Houston and Dalis Go to Austin

Phew! Life has just gotten away from me in the last few weeks so haven't had time to blog. Iv'e been crazy busy preparing for the spring studio tour, Maryland Sheep & Wool Fest, an one year birthday party for Ginger & Spice Marketplace and fitting a wedding in Austin into the mix. We went to our friend, Glauco's wedding a couple weeks ago. Glauco was one of Houston's grad students a long time ago and we've kept in touch over the years. We arrived in Texas a couple days before the wedding and immediately drove through Hill Country to Fredericksburg.

Fredericksburg is an historic town about 1 1/2 hours from Austin. It was settled in the mid 1800's by German immigrants and still serves up German food at many restaurants.

This is the typical architecture of the town, plenty of stone and all kept up very well.

The main street was thriving, with no shuttered shops and lots of people shopping. I spotted these cute sheep planters but they were too large to even think about getting one home.

I found this great little shop, 'Smitten' filled with vintage furniture and home decor.

Someone had made cool pendant lights out of a vintage boat engine and a Victrola amplifier cone thing. Guess it's called a 'horn'.

On the way to Fredericksbug, we passed through Johnson City, the home of Lyndon Johnson. I loved this old granary building, repurposed into an art center. When I posted this pic on Facebook, one of our friends from Maryland said she had just biked by that place weeks beforehand.

I'm always intrigued by these old painted signs on buildings, of what was once there, but nothing left but the paint.

Everything's bigger in Texas!

Lots of cool sculptures like this long horned bull. 

Then some others that were not so great. What's with the football player, with the giant sea horse behind him and a large bunny behind that? Couldn't figure that one out.

Or this maiden riding an eagle. Wow!

Back in Austin, we got to sample some of the quirkiness of the city.

Airstreams and other vintage campers are used for food carts. I'd love to have one for a traveling yarn cart!

At an open air craft market, I bought a few of these marvelous soaps. 

They looked edible!

But back to the reason we went to Austin in the first place. Glauco and Kristen. They met in Houston, fell in love and will live happily ever after.

Glauco is from Brazil, and most of his family still lives there. Above is Mr. Souza welcoming Kristen into the family. We met his parents years ago when they came to our farm for a visit. We had a nice summer dinner outside watching the sun go down. They experienced our local corn on the cob for the first time ever and they swore I must have put sugar in the water when cooking it. Glauco's mom even commented at the wedding about the corn. 

 

The ceremony site. It started to lightly rain right before the wedding but we waited it out and it cleared up just in time.

The flower girls making their way, but they forgot to drop the petals.

Beau, Glauco's dog, even got to be in the wedding.

Here comes the bride..

AFter a delicious dinner, dancing commenced on the deck overlooking Lake Travis. 

and to send the couple off, we gave them a sparkly exit. Now they're off to Brazil for a couple weeks for R&R.