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After all the years of hearing about Lauren’s wonderful trips to the Roundtop Antiques Fair, I decided to make a trekk out there of my own for their bi-annual show. Of course, the weather was completely deceiving the day I went. It started out pretty nice in the morning but then by lunchtime, it had reached around 100 degrees. It was b-r-u-t-a-l walking booth to booth in the heat, but I must say that despite all the sweating, body aches, and dehydration that we endured, it was definitely worth it.
My first stop was Clutter (which Lauren had identified as “having the best prints!”). I think I spent an hour and a half roaming around Clutter. Don’t ask me how I managed to do this, seeing as it is as big as a two bedroom apartment, but somehow I ended up spending most of the initial “cool hours” at this really interesting show.
I fell in love with all of their adorable dishes and glassware.
I was on a mission for plates and plates I found! I needed some for my dining room shelves and others for a wall in my kitchen. I ended up buying a set of these-
And also these gray, cream and gold ones-
I seriously could have stayed in Clutter’s back room all day. With two table fans and a generous collection of antique and reproduction prints, I was all set.
Art work can get pretty expensive, so I find that one of the more inexpensive ways to fill your walls is to frame and matte a series of botanicals, leaves, eggs or shells (really this method can be done with just about anything). A series always looks great and you can never go wrong with something it! The prints at Clutter were the answer to all my blank walls.
I’ve always wanted leaf prints and I thought the perfect opportunity would be to do a couple of them in my living room (since the color in there is mainly chartreuse). However, it’s not often that you see leaf prints that go more on the yellowy-green side and less on the grass green side. You can imagine my surprise when I stumbled upon this lone ranger on the left- a chartreuse leaf print! I’ll take one of each please.
I also got six of these architectural prints for my dining room- a steal at only $6 each!
Next, we headed to Excess (Lauren’s favorite show). She was right in that there are so many great things to see that you can get really overwhelmed. At this point, overwhelmed was an understatement. I wanted to see it all, but time was running out!
I really wanted one of these clam shells to put inside my fireplace nook (a recessed fireplace that serves absolutely no purpose)- but sadly, these were too deep for it.
I haven’t seen many tortoise shells in Dallas, but there was certainly no shortage of them at RT! (We’ve actually gotten quite a few emails from readers asking where to get them so if you aren’t too far from Roundtop….)
We started craving barbeque so our stay at Excess was short lived. We drove down the main road and found the best barbeque we’ve ever had (I wish I had remembered the man’s catering company who cooked it for us out of his trailer). It was amazing and hit the spot. Right near the BBQ stop was another show with the most beautiful French antiques. I started getting really dirty looks when I snapped photos, so I only could sneak a few in.
(Does anyone know the name of this show? I loved it! It was the end of the day and by this time, we were quite delirious, so I can’t recall where it was or what it was?)
The show was comprised of an entire tent filled with painted furniture (my dream!)
If you haven’t ever been to Roundtop, I’d definitely recommend it!
And after three weeks, I finally got around to framing my egg prints from Clutter for my bathroom- a nice memento of my first trip to RT.
I’m definitely looking forward to going again in March (but in cooler weather!)
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