When visitors walk through the 4,000-square-foot Marengo barn-turned-curated-vintage market, its owner says “every step is like a memory of grandma’s.”

About 14 years ago Alena Erath of Hebron and her sister Allison De La Isla founded “Two Sisters With Junk in the Trunk.” They started collecting, refurbishing and selling antiques at various markets. Around 2015, they began renting the barn, located at 6617 South Grant Highway. The Treasured & Salvaged Vintage Market opens up just six times a year – and this weekend is one of those times.

Erath’s market will be among more than 300 small business vintage, upscale consignment and boutique-style shops across northern Illinois and southern Wisconsin participating in the 13th annual spring Vintage Shop Hop, taking place March 6 and 7 this year.

Among those shops are thousands of vendors and artisans, said Ann Campos of Roscoe, who launched the event 13 years ago.

The Vintage Shop Hop kicks off Friday, drawing thousands of antique and vintage lovers. Treasure seekers embark on a self-guided roadtrip using an interactive map discovering different shops in 140 towns while “satisfying their vintage addiction,” Campos said.

“Vintage Shop Hop has been a constant means for small retail shops to market to a bigger audience,” Campos said. The event occurs biannually, one weekend in the fall as well as spring.

When not working her full-time job as a nurse, Erath is out hunting and refurbishing antiques. She then creates vignettes throughout the barn to display her finds.

Erath said it takes months to prepare for the Vintage Shop Hop weekends, from finding unique pieces, sanding and power washing to applying for special use permits and figuring out safe parking.

When Erath and her sister started the business, traveling to various markets, they called their style of inventory “rusty crusty junk.”

“This rusty crusty junk was from digging in barns, picking through piles of ‘rusty gold’ we knew we could salvage,” Erath said.

It was a lot of work, and the items didn’t always sell. Their items were, and still are, “100% vintage.” Their merchandise was not like other vendors’ selections, she said.

But, she and her sister, who no longer works with the business, chose to stay true to who they are and the styles they love. Erath does the same today at the barn and always encourages others to be true to themselves. She cautions against going along with the latest fad in home decor.

She said the barn has proven to be a better place for sales and she never buys wholesale. She finds items at auctions, online markets, and estate sales. She also finds treasures on the side of the road or in dumpsters. But each item – from “creepy doll heads” and old tools to workbenches, garden items and antique furniture – is authentically vintage. They possess a character not found in today’s decor sold at retail stores, she said.

Since she was a child, Erath said she has been drawn to vintage and antique items and enjoyed going to thrift stores. Her home mimics her barn. She enjoys sharing her passion with others and making friends with her shoppers. And, she said, every item in her market has a story. If she knows the story she will write it out and display it.

Visiting her market “is an experience,” Erath said. Visitors bring positive energy, and the antiques spur memories from their childhood. They stay and linger through each curated space and find items “you are not going to find anywhere else,” Erath said.

Too many things are thrown away, she once told her mom. What she does is “about saving a piece of history” because once it is gone, “it is not going to be there anymore,” Erath said.

Q’Tiques in McHenry also is participating this weekend. Owner Kathy Quatraro, who will extend the event until Sunday, said visitors can expect 10% to 75% discounts, raffles and homemade chocolates made by Charlie’s Chocolates. They also can expect a “positive vibe” with no negativity or politics.

Q’Tiques warehouse is “freshly stocked” with items that are 25% off including hundreds of pieces of garden and yard art such as birdbaths and animal statues.

Among the latest style being hunted, she said, are “granny core and clutter core.”

“Everybody is buying from the ’80s,” Quatraro said. “They want to go back to their childhood.”

Temperance Crystals is returning to Q’Tiques this year and a new vendor will be selling dolls from the American Girl Collection.

Rachel Hird, owner of The Grove House Market in Woodstock, said visitors can expect a 15% discount on entire purchases in her shop where she sells a mix of old, new and handmade items. The store’s style is a mix of vintage and farmhouse, she said.

Shoppers who visit generally are looking for wooden and metal salvaged, architectural items, she said. She also offers finds such as antique measuring scales found in old general stores, jars and crates, old shutters, planters and birdhouses.

To stock her store, Hird, who previously owned an antique store in Antioch, said she goes picking at estate sales in Wisconsin, Illinois and Indiana “looking for salvage pieces.”

“I look for one-of-a-kind pieces that you are obviously not going to find in a big box store,” she said. “Everyone doing Shop Hop is looking for unique, one-of-a-kind items. All the shops involved in this are one-of-a-kind items type people.”

More information, a list of participating vendors and an interactive Google Map is available by visiting Vintage Shop Hop Blog Spot.

In addition to dozens of stores across Wisconsin, locations of participating shops include Oregon, Polo, Cary, Crystal Lake, Harvard, Hebron, Richmond, Marengo, Woodstock, McHenry, DeKalb, Rochelle, Sycamore, St. Charles, Elburn, Oswego, Sandwich, Geneva, Yorkville, La Grange Park, Hampshire, Elgin, Plano, North Aurora, Antioch, Grayslake, Lake Villa, Barrington, Lake Barrington, Carol Stream, Bartlett, Winfield, Chicago and many in the Rockford area.