I apologize for the delay in updating this website. It has been a problem since about April 1st when we were given notification that Verizon had sold their internet service to a new company "Frontier" took over on July 1st and we were finally able to access and edit our web page. I have had many a night of frantically trying to access this page when facebook friends would make note that they had gone to the website, only to find that the same information we posted with no obvious changes since the last show... Well this is why. I finally gained access tonight after working with a IT person from the new company and upon turning off my popup monitor, was again able to edit the pages. Thank you for you patience and please check us out on Facebook for updates. if you haven't befriended us on facebook, do so today! We would love to hear from you....

We are on facebook now and picking up fans everyday! The idea came to me when I heard other business owners starting up a facebook page to promote their, shop, resturant, dealership etc. I already had a page of my own where I enjoyed communicating with my family, extended family, mostly 1st & 2nd Cousins in England and friends from work and classmates from school and college days! I decided to open a page and post photo albums of past shows, recent shows, upcoming shows, Fans can comment, share their own experiences at the shows, down load photos of their own collections and even link in to this website with a click of a button! I'm very excited about the FB page because I can communicate immediately and more effetively with fan's of our show and answer their question either privately or on the WALL. You can write on the WALL too! Watch for updates, any changes or discounts in the future. Hve fun with it!  We sure are!!!  Here we go again! It's countdown to "Promise of Spring". By tomorrow night, the trailer will be loaded and we will begin our final hours until set up. The school is ready to be transformed once again into a Spring Garden or if you prefer, a cabin in the woods for all of your primitive finds. Our dealers have been busy creating goodies to accent the antiques they have been collecting to bring to the show for months now. I'm on vacation as of tonight, not having the entire week off after the show, I will take a Monday off to rest and then we begin to plan the Next Homepun Holidays Show in November when it will be our 20th anniversary. BIG changes are coming in the next 8 months, so keep posted to find out what they are, better YET, become a Fan of "Breckenridge Antique & Folk Art Shows" on FACEBOOK!!! Hope to see you on Saturday. We are excited, we hope you are too.....Char

I am so excited about the upcoming show for many reasons. Number one is of course the Fans! We always look forward to seeing all the regulars (you know who you are!) and all the new folks too! We are always amazed at how early in the morning these folks will arrive to get a good position for entering the show. I have a few ladies and gentlemen that come as early as 8:30a to get one of the 25 chairs set up to accomidate the first arrivals. It really doesn't matter when you arrive, you will find plently of goodies to buy. There is also the family reunion that occurs at every show when the dealers arrive to set up their booths, the day before. Some of us are old friends and some new. Check out the Participating Dealers in the next few days for an updated listing. We are experiencing some spring weather this week and the meterorologist in Lansing and Grand Rapids are forecasting 45-50 degrees in the coming week. I just hope that the higher temperatures will hold out until after the show. Even if they dont. it won't keep us from feelling a little 'spring" in our step until April arrives.

 

Here we go again! It's countdown to "Homespun Holidays". By tomorrow night, the trailer will be loaded and we will begin our final hours until set up. The school is ready to be transformed once again into a winter wonderland of Christmas cheer. Our dealers have been busy creating goodies to accent the antiques they have been collecting to bring to the show for months now. I'm on vacation as of tonight, not having an entire week off now since the last show in March. We had a couple long weekends, but that's been it for seven  months. I look forward to sleeping in every morning for the next couple weeks, but who am I kidding, I'll be up at the crack of dawn whether I have to go to work or not. I guess that's my built in clock. I've been getting up early for so many years, my eyes open up automatically even when I don't want them to. These days with the time change, it's still dark out when I get up, but I'm still ready for my first cup of coffee. Tomorrow morning, I will be completing the floor plans, Yes I'm still rearranging the new dealers booths. I'll review my check list again and probably add a few more items to worry about.  Good news! We purchased a new (used) PA sound system to broadcast the music during the show and a microphone to project our voices when calling out the numbers during the drawings, so everyone can hear the numbers, even outside of the gym/cafateria. Don't forget tobring your mailing card for our special Breckenridge Bucks drawing at noon the day of the show. This is a special drawing for only those who bring their card send to their home. We will also have a special  door prize to give away to some lucky patron. If you aren't on our mailing list, don't forget to sign up at the show or on our contact page online. If you are not on our mailing list, you can still sign up online and get in on the drawing. Just print off your request before you submit it and bring it with you for the drawing. There is alot to do before Friday and more to do during set up. You are in for a treat. The dealers are telling me that they are anxious to show off their collections and creations. We have many of our regular dealers once again, some newcomers and some first timers from the Promise of Spring show returning again.  The count down is on and we are excited! See you at the show. 

I can't believe it is almost here....Two days from now, we will be transforming the Breckenridge Elementary school into an Ode to Spring!

The dealers are sooo ready to show off their finds from trips they have made crisscrossing the nation visiting and participating in shows. They have traveled from New England to Texas, Florida and back up to Nashville TN for the Heart of Country tailgate shows and we can't wait to see what they found along the way. This year we started getting alot of calls asking for information about the show. We always receive calls from people who pick up our flyers, or find us in the "Great Lakes Trader", but this was more calls than we have ever gotten for "more information".

I was talking to one of these callers about the type of things we have at the show and how they would find Breckenridge with their GPS. When I asked her how she found us she told us that the show was highlighted in a column in the Detroit News called "Getting ready for Antique Season". Of course, I couldnt wait to see the column and googled it as soon as I could. I googled Breckenridge Antique show Michigan and there it was! The columnist, Khristi Zimmeth, said some very nice things about the show and stated that it was "worth the drive!" WOW, we couldn't have been more thrilled to hear those  accolades mentioned in a major publication. If you would like to check out the article, that also mentions other upcoming shows in Michigan, just follow this link. http://www.detnews.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20090221/OPINION03/902210308/1038/LIFESTYLE01  I found this photo of my husband Doug, from a couple summers ago. I had to share it with everyone. We have done this too many times to count. Driven the small car to save on gas while antiquing and then hve to go back to pick the cupboard up in the pickup. We even took a trip to Ashville NC one year to visit Biltmore, the Vanderbilt Estate. We drove the Miata so that we could enjoy the Blue Ridge Parkway with the top down. It is a very long trip when you stop at every overlook to take a picture! Anyways, we stayed at a wonderful Bed & breakfast called the Bed of Roses, not 4 blocks from the down town area. We would walk downtown every day to people watch and scour all the antique shops and art gallerys we could take in. We would also sit outdoors at a corner cafe and people watch while we wet our collective whistles. The is a particular good shop on a side street where we found many wonderful English antiques. The owner was from England and was eager to show us his collection of authentic pub signs. My mother was born and raised in Scunthorpe England and came to this country as a war bride in 1948 when she met my father while he ws stationed near her hometown. Although my grand parents and Mother have all passed on , we still visit the homeland as often as possible.  I actually have more immediate family in England than I do in the States. I have several aunts and uncles still living in Scunthorpe and throughout the UK. I also have 36 first cousins. One in particular owns a Pub in Scunthorpe calld the 'Sherpa". On our last trip to "Sunny Scunny" in 2003, we were suprised by my auntie with a welcome party at my cousin Ally Broughton's pub named the "Sherpa". This family reunion  yielded over 80 relatives, some I had never met, some that had never met each other! I was even tested by the staff on my ability to "PULL A PINT" of Lager. I will never forget how much foam I saw go down the drain, while I struggled to get it right. So, as a tribute to that night, I had to have a Pub sign "to go". This sign is approximately 5 ft high and 3ft wide. It wasn't gong to fit in the Miata. So we went to the UPS store, to explore if shipping it would be an option. It was just enough long, that it would have cost another hundred dollars on top of the regular boxing and shipping fees. It was then that we decided that it would be more economic to come back down in the Jeep and pick it up over Labor day weekend, 6 weeks away. We saved so much money that we were able to stay in the same bed & breakfast for another night when we returned, and of course I found a few more treasures to tuck in around the sign....

Christmas is over and the trimmings are being put back in their cartons, boxes and crates. Usually I'm late getting decorations up and even later taking them down. This year, since we had some warm days around Thanksgiving, we were able to get the lights and outdoor greens up before the snow came. Then winter blew in the first week of December and it's still snowing outside. I think we have received about a couple feet of snow in last three weeks alone. Of course we live in an area that has two rivers that meet, so flooding is always a threat in our community. Last Saturday Doug took the greens and lights down after rescuing the animated penguin from blowing into the next county. Today, while making homemade chicken noodle soup and watching MSU's basketball team whomp Kansas, I decided that it was time I wrote another blog and update the information on the website. I have many more photos to post, but it takes time and time isn't something I have a alot of these days. Besides promoting the show, Doug and I have full time careers. Between our day jobs and evenings updating the mailing lists for the upcoming shows, we don't have a lot of time to take down Christmas decorations. So I guess the Christmas tree in the parlor will stay up for another year' Besides, I love the lights on the tree at night, even in the summer. There are less than three months until the next show. Before we know it, we'll be preparing floor plans and sending out the next mailing. But first I have to get the dog off my lap and put another log on the fire.

Last year at the beginning of the "Promise of Spring" Show, the two hundred plus crowd already in line, after the doors opened at 8:00am, counted down the last minutes before the show opened. It was very exciting to listen to everyone count down ' Ten, nine, eight..........then they rushed the hallway like they were entering a rock concert. Some of them actually arrive at the show two hours ahead of time, trying to position themeselves as close to the head of the line as possible. The first several patrons recieve complimentary chairs, coffee and a danish. They also recieve their fifiteen minutes of fame, with their photos taken and published on the website. It has been a long eight months since the last "Promise of Spring" show. Our staff is excited to meet you and would be glad to answer any of your questions or guide you through the show from the entrance to the cafeteria. We always have a concession area facilitated by Pam's Catering's "Country Cookin". Pam offers mile high coconut & banana Creme Pie and barbeque & chicken salad sandwiches with homemade soup. There are more choices, too numorous to mention. Along with our regular dealers that you have been traveling hundreds of miles to see every year, we have some new dealers from Michigan & Ohio. Jon Crandell will feature his antique decoys. Laura Nickerson will be bringing a selection of primitives, including cupboards and many smalls. New to our show, folk artist Nicole Ward and returning Folk artist Deb Johnson will be injecting the Christmas theme into their individual booths. Returning dealer Ann Futey (booth pictured at top of this home page)from Toledo Ohio will be in a different location, but you will no doubt recognize the  quality she brings to our show, with her antiques in a booth very close to the eating area in the cafeteria. Doug and I are very excited about this year's "Homespun Holidays" show. We hope that if you are able to attend the show on Saturday, that you have a wonderful time and if you have time, introduce yourself to us while to are with us. We will be available at any time, just ask one of our staff to find us. We would love to meet you and thank you for helping to make the show another success. Just 59 hours to GO!

 

Char  

I can't believe 5 months have gone by already. As we enter the dog days of summer with fall on our heels, we are reminded again the the show isn't that far off in the distant future. November will be here before we know it and with it another birthday for me. Yes, this is yet another notch in my fifties belt. I won't say which one, but Im still younger than my brother, sister and husband. My bones remind me eveyday as I rise to meet another day, that my body isn't as flexable as when I was actively hauling cupboards around to shows  during the 70's, 80's & 90's. Although I have set up at this show for the last ten years, I made a hard decision after Homespun 07 not to have a booth anymore. I want to make managing the show my first priority. Besides, there were several other dealers ready and willing to take my place. As always, we try to bring in fresh talent at every show, so again we have signed up three new dealers for Homespun Holidays. We're confident that they will be a welcome addition to the show. I am looking forward to seeing you all at Homepsun Holidays 08 and hope you are too. If you have any questions while you're at the show, whether it's to find out more about our upcoming shows, how to get in, or maybe just how to keep coming back. I look forward to meeting you, afterall we are all just country lovers!