"When you are a man, sometimes you wear stretchy pants in your room. It's for fun."
Halloween 2010

"Más ágil que una tortuga, más fuerte que un ratón, más noble que una  lechuga, su escudo es un corazón...
Es el Chapulín Colorado!!"
Halloween 2011

Gabriel the Great!
The Last Great Circus Stongman!
Lifts 4,300 lbs!
Engaged at the Princely Salary of $2,000 per Week!
Halloween 2012

While your altar will be a unique representation of your preferences and personal style, there are some traditional elements that should be incorporated into the space. Each item has significance, though you may add special ofrendas, or offerings, of your own.

Here is a list of elements (and their significance) to build your own altar to honor your dearly departed.

Tablecloth: Cover the table or surface on which the altar
will be built. Some altars are bright and cheerful, with colorful tablecloths and sheets as the  backdrop, while others feature a more sombre black or dark colored cloth.
Photos of loved ones: Ideally, there should be at least one photo of each person being honored. Place photos in the center, as a focal point of the altar.
Candles: Set a candle for each deceased  relative. White represents the purity of the soul, and the light is believed to guide the spirits on their journey back.
Papel picado: The delicate paper represents wind and the fragility of life.
Flowers: Marigolds are preferred, but they are difficult to
find. If you can't find marigolds then mums in oranges and golds make good substitutes.
Personal items of the deceased: Objects they used daily or were especially fond of.

Food and drink: Favorite foods specially prepared as an
offering.
Pan de muerto: Sweet bread in the form of bones or skeletons, to represent soil.
Skulls or skeletons: Generally brightly colored skulls made of molded sugar inscribed with the name of the honoree represent vitality of life and personality
Copal incense: The light smoke and aroma are thought
to carry prayers to God.
Water: Purifies, cleanses and quenches the thirst of the 
souls. 

Now that we have the essential elements, it's time to assemble the altar. Your Day of the Deade altar can be as simple or as elaborate as you want. The purpose of an altar is remembrance, with that in mind feel free to do what you think your honoree would enjoy.

For weeks now, most have been getting ready for Halloween with costumes,  decorations, pumpkin patches and carvings and all-around spookiness.In our home we also have a fondness for Día de los Muertos, which is celebrated on November 1st and 2nd,  and is a traditional  Mexican holiday dedicated to the memory of the loved ones we’ve lost.
The idea is that we celebrate and remember them with joy. Day of the Dead is a holiday infused with so much tradition and history that Mexico as a whole embraces it.  You can see some very elaborate altars in public schools, government offices and most public spaces.  In fact, it’s one of the few ancient indigenous celebrations to remain
after the Spanish conquest. This tradition is so full of history and symbolism that it’s one I’m hanging on
to tightly.
So, every year,  I build an altar. Altars are made to honor family and friends that have passed away and are  decorated with their pictures, personal objects or mementos and candles.  Their favorite food and drinks are also placed on the altar, along with a trail of marigold flowers to create a path so their soul can find its way back to join the celebrations. By placing these artifacts, flowers and foods the person will be remembered and celebrated for who they were in life and this will  encourage them to pay a visit.  It sounds spooky but it's celebrated with so much positive energy and in such a festive environment that it'll never be frightening.

Tomorrow building your own altar.

....wythe blue HC-143! There's a new color in town and its bathing everything in it's soft, sunny, light! Benjamin Moore has introduced the 2013 color of the year and it's...

Benjamin Moore
LEMON SORBET 2019-60

Luscious lemon sorbet (2019-60), our Color of the Year for 2013, is the perfect  transitional color between the mid-tones and saturated colors seen in today’s
home furnishings and the softer, lighter pastels which are emerging for 2013.”  via Benjamin Moore.

at Open House Chicago.
The Chicago Architectural Foundation inspires people to discover why design matters, by offering behind the scenes access to 150 of the city's greatest spaces and places.

I took advantage of a weekend off from the paint store,  and my Kiddo and I suited up to brave the rain and explore. One of our stops was The Oriental Theatre.

The Oriental Theatre has come full circle, from the height of acclaim in the 1920s, to the depths of neglect in the 1980s, and back to the spotlight again for the millennium.

The theatre's style is  a mixture  of influences and elements from what was then known as the "Oriental" part of the world - India, Indonesia and Tibet.

The unusual décor includes a court of East Indian royalty, as  well as various molded plaster creatures such as griffins, monkeys, buddhas, and elephants.

Restoration artists went to work patching, painting, gilding and glazing, using 4000 gallons of paint, 62,500 sq.ft. of aluminum leaf, and 12,500 sq.ft. of gold leaf for the restoration in 1996.

And since it's almost Halloween, here's a spooky story about The Oriental. The spot where theater now stands was originally where The Iroquois Theatre once stood, on December 30, 1903 there was fire that was considered the deadliest theatre fire in US History, at least 605 people died as a result. Many visitors to the theatre have reported hearing loud footsteps and faint screaming inside the theatre. It's also said that the alley behind the theatre is haunted by the ghosts of people who tried to use the fire escape to get away  from the fire but fell six stories to their death because the fire escape  itself had never been built.

Notice that Autumn is more the season of the soul than of Nature.”  — 
Friedrich Nietzsche

The foundation for the clients garage is ready.  Next up on the schedule, carpentry.

Ok, so, I took a long break for no good reason, but I'll tell you what I was doing starting with:  

the number of days we had to wait for the the Chicago's Teacher Strike to be over :7

First Days of School:1 (finally!)

Hours at Santa's Village, riding the rides and feeding the animals:8

Construction projects started:1 
(See The Contractor all ready for work)

Days spent riding bikes, goofing around, playing golf and doing homework: too many to count!

Posts written:1

Good stuff to come, I promise. Missed ya.

I can not wait to see what  the decorators come up with this season! Especially at the Maison de Luxe at Greystone Mansion.  I'll be parked in front of my tv on November 13th!