Posts

Dating in the Smoky Mountains isn’t for the faint of heart. In a round of “True Confessions” on The Tonight Show Starring Jimmy Fallon earlier this month, Dolly Parton recounted a tale from her teen years that would make anybody’s hair stand up on end. The country icon, who was matched against actor Noah Centineo, wasn’t lying when she shared that, “a date kicked me out of a car and made me walk home at night through a forest with bears and bobcats....

Of course Laurel, Mississippi’s Ben and Erin Napier get an A+ in Southern hospitality. That’s why we’re taking a page out of their playbook when it comes to getting a great gift for your neighbors, whether it’s for new folks in town or long-time friends from three doors down. In a recent interview with Glamour.com the HGTV Home Town stars shared the best gifts for your neighbors, and we particularly appreciated their response....

Season one, episode three of Chip and Joanna Gaines’ Fixer Upper: Welcome Home had us seriously ready to move into the beautiful abode featured on the Waco wonders’ new series (now streaming on discovery+). Dubbed “Modern Take on Old-World Charm,” the episode featured a young woman named Nicole who spent the last five years working abroad before returning to Waco to attend nursing school and to be closer to her loved ones....

I came across Cookie Highlighter in The Cheekleaders Cheek Palette from Benefit Cosmetics—and it was love at first swipe. No offense to the other four shades in the palette, but Cookie was a clear favorite. While I scraped the bottom of the pan with my brush to get every last bit of my favorite shade, the other colors remained almost untouched. It seems I’m not the only one who shared an instant connection with the wonder product....

Are you in need of a heartwarming Netflix series to fill the hole left by Sweet Magnolias? Are you a country music fan with a penchant for family sitcoms? Do you like to laugh? If you’ve answered “yes” to all three questions, we have good news for you: Country Comfort is here to meet all your streaming needs. Best described as The Nanny meets The Sound of Music, this new series follows an aspiring country singer (played by American Idol season five runner-up Katharine McPhee) named Bailey who stumbles into a job nannying for a widowed rancher named Beau (Eddie Cibrian) and his five children, who, as luck would have it, all happen to be gifted musicians....

In all seriousness, though, the Smoky Mountain Songbird has been doing so much to help us weather the storm during the coronavirus crisis. Between pledging $1 million to Vanderbilt Medical Center to help fight coronavirus (check out our video below) to giving fans a heartfelt Easter performance of “He’s Alive” this Easter Sunday from her home we’re amazed by all that she’s doing to support us right now. Even her theme park in Pigeon Forge, Tennessee, Dollywood, is pitching in to help local first responders and hospital workers amidst supply shortages....

Hold onto your hats: Colleen Hoover’s bestselling romance novel It Ends With Us is getting a film adaptation. Deadline reports that Blake Lively and Justin Baldoni are attached to star in the movie currently in development at Sony Pictures. Baldoni, of Jane the Virgin fame, will direct and executive produce. Lively will also executive produce alongside Hoover, Steve Sarowitz, and Andrew Calof. For the uninitiated, It Ends With Us follows Lily, a small-town girl who moves to Boston to start her own business....

If ever there were one beverage that has become synonymous with the holidays, it’s eggnog. In spite of its pervasiveness during the holiday season, the nutmeg-flavored, dairy-based drink is quite polarizing. People are either repulsed by the fusion of milk, raw egg yolks, spices, and alcohol, or they can’t get enough after trying their first adulterated sip. For those of you who love drinking a cup of eggnog while wearing your ugly Christmas sweater, here’s how it became a holiday tradition for many families across the U....

I’m a vacuuming enthusiast. With a long-haired dog and two toddlers, the battle against crumbs and fur balls is constant. It’s a lot of commotion under one small roof, but we manage to keep things (relatively) spick-and-span thanks to a few hardworking products. At the top of the list? Our 1984 Bissell AirRam Cordless Vacuum ($249.99). To say I was hesitant to take the plunge on a cordless vacuum is an understatement....

Atlanta realtor Scott Stallings thought someone had sent him tickets to the 2023 Masters golf tournament when he opened a package addressed to him that contained a green envelope with the tournament’s distinguishable green branding. Confused, he checked the outside packaging again and confirmed it was his name and the address to his vacation property in Saint Simons Island, Georgia, where he and his wife Jenny had come to ring in the new year....

If you’ve ever had a hankering for a big bowl of creamy mashed potatoes, but either didn’t have potatoes on hand or the time to peel and boil them, today is your lucky day. Thanks to the creative chefs of TikTok, you can throw out your stockpile of just-add-water mashed potato mixes, and reach for a bag of potato chips instead. That’s right, a regular bag of Lay’s potato chips, plus a pad of butter and splash of milk or cream, is all you need to make the beloved all-occasion side dish....

After 56 years of marriage, Billy and Judy Miller died like they lived: holding onto each other. One of dozens of tornadoes that tore through Kentucky on Friday reduced their home to cinderblocks, scattered their belongings across two states, and put an end to an epic love story. According to The Washington Post, the Millers were found side by side at their property on the outskirts of Bremen on Saturday morning....

Second-born children have long been believed to be the troublemakers in the family. And now, there’s scientific evidence to back up that theory. According to a study by MIT economist Joseph Doyle, second-born children are indeed more likely to exhibit rebellious behavior. And that goes double for second-born boys. “I find the results to be remarkable that the second-born children, compared to their older siblings, are much more likely to end up in prison, much more likely to get suspended in school, enter juvenile delinquency,” Doyle told NPR....

If you’re traveling to Los Angeles to watch the Georgia Bulldogs play TCU in the national championship game on Monday, we recommend leaving your paper plates and Solo cups at home. According to the College Football Playoff website, SoFi Stadium will not permit pre-game tailgating in its parking lot. SoFi Stadium, the home of the Los Angeles Rams and Chargers, typically allows tailgating in “designating parking lots and other areas for ticketed guests who have purchased a tailgating pass....

Summer is here, and some days are Hot with a capital H. We’re not complaining, though: This winter has been a particularly long one, and more time spent outside is nothing short of a blessing. But when you come indoors, the last thing you want is to feel the same oppressive heat that radiates off the pavement. Luckily, there are seriously decent bargains on fans and air conditioners at Walmart ready to provide a blast of cool air....

Short haircuts for curly hair can be tricky thing. Chop too short and your curls won’t show off their full spiral. If strands are too long, curls could get weighed down and lose their bounce. Needless to say, we’ve been on an exhaustive hunt for the best haircuts for curly hair for quite some time. We searched high and low to find the ideal length, style, and cut; and we’re pretty sure we finally did....

Show us a Southern cook and we’ll show you a well-worn collection of summer potluck recipes. Some of us have no doubt what to bring to a potluck. We’ll bring the same thing we brought last time—our specialty, the dish no one makes quite like we do, whatever it may be. Others are always on the hunt for new summer potluck ideas. A few of our most treasured potluck traditions don’t have anything to do with the dish itself but with the way it’s served....

As much as we love a home-cooked meal, you’ll also find us frequenting all the local dining spots around town. Aside from manners and football, there are few things Southerners are more finicky about than food… which is to say we know how and what to order (and we know when it’s authentically Southern). From sweet tea to greens and just about anything fried, if it’s available, you can bet your bottom dollar one of these seven things will be on our table....

College GameDay is going to Augusta! Augusta National chairman Fred Ridley announced on Tuesday that the historic Georgia golf club will host the ESPN show on Saturday of the 84th Masters Tournament. The change is one of many being made to this year’s spectator-free Masters as a result of the ongoing coronavirus pandemic. “Given the circumstances brought about by the pandemic, the delivery of quality content is as important as ever to the storytelling of the Masters Tournament,” Ridley explained....

Last year I found a giant, and I mean absolutely gargantuan, spider in my laundry the day after we brought our Christmas tree home from the lot. I was convinced the baby tarantula (or so I called it) had been a passenger on the S.S. Fraser Fir that sat in the living room just steps from the mudroom and my massive piles of laundry. I counted myself lucky that I didn’t accidentally pick it up along with my pile of whites but, it turns out, it might have been luckier if I had found the spider on our actual tree instead....