Shopping in Goleta

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.

Matilija Nursery yields seasonal crops of plants native to the Golden State and farther-flung environs—a stroll through the nursery’s rolling fields reveals such nonindigenous offerings as bearded irises that bloom in both spring and fall. Though the nursery has supplied Los Angeles, Santa Barbara, and Ventura counties with flora since 1992, its in-house botanical specialists began to hybridize Pacific Coast irises only recently, and the resulting varieties have proven as colorful as a sailor's vocabulary. Befitting of those who work so close to the earth, the nursery’s staff supports eco-friendly practices and populates the gardens with noninvasive, low-water plants. Customers can browse an online plant-availability database that regularly features botanicals such as matilija poppies, manzanitas, and hummingbird sages capable of luring their hovering namesakes in for a long drink of nectar.

When Rebecca Costa-Smith took a church trip to Haiti, she never dreamed it would change her life. Edhat.com reports that Costa was deeply moved by the destitution she witnessed among the Haitian youth, and knew it was her fate to make a difference. Less than a year later, she returned with her best friend Lindsey Connolly. It was on that trip that the duo formulated the Destined for Grace concept. Destined for Grace is a non-profit organization that provides food and education for more than 125 grade-school children in poverty-stricken Haiti. As part of this continued effort, Rebecca and Lindsey established the Destined for Grace Thrift Stores, whose profits are used solely to fund their humanitarian efforts.

When it was founded in 1987, Frame Central was a social hub for artists, and was even curiously named for facial hair. However, Beard’s Outlet has since morphed into a seven-location franchise, dedicated to simplifying the framing process. The shops’ onsite stock of matboard, frame moulding, and other key supplies ensures speedy DIY framing projects—which visitors can complete in an hour—and single-day professional framing. An array of pre-framed mirrors and artwork allows shoppers to enhance their blank walls without taping a napping friend to them. Shoppers can also stock up on framing supplies such as case glass and hanging hardware.

The seasoned craftsmen and designers at Santa Barbara Frame Shop take pride in preserving and enhancing memories in all of their forms—from artworks and diplomas to posters and dog-eared time-share brochures. They draw on a selection of hundreds of frames, selecting one to match your keepsake before enhancing it with a precision-cut mat and non-glare glass. As a testament to the framers’ acumen, walls throughout the shop showcase local artists' paintings, serigraphs, and photos, each fitted within its own regal frame.

Ever since his parents opened a bookstore in 1954, Clarey Rudd's life has revolved around the written word. Clarey owned and managed 24 bookstores between 1974 and 1996 before depositing a life’s worth of knowledge into Bank of Books, where the next generation of Rudds joins in the family business by sorting and shipping more than 200,000 new and used titles. A veritable potpourri of genres greets visitors at the two-level store, and that’s only the tip of the iceberg. The Rudd clan restocks the shelves daily, sending excess titles to a warehouse where more than two million additional books reside.

With both book-filled facilities to draw from, the Rudds have no problem helping interested parties hunt down everything from new releases to ancient manuals. They keep Bank of Books filled with works from local authors and national bestsellers, even saving some space for local artists to exhibit and sell their work.