Texas Antiques Week is undeniably our favorite time of the year as shoppers. We have been shopping in Round Top, Warrenton and Carmine for years! There is no denying it is our favorite place on earth to be in Spring. When we made the commitment last year to be a vendor during this huge week- we were elated. It felt a little unreal to us that our business would be a part of something that we have visited for years! Then the reality set in- we need to prepare for a show that will last 10 days and need enough inventory to sell for 10 days! {YIKES} A little back story- many of you know, some don't. We are a business that is owned and operated by TWO people! Yep, that is it. We are a husband and wife team. Paul and I both still work an 8-5 job on top of working, on average, 60 hours per week (combined that is 120 hours with the two of us) running The Rustic Acre. 90% of our products we bring to a show are custom built, painted and created by us! We pride ourselves that we are not filling our booth full of store bought retail products! We do add a small amount of items: Shutters, Tea Towels, Baskets, Bird Cages, Crates, Cow Art (follow us on Facebook to see why I am fascinated by this new craze!) etc...that we find along the way. So as you can imagine- a lot of time goes into our participation in any show- it isn't as easy as a phone call or a click of a mouse to fill a booth! We love hearing your reactions when you see our products and can tell the difference that our items are unique, solid pieces, with so much detail. We value that you value locally made products. So, as you can imagine we put a lot of time into making this dream of being a part of a big 10 day show during the biggest Antiques show in Texas a reality. Well, in the days leading up to the show- it was chaos...moment after moment that makes you question if this is an act from God to tell you "Don't do it...turn around now...it is not too late!" Many sleepless nights (literally working until 3am and then getting back up at 6am to be at the 8-5 job). I can honestly say that we worked harder for this show than we have for anything in our lives! We quadrupled our inventory from any previous show! When we arrived at the venue it didn't go as planned: No traffic in our barn, very few vendors in our barn, low traffic numbers coming through our venue, ER visit and worry about Paul, bad news about a relative, and the list goes on and on. We can honestly say we were ready to head home before we really even gave it a chance! So, we did close up for a few days - came home - regrouped, got some sleep, saw our children, and then headed back out wanting to finish the show with our heads held high!! This is where our AMAZING CUSTOMERS come in! We opened the booth on Thursday expecting a slow day...and YOU All CAME THROUGH for us! I never sat down the entire day...I got the opportunity to meet so many of you that follow us on Facebook and Instagram. We had so many people stop and ask about Paul and tell us they were praying for our family! It really meant so much to us! We met so many new customers that had found us for the first time out there and we still have custom orders coming in from all of you! You AMAZE us!! By Friday, we were about 90% sold out of EVERYTHING!! And we even were able to leave a day early and spend Easter with our children! We were blown away by how great our customers are to us! We definitely can say this show was a huge learning experience for us. It gave us a whole new perspective on Round Top Antiques Week from a different vantage point. It also re energized us to the reason we started The Rustic Acre. It is important to us to build quality furniture, to provide unique home decor items for you and to put our name on products that we are proud of. So I was terrible at remembering to grab the camera and take pics...I promise I will get better at it. But here are a few pics from toward the end of our show to give you a glimpse into our booth in Warrenton, TX. Thank you to all of you that follow us on social media, allow us to build your custom furniture pieces, paint you a sign or make a home decor item for you. You really are what keeps us going in the crazy, hectic life that we are living!! We are thankful for each of you! Next Show: April 24th & 25th Sweet T Vintage Market and Southern Junk Show in Wellborn, TX.The Rustic Acre custom built serving trays. Our booth set up toward the end of the show11x11 Custom Painted SignTea Towels, handmade in Georgia by two sisters. We love to support small business!Our custom built buffet in Duck Egg Blue. Part of our wedding collectionArrows, Arrows and more Arrows- the theme of 2015
