advertisement

Lake Barrington shop owners are local version of American Pickers

About 15 years ago, Julie Abernathey lived in Independence, Iowa. When her parents came to visit, they would attend farm auctions for the day.

They were hooked and they bought and accumulated antiques.

“When I moved back to Chicago, we started to sell at local antique and flea markets, like Lake County Antique Market in Grayslake,” said Abernathey, 42 of Cary. “We later sold at Elkhorn Antique Market as well as other smaller vintage markets. We thought we'd give running a shop a try, instead of hauling all our goods off every month to another market.”

So Abernathey, her sister Anne Leahy, 39, of North Barrington, and their mother Nancy Mokszycki, 65, of Lake Barrington now own a store called Tattered Tiques. It's inside an old warehouse at 22029 N. Pepper Road in Lake Barrington. They sell antiques, vintage, farm and industrial items along with handmade products.

They became the local version of popular TV program American Pickers, often going on long road trips to buy antiques or other eye-catching items in off-the-beaten-path places in southern Illinois, Indiana, Ohio, Kentucky and elsewhere.

“They won't put us on TV, but it's a lot like that,” Abernathey said of the cable TV show. “We get in a car, and go to Indiana and hit all the antique shops and malls and then we go on other routes where we know some sources and have worked with them over the years who have barns filled with stuff.”

They love to buy cabinets, antique trophies, ironstone items and even vintage clocks. “They're so darn cute and they sell,” she said.

After four years, their store still has limited hours due to their long-road trips. So customers often check the website for the latest schedule.

“Aside from the everyday adventure of being moms, we love antiquing,” Abernathey said. “We all love to travel and go on special picking trips together. I think we enjoy the hunt for the treasures the most. The fact that we get to do it together each day is a huge bonus.”

In addition to the antiques and vintage they sell, they also feature the Vintage Girl line, which includes T-shirts, jewelry, candles, flea market totes, and very soon, vintage like pennants.

The store even sells two paint lines, Annie Sloan Chalk Paint and Miss Mustard Seed's Milk Paint, and offers classes so customers can learn how to paint furniture and other items.

“We are very passionate about our paint,” Abernathey said. “We love to give old furniture new life with a coat of paint. Our customers are crazy about the paint too, and travel far distances to get it. This year we will be adding classes, maybe a classroom, and participating in the Barrington Farmer's Market, and also doing a seminar at the Barrington Area Library.”

Security a priority in cyber sharing

Robert Hoffman, Motorola Solutions corporate vice president of government affairs, attended the White House Summit on Cybersecurity and Consumer Protection last week at Stanford University in Palo Alto, California. That's where he listened to Jeh Johnson, secretary of Homeland Security, Penny Pritzker, secretary of commerce, and others talk about cyber-related issues. He also watched as President Obama signed an executive order to facilitate steps to greater information sharing between government and industry in a more secure and efficient way. The former Oracle executive has been involved in cyber security issues for more than 14 years. “As new threats emerge, we need to be able to hit the ground running and collectively work with government and respond to the threats,” he said.

FastTracks

Celebrity Chef Gale Gand, a nationally known restaurateur, cookbook author and television personality, has been tapped by the Aurora Area Convention & Visitors Bureau to be a judge on March 5 during the Best Dessert competition. Gand, who was inducted into the Chicago Chefs Hall of Fame, is expected to be joined by Yorkville Mayor Gary Golinski and others at the Sandwich Opera House in Sandwich, Illinois.

Malena Garza of Lombard has joined the counseling and youth programs staff at Wayne/Winfield Area Youth/Family Services. ... Nadia L. Simek is the new project engineer and Michael R. Brouch is the new senior project engineer at Engineering Enterprises Inc. in Sugar Grove.

Gary Lundemo, vice president of property management at The Habitat Co., will be the regional manager for McClurg Court Center in Chicago, and Katrina Edgar O'Neill, regional manager at Habitat, will be responsible for Coventry Glen apartments in Round Lake. ... Slow-cooking experts Meg Barnhart and Jane McKay, co-creators of The Zen of Slow Cooking, will host a cooking demonstration and tasting at Sunset Foods' Lake Forest Cooking Studio on Thursday.

Dr. Linda S. Murray of Vision Center at Vista Linda Eye Care in downtown Mount Prospect said that over the last three years, they have performed 5,000 eye exams. ... Lambros Tsonis, a cardiothoracic and vascular surgeon, is now treating patients at Vista Medical Center East in Waukegan.

Dane Prickett of LaGrange Park is the new media director at Boomm Marketing and Communications in LaGrange. ... John Morgan, division president for David Weekley Homes, said the company is building homes in Glen Ellyn, Wheaton and elsewhere.

• There's more to business than just the bottom line. We want to tell you about the people that make business work. Send news about people in business to akukec@dailyherald.com. Follow Anna Marie Kukec on LinkedIn and Facebook and as AMKukec on Twitter.

Julie Abernathey, at left, and mother Nancy Mokszycki are co-owners with Julie's sister Anne Leahy, not pictured, in the Lake Barrington antique store, Tattered Tiques. COURTESY OF TATTERED TIQUES
Two sisters and their mother own and operate Tattered Tiques in Lake Barrington. They see themselves as the local version of American Pickers, since they go on the road often to buy antiques and other special finds and then sell them at their store. COURTESY OF TATTERED TIQUES
Gale Gand
Malena Garza
Nadia Simek
Lambros Tsonis
Article Comments
Guidelines: Keep it civil and on topic; no profanity, vulgarity, slurs or personal attacks. People who harass others or joke about tragedies will be blocked. If a comment violates these standards or our terms of service, click the "flag" link in the lower-right corner of the comment box. To find our more, read our FAQ.