A New Year Adventure, Part 6: The Wish List

Summer's sister-in-law, Kristen, owns a vintage/handmade shop in Carlsbad, California. For my birthday, Summer gave me a couple of great handmade items, a "Keep Calm" print and a pen with a huge paper flower made out of old music, from The Wish List, and I knew that at some point, I must see this shop.

On Monday, we stopped very briefly on our way to San Diego, but we were in a hurry to get the motorcycle off, so we didn't stay long. We knew we'd stop by again on Wednesday. I saw a fantastic green dress hanging on the front door of the shop on Monday, and vowed to try it on when we came back.

Wednesday dawned and we found ourselves awake early. A quick trip to the hotel gym (yes, even on vacation, and even on New Year's Day) woke us up, and a stop at Starbucks gave us some energy.

 Soon, we were on our way to Carlsbad.

The Pacific Coast Highway. Such a drag to drive, but you
know, someone's gotta suffer those views.

Summer actually turned around and pulled into the lot
so I could get this sign. That's friendship!!

Once in Carlsbad, we took a few minutes to walk over to a beach area. We didn't want sandy feet, so we kept to the stairs leading down and got a few shots of the ocean while listening to the waves crash.

Finally, we headed back to The Wish List, where things were just getting started for the day.

This is Olive, a "store cat" who doesn't actually belong to the store, she
just cruises through as she pleases. Total sweetheart.

 The shop is really cute; Kristen has an eye for arranging things and it was fun to poke around to discover all kinds of fun things.

I found and tried on the green dress--it was a perfect fit, so I bought it--a vintage dress, from perhaps the late 60s or early 70s, only $35! I can't wait to find the perfect shoe and wear it to work.

 While Summer talked with Kristen, I listened and chimed in, and also took some Instagram photos of the shop.

Kristen painted the bird music notes.

These are prints she makes on old dictionary pages. There
was a darling one of Charlie Brown and Snoopy, printed on
a dictionary page on which the first word was "peanut."
Clever!!!

The photos hardly do it justice; Kristin's shop is absolutely adorable, and full of all kinds of treasures--vintage and handmade. She's worked very hard to make her store, and so far, she's had a lot of well-earned success. I hope she will continue to see the rewards!

We stayed a bit, chatting and nosing around, before getting back in the car for the next part of our adventure. We were on a mission, you see...and that's for the next post.