For the third year in a row, Duane, Linda, and I participated in the Seminole Heights Shop Hop featuring small businesses in the Seminole Heights area of Tampa. Not only is this a great way to support your local small businesses but the shops go all out with sales, discounts, treats, and prizes. This year we started at the newly designed Christopher Wayne Home which now includes a coffee shop, The Blind Tiger Cafe, within the Christopher Wayne shop. Fantastic iced coffee from The Blind Tiger! Linda and Duane ordered tea and were also really pleased with the taste.
Christopher Wayne Home also shares a building with Cleanse Apothecary, another of our favorite shops. We each made purchases from Cleanse Apothecary which carries some great lines including Lipstick Queen -- my favorite line of lipsticks. After we finished our refreshments from The Blind Tiger, we headed to our buddy David's shop, A Modern Line -- always a fun place to pop in and see what's new. We noticed that there was quite a bit of foot traffic due to the shop hop. Then we headed to Bali Bay Trading Company which, like the other businesses, had treats out for their customers along with items to be raffled off. Bali Bay was offering 20% off of all their regular priced items. All three of us found some gifts there.
After that, we stopped in at The Folic Exchange -- a small vintage shop. Once again, all three of us made purchases. Then we headed to Susan Gott's Phoenix Glass Studio. We feel fortunate that we have someone with Susan's talent in one of our favorite areas to shop. She had treats set out and there were people being instructed in glass blowing as they made their own items. Linda and I bought some small Christmas ornaments there.
By this time, we needed to stop for lunch. We decided to 'dine' at The Front Porch Grill and have a leisurely lunch. I have never had a bad meal there. Their desserts are fantastic, too, but the three of us had been nibbling our way through the shops so we skipped dessert this time. After lunch we headed to D&D Antiques and More where our buddy Debra was greeting all of her shoppers with treats. I bought something for myself there. Debra carries antiques and vintage items. I came across a metal bird that was screaming my name. Very simple lines. I think it might be made of aluminum. It reminds me of the birds you see in places like Design Within Reach (DWR).
We were pretty tired after leaving D&D we we decided to call it a day. I'm so glad the idea of shopping at small local businesses has picked up and hope the trend continues.
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| Our purchases. |
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| Handmade soaps, blown glass ornaments, etc. |
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| Stocking stuffers and my bird. |
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