Once again, the merchants at Cameron Village in Raleigh are hosting a sidewalk sale this weekend. The sale runs Friday and Saturday from 10 a.m. to 6 p.m. ...

The Capital City Grocery store in Raleigh's Seaboard Station will celebrate its first anniversary tomorrow.

From noon until 10 p.m., there will be a FREE event featuring live bands, kids' entertainment, FREE wine tastings for the grown-ups, and multiple local vendor stations. Check out the Capital City Grocery Web site here.

I mentioned the Cow Appreciation promotion at Chick-fil-A stores that is ongoing this summer. Stores choose the week in which they want to participate, so there's no real set schedule. But I can say that the North Hills store and the store on Capital Boulevard in Raleigh are both participating this week, today through Saturday.

There's a different schedule of events for each store. Click read more to view them.

Also, the Capital Boulevard store will be having a fund-raiser for Ella Newmiller on Saturday. Ella is a 5-year-old who was diagnosed with an inoperable brain stem tumor. She was the topic of a recent post on our Mom2Mom Web site.

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If you didn't get your fill of fireworks last night, you have another chance tonight. For the first time, Brier Creek will be putting on a fireworks display, starting at 9 p.m. tonight. The event is free. Recommended viewing areas include Brier Creek Commons, located at Brier Creek Parkway and Highway 70, and Brierdale Shopping Center, located at Brier Creek Parkway and Lumley Road. And the merchants in Brier Creek Commons are hosting a sidewalk sale this weekend, if you feel like getting there early...

If you're looking for something to do with your kids on the Fourth of July, there will be a children's parade at the shopping center from 11 a.m. to 3 p.m. Registration begins at 11 a.m., and the admission fee is a can of food for Wake Relief. The parade begins at 11:30 and will feature a prize for best costume.

The seventh Rock & Shop Market will be taking place tomorrow (Saturday) from 1 to 5 p.m. at the Tir Na Nog in Downtown Raleigh (218 S. Blount St.). The market will feature more than 30 designers selling their wares and live performances by Red Collar & The Secret Theatre. In addition, there will be a silent auction at the event with proceeds benefiting Nest, an organization providing micro-loans to women entrepreneurs in third-world countries. According to the event Web site, it looks like there's a $3 cover and the first 50 people to arrive will get a free cotton tote bag filled with goodies.

For those of you who enjoy hunting for unique items at unique stores, you might want to check out the sidewalk sale in Raleigh's Five Points neighborhood this weekend. As you can see, the sale runs this Friday and Saturday, beginning for each store when the store opens its doors for the day.

Merchants offering up to 50 percent off on select items include: Acquisitions, Ltd., Adlib Antiques, Aloma Crenshaw Antiques
Antiques at Five Points, ArtSource Five Points, Brown Bird, Davenport Florist at Five Points, Five Points Jewelers, Hayley’s, Lilly’s Pizza, NOFO at the Pig and Whitnee’s Antique.

I've never really fancied dressing up like a cow and going out in public. But if that's something you would do, on July 11, you can get something in return! That's the annual Cow Appreciation Day at Chick-fil-A stores nationwide. Patrons who dress up like cows get a FREE sandwich or meal (full cow costume gets you a meal, partial cow gear earns you a sandwich).

Also, our area Chick-fil-A stores are participating in customer appreciation events this summer. Each store that is participating will offer a week's worth of events , giveaways and specials. Unfortunately, there's no set schedule. Each store picks the week in which it wants to participate. So the best advice is to keep your ears and eyes open in your local store for moos... er, I mean news.

For some reason, the other day, I was thinking about this year's sales tax holiday, when things like clothes and school supplies are available without sales tax for one weekend.

This year's North Carolina tax holiday will run 12:01 a.m. Aug. 1 through 11:59 p.m. Aug. 3, if you want to put it on your calendar. You can find the official list of tax-exempt items on the Department of Revenue Web site here. It makes me laugh every year that "rubber pants" are on the list...

To celebrate the official start of Summer, Solstice stores are offering customers a $50 store gift card with a purchase of $195 or more. The promotion runs through July 31 and the gift cards are good through Aug. 31. In addition, if you visit a Solstice store, you can enter to win a $1,000 Solstice shopping spree. We have stores in Raleigh's Crabtree Valley Mall and Durham's Streets at Southpoint.