Often, for those of us who are drawn to ordinary objects that have been used and loved, the things we rescue become part of the family.

     This is especially true of Gladys Hanning.

    “I have collected and brought home many pieces of furniture, paintings, books,” she says. “Our home reflects my passion for hunting these wonderful imperfect treasures.” She especially loves vintage art.

    “ For years I have collected still life paintings of fruit. Most of my canvases are signed, but by no one you'd know,” she says. “I discovered them at garage sales and auctions (paying) $25 at the most. I have filled the walls in our kitchen with these beautiful pieces of art.”
   
    Hanning says she learned to love vintage pieces from her parents.

    “Collecting has always been apart of our life,” she says, specifically mentioning her father's love of cookbooks. “He was a chef.” Her mother was also a treasure hunter and Hanning honors those finds.

    “Several pieces of furniture my mother purchased at garage sales for $5 have found a place in our home, as have my father’s cookbooks.”

    Like many who love the thrill of the chase, Hanning has turned a love of rescuing old things into a successful career.

    “In 2002 my daughter, Celia Hanning joined me in my interior design business, ‘Junebug Furniture and Design’,” she says. “With her background in design she has added an amazing and vibrant energy to our collection and offerings.”
 
     What started as a hobby has grown into a successful business. And a lot of mother-and-daughter fun.

    “Together we are passionate junkers. We can't drive by a yard sale without stopping, and of course, there are the early, early, morning estate sales,” she says. “We are always on the hunt for one-of-a-kind treasures to be repurposed, repainted and restored.”

    Now, with the popularity of Shabby Chic and junk decor, Hanning has put to use the skills she’s honed over the years.

    “My passion for junking began as a way of life and grew into an appreciation of the imperfect,” she says. “Comfort, simplicity and a sense of practicality are the key elements to my designs.”

    And nothing defines comfort and simplicity than that ubiquitous symbol of summer: the lawn chair.
 
    “Over the years I have found several metal yard chairs from the l940's. I have given each of my girls a pair and have several lined up in our driveway,” she says.”

    The chairs aren’t just part of the decor. One of her painted metal finds becomes a place to sit for a moment and reflect on the good life. And a good day’s work.

    “The best part is after a day of junking,” Hanning says. “It is the perfect seat from which to view not only our beautiful landscape, but the prizes of the day scattered around our driveway.”
  

Details:

Gladys and Celia Hanning, along with selected vendors, share their finds with shoppers at their annual antiques sale, 'The Mad Hatter Vintage Flea Market'.
Held each fall in the Five Mile Prairie Grange, this year's show is set for October 1st & 2nd. For more information read the Junebug blog

To see more photos, click Continue Reading
 

Continuing my Treasure Hunting series on what sparked a life-long love of vintage in local collectors and dealers, this week’s profile features Hollie Jantz Eastman.
Eastman is one of the co-owners of Funky Junk Antique Show.




    Like so many of us, Hollie Jantz Eastman’s love of old things was a habit that started at home when she was allowed to select several of her grandmother’s Christmas ornaments.

    “At the time it didn’t matter at all. “I just picked up the six different colored ornaments and put them in a box,” she says. “They didn’t go on my tree that year, but the next year I was glad that I had them.”

    Eastman had no idea just how much the ornaments would come to mean to her. Almost a decade ago, Eastman’s grandparents were killed in an accident just 10 days before Christmas and the ornaments gained deeper significance.


    “Those ornaments are just Styrofoam bells, fancied up with thread and glitter and paint, but they have come to represent the era that I love so much,” she says.  “The same in which my grandma started her life a wife and mother.”

    Now, Eastman finds inspiration and comfort each time she places one of the handmade pieces on her tree.


    “They have graced and glittered my Christmas tree every year and reminded me of my lovely grandma,”  Eastman says. “Since that bleak holiday ten years ago, Christmas has since begun to be joyful again for my family and me.”

    As a successful entrepreneur, Eastman spends her time searching for vintage items to sell at her own shows and other venues, and she has discovered an affinity for mid-century modern finds.

    “When I started junking for real, and made it into a life’s occupation, it was the vintage 1940’s and 50’s that I was drawn too,” she says. “And it is those vintage items that still speak most vividly to me.”

   Eastman finds personal inspiration, as well.

    “As I navigate the journey of being a wife and a mother,” she says, “all it takes is bringing out those ornaments on a December day to bring it all back into focus.”

Click here to learn more about Funky Junk Antique Show.

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