More Antique and Vintage Shopping

More Treasure Hunting

After lunch at the wonderful Santa Claus Lane Garden Market we were off to Carpinteria, just 5 minutes south. By the way, the beach area at Santa Claus lane is a very popular surfing spot for locals and visitors.

Carpinteria off-ramp hwy 101 South, first stop Susan Willis's shop of treasures, located at 4488 Carpinteria Ave.

Susan Willis in her shop...

oozing with charm...

both Susan and her shop!!

Located on Carpinteria Avenue, near the Carpinteria Street South 101 offramp. Susan carries vintage and new items. She is an amazing seamstress who makes beautiful handtowels, bed spreads, etc. I believe that she even does slipcovers. Her husband and son are cabinet makers whose shop is right behind hers. There is a lovely baby gift area, luxurious sleepwear, soaps, lotions, candles, dishes, glassware and lots of beach cottage items. Wednesdays is Tour Day for Realtors in Montecito, Summerland and Carpinteria...and I usually manage to stop by Susan's. She recently made me some beautiful hand towels for my powder room.

On to Linden Avenue, the center of down-town Carpinteria. There are lots of fun restaurants as well as some casual eateries such as The Spot (on Linden near the beach) a very popular hamburger take-out place since the early 1950's. I actually have a charming painting of The Spot which I purchased from the LA artist as she was painting it. I purchased the other painting she had of The Hot Dog Stand, located on the Casitas Overpass. It became a housewarming gift for my buyer of a Singing Springs Condo to commemorate the hot dog lunch we had there on the day she got the keys to her condo. More on restaurants and eateries in another post.

Whimsy

Whimsy's main store &

Pamela's Cottage Display

Whimsy, a very appropriately named antique/vintage cooperative has two locations in Carpinteria. One on Linden Ave, almost on the corner of Carpinteria and Linden, (close to The Candy Store); and one on 7th St, a left turn off Linden. Both stores are very "whimsical"! I love them both. My personal favorite is in the Linden Street store, an area owned by Pamela. You can't miss her corner...it's loaded with beachy and cottage items. Gorgeous shell covered items; furniture, pictures, paintings, clocks... My sister and I purchased several original paintings. Sis found two small paintings of Galleon ships, beautifully framed; and I found a small painting of a pot of flowers which I will be storing to use for staging a listing. On my last visit I found two very old small (unframed) paintings which currently hang in my kitchen. Very reasonable prices. Lots of collectibles and kitch, also lots of vintage clothing. A fun shop

Magpie

Magpie is owned by Bonnie. She also really knows how to stage and showcase her wares. I have found some lovely old linens and a beautiful small cake stand in her shop as well as several jewelry items. It's really fun to go to her shop during holidays as Bonnie knows how to set the scene!

Last stop in Carpinteria - Homestead Antiques, also located on Linden Street. Lots of great vintage items and an area of real antiques. I've had my eye on a gorgeous vintage table cloth...it's still out of my budget, but I'm keeping an eye on it.

Now a quick stop at The Candy Store, loaded with

all kinds of candy, and more candy; much of it made right there.

Have fun shopping! We need to go home and look at our wonderful finds.

By the way, Carpinteria has several B&B's, a small hotel and a wonderful camping area on the beach.

The Carpinteria Valley is an agricultural area with hot house and field growers; horse and avocado ranches. I have sold several ranches: avocado ranches, acreage for nursery development and an exising nursery with hot houses. The area's wonderful climate is condusive to growing orchids as well. The Island View Nursery is a wonderful nursery for landscaping, home/office plants of all kinds, orchids, garden sculptures and so on. Open to the public, it is a must stop! Which we did....almost no room left in our car, but we managed to get a couple of gorgeous plants in!

My sister has helped me stage several homes I've had for sale, in which we put up a little sign, "Staging by The Sisters!" Next time we'll say, "Staging by The Shopping Sisters!"