Issue link: http://papercitymagazine.uberflip.com/i/1412891
F ickle International owner Lori Smithers' stor y began, as many Round Top success stories do, with her mother. "When I was young, I would go with my mother to antique stores and rummage for treasures," she says. "As a young adult, I would go to Warrenton and roam the fields for days and days. I just fell in love and always fantasized about being part of it." Before her dream of Round Top became a reality, Smithers tried on several different hats. First she hosted A ROUND TOP ANTIQUES SHOW GUIDE ADVERTORIAL FOCUS ON: A FICKLE NATURE LORI SMITHERS' TROVE OF TREASURES FILL THE WHITE BARN AT THE COMPOUND. BY CANDICE COWIN scrapbooking retreats, which led to the opening of a scrapbooking store in Fredericksburg. While brainstorming a name for the store, she decided to lean into her tendency to constantly change things around in her home. "I am known for moving something upstairs then down, over six inches then back," she says. "I'm fickle! I'm just unapologetically fickle." Thus, the first Fickle shop was born. It grew from a scrapbooking shop on Main Street in Fredericksburg to include a line of chalk paint, followed by clothing and shoes. Eventually, furniture joined the mix, but the road from roaming the fields in Warrenton with stars in her eyes to owning a year- round shop — at The White Barn at The Compound — began in earnest about a decade ago, when Lori hung out her shingle at the Texas Rose Show. She filled her space with treasures from Europe that were shipped over on a shared container. She calls the first show "amazing! I loved being with friends, the other vendors and customers. Being part of the Round Top community has changed my life forever. That first show holds a special place in my heart." The White Barn at The Compound 16