Best Weekend Ever; Part Three: Monday

Every once in a while, something happens, and you just know you are in the right place at the right time.  Back in late August, I saw a tweet from the gals at Junk Gypsy about having lunch at the Prairie by Rachel Ashwell.  I'd already been investigating the Prairie for months, (again, thanks for the heads up Junk Gypsy!) because I love Rachel Ashwell, and I love antiques week, so why wouldn't I want to stay at her bed and breakfast?  A stay at the Prairie was already on my bucket list, as well as meeting Rachel and telling her how much I've loved Shabby Chic over the years, and how she is such an inspirational woman for gals like  me.  So anyways, the tweet took me to this post by Kelley from The Hidden List blog.  To get invited to a delicious lunch from Royers Cafe at the Prairie, as well as meet and greet with Rachel and 35 other bloggers, all I had to do was be one of the first to RSVP.  My heart sank and I just knew that 1)-35 women had surely already signed up and 2)-I wasn't planning on attending Antiques Week this Fall, and there was no way I could take off work on a Monday to go.  It took me about 2 minutes to change my mind and take the chance by emailing Kelley anyways.  I knew if I didn't, I would regret it, and I'm positive I would have.  I told Ben, "at least I tried."  Two hours later, to my amazement, I got an email from Kelley saying, "YOUR IN!"  I ran to go tell Ben, then immediately grabbed the phone to call my friend Ashley, who also blogs over at This Country Fried Life.  I knew she would want to get in on this.  And sure enough, she got in too, and the rest is history.  I made sure I could take off work for the day, and we headed to Round Top!

Just driving down to the Prairie is a treat.  Even on a 100+ degree day, you can't help but admit Round Top is some beautiful country.  The Prairie is tucked just far enough away that you can't hear a bit of traffic, but not so far that it's a huge ordeal to drive into town.  (Especially if Royer's new Pie Haven is on the agenda!)  I pulled in to the bumpy gravel drive, feeling almost surreal.  "I'm headed to Rachel Ashwell's home away from home, to have lunch with her."  I mean WOW!

The Liliput Lodge greets you when you first drive up.

Three Flags over Texas?  :)

Immediately we were escorted in to the Ranger's Lounge where lunch would be held.  From that first moment, the luncheon was heaven.  The table was beautifully set, (I expected no less from Rachel,) and the food was divine, (I expected no less from Royers!) 

Check out this spread:  Royers Famous Grilled Shrimp BLT along with a Café Salad with Grilled Chicken & Cilantro Ranch Dressing, Café’s Yeast Rolls & Butters, 1/2 & 1/2 (iced tea and lemonade!), and a slice of Bud’s Chocolate Chip Pie topped with Amy’s Ice Cream.

Dining on delicious Royers food and pies at Zapp Hall is one of my favorite parts of Antiques Week, but I've never had the pleasure of dining in their actual cafe.  Let me tell you, it tastes just as delicious when you aren't exhausted and sweaty from a day of shopping!  Best food EVER EVER EVER!  And to top it all off, you can order their pies and other goodies online!  Check it out!  Seriously, you can't go wrong with anything on the menu.  I brought Ben home a chocolate chip pie and a red velvet whoopie pie.  (and I'm already craving more!)  I even got to meet the infamous Bud, the Pieman, Royer.  I mean seriously, how adorable is he?  And he's just as precious in person as he looks like he'd be.  :)

Photo from *here*  (For some reason, all of my photos of Bud turned out blurry.)

I had the pleasure of being seated with the women representing Dwell the Dignity, the charity the luncheon was supporting.  Now I'm a little ashamed to admit this, but charity was not the driving force that brought me to Round Top.  I was excited about the food, friendship and scenery, and if it benefited a good cause, then that was icing on the cake.  But after talking to Lisa Robison and Kim Turner, I am so inspired and passionate about the organization they have built.  I'll let them explain to you what their organization does, in their own words from their website:

"Dwell with Dignity is a non-profit group of Interior Designers and volunteers dedicated to creating soothing, inspiring homes for families struggling with homelessness and poverty. We provide and install home interiors for families that include furnishings and art, bedding and kitchen supplies, and food in the pantry.  Our mission is to help families escape poverty and homelessness through design. One household at a time.  If we can change a person’s surroundings, we can change their outlook on life. Exposing children (especially) to a nurturing home environment, that includes good design and art, can inspire a standard of living that will carry-over to future generations. Exposing parents to this same environment will allow them to see the positive impact it has on their family; inspiring them to maintain a standard of living they can be proud of and thrive in."

They gave us all of the details, down to the fact that they include two sets of sheets for every bed, and two sets of towels for each resident.  They even have a warm meal cooking in the crock pot when the family comes home for the first time, and not just one, but two, Royers Pies waiting for them.  :)  This isn't just a vanity project that drops these families in a lovely home and then takes off.  The families that receive Dwell with Dignity's services are partnered with outside organizations to make sure they are receiving the support they need in all areas of their life.  Lisa told us about one woman who said that she gets more respect from her peers in the workforce because of her home environment, and she feels it has helped her promote in her career!  The program is based out of Dallas, and they were recently featured on the Nate Berkus Show.  (love him!)  However, the program is still small, and they don't have enough financial support to do all of the great things they'd like to do, such as start chapters in other cities.  Please consider becoming a member, which starts at only $30 a year!  They told us that if each person who saw them on the Nate Berkus show gave $1, they would have enough money to expand.  I truly believe this is a worthy cause, and something I would love to be a part of.  Please check out their website to explore this great organization more!

After lunch, Rachel gave us a tour of the Liliput Lodge, her and her staff's home during Antiques Week.  She was such a warm and gracious host, allowing us to explore every nook and cranny of the historical home, including the laundry room and her own personal bedroom!  She explained to us how even though wagon wheels, deer mounts and dark woods aren't her traditional Shabby Chic look, she felt like it was important to remain true to the home's Texas roots, so she brilliantly blended "Texas" in with Shabby Chic, with truly outstanding results.

I became quite obsessed with this pillow.

Don't these beds just look like heaven?

Every where I turned, there was a little bit of loveliness.

She told us a cute story about how she came to own the bed and breakfast, and due to her daughter being sick, she only had one day to walk the property and instruct on the changes she wanted.  She recalled looking at this wagon wheel and bursting into tears, exclaiming, "what the hell have I done?"  Her staff added these sweet little lampshades while she was away, so now she lovingly refers to this as the "chandelier of acceptance."

We were able to shop in her newest "Shabby Chic Couture" shop on the grounds, (locations in New York, London, Los Angeles, and ROUND TOP!)  I bought her brand new book, which I was able to get signed by Rachel!  It now sits with my other Rachel Ashwell book in the living room, ready to inspire me at any moment. 

She was seriously such a sweet heart.  Amazing woman!

If you ever need a "soul vacation" or are considering heading to Round Top, check out the Prairie.  You won't regret it!

I left Round Top with many new friends, well rested, well fed and inspired.  A rejuvenation of soul, so to speak.  And I can't wait to go back.



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!