Everywhere: Blue Print Cleanse

I've been researching juice cleanses for the last few weeks and have finally settled on Blue Print Cleanse's Juice 'Til Dinner program. I've been afraid I'd set myself up to fail if I did a full on juice-only cleanse, so Juice 'Til Dinner seems like a more feasible option for me. 

My two-day cleanse begins on January 6 when I'll receive what you see above: four juices to drink throughout the day, a snack, a raw dinner, and a treat to finish my day. Do you feel like I do? Like you need to flush your system of all the booze and caffeine? I just feel...heavy. Hopefully two days is just enough for me to succeed without cheating. Won't you join me? Or tell you what. If I can get through this, let's try to do a full on juice cleanse in February. What say, friends?

Austin: Spartan

Dying over these. I don't have a baby in my future, but a lot of my friends do. BHH, Mon, and CJS, I think I may have found a little something for the new members of the fam.

 Available now at Spartan

Everywhere: Emmanuelle Alt

Nothing new to say. Just love EA's uniform. 

Dallas: Beyond Pedaling

Holy smackers, I'm so excited! In just a few weeks we can all ring in the new year at Brandi Marino's newest exercise space, Beyond Pedaling Studio. You know Marino from her rear-end firming joint Beyond Pilates. Her classes have whipped countless softies into shape and now comes news of her cardio- and endurance-focused cycling studio.

Marino's new spot in Snider Plaza has 30 bikes and once it's opened, Beyond Pilates and Beyond Pedaling will have a joint booking system where you can choose which spot to work out in. Think about it: one place to tone and firm, one place to go into cardio overdrive. My Christmas present to myself? A 15-session package that I can use to transform my post holiday ass into shape. 

Juarez: Project Paz

While not in Texas, Juarez still has an impact on the lives of many Texans, particularly those in El Paso. Last year Sara Beltran and Karla Martinez introduced me to Project Paz, a non-profit organized by NYC-based fashion folks who hail from Juarez and El Paso.

 Project Paz raises funds to promote projects aimed at building peace and to help victims of border violence. Now you can shop one of kind collections by designers like Wes Gordon, Dezso, Peter Som, 3.1 Phillip Lim at L-Atitude that all benefit the organization. Click here to see what's the what. 

El Paso: Sara Beltran

People! Not only did Sarasita have an amazing front of the book feature in T Magazine last month, but now you can see her in action in her interview on CNN Mexico!  Click here to see.

Nena, te ves hermosa!

Houston: Miu Miu

Guess what just opened at the Houston Galleria?

Just in time to scoop up a new year's eve frock. 

Houston: Sunday Riley Cosmetics

Houston's Sunday Riley has finally launched cosmetics. If they're anything like her skincare line - I can't live without Juno Lipid Serum or Good Genes - then I'll be an automatic convert.

The full line - which has lipsticks, glosses, eyeshadows, mascara - will be rolled out in 2012, but click here for a sneak peek at what's available now at Barneys.

Dallas: Khloe Kardashian-Odom

And now I'm going to pull a complete 180 and say how excited I am about Khloe Kardashian-Odom moving to Dallas. There you go. From literary geniuses to a Kardashian sister's relocation. 

Me and KK gonna be frenz. Prom prom. 

Dallas: Arts & Letters Live

The Dallas Museum of Art has just announced its schedule for 2012 and it's soooo good. 

(omg. so freaking cute)

I just bought tickets for Jeffrey Eugenides, David Sedaris, and John Irving and may have to go back and get tix for Paula McClain, whose book The Paris Wife had me wanting to punch Hemingway in the face this past summer. 

Austin: Hayden Dunham

Using human hair, plastic, metal, and leather Austin-native  Hayden Dunham has created art that can be worn as an accessory. 

 Her collection of necklaces and bolo ties, called New Dust, have been picked up by Colette in Paris.

 And by JF & Son in New York City

 What do you think? Would this be something you'd wear around your neck? 

 I think a trio of these would be kind of fantastic on a white wall. 

There's something Mad Max futuristic tribal about them, no? Here's a more in-depth story about Dunham on CultureMap. 

Everywhere: Warby Parker

How cute is this gift idea from Warby Parker? You send the recipient a box of five frames to try on along with a $95 gift card. Your love gets to try on each frame, order the pair they love, and send the try-on frames back. Genius. 

El Paso: RTH Shop in Los Angeles

I need to make it to RTH Shop next time I'm in LA. Owned and curated by El Paso-bred Rene Holguin, this spot has a distinct Texas border-cool vibe to it. From the looks of it, it's no surprise that Holguin spent time in visual merchandising at Levi's, J. Crew, and Ralph Lauren. Read more about it here.

Dallas: Forty Five Ten

Get something, give something. This sweet little $75 bracelet by The Woods is now up for grabs at Forty Five Ten, the proceeds of which will benefit The Family Place. 

Forty Five Ten is also offering two other items - Jennifer Rubell salsa and Mungo and Maud pet accessories - that will benefit The Dallas Contemporary and Rescue Me, respectively. 

Austin: JM Dry Goods

We need longer have to fly and drive all the way to Marfa for well-curated goods from Mexico.

 JM Dry Goods has opened shop in Austin.

 I first met the owner Michelle Teague while I was in Marfa on assignment for Texas Monthly, which yielded the September 2009 Street Smarts column. 

 Teague moved to Marfa after working as a costumer on the set of "There Will Be Blood." 

 And she opened the store and filled it with beautiful blouses, bags, hammocks, and palm frond necklaces that she picked up on her travels to Mexico.

I bought a Mexican house dress from there about a year ago and I wear it just about every night and still have it on while I fix my kids breakfast and pack their lunches (I'm wearing it now). I wonder if I look like my mother and grandmother to them as I putter about wearing it. 

College Station: Joshua Bienko

Meet the work of Texas A&M professor Joshua Bienko.

 In his series, Ever So Much More So, Bienko recreated the iconic work of Warhol, Murakami, Koons, and Duchamp

on the red soles of Christian Louboutins

 It's interesting commentary, no?

 If you think that this kind of contemporary art - soup cans, balloon dogs, urinals - is bullshit, then you can literally walk all over it. 

But if you love it - that would be me - the art you'd have would be two-fold. Gorgeous shoes with a distinct image, plus having to practice the art of restraint cause one walk in these and they'd be in ruins.  

Dallas: Taylor Tomasi Hill

By now you're sure to know that Dallas-born and -bred Taylor Tomasi Hill was snatched from her style and accessories directorship at Marie Claire by Moda Operandi to be their new artistic director. 

 While at MC she'd begun working on an eponymous capsule collection for Hong Kong's super luxe department store, Lane Crawford, and it's set to hit shelves in January.

 From what I've read so far she's doing a version of her ever present cat eye glasses, some lace skirts, and other TTH-inspired closet staples. Now if I can just figure out how to get my hands on some of this stuff stateside, I'll be good.

I mean, really. How fabulous is she?

Dallas: Bistro 31

For about a month now I've been going to Bistro 31 a little too often for lunch. There is something about the location and atmosphere here that makes me want to linger for hours over a glass of wine. Which, btw, I really don't have the time or alcohol tolerance for. 

The last time I was there I had a three-hour lunch - I convinced myself that I was owed 3 hours to bs over crostinis and pasta because I met a deadline - and the people that walked in with the same thing on their minds made me feel totally validated. At the table next to me was super agent Jan Miller (she reps Phil McGraw, Maria Shriver, Rob Lowe, Nicole Richie, the list goes on. If you're a writer, you know her), at the table behind me was the Dallas Museum of Art's Art Ball co-chair Julie Hawes, mingling in the back was writer Eric O'Keefe, and off to the side was blogging phenoms Hanh Merriman and Nini Nguyen. 

 And now that Bistro is serving breakfast, my a.m. hours are about to be hijacked, too. 

But I do have a question: Is the influx of relentless traffic in Highland Park Village killing you like it's killing me? I used to pop in to HPV all the time for a coffee, to pick up flowers at Avant Garden, take my kids to Mi Cocina. Valet for coffee? No, thanks. The new restaurants are creating a bit of a cluster, no? 

Dallas: Miles Fisher

I'm obsessed with Miles Fisher. Ob. Sessed.

The super talented actor/singer, who happens to be the son of the president of the Dallas Federal Reserve, graduated from Harvard and was a member of the university's a cappella group, Krokodiloes.

He gained some notoriety with this hysterical Tom Cruise spoof, left over footage from the film Superhero Movie and this month you can catch him in Clint Eastwood's J. Edgar.  
Love his music, too. Buy his songs here.

Dallas: Jean Paul Gaultier

Just back from the media preview of the Jean Paul Gaultier exhibit at the DMA and I'm telling you, rush, rush, rush over there this Sunday, November 13 for the opening. 

 Monsieur Gaultier has been in Dallas for the past fews days (he had dinner at Al Biernat's night before last and Al's team refused to let him pay. Gaultier then sent over a huge thank you basket to the restaurant yesterday) and there was an interesting discussion with him about his work.

 He told us about his grandmother's influence on him and how she told him about corset-wearing ladies drinking vinegar to induce contractions so every time they hiccuped they'd pull in their corset straps tighter to get the smallest waistline possible. 

 The first thing a little mind boggling about the exhibition is some of the mannequins. When you first walk in you can't tell if the faces on them are moving, if it's a real human being, or if your head is tripping.

 Then you soon realize that a video loop of a real human face is being projected onto each two dimensional mannequin face, creating an animated talking being.

 The Dallas Museum of Art is host to the exhibit's U.S. debut. Not LA, not NY, not Chicago. Dallas. This is big. 

 Olivier Meslay, the museum's interim director said it best: "The perception of Dallas is not what Dallas actually is. Dallas has many races, many cultures. The Jean Paul Gaultier exhibitions reflects what Dallas is." Well, maybe not that lady riding a man like a horse, but you get the idea. 

 For many this will be the first time they'll get to see what haute couture looks like, a chance to really examine the construction of a piece of clothing and why so many people consider it an art. 

 The Fashion World of Jean Paul Gaultier: From the Sidewalk to the Catwalk opens this Sunday, November 13 and runs through February 12, 2012.