This year’s Highlights Festival is all about celebrating female talent. We’ve sampled dishes from fabulous female chefs, and now we’re ready to find out what’s cooking on stage.

We’re heading to the sixth edition of the Wawa (We Are Women Artists) show to catch a talented line-up of ladies, with soul-pop singer Amanda Mabro, Cirque du Soleil singer Mirjana Milovanovic and the harmonious The Good Lovelies. The show will also feature designs by Katrin Leblond, photography by Andree Anne Handfield and circus artists, Krin Haglund and Andreane Leclerc, as hosts.

Talk about the greatest show on earth!

Wawa Show, February 26, 8 p.m., Gesù — Centre de créativité, 1200 Bleury St., Montreal, www.thewawashow.com

Tickets ($25) at www.admission.com

If you missed Robyn’s re-invention from ‘90s teen-pop star (remember “Show me Love”?) to independent record-label owning electro-diva, you’ve got some catching up to do.

Luckily you can catch the Swedish songstress at Metropolis tomorrow night, performing the bittersweet “Be Mine,” the fist-pounding “Dancing on my Own” and the sexy-sweet “Hang with Me” in what we’re betting will be one of the last of her small venue tours.

Catch her if you can.

Tickets $32.05 at www.admission.com

It takes serious effort to achieve the effortless Gwyneth Paltrow-esque style, and mixing high and low pieces requires a sense of balance that we’re sorely lacking.

At newly opened Editorial Boutique, simple chic shines through from the sleek all-white décor to the carefully selected separates, ranging from in-right-now to investment. We found hard-to-find pieces including Levi’s Made & Crafted jeans ($237), a butter-soft Brandy Melville oversized top ($59), a whimsical heart tee by Laugh Cry Repeat ($76) and edgy jewellery from Nicole Richie’s House of Harlow 1960 line.

And with assistance in fashion fusion from the seriously stylish staff, you’ll be out-GOOPing even Gwynnie.

Editorial Boutique, 1455 Stanley St., Montreal, 514-849-3888, www.editorialboutique.com

We keep trying to follow Willow Smith’s directions on how to whip our hair back and forth, but every time we do, our head erupts into a rebellious froth of frizz.

We’ll keep our locks in line with the citrus-scented Aveda Be Curly Style-Prep ($26.50), the newest addition to its Be Curly Curl Perfecting System. The lightweight lotion incorporates wheat protein, aloe, and natural oils to moisturize hair and define curls all day, sans crunchiness.

Whip it good.

Aveda, 880 Ste Catherine St. W., Montreal, 514-868-1414, www.aveda.com

We love giving holiday gifts with a homemade touch. But since we are neither artsy nor crafty, we need to outsource our artisanry. Lucky for us 'tis the season for craft fairs.

Inspired by the retro craft fair but featuring modern creations from designers including Nuevo, Valerie Dumaine, and La La Yeah, the Smart Design Mart helps you bring local products underneath your tree. Sounds pretty smart to us. Smart Design Mart, December 3-5 at 160 rue Saint-Viateur E., Montreal, 2nd floor, www.smartdesignmart.com

We haven’t been into the Nutcracker since we were teeny ballerinas, but we’re very into The Nutcracker Market, benefitting Les Grands Ballets Canadiens. Find Gris Gris Factory, la Maison du Macaron and Brazen Design  among the many others selling their wares. Suite. The Nutcracker Market, until November 5 at the Palais des Congrès, Admission $5, 1001 Jean-Paul Riopelle Place, Montreal, 514-871-8122
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Although the Puces Pop is technically located in the basement of a church, it certainly isn’t any ordinary craft fair.  With 110 vendors including Dot & Lil, Nea Wear and Dreaming Tree Paper, you’ll have no trouble finding that personalized gift for someone you love. Even if that person is you. Puces Pop, December 18–19, 5037 St. Dominique St., Montreal, www.popmontreal.com/en/puces/events

Low-carb, low-fat, low-sugar, gluten-free, vegetarian… all these rules are starting to make our head spin.

We’re taking some time off from temperance at Les Plaisirs Coupables, the new restaurant by chef Jean-Francois Plante. We gobbled up a bowl of creamy three-cheese macaroni with bacon and nuts ($15), and then gorged on the restaurant’s namesake burger topped with brie cheese and bacon ($12). Finishing with a scrumptious Caramilk brownie with sea salt ($7), we felt deliciously diet-delinquent.

Guilty as charged!

Les Plaisirs Coupables, 1410 Peel St., Montreal, 514-507-5689, www.lesplaisirscoupables.com

Being an It Girl requires a rather extensive wardrobe. But with so many parties and so little dime, we’re looking for jeans that look the part without picking the pocketbook clean.

Based in Los Angeles, !IT jeans offers a wide selection of styles at prices ranging between $95-$130. We loved the Sophisticated Star, a slim boot cut with a high-rise (for those of us who don’t want everyone to see our thongs), and the adorable Ellie, a mid-rise boyfriend jean. But our fave was the Rising Starlet, a skinny jean with a higher back rise and a ton of stretch.

If you’ve got it, may as well flaunt it.

At Olam, 1374 Sainte Catherine St. W., Montreal, 514-875-9696 and Miss Swiss, 920 Mont Royal Ave. E., Montreal, 514-529-9780, www.itjeans.com

There’s nothing like receiving a Birks box to make a girl feel like royalty. Add sweet treats for a combination that will win our hearts.

We stopped in at Birks Café par Europea for an afternoon tea ($26.50) fit for the Queen of England. Dining on Birks own china and glassware, we started with scones, fresh baked and smothered with Devonshire cream and preserves, dainty cucumber-shrimp and smoked salmon finger sandwiches, and finished with a melting macaron.

Then it was just a short trip down the stairs to pick out our tiara.

Birks Café par Europea, 1240 Phillips Sq., Montreal, 514-397-2468, www.birks.com

We liked, tweeted, and shared that great music video with the rock band dancing alongside tiny trained dogs, and then we wondered…who are those guys?

The band, OK Go, may be most widely known for their viral videos, like Grammy-award winning treadmill dancing in “Here it goes Again” and the fabulously furry back-up dancers in their latest, "White Knuckles," but it’s the music that really makes us want to get up and dance.

No treadmill or toy dog required.

October 16, 8:30 p.m., tickets ($18), Le National, 1220 St. Catherine St. E., Montreal, 514-845-2014 and www.admission.com

With cooler days setting in we’re in need of indoor artistic pursuits.

Rouge Cabaret: The Terrifying and Beautiful World of Otto Dix is an electrifying new exhibit at the Montreal Museum of Fine Arts featuring 220 paintings, watercolors and prints by the controversial German painter. Called a degenerate by some of his contemporaries, his striking (and sometimes unsettling) works capture the disconsolate mood in Europe between the two World Wars.  Most powerful are his portraits of artists and bohemians such as a 1927 oil on wood image of a cat-like woman reclining on leopard skin.

In we go.

Tickets $15; September 24 to January 2, 2011, Jean-Noël Desmarais Pavilion, 1380 Sherbrooke St. W., Montreal, 514-285-2000, www.mmfa.qc.ca