Down Home Celebrates 13 Years in Orange!!!!

Thank you to all our friends and customers who have shopped and supported Down Home for the last 13 years in Old Towne Orange!  We love you all and can't believe we're 13!!! Wow, Down Home is a teenager!!!  That's so exciting!!!  We had a wonderful party and we appreciated all of you who came! We're excited to see what life has in store for Down Home in the years to come! 

Our Birthday is always a great way to start the summer with all our beachy, nautical, and patriotic displays!
Our party started last Saturday at 10:00 a.m. and we were so blessed with a line of loyal customers waiting to join in the fun!

A huge thank you to all our dealers who brought in fabulous antiques and made their spaces beautiful!!!!  Congratulations to Penny and Jacky who were voted by all the Down Home Dealers as "Best of Show!!!"  Great Job!  Also, thank you to our employees who help before, during, and after the big event! Thank you to Ayla (our daughter), Janet (my sissy), Penny, Jacky, Christy, and Mindy!  An extra huge thank you to our daughter and store manager, Tessa, who helped us with EVERYTHING! I love and appreciate all of you so much!

Penny and me with our adorable Down Home totes for the first 50 customers!

The Down Home Family!

We have the best neighbors in Old Towne Orange who helped make the party fabulous!  Watson's supplied us with the best brownies on earth!!!!  I hope everyone got to have one because they were fabulous!!!  If you didn't get a chance to get one, or if you want more, go to Watson's right across the street from us on Chapman!  Be sure to go to the grand opening of Watson's USA starting with the ribbon cutting on Friday, June 29th at 4 p.m.  Their party will continue all weekend with fun, food, music, and tons of giveaways!!!!

Penny passing out tasty Watson brownies to our amazing line of customers!

Look at that line! We can't believe how lucky we are!

Linda Hodo, owner and designer of Julep's Floral and Gifts made our store beautiful with her fabulous floral centerpiece!!!  She's the one to go to for all your gift and floral needs and she's right next to us at 123 S. Orange Street!!!  Thank you Juleps and welcome to our side of the street!!!


And, our beautiful Birthday cake was made by Creative Cakes!!!  Not only was it beautiful, but it was so delicious!!!!  Make sure you call them for your next party and tell them Down Home sent you!!!  Thank you Creative Cakes in Old Town Orange!!!! 

We also want to thank Avila's Mexican Restaurant on the corner of Orange and Almond just a block away from us and Jalapenos Mexican Restaurant on Glassell for suppling gift cards to raffle off to our loyal customers who stand in line and wait for us to open!!! We are so blessed to have these wonderful businesses as neighbors and encourage you all to check them out next time you're in Orange!!!! Thank you all so much!!!

   

All our proud raffle winners!

Mostly we want to thank our customers!!! It's so great to see all our loyal customers in the store all at one time!  And I love seeing everyone having fun and finding a cherished treasure to take home with them!!! It's wonderful to share the love of antiques with so many people! Without our customers coming to our events and visiting the store on a regular basis, we would not be celebrating another year in Old Towne Orange - so Thank you!!!  We love you all!

And, a huge thank you to my husband, Don!  He helps make all my dreams come true. I could never do this without him by my side!  He's my partner in the store and helps me manage it, but also does alot of heavy lifting and alot of behind the scenes stuff!!!  Plus, he gets extra points for putting up with me for over 32 years!!! 

I Love You Donny!



If you didn't get a chance to come to our open house, please come on in and see our summer displays.  We have lots of nautical, beach related, and patriotic antiques, as well as all our fresh antiques from recent buying trips!  And of course, new antiques are arriving everyday!!!  We thank you all for a wonderful 13 years, and look forward to the future!!!  Yes, we could say it's Lucky 13, but I prefer to say we have 13 years of blessings!!!  Blessings to all of you!

xo, Peggy

13th Birthday Sneak Peek!



Here's a sneak peek of some of the amazing things all available tomorrow!

June 23, 2012

Come celebrate with us!

We will begin the festivities at 10 am. The first 50 customers will receive a FREE gift!

Plus, there might be a few surprises for those who arrive before we open ;)

We appreciate all our customers and look forward to seeing you tomorrow!

xo~Peggy

Authenticity

I love the real deal! I get so excited finding an authentic early antique that is all original - perfect in every way.  No, not perfect in the way most people would describe perfect.  To me, perfect means it shows it's age and imperfections.  I don't want it to be abused and weathered, but I want it to be used and cherished.  That's why I love old teddy bears who's fur was loved off or old chairs whose foot rest are worn to almost flat with a burnished surface.

I love wrought iron where its pitted with age and you can see the hammer marks.  I love cracks in the wood where it's shrinked with age.  I like when something has lived a life and it shows it's age.

I don't mean to be disrespectful to any customers, but frankly, when I hear someone is going to repaint or strip the old finish, I almost don't want to sell it to them. One time we sold a beautiful early dresser with a beautiful patina and old dovetailed drawers to a lady who after purchasing it, announced she was going to go home and sponge paint it!!! I honestly felt a twinge of nausea!   Age is beautiful and when you get that beautiful crackled paint or dark rich patina, I don't understand not loving that. Some people haven't been exposed to early, authentic antiques.  Many people just want a "look" and they haven't learned to appreciate the honest antique, the one that comes with a life, a past, a history. I love touching old wood and old hand wrought iron that gets so smooth with wear.

I love cleaning my treasures after I've brought them home - that's when you really notice all the little imperfections...Each knick, every age crack, the old repair or mend, the place where a rat chewed a door or a shelf to get the food inside. But, you also see the way the piece was constructed and lovingly made with someones hands... each tool mark, the scribe mark on the drawer, the plane marks in the wood, the old square nails. I love thinking about where something has been and how it was used.

I appreciate the same thing in people...authenticity.   I love when people are open and honest and show their "imperfections" which I think makes them "perfect."  We all come with a past and a history which makes us who we are. I think that's what I love about my business - all the interesting people we meet along the way. You don't have to be perfect, you have to be yourself. And that means we embrace the imperfections that make people endearing. Sometimes elderly couples come in the store and say things like, "How much will you give me for my husband? - He's older than most of your antiques."  I always say, "He's priceless, a one of a kind."

xo~Peggy

My Elephant Collection

I love elephants!  They're my favorite animal!  I still have my collection of elephants from when I was a little girl.  I packed it away, but I still have it!  I remember rearranging them and cleaning them.  Their trunks all had to be going the same way.  I do the same thing now with pitchers and watering cans ~ all spouts and handles have to go the same way when in a grouping! Somewhere along the way, I started collecting antique elephants. Even though my childhood elephants are "vintage" now, they're not as old as I like.  The first elephant I bought as an adult was this little tin elephant on wheels.

 And that did it...I started collecting elephants again...

This is just a peek at my collection and of course I'm always finding more!

xo~Peggy