costa rica - part one - first impression

costa rica was awesome. my first impression was... wow, this place is gorgeous. flowers everywhere. waterfalls coming out of mountains everywhere. the people were so nice. we rented a car and drove around most of the central country and the central pacific coast. 

i couldn't stay in bed if the sun was up (and it came up early!) we mostly stayed at bed & breakfasts and took morning walks to wake our bodies up. we spent a lot of time hiking and a lot of time driving (and kind of fell in love with our rental car, jimney).

first walk of the trip - 5:30 am in san antonio, costa rica.

a hospital that belongs in a wes anderson film.

the BEST sunscreen. seriously... totally obsessed with this sunscreen. olive oil & coco butter. feels great on the skinny.

pretty plants outside our hotel

we were driving in the mountains, through a town called zarcero and saw these faces carved into bushes.  how cool is that? 

more zarcero. smelled like christmas trees.

flowers in zarcero

hydrangeas in zarcero... i was pretty surprised to see so many hydrangeas all over central costa rica. no complaints - love a good hydrangea.

breakfast in punta areanas. 

jon & i on another morning walk

stopped to check out this pretty lake

jon, chasing waterfalls.

me & the waterfalls. my boots were lifesavers! dry feet are happy feet.

 happy to find a brewery! volcano brewing. this place is amazing. all you can eat, drink, tennis, swim & sleep. we just stopped by  for a taste but would love to stay next time around.

more to come!

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sweltering auggie (+ july re-cap)

i'm writing this august 12, but post-dating it to august first.. such trickery!

here's the measly july postings you may have missed:
indian summer engagement party
my apologies
july manifesto + june re-cap

but since i have been so out-of-touch online, i've been out doing cool things..like surfing. totally obsessed. prepping for our costa rica trip :)

july started out pretty rainy, but man, we needed it after last year's drought.

a collection of neon stuff on my desk. office supplies rule.

a peek into the upcoming OKRA charity bar. yup - houston's getting a charity bar. drink for good!

me & the surfboard board in port aransas. yeah, it was pretty big.

my friend andie & her pentax. no illusions here, this camera is LARGE.

gorgeous sunset at surfside.

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summerfest tie-dye

it's one of my favorite weekends in houston -- free press summerfest! here's a pretty festive shot of the flaming lips letting loose with all their colorful balloons...

like any music festival, summerfest is always a little fashion show... but once you get there you sweat your brains out and laugh at the idiots wearing leggings, skinny jeans, stilletto heels, etc.

this year i hadn't really planned what i was going to wear so i took a couple of jon's white cotton shirts and made some tie-dye tank tops with my friend andie. for the colors, i used rit dye. i only had scarlett red, royal blue and yellow on hand.. but did some guessing on mixing colors and came out with these results.

for andie's we dipped the sides vertically leaving a little biased white strip inbetween the indigo and chartreuse.

(also, thanks to andie for bringing over some starbucks vanilla scones. choice tie-dying nibbles!)

 for mine, i dipped the bottom, tied off sections on the top for some starburst and shredded the back because a: it looks totes 90's and b: it will keep me cool! breezes of all kind are welcome in 90+ degree heat. 

here's the final looks after we cut them up a bit... what do you think?

but, wait! there's more... check out the summerfest posts i've written for other blogs around the internet:

pre-show tips on transportation & more at downtownhouston.org.

highlights & post-show tips at chevydriveshouston.com.



 

watercolor banner women's stationery

here's some simple flat correspondance i made in a variation of colors. the water color brushstrokes you see are real -- painted by me. one of my new favorite designs!



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san francisco treats

visited my friend chelsey in san fran (so much fun, food and gorgeous weather!)

here are a few snaps from the trip. many were posted on instagram. do you have it? it's addicting. chelsey convinced me to download it and i've never looked back. click that little button to follow me...














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vatican hall of maps - nautical dream

so the vatican has a gallery of maps that is covered wall-to-wall with the most beautiful maps i have ever seen. i wish i had better quality photos.

viagreggio, italy - nautical inspiration

buongiorno! totes back from italy and become obsessed with a little town called viareggio. here's some of the cute nautical inspirations i found. blue & white everywhere.