JUST MARRIED!!!

We are now officially Mr. and Mrs. Castro!!


We had the best day of our lives yesterday. It was everything we ever dreamed of with great thanks to our families for all their help love and support, Nicole & Joel for giving us their beautiful house for the reception and to Kedma & Adna for organizing and designing everything, and our best friends for being amazing and loving and giving their never ending support. Thank you to all who were there, and we missed everyone who couldn't make it!

We are off to Brazil tomorrow and will have many many pics to post when we get back! For now, go to the McDonell Family blog and/or Hess Family blog (on list to the left) to see some more pictures/slideshows of the wedding!

I love you my husband!!!!!!

Even Cooler!!!

Aly's video is up on Complex's website!!!!! (It's the Nas video)

CHECK IT OUT

*Warning: There is some adult content on the Complex website.

Wanna See Something Cool?

Idea, Pencil & Paper

Alysson's new website!!

Eating My Words

Hi All,
I need to make a funny confession, and offer some advice based on my previous post about "shady shopping secrets".. Advice #1-- DO NOT ATTEMPT PICS in the dressing-rooms at Kitson in LA!!

Let me explain... Up til now in my career of shopping, I had yet to get caught taking secret pics in the dressing room (which always surprised me greatly)..... That all came to a crash and burn halt during our LA shopping trip last month while shopping at Kitson.. My boss handed me a shirt to take in the dressing room to "try on" and take a picture because she liked the graphic technique but it wasn't worth buying for $100 bucks or whatever... So I was in there snapping away, and through the slit in the curtain I see the sales girl running up and she pulls open the curtain and yells "You can't take pictures in here!!" So playing dumb, I was like "What oh really? Ok, sorry I'll stop.." And I thought it would end there... But nooo, she ran over and got the security guard who came over and told me I had to leave the store.. So at that point (and now reading back through this), I felt like a complete criminal--> because they treated me like I was a big huge shoplifter like Winona! I mean seriously, I worked in retail for years and people always wanted to take pictures in the dressing rooms to show their friends.. But anyways, they wouldn't let me buy anything, and the manager came over and demanded to see my camera, and I said nope because it's my property, and he told me I was "really creepy and weird for taking pics of myself" and needed to leave the store pronto. Ha! The nerve.. Maybe it felt even worse/more humiliating because there was no way I could fake that I didn't speak english or the native tongue like i would if I was in another country! I felt like a total shopping pariah the rest of the day and was convinced they had called all the stores on the street to warn them about us! aaah, the backlash..
The event turned out to be the highlight of our trip (once we got over the embarrassment of being walked out of the store) and we laughed about it for days. But after thinking about it a lot I realized it could have been worse and I need to be more respectful and careful! I understand that they have to protect their merchandise and their store, but I still don't think they needed to be so mean about it!
One bright side to the humiliation is that Kitson is actually my LEAST FAVORITE store in the world (well, tied with Walmart whose bad lighting and messy displays give me major anxiety) so being officially banned from the store is actually kind of a perk. I won't have to go in there on the next LA trip which is a good thing! No more Paris Hilton brand jeans, and pretentious sales workers that make me wanna puke. (Now I'm just being immature).....
I wanted to share my funny/humiliating story because admitting all my inner most embarrassing moments is somehow very liberating and humbling to me. It sucks getting caught and having people call you a freak! It's like the bad feeling in your stomach you get when your caught doing something you shouldn't (like using someone else creamer in the office fridge) or talking about someone who is standing right behind you! haha... well, maybe that's worse!

Does anyone else have an embarrassing situation you wanna share??? xoxo

Abc with a capitol A-MAZING...

Hi All! I mentioned in the my post below that Aly had gotten some big praise for his video projects and was asked to show this one at the Art Director's Club of New York. 

So here it is, the ABC's of What I Wanted To Be.

**Also, see updates to the below post with more pictures!! xoxo

Life Keeps Passing Me By..

Hi All!! Sorry I've been totally missing in action lately... I have almost completely dropped off the face of Blogger Planet, and I'm determined to get back in the game, but I have been completely overwhelmed with life and the days are flying by so fast that I feel like I'm missing out on so much! I have been so busy the past few months to the point of near meltdown status, but a lot of great fun things have happened too. With everything going on, I haven't had time to do my usual blog posting/reading at lunch time.. Shocking, as it's usually my favorite escape during the day.

I worked on this post for a while to try to cover all the things that have happened since my last post in March! And I have a feeling it may be a while until my next post, so this one is long and lengthy to hold myself over ;)


1. Went to California twice: 

1a. Once in April for work: 

(i got to sneek some fun in there too.. Got to stay with Mikala all weekend and hang with all my friends and fam!)

1b. Once with Alysson in May for Kedma's wedding:
What a dress!! She was a gorgeous bride. It was a super fun event and the dancing went on all night long. I really admire Kedma. She has married an amazing man, Paul, and now combined with her 2 kiddos, she has 5 total! I am so lucky to be marrying into such a great family!
 
 



*While we were there, we worked on our wedding plans...
 
(this is Heritage Park, location of the ceremony!)

*We also got to have a super fun BBQ at Pop's and Mary's house with Carne Asada galore and Wii Guitar Hero action.

2. In March my cutest baba sis Claire came to town for the weekend:



3. At the end of April my Mom and Alysson's Mom Marluce came to town for a major fun Mom Weekend:

Hung out in Dumbo.. Sup Manhattan Bridge


Ate our fave Gyu Kaku..


Saw all the sights.


Walked over the Brooklyn Bridge.


Played b-ball in our basement gym.


Danced Rave style at Fuerza Bruta.


4. Kelly & Zak Erwin and the Mueller clan came to New York for one day during their trip to Boston! They did great navigating their way around the city and even made time to take a snooze on the grass in central park. Like locals already... Sadly they were so tired by the time we met up for dinner in Chinatown, that we forgot to take any pictures!

5. Officially joined the long hair club for women--My hair is now 3" below my collar bone.

6. Had surgery to remove a benign tumor in my left breast... All is good now, no worries. Here's the scoop: Finding a lump in my breast last year was very scary and stressful. I had a sonogram and biopsy that showed it was benign tumor called a Fibroid Adanoma, which is apparently common in young women. They said it would be fine unless it started growing bigger. After it doubled in size within 6 months, the doctors needed to remove it. I'm very grateful that it's all over now and everything was benign so I have nothing else to worry about.

7. Designed Spring 09... I was a couple days late because of certain reasons listed above.

8. Celebrated Kelly's 27Th birthday 3 nights in a row last weekend and there is another party tonight! Happy Birthday Kels!!! We Love you!!


Alysson Updates:

1. The week after our Mom's were here, Alysson finished his Spring semester and started an internship at Alien Kung Fu, a motion graphics firm in Soho run by some young fun guys. They have already put Alysson in charge of designing and animating TV spots for FX channel, MTV2 and Comedy Central. He is having a blast there! One of his bosses is a sky-diving instructor, so we are seriously considering doing it. haaaha, scary..

2. During school Alysson gained an award for special recognition for his video "The ABC's of What I wanted to Be" and was asked to show it at the prestigious Art Director's Club of New York.

3. He designed and hand made his portfolio and several books which are beautiful and could easily be sold in art stores. Word on the street is that all his teachers were totally blown away by his final projects!

4. Alysson designed our wedding invites that are being printed now, so cute! And he is busy working on a video project for Complex Magazine online.

5. He is gorgeous as ever and I'm so proud of him and all his accomplishments..


Hopefully that wasn't as overwhelming to read this as it was to write it, (it took me a couple weeks to complete this post!!). There are so many exciting things happening in our lives this year and I wish I could just slow down the tape to make sure I capture it all. I think once we get through the wedding and honeymoon (In Brazil!), life will be much simpler.. Except by that time Alysson will have started back at school and will be busier than ever. So, scratch that notion of a simple life! I guess this is what we asked for ;)
Love you all! Miss you millions!! xoxoxoxoxoxo

europe shopping march 08

I realized that I didn't come home with any pictures of myself with the beautiful surroundings in London or Stockholm-actually i didn't take many pics of the scenery at all which is kinda lame, but then again i guess it wasn't a vacation. I was on a mission for fashion!.. What I did take, however secretly, are a million plus pictures of myself and garments that either we couldn't afford to buy, or that had a small detail that we wanted to remember but wasn't worth buying, in the confines of many a fitting room.. Taking secret pictures is a technique that professional shoppers must master. It was a little hard getting good shots without flash (my flash went off a few times nearly blowing my cover). Here are some examples-i know it looks like I'm posing super hard, but I'm just trying to capture the details of the sleeves promise! haha..

The point of these trips is "market research", which basically means shopping like mad in stores from high-end to low-end to vintage and in between, walk circles around the city seeing what people are wearing/buying/doing, buy tons of samples to bring back to the office to share the new concepts in the world of fabrics, silhouettes, techniques, prints, and trims, and get inspired for the coming season. Taking pictures of garments is to remember the key ideas and to be able to refer to it later- NOT to copy it! We also shop locally in NYC to see what people are buying different times of year. Here is a scan of my sketch book from the trip.. it's full of quick messy sketches and ideas. (and a lot of sketches of things i want to make for myself or save up to buy!)
This is a picture of my fun shopping partners Melody and Kevin, director of design and president of the company respectively, standing in front of the soon to be DKNY jeans store in London. I am too embarrassed to put up the pics i have of the pretty city cuz they're all taken from inside a cab! No time for legitimate sight seeing :(

But I did manage to steal a few good shots of scenery in Stockholm. I really love that city. I'm so glad I convinced my bosses to go there this trip because although Kevin referred to our hotel as a "hostile" on numerous occasions, he fell in love with the stores and street style and announced to the whole company that designers will be traveling there regularly from now on! yay!! I j'adore Scandinavian designers! Next trip, I really want to conquer Helsinki and Copenhagen! We'll see how that idea plays out with the bosses..

a lighter note..

Here is a pic of a cute railroad striped wide leg jean that I did for dkny jeans.. Summer 08 was the first collection I worked on, so it's starting to show up in mags (does that mean Summer is almost here??? hope so...) It will be in stores/online in May.. I like how the stylist mixed the mini stripes in the pant & wide stripes in the top, and the red toe on the shoes the cuteness.. I extra love it that the mag has Claire in the title :) love ma baba girl claire xoxox

*Update. This next one showed up in today's issue of WWD. Jacket that I designed for Fall! Fake leather ya'll.. sorry so small, i'll get a bigger pics asap..

We will miss you Buzz Dog

I'm so sad today after hearing last night that our family dog of 10 years, Buzzy, died on Monday night. I have so many great memories of him like Claire wrote on her page. He was her dog and she got him with a big bow on his neck for her 8th bday. I remember that day so well! Even to the end he was the epitimal puppy, always with so much energy and playfulness, I guess that's why it came as such a shock to me that he is gone.
My favorite memory of Buzz is how he loved playing soccer so much that whenever possible, he would escape from our house and run immediately down the street to the elementary school and steal the ball from the kids in their soccer games and run around the feild with all the parents chasing him. He was the best dog! He was so cute with one big black patch over his right eye. My Mom told me that when they moved to the farm, he decided it was his job to take care of the horses and would sit with them all day, monitoring them and nipping at their heels. I will miss seeing his friendly face when I go home to Wyoming. He was a great dog and a great friend to all of us. RIP Buzzy. I hope to see you again.

Hello from Stockholm!

I just got into Stockholm and I can't go to sleep because I'm so excited. I love it here! I was here a couple years ago and was always dying to come back. It's a beautiful city with beautiful people and great shopping and street fashion. There are tons of great young designers coming out of Scandinavia and they have started leading fashion. The people here just have an effortlessly cool vibe to them and wear their clothes really well, so for me it's really inspiring. I've been in London since Monday shopping for work with my boss Melody and our president Kevin. It's been a fun trip so far! In London, we did LOTS of shopping, walking around the city til our feet were aching, and LOTS of EATING! More about the yummy details later, but I was glad that I got to know London a lot better on this trip. I'm going to post some pics when I get home and tell u some secret shady shopping techniques for collecting ideas and inspirations and bringing them back to the team in NY. 

Ps. Hmmm.. I know it sounds like it's all fun, and maybe even a bit pretentious traveling around Europe shopping.. (Ok, it's pretty fun) But, believe me when I say that it is really hard work and super exhausting. And not to mention that spending 24/7 with work peeps isn't always hunky dorey.. thank heavens we have a super fun group on this trip, but we HAVE run out of stuff to talk about after so many meals together! hahaa.. Anyways I better go to sleep.. It's now 2:26am Swedish time. Goodnight!! xoxo

Eric Gingerich, 36, a junior high social studies teacher, normally votes Republican, but voted Tuesday for Obama at an elementary school in Hilliard, Ohio, near Columbus. "I like how he can bring the two parties together and the country together," he said.

I read this today on MSNBC and have heard similar stories of crossover voting from friends. The range of support that Obama is pulling in, from new young voters to old folks, to republicans crossing the line, to people who never cared about politics before, shows that his message has hit deep with many Americans. He has given people the awareness that we can make a difference in our country and live in a place that is inspiring and full of promise. Everyone has been throwing around the word "hope" like it is a false pledge or perhaps something only for the naive or to be ashamed of. To me, it's not just a word. It's an emotion. Obama has provided me with overwhelming HOPE, excitement and emotion for what's to come in my country. I know I'm young, and this is the first presidential race that I have followed really closely, but I feel like there hasn't been a candidate like Obama, maybe ever.

To be quite honest (and emotional), I have such a great hope in Obama, that I, among others, have an inward fear for his safety. Losing him would be devestating to me. It reminds me of the kind of leader that JFK was and why it was such a dark day when he was lost. He conjured up hope in regular people. I feel inspired to work hard when I listen to Obama because he is a regular man who struggled all his life to make it just like everyone else.

NAIVE OR NOT, I like to be hopeful and inspired to do more in my life for my country and community. And that is what Obama has triggered in me. Go Obama!!

Docinho Surpresa! (Sweet Surprise!)

Diet Buster Alert! This one is worth it!!

Tonight Alysson and I decided to experiment and make a yummy Brazilian dessert that he used to love as a child. He said the last time he had made it was 15 years ago. It's a traditional treat at birthday parties and family gatherings in his native Bahia, Brazil. It's called Docinho Surpresa, or Sweet Surprise, and it's made of grapes wrapped in a condensed milk candy coating. So delicious! It reminds me of a caramel apple because of the rich sweet outside and the sour and juicy inside that pops in your mouth. Here is the recipe.

What you'll need: Green grapes, 1 can condensed milk and butter.

Pour the condensed milk and butter into a pan and heat up to a low boil. Stir continuously until the mixture becomes thick like caramel. 

Take it off the heat and spread it on a plate or pan and let it cool until it's not too sticky. Put it in the fridge for 10 minutes if you want to hurry up the process.

Grease your hands with butter so the mixture doesn't stick to your hands. (I said Diet Buster!!)

Grab a grape and a spoonful of the condensed milk caramel. Wrap it around the grape and then roll it in your hands until its totally covered and in a nice shaped ball.

Set them up on a dish and let them cool in the fridge.

...And enjoy!

YUM!

Trends & Deadlines

We are in our design cycle for Holiday 08 and working late is the usual to meet our deadlines (It's 10:09pm and I'm finally going home from work!). We've gotten almost all of the drawings done, and today I presented the first delivery of our collection to my bosses- it went really well and they loved everything! Phew! Tomorrow we will finish- hopefully it will go smoothly so we can have a stress free weekend. I thought I would share some of the key trends for the coming year, since it's all fresh in my mind.

*70's inspired shapes: Maxi coats, A-line leather trenches, Faux leopard fur swing coats, high waisted flare leg jeans, Mens inspired tuxedo jackets and pants and sexy printed silk dresses. Just think Sears catalog from '77 as your inspiration. -Oh yeah, the fluffy hair is coming back too ;)

*Color blocking: it's all about mixing bold colors. My favorite combos are neutrals mixed with pop neons, i.e. khaki with bright melon as below pic. Jewel colors and brights will also be important- I'm wearing lots of colored tights lately to try to get out of my Black box!

--How cool is it to colorblock your house??? WAY COOL.

*Mixed Prints! The runway pics seem crazy, but I really like this trend when its done right. You can do mini stripes mixed with plaids or florals, or 2 floral prints in complementary colors. Or do a nuetral print with a bold black and white sandals-like balenciaga on the below right :)

*Sheer Madness. Sheer chiffon pieces are majorrr next year. They are all over the runways- Even sheer pants which is suprisingly cute (I've been looking for a vintage pair from the 50's/70's on ebay!). Seriously. But if you don't want your panties hanging out, try a sheer sleeve or a sheer jacket or trench.

Ok, that's all for now, I'll share more trends forecasts as I get into them. My brain is going to explode so I gotta go home to my sweet Alysson. Wish me luck on presentation round 2 tomorrow! xoxo