How many Texas icons do you have at home? (Dallas: new house, living in)

[doctorjef]

OK, here's something that I don't think has been done here before. How many and what sort of Texas stuff do you have decorating your home?

Let's make that specifically Texas things and not simply Southwest or Mexican stuff. I have quite a bit of the latter that I'm not going to enumerate in my response. Also not stuff that is just tangentially Texan like a photo of my mother and aunts taken in depression-era Texas, probably at a studio either in Fort Worth or Denton. Just specifically Texas-theme things.

I have a picture of the Alamo executed in charcoal in my home office.

I have two branding irons from my family's ranch in Denton Co., TX, in our sun room (ok, I'm counting those because they display an established brand historically used in Texas from the mid-19th Century onwards). I'll count the two irons as one item.

I have a small pressed tin map of Texas that frames a Spanish style portrait of the Blessed Virgin Mary (not Our Lady of Guadalupe in this instance), hanging on a wall in the kitchen.

I have a photo of the old general store in Andice, TX (Williamson Co.) also hanging on the wall of my home office.

I have a painting of a Lake Austin scene by an Austin artist hanging in the breezeway between our kitchen and sunroom.

We have a lot more art objects acquired in Texas (by Southwest but not clearly Texas artists) but less than we used to own; I've let some paintings by Texas artists go over the years, as well as some other objects that originated in the State.

So, that brings me to a total of 5 or 6 objects of explicitly Texas provenance and explicitly Texas significance that I can think of that are displayed (I won't include a mason jar of sea shells picked up on the beach in South Padre that sets on a shelf in the bathroom -- too generic, even if significant to personal memory).

So what do other people display openly in their homes?

[ReppingDFW]

I have a map of the original boarder of the Republic of Texas.

Not sure if they count, but I also have the newspapers from each of the Dallas Cowboys Superbowl Championships.

[innovator82]

I am just starting my collection. Right now I have one of the Texas stars with the circle around it that seem to be popular hanging above my fireplace. Pretty basic. I want to get a giant parchment looking map of Texas that I can have framed and hang as a wall decoration. I would also like to get some sort of panoramic framed photo of a West Texas nature scene as well.

You gave some great ideas in your list! Any suggestions for other items or online stores where I can make my home more "Texas"?

[Fillmont]

I have some sports related stuff that is Texas themed indirectly. And I would like something like what Repping has: an old timey map that can be framed on a wall. But beyond that I don't have any Texas memorabilia or decorations.

[doctorjef]

Originally Posted by innovator82

I am just starting my collection. Right now I have one of the Texas stars with the circle around it that seem to be popular hanging above my fireplace. Pretty basic. I want to get a giant parchment looking map of Texas that I can have framed and hang as a wall decoration. I would also like to get some sort of panoramic framed photo of a West Texas nature scene as well.

You gave some great ideas in your list! Any suggestions for other items or online stores where I can make my home more "Texas"?

I think those stars are classic, both to decorate a fireplace (esp. a native/limestone fireplace) and also on an exterior house wall. Disconcertingly, however, I must relate that I have even seen these big lone stars on the exterior walls of houses here in Delaware -- no idea what that's about!! I also think the antique style Texas wall maps are really cool. There is, or at least used to be, a great shop in Las Villitas in San Antonio (I would be pretty sure it's still there) that sold a lot of that sort of Texas memorabilia. There was also some place in Austin that I can't quite call to mind, that had some actual antique maps and other artifacts. An internet search would probably reveal a lot.

Some of what we've got came from various shops on South Congress Ave in Austin, including some of the specifically Texas things and a lot more generally Southwest and Mexican artifacts. The photo of the general store in Andice, however, is simply a print of a 35 mm photo that either my partner or I took years ago, had a bigger print made and framed in a rough , rustic wooden frame. We've got loads of bluebonnet photos and other TX country scenery that would make great stuff to frame and hang on the wall if we ever had larger prints done. That's something everyone can do and have their own originals.

[Sunderpig2]

Got rid of all of mine. Part of the "de-Texasing" process (detoxing several decades of living in this state). It's a damn good feeling!

[doctorjef]

I see no reason to ditch Texas artifacts that have personal meaning and are part oft life history even if I no longer live there. I also have paintings and photos on the wall representing the state where I now live, paintings from our time in Lithuania, furniture acquired in England, and a lot of things inherited from my parents, much of that being art and furniture they acquired in VA and
DC. Why would I reject any of these traces of my life's history. By the same token our Xmas tree decorations include some specifically Texas themed ornaments, some explicitly English ones and some great ones made here in Delaware that portray iconic images of the First State. It's all my life's history and the history of my partner's and my life together.

[joqua]

Originally Posted by innovator82

I am just starting my collection. Right now I have one of the Texas stars with the circle around it that seem to be popular...

I've been wanting one of those rusty metal ones that I see on the outside of houses all over town here in Ruidoso, NM. I'm native born Texan so it stands to reason I have quite a few items of "Texana" in my home. And being a graduate of UT (degrees from UTEP, UTAustin and UTSA), I naturally have an orange Longhorn decal on the back window of my SUV - just above my NM license plate. To say nothing to all the unsold paintings and other works of art I've been creating for years and "hoarding" - waiting for the right moment to sell!

[Nairobi]

I tend to keep some brisket in the fridge, be it sto' bought or fresh from my friend's dad.

[TXsurburbanmom]

8 bluebonnet oil paintings, some in barnwood frames, inherited from my aunt who was a friend of the artist-Helen McCarty. An amazing framed Porferio Salinas bluebonnet print from 1965--original painting hung in the Johnson White House--a gift from the same aunt. Not yet yet hung in our new house, a painting of the Nimitz Museum in Fredericksburg, a copy of the certificate appointing my great great grandfather Barnett as a state judge and a copy of a document with portraits of all the state judges at that time. A chunk of wood from what was the Click Post Office were the same grandfather was postmaster. A copy of the book my aunt wrote about the early settlers of Kingsland. I also have several crosses mixed in with the paintings including one with that Texas Star in the circle. A black felt stetson on the German hall tree. Also mixed wih the real stuff, a canvas from Target that says "Deep in the Heart of Texas" because I just couldn't resist.

After our attempt to live outside of Texas I decided to go with where my heart was upon our return when it came to decorating. Even though we live on a decidedly "unTexasy" part of Texas I'm on the process of adding a little rustic furnishing so I can show off the things I love.