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Within the wonderland of clever curios and collectibles at the Leslie Kristen shop in Round Top’s Rolland Square, visitors will find many nods to farm animals. A penchant for cows, in particular.
There are kitchen and tea towels printed with bovine appreciation: “Cows Make Me Happy” and “Home is Where the Herd Is.”
So, believe it when owner Leslie Trasport says she has great affection for barn creatures great and small.
“If I could have been a veterinarian, I would have,” she said.
A career in interior design, however, trumped her Doctor Doolittle desires. But it was her work as the owner of Leslie Kristen, a longtime California-based interior design firm, that first brought her to Round Top and today positions her as an established local merchant whose business and presence within Round Top feels as natural as, well, a cow chewing cud.
The Leslie Kristen boutique isn’t just a Round Top retail fixture, it may be the merriest destination in town for the holidays. Filled with Christmas baubles, cowboy trinkets and kitschy treats (including Trasport’s appreciation for amusing candy), the store is jingle bell rockin’.
But it’s always a scene here: Trasport changes it seasonally and bolsters inventory especially during the antiques markets. No matter the time of year, it is a charming, evocative, welcoming space with something to tickle every type of shopper.
Crammed floor-to-ceiling with an eclectic mix of antiques, gifts, apparel and accessories, housewares and tabletop, and amusing knickknacks, the store is a sensory distillation of Trasport’s unique, idiosyncratic retail vision that embraces vintage and contemporary, antique and modern, serious and irreverent, traditional and outrageous. All invested with an honest joie de vivre that has endeared Trasport to Round Top.
“I’m all about the fun,” she’s the first to admit.
That multi-faceted spirit speaks volumes about Trasport herself. Born in Fullerton, Calif., in northern Orange County, Trasport was raised as the daughter of renowned artists within a community that valued agriculture and livestock. As a child and teen, she raised sheep and cows and was active within 4-H and Future Farmers of America.
Although she listened to her artist heart by earning a degree in interior design, she stayed close to her aggie roots, carving out a niche business as an agriculture events and exhibits designer. More sheep, more cows!
Her interior design firm Leslie Kristen (Kristen is her middle name) originally brought her to Round Top for buying trips during antiques market. For 20 years she came to Round Top often, finally indulging in a long-nurtured dream to be part of this rural community.
She and her husband, Bradley Owen, moved to Texas in 2020, buying property in Ledbetter. The Leslie Kristen boutique came about a year later. Trasport easily established herself within the social fabric of a community that prizes individuality. Hers is a colorful, outsize personality that fits Round Top down to its cowboy boots.
“I’m a country girl at heart; traditional to the bone,” she said.
Her boutique is very much a reflection of its owner – genuine, welcoming, big-hearted.
“This is me, this is my personality,” Trasport said. “I’m hard-core traditional but with a bit of whimsey and a sense of fun. I always have to have fun.”
Within the wonderland of clever curios and collectibles at the Leslie Kristen shop in Round Top’s Rolland Square, visitors will find many nods to farm animals. A penchant for cows, in particular.
There are kitchen and tea towels printed with bovine appreciation: “Cows Make Me Happy” and “Home is Where the Herd Is.”
So, believe it when owner Leslie Trasport says she has great affection for barn creatures great and small.
“If I could have been a veterinarian, I would have,” she said.
A career in interior design, however, trumped her Doctor Doolittle desires. But it was her work as the owner of Leslie Kristen, a longtime California-based interior design firm, that first brought her to Round Top and today positions her as an established local merchant whose business and presence within Round Top feels as natural as, well, a cow chewing cud.
The Leslie Kristen boutique isn’t just a Round Top retail fixture, it may be the merriest destination in town for the holidays. Filled with Christmas baubles, cowboy trinkets and kitschy treats (including Trasport’s appreciation for amusing candy), the store is jingle bell rockin’.
But it’s always a scene here: Trasport changes it seasonally and bolsters inventory especially during the antiques markets. No matter the time of year, it is a charming, evocative, welcoming space with something to tickle every type of shopper.
Crammed floor-to-ceiling with an eclectic mix of antiques, gifts, apparel and accessories, housewares and tabletop, and amusing knickknacks, the store is a sensory distillation of Trasport’s unique, idiosyncratic retail vision that embraces vintage and contemporary, antique and modern, serious and irreverent, traditional and outrageous. All invested with an honest joie de vivre that has endeared Trasport to Round Top.
“I’m all about the fun,” she’s the first to admit.
That multi-faceted spirit speaks volumes about Trasport herself. Born in Fullerton, Calif., in northern Orange County, Trasport was raised as the daughter of renowned artists within a community that valued agriculture and livestock. As a child and teen, she raised sheep and cows and was active within 4-H and Future Farmers of America.
Although she listened to her artist heart by earning a degree in interior design, she stayed close to her aggie roots, carving out a niche business as an agriculture events and exhibits designer. More sheep, more cows!
Her interior design firm Leslie Kristen (Kristen is her middle name) originally brought her to Round Top for buying trips during antiques market. For 20 years she came to Round Top often, finally indulging in a long-nurtured dream to be part of this rural community.
She and her husband, Bradley Owen, moved to Texas in 2020, buying property in Ledbetter. The Leslie Kristen boutique came about a year later. Trasport easily established herself within the social fabric of a community that prizes individuality. Hers is a colorful, outsize personality that fits Round Top down to its cowboy boots.
“I’m a country girl at heart; traditional to the bone,” she said.
Her boutique is very much a reflection of its owner – genuine, welcoming, big-hearted.
“This is me, this is my personality,” Trasport said. “I’m hard-core traditional but with a bit of whimsey and a sense of fun. I always have to have fun.”
