Julie Abernathey

The Traveling Trio, Mom and two sisters' junking adventures

Hi everyone! I’m Julie. Glad you’re here with us. I say us because this is a collaborative blog between my sister Anne, and my mom Nancy and me. We are all going to be contributing editors in this venture. We share the same passions for, traveling, flea marketing, crafting, and so on. It only seemed appropriate that we do a blog and share these passions with you. We love to go to flea markets, near and far. Always in search of vintage treasures, we have even made long, long, roadtrips for garage sales. We occasionally hold large sales throughout the year to sell many of these finds, and can occasionally be seen at our local flea markets selling there as well as shopping. We usually plan one or two “big” trips a year to fullfil our enthusiasm for traveling and junking. Some of our greater trips have been a week in Paris, a long weekend in Brimfield, Massachusetts, as well as the closer destination of Minnesota for the annual Junk Bonanza. We love the world’s longest yard sale trek and make that every couple of years. We are currently planning a trip to Round Top Texas. I look forward to sharing all our past and future quests for junk with you. I would like to share as much info with you about these trips so that it would be helpful to you if you were to make them on your own. I often find it difficult to get information on an area we are traveling to besides the average event and hotel information. It would be nice to know where else to visit on these trips we take. What other cute towns in the area, fabulous shops, and farmers markets are in the area? Maybe you can come along with us on these adventures, hypothetically speaking, and share your knowledge on these special places.

Now, a little about us. As I said, we are two sisters and a mom who can’t get enough of each other. We talk on average about 3 or 4 times a day, and text in between. Our husbands think we’re crazy and our kids are adorable. We all live in the northwest suburbs of Chicago, within 5 to 10 minutes of each other, and probably wouldn’t survive if it were any other way.

My sister Annie has three beautiful little boys and a husband who always leaves you laughing. She lives in a big old house on a beautiful piece of property, surrounded by nature, the perfect place for three little boys to grow up. She has ducks, two bloodhounds, and a black and tan coonhound, one cat and would love to have a donkey one day. My sister makes beautiful baby quilts when she has time, and loves spending time with her very large group of old friends. She is the funniest person I know.

My mom lives very close by with our dad, who is the other funniest person I know. They have a big, beautiful home on a gorgeous acre lot with a pond and big old weeping willows. They have three dogs, a very chatty collie, and two wire haired fox terriers, one of witch is very old, and one who is insane. They also own an amazing log home in northern Wisconsin. This “Up North” cabin is like a slice of heaven for all of us. We spend many holidays together as a family there. My mom is very dedicated to all her grandkids and is their favorite person to play with. She is absolutely the most talented person I know. She amazes us every day. Sometimes we call her a witch because she can come up anything you need on the spot. She’s like a cross between MacGyver and a witch.

I am the mother to three adorable and very sweet kids. They each share my passion for crafting and are very talented. My youngest is only two but I have high hopes for her. I have a very talented and tolerant husband, who is convinced I am a hoarder. We live in an older “cookie cutter” style house in a great neighborhood for kids. We back up to a beautiful prairie in the back yard witch provides us with hours of great bird and animal watching. I love watching my kids and their friends tromp trough the prairie in the summer and sled the tall hill in the winter. They are always within view and only a shout out the back door away. We have a puppy, Finnegan, a west highland white terrier, and two cats. Between kids, cats, dogs and adults, I am constantly cleaning and picking up my house. I seriously don’t know how working mothers do it. My sister dreams of having a donkey, I dream of having a cleaning service.