Shopping in Carpinteria

Museum Quality Framing deploys an advanced giclée printing process and thousands of custom-framing moulding and mat options to enhance and preserve photos and artwork. Owner James Brent and his staff can manipulate photos of family outings, sporting events, or pedestrians with extremely funny hairdos with watercolor- or oil-painting effects. Currently starring in the shop's cast of ever-advancing technologies, an Epson UltraChrome K3 printer pops 2880x1440 dots per square inch on premium papers and canvases. Though printing costs vary depending on the size of the print and the materials used, an online print calculator can tally rough estimates.

Museum Quality Framing also encapsulates vibrant prints with thousands of variations in moulding size, shape, and stain and mat texture, color, and finish. In-studio virtual framing gives customers a preview of the finished product and allows for digital trial and error, eliminating expensive reframing if a neon-pink 5-inch moulding fails to bring out the color in Great Grandpa's eyes.

Manhattan Denim's shop equips men and women with laid-back beach apparel, boasting a fashionable array of tops, bottoms, and accessories by top brands. Women model tops and dresses by Three Dot and Splendid for dressing-room mirrors and test denim by Rich & Skinny and AG to ensure its suitability as party attire or casual dress while receiving a Congressional Medal of Honor. Meanwhile, men slip into bottoms by William Rast and tops by Cohesive or Alternative Apparel before completing the look with a Goorin Brothers hat.

Born after founder and clothing designer Renee Claire recognized a need for well-tailored sleepwear, BedHead Pajamas fills online and boutique stores with evening accouterment and accessories for children, teens, and adults. Men's and women's cotton-knit and flannel pajama sets vie for the attention of balloons craving static charges alongside loungewear, underwear, and robes. Many garments bear animal prints and seasonal designs, and print patterns by guest artists serve as camouflage during games of hide-and-seek in high-class paint stores. On gleefully crowded shelves, accessories such as candles and hot water bottles beg to complement bedroom décor and lure in the aloof sandman. Bedhead's boutique locations feature playful window displays and outdoor gardens, and the company works with charities including Inner-City Arts and Esperanza, a nonprofit benefitting communities and workers in the garment industry.

Since lighting its first candlewicks in Berkeley in the 1960s, Stone Candles has crafted a colorful array of bright-hued and delicately scented candles. In the shop’s new Culver City location, Stone’s father-son team imbues candle pillars and wax-free luminaries, with scents ranging from cucumber-melon and red currant to jasmine and vanilla. Here, you can find candles ranging in size from hefty 6-by-12 inches to petite 3-by-3’s, an ideal size for illuminating one’s miniature model of Thomas Edison’s house.

The shop’s special environmentally sustainable COCO candle collection comes in pleasant scents such as gardenia, green tea and fig, and lavender. Pick up one of the shop’s candle holders, hewn from slices of ebony wood or slices of agate, to help display individual candles.

Just like the organism from which it takes its name, Amoeba Music’s stock of tunes has no definite form. At each location, expert music gurus amass thousands of new and used CDs and LPs from the most mainstream artists to the most obscure underground bands around. LPs, posters, and memorabilia surround the musical inventory, which, like Ringo Starr’s pants, changes every day. Amoeba buys goods from customers, meaning that on any given day the store might usher in a rare vinyl LP, DVD, VHS, or even LaserDisc. Visitors can sign up for any number of contests while admiring Amoeba’s enduring dedication to its green practices and community outreach. Amoeba couples its huge selection of entertainment with visits from the artists themselves, welcoming past guests such as Paul McCartney, Bret McKenzie and Jemaine Clement of Flight of the Conchords, and Elvis Costello to play in-store.

Jacqueline Collen-Tarrolly's fascination with fairies and the fantastical runs throughout her many businesses, which include a horse farm, a bath-product line, and an online gallery of original fantasy art. Likewise, a reading corner, a wishing well, and ornate armoires add a touch of magic to Toadstool Farm Vintage, her boutique of whimsical vintage and vintage-inspired clothing and décor.

Inside, shoppers can browse smokeless soy candles, wall art, and glass, china, and ceramic containers or try on an abundance of vintage dresses, which allow classically-minded beauties to style themselves after the fashions of yesteryear. They can also introduce themselves to the store's resident dog, Ella, whose classic name brings to mind the jazz singer famous for her dulcet voice and responsible pet ownership.