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....