Inside the Petersen House

On Wednesday I finally decided to go and visit The Petersen House Museum in Tempe. The outside of this house is decidedly very pretty but just wait until you see the interior. The house has been semi-remodeled but mostly restored to it's original condition. Although completely furnished none of the furniture is original to the house however it is true to the time.

The house was built back in 1892 and yet only three families lived there. When the Petersens passed it was willed to a relative but it was stipulated that the house could not be sold. An ASU art professor rented the house for some 18 years up until 1967 or around that time. It wasn't until the mid 80's that the house was given to the Tempe Historic Society and the restoration begun.

Upon entering you see how grand the house is by the foyer's look. The house was built specially for Mr. Petersen's wife. She was accustomed to living in a similar house back east and that's when a well known architect was commissioned to building it.

Although three different families lived there only the Petersen's used the master bedroom in the second floor. There is a huge amount of detail such as the picture rails, the wooden floors, the wall papered borders which to this day are still the original borders and there is even a mural that sits over the chimney that at one point was painted over it. It was discovered by chance while restoring the house and little by little it was cleaned. The parlor had a similar mural but that one could not be saved as it was heavily damaged.

I hope you enjoy the following tour throught this beautiful house.

The dinning room used to be where the parlor is until this was turned into the new dinning room.
This beautiful mural was painted over but recovered during the house restoration.
This is the master bedroom that was only used by the Petersens only, no one ever occupied it after they passed.
How's this for a refrigerator. I believe this is circa 1930s.
This is an original chandelier.


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My Dad's Portrait

So, as we continue redesigning the inside of our house I continue receiving wonderful presents from some of my long time bloggin' friends. You've all seen the art that Wanda sent me and that now graces my walls.

Well last week, Tara surprised me with a portrait rendition of my dad. I got home on Monday afternoon to find a note left by the mailman that I could pick up the package at the post office in Old Avondale. I immediately drove there only to find out that the mailman was still out delivering his mail and that my box would not be available until the next day.

Well, Tuesday I stay with my mom and Wednesday was Veteran's Day, that meant I had to wait until Thursday to pick up my package. So I called my daughter and she agreed to pick it up for me on Tuesday. I still had to wait until Wednesday afternoon to see it but trust me it was well worth the wait. I was thrilled to finally see the portrait and to see what great work Tara did on it.

The next step was to have it framed. The end result was absolutely awesome. This was totally different form the frames I'm used to. This is an open frame no glass, no border, only the frame and the painting.

And here is the the portrait in it's frame.



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Fall Exhibit

So the day finally came, the exhibition took place but it almost went on without any spectators, however besides my mom, Elena, and Maryita whom got here almost on time which is rare for my beautiful sister, and Vane, Frank, and familia I did have a huge surprise when I came back from the store.

My dear blog friend Betty of "Life is Good" and her husband Paul showed up. Betty and I met just a little over a year ago through another of my dear blogger friends ChrisJ of "Flamblogger" blog.

Betty and I smiling because we finally met.
Betty is the only blogger other than my family that lives in Arizona and not only does she live in my state but she lives in the town next to ours. I'd say she only lives about 20 minutes away and yet it took us a little over a year to finally meet. With that said, to say that I was surprised and happy to finally meet her is an understatement.

Michelle, Nichole, and Cindi also showed up but only briefly because they were in the middle of an important celebration for them. Michelle and Nikki's mother in law had a surprised 50th birthday party and they had to be there.

One of the things I always do when having an exhibition is to present the host with a frame, since this one was being hosted by me I decided to present my mom with a frame that a while back she mentioned she would love to have. She had a picture of my grandfather (my dad's father) that my dad took over 20 years ago during one of his trips back to Mexico hanging by her little breakfast nook and somehow the frame gave up and fell. She had put it away but mentioned to me that she would like to put it back on the wall.

However, she said that she would like it even better if the picture was a little bit bigger, so I took her original (which I'm now keeping) and had it enlarged to an 11 X 14 then placed it in a black frame. Because the original picture was so old most of the colors were gone, we did enhance the image through picazza but in the end I opted for the original faded look. To complement the yellowish color of the print I bought a nice light green mat that in my opinion brought the image back to life. I was pleased and happy with it but most importantly so was she.

Mom, this is for you.
She loved it!
After receiving all the phone calls with cancellations I decided to just go and get some Mexican bread so we could have cafesito con pan. Mi chica also broke down some garlic snacks topped with Mexican cheese, ummm que rico! If you don't believe me go ahead and ask Ariel.

Grandpa keep the cookies coming and I'll say I love all your frames.
Here are a few more images from the night.

Betty getting ready to take a lot of pictures.
Sisters! My princesses Marya and Vane.
Grandma, her granddaugher, and great grandkids posing happily for this shot. OK, Emma did fall asleep but was probably still happy.
So, what to do now? I know let's karaoke. We sang (OK mostly me) for the next hour or so and then we called it a night.

We said goodbye and procceded to start cleaning. While mi chica swept I put all the frames away. Doing all this work woke up my appetite and I for some reason craved "chilaquiles". Mi chica said let's go to the store to get what we need. Ummm wow! Almost at midnight I was enjoying the best "chilaquiles" in town. And with that our night came to a close.

Awesome chilaquiles.

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Proyecto Tres - The Office

So Wednesday mi chica had a day off so she started the task of cleaning the office. We had pushed lots of stuff first from the den to the living room and then to the office so her cleaning it made it so much easier for me to move things around.

The office has some special pieces in it, starting with the sewing machine that once belonged to my mother in law. The old desk came to us from a school in Los Angeles via my brother in law. It most likely served many teachers and students before coming to us. I imagine it's very old, it has already been ours for the past nine years.


To the left the old desk, and to the right the old sewing machine stand.
The empty wall in front of the desk will soon have a custom shelf designed specifically to house my DVD collection as well as my die cast car collection and hopefully a television too.

So, for now it looks kindda empty, the walls are still bare with the exception of my Harley Davidson poster hanging behind the desk but that will soon change too. I am excited about the art that has been sent to me by some of my blogger friends and I am proud to display it in my house. The paintings sent to me are by far better and more meaningful than anything I can buy at a store and that most likely was mass produced.

Mi chica may start working from home soon and I want the office to be as confortable and efficient as possible. So for now this is where we are with it. Here are a few more shots.




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Thursday Tidbits

It's Thursday and I have nothing new. Everything is pretty much the same these days. Since the second set of "Ducks" got their own apartment we have been occupying ourselves with the cleaning and rearranging furniture, but that will end soon. Then eventually we will have to figure out how to replace some of our furniture as some things are in really bad shape. For now we will make do with what we have and so far we are not doing too bad.

We did clean our office last night but it still needs more items added to make it feel more comfortable. I will have a shelf built which will house all of my DVD case collection and a lot of my collectible die cast cars, when finished it will be a focal point in that little office. I also have to make sure mi chica feels good in it because pretty soon she may be working from home and it needs to be a place where she can concentrate and feel relaxed. I'll do a posting on it so you can see the progress on it.

While listening to Blondie's "The The Tide is High" and singing along I caught me saying "I'm not that kind of girl" and then said crap I need to rephrase this. Why do guys sing along to cool songs meant for women? We should have a switch or button that says "Not authorized to sing this".

Our weather has been wonderful these days, definitely been enjoying driving with the top down. While in many places back east they already have snow or ice we are still wearing t-shirts and shorts. Now, where else but in Arizona you can do this. I love my state. Now, if I only had a few dollars to spare and get my bike serviced and registered again I would be a happier fellow.

The countdown begins, next week I will only work for four days and then I'll be taking the whole Thanksgiving week of as vacation time, and since we are not going anywhere I shall enjoy my time off from work.


Saturday we will be hosting our Autumn Photo Exhibition and Sale at the house. Not too many people may show up but as always some of my family will and that always makes it for a great time.

Betty, I definitely am looking forward to finally meet you in person so I hope to see you here Saturday.

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Proyecto Dos - The Living and Dining Room

After Diego and I finished with our chicken soup deliveries and came back home I started with the task of cleaning and redecorating the living room. After cleaning the den last week we had pushed a lot of stuff in there so now was the time to clean up some of the mess we left.

Yep, it was a room ready to be de-cluttered.
Step number one, start pushing stuff into the office now. Then sweep and mop and wait until the floor dries. I left the sofas in the same place they were and pushed the big (my 62" screen) TV and placed it where the entertainment center used to be. Basically these two simple steps finished the heavy moving.

Last June my daughter Nikki got her bachelors in Graphic Design and for her Portfolio Review she had three big boards displaying a lot of her work. As always at the end of the day I got to keep them and her question was, what and or where are you putting this? Well, just take a look as one of the three boards has found it's new home. Ten years without hanging any pictures in the house and now this. Heck, I need to hang pictures that have meaning to me and or the family and I think this qualified just right.

One of three boards from Nikki's portfolio.
Opposite to Nikki's work, I hung the two frames with Wanda's artwork. Yes, the Wolf and the lion, and the rose found a place of their own too. I actually think the two frames were perfect for that little corner. A touchtronic torchiere and some green stuff completed the look. Now if I could just finish painting around the motion sensor it would actually look a lot better.

This corner really came out great.
This is pretty much the final look.
Last but not least mi chica gave the dinning area the look it needed to complement the livingroom. Now we have a cozy place to enjoy our Thanksgiving in two weeks.

Here are a few more pics. Let me know what you think.





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Chicken Soup... For The Stomach.

A bowl for papa bear, a bowl for mama bear, and one for the baby bear. Grrrwwwrr!

Thursday after work we got invited to my daughter's new apartment for the inauguration carne asada. Considering it was on a weekday some family members showed up for a most tasty carne asada.

My daughter Nikki fell sick with the flu or a cold and spent most of the day in bed while everybody else were outside eating and drinking a beer or two. Mi chica and I got there close to seven o'clock as I had to go visit my mom first. I had already been fed by my mama but if you know me a little bit then you'll know that I never ever say no to carne asada tacos. So... yep, I ate about three of them and they were ummmm, ummmm, good. Some of the meat had been marinated in beer and therefore was exquisitely tender.

The next day my other daughter and my sister in law were down with the flu too. Both of them profusely thanked Nikki for passing it on to them, to which Nikki said no comment and pleaded the fifth. Mi chica had picked Diego up on Friday as we promised him he could spend the night with us so at least so far he has not caught the bug... yet.

Saturday morning Michelle texts mi chica and pleads for some warm Chicken Soup, so a big pot was cooked and a couple of hours later Mr. Diego and I got drafted to go deliver soup to three different houses.

Stop number one: His house, or apartment. We got there and had Michelle come out to the patio which is right by the parking lot. The baby was vomiting when we got there but after the incident she came out and received her fresh brew of "Caldo de Pollo".

Diego gives his mom a fresh batch of "Caldo de Pollo".
We say goodbye and move on to the second house, my sister in law's. Luckily she only live about five minutes away from Michelle so that was just a little jump for us. We got there and she came out to receive her batch of soup. Now correct me if I'm wrong but I was expecting to find her in pajamas no makeup and her hair all over the place. Ummm, she cheated, I think she just said she was sick to that she could get some chicken soup. Although in all honesty I would take her soup even if she wasn't sick.

See, she lied, but nevertheless she got her fresh caldito batch.
OK, Mr. Diego was keeping track of the stops and according to him stop one his house, check. Stop two Kika's house, check. That only meant one more house. This one however is not in the neighborhood, going to Nikki's house requires some driving so we sat back and relaxed, put the sounds on the radio and enjoyed the drive. Twenty minutes later we were at Nikki's to deliver her still burning hot bowl of caldo.

Nikki had called mi chica to tell her that "Ducky" was excited about gettin' some soup. Ummm let me see mi chica said, that's not cool, the duck is going to eat chicken. lol

Last but not least, Nikki and "Ducky's" delivery.

Hey, I got a delivery too! Ducky was eating his and had a discovery: "MOM! Theres CHICKEN in this sopita!!" I was like, uhm, it IS chicken soup, dear.. :)

So... To all my sickies I hope you all get well soon. And I will be keeping Diego with us until tomorrow night so he can go home and straight to bed, maybe he'll escape the flu this time.

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Proyecto Uno - The Den

I love, love, love, my kids to death but oh was I ready for some peace and tranquility and why not a clean house too. Our second set of ducks flew the coop and now went to live on their own. Granted they only moved about five minutes away from us but the key word here in case you didn't catch it the key word is "away".

As they took most of their belongings on Saturday and the house was in a bit of a kaos state when I woke up on Sunday morning I asked mi chica one simple question. What should we do? How about we move things around and we recover our den from the arms of kaos. Fortunately she was game and so a day long task began.

Piece one and two made it in.
First we moved everything out of the den, sweeping and mopping is a lot easier when empty. Then we moved the entertainment center back from the living room one heavy piece at a time, of course the center piece being the heaviest one took the longest. Remember it was this over the hill guy and his chica doing all the moving and I couldn't bring the next piece in until all the electronic equipment was properly connected.

Piece number three and hooking up all the electronics.
I opted for a VCR and the DVR only, no DVD player here. Then added a brand new JVC mini stereo that I had for over a year just sitting in the box. I placed the speakers up on top and hid them with the floral arrangements. Once all the technical issues were taken care of and last two pieces were brought in mi chica went ahead and put a plethora of family pictures and portraits. The end result I think was pretty nice.

To the right of the entertainment center I hung a portrait of my mom that was burnt into a piece of leather and was done by an artist that was a customer of hers some
50+ years ago when she worked at a dry cleaners in Mexico. She kept it in a suit case for many years until lots and lots of beggin' from my part finally convinced her to let me have it.

Here it's already taking shape.
To complement the new look in the den we bought an area rug that kindda ties everything together. The only thing left is an empty wall that we will tackle in the near future as we have more funds to keep buying the accessories we need.

Here is the end result. The next morning my bones and muscles ached as if I had gone to the gym but it was all worth it.

The wall at the left is like an empty canvas that will have to be worked in the very near future.
A different angle.

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29 Again...

Mi chica turns 29 again
It's like if time just stood still
While I continue to get old
She amazes me with her youthful will

The years don't seem to leave a mark
They only come as if to tell her hi
Where is this fountain she may have found?
Fountain of youth, fountain of life

While getting old is not a bad thing
You know some things vintage just fine
Yes mi chica gets better with age
just like a fine wine does

So on this November 3rd
I would like to make a toast
To my friend, my love, my life
Yes you all know her as my wife

Happy birthday my sweet darling
And may you live many more
As you keep going on that voyage
Take this fool of yours in tow

Happy Birthday my baby
I love you very much.


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Halloween 2009

Here's the gang posing and showing off the awesome costumes.

The decision was to skip trick or treating and to meet at Kika's (my cool sister in law) for a Monster Mash spooky filled Halloween Party. It was perfect as this year Halloween fell on a Saturday.

Everybody pitched in some funds and a lot of candy was bought for the kids and a huge party sandwich for us grown ups, and kids too. Mi chica works on Saturday but as soon as she came home we left for the party.

I had spent the previous hour putting the finishing touches on my costume, my daughter Nikki and I decided on going as cholitos. I already had some gray pants so a $15.00 shirt and a dollar bandanna from Walgreens made the outfit complete. So believable it came out that mi chica did not let me get off the van a the store. Yeah, I guess in my neighbourhood or my sister in law's I would have stuck like a sore thumb.

La homegirl Nikki and el vato loco Joe Cool... Orale!

They say la placa is there to serve and protect but in this case his only crime was to be so darn handsome. Qvo Mr. Swat man it wasn't me, it was the one arm man...


El vato loco showing his coolness.
Another awesome costume at the party was that of my nephew. He was dressed as the now iconic Edward (Manos de Tijera) Scissorhands. From the outfit to the hair which I think it's his real hair to the makeup, this was a winning costume that only he could pull it off. But I'll let you be the judge.



Pretty awesome, isn't it?
Of course when those scissors tried to mess with the doo homey wasn't happy.

Games were organized for the kids to have a good time. Musical chairs where the losers got candy and the winner got more candy, it was all about the candy. I can see the parents hiding it form them as soon as they got home. We all danced the Time Warp and Thriller, and there was even a parade of the ghoulish creatures. Ha, ha, the parade more than a ghoulish parade of scary creatures looked more like a celebrity red carpet walk, with the paparazzi snapping more shots of their favorites little and big monsters.

Of course your magesty "La Princesa" would not miss such an important event.
Eddy and Cleo striking a pose.
So handsomly cool, even a cave man can do it!
The Flinstones, jaba dabadaba dooooooo!
Mi cholita.

I hope your Halloween celebration was as cool and fun as ours was. Thanks to my sister in law for providing the perfect environment for the pary.

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