livin' in the dig

6.13.2011

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...

. . . . . . .

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...

5.29.2011

day trip to austin...

the castro clan headed up to austin for the day to spend some quality time with the austin castros, tony's sister and cousins. most of the day was spent catching up in the shade, except for the paddlers...

they got to paddle around lady bird lake. unfortunately, they were out of the two person paddle boats so tony and i decided to hang under the shaded trees with this little cutie...

he loves to talk and talk and talk and talk... he's quite the entertaining fellow. we let him go with our camera and he took a picture of himself {above} and us too {below}...

i definitely see potential! afterwards we got some snacks at the downtown whole foods, that place is crazy awesome... what a fun day in austin with the family. now that summertime is on its way, we're going to have to look into some local paddling near san antonio...

4.17.2011

we got on our bikes and rode...

...and back.

4.15.2011

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

3.20.2011

spring break 2011...

luminaria

spring break started off with a walk from our house to downtown to attend luminaria, an arts event held every year. this year it was sectioned off to just hemisfair park, which was more than enough space. the food we tried was omg tasty and ranged from cajun to asian with some good ol' bbq and mexican in between. we enjoyed some great shows, exhibits, bands, and the weather couldn't have been more perfect...

crossing our green thumbs

our biggest chunk of spring break was focused on the front yard. we were able to add a nice little garden up front with the help of tony's family who offered us help with some hardcore weed pulling, gross grub pinching, and some soil tilling. it was a lot of hard work but boy it sure is pretty and feels even nicer sitting on the front porch and enjoying the view...

our zen froggy

i heart the smell of jasmine

the first leaves on our apple tree

first rose bloom

vintage

it's no secret we love old stuff. there's something about the craftsmanship of the past that symbolizes pride and beauty. be it an old spoon, jar, or table; it was built with purpose, it was built to last, and it was crafted with style. it's amazing to see that even many years later, the craftsmanship is still able to shine through the scrapes and scars and awe new generations. so with this addiction, how could we not spend some time looking for old stuff during spring break? we headed to comfort, tx and we weren't alone, my parents joined in on the fun. one of the biggest highlights of the trip, besides the fun of course, was eating probably the tastiest sandwich EVER. and i don't like using caps, so if i'm typing EVER, i mean it. so the tastiest sandwich EVER can be found in camp verde, tx. i recommend heading there through helotes, tx so that you can stop by jo jo's antiques and such in helotes and then country accents antiques near bandera, tx. i love love these two stores and would buy more than i should if tony didn't always happen to be with me when i visit these stores. hey, i'm on to him......

anyway, back to camp verde, so drive past bandera and head to the camp verde general store and please order arthur's delight. it is so so delish! you won't regret it. you could probably spend hours in that store because there is so much to see as well.

comfort, tx turned out to be quite a charming little town. one store that took my breath away was blackbird antiques. talk about some eye candy! in the middle of the store was a miniature dog house and what i mean by this is there were a bunch of dog-sized (pug-sized) furniture like a sofa, coffee table, tv stand with a tv, antique beds, and pretty much anything you'd find in a human home. it was the cutest thing i ever saw. i walked out of the store feeling like a pouting little tot because i pretty much wanted to buy everything i saw but knew i shouldn't. well truth be told, it was more like tony wouldn't let me. still, it was such a fun day trip and i'm so happy to have spent it with my parents.