Happy Westerner Days everyone! It is time for our inner cowboy (or cowgirl) to come stomping through and for us to dust off our cowboy boots and don our plaid shirts. Yee haw! The sights and sounds of Westerner are all around us and I for one am excited to get onto the grounds and have my annual corndog. I was working with a client today who has a beautiful home in the country with a charming western theme running through it. This one was a hoot to design. I don’t get to design a lot of country inspired interiors so this one was a real treat and a great deal of fun to shop for.
The fun and fancy of stampede is infectious whether you are an adult or a child. Who doesn’t love a parade? My designer’s eye loves the symmetry and uniformity of marching bands and their starchy brightly coloured jackets as they walk by playing parade music. It is also a delight to see the stampede queens ride by on their beautiful horses adorned with all manner of glitter and rhinestones. I think nothing is more beautiful than the dark chocolate brown in the coat of a well cared for horse, if only I could scan it to make the perfect paint colour.
There is so much to love about Westerner Days, the fun, the food, live music, rodeo, staying up late and having a good time all appeal to me. There is something freeing about being able to dress up like a cowgirl once a year that frees my inner farm girl — ok, that’s a lie; there is no inner farm girl. It’s just fun, kind of like Halloween for grownups – a very special time of year.
Why not host a western themed lunch for you and your buckaroos? It can be such fun to decorate a table in red gingham and tiny hay bales. Buy all of your guests inexpensive red bandannas and have a contest to see who can make the most creative head gear – to be worn at lunch of course. Have a sunflower seed spitting competition and don’t forget the watermelon and homemade apple pie. Use galvanized steel tubs filled with ice to cool your beverages and have a good supply of water pistols filled with ice-cold lemonade for the big shoot up after lunch.
It is going to be a bevy of pancakes and sausages and a riot of cotton candy and deep-fried everything — there will also be chili! Chili cook offs are synonymous with Stampede time and we at Carpet Colour Centre wanted to get in on all the action. I invite you to join us at our store – 5001 19th St. (Southpointe Common Phase II) for our first annual chili cook off July 20 from 10 a.m. until 2 p.m.
We are excited to start a tradition of delectable, mouth watering chili served to our favourite people — you. Two dollars gets you in the door and allows you to sample 10 different homemade chili recipes lovingly created by our staff. It is sure to be a good time and a little friendly competition between staff. I am whipping up a batch of my delectable chili made from my mom’s recipe and I have every confidence that I will win this challenge.
Kim Lewis is an interior designer in Red Deer with Carpet Colour Centre. Contact her at 403-343-7711 ext 227 or email her at klewis@carpetcolourcentre.com.
