Grapevine to Host Dallas Vintage Jewelry Show

Promoters recently announced Grapevine, Texas will be home to a new show focusing entirely on vintage jewelry. Vintage dealer Melissa Sands and Promoter Eric Miller have teamed up to bring the show to the Dallas-Fort Worth area.

“It’s rarely a question of if vintage jewelry will sell,” says Sands adding that while everyone loves vintage jewelry, the most typical jewelry buyer falls right in line with the demographics in North Dallas. “There’s already been an enthusiastic response to the show. This is an ideal specialty show for the region.”

Dealers will be bringing a variety of vintage costume jewelry along with vintage and antique fine jewelry to the Grapevine Convention Center, March 16-17, 2012.

Sands says the dates were chosen to provide an opportunity for dealers to add a show while traveling to Texas for Round Top. She also says preliminary interest from dealers has been strong and expects to fill the 23,000 square foot convention center.

The Grapevine Convention Center was chosen because of it’s easy access and location among some of Dallas’s most prominent suburbs. Moreover, the town is an attraction in itself.

“Grapevine is located among the regions most vibrant suburbs including Southlake, Westlake and Colleyville in the fourth largest MSA in the country and is easily accessible from throughout the region,” Miller says.

Dallas and Fort Worth residents are already accustomed to visiting Grapevine for other shows and festivals and Miller says the location also means dealers will have an enjoyable destination. “Having an enjoyable experience is an important component to both wanting to travel to a show and having another reason to come back,” Miller says.

The traditional Main-Street neighborhood with shops, restaurants and wine-tasting rooms is within walking distance of the Convention Center. There are plenty of comfortable hotel options at all price levels.

About the Dallas Vintage Jewelry Show: The Dallas Vintage Jewelry Show will be held March 16 and 17, 2012. Some fifty dealers are expected. The hours for the show will be Friday, 1 p.m. – 8 p.m. with Happy Hour 5:00 p.m. – 6 p.m. and Saturday, 10 a.m. – 5 p.m. Dealers should contact Melissa Sands at 847-579-9079. Eric Miller can be reached at 214-329-9733. More information is available at www.dallasvintagejewelry.com.

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The Image and Ideas of Dallas

Steam Engine in Grapevine, Texas

I arrived in Dallas in the early part of 2010 and was greeted by some snow. That was the first preconceived notion about the region that was broken for me.

I moved here with my partner from Brooklyn. I was concerned people in the South would have some animosity to New Yorkers- its that one cover of New York Magazine, which I think featured Newt Gingrich the on the cover, with the headline WHY AMERICA HATES NEW YORK. With that I suggested we say we hailed from Pittsburgh, the city we lived in prior to Brooklyn.

Eventually I got around to saying Brooklyn. It was easier that backtracking and explaining the last two years that followed our time in Pittsburgh-- in the capital of the world. It was pretty hard anyway given the license plate was still from New York and the back of the car said Bay Ridge Honda.

Compared to New York, or even Pittsburgh, we figured there wasn't much of a city in Dallas. Sure there were skyscrapers, but you couldn't really walk around or use public transit. With that we figured if we must drive, it may be wise to find a somewhat walkable suburb and at least limit travel time to my partner's work near the airport. We found Grapevine, Texas.

There was always some chance we would move again, but the four beasts that came along made it hard to find a rental, at least one in a place we would feel comfortable living. So we bought a house. The size of course made it attractive-especially compared to the 700 square foot apartment in Brooklyn.

On one of the first days here I heard the sound of a steam train. This was familiar to me as I grew up in a town with a steam train, however the sound of the train came a bit later. It's more accurate to say there was the rusting hulk of a steam engine that sat at the local landmark known as the Horseshoe Curve. For me, and many others in the town, it represented a glorious and prosperous past. Altoona wasn't a rust-belt city exactly-it hadn't been as hard hit as the towns with mills, like Johnstown and Pittsburgh. But it was always clear downtown and elsewhere that things weren't what they used to be.

Then one day came the inspiration and funding to make the old rusting hulk of metal run again. That they did, although it didn't last long before the boiler blew and the engine was removed from public view.

That was the background for me of hearing this steam engine in my new town of Grapevine. Exploring more, I discovered they also had a nice train station and the trains, while not always powered by steam, made regular runs to the Fort Worth Stockyards. Grapevine has two things Altoona didn't have, a working steam engine and a viable Main Street.

Altoona was something I left long ago, however and the infatuation with Grapevine began to dissipate. It never was an infatuation exactly, rather a best option at the time. Don't get me wrong, it's a great place to live, and perhaps the best suburb in the region as far as being a distinct, somewhat walkable place. The thing is, I didn't come directly from Altoona to Grapevine. I have spent 20 years in Brooklyn, Pittsburgh and San Francisco in between. After a little more than a year here, the trips to Dallas, and to some extent Fort Worth, became so frequent, and the longing for a more urban environment so strong, it became apparent that the thing to do was move.

This is the point where this blog begins.