The Thompson Traders Weekend Retreat - The Story In Images.

Better known online by its hashtag, the #TTweekendretreat, this 2.5 day retreat in the charming Texas Hill Country towns of New Braunfels and Gruene, was an idea that had its start via a casual Instagram chat that took place between Samantha Thompson de Lizarraga and myself last November.

You can read the entire backstory in Part 1 on my blog, linked to at the end of this post, but the short of it is that the Thompson Traders family decided to sponsor and co-host - with me - this weekend retreat for 10 of my Texas based friends.

They left it up to me who to invite and there was no business involved. This was simply an opportunity for us all to get to know each other better, have fun, laugh, eat and drink well, shop and relax.

The 10 of us, [along with the founder of Thompson [ @alejandraothompson ], are shown below and I’ve linked to my friends’ IG feeds at the end of this post so you can follow each of them and get to know them better.

With the exception of Diane Cowen, the lifestyle editor of the Houston Chronicle, [ in the royal blue V neck shirt ] they are all [extremely talented ] interior designers and/or kitchen and bath designers.

3 live in or near Dallas [ Ruthie Staalsen, Annilee Waterman and Robin Burrill ] 2 live in San Antonio [ Shea Pumarejo and Shawna Marie ], 1 lives in The Woodlands [ Jessica Duce ], 1 lives in Sugarland [ Juliana Ewer ], and 3 live near me in the Bay Area of Houston [ Peggy McGowen, Ilse Benard and Diane Cowen ].

I was so thrilled they all said “YES” when asked to spend 2.5 days with me and the Thompsons as they all have VERY BUSY lives! In addition, they said yes to staying in a town some had not been to before, to staying in a house together they’d never been in and, in one case, sharing a room with people they didn’t know before this weekend.

Thank you - my friends - for being so flexible and being willing to come with me/us on this retreat experience. I know a few of you will always remember 1017 check and your nighttime adventures….

Are you ready to read about how the weekend unfolded? Let’s go!

Because I thought I was going to be needed to help Alejandra and her two daughters, Alejandra Thomspon de Jordan and Samantha Thompson de Lizarraga, set up for our guests who would start arriving on Friday afternoon, I decided to go to New Braunfels 2 days early and stay at my brother and sister-in-law’s vacation rental condo there.

I don’t like to drive through Houston anymore [ the traffic in Houston makes me VERY nervous ] so I asked my friend, Ilse Benard, if she would be willing to drive us and come a few days early, too, and she said, “yes” so off we went on Wednesday afternoon.

We had a really nice dinner the first night at the Gruene River Grill. It’s so pretty there, and the food is delicious. It’s a must go place for my family every time we’re in New Braunfels together.

The next day, Thursday, when I was all prepared and planning on helping the Thompsons, they told me they wanted me to stay at the condo and relax and that they would do the work of getting the big house ready - where everyone but Ilse and I would be staying. I tried to come over, but they insisted I get to enjoy this retreat experience, too, so I reluctantly agreed to not come until the following day.

So, on Thursday morning, Ilse and had an early breakfast at my favorite little spot on Main Street and then in the afternoon, we went to a beautiful small shop in New Braunfels called Blumen Meisters.

It’s a gift shop, a florist, and a plant emporium. I’ve always wanted to visit it whenever I’ve been in New Braunfels, but just hadn’t made it there. This time, I did. They had so many pretty plants and accessories and gifts!

Later Thursday evening, we went to the Huisache Grill and the charming shops out in back of it including the Art Cottage - a co-op for artists - for another delicious dinner and a little pre-retreat shopping. The image below is a collage of images from both Wednesday and Thursday.

The pool in the bottom left is the pool area at the River Run condos in New Braunfels, where my brother and sister-in-law have their vacation rental. Their place fronts the Comal River which makes it the perfect condo to stay in if people like to go tubing, something we always do when we go together as a family.

On Friday, Ilse and I arrived to the big house early in the day so I could discuss some last minute items with Alejandra Thompson de Jordan, the Vice President of Marketing and Sales for Thompson Traders. We found her Mom, Alejandra Ochoa Thompson, cooking away in the kitchen [ but still finding time to serve us lunch and drinks {!} ] preparing a 5 course gourmet meal for all of us that evening.

Can you believe she cooked it all herself for us?

We also found lots of flower arranging going on. That’s a picture of Samantha in the lower right, helping with the flowers. We also saw lots and lots of gifts that needed a little wrapping for the guests - my specialty - and something I jumped in to help with right away. More on the gifts to come…

On the bed in each room, gifts were waiting for my guests/our guests when they arrived to the house on Friday around 5 pm. The handwoven seagrass box from me was filled with tiny treasures for everyone, and on the first day, the Thompsons also gifted everyone with a beautiful hand embroidered handbag from Mexico as well as specialty soaps.

The Thompsons and I were also the recipients of lovely hostess gifts from our guests, too. You can see an example of one of those in the image on the top right - a beautiful gold frame holding the graphic I had made for this retreat, given to me by Jessica Duce.

As our guests arrived, they sat down on the comfortable sectional in the great room to get to know one another and enjoy a cocktail.

Here’s Peggy McGowen, a former president of the National Kitchen and Bath Association, after arriving. Peggy is so full of wisdom from her many years of owning Houston’s premier kitchen and bath showroom, Kitchen and Bath Concepts. Peggy is now retired, and her daughter, Micqui, now runs their showroom located at the Houston Design Center. Having Peggy with us was a real treat for everyone.

And then came Friday night and the spectacular outdoor dinner. To say we were all WOWED beyond belief is a gross understatement. The Thompsons are known for entertaining beautifully, and their loving hospitality, but none of us expected to have waiters serving us cocktails all night long nor to have such an elaborate outdoor tablescape awaiting us.

It’s hard to describe how beautiful it all was.

Before the Thompsons left Greensboro, NC [ the home of Alejandra and Alex and the HQ of Thompson ], they collaborated with Julie at ReplacementsLTD to design the gloriously colorful tablescape using Replacements’ enormous stock of Rosenthal Porcelain’s VERSACE pattern and coordinating stemware.

Replacements wrapped and then shipped all 20 boxes of this to Samantha’s home in San Antonio and then the Thompsons transported it all to the house. Then they brought all 20 boxes upstairs, unpacked it, washed it and then brought it all back downstairs again to set the table.

[ Can you believe they didn’t want me to help them do this??? ]

I am happy to tell you that at the end of the weekend, I did help to re-wrap every single piece and pack all 20 boxes for shipment back to Replacements. There was no way I was going to let the Thompsons do this again themselves. It was quite a job. I hope it all arrived safely!

The branch chandelier you see in the image on the right, below, was made by the Thompsons on site. They wrapped those hundreds and hundreds of tiny white lights around each branch themselves!!

And are you noticing the elk horns nestled amongst the fresh flowers and greenery?

The sterling silver candelabras you see below belong to Alejandra O. Thompson. She had them shipped from her home in Greensboro, where beeswax candles dripped magnificently all night long while we sat talking into the wee hours.

In addition to those candles, they had real candles lit all around the property so no matter where we sat, we were bathed in the glow of warm candlelight.

All the flower arrangements they designed and made were color coordinated to the placesettings and stemware.

To top off this enchanted evening, Replacements LTD gave each of our guests a unique, one of a kind vintage silver teaspoon as a gift!! Replacements —> thank you! What an amazing act of generosity. We all appreciated it so much!

The Thompsons also had a bar/cocktail lounge area set up outside, too, where 2 fabulous waiters they hired for the weekend served us a special signature tequila sour cocktail they concocted for us all to enjoy ,using this special mixer from Pappy & Co.

It went down easy, and made conversation flow. Special thanks to you, Pappy & Co. , for the mixer!

Our guests all got dressed up for the evening, as you can see in the two collage images below. Everyone looked so pretty, festive and colorful!

In order to help everyone get to know each other, Alex and I had decided ahead of time that I would ask a series of questions of each of my friends during dinner. As it turns out, the first question took up most of the dinner, and it was wonderful to hear everyone’s stories.

I asked everyone “ What inspired you to get into design?” I wish I could have tape recorded all of these stories, because they were all so interesting, and at the end of the dinner, the ice had been broken.

When we got up from the table [ at 11:30 pm or so!! ] most were not ready to go to sleep, even though it had been a long day for everyone. They stayed out on the back deck and talked and talked…and sipped more of the wine and those yummy cocktails.

The next morning, bright and early, the Thompsons served everyone a healthy and delicious breakfast before we all took off at 10 -ish am for brunch and shopping in Fredericksburg which is another charming Hill Country town about an hour and a half away from where we were staying.

The Thompsons hired a driver with a van for this trip, and this back and forth journey is where our guests really got to know each other even better. A few of our guests had to go in a separate car, though, because they get car sick and have to look straight ahead while on winding and twisting roads.

I filed this for future reference under things to ask before planning a day trip.

Here we all are at the Hill Country Herb Farm in Fredericksburg, enjoying a 2 hour brunch [ with mimosas, of course ] together. Given the time of year, all of the herbs were in full bloom and it was so beautiful to walk around the gardens and smell those scents wafting through the air.

Three of my friends mentioned they wanted to bring their families back here for the weekend, as there’s a spa on the property, a little shop and also very charming & cozy cabins for rent.

After lunch, our driver took us over to Main Street where we went to one of the most fabulous retail emporiums I’ve ever seen, Vaudeville. I had been talking this up to my friends but - given how much they see in their regular line of work - I know they were skeptical.

However, I think they were all surprised that it was, indeed, a very special place with many items you don’t easily see or find anywhere else like the porcelain figurine in the upper left depicting a face painted in Day Of The Dead makeup. [Some of you will recall the Day of the Dead party I attended -with some of these same friends - at Alejandra and Cliff Thompson’s home in Greensboro last fall during High Point Market ].

Another case in point was a line of sunglasses from Australia the shop had just started carrying. Everyone was trying them on [ they can also be fitted for prescription lenses ] and 3 of my friends [ shown in the circle below ] bought a pair. They all looked so glamorous [ and sexy! ] in them and their excitement got several other people in the shop to start trying them on and buying, too!

Juliana, shown below, found this stunning necklace there that she just had to have. It was so beautiful on her and it was only later in the evening when we all found out it was made by a very famous Mexican jewelry artist who is a national treasure.

After visiting Vaudeville, we walked a few doors down to a world famous kitchen shop where everyone found * a little something* to take home. This shop, Der Kuchen- Laden, is full of twists and turns and little corners full of everything known to humankind for cooking and the kitchen.

After these 2 shops, [ and the partying of the night before ] we were all feeling a little worn out, so we returned to the house….only to find that the Thompsons [ who had left earlier ] had prepared another magnificent table for us. Notice the change of tablecloth! They thought of EVERY DETAIL.

This dinner was catered, but no less delicious than the night before.

This table was set with these beautiful hand hammered copper plates, and at each place setting was yet another gift for each of us - a small basket woven out of copper wrapped in shiny cellophane and tied with a pretty ribbon. #bestillmyheart

The most special thing about this dinner, though, was the 2nd question that was asked, that we all answered. What was shared by each woman at the table will never be forgotten, and I especially want to thank each and everyone of you who will see this - who was there - for what you shared about me and with me - if you did. I will take your kind comments to my grave, where I will be silently smiling during all future Day of the Dead parties.

I still don’t REALLY know what prompted the 3 gorgeous women below to do this with me - and for me - but whatever impulse took hold of their hearts, I will forever be grateful.

I have long wanted to do a weekend retreat for and with my girlfriends, but could never have done anything as special as this on my own. Thank you a million times over, Alex, Sammie, and Alejandra!

This was the highlight moment of the last 3 years of my life. I love you all.

The next morning, Sunday morning, since check out time was 10:30 am, most everyone ate another lovely breakfast, got dressed and packed, said their good-byes and drove away. However, before they left, there was still one last surprise for them….a beautiful hand hammered copper bracelet and another small gift from Replacements LTD.

I don’t have pictures of that morning, as I wanted to be present in the moment, but if I get some pictures later, I will add them to this post.

Now, some of you may now be wondering what Thompson [ online as Thompson Traders but now re-branded to just Thompson ] actually makes… and the image below shows you just a tiny sneak peek. They have many specialty finishes and textures available for their sinks, vanities, bathtubs bar sinks, range hoods and bathroom accessories, including theirnew matte black and black nickel finishes that are very popular with my designer friends. I’ve shown them both below.

The Thompson line is beloved by every designer that knows of it, not only for the quality and beauty, but also for their ability to customize anything - including any design a designer can dream up. Don’t miss my Part 1 backstory post, linked to at the end of this post, to see some of the customizing Jeanne Chung has done with this line for her clients and in her Cozy Stylish Chic kitchen showroom in Pasadena, California.

All of their items are made of copper and it’s all made in their factory in Mexico by artisans their family has employed for the past 22 years they’ve been in business.

In the image below, I especially love the way the custom copper apron front sink was specified with no finish so it can be allowed to patinate naturally. This isn’t a look for everyone, but it’s so elegant.

Below is the matte black finish. The black nickel has just a little more sheen to it, and just a hint of the copper comes through, as you can see below this image.

I’d love to know which one you like best!

If you’re a designer reading this and don’t know of their line, you can see it all in person February 27-29, 2024 at the National Kitchen and Bath Show in Las Vegas.

The Thompsons will also be launching a new division of their company this Fall in collaboration with Pappy & Co - a stunning line of copperware for cocktails and entertaining. Follow the tag: #EverydayHeirlooms to see it unfold and sign up for the wait list on the link at the bottom of this post!

Thank you again, Thompson family, for making this dream of mine come true.

Love is the answer. Generosity of spirit is a close second.

Lastly, real life experiences with genuine friends will always be my absolute favorite way to experience life.

In gratitude and appreciation to all of you.

Leslie

Links:

OUR GUESTS

Jessica Duce | @jducedesign
Juliana Ewer | | @jsquaredhomedesigns
Peggy McGowen | @peggy.mcgowen
Ilse Benard | @ilsebenarddesigns
Diane Cowen | @dianecowenchronicle
Shawna Marie | @styleberrycreativeinteriors
Shea Pumarejo | @myyouniquedesigns
Annilee Waterman | @designerannilee
Ruthie Staalsen | @ruthiedesigner
Robin Burrill | @robin.burrill + @signature.home.services

THE HOSTS

Thompson, manufacturer of bespoke copper sinks, vanities, range hoods, tubs, bathroom accessories and, in the Fall of 2023, their new #EverydayHeirloom collection of barware in collaboration with Pappy & Co.

@thompsontraders || thompsontraders.com
@alejandraothompson, Founder and Creative Director
@alejandra_thompson_de_jordan, Vice President Marketing and Sales
@samanthamotl, currently on sabbatical

Sign up on the link below to be on the #EverydayHeirlooms launch waitlist

https://pappyco.com/pages/everyday-heirlooms

Leslie Carothers, principal of Savour Partnership, a digital marketing agency for home related brands and interior designers.
@lesliemcarothers
https://savourpartnership.com

SPECIAL COLLABORATORS

Replacements LTD, a purveyor of fine rental tableware for entertaining
@ReplacementsLtd || https://replacementsltd.com

Pappy and Co., manufacturers of Pappy Van Winkle bourbon and a lifestyle retailer for all things related to serving Kentucky bourbon
https://pappyco.com/products/pappy-van-winkle-kentucky-sour-cocktail-mixer

#TTWEEKENDRETREAT: THE BACKSTORY - PART 1

https://www.savourpartnership.com/blog/the-backstory-of-the-thompson-traders-weekend-retreat