I know I won’t be able to make it in time before there are only ripped/broken things left on the shelves, but you might still have a shot.

Two stores at the Block are closing, and they are currently having clearance sales.

Fare thee well, Ron Jon Surf shop. I always wanted those cute surfing bathroom accessories.

And as for you, Virgin Megastore, I think I only browsed your aisles one time. Which might explain why you aren’t going to be there anymore, as most people seemed to have followed suit.

However, you two were some of the best stores in that godforsaken place. The Block is going to suck even more now.

The 18th annual Sawdust Festival starts this weekend in Laguna Beach and runs every weekend through December 14th. Saturday is the official kick-off, with a tree lighting ceremony at 5:30 p.m., plus free cookies and apple cider, choir and band performances, a balloon artist and, of course, Santa!

Featuring 175 crafters and one-of-a-kind gifts, the Festival also has low cost art lessons for kids and adults, demonstrations, entertainment, a kid-sized holiday themed fun house, and three cafes to satisfy your hunger during all that exhausting shopping.

There is an ArtisTree Ornament Fundraiser, which features original ornaments created by local artists, with proceeds from the sale going to the Art Education Fund.

And the best thing? Snow! Every day during the festival, snow will fall throughout the day in the Town Square. Time to turn the beach bunnies into snow bunnies, even if only for a day!

Deets:
Information Line (949)494-3030
Hours from 10 a.m. to 6 p.m. weekends only (open rain or shine)
Website

The new Mother’s Market in Santa Ana has been open for a few days now, but I haven’t had the chance to visit it until today. For the most part, I give them a thumbs up!

Selection
They have a nice selection of canned, boxed, jarred, and frozen food items. I was thrilled to find that they carry the Quorn brand of frozen “chicken”, as well as a variety of seitan and tempeh, all of which I could previously only find at Whole Foods. The fresh meat fridge seemed a little sparse on my trip today, but the produce section was well-stocked. As someone who doesn’t have a lot of time (or energy) to cook decent meals, I was a little disappointed that I didn’t find much in the way of pre-packaged, freshly made, ready-to-heat meals. Fresh & Easy has a killer selection of these, and Trader Joe’s is getting there, so I was hoping the same for Mother’s. They do, however, offer some fresh refrigerated items, as well as self-serve cold and hot food bar; while nowhere near as plentiful as Whole Foods’, it’s nice to have something closer to home.

As far as non-food items, I thought Mother’s has a nice selection. Lots of bath and body items, makeup, pet food, house cleaners, and detergents, many of which are organic, fairly traded, etc. For parents, Mother’s also carries a few organic clothing items for babies, organic formula and baby food (both jarred and frozen), as well as diapers by Seventh Generation, gDiapers, and (I think) Tushies.

Price
Probably not as expensive as Whole Foods, but definitely not cheaper than Trader Joe’s. The cheapest jar of organic spaghetti sauce was around $3 and change, whereas I believe it’s $2.99 at TJ’s. Their hot and cold food bar is $6.99 a pound, a dollar less per pound than Whole Foods. While I spent less at Mother’s today than I would have if I had done my weekly grocery trip at TJ’s or Fresh & Easy, I don’t feel like I bought that much and I will probably need another trip out for food later in the week.

This is the lovely and talented Fresh & Easy 20 cent “bag for life”!

Every once in a while I stop in to F&E on the spur of the moment. Sometimes I am in the “other car”, which is to say that my canvas bags somehow always seem to be in the car I am not driving. Anyway, it’s nice they introduced this reusable recyclable plastic bag for just those emergencies. When the sturdy bag finally wears out just bring it in and they will give you a new one for free and recycle the old one for you. If plastic aint your thang, don’t worry they also have reusable canvas shopping bags for 99 cents.

Your Orange County Fresh & Easy stores are getting greener and greener these days. Their recent 500,000 square feet solar panel installation at the regional distribution center is the size of five football fields and is one of the largest roof-mounted solar installations in North America. Not too shabby. When you pair that with the fact that F&E stores use 30% less energy than typical supermarkets, I’m hard pressed to find a reason not to shop there. If it’s not the health food or the low prices that draw you in, maybe their eco-friendly practices will do the trick.

Got some free time tomorrow morning? Then come check out this garage sale in Orange!

A mom from one of my moms groups is holding a special garage sale tomorrow to raise funds for a hearing aid for her 4-year-old nephew. Each item for sale will be for only $1! The items being sold come from multiple families that have kindly donated them for this event. Things you will find on sale include: toys, purses, vintage clothes, a Graco Pack ‘n Play, several car seats, womens and toddler shoes (all sizes), pottery books, 8-track player and tons of tapes, baby blankets and bibs, hundreds of baby clothes (mainly from 3 months to 2T, but some 3T to 5T from Gap, Gymboree, and Old Navy), plus tons of womens’ clothes (all sizes with lots of S and M from Bebe, Gap, Old Navy, the Limited, Express, and Banana Republic), and mens’ clothes (mostly XL tall).

If you’re looking to buy some things for yourself or your kids, do check them out and the families involved will be so thankful. Plus, buying things second-hand is great for the environment!

The deets: Saturday, September 27, 2008 from 8 A.M. to 11 A.M. 4104 N. Ramona Street, Orange, CA 92865.

Sur La Table will soon be opening up at the Irvine Spectrum Center in the retail space formerly occupied by The Sharper Image.
They just put the public notice on the outside a few minutes ago.

I am very excited. I love cooking and cooking gadgets. They also make great gifts.
No timeframe for when it will open, but I will let everyone know when I do.

I have long entreated the Los Angeles Times to stop treating Orange County as some sort of deserted, distant outpost.  I wanted more coverage, dammit! More than just the occasional story about a beach or corrupt government officials.

Well, it seems like I got what I wanted.

What’s next, breaking news video of a three year old and his mom returning to the scene of the crime to return a candy bar he swiped from the checkout line?

Today I stopped by the newly opened Sprouts Farmers Market in Tustin. It’s located where Whole Foods used to be; on Holt Avenue, off of Newport Boulevard (14945 Holt Avenue, Tustin). I buy mainly organic food for my family, and whenever possible, locally grown as well, so I was excited to see what Sprouts was all about.

The space inside is big and open, with large signs above each section. I intended to do my regular weekly shopping here instead of Trader Joe’s, but I quickly realized that this was just not going to happen. The first thing on my list was some pasta and pasta sauce. Unfortunately, I didn’t see any whole wheat pasta, and a jar of pasta sauce was $1 to $2 more than TJ’s. Next, I checked out their apples. While I usually get our apples from the Irvine Farmers Market on Saturdays, I wanted to see if Sprouts carried any organic, locally grown varieties since that was something I never saw at TJ’s. No luck there either; their apples were also from Washington, just like TJ’s.

By this point, I figured I’d just head back into TJ’s down the street. I did, however, check out Sprouts’ other grocery items and was happy to find a variety of things I normally have to buy from Whole Foods. Things like Pet Promise cat food, Ecover dishwasher tablets, Natural Value trash bags, and organic baby wash. (I may never have to step foot inside Whole Paycheck Foods again!) I also noticed that they carry a lot more variety (than TJ’s) as far as packaged foods like cereals, crackers, soups, and snacks.

I left the store with just a box of garbage bags and a bowl of heat-and-serve fettuccine alfredo. The cashiers were friendly, and in our trip today, the shoppers were even more so — one woman felt the need to grab my child in the cart and sit him upright. While I will continue to do my shopping at TJ’s, I’ll probably be back at Sprouts next time the cat runs out of kibble.

I was walking through the Irvine Spectrum Center the othere day and noticed this sign:

Among the normal prohibited behaviors including alcohol, drugs, and large roaming groups causing disruption, photography of the centers “Infrastructure, including storefronts and fountains” is prohibited.

I find this funny because the fountains are the things that are most photographed. I see people doing it all the time. Is this just because the anniversary of the attacks of September 11th are upon us? or just a blanket statement to allow them to stop photography when they feel like it? Will parents taking pictures of their children playing in the fountains be escorted off the premises?
Since the Irvine Spectrum Center is private property, they can escort you off the premises if they like. One thing they cannot do is confiscate your film or make you delete your pictures. (See Photographers Rights) They would require a court order, or if the police are involved, they would actually have to arrest you to confiscate the film or camera.
The other thing I found out is taking pictures does not fall under California Penal Code 602.1 unless you are actually obstructing or intimidating customers or businesses.
(more…)

No, I’m not talking about some sort of transgender operation. Not that there’s anything wrong with that.

The Register reports that all Chick’s Sporting Goods will soon be changed to Dick’s Sporting Goods, thanks to a corporate takeover.

Is the new parent company trying to look muy macho to get more people in? Or is it just fate that not only the two names rhyme, but lie on either end of the gender spectrum?

What I can tell you is that if they want to stay competitive, they need to lower prices along with the name change. We bought our son’s tee ball uniform and equipment there, and it cost over a hundred dollars. Ouch! Mind you, most of it which will not fit him when the next season rolls around.

Maybe they should consider adding a “cheap” in front.

“Cheap Dick’s.”

I kind of like the sound of that.