Dallas: Little Bean + Rikshaw Design = !!!

I know that this is essentially a month off, but I just had to let you know about this Labor Day weekend celebration at Little Bean. To toast the East Dallas children's boutique's one year anniversary Rikshaw Design will have a pop-up shop on Friday, September 3 from 6-8 pm hosted by Simple Lovely and Little Bean.

Rikshaw Designer Catherine Fitzsimmons will have a gob of her boho baby clothing, women's kurtas, and bedding all made with hand-blocked Indian cotton voile. Can. Not. Wait.

Dallas: Gina Marie Dunn

I'm a person who loves artists. Their energy, their perspective, how they can turn the mundane, say cardboard boxes, into something that shouts about homelessness (anyone remember that from The Dallas Contemporary 2 years ago) or makes you delight in childlike wonder (the kids art house at the DMA). Art forces you to think. Makes you engage. And the best part is there is no wrong answer.

I was just looking at Dallas-based artist Gina Marie Dunn's blog - which I love because she regularly posts a painting and then a poem, a two-hit of creativity- and she's discussing her new work. Visit her blog for the listings of her upcoming shows in Texas including one this Thursday in Snider Plaza.

El Paso: The Garden

A month of so ago I posted about a great restaurant in EP called Crave. An EP friend of mine, Marcelle Purdy, told me about a new-ish place opened by the same owners of Crave called The Garden. Now, I've not been there yet so I can't vouch for it myself, but because Crave left such a good impression on me and Purdy runs with a very fashionable crowd, I can't imagine that anything else opened by the same group of folks wouldn't also wow.

The Garden is downtown (right around the corner from The Plaza Theatre) and from what I've been told its covered outdoor patio brims with a pretty crowd of 30-somethings sipping cocktails and puffing away on Montecristo Churchills from the in-house cigar humidor. The menu sounds classic American with items like pan-roasted chicken, grilled trout, and baby back ribs, dishes that will always satisfy, but not blow your socks off. Anyone have a first-person account of The Garden?

Austin, Houston, Dallas: Shipley & Halmos

Attention Houston, Austin, and Dallas: Shipley & Halmos is coming to a CO-OP near you. Not just the line, but the designers behind the line, Sam Shipley and Jeff Halmos. This month they are traveling to Barneys CO-OP locations around the country to meet their customers and snap a few shots of their favorite folks, in a photo booth no less, for inclusion in a book they are to publish later this year. Each person will also have a questionnaire to fill out that will accompany their photo if they make it into the limited edition book. Can you imagine? You in a book. What could be better?

Click here for dates.

Marfa: Marfa Brands Soap

I discovered Marfa Brand Soaps about a year and a half ago while I was in West Texas on assignment for Texas Monthly. I walked into super-cool boutique, JM Dry Goods, and my nose led me to a stack of these handmade, all-natural soaps that smelled so strongly of earth, campfire, and rosemary.

I still have a smidge of the bar - they last forever - and now I need to email Ginger Griffice, the founder of Marfa Brands, to order some more. Ginger makes the soaps using avocado and sweet almond oils, mango and cocoa butters, and then adds a touch of oatmeal or cornmeal to smooth skin.
The soap I have is called Campfire in the Woods and it's just heavenly; part burning wood and earth, saddle soap, and rosemary all mashed into something familiar that evokes childhood, the joy of being outside, and horseback riding.