What a weekend! I got to attend the fabulous Vintage Bazaar! If you’ve never been, it’s an amazing weekend-long bazaar, once in June and once in September, featuring more than 125 artisans in tents bursting with awesome. I was the date of the lovely Mrs. M of Country Design Home. She wrote a great post about the Vintage Bazaar on Friday and I could not wait to get there and check out all the tents and chat with some of the smart and creative folks behind the scenes.

I knew I was in heaven as soon as we got there and the first thing I saw was a vintage truck. I. Love. Vintage. Trucks. If I was Madonna in the Material Girl video, I totally would have gotten in that rich guy’s old truck too, even though he only bought it knowing I wasn’t impressed with all the flashy things he was focused on before, but the effort was there and hey, vintage truck!

What the truck?

And continuing down the path of “Things Lisa Loves,” one of the first places we stopped was Fish in the Garden.

Just keep swimming.

The work of the very talented (and extremely nice) Mr. Tyson Weiss, these ceramic koi, trout, and stainless steel stripers were located throughout the grounds of the farm and made me so happy. I, of course, bought one of the stripers for Mom & Dad’s garden, bringing the total number of stripers I’ve caught this year up to one.

Shortly thereafter, while strolling across the beautiful Pettengill Farm, I exclaimed with the excitement and wonder usually reserved for small children meeting Santa or Mickey Mouse, “MRS. MATHISON OH MY GOSH IT’S THE TRAILER! IT’S THE TRAILER!”

THE Bettie B!

The work of L Kells Antiques  and Log Cabin Antiques, I have been following Bettie B’s transformation every step of the way on Facebook and the final result did not disappoint! It was so cute, all decked out with vintage awesomeness and colorful kitsch. Unfortunately she was already sold, but I did scoop up this awesome mini minnow bucket.  It looks great on the larger one I purchased last summer, situated right next to my vintage tackle box and lures.

Buckets on buckets.

I also had the opportunity to chat with the lovely ladies of Bel Monili and juNxtaposition. These are two artisans who know the purpose of re-purpose and do it quite well.

Brace yourself.

Bel Monili creates gorgeous jewelry made from…well…other jewelry. Here are bracelets made from vintage earrings,  I scooped up one of these bracelets for myself, I couldn’t resist.

juNxtaposition also makes upcycled pieces “all made with items that others would throw away,” including typewriter keys, skeleton keys, silverware and more.

Recycling is KEY

I also snagged these awesome votive candle holders from The Flea Circus. 

Croquet anyone?

These lovely ladies from Leicester made these great candle holders using old croquet balls. I just thought they were so colorful and clever, I had to have them.

(Of note, Mrs. M was quickly exposed to my shopping style, which consists of me seeing something, saying “I need that.” and pulling out my wallet. No debate. No hemming and hawing. Blink and you might miss it. But in the vintage world, blink and someone else might buy it before you do!)

Last but certainly not least, I also got to meet one of my most favorite treasure hunters, Cari Cucksey of Cash & Cari!

Cash & Cari!

She had tons of cool stuff and was super nice. I don’t even think she noticed that I was repeating “Act cool, Leese. Act. Cool.” in my head over and over in order not to gush. One thing she did notice, however, was my bracelet and asked if it was a Whiting and Davis (which it was).  I basically died instantly on the spot.

Ke$ha was here?

Overall, The Vintage Bazaar is nothing short of amazing. I cannot WAIT to go in September to hopefully see some familiar faces and be inspired by the overwhelming creativity of all the folks there. And buy more stuff. Because I need it.