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October 30th began as a normal Saturday for 12-year-old Nicholas Fano. That afternoon, he and a friend went to the dock across the street from his family’s house in Palm City, Florida, to do a bit of fishing in Bessy Creek. “I just threw a bait out to see what would happen. When the fish hit, it started taking out the line, but slowly at first,” Nicholas, a young but vastly experienced angler, told Treasure Coast Newspapers....

I view painting a room a lot like getting bangs. You never really know if it’s the right move until you just do it. Also a lot like getting bangs, other people will probably have a lot of opinions about what you should and shouldn’t do, based on unfounded and unchecked rules that someone saw on Pinterest one time. (Can you tell I got bangs once?) Honestly, houses can be about as unique as people’s face shape, so you never really know how a paint color will turn out until you see it in context in your exact space....

Look inside your average Southerner’s freezer and you’ll probably find a lot more than ice cream. There’s a bag of last summer’s bumper crop of strawberries, a pound cake for a postponed school bake sale, a few chicken breasts that were on sale at the Pig, some pulled pork made in the slow cooker, a fix-and-freeze casserole–or two. And a bunch of things that are so covered in freezer burn that they might has well have been there since the Ice Age....

Most of us lack some of the kitchen appliances we want, which means most of us have been “creative” in using the tools we do have to make up for the food processor or rolling pin we’re still hoping to get for Christmas. While creativity has its benefits, ingenuity with kitchen gear (especially your blender) can be disastrous. WATCH: Here’s Why Every Kitchen Needs A Food Processor Here are 5 things to never put in your blender: Potatoes Mashed potatoes require elbow grease—it’s unavoidable....

Rubber mulch didn’t start out as a gardening product. It found its niche as a bouncy, soft surface for children’s playgrounds. Yes, research showed that if a kid fell onto rubber mulch from six feet up on a jungle gym, he was less likely to be injured than if he fell on rocks, concrete, broken glass, or sharp steel spikes. But as the number of children’s playgrounds is minuscule compared to the number of houses and gardens out there, the rubber mulch folks turned their attention to suburbia....

Surely, the holidays conjure feelings of cozy fireplace evenings and the reminiscent scents of baking gingerbread cookies. However, the anticipation of the holidays, let alone the arrival, can feel a bit chaotic. To get ahead of the Christmas chaos, controlled or not, you’ll want to take the time to fall clean and declutter your space. Just as the secret to spring (as well as fall) cleaning is to declutter your home, room by room, pre-organizing and deep cleaning your dwelling can ease the chaotic feelings associated with the holiday season....

Hot on the heels of being awarded CMT’s Artist of a Lifetime honor, country legend Alan Jackson already has his next big win lined up. The Country Music Association (CMA) revealed that Jackson will receive this year’s CMA Willie Nelson Lifetime Achievement Award. The CMA Willie Nelson Lifetime Achievement Award is given to “an iconic artist who has attained the highest degree of recognition in Country Music,” according to a press release sent out by the CMA....

It’s easy to understand how the 8,000 acres that surround the Biltmore could get overlooked. Competing for attention with America’s Largest Home is no cakewalk. Birdwatching likely isn’t the first thing that comes to mind when one thinks of Biltmore either. Yet, Asheville’s most famous attraction is a birder’s paradise. Upwards of 200 species of birds have been identified on the estate, which also happens to be official site on the North Carolina Birding Trail....

Amid a holiday with stronger-than-average opinions about classic recipes and traditions, my Dad’s Thanksgiving ritual isn’t even written down. It doesn’t have a recipe card covered in decades-old gravy drips but, like any other Thanksgiving dish, it’s been perfected over time. The challenge? Create a leftover stew that incorporates at least one spoonful of every remaining dish in the fridge. Yes, cranberry sauce included. Dubbed leftover turkey “stoup” due to a consistency that lands firmly in the middle of a soup and stew each time, it’s a lot more appetizing than it sounds (or looks, depending on the year)....

With college dorm rooms once again filling up with students, Erin Napier felt a twinge of nostalgia for her own coed days. On Monday, the Home Town star shared a photo of her sophomore year dorm room at Jones College in Ellisville, Mississippi. The throwback offers interesting insight into both her burgeoning sense of style and her early days with future husband and co-star, Ben. “My IG feed keeps showing me the young folks’ fancy dorm rooms, so I present for your consideration: my sophomore dorm room from the year of our Lord 2004,” Erin wrote alongside a photo of her humble digs on Instagram....

Great Smoky Mountains National Park has had the market cornered on synchronous fireflies for years. But thanks to a relatively recent discovery, the Blue Ridge Mountains just might give it a run for its money. The Photinus carolinus is a species of firefly that each year, typically in the spring, put on a synchronous light display in order to find a mate. They are the only species in America whose individuals can synchronize their flashing light patterns....

A perfectly rolled burrito is nothing less than a work of art. So many appetizing ingredients and textures tightly bound inside a soft, warm tortilla package. The presentation of a burrito is just as important as what goes in it, so it is crucial to your reputation as a culinary wizard and proper Southern hostess to learn how to roll a burrito that won’t split apart in the hands of your guest....

Come one, come all to Asheville, North Carolina, to experience the sprawling sunflower patch at America’s Largest Home. Biltmore’s annual sunflower patch is reportedly in the midst of its first bloom, with some of the flowers standing nearly eight feet tall. Each summer, Biltmore’s guests delight in the stretch of sunflowers along the road between Biltmore House and Antler Hill Village. Stretching nearly a mile long, the sunflower patch yields more than 144,000 blooms during the season and is a popular backdrop for photos....

Warm weather in the South means plenty of time outdoors, but as the summer months drag on, it is often too hot to enjoy your outdoor living spaces during the heat of the day. Whether it’s a casual backyard barbecue, thoughtful dinner party, or just lingering on the porch with good company listening to the sounds of summer, we love to take entertaining outside at night (when the temps are at least a little bit cooler)....

Imagine a world where there was no work, no kids, no obligations, no chores. If you’re anything like us, that enchanted universe would be filled with oodles of cookbook reading. Well, if you love browsing these marvelous recipe-filled titles, you’re going to love this idea from Greenville eatery Table 301 Catering & Kitchen. Inspired by the Little Free Library, a free book exchange operating around the world with 90,000+ micro libraries, the popular Greenville breakfast-and-lunch spot is launching its own cookbook-sharing program....

As spring arrives, so does potluck season. We found one trick that will dramatically change your ability to make a batch of potato salad big enough for the entire office, Little League team, or church choir. Normally preparing potato salad for a crowd (or mashed potatoes or potato soup or twice-baked potatoes) is always a bit of a chore because those dirt-grown gems need to be scrubbed before cooking. That usually means slaving over a sink and putting some elbow grease into making sure each of those little spuds is spic and span before cooking....

When I was in middle school, I religiously changed my nail polish color every week. Wild sparkles, ruby reds, cool blues, I. Did. It. All. Which means that I also spent a lot of time rubbing my nails with acetone to create that blank canvas…and it did not end well. It was so bad, actually, that I quit nail polish all together for years. Memories of peeling nails and the sting of nail polish remover had me swearing off any nail polish for a good long while....

Turn your backyard into a year-round retreat with a laid-back tiny home. The beauty of this plan is its flexibility. You can easily turn this this cottage into a pool house, but guest quarters, home office, and other options beg to be explored. “We took the Lowcountry style of our main home and developed a structure that looked like its little sister,” says Southern Living Custom Builder Randy Schiltz of t-Olive Properties....

They say everything is bigger in the Lone Star State, but when it comes to New Year’s Eve, the Houston-based duo behind the lifestyle brand Mirth play it more low-key. “I’m embarrassed to admit that the party doesn’t always make it till midnight,” confesses Katie McClure, who hosts a fondue dinner with her sister, Erin Breen, every December. But that’s just the way they like it. “It’s not a huge shindig,” says McClure of the gathering....

Stars, they’re just like us. But really, though, they totally are. Parents know all too well the struggle of mealtime with kids, and Thomas Rhett is here to show you that he and his wife Lauren Akins are standing right along there with you in solidarity. “Before you have 3 cupcakes you have to eat 3 bites of pizza,” he captioned a recent Instagram post, alongside a photo of the country star attempting to feed his three-year-old daughter Ada James a slice with the beautiful backdrop of the beach at sunset....