Hey Y’all

from the Junk Gypsies Amie Sikes and Jolie Sikes junkers, authors, TV stars, daughters, sisters, moms…Round Top business women

We don’t claim be experts… but we do know what works for us in regards to runnin’ the roads and fields during Texas Antiques Week…here is some of our best advice on how to maneuver this crazy, wonderful world….

Make it a Soul Vacation: seriously. Take it all in. the ambiance is something that’s hard to describe….. the smells of food cooking in the fields, the constant background chatter of shoppers and vendors, the closeness of the earth beneath your boots…make it a vacation. Even if you’re on a mission to find something… enjoy it.

And be sure and wear really comfortable shoes. Like the most comfortable pair you have. And bring sunscreen. And a cap (or in Round Top, you might want to bring your favorite beat up cowboy hat).

And we are in Texas, rest assured, you will experience all elements of weather while you’re here…sun, rain, freezing rain, and tornadoes are never out of the question. (sometimes all on the same day…)

More is more. One thing to know about TAW (that’s texas antiques week, y’all) is that it is BIG. I mean, HUGE. Don’t try to see it all in one day…don’t do that to yourself. Ha! I would say 3 or 4 days would be the perfect amount of time to see a lot….

But if you don’t have that much time, then go ahead and tell yourself now:  “I won’t see everything. There ain’t no way.” So enjoy what you can see, and don’t forget that there are other little shows popping up all around the area… in burton, Fayetteville, and carmine. 26 miles of antique and junk heaven.

Junk-O-Rama Prom. Prom is always the last Thursday of the show (march 30th and Oct. 5 2017) at twilight (also referred to as dark-thirty in these parts) and goes until the wee hours of the morning. Prom started many moons ago because we bought a couple of vintage dresses in the fields and wanted an excuse to wear them. Now it’s all out crazy.

It’s the best people watching on the planet… you will see everything from the most glamorous vintage prom dresses, to outrageous costumes, homemade hats outta junk, piles and piles of vintage costume jewelry, perfectly worn in dancin’ boots. It’s an anything goes Texas party under the stars. You’ll dance your boots off and make new friends. All ages are welcome to prom, so bring the kids, husbands, parents….

It’s free. With a few exceptions….most of the shows/fields/venues are free. Free parking is getting a little harder to find, but most places have a day rate of around $5. Speaking of money, remember to bring your cash, cash often talks when you’re negotiating for treasures.

Prepare to walk. A lot. We prefer to call it “junkersizing.” Seriously. As we’ve said several times, we love the atmosphere of the flea markets and the best way to experience that is to find a field where you can park your car and hit the pavement, er… dirt.

Check out the Round Top register’s awesome map on www.roundtop.com….. It’s a great source for figuring out your shopping priorities!

FoR the LoVE of ROuNd TOP and JUnK

Our Mom, Janie has been taking us to flea markets, second hand stores, and junk shops since before we can remember, so it’s really hard to say when our love for the flea market started…. It’s just always been there. it has always been a part of who we are. It’s never been just about the shopping for us…it’s the people, the atmosphere, the hunt…the whole dang experience. We love it all. We both had “real” jobs right out of college, but we both decided pretty quickly that the road was definitely calling. We started setting up at Canton trade days about 20 years ago, and we kept hearing all of the big dealers talk about “Round Top”.

We finally made the trip ourselves, and we’ll never forget how we felt driving down hwy 237 that first time and into the magical wonderland of infinite tents, infinite junk, and most importantly, infinite inspiration. It truly was a junk high like no other.

Not only did the dust and mud stick to the soles of our boots, the magic of Round Top settled in our hearts and our souls. So, like many of the creative wanderers we’ve met, we decided to put down roots in Round Top.

It seemed crazy then. And to some, it still seems crazy now. I mean, who puts a business in a town with a population of 90?!  At the end of the day, we knew that we didn’t just want to be in the country, we HAD to be in the country. We wanted our parents to be back in the country and importantly, we wanted to raise our kids in the country. We needed less concrete and more trees. Less traffic and more cows. Less sirens and more stars. We needed a community. We were searching for Mayberry. And we found it.