About Catalpa
Born and raised in Texas, I have been inundated from the get-go with Southern drawl, bait and tackle fishing, weathered antiques, and what it means to be a lady. While some of these attributes have been swiftly cast aside, the history remains and has shaped me into who I am today.
The first antique my parents ever purchased together was an ancient, double-size brass bed in the summer of 1973. Passed down to me years ago, it's the same bed my husband and I share today. One day we'll get a bigger bed. (Update! We got a bigger bed!) My maternal grandmother embodied the definition of a Southern belle and her tastes in fine wooden furniture and delicate fabrics were no exception. It's in my blood to see the beauty of a 100-year-old brass bed, to be enamored by the grain and movement of the cypress in the farm table where my family eats, to appreciate the patina and rust under the many layers of chipping paint in a metal bar cart older than the whiskey it holds, and to love a 60-year-old woolen rug saturated in pattern and color that has seen more history than I have. It's the timeless integrity that draws me to the old, the everlasting, the untold history, and the unknown future these pieces still have time to witness.
The catalpa (or catawba, in true Southern dialect) is a tree my father planted at the edge of the levee when I was young. The catalpa is the only host to the catalpa sphinx moth. The caterpillars (or catawba worms as they're fondly called) make excellent fish bait. The tree grows tall with large spanning heart-shaped leaves that block out sun and heat creating a small oasis of cool in the unforgiving swelter of the Texas summer. I have fond memories of summers at that lake. I tasted beer for the first time sitting on the dock, I learned about death while watching in horror as my paternal grandmother chopped the heads off of bluegill with a machete, I learned more intimately about death when I nearly lost my leg to a 10' foot gator, who, to be fair, was only protecting her young. See? Memories.
Austin, Texas is where my husband and I have chosen to raise our young family. We are three wayward dogs, a skinny barn cat, a firey little boy, a feral female baby child, a red-bearded gentleman, and myself. Catalpa is our first venture in sharing our hand-picked collections with others. I choose to fill it with items that speak to me in hopes that they speak to you too. I embrace these histories and hope to share my love for vintage and antique textiles with others that may appreciate them as well and add their own stories, memories, and futures to these pieces already rich with life.