SLO Town

Ahhhhhh...how I miss SLO! Man, I miss it!! 

For those of you that don't know what "SLO" means, it's the abbreviation for San Luis Obispo. When Eric and I first started dating, I was actually living there and LOVED the town. Everyone knows everyone, small family run businesses and it had / has a nice homey feeling despite it being a huge college town. Nevermind the fact that the area itself is GORGEOUS and it's about a five minute drive from the beach. Once Eric and I decided to move in together, I moved an hour south to Vandenberg where he was living since it wasn't realistic to have him move to SLO...he lived on base for Christ sake and Johns school was only half a block away, lol. When the time came for us to officially move away entirely to a new country, I was quite sad to leave the area since we normally invaded San Luis for our "date days". 

So, Stefanie and I decided to invade SLO since I was interested in seeing how much of it had changed over the last two and a half years. The main street to do that on would be Higuera, which is where all the cool little shops are! 

Oh... and there's a quirky thing that tourists like to check out if they happen to be on Higuera Street...it's called "Bubble Gum Alley". It started back in 1960 and has NEVER been cleaned. Never. Personally, I think it's repulsive, not to mention, unsanitary...but hey, it's one of the many "unique" things you'll find in that town. 

Anyway, the first store we hit up was a place called "Amnesia".

They have a pretty eclectic selection when it comes to things you can use decorate your house, various clothing styles, and random do-dads. VERY VERY colorful!

Stef was diggin' this lil guy although he ended up staying with his little buddies...you know how it goes, always buy in pairs so they're not lonely.

Indeed. I love SLO!

I REALLY wanted this!! I just don't wanna deal with trying to ship it home or even trying to pack it into my suitcase safely...knowing my luck, it'd break!

How about this?? I found an upgrade for my wedding set!!!! Do you think Eric will go for it?

Next on the list was "Hep Kat" which specializes in retro style clothes. 

Honest to God, I wish I was a size 2 (or 8) cause they have insanely cool stuff in there! They even have a beauty parlor attached and it looks like it fell out of the 50's. VERY VERY awesome store! 

Aside from them having cool clothes, the main reason why we popped in there was because a friend of Stefs was showing us her ridiculously cute Bordello Teeze high heels. These heels mean SERIOUS business..they're freaking hot, but I could NEVER walk in them! 

Covered in rhinestones! These run around $160

These had a "puffed" type of fabric on 'em to make the roses more pronounced, in addition to the black glitter. Very pretty! I can see someone wearing these with a black ruffled skirt or dress :)

Stef ended up trying on a pair since she's really interested in wearing some when the time comes for her to get married. Given, she wants to wear some very pretty glittery green ones for bridal pictures (not to walk around in), so I think that'd be pretty cute / funky to have some very spunky heels for some very classy pictures. 

From there, we rolled over to another store called "Paper Sky". (click on Paper Sky and it'll actually take you to their website). 

 It's HEAVENLY! It carries all kinds of stuff for someone who is very crafty and likes to scrapbook..or buy pretty sparkly things. Truth be told, I could've dropped major cash in there..but I had to keep reminding myself "Do I REALLY wanna ship this home?". No, no I don't. We have a little over a year left in Belgium and I don't wanna haul all this stuff back..if we end up back at Vandenberg, then it's meant to be.....right? 

I was lovin' the scrapbook paper "mounted heads"...so pretty compared to actual dead animals. 

I wanted this SO bad! SO VERY VERY BAD! All of the "filigree" style border is actual silver glitter with crystal embellishments...totally something I'd have in my office, hahaa. 

Last but not least, we stopped off at "Tails". 

When I originally lived in SLO, I'd come in here all the time (well, their old location) because I had a dog by the name of "Shelby". I've ALWAYS spoiled my pets, so I didn't mind shopping with Tails since they're locally owned and operated...AND...the owners are REALLY nice! 

They have a massive selection when it comes to collars for dogs and cats...

I love how they actually have military branch collars..although I had to notice they were missing Air Force collars. See? The Air Force is so popular that they can't keep us in stock. Ohhhh yeaaaah! 

Not only do they have cool goodies for your pets, they also have a "barkery". Their cookies are actually "human grade", so we could eat 'em if we reaaaally wanted to, but they aren't as sweet as we'd like them to be (that's what the staff told us). I'll take their word for it since I wasn't wanting to test that theory out :) 

I ended up getting a variety of cookies for Piper since all of 'em looked so cool! She got some puppy skeletons, lady fingers (the pink / brown bars), some candy corn and a little ghost. I should've bought more of the candy corn cause she LOVES it! 

They even make puppy birthday cakes! How cute is that?!??

After all of our hard work of window shopping, we wrapped up our day over at Cold Stone Creamery. To my surprise, they actually sell gourmet cupcakes! GASP! I was thrilled cause I wanted something sweet, but not ice cream since I can't eat very much of it. This thing was perfect! MMMMMMM...caramel dolce cupcakeeee....mmmmmm... 

There you have it. That was our day over in SLO. It was actually really nice to see that they still had some amazing stores on Higuera..then again, would they really allow anything less than awesome on that street? I truly miss living there because of the whole laid back vibe, but alas, we all gotta grow up sometime and move away from the college town vibe.