Best Weekend Ever; Part Two: Sunday

After such an awesome day Saturday, Ashley and I were ready for more shopping on Sunday!  Since we went to bed so early, we got up with the gorgeous La Grange sunrise, and headed back to Warrenton for more shopping!  As we were walking in from the Parking Lot near Zapp Hall, I noticed a few ladies from HGTV walking in front of us.  We told them about how we both won iPods on Saturday, and how fun it was to meet Emily Henderson, and I asked them if they had anything else special planned for today.  They told us that no, nothing special, just free water and hanging out at their tent, and then they asked if we had heard about the new Junk Gypsy TV show.  Of course we had, so they asked us if we were fans.  Ashley ratted me out and told them that I was a huge fan, and so they told us they would be filming for the show that day and would need some fans to interview.  We promised to come back at 11:00 to see if we could make the cut!

We were so early on Sunday, many of the vendors weren't even open yet!  If you ever come out to Antiques Week on a Sunday, don't bother coming out until at least 9:00, maybe even 10:00.  But we scoped out those that were open, and I found a few small wire birdcages that I thought might could work for a conceptual doll house.  I decided to keep shopping and come back that evening if I didn't find anything else.  We walked up the side of the road we missed on Saturday, and headed back to the HGTV tent around 11:00.  Sure enough, they were filming the Junk Gypsies, and passers-by were getting shooed away so they wouldn't interfere with the sound or shot.  Craziness!  I explained to the staffer guarding the tent that we were told we were needed for fan interviews, so I got to go in the tent and wait my turn to be on camera!  (No amount of persuading was going to convince Ashley to get interviewed!)  I started getting nervous...I'd already been sweating and shopping for a few hours, and when picking out my outfit that morning, I had no clue I could potentially end up on national television.  It was flea market couture at it's finest, and I was not going to have the luxury of a hair or make up touch up.  YIKES!  Seriously, I'm scared y'all, it was rough!  So then they called me up, and it was my turn!  First, I had to get "miked", by the audio guy, Corey, soon to be my BFF for the weekend.  For those of you who don't know, getting "miked" includes a guy fishing a wire through your shirt and then into your jeans, and taping a device inside the front of your shirt.  Ya know, just in case you ever find yourself being filmed by a Hollywood camera crew, you won't be caught off guard like me.

So awkward...

There was surprisingly little prep for this.  They didn't give me any guidance on how to answer or what to say, the woman standing next to the camera just told me to look at her and answer honestly.  The whole crew was surprised when I asked if I needed to rephrase the question in my answer...how did I know that?  What can I say, I watch a lot of TV!  She just told me to say "the Junk Gypsies" instead of "they".  Oh, that makes sense.  And then Corey the audio dude told me not to use my hands too much, because my bracelets could be too loud in the mic.  Awesome.  Suddenly I felt like Ricky Bobby and had no clue what to do with my hands, and I started to feel really awkward.  I totally screwed up the first question.  But then something magical happened, and my brain shut off, and I don't remember anything they asked, or what I said.  But when I was done, they told me I did really awesome and jokingly said they wanted to keep me around all day.  Ashley even said I did good!  But honestly, I really don't know what I said.  I guess we will have to watch and see!  :)  So I signed a release, got some more HGTV swag and we went on our merry way! 

Yes, I have on pants, and no, you can't see them under my giant (Junk Gypsy) tank.  Weird.

We kept running into the camera crew throughout the day.  "You again!"  It was fun!  :)  We found some awesome crates for Ashley; she got a great deal and she is going to make an amazing shelving unit out of them, and I went back to get one of the wire birdcages for my dollhouse challenge.  I also found some random furniture stuff for the dollhouse.  At 6:00, we went to a blogger party hosted by Theresa from Garden Antqs Vintage, (check her out right next to Zapp!), and we met some really sweet vendors that had some great and inspiring advice for us and our dream of an Antiques Week booth.  Then we hung out with the camera crew and Archie from Junk Gypsy a little, and there were more Ricky Bobby jokes from me after Corey told me he'd been doing this for years and I really did give a great interview.  Sweet!  I'm a natural y'all!  :)  After dinner and more Zapp Hall/Bubble Lounge action, we headed back to our hotel home, ready for a shower and a long night of rest.  Monday was the Shabby Chic luncheon and we wanted to get plenty of beauty rest!

 

Best Weekend Ever; Part One: Saturday

Last Spring, Ben and I went to Antiques Week for the first time, and it was an amazing trip.  The shopping, the food, the experience-we loved it all!  I must say that it was the Junk Gypsy's "Junk-O-Rama Prom" that led me to the decision that Antiques Week was something we must attend, and after months of planning and saving money, we went.  It was a blast!  I always knew that I would attend again, but I really didn't have any plans for going this fall...I figured we would wait until we could get a big group together, or maybe until we bought a house and needed to collect random and amazing things for our decor.

Then I saw the tweet from Junk Gypsy.  Something along the lines of having lunch at The Prairie by Rachel Ashwell.  Of course I clicked on the link, which led me to a post from The Hidden List blog about a blogger luncheon and meet and greet with Rachel Ashwell on September 26.  (More on this later.)  So I was planning to take off work that Monday, drive to Round Top that morning, attend the luncheon, then head back home.  Then fate intervened again.  Last week I got an email from Kelley at The Hidden List, explaining that I needed to keep my eyes on my inbox, because a very special invitation from HGTV was on it's way, with instructions on how I could meet the star of an HGTV show on Saturday.  Moments later, my favorite show host, Emily Henderson, tweeted that HGTV was sending her to Round Top that weekend.  The stars alined, and I knew that it was her I would be invited to meet, and also, that I would be going to Round Top for the weekend, no questions about it.  And sure enough, this showed up:

  My friend that I invited along to the blogger luncheon, Ashley, also agreed that we needed to make a weekend out of this.  Some very expensive last minute hotel reservations and a tank of gas later, I was cruising down country roads, heading for Warrenton, blasting the new Red Hot Chili Peppers album, and feeling perfectly content with life.

We planned the trip so that we would arrive shortly before the meet and greet started, and sure enough, I was one of the first people in line to meet Emily.  Actually, I thought I'd try to get in a little early, and when I walked up to the HGTV tent and saw Emily standing there, I really couldn't believe my eyes.  I mean, she was just standing there like a normal person!  I talked to a sweet lady in the tent, (I wish I remembered her name!) and told her I was a huge, huge, ENORMOUSLY HUGE fan of Emily's, and she told to be sure and tell Emily that at the meet and greet later.  Dang, I wasn't getting in early.  So we shopped at the Junk Gypsy tent for a while and got our bottomless iced teas from Zapp Hall, and came back at noon for the meet and greet.  Oddly enough, I wasn't that nervous to talk to her.  When I've met Miranda Lambert in the past, it's always been a little awkward and I haven't had too much to say besides, "congrats on the Grammy" or whatever.  But with Emily, as cheesy as it sounds, I felt like I already knew her.  I mean, I watch her on TV every week, read her blog religiously, and follow her on twitter and facebook.  I knew she was a cool, down to earth person, and I wasn't intimidated to talk to her at all.  Even though she's the biggest "rock star" celebrity in my eyes, right there next to Miranda.  (Ben, who watches "Secrets from a Stylist" with me and my twitter followers who see that I retweet just about everything she says, can attest to this.)  Seriously, I'm a huge fan.  She was all smiles and pretty adorable as usual, and didn't make me feel like a freak for telling her the following: I love her show more than The Real Housewives of Anywhere, I read her blog and tweets every day and comment on them all the time, I learned more about styling from her show than in 4 years of interior design school, I did a "style diagnostic" on Ben and my style, and we are "Rustic Boho Glam", and that totally helped when we finally had money to buy real furniture and accessories.  Oh, and also, that Ben said I needed to buy a tray because she always puts everything on trays, and that my grandmother said to tell her she likes her show too.   By this point, I was getting rushed along by staff, so she signed a photo for me and we took a picture together, which she told me to tag her in.  She geniunly seemed to enjoy meeting me, and reacted to me the same way she does to people on TV.  Probably the most down to earth person on television, seriously.  And I hope that she remains a fixture on HGTV for a long, long time.  And also that she writes a book, and/or creates a line of home accessories for Target.  The same sweet HGTV staffer I talked to earlier had me sign up for an hourly drawing to win an iPod Shuffle, let me pick out some swag, (I chose an HGTV laundry bag,) and we went on our happy way.  It was SO DANG FUN!

So then Ashley and I were on our shopping mission to find the following: a highchair for Ashley, (for her daughter's 1st birthday cake-smash photo shoot,) and a dollhouse for me.  (See Emily Henderson's post about the dollhouse challenge, which I was already stoked about.  I'm telling you, this was all fate.)  At some point we ate lunch, can't remember exactly when, but we got sandwiches (pimento cheese and chicken salad,) from the Legal Tender Saloon, which is so so so good.  Homemade bread and seven kinds of cheese; enough said.  We found Ashley's highchair amazingly fast, and it was already painted with the perfect white chippy peely paint.  We decided to take a break and head to the hotel to check in and rest up, and come back for dinner later.  On our way back, we passed by the HGTV tent again, and Emily was done with the meet and greet and looked like she was about to head out.  I stuck my head in and told her I forgot to tell her earlier that my shopping goal for the weekend was to find an inexpensive dollhouse so I could join the challenge, and she got excited and told me I totally should, that it doesn't have to be an elaborate or expensive thing, and she was going to be shopping for her dollhouse too.  We said bye, and as we were walking away the same sweet HGTV lady yelled "JESSI!  Wait!  You won the iPod!"  Sweet!  I asked her if they really just drew my name, and as she was saying, "yeah, we were just about to call you," Emily was standing behind her laughing, shaking her head "no" and mouthing "no she didn't!"  So I won an iPod, just for being a crazy and memorable fan, probably because I wasn't shy and talked to that lady.  You never know people!  The craziest part was, as we were driving back to the hotel, they called Ashley to tell her she won one too!  Imagine the luck!

After resting up and checking in at the hotel, we headed back to Zapp Hall to eat dinner at Royer's.  I got beef tenderloin (YUM!) and a chocolate chip pie to take home to Ben.  :)  Then we enjoyed a few beers and the cool breeze of the evening while listening to some live music and enjoying each other's company.  I really had fun getting to know Ashley better this weekend.  We've always had a lot in common and she was the perfect companion for this trip.  We did lots of dreaming about one day having our own Antique's Week booth.  Then we drove back to our hotel and slept like rocks!  Amazing first day of a wonderful weekend!

Shiner Blonde and our free koozies from Gypsy Georgia for being such loyal customers!

Tomorrow, I'll try to post about Day 2, Sunday! 



ANTIQUES WEEK!

Hey guys!  As you know, my big blogger luncheon at The Prairie By Rachel Ashwell is coming up, (read my post here,) and I've got even more exciting news to share!  My favorite HGTV designer in the history of EVER is going to be at Antiques Week too! EMILY HENDERSON!  Yes, the woman who commented on my blog and I considered putting it on my resume.  SO EXCITED! Ashley and I have decided instead of a day trip, we need to stretch this out into a whole weekend, and I cannot wait to meet Emily!  I have my Rachel Ashwell inspired outfit all put together, but what will I wear to meet Emily on Saturday?  I have nothing in my closet, so I turned to dear old Polyvore.  (How I've missed you!)  Here is my perfect outfit situation for Antiques Week shopping/rubbing elbows with HGTV stars.

antiques week by ruthmarie86 featuring tote handbags

 

Yup, that necklace is totally Stella & Dot, and you can totally buy it from me here.  Note the very important flat and closed toed shoes, a large bag, and a hat to beat the Texas heat.

What do you think?  How lucky am I?  I'll be sure to blog all the juicy details!

PISTOL ANNIES!!!!!

The Pistol Annies are here!!! 

A further testament to how awesome Miranda Lambert is: at the very height of her career, she grabs her best girlfriends and says, "Let's start a band!"  AMAZING.  Angaleena Presley and Ashley Monroe are equally as awesome, and it makes me love Miranda even more that she is using herself as a platform to help her friends' dreams come true.  This is like the Spice Girls, but even more awesome.  Seriously, this music has some of the realest and most raw lyrics I've ever heard.  Themes include washing machines, drinking, taking pills, being broke, and setting houses on fire.  AWESOME.  You have to hear these girls harmonize...their sound is kind of like the sirens on "Oh Brother, Where Art Thou," in a very good, very awesome way.  The Pistol Annies have the guts to say things that no one else in country is saying right now, and I think the country music legends of the past must be very, very proud.

The Associated Press: “as much fun as they're having, the Pistol Annies address working-class issues in language as real and as colorful as their country music heroes, whatever the gender. This trio aims at a lofty target yet hits the bull's-eye, song after song.”

The New York Times: “the songs have the feeling of rejuvenative writing, small experiments in genre and style for artists versed in country’s classic modes.”

The Washington Post: “’Hell on Heels’ is a laugh-to-keep-from-crying-your-blue-eyes-bloodshot kind of album,” and that “it might stand as the best country release of 2011.”

Rolling Stone: "On the debut by their ad hoc trio, Miranda Lambert and friends Ashley Monroe and Angaleena Presley show off the kind of hard-living wit and hardscrabble class consciousness that have become tough to find in Nashville." and they gave the girls 4 stars!

Basically, I love love love this album, and I think you will too!  "Hell on Heels" is their first single, but I'm willing to bet their biggest hit will be "Boys from the South."  If I had to pick a favorite, I think it would be "Housewife's Prayer," or "Family Feud."  I love them all though!!  You can find their album at http://www.pistolannies.com/, iTunes, or in select stores.  GO BUY IT NOW!



Fun fact: We were in the audience during one of these performances in the "Hell on Heels" music video!

Slap Yo Momma Cornbread

It's no secret that I love cornbread.  There's nothing, I mean NOTHING better than a warm slice of sweet cornbread with melted butter on top.  My friends in high school would tease me when that Alan Jackson song ("where I come from, it's cornbread and chicken...") would come on.  Apparently my mom made it a lot, but that's the way it should be!  I love all kinds of cornbread: cheesy cornbread, jalapeno cornbread, whole kernel cornbread...you get the picture.  A few weeks ago, I had a piece of cornbread that was so good, words cannot describe it.  And now I have the secret recipe, and I'm going to share it with you.

Florida's Kitchen is a restaurant in Livingston, if you can call it a restaurant.  It's tucked away in the woods, (you would never find it if you didn't know where to look,) and it doesn't look like your typical restaurant.  A building/trailer combo, with atmosphere consisting of card tables, mismatched folding chairs, uneven floors, and strange angel statues of every shape, size and color.  The food is best described as "soul food":barbecued ribs, brisket, hushpuppies, fried catfish, fresh cooked vegetables, home made cakes and pies, giant glasses of iced tea...you get the picture.  A salad at Florida's has ribs and brisket on it.  This isn't dainty food, and it is so dang good.  The last time Ben and I went there, I ordered "Sly's Bowl", a bowl of pinto beans topped with shredded brisket tips.  (Don't judge, it's delish!)  Of course I ordered cornbread on the side.  Our fast talking waitress asked me if I wanted to try the "cheesy jalapeno crawfish cornbread" instead.  UM, YES!  Guys, it was the best cornbread I've ever had.  EVER.  SOOOOOOOOO GOOOOOOOOD!  After the first bite, I thought I heard the soul food angels singing.  (Then I remembed it was just the southern gospel playing on the boom box in the corner!)  I raved to the waitress about it, and she told me she would let the cook know that I liked it, and maybe she would consider adding it to the permanent menu.  My heart broke...the cheesy jalapeno cornbread was just a test recipe!  I vowed to search high and low until I found the recipe, and ladies and gentlemen, I have it.  The actual recipe from Florida's cook herself.  Based on how dang good the food is at Florida's, I'm guessing the cooks don't really share recipes often, so I won't reveal my secret source.  But I never promised I wouldn't share the recipe!  Without further ado, here is the recipe, written exactly how it was given to me, on a tiny scrap of paper.

Crawfish Cornbread

2-3 cans evaporated milk

1 package crawfish, frozen, thawed

1/2 onion chopped

1/2 bell pepper chopped

1 package shredded cheese

3-4 boxes Jiffy Cornbread

1 stick butter

3-4 eggs

jalapenos in the jar, chopped

1/2 can whole kernel corn

Sautee peppers, onion, crawfish, and butter.  Season.  Mix all ingredients.  Bake 350 degrees until done.

Yes, I know, that is the vaguest recipe ever written down.  I plan on cutting this in half some way, probably using two boxes of Jiffy, one can evaporated milk, and two eggs...but don't take my word for it, because I haven't tried it yet!  Use your own judgement.  Now, I'm off to make these yummy delights!  (PS-Florida's used a muffin tin, and I suggest you do too!)



Praying for Courtney Shumway

Every now and then, something happens that makes you stop in your tracks and realize how blessed you truly are. Any problems you may have suddenly don't seem so awful. And you want to do what you can to help.


Earlier this month, my friend's sister, Courtney Shumay, fell into a coma during a routine surgery after an adverse reaction to anesthesia stopped her heart. For weeks now, her friends and family have been rallying around her, praying and doing their best to raise money to help out her family, pictured above, with the burden of her medical bills. I realized that Stella & Dot has given me a vehicle to help. I'm having a virtual trunk show, with 100% of my profits going to Courtney Shumway and her family. To shop Courtney's benefit sale, go to http://www.stelladot.com/jreel and click on "find your hostess", then search for Courtney Shumway. I make 25-30% commission, all of which will be donated.

To find out about other local fundraising events in Lufkin and to keep up with Courtney's status, search for "Courtney Shumway you are loved this much" on facebook. To read more about Courtney, click on this link to the Lufkin Daily News. Please take five minutes to say a prayer for this family, to give them strength, to protect Courtney, and to give her doctors wisdom to help her. Also, please forward this to any jewelry loving friends or prayer warriors.