For the last few weeks Lora from Rockin’ B Antler has been teasing us with the idea of TOOLED ANTLERS.  Well, the pictures are in and they are even more fabulous than I could have imagined…

Want to purchase??  They are on their way to Western Heritage Furniturein Weatherford, TX, and many other stores COMING SOON!!

Love, love, love ‘em!!  Thanks for sharing them with us Lora!!

** Click HERE for more from Rockin’ B Antler **

** Click HERE for other WHOLESALE Companies **

{SUBSCRIBE} HERE to have the CactusCreekDaily.com BLOG
delivered straight to your E-Mailbox!!

Hey Shop Girls {and you boys, too}… Dallas Market is starting now!!  For those of you heading over be sure to look for our friends Rockin’ B Antler Design.

Rockin’ B will be on the 11th floor of the Dallas World Trade Center in their new permanent booth with Austin Ranch {Booth #11046}. So be sure to visit them at market this Friday, June 26th thru Monday, June 29th. They have LOTS of new designs that are really cool, like their new tooled antlers
{i can’t wait to see those!!}.

** Click HERE for more Wholesale Companies **

{SUBSCRIBE} HERE to have the CactusCreekDaily.com BLOG
delivered straight to your E-Mailbox!!

I am in love with this Antler Saddle Stand that Lora from Rockin’ B Antler Design sent me!!  It is wonderfully different from any other Saddle Stand I’ve ever seen… This is a piece that will make a HUGE Statement in your Rustic * Western * Vintage home.

Be sure to check out the Rockin’ B Antler Design website ~ they have an enormous selection of Antler products, including some of the coolest Coffee Tables, Chandeliers, and Creative Home Goods you’ve EVER seen!! {check out the pics BELOW}

Rockin’ B Antler Design has a GROWING wholesale business for all of you retailers out there. In fact, starting in June they will have a permanent show room on the 11th floor of the World Trade Center in Dallas. They will be sharing a space with Austin Ranch Furniture ~ the booth number is #11046. The showroom is open 5 days a week and, of course, for all the markets.

** Click HERE for more Wholesale Companies **

{SUBSCRIBE} HERE to have the CactusCreekDaily.com BLOG delivered straight to your E-Mailbox!!.

As my new buddies, the Junk Mafia say, “Whooa Doggies…” It’s going to be SO much fun to share Round Top Antique Week with you over the next week ~ Check in every day for new stories & pictures,
or Click HERE to receive Cactus Creek in your email box!!  Here we go…

{Longhorn Painting on a discarded window, by Jennifer Casebeer}

 Our first stop at Round Top Antique Week was to visit our newest friends and sponsors, H-M Valley Ranch, owned by Anna Mayberry and Jennifer Casebeer.  H-M had a great first show at Antique Week at their space in the Round Top Hill Antique Show…
easy to understand when you look at how
STRIKING their selection is. 

{Hand~made leather and cowhide shade by Anna Mayberry}

Not only do the owners, Anna and Jennifer, have a wonderful selection of stand~out Western products, they also have an enduring story about friendship and entrepreneurship.  Their first meeting was by chance several years ago, at Silver Dollar City, during a two month Art Show.  The talented women were both vendors offering their hand made products…

{Buffalo Painting by Jennifer Casebeer}

Within hours Anna & Jennifer had bonded over their mutual love of WESTERN STYLE and began to make plans on how to combine their talents.  Jennifer is the painter {the buffalo she painted in the image ABOVE is my favorite!!}, while Anna does the leather and iron work. Because Jennifer’s family are cutters, reiners, and calf ropers, and Anna & her husband own a rodeo company, this duo offers an authentic approach to their products. According to Anna, both their personalities and talents “compliment one another and provide for the needs of all clients whatever their western lifestyle may be.”

{Longhorn Painting by Jennifer Casebeer}

Fast forward a few years, and now, despite living in different states, H-M Valley Ranch is a full-fledged business that definitely offers something new to the Western Marketplace.

{Longhorn Painting on a vintage chair, by Jennifer Casebeer}

I had the joy of meeting Jennifer, a dynamo artist with a big smile and shiny blue eyes. I was so impressed with Jennifer’s paintings of Western-inspired images…  Her longhorn, buffaloes, and horses are beautiful portrayals of the animals that bring romance to the Western culture.  Jennifer’s willingness to use discarded furniture, doors and windows, as canvases makes her work even more appealing in their uniqueness.

{Leather Place mat by Anna Mayberry}

Anna had not yet made it to Round Top when I visited ~ I can hardly wait to her next… I just loved the distressed leather place mats that Anna made; and her cowhide & leather lampshades were also exceptional.  I will definitely be ordering the place mats for my next Tablescapes show.  You can order some, too!! 

Click HERE to purchase all of these treasures ONLINE!!

{Blue Horse, by Jennifer Casebeer}

** Click HERE for a few more Images from H&M **

** Click HERE for more from Round Top Antique Week **

** Click HERE for other WHOLESALE Businesses **

{SUBSCRIBE} HERE to have the CactusCreekDaily.com BLOG delivered straight to your E-Mailbox!!

(more…)

Urban Country * Red Dirt Style * Modern Barn Living * Industrial Chic * Desperado Design * Contemporary Frontier * SOUTHERN ART

For a year or more I have been feeling a shiftin my taste for home decor.  This is rather huge for a gal who has spent the last twelve years designing, selling and sourcing a niche style like the Western * Rustic Marketplace.  I’m not sure if the shift is because of, or in spite of, launching CactusCreekDaily.com. 

Since Cactus Creek’s premiere last April I have become chained to my computer and every magazine I can get my hands on, many of them not a part of the “industry”.  From Country Living, to Western Interiors, Architectural Digest, LUXE’s Colorado edition, and even the famous blog, Design*Sponge, I am constantly inundated by this new style that has yet to settle into a coined term, but instead is referenced as any of the following: Urban Country * Red Dirt Style * Modern Barn Living * Industrial Chic * Desperado Design * Contemporary Frontier * SOUTHERN ART

Old timers refer to this shift as buying “out of market”, but I find the designs offered from unexpected sources are the EDGE that defines a home or retail store as unusually FABULOUS.

All of this rambling leads me to an unexpected source that you may eventually know as a household name:
DOLAN GEIMAN.
I saw his art first on Design*Sponge, and since then I have spent quite a bit of time going to his website and etsy store ~ dreaming and designing rooms based on his work.  I think it’s high time that we go “out of market” and check out Dolan Geiman, a Southern-rooted artist whose work probably won’t show up in your next issue of C&I.

Geiman is an artist who doesn’t fit into any one category. 
His URBAN EDGE and SOUTHERN ROOTS result in
a fantastical display of contemporary whimsy.

Growing up in Virginia Dolan Geiman’s family encouraged the pursuit of education, art, and independence.  As a child Geiman roamed through fields and cabins, fanning his intrinsic passion for transforming nature, and society’s cast offs, into raw art.  After studying print making and sculpture at James Madison University in Virginia, Geiman eventually made it to Chicago which is where he met his lady-love, Ali Walsh.  Together this couple works tirelessly to share Dolan Geiman’s Contemporary/Southern ART with the world.

Dolan Geiman’s passionate commitment to re-using, re-vamping and re-cycling is the core of his art, and it expands throughout his entire process from creating the art, to sending the art to its new home.  Dolan’s process typically begins in his studio which is located in the Chicago Sustainable Manufacturing Center.  It is here that he surrounds himself with remnants of life past and present. From old coins to used books and rodeo posters, Dolan uses his collection of ephemera as both inspiration, and materials, to create mixed media art that is described as having the effect of “driving down a dirt road deep in the county and experiencing the colors, textures, and imagery of each passing roadside billboard”. 

Using salvaged wood as his typical palette, recycled paint as his color, re-vamped treasures as a muse, and pre-used packaging materials, Dolan’s discipleship to a GREEN life results in
CONTEMPORARY FOLK ART that defines all that Americana art will be known for in the 21st Century. 

I couldn’t help but ask Dolan about his stock-piled studio {ABOVE}.  Does he bring the collections home? Or is he more inspired by simplicity when he is in his own space?

The answer is that the line between work and home is faint…Says Dolan, “Well, considering our ‘house’ is merely an apartment, and since we spend every waking hour at the studio working, I tend to keep all of my inspirational evidence around me. I think if I could afford a house I would buy a riverboat and park it in a different section of the river every day. Actually, I should look into that….. Honestly though, I have never tried to force a separation of art and life, because for me, there is no real division. All day long I am working on a handful of ideas, and so it’s hard to go home and not drag things with me, to keep those ideas flowing. The funny thing is, I feel like an old hermit sometimes, because there are days when I drag the same bag of junk back and forth, and I don’t even open it and go through it. Yes, it makes me very human!”

Click on READ MORE Below for the rest of the story!!

** Click HERE for more Rustic * Western * Vintage ARTISTS
that will inspire you!! **

Click HERE to SUBSCRIBE and have the CactusCreekDaily.com BLOG delivered straight to your E-Mailbox!!  (more…)

I spent last night relating to the cowgirls of years gone by, the women that forged the path to this new era of the Wild, Wild West.  From Annie Oakley to Martha Maxwell ~ Calamity Jane to Pearl Hart, these are the gals that made it possible for us to be and do anything we set our mind to…  their willingness to climb over unimaginable hurdles in a male-dominated world makes our paths much easier!!

“WHEN I SHOOT A BEAR, I’M A HUNTER. 
WHEN I STUFF A BEAR I’M AN ARTIST”

All of these great cowgirls are celebrated by ARTIST KC Willis, the woman behind Lipstick * Ranch.  Once a singer, a published author, and now a Nationally recognized fiber artist, KC is based in Colorado where she crafts her Fiber Art.  KC’s unconventional process unfolds in Jill Haglund’ book, Creating With Fabric. “Each fabric collage piece starts with a piece of unprimed, lightweight artist canvas that has been torn (I rarely if ever actually cut fabric) to size, washed and coffee-stained. The tearing and then washing of the canvas will fray the edges of the fabric and leave plenty of tangled threads in the bottom of the washer. These will come in handy later…” Each piece of Fiber Art is created, by KC’s hands, full of heart, and with the spirit of a the strong & gritty cowgirls of years gone by.

KC’s work is not limited to cowgirls, her work is also inspired by other strong women figures who have shaped our faith and culture ~ like the Guadalupe piece {ABOVE}.  Available through her EBay store, and also available in 45 stores and galleries around the country, KC also offers CUSTOM Lipstick * Ranch pieces.  There are so many ideas for these pieces of art…

The muted colors and spunky subject matter make Lipstick * Ranch ART a befitting decoration for a little cowgirl’s vintage nursery.   

A new twist on the Motivational Posters of the 1990s, hanging a Lipstick * Ranch Fiber in your office will advise your co-workers that you’re just one bullet shy of being a “Cowgirl with a Gun”.

“I AIN’T AFRAID TO SHOOT AND I AIN’T AFRAID TO LOOK GOOD”
                                      …Lulu Parr

Know a cow-gal going down the wedding aisle??  These strong~women works will remind her to never forget her individual strengths and the support cast that will never leave her side.

So if all of this isn’t enough, KC’s art is also applied to furniture, journals, denim jackets, slip covers and these pillows that I LOVE!!  Thanks, KC

  ** BOOKS TO INSPIRE YOU…

** Click HERE for Vintage Cowgirl SHOES **

{SUBSCRIBE} HERE to have the CactusCreekDaily.com
BLOG delivered straight to your E-Mailbox!!

What a great week it has been gathering sources for your little Cowpokes & Camp Fire Girls!!  To make a house a home you have to have ACCESSORIES, these are the jewels that make a room fun and cozy…  Here are a handful of ideas to help you complete your space.

ROPE ART NAMES
Available from BuckarooStyle.com, this clever Rope Art gives a cowpoke’s room a YEE-HAW kick!!  As a Mom to two young boys who are 7th generation Texans, Buckaroo Style’s founder, Michelle Scott Hamilton, had a hard time finding cute and affordable decor for her sons’ cowboy nursery.  After a lot of brainstorming her business was born!! Perfect as a gift, each Rope Name, or any other Rope Word {“Buckaroo”, “Howdy”, “Yee-Haw” are good options} are made by hand in Texas by the Hamilton Family… Love it!!

FAUX BEAR RUGS
If you are going for a Rustic Lodge look then these Faux Bear Rugs are a no-brainer!!  What a delightfully soft place for the little ones to curl up and read their favorite books, or maybe watch a movie…  These Faux Bear Rugs add a touch of wild to your room, but we promise ~ NO Bears were Harmed in the Making of this Rug!!

DOLCE MIA
Dolce Mia is a company that has every fabulous thing you have ever wanted for your Cowpokes & Camp Fire Girls!!  Today I’m going to show off their FRAMES, but really take some time at this site because it is to die for…

UNCOMMON GOODS
No matter what your style, we LOVE Uncommon Goods.  They are the first place to go for quirky gifts and decor that will set your space apart.  Their selection of lamps is particularly darling for putting together a kiddo’s room.  Check out these three sources of light from Uncommon Goods…

TOY BOX
One more must-have for a little one’s room is a TOY BOX.  The Log Toy Box below {they call it a Quilt Box} is perfect for storing baby toys, toddler toys, and then teenage keepsakes….  Whether you are selecting decoration for a Western Bunkhouse, or a Rustic Camp, this BOX is gorgeous and functional!!

** Click HERE to read the entire **
Cowpoke & Camp Fire Girls SERIES!!

** Click HERE for more COWPOKE Merchandise **

{SUBSCRIBE} HERE to have the CactusCreekDaily.com BLOG
delivered straight to your E-Mailbox!!

As a Mom I have had the pleasure of decorating and re-decorating several rooms in order to accommodate the birth of three kids in a four year period.  This week my No. 2 baby, Gunner, is turning three years old!!  So ~ in honor of Gunner ~ I have decided to spend this week tracking down some fabulous decoration ideas for your Cowpokes and Camp Fire girls…

LARRY STEPHENSON
Known for his light-hearted approach to the toys and objects of childhood, Larry Stephenson’s TOYZ art work is a
               nostaligic way to set the tone of your little one’s bunkhouse.

PAM BLACK WAGNER
With earthy colors and a fantastical approach to her subjects, the paintings of Pam Black Wagner offer a long term solution to art in a child’s room.  My favorite in the collection on Wagner’s website, ‘a friend in need’, is below.  Wouldn’t this rich painting be equally beautiful above an iron crib, log bed or vintage dresser??  All of Wagner’s paintings offer this same robust point of view making them the perfect fit for moving from the nursery, to the tween’s room, to the family room.

LANTERN PRESS from Art.com
Lantern Press supplies art work to museums, lodges, national parks and more.  Using vintage materials to inspire the images in their 1 million + collection, Lantern Press sells to the trade only.  Fortunately they offer most of their products at Art.com.  Even better, most of the images come in several sizes.  I love this look for creating a lodge feel ~ perfect for your Boy Scout {or Camp-Fire Girl}!!

AARON FOSTER DESIGNS
Without question Aaron Foster’s license plate art has become an icon of the “junk revolution” of the 21st Century.  Known originally for his popular License Plate MAPS, Foster also offers FLOWERS, COWBOYS, hip PEACE SIGNS and much, much more.  These works are an investment in an artist who will be a symbol of Americana and Found Art for years to come…

OOPSY DAISY
Based in San Diego, Oopsy Daisy Fine Art for Kids is a collection of art that inspires children.  With over 600 works of art, from more than 50 artists, Oopsy Daisy is a family business that sells their art directly to retailers.  To have your own piece of Oopsy Daisy art visit KooKooBearKids.com.  I particularly LOVE the canvas {BELOW} for your cowgirl’s room… 

** Click HERE to read the entire **
Cowpoke & Camp Fire Girls SERIES!!

** Click HERE for more COWPOKE Merchandise **

{SUBSCRIBE} HERE to have the CactusCreekDaily.com BLOG
delivered straight to your E-Mailbox!!

I have been fueling my passion for RUSTIC Furniture for over 15 years, in that time I have collected hundreds of images of log furniture.
I recently came across Bristlecone Pine Company which has trumped them all!!

Owned by Dave Spiesman, a self-described one man show, Bristlecone Pine Company encompasses the raw, natural beauty of RUSTIC furniture.  In fact, the name Bristlecone Pine comes from the tree of the same name.  David uses Bristlecone Pine, the oldest living thing on the planet, to create his primitive designs.  He shared with me that the dead wood he uses has been dated to be 2000 to 2400 years old {think about that ~ 2000 years old, WOW}.  Per David’s research the oldest living bristlecones are in California and have been dated to be 10,000 to 12,000 years old.

In addition to his Stunning BEDS, David also makes TABLES * CHAIRS * MIRRORS * LAMPS * and POOL TABLES!!  All of the chairs & sofas {ABOVE} feature cushions covered with Cowhide or Buffalo Hide.  I love this in an entry way or sun room ~ or two of the chairs coupled with a BIG leather sofa…  LOVE IT!!

Each of Dave’s creations is made by hand, piece by piece, with lots of heart and a PASSION for creating beautiful furniture that “flows”.  To see the heart of a man all you need to see his smile… on each page of his website Dave offers a short video about his approach to design.  These short videos make this artist’s passion palpable.  You can also view a YouTube video of Dave HERE.

So if you are interested in Bristlecone Pine’s truly GREEN furniture, pieces filled with CHARACTER and RUSTIC Grace, then you may head to either of the two stores that carry Dave’s work ~ Fortney’s Antiques in Austin, TX or Santa Fe Ranch in Palm Beach Gardens, FL.  Dave also attends some shows, his biggest being the Texas Renaissance Festival in Plantersville, Texas {about an hour NW of Houston}.  If you’re not in the regions of Texas or Florida then definitely give Dave a holler and he would be HONORED to make a piece for your home or office…

** Click HERE for more **
RUSTIC Furniture options

{SUBSCRIBE} HERE to have the CactusCreekDaily.com BLOG
delivered straight to your E-Mailbox!!

Last week I wandered through a fabulous antique mall in Columbia, Missouri and saw this brilliant packaging…

For those of us who love garage sales & auctions, the accumulation of random cast-offs can leave you scratching your head…  Surely there is a way to get rid of these things??  I thought that this was great ~ package all of the cast-offs together in a no-nonsense gift geared for for men ~ baseball cards, toy guns, bottle openers, and vintage coins. 

Throw all of this togeher in a “to-go” box and call it “man-tiques”.  I can’t promise instant profits, but it’s better than putting the extras in boxes & having it all collect dust.