Dear Cheryl-Ann,
I have read everything you’ve written since I moved to Spokane in 2002. I especially love your pieces on antiques. I’m a true collector and find myself drawn to flea markets and thrift stores. I can spend hours looking and imagining how I would recreate a rusted piece and find a place of honor for it in my garden. Everything in my house has a story.
I loved your “Home” section especially your Treasure columns and I wish I had saved more of them. I recently discovered your blog was back and couldn’t wait to write you. Glad to see you back.
Who knows, maybe we will meet at a sale some time ~ Kathy.
 

Dear Kathy,
Thanks for the sweet note and the kind words. You made my day. Thanks for reading and for following the blog. I’ve decided to post several of my favorite Treasure Hunt columns from HOME. Hope you like seeing them again.
Let’s not wait for a happy coincidence. Let’s make a date to say hello at the next big sale. See you there!
CAM

Treasure Hunt

It’s difficult to turn down a good read
By Cheryl-Anne Millsap
This piece was previously published in The Spokesman-Review.

    My books, some of which have been with me since childhood, are as beloved to me as a few of the people I know and care about. And I turn to them almost as often.
    There is comfort in the faded illustrations, the dog-eared pages and worn bindings. And the familiar words.
    I like to have those books nearby, on a shelf by a comfortable chair or stacked on a table beside a lamp, so that when the mood strikes, I can tuck into a book of poetry or a quaint reference volume on botany or birds or travel. Or, I can revisit a character from a favorite novel.
    I have a friend who uses old books to decorate every room of her house.
    “I could drown in old books,” she once told me. “I love the way they look and the way they feel in your hand.”
    Old cookbooks line the shelves in her big kitchen. Biographies and memoirs are stacked in the sitting room.
    Each time I go to her house, usually to have a meal, I am drawn to the books she has chosen to keep. Sometimes, I pick up one and sit down to read a bit. Eventually someone misses me and calls me back to the kitchen, but no one can blame me.
    The smell of good food, the sound of laughter and the warmth of books bound in cracked leather are the secret ingredients to her hospitality.
    I love books, but like everything else, I try to keep only the ones that mean the most to me. So, occasionally, I edit. I pick those I think my friends might like and send them along. Or, I drop off books at fundraisers and used bookstores. If we’re having a garage sale, I always have a box of two of books to sell.
    Books come and go. But some stay forever.
    Those are the old friends I love the most

Cheryl-Anne Millsap is a freelance columnist for The Spokesman-Review. Her essays can be heard on Spokane Public Radio and on public radio stations across the country. She is the author of “Home Planet: A Life in Four Seasons” and can be reached at catmillsap@gmail.com

    Too often, women who love to spend hours looking at vintage items at a flea market or in an antique mall, do it entirely on their own or they go with a group of friends. They wouldn’t think of having a husband around.
    This is definitely not the case with Kelly and Monte Tareski. The couple, who own Cascading Creations, share more than a business. They share a love of junking that has found an important place in their relationship.

    “I have always had a passion for the weathered and worn out item,” Kelly told me.  “As a child, I remember going to the Southern California flea markets  and spending all day digging, hunting for the perfect piece of junk and at a young age being able to negotiate the ‘right price.’”

    Eventually, Tareski wanted more than just fun. She wanted to make a career out of rescuing and re-imagining vintage items. Fortunately, her husband shared that desire.

    “Just in the past couple of years I have had the opportunity to turn that passion into a business. With Monte's passion for the same, it makes it very easy to go treasure hunting and we have so much fun together,” she says. “One of our favorites is when we get the call to go ‘pick’ at an old homestead.”

    Transforming a building on the grounds of their Airway Heights stone business, Tareski turned her new project, GardenStone Creations into an appealing and popular place for shoppers. She was able to find a way to combine her love of the hunt, with a desire to own a unique business.

    What came about is an outlet for local artists, artisans and creative types.

    “I am a huge supporter of local artisans and the buy-local movement,” Tareski says. “I am proud to say that I have my shop 80 percent stocked at this time with local merchandise from local businesses and artisans. I’m working towards 100 percent.”

    But, once a treasure hunter, always a treasure hunter. As proud as Tareski is to have started a business and carved a successful niche in the competitive antiques and vintage market in a relatively short time, what matters the most is spending time with her husband and having something positive and productive to show for it.

     “We not only love the hunt, but getting to hear the stories behind the treasures we find,” she says. “Then we love retelling those stories to our customers who purchase the items.”

Harvest Treasures ( For more info click Continue Reading…)
Saturday, August 14 at GardenStone Creations in Airway Heights, Kelly Tareski will present Harvest Treasures, an event featuring hand-picked vendors selling antiques, hand-made crafts and one-of-a-kind items.
Here are the details: For more information call 509.244.0900
Where: 1515 S. Lyons Rd, Airway Heights
When: Saturday, August 14