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One of the greatest pleasures I have found in motherhood is in sharing good books with my children. I love to read books with these small people and to discover that they take the same joy in them that I do. Let me recommend one source of this joy to you in case you haven’t discovered her already, author Patricia Polacco.
Polacco’s books are wonderful for reading with elementary school children and on one’s own. Polacco is prolific and both writes and illustrates her books. She is one of the rare authors who are able to do both extremely well. Her stories (many based on her own childhood) are oh-so-human, so engaging, so interesting, so ready to transport you to a different place and time. As for her illustrations–well, facial expressions have never been so well captured. (Intriguingly, Polacco earned a PhD in art history and is an expert on Russian iconography–but her pictures are earthy and achingly real, her texts down to earth and accessible). Some of my favorite titles are Thank you, Mr. Falker, Just Plain Fancy , Chicken Sunday, and The Keeping Quilt.
After forgetting about Polacco for a while, just last week my love of her work was renewed by a title I’d never seen before: Rotten Richie and the Ultimate Dare, a partly (mostly?) true story of a conflict with her brother and how it all ended happily ever after. Since sibling contention is an ongoing issue in our home, and I’m always hoping and looking forward to the day that my children can write their own happily ever after endings, I just adored this book. Check it out!
P.S., Already familiar with Polacco? What are your favorite titles?
Crayola Window Crayons* are great! They are cheap, they are fun, and they work. I use them to write on our car windows when Amelia has a swim meet. She is not a swimmer that wins races, so we look for other sources of motivation. The window crayons allow me to let her know how much I love her, how much I am rooting for her, and how excited I am that she is swimming in a race. I use the window crayons to tell the world that I have an athlete and that I am very proud of her hard, hard work and her stick-to-it-iveness. I love seeing her face when she first spies the minivan covered with ”Go, Amelia, go!” type slogans. It doesn’t matter that I have no artistic skills. It just matters that I try.
You can buy a 5 crayon pack from ToysRus for $3. Don’t confuse these with the window markers also by Crayola. Surprisingly, they aren’t nearly as good! The caps don’t fit the markers very well. Then the marker dries out and your money is wasted. Also, the marker colors are pale and harder to see, while the window crayon colors pop! The slightly tinted windows on our van are the perfect background. The crayons go on really smoothly and the colors are bright–messages can be read from many yards away. Cleaning the crayon off the windows isn’t hard–it just takes a moist paper towel.
*I bought the crayons with my own money. No one encouraged me to write this review, and I haven’t received any compensation for it financial or otherwise.
P.S. Amelia achieved two personal best times at her meet this past weekend. Hip, hip hooray! Yea for personal bests! Go, Amelia, go!
I haven’t blogged because I’ve been busy planning a mother-daughter book club. I was hung up on the guest list–not wanting to exclude anyone who wanted to be included, but worrying that it would get too big, worrying about different girls’ different reading levels, little sisters, etc. My new plan: I’ve simply invited every girl (and her mom) from Amelia’s fifth grade class and not any others. This way, they are all the same age, they all read on an advanced level, and no one is included or excluded on the basis of popularity.
I've been feeling like the library's best customer recently . . .
I assume that not all 12 girls and their mothers will want to participate, but a group with 12 mother-daughter pairs would be too large anyway. I think just 4 mother daughter pairs would be enough to make it a success, so I hope we will get that many.
If we were a well-established book group, I think it would be best to have the girls help choose the books. But since this group is just meeting for the summer at this point, and we need a jumpstart, I decided to just pick the six books (we will meet twice a month this summer) and let the girls and moms sign up if they were interested in reading those books.
I was surprised how difficult it was to pick the books! Each book needed:
1) to be relatively short, because we are meeting every two weeks
2) to provide good material for discussion
3) to be interesting and well-written
4) to be in print and available at both our local library and as a cheap paperback at Amazon
5) to include only material that was appropriate for 11 year olds to read and discuss.
(A further stumbling block was that my 11 yr old didn’t want me to plan any books she had already read–and she has read a lot. I ended up planning to read The Giver despite her wishes for new material).
The mix of books I came up with is heavily weighted toward realistic fiction; I struggled to find fantasy and science fiction books that met all of my criteria. These books have some challenging (yet appropriate) topics, but they won’t be a challenge in terms of reading skill. I figure it is better to err on the side of too easy rather than too difficult. These books are also a little on the heavy side–you can’t escape the “life is full of adversity” message in these books–I’m not sure if that comes along with the “good material for discussion” criterion or if the list turned out that way by chance.
Anyway, drumroll please! Here are the books I selected:
Listening for Lions Gloria Whelan (National Book Award winner), 2005
Rachel has lived in British East Africa her entire life, but when the flu epidemic of 1919 leaves her an orphan, she is forced to leave the only home she knows. Scheming neighbors coerce her into pretending to be their deceased daughter and send her to England. Can she undo their web of lies without hurting others? Will she ever be able to return to Africa? Will the mission hospital her parents worked so hard to build ever reopen?
Cousins Virginia Hamilton (Newbery Medal winner), 1990
Cammy loves her brother, mom and grandma—but has a father she doesn’t know and a cousin who is an enemy rather than a friend. She makes a terrible wish that she doesn’t intend to come true, but when it does, her family must help her learn how to heal.
The Breadwinner Deborah Ellis, 2000
Parvana lives under the harsh restrictions of Taliban rule with her family in Afghanistan. When her father disappears, Parvana is the only one able to get food for the family, but she must transform herself into a boy and risk her own safety to do it.
The Bomb Theodore Taylor (author of The Cay) , 1995
Sorry Rinamu lives on Bikini Atoll at the end of World War II. The Americans liberate Bikini from the Japanese, and life is good until the Americans select Bikini as the best place to conduct atomic tests. Sorry and his fellow Islanders are asked to relocate. Will they? Can the tests be stopped?
Out of the Dust (1998 Newbery Medal) Karen Hesse, 1997
This novel is written in free verse. Billie Jo lives in the Oklahoma Dust Bowl during the Great Depression. Her father’s crops fail again and again, dust seeps into their food, their truck, and their piano, and it seems like things can’t get any worse. But then an accident takes her mother and baby brother and Billie Jo’s hands are left burnt and useless. How will she and her father find hope when life seems hopeless?
The Giver (1994 Newbery Medal) Lois Lowry, 1993
In a world with no poverty, no crime, no sickness and no unemployment, and where every family is happy, 12-year-old Jonas is chosen to be the community’s Receiver of Memories. Under the tutelage of the Elders and an old man known as the Giver, he discovers the disturbing truth about his utopian world. (Summary from Amazon.com)
I would not go to Disneyland without Ridemax.* I would not even go to Disneyland without Ridemax if someone else were paying. Not everyone will like Ridemax. For some people, vacations and regimentation are simply opposites that cannot be reconciled. Not me. The planning of the vacation is more fun to me than the vacation.
I don’t worry about lack of spontaneity, I worry about standing in line. What’s spontaneous about standing in line? At Disneyland, if you don’t have a plan, you will stand in line. I haven’t discovered any ride I like so much that I would wait an hour for it. With Ridemax, you can ensure that you only ride when the lines are short. Ridemax tells you what to expect and then you can plan accordingly. For example, if the only time you are free to go to Disney California Adventure (DCA) is at 6:00 p.m.and you hope to ride Toy Story Mania at that time, you will have to wait in line for an hour. Because Ridemax is able to predict the wait for the date and time of day you hope to go, you can decide whether it’s worth it to you to go on that ride at that time.
Also, Ridemax’s predictive powers made splitting up our group much easier. With one part of the group determined to go on Tower of Terror and Mulholland Madness and the other desiring some nice kiddie rides, this was invaluable. I was able to predict what the wait would be on the kiddie rides that time of day and plan fun stuff for the 3 yr old to do while the others used up all the fastpasses.
Ridemax helped me to manage expectations. Our family was slow moving and needed to take a long afternoon break. Most nights we couldn’t stay in the park very late, because we wanted to be at the park very early the next morning to beat the crowds. Obviously, these constraints cut in to how many rides we could ride. Not only did Ridemax help us maximize the number of rides we could ride during our limited time in the park, it also helped me to understand how many rides we would realistically be riding. I could tell my family: “here’s what fits in the time we have today”–and that helped forestall possible disappointment.
Ridemax is written by people who understand the fastpass system and Disney strategy inside and out. Lots of people understand how important it is to get to the park thirty or forty minutes before it opens. But it is common for those same early arrivers to make the mistake of immediately proceeding to the ride they like the best: Space Mountain, for example, and to ride it while there is no waiting. Ridemax asks you to have a little faith and to do some counterintuitive things. Go to Space Mountain and pick up a fastpass even though there is no waiting. Don’t ride it! Why? Well, if you are also planning to go on Dumbo and Peter Pan (or some other popular yet low capacity rides for which there are no fastpasses) you should ride those first–you will then be free to use the fastpass at your leisure.
Caveat: It’s not perfect
While I would definitely buy Ridemax again, it isn’t a perfect program. There are several ways in which the program could be more sophisticated. On the other hand, it costs $15 for a part year subscription, and I wouldn’t want to pay more than that, so how much sophistication can I reasonably hope for?
One thing to understand is that planning your visit to Disneyland with Ridemax will require a little time and trial and error. (If you are a planner, this process is interesting and fun. If you’re not a planner–well, your effort will be rewarded when you don’t have to stand around waiting in the heat.) You probably won’t use the first itinerary you come up with. You will want to make several different itineraries to learn what fits and what doesn’t and to see what tweaks–adding a ride here, or subtracting one there–will make your plans work better. This is especially true if you plan to visit Disneyland and DCA over several days, because it will make more sense to plan certain rides for different days. There are some days that are better for visiting Toontown and some that are better for visiting California Adventure, etc. Also, you probably wouldn’t want to try to ride Peter Pan and Finding Nemo the same day. These things become more obvious as you play with your itineraries.
One obvious problem is that Ridemax doesn’t currently let you schedule shows or parades at Disneyland (they just added this functionality for Disneyworld) into your day. You can schedule two breaks, but that many not be enough when all meals, shows, parades, etc. are considered. I found that the best way of handling breaks or trying to find time to see the shows was to simply select all the rides we wanted to go on, but omit the breaks. If my schedule didn’t end up with natural gaps in it, that meant I had too many rides scheduled. The truth is, the best time to see the shows is during the afternoon when it is hot and the rides are very crowded. Ridemax automatically tends to leave gaps in your schedule during this time because it is the worst time to ride the rides anyway.
Don’t forget that you can create as many itineraries as you need. This is useful not just for envisioning what your day will be like if you enter at 8:00 vs. 8:15 (it’s very different!), but also if you want to parkhop. Simply start your itinerary at the other park at the time you plan to be there and then you will know what to expect in terms of lines and fastpass return times when you arrive. Also, if you end your first itinerary early, to eat dinner or see fireworks, you can then make another itinerary that starts after dinner ends and continues until the time you’ve chosen to leave. Also, if you want to go on Space Mountain three times, just add it to your list of desired rides three times. Ridemax will calculate the most time efficient way for you to satisfy this desire.
Ridemax is not as flexible as would be ideal. For example, there isn’t a way to schedule time for the second parent to ride if you are doing a parent switch in which one parent rides with older children while the other parent waits with the younger (or shorter) child. This isn’t a game ender, even if you plan to do lots of parent switches. You have a few options: plan to use the parent switch fastpass at the beginning or end of your breaks, or have one parent use the fastpass while the other parent takes the other children to the next ride on schedule (with the parent using the fastpass skipping that ride).
Another area in which the program seemed to lack flexibility was in scheduling the runner. Ridemax allows you to indicate that you will be using a runner, someone who is willing to run to another location with the groups’ entry tickets in order to get fastpasses for everyone. Having a runner saves a lot of time. It saves even more time, however, if the runner is okay with the rest of the group going on a ride while the runner gets the fastpasses. However, Ridemax always assumes that the group will wait at the next ride until the runner gets there. If the runner is the Space Mountain person in the family, and everyone else is just standing there waiting and watching the line for Dumbo build, that doesn’t make sense. However, this is another problem that is easy to overcome: just ignore the fact that Ridemax thinks you will wait for the runner and go ahead and get on the ride. The great thing about Ridemax is that you have the rides you plan to go on all mapped out and a predicted time for each one–this makes it much easier to plan how and when you will reunite with your runner (although you will still want your cellphone!)
Thanks to MaryAnn and Sharon whose blogs convinced me to fork over the money for the program. It seemed like an expensive luxury for a single Disney visit at the time, but now I understand that it was an investment in getting full enjoyment out of my parkhopper pass (I did). If you are interested in other positive comments from the web about Ridemax, see here and here.
Look here for more tips on how to get the most out of Ridemax (very helpful). Negative reviews of ridemax are here and here . I think these reviews are mistaken on several points. For each problem they raise, there is either a good response, or at minimum, a reasonably effective workaround. If you have questions about Ridemax or about the points made in the negative reviews, please raise them and I’ll try to answer below.
*I am not affiliated with Ridemax in any way. I paid full price for my use of the program, and I have not received any financial or other advantage from reviewing it here.
I spent too much time today reading the blog archives of a person I don’t know and haven’t met.* A newly discovered really good blog is a pleasure. After a few posts convince you that you want to read more, the excitement of clicking on “archive” and seeing the months unfurl waiting to be read is like looking at a field of snow no one has touched yet: it’s waiting for you.
Late Enough has only a smallish archive, but I’ve read enough to be excited to see more. The genre is classic mommy blog: a daily life answer to what it’s like in the trenches. I found this blog by clicking something over at Every Day I Write the Book. So, not only does Kacy have a great blog of her own (she was already on my blogroll), she also has some really interesting people following her blog.
* “A person I don’t know and haven’t met” is redundant, but I like how it sounds.
I want to recommend the website Urban Spoon. Just like Amazon, TripAdvisor, and Yelp, it features user reviews. Urban Spoon focuses exclusively on restaurants. I like that Urban Spoon is an aggregator–not only does it have user reviews that people type in when they visit the site, but it also gathers critics’ reviews from major newspapers and magazines. For bloggers, they offer ”spoonbacks.” If you put the Urban Spoon image in a review on your blog, they will publish your post on Urban Spoon with a link back to your blog. It gives tiny audience bloggers like me a chance to feel famous (and I can’t help it, I love that!).
Urban Spoon has a section for many of the major cities in the United States. I was pleased to see that they had one for Salt Lake. I was even more pleased to realize that American Fork, Orem, and Provo (as well as several other small Utah cities) are listed as neighborhoods of greater Salt Lake. I was surprised to find how much information they had about restaurants in Orem and Provo.
Urban Spoon also features a very simple thumbs up/thumbs down rating system for restaurants. I admire the simplicity of “like/don’t like,”, but I wish they also offered an “it’s okay” option. Also, of course there is no way to tell whether my vote of “like it” for Golden Corral is because it makes my children so happy or if it is because I am under the impression that it is incredible gourmet fare! But I figure that is what the review section is for. The simple rating system does have some utility. If you sort a city or neighborhood by popularity, the consistently people pleasing restaurants do rise to the top. This is especially valuable if you are looking for a restaurant to take a diverse group of people to.
Other features I appreciate are the wishlist (when you read a great review you can add the restaurant to your wishlist so that you remember to try it in the future), the maps (showing restaurants you’ve reviewed, or restaurants on your wishlist, or Chinese restaurants in a given neighorhood) and the ability to compare reviews and wishlists with friends. Give it a try; see what you think!
Have you already tried Urban Spoon? Do you use another dining review site like Yelp? Why do you like it? I was a fan of TripAdvisor’s reviews, but TripAdvisor has less information about each restaurant, lacks the critics reviews, doesn’t offer a spoonback type feature, and the majority of the reviews are written from the perspective of the tourist rather than the townie. Urban Spoon has won my allegiance.
I visited the Blue Lemon restaurant with high expectations. The good thing about going to a place that has received a lot of hype is that even if you are disappointed, you might still have a pretty good experience. That describes how I felt about the Blue Lemon.
To enjoy Blue Lemon, you need to go knowing what to expect. I hadn’t read the reviews carefully enough.
What Blue Lemon is: Blue Lemon is upscale. The place has a San Francisco vibe, the decor is trendy and pleasing. They serve gourmet-ish food, locally sourced and seasonal food. [Um, how seasonal & locally-sourced can you be around here? Pdad ordered the fruit salad, and I'll just say, I want to see the local farmer who manages cantaloupe in March!]. Healthy food (not fried–except for the sweet potato fries?, not microwaved). Blue Lemon offers beautiful presentation. There will be artful splashes of sauce surrounding something lovely. The food looks good. Rest assured, your Blue Lemon food will taste good.
What Blue Lemon is not: Blue Lemon is not fine dining. It is not the place for a romantic date. (It _is_ child friendly if you are willing to spend $$ for children’s food). Blue Lemon is large and also noisy. You will stand in line and walk down the counter to order–almost a cafeteria type ordering experience–although they do bring the food to your table. The good news about it not being a fine dining experience is that your food will arrive quickly. The bad news is that these are not cafeteria portions. You will get a moderate, Europeanish portion of food. You will not pay cafeteria prices. Fortunately, you would probably not expect to, given the quality and character of the food. If Blue Lemon were a full fine dining experience, the prices would be a bargain.
The service at Blue Lemon is not top notch. Perhaps they are victims of their own popularity. However, it doesn’t matter why; poor service is still not as good as good service. They were completely disorganized. We ordered a fancy drink and had trouble getting anyone to tell us where to find it or when it was coming. (Aside: Do not order a coffee-less fancy coffee drink. BAD IDEA. I don’t know if it is because the coffee makes the drink or if Blue Lemon just isn’t good at drinks in general, but the one we tried was a very poor cousin to the Wendy’s Frosty at 4 times the price.) We wanted to order one of the allegedly fabulous vanilla Nanaimo bars at the Blue Lemon Bistro next door and the counter help (who also help at Blue Lemon) had apparently gone on extended hiatus or forgotten about the Bistro. It was very frustrating. In the end, we had to leave without dessert.
All in all: I am glad that I experienced Blue Lemon. I would probably go again, especially if I happened to be in the area or if someone invited me. I am a fan of tasty and beautiful food. I don’t mind the small portions or the higher than Fresh Mex prices. However, the large and noisy ambience isn’t what I’m looking for. Child-friendly dining can be good, but most children would not be ready to appreciate this food. Good service is a must–I hope for it at fast food places–I expect it at places where the prices are higher. Blue Lemon has room for improvement.
If you go: Blue Lemon 11073 N. Alpine Highway, Highland, UT 84003 (801) 756-7993. Open from 11:00 a.m.-9 p.m. (they close early!) every day but Sunday.
Others’ Reviews:
How can a blog named Chocolate & Garlic skip reviewing an establishment known as The Chocolate? It won’t–here goes: The Chocolate is located in Orem at 212 S. State St. in a historic house from the beginning of the last century. The neat thing about The Chocolate is that it is a bakery, a place where food is made, wedding cakes are ordered, and catering orders are prepared, but it is also a place to eat and a place to spend time with others while eating–definitely not just a bakery.
Eating there made me want to open my own business. It made me sad that I hadn’t thought of The Chocolate first. (Pdad said he thinks I’m better suited to teaching philosophy than to running my own business. I’m not sure he is right, but there is some evidence on his side). I love their choice of building–bakeries are always these antiseptic places with tile, gleaming glass cases, and industrial kitchens. A typical bakery might have a few tables so that you can indulge yourself if you’re not able to wait long enough to transport your guilty pleasure somewhere else, but the emphasis is always on the purchase, not the consumption. The Chocolate is different. The setting is important. This is a place to hang out and have a conversation. This is a place to go on a date. This would be a great place to bring an older child for some special attention and a treat. The required glass cases and cash register are at the front, the bakery is hidden at the back, but much of the rest of the house is open. You’re free to stroll through a few different rooms until you claim the seating nook that speaks comfort to you.
I think it would be tempting at a place like The Chocolate to go too sweet–to be too Victorian or to decorate in pastel pinks and make it too feminine. Don’t fear. If anything, the Chocolate goes a little too far in the other direction–lime green paint in once place, zebra stripe pillows in another–this is not your grandmother’s sitting room. Also, they have music piped through the rooms that suggests youth and energy rather than — I don’t know — afternoon tea with the finger crook’d just so?
As for the guilty pleasures themselves, they don’t go too sweet there either. I am a big fan of their frosting. Not too sweet, but not like eating a stick of butter (yet still plenty buttery), just right. Pdad and I enjoyed three confections there: a slice of Kitty Katrina cake, a mint fudge brownie, and a turtle tart (I think they called it a tart–it was definitely a turtle). We paid $8.45. Their prices seem quite reasonable, food+ setting considered. I can’t imagine buying a full size cake there ($45!), but perhaps that is because I am willing and able to make my own (could you watch my kids for the afternoon, though?). What I easily can imagine though is sampling a slice and sharing it with someone else. The cake slice and brownie were large, and although the turtle was smaller, three desserts was definitely more than two people post-dinner needed (but there were so many things we wanted to try!). The caramel on the turtle was sublime, but I thought the crust was a bit too hard. I wouldn’t order the turtle again. The mint brownie was good–it was a muted mint–similar yet superior to BYU’s famous mint brownies. As I said, the frosting on the Kitty Katrina cake was wonderful. Surprisingly, when we visited (and admittedly the selection was running low at the end of the evening on a Saturday) the majority of the desserts were not chocolate.
All in all: I hope to make many return visits to the Chocolate. I love the concept–desserts only, historic house, find your own table, no one rushes you, stay and talk. The desserts are pretty good too!
If you go: The Chocolate opens at 11 a.m. every day but Sunday. Monday, Tuesday, and Thursday, they stay open until 10:00 p.m. Wednesday, Friday and Saturday they stay open until 11 p.m. Who ever heard of a bakery open until11 p.m.? It’s The Chocolate! (801) 224-7334. 212 S. State, Orem, UT. See also The Chocolate Website and The Chocolate Blog
Others’ Reviews:
Daily Herald
Joe’s Cafe is located across State Street from the University Mall in Orem. Joe is open until 4 p.m. and he serves breakfast and lunch all day. The menu has waffles, pancakes, eggs, omelets, sandwiches, and hamburgers. There are a few kid’s meals as well. I thought the food was really good. Reviews I’d read before visiting had led me to believe that portions would be huge, but that wasn’t the case on our visit. The serving sizes were just average. We tried the Western Omelet, the ABC (Avocado-Bacon-Cheese) omelet, the pancake combo, the Belgian waffle, and a corndog. Everyone liked their order; my Western omelet was really good. I enjoyed the feeling of eating real homestyle food, freshly prepared. It was caloric yes, but the ingredients were honest ones, the ones I would put in at home, not something concocted to tempt my metabolism in a laboratory. Prices were not cheap, but reasonable.
Although Joe’s is relatively new, I noticed multiple regulars stop by during our visit.
The restaurant is narrow, but by going all the way to the back we did manage to find a table that seated the five of us and found room for our stroller. (There is parking in back of the restaurant). Unfortunately, this isn’t a comfy booth type of place: just little tables and chairs. I like the way Joe’s is decorated with vibrant yellow paint on top, and black (is it called wainscoting or beadboard?) on the bottom. The walls are covered with snapshots. Every photograph includes Joe, the chef and owner, along with a group of first time visitors. The photo-taking is an ongoing process; we had our picture taken today. Joe is extremely outgoing; he checked several times to make sure we were happy. He noticed that our 6 year old had finished his Belgian Waffle kid’s meal while the rest of us were still eating and offered to bring him another half on the house. He counseled us to buy the lad “a big boy meal” the next time we stop by.
All in all: I wouldn’t say that Joe’s was amazing, but I will definitely eat there again. I am eager to try the hamburgers on my next visit.
If you go: 1126 S. State St., Orem, UT 84097, (801) 607-5377, open every day but Sunday until 4 p.m. Breakfast and Lunch served all day.
Others’ Reviews:
Regular subscribers: My apologies for what is doubtless a boring topic for you. I wrote this up mostly for myself and also for any possible hapless internet searchers. Just skip to the next post in your reader. Thanks!
Diane’s Wig Shop–Orem. Small shop, but they’ve fit a lot of wigs in there! They carry mostly Jon Renau, Raquel Welch and Revlon. There is never more than one person working there at a time. If you buy a wig somewhere else (the internet, for example), they are willing to thin and style it and help you with it for $35. This service is free if you buy the wig from them. It is best to call ahead for an appointment, but it is possible to get help if you walk in and they aren’t busy with another customer. Diane is knowledgeable and ready to offer advice on choosing a color. Prices appear to be 10-20% higher than at the other shops. 347 E. University Parkway, Orem, UT 84058 (801) 224-5070
Creative Wigs & Toupees– 2 locations–one in Sandy and one in Salt Lake. Visit both locations while you are in the area (as well as Headcovers by Joni) because they are less than 20 minutes apart. The Sandy shop is smaller and has a more limited selection than the Salt Lake shop. The person who helped me at the Sandy shop, Linda, was willing to steer me away from wigs she thought didn’t work. The Salt Lake location of Creative Wig was the largest shop I visited. It was impressive because they had several styling chairs and many, many wigs on display as well as more stock tucked away in the back. There were at least 3 employees there at the same time when I was there and they stayed busy! I didn’t get the name of the woman who helped me there. She seemed nice initially, but started helping someone else, and then never came back to see how I was doing. I think she had perhaps (correctly) identified me as a difficult customer: I’m interested in finding something as close as possible to my own hair color rather than going blond or redheaded just because that’s what they happen to have in stock. Go figure. But I was still surprised to be abandoned without any notice. 814E. 9400S. Sandy, UT 84094 (801) 553-0669 and 1124 E. 3300 S. Salt Lake City, UT 84106 (801) 486-4604
Headcovers by Joni–If you visit the Salt Lake location of Creative Wig you should also stop by Headcovers by Joni as they are both on 3300 South in Salt Lake. It is a fairly small shop, but they have a surprising amount of inventory for their size. I met three of the people who work there (but not all on the same day–on any given visit there will be only one or two people working). Joni is the owner. She is also the most experienced and has a lot of experience styling and thinning wigs. She does get cranky with people who stay and stay and stay and can’t make up their minds (it wasn’t me!) Camille, another employee, also styles and thins the wigs if you purchase one, but she has less experience with wigs (as opposed to regular hair) than Joni. She is extremely patient. If you really don’t know what you want and just want to try a whole lot of different pieces, she is a good person to work with. Unfortunately, her opinions lack credibility because she will tell you that you look great in everything you try on. Janet is the person to see if you need an opinion. She doesn’t mind telling you which wig she thinks suits you and which doesn’t work. However, if you are hoping to find the wig you are looking for and to have it styled and wear it home that very day, Janet doesn’t style wigs, so you need to go on a day when either Camille or Joni will be there. 2286 E. 3300 S. Salt Lake city, UT 84109 (801)467-5665 or 1-866-700-5664
My favorite so far: Brooke by Jon Renau
The local shops are all willing to order in a different color (although they like the idea of you buying out of their inventory on hand even better!) or possibly even a different style. However, if you order something in, many of the advantages of buying at a local shop v. the internet (seeing how the wig looks before you buy it, for example) vanish. It is cheaper to buy from the internet, but then of course you have to add back in the cost of having your wig styled.
My favorite internet wig sites are Wigs.com, e-wigs.com , and theheadshoponline.com. Wigs.com is great because they have made videos displaying many of their wigs and this gives you a much better idea of the wig than just a picture. E-wigs has fabulous personal service. If you call their 1-800 number, Marty will answer the phone and take time to answer endless questions and give you his e-mail address in case you have more questions later. Unfortunately, if you are a Utah resident, e-wigs costs more because of sales tax. Theheadshoponline.com (be careful typing that or or you will end up at a very different website!) has the best search filters.
Earlier post on similar topic: Wigging Out