There is no doubt that now is the time to support local independent businesses.

Patchwork Indie Arts and Crafts Festival happens twice yearly and its happening this Sunday.

You’ll find handmade goods from local vendors including: clothing, accessories, home goods, affordable art and more.  What festival would be complete with out good food and drink… and music!

So support your local vendors and give unique gifts this holiday season!

The festival will be held in Santa Anas Museum District near Bowers Museum.
2022 North Main Street
Santa Ana 92706
Sunday November 15 from 11-5 pm

At least the formerly displaced Gallery will have a fancy permanent home again. And it’s opening just in time for Gay Days - think of all that expendable income!! Will you be stopping by the new version of the old gallery? Let us know what you think of it in the comments.

My dilemma here is which museum do I visit.  Both the Orange County Center for Contemporary Art or Orange County Museum of Art will have no admission this weekend.  I get into great modern art installations almost as much as I enjoy great collections of old impressionists art.  With them both being free and only one play day this weekend I don’t which to chose – which do you recommend?

There will be cultural demonstrations, authentic music, hands-on arts and crafts, vendors, performances, story-telling, villages representing the Pacific Islands and of course, good food.

7111 Talbert Avenue,
Huntington Beach, CA.
92648

Personally, my dream is to submit a design and win. Then I would donate all of the money to NOH8T. Ooh ooh, or I could just blow all five thousand dollars on gay porn, cigarettes, booze, dildos and medical marijuana. I might also use it to send the oh-so-dreamy Mr. Warren a complimentary Bic razor (for that nasty goatee) and a gift certificate to Aveda (to deal with that nasty hair of his). Nah… On second thought, I think I would stick with the porn.

Will you be submitting an entry? Better hurry up they’re due 1 day and 23 hours from the time-stamp on this post.

The Irvine Fine Arts Center presents All Media 2009, a juried exhibition open to Southern California artists. This show will feature two and three-dimensional art, including painting, drawing, sculpture, photography, and digital media. The deadline for submissions is Monday, September 28,2009.

Click here for more more information regarding submission requirements and the entry form.

The All Media 2009 exhibition will run from November 20, 2009 through January 16, 2010 (or the 23rd … depending on which document you look at). The IFAC is located at: 14321 Yale Avenue, Irvine, CA 92604.

If your work is accepted to be part of the exhibition, please let us know. The OC Metblog readers and posters alike would love – I’m sure – to come out and show our support.

There are so many things I love about Old Towne Orange (the houses, the people, the shops just to name a few), but I have one spot that has been my favorite since I discovered it several years ago.
Pitcher Park-

Pitcher Park sits at the corner of Almond and Cambridge in an entirely residential area, minus the school across the street. The park is small, taking up no more width than 1 house and no more length than 2 houses. It has benches, tables, greenery…all the things you expect to find in a park. But when you look closer, you see the little details that I love so much about the park.
Well don’t just sit there, follow the link to hear what they are and see more pictures!

I’ve done much research on the park and little information is available. It wasn’t until I googled the original property owners’ names, Henry and Grace Pitcher, that I got anything of significance. According to this LA Times article Henry and Grace moved to Orange from Kansas in 1912. They lived on this property until the late 1980s. At some point, Henry built himself a honey house (picture below) and a barn (also picture below). When the family donated the land to the city in 1992, work began to restore the two structures. Today they look amazing and serve a purpose. The honey house holds the equipment for the OC Beekeepers. They are at the park every 4th Sunday for a tour of the honey house and the use of the equipment. The barn holds not only many of the tools used by the Pitchers, but also Orange’s first museum, the Orange Fire Museum. It is open Saturday & Sunday from 11am to 3pm.

Now let me talk about the drinking fountain pictured above. I couldn’t tell you how old it is, but I would put this drinking fountain to be circa early 1900s for sure. As far as an exact year I couldn’t begin to guess, but isn’t it so cool looking? I’ll admit, I get a little weary when I want to drink out of it. Thanks to the design, when you step on the pedal you have to wait for the water to rise through the fountain and eventually come out. I love it though.

Fire flower!

The flowers. Oh the flowers. I don’t know how many different types of flowers there are, but they’re all BEAUTIFUL!

Apples!!!!....or Nectarines. I forget.

Fruit! There’s all different types of fruit trees and plants here. The ones I remember are apples, nectarines, peaches and avocado. I’d be willing to bet there’s a citrus somewhere too. Also, my guess would be that there are persimmons there because there is an Annual Persimmon Party held at the park. I’d really like to go because it says they provide park history, but shocker of all shockers….I have school. BTW Sunday is the 8th, not the 9th. In case you wanted to mark your calenders.

A barn!

A honey house!

Buildings! Here you see the barn and honey house I mentioned above.
The last few pictures are random pictures from the park. For more information on the park, click here!
I hope you get the chance to check out the park. It’s really beautiful.

Maroon leaves? Neat!

Butterfly! See him in the middle? I always see them in the park when I go.

A little artistic shot to leave you with.

Well that’s only sorta true, I also got a set of lovely atomic-tiki bar glasses and a wonderful clock to augment the object d’art above. If you have never been to Tiki Oasis, it’s a poly-pop appreciation weekend in San Diego that is full up hipsters, hippies and lots and lots of rum. I went with the wife and friend for a day trip and I have to tell you it was pretty fun! I was initially concerned that it would be too much of the renaissance-fair set and too little of the middle-aged hipster set. Turns out it was just a bunch of drunken tiki worshipers having a really big party!

Orange County, as you may or may not know, was once rife with tiki temples. Alas those days are gone and only a couple of places remain. Notable among these are the Enchanted Tiki Room and the former Sam’s Seafood in Huntington Beach; the later of which has changed hands and names so many times I’ve lost count. Anyway, if you want to relive the glory days of swinging bachelor pads and jet-set exotica that California was once famous for, Tiki Oasis is the place to do it. Maybe we’ll see you there next year!

Starting on July 13, you can see some classic movies projected onto the side of the OCPAC, starting with Charlie and the Chocolate Factory. Don’t worry, it’s the classic version starring Gene Wilder, not the disappointing Johnny Depp one.

Go here to view the official web page and get the lowdown on all the movies that will be shown.

And please don’t hurt me if my French sucks.

As I mentioned in a previous post, the Rockport store recently closed. However, as I was walking by the other day I saw workmen in the old store and a new sign go up for Pure Light, a create your own candle studio. I think this sort of thing is really fun, so I checked out their website to learn a little bit more about the store/studio and contacted the owner Judy Kelly for a bit more information. 

I recommend you read the story of how Pure Light came to be, it’s very touching and inspirational. The Kelly family truly developed a positive uplifting space and message when they created and opened Pure Light in Laguna Beach. They are hoping to bring that positive energy to the Irvine Spectrum (I think it’s great to have a local boutique store amongst all of the chains … IMHO, of course).

When do you plan on opening? 

If all goes to plan, we hope to open our doors in the Spectrum on Sunday, June 21… Summer Solstice and Father’s Day (in honor of my son and his being a father to Tyeson Lhyric). We will hold a Grand Opening celebration on Thursday, July 9th.

Are you still going to have your Laguna Beach store?

Yes.

How will the Spectrum store be different or the same?

The Spectrum store will be primarily focused on candle making and gift shopping. We do have a “Celebration Room” where people can have candle making parties for birthdays, team celebrations, girls night out etc., along with a whole host of events that will soon show up on a separate calendar for the Irvine store on our website. The Laguna store is where we hold blessing ceremonies and can cater in food for a full service type of event in addition to the candle making and retail. The look and feel of both stores will be similar with a few different aspects to each store.  But we are all about Bali and nature and feel good.  

Why an additional location? 

Laguna Beach is magic, especially being in the Laguna Canyon, but the walk by traffic is non-existent. Most of our business is during the Sawdust Festival and events on weekends. We have had such an amazing response to the store with repeated requests that we open in cities all across the county so we thought we would give a modified model of the store a try in a high traffic area and see where it goes. It seems many people love candles, and the idea of making one themselves. It’s fun, positive, smells great, and people love to make them for themselves or to give as gifts.   

Why now?

Just being lead this way as I have been in this entire process of creating Pure Light. What we offer does not cost a lot of money, and it’s a very uplifting and positive experience for people to share with friends or family. There are a lot of reasons why, and in this economy, could be a lot of reasons to say not to. However, I trust the process and hope to provide something fun and uplifting that is a positive experience, and makes people feel good because it is something completely unusual that can be made with great meaning behind them, created by them. It helps with the void of lack of art in the schools, it’s not difficult to do, it appeals to so many of the senses, and no two candles made are ever the same. Why not now! We all need some good, positive experiences in our lives… especially now. We are about moving positive energy, so we hope to move some in a good direction.  

Are all of the same services going to be offered, that are available in LB, and at the same price? 

As I mentioned above, the candle making will be in both locations, along with our Candle Bouquet line and our retail gift shopping. Ceremonies and catering are only in Laguna. 

Is there anything you’d like to specifically make mention of or point people to on your website? 

If your readers are into something fun and unusual to do that will bring them accolades for finding something awesome, they should check us out, and the story behind us.

Can you accommodate children or is the candle making primarily geared to adults? 

We accommodate ages 5 on up! There is something for just about everyone.  

“We miss our son, Tyeson, so very much, but his creative spirit shines on at Pure Light and we are very blessed to feel his presence come through in the creative going on at the shops.  Check out our latest creations at www.CandleBouquet.com.  These are candles that can be sent as bouquets as an alternative to the traditional flower, cookie or fruit bouquets.  Each one has a message in a bottle.” ~ Judy Kelly

I am very much looking forward to checking this store out when it opens. Have any of you been to the Laguna Beach store? If so, what are you thoughts, impressions, etc.?