I said I was sure theirs was the only house, probably in the county at least, but certainly in the neighborhood decorated anywhere near how theirs is. I didn't take photos of the exterior (she wouldn't let me), but no way does the outside prep you for the inside.

Next you are greeted by the Radio Dog-the perfect pet.

And here's the living room in its glory...

...what Nene calls "Mecca" out of respect for Woody, of course. She does a fab job of distraction as usual...

...with those details.

Then you stroll right into the dining room to be met by this beauty who used to live in the bedroom but looks equally at home in the dining area...

...with its...oh yeah...details...

...and overview...

...and ever interesting and inspiring...ummm...details.

Into the kitchen where there shall have to be some surprises left here, not quite finished but still looking pretty darn cute......and I said to Nene, "Is there anything you can't do?". Look at these photos she took of her grandkids, she has a real gift but is too humble to admit it-a real gift. You can see more of them on her Facebook page if you find her and get her to accept you as a friend!

This was the only party pic I got from the bedrooms; they aren't quite ready for the photo op except here's another great photo she took, precious.

In the back of the house is a glassed-in porch, wonderful. Well, it might not have always looked anywhere near this wonderful-my guess would be-not even close. I could be wrong; perhaps the previous residents did have an animal print chaise. I should not judge before the facts are known.

They probably had a beautiful dark wood side board with a fab Italian mirror, cast iron bust, and topiary but here's Nene's version.

What I'm just giving you the essence of here is the panelling on the wall of the sun room; there is a bit of a hunting theme "burned" into the wood. Okay, that's the show for now. Of course I'll update as I can but you can see that Nene is well on her way to making this yet another wonderfully beautiful home for she and Woody for the next year. Number...? Anyone want to guess? If you guess correctly you get to help them move next year!!!!!

This is my kind of retail therapy

Okay, I went to the flea market a couple of weeks ago and got some things but it was a completely different experience going with Janine (Nene) who was in her adopted cultural element. Above, our fave booth-hands down.

Freshly returned from Costa Rica and with many, many years of travelling and living in Mexico and South America, she not only is completely comfortable with the culture (as am I) but knows all the scoop behind some of the cultural icons (me, not so much) and is much more fluent that I.

So last Sunday we drove and drove and drove and it was so much more worth it not only to have someone else to share it with...the best sister girl to share it with...but also the authority on all manner of knowledge of the merchandise and great at pointing out all the totally cool stuff that I didn't either see or didn't "get".

I'll be driving and driving and driving this next Sunday to go back to get birthday gifts for Justin and treats to take to Lucas and Kristen and hostess gifts while in Texas. I'm so tempted to get a bas mitzvah gift for a friend's daughter but even I can't seem to go that far in inappropriateness. We're talking fiber optic lighted Our Lady of Guadalupe, etc. Even I know that the huge, shiny pictures of the crucifix are going too far. Some of the jewelry with OLoG were really beautiful...I like to be a little different but I respect the importance and seriousness of a bas mitzvah.

All manner of fine things, here's Nene showing off the "Hollywood" style look.

Many other folks like it there too.

As I said...all manner. And the prices make it a fab cheap date. Next week we are taking Nene's daughter, Heidi. As Nene says, not many folks appreciate the wonderful cultural experience like we do-the food aromas, the music, the folks, The Merchandise!

That was sooooo last week...

The last couple of weeks have been hard. I'm not even going to try to be enlightenedly politically correct by having proper perspective-I tried that. It was better in the end to just feel what I felt and then I knew it wasn't going to last. That part was easy, thankfully, that I could pinpoint the weather as the biggest offender to my disposition. We had only seen the sun a couple of times in the past couple of weeks and still cold-still the PTCWFS with some other coincidental challenges thrown in. I was really feeling sorry for myself last week and early this week; that's why I didn't blog-I knew it was a bad combo platter of mid-life crisis, menopause, ill-intentioned folks, and cold dreary weather but was pretty sure it was temporary. I always had/have Texas coming up to look forward to-that's gets me through most anything.

Sooooooooo, if it looks like I've done nothing but shop stuff, you're pretty close. Although I did do the "mental health day" on Monday-in bed with books and mags, I was off and running by Tuesday getting the shop ready for a new influx of furniture, picked up said furniture on Wednesday (even at 10 miles away it was a harrowing experience) and at the shop 'til 11 that night hauling out old and display pieces and rearranging the new.I know I just redid the shop last week following the DCBF but I was ready for A WHOLE NEW LOOK, one I've wanted for years but didn't have the chance until now. I've always loved the look of a bed set up with furniture inside as a vignette. I've got a really nice woman I consign for who is paring down prepping for a big move so that's where the furniture came from. Beautiful antiques. The gorgeous bed has been retro-fitted to be a queen size! Plus, plus, plus...just a fresh look.

It's a cheaper form of retail therapy-be the one selling not buying-although there have been so many new things coming into the shop that I can't say I haven't been using a little of that therapy too.

We finally saw a peek of the sun and slight warmth on Wednesday, just enough to get us through yesterday-dreary rain and cold-and today it's sunny but still in the 40's-ugh but climbing the next few days. Calgone, take me to Texas!

In the end I'm very much aware of perspective but I also have to admit what are real feelings and do what I can to get to the other side and keep it together as best I can until it passes. If you have these feelings, please don't ignore them, share with someone sympathetic whom you trust what you are feeling-just talking about it can help. You don't have to be starving, homeless, or on the battlefield to justify feeling very down-you must not feel guilty because your life is otherwise relatively good or even great but you feel bad. It's called depression, temporary or not and should not be ignored. This too shall pass, pass it with a loved one.