shopping & fashion

[ ](http://ottawastart.com/wp-content/uploads/2011/05/HOTWHEELS.jpg) You have to check out Steve’s Guide to Hot Wheels Hunting . It’s a Google Map with a listing and reviews of over 40 stores in Ottawa that sell Hot Wheels. Steve Brandon created it, and that’s his Hot Wheels 2004 Star-Spangled series 1965 Ford Mustang pictured above, that he picked up at the Zellers at Billings Bridged back in 2006. ...

Chrys and Dom Coballe are husband-and-wife team of designers from Ottawa. They’re working on a really cool product called Deckster : _ We think a naked wrist is a terrible, terrible thing. Good thing we have designed a fun and fashionable remedy for this plague on humanity. ...

[ ](http://ottawastart.com/wp-content/uploads/2011/04/283012318.jpg) I LOVE this t-shirt. Saw this pic from Matt Richling on Twitter today, who took the photo at Reap and Sew Clothing on Dalhousie Street in the Byward Market. I’m going to have to take a trip down there and pick up one of the Ottawa By Nature shirts too. ...

[ ](http://ottawastart.com/wp-content/uploads/2011/04/ottawa-garage-sales_reasonably_small.gif) Happy long weekend everyone, and happy garage sale season. We’ve set up a new Twitter feed to track garage sale listings in Ottawa. Check it out here at @ott_garage_sale (and you don’t need a Twitter account to see them. ...

[ ](http://ottawastart.com/wp-content/uploads/2011/04/277456645.jpg) Where do you buy a huge kid? At a huge kids sale, of course. The photo is from Claire Brownell , used here with her kind permission. ** ** ** See also: ** Ottawa Kids Guide

I enjoyed - and agree with - this blog post from David Scrimshaw about those hole-filled ziplock grape bags . “It used to be you’d pull a plastic bag off the roller and bag your own grapes,” writes David. “Now they’re bagged for you. ...

[ ](http://ottawastart.com/wp-content/uploads/2011/03/water_water_everywhere.jpg) ** Saw this recently on Neil Hedley’s blog : ** ** To our customers: Screw You ** …Here’s the thing: At some point, somebody in a position of power at the store said to someone else, “You know that water cooler we’ve got in the staff room? ...

A popular Bank Street Shoppers Drug Mart is facing an uncertain future as they compete with a recently opened Shoppers Drug Mart across the street. Sitting roughly 50 feet away from the current Shoppers Drug Mart, the new, larger Shoppers Drug Mart has managed to steal business away from the original Shoppers Drug Mart with brighter lights, a bold cosmetic department and refrigerated grocery items. ...

Saw this on David Karp’s Blog : In the [ Outaouais region ](http://www.stat.gouv.qc.ca/regions/profils/region_07/region_07_00_an.htm) (the Quebec portion of Greater Ottawa), central planners [ have been controlling hair cuts ](http://www2.publicationsduquebec.gouv.qc.ca/dynamicSearch/telecharge.php?type=2&file=//D_2/D2R4_A.htm) : who you can get them from, the minimum price hairdressers can charge, and what hours they can work. ...

_ This guest blog comes from Angie Auchterlonie, who co-owns the Funk Your Junk boutique in the Byward Market, along with Henri Groulx. _ We own a funky retro store called [ Funk Your Junk ](http://www.blogger.com/www.funkyourjunk.com) and we also started a program called "Suited for Success". ...