"Only in Albuquerque" Exhibit at Albuquerque Museum

You've probably said it many times, "Only in Albuquerque..." and now you can see all of these uniquely ABQ things in one place, the Albuquerque Museum. The new, interactive exhibit opens to the public this Tuesday, March 3 and highlights the culture of the Rio Grande Valley. Buy tickets for the whole family before they sell out! For more information, visit the Albuquerque Museum website or see the details posted below:

Interactive & Fun
The Only in Albuquerque history gallery has been highly anticipated during many years of redesign, construction, story development and fabrication.

Only in Albuquerque is an interactive, engaging, fun-filled presentation of the history and culture of the central Rio Grande Valley.

Explorers, Postcards, Quilts & More!

• Make your own family Coat of Arms
• Electronically send a Route 66 postcard to a friend
• Create a personal "quilt" of images from the Museum’s collections
• Record your story to share in the Museum and with friends
• Vibrant theatres
• Virtual reality storybooks
• State of the art App, developed especially for our visitors.

Four Galleries of Local History
Only in Albuquerque features a greatly  expanded story of our city from before written history to the present, set in an  engaging, fun, and interactive atmosphere.

Our story is told through four galleries:

• Spirited
• Courageous
• Resourceful
• Innovative

All galleries connect to a central gallery entitled Our Land.

From the Rio Grande Valley
This ingenious design gives our guests with an experience related to our central theme:

• Different cultures
• Interacting with each other in a unique geographic setting
• Shared characteristics found only in Albuquerque and the middle Río Grande Valley

Hundreds of our city's most beloved artifacts are featured, with additional objects recently acquired yet to be unveiled.

ABQ Restaurants You May Not Have Heard Of

Albuquerque is a city known for its amazing food, among other things. Chiles aside, we love to cook and eat many different types of cuisine. It's probably impossible to eat at every single ABQ restaurant, but you can't blame anyone for trying! These restaurants, courtesy of ABQ Newscastic, are among some hidden gems in the ABQ restaurant world. Give them a try this weekend!

Bocadillos
Food Network's Guy Fieri drooled watching chef Marie Yniguez prepare the slow roasted sandwiches at her little shop in the North Valley. It can be a bit tricky to find, but if you set your navigator of choice to 1609 Indian School Rd NW you should find it.

(Hint: Look for the converted garage space.) If you're like me, you might end up circling the nearby roundabout once or twice but once you've found it, order the Reuben. If there's a seat, take it. If not, order it to go. You won't regret it either way.

K&I Diner
Head down south on Broadway, all the way south to the South Valley, for a diner where the waitresses will call you mijo or mija and the food is muy delicioso.

Grandma Warner's K&I Diner is home to the Travis on a Silver Platter challenge. If you can finish off the gigantic burrito topped with an enormous montaña of fries, it's free. Or you can play it safe and order the half, quarter, or "wimp" sizes.

The diner may be out of the way for most but you can't miss the bold red and white striped exterior at 2500 Broadway Blvd SE.

Tia B's La Waffleria
Did you know Albuquerque has a restaurant entirely dedicated to waffles? It's true. Even though it's in the Nob Hill area, many don't come across it's off-Central location. It's worth tracking down the quaint residential space turned waffle house at 3710 Campus Blvd NE to order among the selection of both sweet and savory waffle concoctions. I personally can't get over the carne adovada-topped blue corn waffles.

In what clearly was a convenience store in a past life, San Pedro Mart now offers both a place to buy Middle Eastern spices and groceries as well as sit and enjoy a prepared meal. If you're in the San Pedro and Montgomery area, you're within sniffing distance.

Just hone in to 4001 San Pedro Dr NE for some of the best Middle Eastern food in Albuquerque. If you're new to this particular cuisine, start with either beef or lamb shawarma and hummus. Definitely try the hummus.

Charles Place
Charles Place is about as exclusive as fine dining gets in Albuquerque. Open on Friday and Saturday with only a handful of tables and limited seating, reservations are required to dine at chef Charles Banzaquen's house. That's right, it's his house.

He converted his three-bedroom home into a place where he could share prix-fixe meals of his own creation. The chef invites you to his home at 1223 Tijeras NW. Call 505-244-0830 for reservations.

Nosh
I can count the number of Jewish delicatessens in Albuquerque that I know of on one finger. And since it isn't the easiest place to find, I wouldn't be surprised if you didn't know about it. At 116 Amherst Dr SE, Nosh in Nob Hill serves up all the Jewish specialties you'd expect.

Matzo ball soup, noodle kugel, corned beef sandwiches, latkes, and other nasheral that would make your bubba kvell. Order up some rugelach and take a seat under a framed portrait of Barbra Streisand while you practice your Yiddish.

The Last Call
The weekend warriors who invade Nob Hill Friday and Saturday nights know all about The Last Call. But with it's hole-in-the-wall location off the main stretch of Central, many others may not know about the authentic SoCal cuisine cooking up inside 102 Richmond Dr NE. 

The other thing you might know about? Dollar fish tacos on Tuesdays. So whether you're ordering the carne asada fries after a night of heavy drinking or a dozen fish tacos to take home on a Tuesday, you're in good hands at The Last Call.

Create a Magazine-Worthy Apartment Home

"Luxury living room with a fireplace." by TNS Sofres is licensed under CC BY 2.0

You don’t have to have an eye for design or watch HGTV 24/7 to create and decorate a beautiful home. Most importantly, your space should reflect you and your personal taste! If you are feeling overwhelmed and in need of guidance, remember these decorating principles from Apartment Therapy and you’ll have a space worthy of a magazine cover in no time!

1. Cut the clutter.

The number one thing that sets blog-worthy interiors apartment from just plain old interiors is the lack of clutter. Over time, it's easy to let things accumulate in your home without thinking about it — and after a while, you can get to the point where you don't really 'see' clutter. Taking a photo of your space is a good trick for helping you see a room with new eyes. Once you've identified the trouble spots, check out our 10 Commandments of a Clutter-Free Life for some game-changing advice.

2. Leave a little space.

It can be tempting, especially when you keep finding pieces you love on the internet or at a flea market or in your neighbor's trash, to fill your space as full of furniture as possible. But often the secret to a more pleasing interior isn't more stuff, but less stuff. If you look at interiors in magazines, you'll notice that a lot of them have quite a bit of negative space. This lets each piece shine, and also makes the room feel more spacious. Try it out at home by removing one or two big pieces from a room — you may be surprised at how much it opens up the space.

3. Add a little texture.

A space without a variety of textures can feel dull and lifeless. This is an easy one to correct — a fluffy throw, an interesting rug, or even an old antique piece can all add a little interest to a room. Check out our advice for transforming your space with texture.

4. Use color judiciously.

Not every space needs to have a 'color' (as in, "what color is your living room?") or have everything match to be lively or interesting. A lot of beautiful spaces get interest from a variety of proportions and textures, and have very little in the way of color at all. Others manage to feel very colorful with just a few colorful pieces. When adding color to your space, try adding one or two pieces at a time and then judging their impact before adding more to the mix. You may find that a little goes a long way.

5. Pay attention to balance and proportion.

The same things that make a lovely, interesting photo make a lovely, interesting home — a mix of pieces of different sizes and proportions. Balancing heavy pieces with more delicate ones makes a space dynamic. Too many small items, without any larges ones to break them up, can feel chaotic and cluttered. This is another area where taking pictures of your own home can help. Pay attention to how your furniture and accessories relate to your space, and how they relate to each other.

Bedroom Styling

"IMG_1208" by Matthew Piatt is licensed under CC BY-SA 2.0

Your bedroom should be the oasis in your apartment, so you want that space to feel as large as possible, whether it is actually large or not. You can use the decor and furniture pieces in your bedroom to manipulate the size of the space. So how do you make a room feel larger than it is? Try these tricks from Apartment Therapy:

1. Bed drawers and multi-tier nightstands

It's not within every budget to buy a bed that has built-in storage, but in this small and closet-less space, it appears to have been a vital element to ensure this small space actually functioned the way they needed it. Another fun storage feature? Not just one nightstand, but three, on each side! Floating nightstands have long been a smart choice for small spaces, but here, the addition of even more wall-mounted (or in this case, headboard-mounted) ledges means more room for both needed and decorative objects.

2. A large, horizontal wall-mounted mirror

We all know that wall-mounted reflective surfaces like mirrors work magic in small spaces, and in here it's no different. They chose to add the mirror to the wall opposite the door, which is a smart move since it'll reflect an image of the other room, making it feel a little more open than it actually is.

3. A sliding door

For privacy, you can't beat a door. For saving space and adding privacy, you can't beat a sliding door, which they made here themselves using mostly items found at Home Depot.

DIY Home Decor: How To Make a Sliding Door for Under $40

4. Light-colored black-out drapes that blend

For those who need a lot of darkness to sleep peacefully, black-out drapes (lined with dark, light-blocking fabric) are a must. But keep the side of the drapes that face the bedroom a light color, preferably a similar color to the wall. This will help them blend in and expand the look of the space visually.

5. A minimal style

It just makes sense — small spaces need less stuff, and keeping the decorative elements to a minimum will help keep a small space from feeling cluttered. But, that doesn't mean you have to keep everything out. As this small bedroom proves, you can find a good balance between art, decorative elements and more and still have a room that feels spacious for its size.