Ben and Erin Napier’s holiday movie premieres in just a few days, and the HGTV couple is sharing some fascinating tidbits about what fans can expect from their film debut. Speaking with the Mississippi Clarion Ledger this week, the Napiers discussed how A Christmas Open House came to be, what it was like filming a Christmas movie in the middle of summer, and what audiences should keep an eye out for....
Our first look at the movie adaptation of Where the Crawdads Sing is finally here! Today, Vanity Fair published a handful of photos from the highly anticipated film from Reese Witherspoon’s production company, Hello Sunshine. The photos from the big-screen version of Deliah Owens’ bestselling novel bring Kya (played by Daisy Edgar-Jones) and her lush marsh world to life in startling detail. Where the Crawdads Sing was filmed in and around Houma and New Orleans....
We will be honest with you. In recent months amid the coronavirus outbreak, it’s been harder than ever to stick to a workout routine. Let alone, a get-off-the-couch routine. It’s not for lack of effort: We’ve tried streaming yoga videos, we’ve tried lifting five-pound dumbbells until the cows come home and ye olde Alexa alarm rang, and we’ve even tried instituting a plank challenge complete with a Google spreadsheet. Even though we know how important exercise is to our physical and mental health, it feels like it’s never been more of a struggle to break a sweat....
Few plants can be considered as quintessentially Southern as the magnolia. Their big, waxy, glossy leaves juxtaposed with heady, fragrant flowers are familiar sights to Southerners. They bloom in ivory whites, pale yellows, and pretty pinks, with some species flowering in the heat of summer and others blooming in late winter as harbingers of warmer weather to come. These are favorite trees for Southern yards not only because of their perfumed blooms, which are always a draw for gardeners, but also because of their variety....
Ladies, don your best swing dress and put on your peep-toe pumps. Gents, pull on that sports coat and dust off your fedora. You’re about to take the ride of your life…in a vintage locomotive running on a hundred-year-old railroad. No, this isn’t Gare du Nord with Audrey Hepburn in the 1957 hit Funny Face. It’s the Potomac Eagle railroad in the South Branch Valley of West Virginia. The train, which runs 53 miles from Green Spring to Petersburg, parallels the Potomac River and serves the towns of Romney, Moorefield, and Petersburg....
In the summer, a stroll through the produce section at your grocery store will showcase big bins of yellow squash and zucchini at a convincing price. Squash plants thrive in Southern summers, they require little attention in the garden, and they’re the primary ingredient in a handful of nearly-sacred Southern recipes. And for some Southerners, all variations of squash dishes take a backseat to the crispy fried squash of our best summer soirees....
Hop aboard Amtrak’s Crescent Route for one of the best ways to travel the South. Amtrak’s Crescent Route runs daily between New York City and New Orleans, servicing 32 stations across 1,377 miles of the southeastern United States including Washington, D.C., Charlottesville, Atlanta, and Birmingham. “You can tour Monticello or enjoy a wine tasting in the charming Virginia college town of Charlottesville. Or enjoy a stroll through the vibrant shopping and dining scene of Underground Atlanta,” Amtrak’s website says....
In a childhood scrapbook, there’s a photograph that was taken at Ms. Martha’s day care; my husband, Pete, and I are both in it. Nearly three decades later, we decided to make a life together. Our daughter, who’s now 3, is about how old we were in that picture and reminds me of those two children, familiar in every way. The pull to return home to Lake Providence, Louisiana, was at first gentle....
If diamonds are a girl’s best friend, then this is one heck of a companion. As Tiffany & Co. announced in a recent press release, the fine jewelry empire has acquired an 80-carat diamond, described as “an extraordinary oval diamond,” that it will use to reimagine a beautiful piece it created for the 1939’s World Fair in Queens, New York. The sparkly stunner is the largest diamond that the company has ever offered, surpassed only by The Tiffany Diamond, the famed diamond discovered in South Africa in 1877 that was acquired the next year by founder Charles Lewis Tiffany for $18,000 and is famously not for sale....
At the U.S. Space & Rocket Center in Huntsville, Alabama, there is a gravestone where visitors leave bananas in lieu of flowers. Buried there is a history-making squirrel monkey known as “Miss Baker,” the first American animal to fly in space and return alive. Two years before any humans flew into space, on May 28, 1959, Miss Baker and her colleague Miss Able, a rhesus monkey, were strapped into a Jupiter rocket and shot 300 miles into the sky....
That’s a lot of gator! The first weekend of South Carolina’s annual alligator hunt meant big business for Cordray’s Processing and Taxidermy in Ravenel over the weekend. Among the 18 gators they received for processing, one in particular stood out. Michael Cordray, who started the business about 30 years ago, told The State that the 13-foot, 625-pound whopper Nick Gibert and crew caught in Lake Marion Saturday was among the top five alligators for length and weight he’s ever processed....
Once upon a time, in a land before culinary school, I used to bake freestyle, with measuring cup and spoons, and messes galore. It was not fun, and let me tell you something, my brownie bars were one-part brownie, one-part unleavened flop. But here’s a secret, you don’t need to go to culinary school to become a baking whiz. Just buy a kitchen scale and you’ll see a world of a difference in your skills....
When the weather begins teasing those in the Southeast with mild temperatures and low humidity, it’s a tell-tale sign that fall is on the way. Along with the anticipation of football season and everyone’s favorite spooky holiday, fall also brings spectacular color across the South. Leaves begin to dawn bright bursts of orange, yellow, and red starting as early as mid-September and peak through mid-November. This year, spend some uninterrupted time enjoying the great outdoors at these 13 destinations to see fall leaves in the South....
We are constantly looking for the most efficient methods for cleaning our homes. There’s nothing better than a house that looks, smells, and feels refreshed. We often wonder about the tried-and-true tips that professional cleaners rely on to keep their own homes tidy and looking their best. From products to time of day, here are seven things housekeepers do in their own homes, that you should probably be doing too....
John Alex Floyd Jr. (February 21, 1948 - February 7, 2021) I had been working for the parent company of Southern Living for over a decade when John Floyd (aka “JAF”) decided it was time for me to join his editorial staff. And when John decided it was time, well, it was time. He was the larger-than-life patriarch of the magazine, one with a formidable presence and a contagious passion for the South....
Nothing spells summertime more than a vase of freshly picked hydrangeas from the garden. Those big showy blooms make for lovely cut flowers but if you have a kitty in the house or yard, you need to be careful since hydrangeas can be poisonous to cats. How do cats get hydrangea poisoning? According to Pet Poison Hotline, cats will become poisoned by eating any part of the hydrangea plant. The toxic component of the hydrangea is called cyanogenic glycoside....
It may still be fall but for us, the holiday season is well underway on our TVs. Between the seasonal lineups on both Hallmark networks, Lifetime, and even a brand new scripted movie starring Food Network’s Ree Drummond, we are in full holly jolly mode. Now, if you’ll allow us to indulge our inner child for a moment—or embrace the real ones we have bouncing all around our household—we’ve got some more updates to share: CBS has unveiled its Christmas cartoon specials for the season, and its chock full of standout shows....
I first tasted a slice of chess pie while sitting on the side of the road in middle Tennessee. Well, almost the side of the road. A fellow Californian friend and I made the trek to Leiper’s Fork to see what the hullabaloo was about Puckett’s Grocery. It was an overwhelming experience of the senses. Country music poured out the windows and shook the floors. The meat-and-three hot bar had more options than a college course catalogue....
Southern parents may not expect perfection, but they expect politeness. When Southern children are old enough to talk, properly addressing others is taught by saying “yes ma’am” and “no sir” and treating others with kindness and respect. Continuing to mind those manners long after leaving the next is also expected. After all, you’re never too young or too old to be polite. Etiquette is simply abiding by the customary behaviors deemed appropriate for society to ensure a civilized culture....
Anybody who has ever set out to organize their home knows that the hard part is often what comes next: maintaining it. The unfortunate reality is that the Marie Kondos of the world are few and far between, which is why many people end up slipping back into their old disorganized ways after attempting big organizational changes. But that doesn’t mean there’s no hope. To figure out where most people go wrong when it comes to getting their home in shape, Apartment Therapy spoke with organizing expert Rachel Rosenthal, who recommends looking at organizing not as a weekend chore, but as a lifestyle change....
