If the holidays are here, it's time for Cowboy Christmas

If it's December, then I'm making my yearly pilgrimage to the Cowboy Christmas show at the Convention Center.

 It's tied in with the NFR rodeo competition, and for nearly two weeks, the streets are filled with cowboys and cowgirls. What a treat!

Walking into the craft show / selling mania is a little overwhelming - there are booths as far as you can see. And cowboys everywhere! 

Not to mention the saddles. 

And rodeo stars sighing autographs.

 And more saddles! 

But every year, I come to see some of my favorite vendors. 

Always on the top of my list is Treestump Woodcrafts.  I've been chatting with the owner for the last ten years, and she says that this year has been a good one for her woodworking sales. She sold this gorgeous live edge table - wow -for the sale, and for the table! 

Her work is spectacular (I own several pieces!) and she's been around long enough to gauge the current state of craft sales. 

It's strong, according to her. 

At the show, there are so many booths dedicated to cowboy attire, and the Boot Barn has one of the biggest displays around. They even erected a mini-theater! 

Need a cowboy hat? 

They'll steam it and fit it to your head, and the lines for this service stretched around the aisles! 

The second booth that I look for is Zeller's Trunks, and I'm telling you - all the photos I took don't do it justice. 

So I pulled these off their website. 

I swear to you... someday, I will own one of these. 

They are the ultimate piece of furniture... from the craftsmanship to the fabric choices... 

everything is well thought out.

 I want one.  

Here's a link to their site.

I love the cigar indians, 

and the fun cowboy clothing. 

The sculptures are pretty awesome, too.

 And the entertainment.

 The mini-cowboys and girls practicing their roping skilz...

 I needed to pick up a gift for a friend, and I found a beautiful bottle topper at this booth. Well, beautifully made, but my friend collects Hello Kitty gear, so I was a little embarrassed that I picked out their lone Kitty topper. 

Don't tell....

I had a nice chat with one of the fellows at the TX Bar Boutique, and he pointed out that they make a variety of products for promoting your business... what a great corporate gift!

They had toppers for EVERY occasion. If you can't find a topper here, then you don't know what you want!  Check out their site here.

This booth featured woodturning on a whole different level. 

The maker encourages people to touch the pieces, which most artists don't do! 

 Rich's work can be seen here.

Pictures don't do it any justice, but these vessels are AMAZING!

One of the lampshades in my home is old, cracked and needs replacing, and wow - I was lucky to stumble upon this booth!  The Juniper Lamp Company makes lamps and shades in a huge variety of styles. 

Better yet, they're located nearby, and can make a custom shade for my lamp. 

I love these rice paper shades, 

and they offer a variety of stitching styles and colors, so I can order the perfect shade for my lamp.

Here's a link to their site.

 Darren's lamps are top notch, the finish on them is amazing, and I'm in awe of his design skills for pulling a lamp out of a gnarled piece of juniper. 

Finally - I splurged a bit and bought some wool table runners for my dining room table. Escalante Rugs has been a favorite vendor of mine for years, and the table runner I bought from them a long time ago needed an upgrade.  

Their pieces are 100% hand woven, made by the Zapotec Indians of Oaxaca, Mexico.

They have everything from pillows to rugs, 

but I love their smaller pieces!

In fact, I couldn't decide what I wanted, 

so I bought two! 

I love it that each piece contains a maker's mark - the artist's autograph signing their work. These pieces are high quality and wonderfully colored - if you're looking for an accent for your home, you won't go wrong with one of these. 

Here's a link to their site.

Seriously - their color palette is just gorgeous! 

Finally, these metal sculptures just make my day... in fact, I first saw them in my neighborhood, installed in a farm's front yard. This picture of their booth doesn't do them justice, 

so I pulled a few off of their website. You can thank me later.

Check them out here.

They're metal, illuminated from within, and glow in the evening. 

All in all, a very special show this year. My thoughts?

If money were no object, I could easily drop about $50,000 on pieces at the show - from my favorite Zeller Trunk to some of the saguaro cactus sculpture from Desert Steel. These artists are so incredibly talented, and I'm in awe of the consistently high quality pieces they make, year after year.  

It's something every artist should strive for, but not all achieve.

Are you having trouble getting in the mood for the holidays? Here's some help...

It's hard to believe this SNL clip came out over 20 years ago... one of my favorite holiday skits!

This'll put you in the holiday spirit!

A little Sunday surprise

A few blog posts ago, like here,  I mentioned that I'd made friends with a grasshopper in my yard. Now I know that sounds crazy, but I swear - we manage to find each other almost every day, and make some sort of connection. I'll wave at him, and he'll wave back. I kid you not. 

A few days have passed since I saw him - it's been cold, and I did a little research on grasshoppers and they really don't live that long. So I sort of figured maybe he was gone. Like expired. Who knows, it's not like we text each other. 

Imagine my surprise today - I was trimming some a cactus in the back yard and out of the blue, he jumps over to where I'm working, and hopped up on my gloved hand. 

Pretty cool. 

Lighten your load for a minute...

Damn, there's a lot of stress out there. 

People are shooting up schools, freaking out over politics, and the holidays are coming... maybe the most stressful of all!

Need something to lighten the next couple of minute? (We all do!)  

Watch this!

Just when you thought you'd heard it all...

Just when you thought you'd heard it all.... something comes along that's a total surprise. 

I've been getting a lot of calls lately about cutting holes in the seats of chairs. In fact, I've drilled/cut more holes in seats in the last few weeks than I can even remember.

 At first, I thought there was a new upholstery trend, but after asking a few questions... well, I sort of wished it was the upholstery thing.

This last set was pretty easy - since the wooden seat could be easily removed.  There were just a few screws to remove on the bottom. 

But before that, I did a little measuring to find the center of the hole. Love these set-up blocks. 

Is there anything they can't do?

 But here's my secret weapon - a six inch hole saw for the drill press. 

Years ago, I used to make a ton of 6" round tile for inlaying in table tops. 

So this bit made outlining the area to be inlaid a snap! 

It's a beast -  using a drill press is a MUST. 

Clamping it down, too. 

 So what's the deal with the holes in the chairs? 

You can read about it here.