Yesterday I blogged about toy store Creative Kidstuff enticing adults with mimosas, and today I heard of an event at Wild Rumpus childrens' bookstore in Minneapolis that's even more tempting for grown ups than kids.

One-time St. Paul resident, indie/folk musician Haley Bonar will be in store on Monday, November 16 for a special musical performance for the release of her children's EP, Sing With Me. Haley's music is regularly played on the Current so hip mamas and papas will likely enjoy this show as much as the kids will. The event is during Wild Rumpus' weekly Tail Time story time at 10.30 a.m., and it's free. Tail Time is very popular even without music stars, so get there early.

This Friday, November 13, local toy store Creative Kidstuff will be opening their newest location in St. Louis Park. The store, in the new Shops at West End development, is Creative Kidstuff's seventh store in the Twin Cities, and their largest.

Creative Kidstuff has been a favorite destination for holiday toy shopping and birthday gifts for over twenty years. The local-grown chain has six other locations, in Edina, Maple Grove, Minnetonka, St. Paul, and Woodbury, and the original store in Minneapolis' Linden Hills.

Tots are bound to love the giant cat that welcomes shoppers into the St. Louis Park store, but the store knows how to temp the grown ups too.

On November 21, early birds or night owls can shop kid-free at each of Creative Kidstuff's seven stores, enjoy mimosas in the morning or wine and dessert in the evening, and revive free gift wrap on every purchase. Reservations are required by calling the store you'd like to shop at, and it's for adult only, before and after the stores's regular opening hours.

While the stores are going to be full of turkeys until Thanksgiving, if you want to be sure of the perfect turkey, you'll need to order it now. And that's especially true if the perfect turkey is a Minnesota-raised turkey, a free range turkey and an organic turkey.

Stores and co-ops and butchers are taking orders for Thanksgiving turkeys from now until mid-November. Here's where to get organic, free range Minnesota turkeys in Minneapolis and St. Paul.

About half a million Minnesotans will be going deer hunting this weekend for the season opener, and between them shoot 200,000 deer during the season. In recent years, hunting restrictions have been liberalized in parts of Minnesota to lower deer populations, but when hunters shoot more deer than they will consume, what can be done with the surplus carcasses?

Since 2007, the Minnesota Department of Natural Resources and the Minnesota Department of Health has been running a program for hunters to donate deer carcasses to food shelves.

Participating meat processors take the carcasses, cut and wrap the meat which is then sent to a nearby food shelf to be distributed to needy families. Venison is considered to be a healthy source of protein, having a low fat and cholesterol content, and can be used in much the same way as beef - how about venison chilli?

Over 30 meat processors in Minnesota are participating in the program. To donate a deer, it must be a whole carcass, field dressed, with the hide intact. It must have been hunted legally and have a Minnesota DNR registration tag. There is no cost to the hunter - they have to sign a donation form, and then the venison can go to feed hungry families.

• Minnesota Department of Natural Resources Deer Donation Page
• Registered Meat Processors for Venison Donation Program
• Guide to donating a hunter-harvested deer

Design Collective in Minneapolis has been representing local fashion designers and artists for several years now at their Uptown Store. Among the Minnesota designers who have work for sale at Design Collective are Project Runway alumni Katherine Gerdes, screenprint fashionista darlings Calpunia Peach and rock band poster designers Burlesque North America. Much of what Design Collective carries is from Minneapolis designers and locally made, the goods on offer range from homespun crafty accessories to very professional clothing and handbags.

This month, St. Paul gets an equivalent establishment in the up-and-coming West Seventh neighborhood. The West Seventh area of St. Paul, currently home to the abandoned Schmidt Brewery and dilapidated Victorian homes, has potential to be the next hot area of the Twin Cities. West Seventh is lined with a wide variety of independent businesses, many of which have been in operation for a generation or two. And mixed in are the recent arrivals in the neighborhood like the Mississippi Market co-op, just opened on West Seventh, and independent community coffee shops like Mad Hatters and Rudies Coffee Shop.

W7 Collective is at 1032 West Seventh Street, in the triangular Pilney Building. The store will be selling work by independent fashion designers, artists and photographers. W7 Collective is only open on the second weekend of the month, which in perfect time for you to check it out, is Thursday through Saturday, November 12, 13 and 14. W7 Collective promises live music on Friday evening, and cupcakes, the perfect compliment to rocking and yummy local and national designers' wares. The designers represented will change every month, so keep an eye on W7 Collective's Facebook page to see who's work you can shop for.

Now it's November, the Holiday season is well and truly apon us. I saw more than one home taking down Halloween decorations and putting up Christmas lights today. This year, I moved to a new home much nearer to downtown Minneapolis and I'm excited to take my family to two of the best -and free - holiday attractions in the Twin Cities.

Dayton's Holiday Show.... yes, it's been Macy's for a good while now, but you or someone you know probably still calls it that. Macy's Holiday Show, the animatronic puppet display is entitled "A Day in the Life of an Elf". Does that sound familiar? It's the same as last year, back by popular demand, with a few extra additions, like a classroom for the elves. The Annual Macy's Holiday show is open daily from Saturday November 21 until December 30, except Christmas Day. Admission is free, so long as you resist the cookies and the toy store and the opportunity to have your kiddies photo taken with Santa...

The Holidazzle Parade As long as the wind isn't howling, then this is a beautiful event. The annual Holidazzle Parade, actually Parades, fill Nicollet Mall on Thursday, Friday, Saturday and Sunday with a fairytale of music and lights. The first Holidazzle Parade is Friday November 27, and the last one is Sunday December 20. Annual attendance for the 15 Holidazzle parades totals around 300,000 people so expect parking to be a pain and take public transit if possible.

We did our back yard this week, and with all the rain and wind the tree in our front yard will soon be bare and it'll be time to rake the grass there too.

For newcomers to the area, there are no metro-wide rules for getting leaves removed, except that it's illegal everywhere to dump your leaves into the street. Rules regarding leaves and yard waste vary from city to city. Whether your city collects your trash or if you have hired one of the several trash companies that serve the Twin Cities to do it, all collect yard waste. Some cities and companies include yard waste collection in the standard charge, others charge extra. Some come by with scheduled yard waste collection times, others you'll have to call to arrange collection. Most haulers stop yard waste collection in mid to late November.

If you have more than your trash collector will haul, or if you don't want to pay your trash collector to take it, you can take your leaves and yard waste to a yard waste or leaf recycling site. There are several across the Twin Cities run by cities, counties and trash haulers. Check your city and county website for the nearest one to you - http://www.yourcity.mn.us - is the format for all Minnesota city websites.

Another option, and one that's kinder to the environment, is to keep them for your garden. Pile the leaves up and then leave them for a year, letting them turn into leaf mold, which is full of nutrients for your garden. Or with a little more work, you can make leaf mulch, or add them to compost. No hauling fees and save on a couple of bags of compost next year.

If you are planning on bagging and hauling, or have someone else haul, your leaves, this is the last year you'll be able to use black plastic bags to do it. Next year, all yard waste must be bagged in compostable bags or trash collectors won't collect it. The idea is to make the process of composting yard waste more efficient and environmentally friendly. Everyone in the Twin Cities, that is, except people living in the city of Minneapolis who get an extra three years for the city to work the new regulations into their already complex trash hauling system.

For most of us, it's unthinkable to imagine we'd survive winter without a nice warm coat. But many people in Minnesota don't have a winter coat, and the expense of keeping growing children in coats means that thousands of kids in the Metro area don't have a winter coat or jacket.

If you or your children need a winter coat, but can't afford to buy one, here's a list of local organizations who can help.

Sharing And Caring Hands - Minneapolis - 612-338-4640
Ronald McDonald House - Minneapolis - 612-331-5752
Catholic Charities - Minneapolis - 612-664-8500
Lutheran Social Services - St. Paul - 651-969-2334
St. Louis Park Emergency Program, STEP - St. Louis Park - 952-925-4899
CEAP - Brooklyn Park - 763-566-9600
Hope for the City - Minnetonka - 952-897-7799
Sabathani Community Center - Minneapolis - 612-821-2347
Joseph's Coat - St. Paul - 651-291-2472
The Salvation Army - Metrowide, coats will be available from October 29 -651-746-3412
People Serving People - Minneapolis - 612-332-4500
Neighbors, Inc - South St. Paul - 651-455-1508
CHAP Ministries - Burnsville - 952-890-8222

These organizations can only help those in need with the assistance of donations. If you have a spare winter coat in good condition, or just found out that your kids grew out of last year's coats during the summer, or your teenagers can't possibly be seen in last year's coat - donating them to one of the organizations above can make the difference between a miserable, cold winter, and a warm one to whoever receives it. Donating clothing to a non-profit organization is tax deductible. Check the website of the organizations closest to you for donation information.

While coats and warm jackets are needed the most, other seasonal wear like winter boots, hats, warm gloves, and other seasonally appropriate clothing are also needed.

Another way to donate a coat and get something in return is to take it to Midwest Mountaineering, the outdoor outfitters in Minneapolis, between now and October 31. If you bring a new or gently used coat or winter jacket to the store, they'll give you 10% off the purchase of a new winter coat from the store. Last time I was in Midwest Mountaineering, their rails were packed with new arrival coats, for urban wear and for outdoor adventures.

Kylie Gibbons is a five-year-old from Falcon Heights who suffers from the rare and debilitating disease tuberous sclerosis complex, TSC, which causes benign tumors to grow in the body. In Kylie's case, she has almost 30 tumors in her brain causing developmental delays and potentially life-threatening seizures. There is no cure for TSC.

Kylie has between one and five seizures every day, and since she was born has slept in her parents bedroom. Her mom and dad are afraid that she may have a seizure in the middle of the night that they won't hear until it's too late.

While researching ways to share some of the responsibility of looking after Kylie 24 hours a day, the Gibbons, who also have two younger children, Ava and Sheamus, discovered that specially trained dogs can help seizure patients. The dogs are trained to recognize the signs of a seizure and alert others to get help. Some seizure dogs have even bonded with their owners so much that they seem to be able to recognize that a seizure is coming before their owner does, and can warn them to sit or lie down to avoid injuries from falls, then get help.

Midwest Assistance Dogs of Indiana will be providing Kylie's dog. But training a seizure dog is expensive - around $6000 for the initial training, then more for transportation to Minnesota and more training to enable the dog to work with Kylie's specific needs.

So this year, Kylie's family has organized a Halloween fundraising event to raise money towards Kylie's seizure dog. Kylie's grandmother, Karen, is holding the event at her home in St. Paul. But this isn't your normal house.  Grandma Karen loves Halloween so much that she has her very own haunted house in the back yard, and neighborhood kids come trick-or-treating by the hundreds every year.

As well as the haunted house, there will also be pirates, witches, ghosts, graves, games, treats and prizes. It's a family friendly event, designed to be fun rather than frightening even for young children. There will be indoor and outdoor activities so the event will go on, rain, shine or snow.

The Halloween Spooktacular for Kylie is at 801 Lakeview Avenue in the Como Park neighborhood of St. Paul. The event runs from 10 a.m. to 3 p.m on October 31.

The event costs $5 per person, up to $20 maximum per family.

More information at http://www.halloweenspooktacular.myevent.com

_{Beautiful five-year-old Kylie Gibbons. Photo courtesy Gibbons Family}

Unless you've been living in a cave, you'll know it's flu season and you've heard all about Swine Flu, H1N1 flu, and regular flu.

Health officials recommend that at-risk individuals get a flu shot in the fall. This year it's a little more complicated, because the regular seasonal flu shot doesn't protect against H1N1 flu. So, to be protected, you'll need both a seasonal flu vaccine and a H1N1 vaccine.

Regular flu shots are currently in short supply. People who are at the most risk of complications from flu have priority - the very young, those with chronic diseases, pregnant women, health care workers, those with exposure to the general public - over healthy adults.  Flu shots are available at your regular doctor's office, some Target and Walgreens stores, pharmacies and local clinics. The Minnesota Department of Health has a list of clinics with the regular seasonal flu shot.

Minnesota hasn't received all the doses of flu shots that would be needed for everyone who wants one. The MDH expects to have more shots to vaccinate everyone in at-risk groups soon, and enough to meet the expected demand by Thanksgiving.

That's regular seasonal flu. Then, there's H1N1 flu, which the seasonal flu shot doesn't protect against. And, unfortunately, most cases of flu this season are indeed H1N1. Mercifully H1N1 doesn't appear to be the certain death that some though it would be, but it's still a nasty illness and still fatal in a number of cases.

Minnesota only has very limited numbers of H1N1 shots and currently those are reserved for the most at-risk people. The H1N1 vaccine in the state has been randomly distributed between clinics in Minnesota, the only one I could find in the Metro area is Park Nicollet, who have a limited supply reserved for high-risk patients, and Southdale Pediatrics, who have a very limited supply for high risk patients seen in their offices. A few other clinics, like Fairview Clinics, have vaccine but are contacting their high risk patients to arrange vaccinations, it isn't available to anyone else yet. The MDH expects to have more vaccine available in the next two or three weeks. Again, the majority of doses may not arrive until late November, but eventually there should be enough for everyone who wants one.

So, for now, most of us have to wait for the flu shot. Take precautions to avoid the flu like frequent handwashing to avoid getting sick, and if you are sick, stay home until your symptoms have cleared up.

More Information: Minnesota Department of Health's Flu Information