When Angela White Smith drives around the Twin Cities, folks stare. When she parks her vehicle they often walk over for a closer look, and that's just fine with her.

White Smith is the proprietor of Uniquely Attainable, a  230-square-foot home-décor store on wheels that opened for business June 5. Housed in a 1999 school bus painted white, the rolling business is reminiscent of the peddler's wagon of yesteryear. White Smith, however, is a thoroughly modern woman who is meeting the economic downturn head-on.

"I call myself an entre-poor-person," she said with a grin. White Smith, 39, has an MBA in marketing from Western Illinois University and worked in corporate America for 15 years before launching her own business.

"My kids [Jenessa, 19, and Breon, 16] think I'm crazy," she said. Sometimes she agrees with them.

'I just had to try this'
"I was under consideration for a six-figure job, but I called them and said, 'I can't believe I'm going to tell you this, but I respectfully withdraw from consideration.' I felt I just had to try this," White Smith said. After purchasing the bus for $4,000 and obtaining her bus driver's license, she prepared the interior for business. She removed all the seats, "with the help of my child labor," namely Jenessa and Breon, and laid ecru carpeting , scrounged from a friend who was putting in new carpeting at her home.

But White Smith's work is two-pronged. She not only sells furniture, vases, pillows, lamps and other knick-knacks, she trolls thrift stores, yard sales and occasionally picks up freebies left on curbsides for her merchandise. "I'm recycling, reclaiming, reusing," she said. Monday through Wednesday you'll find her in her home workshop in St. Paul, refurbishing her finds. She takes pride in the fact that her merchandise is of quality.

"I really get frustrated when I go into some of these home décor places. The furniture isn't even real wood a lot of the time," White Smith said. "It's got to be solid, something that will last, or it's not coming on this bus."

'They're buying talking points'
One day last week, items on the bus included a multitude of pillows that Smith made after taking a sewing class, a red entertainment center that was a dresser in a previous life, a pair of dark wood candlesticks, an oval mirror outlined in green and white tiles, a dark green platform rocker and an art deco black, white and yellow cushioned headboard for a full bed. The headboard has gotten a lot of interest. White Smith has taken orders for several of them in colors customers requested.

"This is not cookie-cutter merchandise like you'll find in big-box stores," White Smith said. "There are things that people want, but only one. They're buying talking points, things that no one else will have," she said.

White Smith takes almost as much pleasure in the renovation as in the sales. "I've always loved design and home improvement," she said. "I even bought a fixer-up home and renovated the kitchen and knocked out a wall myself."

Helps with overhead
While keeping overhead down — just gas, bus upkeep and insurance — White Smith's business eliminates the marketing nightmare of attracting customers to a static location. People can follow the business on Facebook and Twitter to see where she'll be parked Thursdays through Sundays.

She just might be parked in your neighborhood. So far she has not been required to buy a license to park on public streets. "When I went to DMV and asked, four different people looked into it and no one knew of a license that fit, "White Smith said. "They didn't know what to do with me. There is no law covering this. So I'm setting precedents, not breaking laws."

Last Saturday the bus was parked at Summit and Victoria in St. Paul when Liz Mazlish, a visitor from Boston stopped in. "Wow! This is very creative," said Mazlish, a psychotherapist with a side business in home design. "Anything in interior design catches my eye, and the fact that it's in a bus and we're on Summit Avenue of all streets."

"I hope I'm carving out a unique space for myself," said White Smith, "something that'll stand out. It's on the edge; I get it. Will I make what I made before? No. Can I make a living at it? Yes.

'It's all about the adventure'
J. Marie Fieger, president of Nemer Fieger agency, thinks she has a good shot at making a go of it. "I love the idea!" Fieger said. Look at the food truck industry. It's hot right now. In terms of timing, she's right on top of it. And I always advise people to look to their passion," in opening a business "and it looks like that's what she's done."

"I love this time in my life," White Smith said. "It's all about the adventure."

This week's schedule:

Thursday, July 21
2 p.m. to 7 p.m.
Hwy 55 and Medicine Lake
Plymouth

Friday, July 22
2 p.m. to 7 p.m.
Robert St. and Mendota Rd.
West St. Paul

Saturday July 23
9 a.m. to 2 p.m.
Chicago Ave and 2nd St. S.
Minneapolis

Sunday July 24
12 p.m. to 5 p.m.
Hwy 610 and Noble Parkway
4201 95th Ave. N.
Brooklyn Park