Bella Rustica was here and gone in a flash!

Bella Rustica always draws a special crowd of people looking for a one-of-a-kind find. Even though the hot weather didn’t keep shoppers away, it did help us lose a few pounds and keep our clothes drenched in sweat. The hot weather was a plus for the Blue Monkey hawaiian shaved ice food truck, I know I had at least 3 helpings in 2 days! Delicious! Fridays crowd was only booming that morning so any shopper after lunch had the pick of most any booth they lingered in to. Saturday was hopping from the minute the doors opened until late in the afternoon. Vendors began packing up about 5 pm with the gates closing at 6 and some shoppers still hanging around looking for a last minute steal-of-a-deal. I have posted some photos of the booth and hope that my desire to have a more boutique feel and simplistic display is easily noticed.

 The pale yellow loveseat was the talk of the booth.

A personal favorite, it was finally sold to the wonderful writer and decorator, Kristie Barnett, who blogs at thedecorologist.com

As seen in photo above:

 Another favorite is the 16″ deep x 72″ long barn wood post table accented with iron brackets. It is a VirginiaBEAN original piece with recycled, now repurposed materials. The vintage antique mirror from a vanity is stamped 1939 and has original paint. The “Singer” advertising crate was popular among ladies with a heart for sewing and collecting sewing goods. This is an original advertisement wooden crate the Singer shipped their sewing machines in. Shop owners often displayed them to advertise as sellers of Singer products. My last ebay search posted only one crate, for $150.

Above:

 It seemed as though this was my lucky display spot, as everything I displayed here seemed to sell, until late in the afternoon Saturday when the crowd died down.

As pictured below:

The iron twin bed is authentic, similar ones sell from pottery barn for $399, and that is for a new one. I like to leave a little originality to my pieces, so the inside of the rails were left as I found them, the outside of the rails match the turquoise blue seen in the headboard.

The suitcases sold quickly to a sweet couple who first bought 2 of them and on return to pick them up, said they might as well keep them together and took all 3 to display in their home. My mother actually found the Osh Gosh suitcase with the stripes at an antique store, the hard case with rounded edges came from the attic of my families business and actually belonged to the son of our local doctor (the only doctor once upon a time) and if the new owners look closely at the piece you can see the name engraved. May be cool to look the name up… just saying 😉 And the last and larger case was a purchase from Nolensville, TN.In my next blog, I hope to show some pieces I have repurposed or refinished in the recent past and share my experience with each piece, including what history I know about it and how you can recreate something you adore in your own home.