Let the Fall Show Countdown Begin!

Hello everyone! We hope you are having a fabulous time soaking in the summer, because we think we are starting to feel a little nip in the air. . . autumn is slowly but surely on its way! If we were "normal" ladies, we might be starting to feel a bit sad about the long, warm summer days coming to an end. But fall is our favorite time of year for many reasons - it means leaves changing color, pumpkin decor, and fabulous new finds for you to discover at our fall show on October 4-5!

 

 We are busy bees (I guess you would say busy hens) right about now. We are literally running around like chickens with our heads cut off! This weekend, Kathy and Carrie are hitting the road to visit some of our dealers and deliver fall flyers like the one you see above. We love getting touch base with our amazing dealers and get a sneak peek at some of the antique and vintage finds they have in store for you. The only hard part is not wanting to buy all of it ourselves! Don't worry, we'll be sure to save some for you ;)

Be sure to monitor our Facebook page over the next month, as tickets go on sale SEPTEMBER 1ST! We will be having lots of fun contests  and giving away tickets nearly every week. If you are on our email list you will also be able to stay in the loop. Starting now, we will be sending out all blog posts like this one via email so that you don't miss a beat! Click HERE to join our email list and add your information on the bottom left corner of the page.

For now, here is a bit of inspiration from previous Three Speckled Hen fall shows:

 

 

 

Don't forget that you can purchase Early Bird tickets again this year, which give you TWO full hours to shop the show and purchase your favorite items before we open for general admission. That's what we call a true steal!!

Start Planning your Girls' Getaway Weekend!

One of the things that just tickles our feathers is how many women make our show their biannual "Girls Weekend" getaway. We kid you not! We have had so many groups approach us at our shows and introduce themselves as BFF's or mothers and daughters (one family from Kansas and northern California meet here every fall) or just an assortment of friends who have shopping, junking and having fun in common.

  This last show we had a group of women who really pulled at our heart strings. They were all longtime friends, mainly from southern California, who share the distinction of being fairly young widows. They called our May 2014 show their first annual "Widows' Junking Weekend".  A great group of gals who put on their big girl panties and realized how important female friendships are and that they needed to take time out to celebrate their friendships, shop, relax, shop, drink a little wine and, of course, shop some more!  

We encourage you to grab your nearest and dearest gal pals and come see us for our October show! Save the weekend of October 4 & 5, make reservations, enjoy some of Paso's great restaurants in the evening and come back the next day to get some great deals before our vendors pack up to leave on Sunday.  Tickets will be on sale online starting September 1 on www.brownpapertickets.com. We look forward to meeting you and your girlfriends!

We are always up for a Girls Getaway!

The Hens,

Carrie, Kathy and Susi

Summer Evening with Friends

Farmyard Friends

Hens and Goats

June 27, 2014, was a perfect summer night. The warm breeze softly danced through the majestic oak trees filling the air with the symphony of rustling leaves and bowing limbs.  The Hens and Goats, side by side, nibbled at the trough and sipped their wine. Wine? Hens and Goats together?

Yes, it was a perfect summer night when the Three Speckled Hens (Susi, Carrie, Kathy and IT Chick, Lettice) hosted the Goat Hill Fair gals (Cyndi, Shari and Donna) at Hen Susi's Willow Creek Farm. We really couldn't hear the symphony of rustling leaves due to the peals of laughter and clinking of wine glasses. Over pizza cooked in a wood burning oven there was swapping of ideas and encouragement between the proprietress' of the two best Antique & Vintage Shows in California.

With similar goals and the love of all things old, the Hens and Goats were a natural fit. Along with believing that with similar goals we could accomplish more by respecting each other's businesses rather than drawing that proverbial line in the sand, we promised to keep in touch and plan another get-together soon.  It couldn't have been a better summer night.

We are hoping that you are having a fun filled summer!

Susi, Carrie & Kathy

Spring Show Success!!

Wow, we can't believe that our spring 2014 show has come and gone! The weekend passed by in a blur of amazing moments. Our dealers set up some stunning booth displays this time around that were full of true one-of-a-kind treasures. They continue to impress us every year, but something about this show was extra special! And of course, we couldn't stop smiling as literally thousands of people poured through our gates. Many told us they were coming to the show for their very first time (thank you for coming!!!) and many were returning as part of a long tradition of Three Speckled Hens fun.

If you came to the show last weekend, THANK YOU so much for helping to kick off our eighth year and making it a show to remember. If you didn't get to make it, be sure to mark your calendar for our fall show: we are already dreaming up plans for October 4-5.

And now, time for a photo roundup of some of our favorite snapshots from the weekend!

Two of our three Hens: Carrie and Kathy!

 

Fun finds at Vintage Bliss

 

Cute succulents at Crimson Heart Studios

 

The ever-popular bag collection at Uber Chic!

Gorgeous old cabinet

 

Teatime, anyone? 

 

Old rulers galore! 

 

Birdman's bird houses

 

Shabby chic doesn't get better than this dresser

 

Time to sail away...until our October show, that is!

 

A Three Speckled Hens Show: Behind the Scenes

Happy Friday to all of our lovely Hen groupies!! Can you believe that in just ONE week, we will be at the Paso Robles Event Center for the May show on 5/3-5/4? The past six months have just flown by since our last event in October. We can’t wait to see everyone, including our favorite dealers and those of you who return to the show year after year. 

Many of you know what the show is like – chock-full of amazing treasures, of course! But we thought it would be fun to share some of our favorite highlights and some of the “behind the scenes” moments from last years’ show season. How does a Three Speckled Hens show all come together?

On Saturday, the first show day, we wake up bright and early to get to the event center at 7:00 a.m. The line for the Early Bird ticket holders starts to form up soon thereafter and we get to chat with everyone in line. At 8:00 a.m. sharp, the floodgates open and everyone takes off!! 

 

During the show, you can find us all over the place: at the entrance, working the Hen House Mercantile where we sell all of our Hen goodies, or this year, maybe manning the new wine, beer, and mimosa station!! Silly Hens. Only one or two mimosas for us though, because we have to stay on our toes all the way up until the show day ends at 4:00. 

You may not know that when the gates close on Saturday, we continue to kick off the weekend with a Mexican Fiesta themed dinner that we host for our dealers. That’s right – out come the tortillas, rice, and margaritas and we have a big Saturday night party!! And yes, if you must know, those are gallon size containers of margarita mix in our truck picture above. This is always so much fun and gets the weekend off on the right foot for everyone who travels from near and far to participate in the show. The vendors get to re-stage their booths for Sunday while we prepare dinner, then we all get to relax for a bit before falling into bed that night. We are already getting our Mexican groove on just thinking about it!

On Sunday morning, we get to sleep in for an extra hour or so, then repeat starting at 10:00 a.m. These are hands down our craziest weekends of the year, but we LOVE what we do and wouldn’t have it any other way! 

See you at the show!! If you would like to buy tickets in advance, you can do so HERE.

May 2014 Vendors: Antiques, Creations & Vintage Galore!!

In our first blog post, we told the story of our show’s founding – a fateful antiquing adventure that resulted in a truck full of treasures and the wild idea to start our own antique show. Now, eight years later, it’s almost impossible to believe how things have changed! While our first show started with only a handful of vendors, we expect more than 100 to participate in the May 3-4 show just three weeks from now.

Our vendors are arguably the most important part of our show – the essential ingredient that make our shows the exciting, lively, one-of-a-kind treasure hunt that they are. While our love of junking and vintage is what got us hooked into the world of antique shows, you could say that it was our vendors that kept us (and you!) coming back for more each year. With their insatiable love of antiques and an unparalleled creative eye, each vendor brings something special to each show. And ultimately, we love nothing more than surrounding ourselves with like-minded antique addicts!!

In our recent Facebook contest post, you told us just how much you love and anticipate our vendors each year with comments like the following:

The little yellow typewriter! I follow them on Instagram! - Tammy Dunehew

Great show every year & amazing vendors all around...but looking forward to seeing the folks @The Rusty Bucket of Camarillo - their great picks, reasonable prices and super friendly service makes me keep going back - Leanne Afetian

Uber Chic, Atelier de Campagne, and Farm Girls Vintage!!!! Woohooo! - Marietta Elizaga-Carlin

We loved hearing from you last week, and wanted to give you a little extra preview of the amazing booths that will be at our upcoming show. Below is just a small sampling of the vendors and products that will make an appearance. Check out the vendors page on our website for a complete list!

TA Vintage Designs is headed by the wonderful Tammy Auther, who creates unique and individual jewelry pieces that are crafted from vintage and antique pendants, charms, brooches, baubles, beads and other found treasures.

The Gentleman Farmer and Gussied Up Antiques are more than ready for the next Speckled Hens Show. They have been scouring the countryside for old farmhouse, vintage country and unique garden pieces. They recently returned from a trip to Northern California with some great finds! For those of you who like old country, vintage farmhouse and a bit of old garden charm, you will find them in booth #106.

Polly Jane’s will be bringing her signature cashmere scarves, flower pins and cashmere headbands! She also has vintage glass insulators on candlesticks and lots of fun new goodies.

American Barn and Wood, a reclaimed lumber yard located in Paso Robles, is ready for the May show. They have an assortment of goodies they will be bringing, including barn wood, barn doors, windows, barn beams for fire place mantels, barn wood furniture, and of course their ever popular barn bits!

Bay Cottage Succulents and Antiques is ready to go! Master Gardener and owner S. Lee Olson will help to open your eyes to the wonder of succulents. Succulents are easy to grow, amazingly beautiful and offer endless varieties. With summer coming, what a wonderful time to learn about water conservation planting!

The Beginning of a Journey

Welcome to the Three Speckled Hens’ very first blog post! We are so excited to begin our blogging journey with you, and hope to fill this space with stories, antique treasures, and comments from our valued readers. Many of you have gotten to know us well over the years — from meeting us in person at our shows, following us on Facebook, and visiting our old website. However, we realized that we have never really told the whole story about how the Three Speckled Hens’ show was born. We’d like to tell that story today in honor of our very first blog post and our eighth season as a show.

So what do you tell your husband when you come back from a vacation with a 5ft x 10ft cargo trailer packed to the roof with junk? You tell him that you and your friends have decided to start an antique show, of course. The fact of the matter is in 2006, when we left for Spokane to attend the Farm Chicks Show, we were buying strictly for our own homes. We were driving Susi’s Honda Element because it got the best gas mileage and the back seats folded down in case any of us found a large piece we wanted to bring home. Silly Hens.

We left Templeton, CA early in the morning and over the course of several days we hit every antique store, junk store, salvage store and all interesting looking second hand stores between Templeton and Spokane. And of course, every coffee house and restroom. We stayed in nice motels and even indulged ourselves with a night in a lovely lodge on Oregon’s Rogue River. Our criteria for what constituted a nice motel was that it had to look good, it had to have a hot tub or Jacuzzi pool, and there had to be a nice restaurant with a bar within walking distance. Oprah had recently confessed her love of lemon drop martinis, and with a bar within walking distance, every evening we did a taste comparison of that motel’s beverage offerings. We consider ourselves official Lemon Drop Connoisseurs.

By the time we made it to Spokane, the entire car was stuffed with treasures. Wooden moldings, wire gym baskets, rugs, paintings and rusty garden urns were literally encasing whoever rode in the backseat. After the first day of shopping The Farm Chicks Show, we knew we were in trouble. Knowing we had barely scratched the surface of our buying frenzy, that night we rented a 4 x 8 foot trailer to pull behind Susi’s little Honda.

The second day of the show, we indulged our love of everything with a patina, or shabby, antique, or repurposed. At about three o’clock, we decided to start loading up our trailer. After piling up our wares—eyeballing Susi’s flower cart, Carrie’s upholstered vintage chair and my 6 foot high Calistoga wagon wheel among other things—we knew we were really in trouble. We could not begin to fit our fabulous finds into that little trailer. There was only one thing to do: rent a bigger trailer! To this day we praise the two young U-Haul shop attendants who stayed open after hours while we unloaded our trailer in the parking lot and reloaded everything back into the largest U-Haul trailer we could find. We made it home with God’s angels riding our bumpers and a vintage cement lawn jockey sitting between Carrie’s legs. But that’s a story for another blog. Silly Hens.

However, the greatest treasure we found on our maiden junking voyage together was the treasure of finding true friends. That friendship continues today, in our eighth year of producing the Three Speckled Hens Show. To that list we have added the close friendships of our many dealers and the wonderful people who wouldn’t miss a Hens show. We still have many new things up our sleeves, so stick with us. Maybe we’ll tell you the rest of our story.