early summer brings folklife + watermelon...

tony and i went to our first folklife festival this past weekend. we live so close to the institute of texan cultures, how could we not.  the cultural performances were impressive and quite the treat for us. we went in the evening and enjoyed native american, philippine, chinese, and spanish dance performances.  i have always been fascinated by the story of the native americans, especially in texas.  the cultural connection to nature and the tragedy of their decline echoed in the voice of a native american descendant as he sang on stage during the performance.  this was my first time hearing native american singing and chanting in person and i was in complete awe of the amount of strength and passion in his voice.  seriously, goosebumps. our favorite philippine performance consisted of dancers clapping long wooden poles while other dancers maneuvered in and out of the poles.  picture double dutch and that's what it looked like, just replace the jump ropes with long wooden poles that stay close to the ground. my mouth dropped when they sped up the rhythm and i couldn't figure how on earth the dancers didn't tumble over each other.  again, impressive.  then, we saw the chinese kung fu demonstration and i could only agree with tony, those boys must surely not get picked on at school.  amazing.  we'll be back next year...

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early summer is bringing some heat.  in mid-day, it's absolute torture.  so of course, this means it's time for some cold juicy watermelon. and just my luck, i happen to have an expert watermelon cutter handy all the time.  yum...

hey gorgeous hoyt, it's fiesta!

we have a new addition to the castro clan and his name is hoyt.  this little fellow is drop dead adorable, just picture a pound puppy and you've got hoyt.  we had been wanting to get another dog for a while and decided that summertime would be best.  so, you can just imagine my surprise when tony decided to let me know he was ready for a new pup now.  as for myself, i'll take a dog any day, so of course i jumped on the chance before tony could change his mind and later that afternoon we we're standing there at the humane society looking for our new pup.  we had two in mind that we saw on the society's online web page. one was already adopted when we arrived and the other one, our hoyt, was in a room being looked at by potential doggy parents.  immediately, we tensed up and asked a worker if we could be next in line to see him if it turned out the couple didn't want him.  she agreed and let us in on some inside info: the couple had been in the room for quite a while and that wasn't a good sign.  so all we could do was hope and wait.  when the couple made their decision and began walking out of the room, we both held our breath and strained to hear their decision from a distance.  to our luck, and the couple's future one-day-doggy, they decided the time wasn't right for them.  as for us, it couldn't have been more perfect. and the rest is history...



hoyt, catahoula leopard



the tok is happy

 it's fiesta time in san antonio!  because dignowity hill is located so close to downtown, we were able to walk to the battle of flowers parade and mom castro joined in on the adventure.  everyone was decked out in their colorful fiesta gear and it reminded me of when i used to go to the parade with my whole family and really make a day of it.  the sounds were mixed with toy hoots and the laughter of the old and young. the smells, oh boy, the smells teased with hints of juicy turkey legs and greasy tripa tacos. yum. viva fiesta!

us with our head gear, ready to walk to the parade

street lined fiesta-ers on a perfect day

my bff, melissa, has started her own business with what she loves best, jewelry.  since summertime is just around the corner, it will soon be time to start flaunting my bad self in summer dresses and melissa has some of the prettiest jewels to compliment my floral, carefree, and colorful summer style.  her business is called hey gorgeous, which i love, and her website can be found here.  Visit her to see the wide range of styles and colors that she offers for gorgeous you!  my order just came in and i'm in love with the colors, but boy are my little owlets killer adorable!



owls, not only wise but stylish



my recent hey gorgeous stash

tis the season to get crafty with my bad self...

since this is our first christmas in sweet pea and our first christmas tree ever, i wanted to find the perfect christmas tree skirt.  consequently, after searching several local stores this turned out to be more difficult then i thought until i saw the loveliest tree skirt online. oh so beautiful...just what i was looking for: simple, vintagy, and crafty.  the one hundred ninety-eight dollar price tag was oh so not what i was looking for. the good news was that this lovely tree skirt from garnet hill not only caught my eye but many other crafty bloggers out there and the feeling about the price tag was mutual thus leading to many diy tutorials {like this} on how to create your own replica. then i saw this gorgeous felt wreath that i instantly fell in love with and i knew i had to try to combine their loveliness somehow. and somehow did i! it turned out beautiful and perfect! here are some pics...

the oh so lovely poinsettia tree skirt from garnet hill



the oh so lovely felt flower wreath from purl bee



ta daaaaaaa...

oh so...

LOVELY