La Parada

This carefully curated shop is next to the Farm and Table restaurant. While waiting for our table to be ready, we walked in. The store features a wide variety of New Mexico merchandise, everything from jams to clothing to furniture. It's easy to buy a few items while waiting for your dinner table to be available.

La Parada is rumored to have been a stagecoach stop on the historic El Camino route between Santa Fe and Mexico City. If so, I doubt that it looked anywhere near as colorful and beautiful as it does now. The tagline on the 4th Street entrance sign (shared with Farm & Table) is "world decor/gifts/vintage," and it fits the place to a tee. But they easily could have added "flowering trees," "flowing water," "blooming gardens," "radiant sunshine," "world music," "retro chic," or any number of other descriptors.Some of the items here are bulky and best suited for local purchase and use, especially the hand-painted garden planters and exquisite ceramics and wooden sculptures on display inside the store on the first floor. Others, like the funky vintage items in the upstairs "Retro Kitchen," are ideal as traveling gifts for self, friends, or family. It's hard to describe everything else, which ranges from small ceramic suns and moons to day of the dead key rings, blank note cards, bear-shaped coin purses, scarves, gloves, necklaces, and a full compliment of exotic, alluring, aesthetically intriguing outerwear for women and men. Everything is carefully arranged and tastefully presented, but it's not so precious that you'd be afraid to bring your 2-year inside for a look. This isn't a Dale Chihuly gift shop, or a place for showing off 50-year old aged balsamic in Venetian hand-blown glass. The painted birdhouses and potted plant burros, frogs, and chickens are tougher than they might look. If you ever are tempted to convert 100% of your shopping dollars to on-line retail, visiting La Parada may make you reconsider. Like an approaching stagecoach stop that people yearned to reach after days of dusty, sun-baked travel on bone-rattling roads and perilous river crossings, some places are best experienced in person, with the hands and fingers and optic nerves that millions of years of evolutionary history have crafted, one natural selection at a time. Whenever I visit a unique and lovingly-tended place like La Parada, I wonder how many times a particular key chain or coin purse or flower pot has been looked at, touched, talked about, before finally finding a buyer. I imagine the leather being stitched, the ceramic being painted, the face of St. Francis being sanded, the birds on his shoulder being attached, the fabric being woven, dyed, and sewn, the boxes being lined with packing materials in La Paz, Las Cruces, Southern India, Sulawesi, or Isfahan. And then, like magic, they appear within range of your vision. You look, you touch, you ponder, and if the stars align and the price is right, you purchase. And then you pack up your belongings, cast a skeptical glance outside at the dark clouds gathering on the horizon, get back in your SUV-sized stagecoach, say your goodbyes and bon voyage's and vaya con dios's, and you move on to the next stop of the journey, with your new bear-shaped coin purse and painted ceramic sun and moon wrapped up securely next to your seat, no doubt curious about where they will be going next.

A cool shop, carefully and nicely decorated. Their website notes they carry items from around the world. But this is in the Albuquerque North Valley (and close to Corrales) , so a heavy emphasis on 'Southwest' looking stuff including Talavera outdoor pots and planters, day of the dead items, and lots of crosses, and a few fairly large hand carved santos. But (!), lots of other stuff, including vintage clothing and household items. Definitely worth a stop. Owned and run by the family that owns Farm and Table.

I stopped by for a short while yesterday and had such a delightful time I got a few things for myself and half a dozen gifts-all beautiful, unique, and handmade. I had been looking for a handmade scarf with felted decorations for about a dozen years. I was so excited to finally find one and it is gloriously beautiful. I had seen one in Taos long ago but was never able to find one as beautiful until yesterday. thank you for the kind attention and for having this lovely shopping Oasis.

I found something special for myself and ticked several people off my Xmas list. I come in from out of town and look forward to the new items. It is the most fun I have shopping, always friendly, helpful service. This visit: wool, fair trade, hand knit legwarmers, Several beautiful felted bags for gifts, Hard to find door hardware, A unique holiday decoration, Hand made notebooks, Leather coin purses for the children, And a couple of things for the hard to buy for people on my list. Bonus, ez parking.

A stunningly lovely New Mexican craftsy shop, filled with all sorts of lovely and unique art and knick knacks. Its definitely worth checking it out slowly because ether is just so much good stuff. They have indoor and outdoor items, which change very often so its impossible to describe what they have because its also all unique. The staff is friendly and the place is an old artistically interesting building so stop by and take your time enjoy all the lovely crafts and gifts they have to offer.

We had brunch at the Farm & Table and then wandered next door to La Parada. One sister owns the restaurant and the other the store with their mom. We spent almost as much time at La Parada as we did with our lovely brunch. There are four rooms of great treasures. Everywhere we turned there were fabulous clothing options, knickknacks for the home, jewelry and more. We ended up buying way too much and had to jam everything into our suitcases. Treasures included: two skirts, a serving tray, a Catrina ceramic skeleton doll (carefully packed), flowers, sugar molds and more. The Day of the Dead ofrenda outside the shop with pictures of family added a wonderful flavor to this charming shop. Antonia was so helpfully in making sure our Cartina doll (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/La_Calavera_Catrina) made it home safely. Next time we are in town both Farm & Table and La Parada are on the list, but we'll be sure to have an empty suitcase with us to carry more treasures home.