Inspired By: General Store

My San Francisco trip left me deeply inspired, invigorated and refreshed on so many levels.  It blows my mind to see so much creativity and such passionate individuals making things happen.  I was especially taken with all the new parklet's or outdoor mini parks I saw all over the city!  And all the amazingly designed and highly functional bicycle parking made me smile as well.  Both things made me miss living in a larger city and I yearn so badly for people in Ventura to one day embrace some of these city elements, on a smaller scale of course.

This trip reaffirmed some dreams and desires that both Toby and myself have been kicking around lately.  It's much too soon to even really talk about them, but I am so happy about our future and its possibilities.  Lets just say that Santa Cruz especially stole our hearts.  Both Santa Cruz and San Francisco had some wonderful little places that I fell in love with and was so inspired by, I just have to share!

First up is a little place in my old neighborhood in the City called General Store.  Tobes and I lived by Ocean Beach the whole time we lived in San Francisco.  We loved the small beach town vibe, the stillness of the morning fog, the empty beach with an abundance of sand dollars and the quirky little shops, cafes and restaurants that were there.  Since we have moved, more amazing local, one-of-a-kind shops and restaurants have sprang up.  We would always stop into Java Beach to grab coffee, which is located on Judah Street, where the Muni train ends at the beach.  Judah has blossomed and now has a fun stretch of shops & eats right by the beach and in earshot of the fog horns that I love so much!

General Store is located right next door to Trouble Coffee (yummy local coffee) and beckons you to come in with their simple shop window logo.  I like how the shop reflects its surroundings, taking inspiration from the beach neighborhood.  Lots of the local artists hold true to this same aesthetic, often times using found wood and other materials from the neighborhood streets.  The shop is carefully and beautifully curated with all sorts of small scale craft goods, designers and unique vintage oddities.  The design of the shop itself will blow your mind!   On the morning we rode by, the shop was closed (major sad face) so I could only drool over all the loveliness from that light filled window.  The whole vibe reminded me of another San Francisco treasure in our old neighborhood, Mollusk Surf Shop (which we did go into & I will be featuring it this week).  If you find yourself near Ocean Beach while visiting the City, please stop into this little gem of a shop & relish in the charm that is the Ocean Beach community.

I was so smitten with the lovely changes in my old hood that I have a few more great spots to share with you in the upcoming weeks!  So, come meander with me in the Outer Sunset...next stop, Mollusk Surf Shop.

 Photos 2 & 3 Source

The Little Shop that Could

Many of you may not know this, but I once co-owned a small vintage shop called Love Fox Vintage.  I ran it with my fashion sister from another mother, Faith.  We did everything ourselves, from making all of the displays (all recycled, of course) to shopping and helping our beloved customers.  It was the hardest thing I have ever done aside from being a mama.  There were many aspects of the shop that I loved.  I loved buying vintage to fill our racks, creating fun displays and dressing up our windows, and meeting sweet ladies who appreciated our little shop.  There were also things that I don't miss so much.  Business owning is extremely stressful and fickle.  And there is a lot of downtime, which can be difficult to deal with.  Also, you really put yourself out there when you own a business, so when people are negative about the space you have created it hurts to the core.  And I may be too sensitive to handle the criticism and financial vulnerability of shop owning.

Some days I really miss it though.  What I miss most is being creative and surrounded my fashion loving people on a daily basis.  And I really think Faith and I created a beautiful space that took you away to another place when you walked through the doors.  We really learned a lot from this experience and it opened both of us up in ways we never knew.  I am very grateful to have been a part of this dream & if I ever shop own again, I have a great resource of hands-on knowledge and lessons learned to look back on as a guide.

Faith is hoping to start the Fox up again online very soon, so keep an eye out for that!  Visit her at her blog, Tod Vixen!  She has the best tomboy style around!
Here's a peek into my old life as a shop owner.

A Love Fox Spring photo shoot

A window peek at the original shop in Ventura (this shop was barely 300 square feet, which was actually pretty perfect)

The deer sweater was a favorite Love Fox item of mine!

Whoa! Watch out, foxy ladies over here! 

That's Miss Faith in one of my fav photos of her!

I am hoping to find more photos of the actual shop for you guys (since I am obsessed with house, studio and creative space tours), but I think a lot of them were on my old Macbook (sad face) or on our flickr.  I must investigate!