Spring at Down Home!

I love Spring!  It signals the return of warm weather and I know summer is not far behind!  We've had a wonderful Spring.  We started with our Spring Open House on March 10th,  which was fabulous.  My dealers never fail to amaze me!  They brought in wonderful spring, garden, and Easter antiques along with their usual fabulous finds!

 

Then we headed to Round Top, Texas!  It's always fun to see our Texas friends and shop for lots of great pieces to bring back to Down Home!  We unloaded the container from Texas on a Wednesday, then loaded our trailer on Thursday and went to Three Speckled Hens on Friday to set up our space!  Yes, it was a bit of a whirlwind!  The show was on April 14th and 15th!  We had a great time in Paso Robles and enjoyed meeting lots of Central California friends and dealers! Since then we've been working hard  on loading the store with our Texas finds as we get them cleaned and priced!! 

And now as I write this, we are getting ready to go on another buying trip to Maine, Connecticut, and Massachusetts!  I'm so excited to start shopping and find some great New England pieces to bring back to California! I'll let you know when the load comes in!  But, until then, come on in and check out these great pieces that have recently come in the store!

Remnants of the Past

Remnants of the Past was AMAZING!!!  We have been so busy the last couple of months!  So busy that I haven't posted a blog for weeks!  I had good intentions for writing blogs: one about our buying trip to Brimfield, MA; one about our Harvest Open House at Down Home; one about our trip to Round Top, TX; and more recently,one about our trip to the Remnants of the Past Show in San Luis Obispo!  Since the others are so far in the past, I'm going straight to the Remnants of the Past Show since it was just this past weekend. 

We were so excited to be part of such a fun show!  I put my name on a waiting list a while back so when Judy Watkins called and said she had a space available, I jumped at the chance. (I was a bit concerned because my daughter, Mollee is due in the next couple of weeks and I was worried she could go into labor and I'd be scrambling to get home!  I told her to sit on a pillow the whole weekend and don't do anything that could nudge her into labor.  At this point, she still hasn't had our little blessing, so no worries!)  I've been to a couple of the Remnants shows in the past as a customer, but felt like I wanted to participate as a dealer and we're so happy we did!   We felt so blessed that our container from Texas arrived in time so we had plenty of fresh merchandise to bring!!!! My husband Don, my daughter, Tessa, and I loaded up our trailer and we made the 4 hour trek up the coast to the Madonna Inn in San Luis Obispo! 

 

Our Load!

It was so exciting to see everyone's spaces coming together.  It was actually amazing!  All the dealers did a fabulous job!  There is alot of wonderful European, Industrial, and Re-purposed treasures at the show, but we stuck to what we do best - authentic early American Country! The great thing about antiquing is there are so many different styles, but it's all wonderful and so unique and inspiring and fun!!!  So many fun things and great display ideas. With the three of us working, we got our space together in no time, and we thought it looked great. We hoped the customers did too....and luckily they did!!!



This bottle cap chain from the 1930s is such a funky, fun piece!




A huge thank you to Judy Watkins and her team for promoting such a great show!



Judy & Me!

 We loved being part of Remnants of the Past and look forward to the next one so we can do it again!!!  Every aspect of the show was organized and top notch!!!  We enjoyed meeting some of the dealers, and saw some great old friends who came to enjoy the show!  Thank you also to all our great customers who shopped our space!!!  We loved meeting each and every one of you and appreciate your business!  Can't wait to see you all again soon!!!  Blessings!!!

Meet the Dealers of Down Home ~ Margaret and Monte

Our dealers at Down Home are the best ever!!!  I'm so blessed to have each and every one of them. Some have been with us since we first opened in Old Towne Orange in 1999.  Some are new to us this year!  I love how hard they work to bring the best in authentic early American antiques to Down Home.  Each one has their own niche, their own look, and their own specialty!  I'd like you to meet them and get to know a bit about them!

So, meet Margaret and Monte Helme, Dealers #12! 

Margaret & Monte

1.) Q   How did you get started in the antique business?
     A   My twin sister was a dealer in Sacramento and since
          I loved to collect and antique, she convinced me to
          be a dealer too. 

2.) Q  What do you specialize in?
     A  I love sewing, especially making pillows from vintage
         and antique fabrics.

3.) Q  What is you favorite collection?
     A  I have had many collections over the years but as of
         right now, I love looking for Teddy Roosevelt items,
         ruby flash glass, and antique quilts.  

4.) Q  What is your favorite piece?
     A  My Franciscan "Apple" pieces are some of my favorite
         things. My husband, who is always with me antiquing,
         loves collecting shot glasses and political items.

5.) Q   What do you like best about being a dealer?
     A   Looking for new things - traveling thru this country
          searching plus enjoying the travel. Getting to know so
          many nice dealers is great too!

6.) Q  What do you like best about being a dealer at Down Home?
     A  Down Home is wonderful!  Peggy and Don are the best
         owners ever!  The dealers here and the customers are great! 
         It is the very best mall to be a dealer in!

Thank you for those kind words, Margaret!! 

We are equally as fond of them and are so happy 

Margaret and Monte are part of our Down Home family!!!

Please come by Down Home and check out Space #12!!

Margaret's beautiful pillows made of vintage and antique fabric!

Monte always has plenty of political buttons for sale!

Margaret and Monte's Beautiful Space at Down Home!

xo, Peggy

Camping in Big Sur

I just had a wonderful 6 days in Big Sur, CA.  For those of you who have never been there, it is a magical place.  It's where the Redwoods meet the beautiful California Coast. 

                                      Don and me. Ok, we're camping ~ don't look at my hair!!!

We have been going to Big Sur since our three daughters were tiny, and now we take our grandchildren too. They are actually the 4th generation of the Arbenz clan to make the annual pilgrimage to Big Sur.  Don camped there as a child with his family.  We always stay at the same campground,  Big Sur Campground and Cabins - a wonderful private campground with a stream running through it. Our grandson jumped off the same big rock into the same swimming hole that his Mom and Aunts did when they were little, and his Grandpa did when he was a kid!!!

There's my little guy jumping into the icy cold swimming hole!!! 

We spend alot of time down by the river, usually the menfolk have to do some sort of manly thing and build a dam, and the girls enjoy the sun and magazines, and floating down the river in blow up boats or inner tubes!

We always take some excursions to nearby trails and hike to waterfalls or a beach!  We were blessed with absolutely beautiful weather - blue sunny skies - my favorite! We went on a hike through an old logging tunnel that came out to the ocean!

Oh My Gosh!!!  This is the most amazing tunnel, with beautiful old wood!  All of you who love old wood like I do, will instantly know how much I loved walking through the tunnel and touching the old wood!!!

One of our favorite days was spent at the beach.  We all had a good time in the sun- I love collecting things on the beach - shells, sea glass, rocks, driftwood, etc. My grandaughter started collecting shells too, like Grammy!

Little Finley's treasures!

My treasures from Montana de Oro when we were there the weekend before!!!  Fun!

My favorite people in the world!  Wish Tess and Luke could've come too!!!

At night, we all pitch in to make dinner and of course we make s'mores or churros afterwards!

Don is getting ready to cook!!!

Mack cooking some chicken!  Soooo good!!!

                                                                 

And, grilled vegies!!!!

                                                                             

The campground has very strict rules about "quiet time" and it is strictly enforced from 10 pm to 8 am.  They always have to remind us to be quiet - we don't mean to, but Dominoes, Speed, and Farkle can get very competitive in our family!!!  We also love sitting around the campfire and talking until late -midnight or so! Three of the nights, we had little visitors in our campground - racoons and skunks!!!  I didn't get any pictures because I was running to our trailer!!!

Don and I snuck off one afternoon and I stopped at a couple of  places along the highway to get inspiration for my yard!  I wonder if I could grow hydrangeas like these????  I'm going to try!

So wonderfully beautiful!!!

I love this little pathway!  Now I just need to get a redwood forest!!!

We also went on a treasure hunt one day. My son in law heard about "geocaching," which I never heard of before! It's a secret treasure hunting world - so fun! Mack found out there was a "geocach" buried by an albino redwood tree in Big Sur!  We found it!!!!  It was an old tin can with little treasures and notes with dates of when people found it. There was a ring, an army man, some coins, etc.  You can take a treasure, if you leave one!  Then you put the tin back and let the next treasure hunters find it!  Besides everyone getting excited about finding it and what was inside, we got to see an albino redwood tree!!! Of course, we left one of our own tin cans with treasures in it in Big Sur- I'll never tell!!!

So much fun to see what was inside!!!

                                             Wow!  Look at this beautiful Albino Redwood!

It's so wonderful in Big Sur and we always have a great time!!!  We've already booked spaces for the next couple of years!!!  Can't wait!!!!

Ayla, Mack, Finley, and Mackai!  Love them!!!!

Mollee, Jose, and Scarlett (little sissy on the way!!!)  Love them too!!!

Ok, so were you thinking this would have something to do with antiquing???  I draw the line when we're with our family! So I came home with no antique treasures to put in Down Home, but I came home with the best treasures of all ~ a full heart and special memories I'll treasure forever!!!  As far as antiquing goes...yeah, I'm on my way- gotta get a fix!!!!