Today’s Fetching Friday invites you into my around the house world.
It’s amazing how fall shows out around the house.
On a late afternoon stroll with Ollie the Wonder Dog the colors in our yard and around the neighborhood caught my eye, so I grabbed the camera and snapped several pics to share with you all.
Purple in shades of deep and bright.
Autumn gold best describes this deep yellow with variegated tones of green beneath.
We just cut this front flower bed crop down for our annual end-of-summer lawn and garden purge, and as if on cold front cue it’s back in blooming wonder.
New to my ironstone-porcelain-so pretty collection of platters, plates, and pitchers is this October for November surprise.
Exciting times and anticipated cold fronts hit the Boot (Louisiana) late this evening and stays for a nice crisp weekend long visit.
A new Dutch oven is ready to sauté and simmer a pound of Cajun trinity for the first gumbo of the fall season and seasons.
Just now (7:24 p.m. cst) Dave the Builder rushed in the back door telling me, “come quick, the geese are flying over.”
My daddy firmly believed low flying geese meant cold weather was on the way, and he loved to hear them this time of year.
As I stood on the sidewalk this evening listening to their fall flyover, I winked up at Jack.
To commemorate fall, the cold front, and the annual parish fair being in town baked caramel apples will be the featured dessert this evening.
I so hope you have a most fetching Friday enjoying the beauty of the season.
October vibes come home to a warm welcome, seasonal updates, creature comforts, and hearth and home enchantment.
Friday officially brings October to the table, a perfect time and a perfect month as can be, autumnally speaking.
Chilly sweater weather days and crisp fall evenings will eventually make it down to Louisiana.
Fleeting as it was, we did get a fall preview last week. Colors on parade outside our dining room windows grabbed my attention inspiring me to grab the camera and snap the above photo.
Two days later the color treat was completely gone.
Nature not only showed up and showed out, it showed me the importance of enjoying every facet of the season I love while it’s here.
Cozy, comfortable, cool, and crisp amplifies the fall at home quotient.
Fall autumn days into evenings mark a prime time for a bit of personal downtime spent enjoying the creature comforts of the season we wait for all year long.
If you find the time.
When time affords.
Give yourself permission to give yourself the gift of me time. Most of us realize it’s a labor of love to nurture, comfort and cozy hearth and home, family and friends.
But what about you?
What better way to recharge the battery we run down during our busy and hectic week than with a good book, a hot beverage and a few creatures of cozy comfort.
Comfort and cozy lives on through the generations.
Although the linen closet is packed with a slew of throws and blankets to choose from, invariably I go for the crocheted afghan my grandmother had made for my mother Christmas circa 1974.
It’s a familiar and familial source of comfort; a tactile touchstone accessory perfect for a fall settle in.
Remember hot spiced tea from Tang?
Talk about bringing back precious and tasty memories.
Both my maternal and paternal grandmothers mixed up gallons of this fall into winter spiced tea, serving it up on chilly afternoons to warm the bones and set the tone.
Hot Spiced Tea
Ingredients
1 1/3 cups TANG
½ cup sugar
½ cup instant tea*
1 teaspoon cinnamon
½ teaspoon cloves
*Or use lemon-flavored unsweetened or sugar-sweetened instant tea
Directions
Combine ingredients and store in tightly covered jar. Makes approximately 24 servings.
For 1 individual serving, place 1 teaspoon of spice tea mix in a cup, fill with boiling water and stir until dissolved.
Scents of the season floating throughout the house.
Enjoying the comfortable and warm styles of the season.
Fall is an extraordinary time of the year where we seem to embrace the places and spaces in the home a bit more than usual.
I came to realize the silver lining of time at home during the lockdown phase of virus life.
At home times seasoned, shared, and experienced in a haven of warmth and comfort, reassuring and familiar in the very best and coziest of ways, is time well spent.
October vibes come home in comfortable spaces with a fall flavored beverage of choice and a good book.
Women 55 and older can switch to a mammogram every other year, or they can choose to continue yearly mammograms. Screening should continue as long as a woman is in good health and is expected to live at least 10 more years.
Early detection through a routine mammogram is one of the attributing factors in my mother’s breast cancer being caught in the early stages which contributed to her survival.
It made a believer out of me, so every October a mammogram it is.
If we were hit bad I knew family, friends, and neighbors would be as well.
My sweet hour of prayer stretched into hours of prayers for the safety of all involved and affected both during and after the storm.
We lost power Thursday at 4:07 am CST.
Central Louisiana has never experienced a city wide-parish wide total power outage.
Dave the Builder took post storm shelter in the car with the A/C on arctic blast.
Cold washcloths placed on my face dried out in less than an hour. I went through three spray bottles of rose water trying to keep cool.
Six days later when power was restored I cried tears of joy. I cried even harder when it went back down again for several hours.
Dave the Builder cried when telling me about the linemen and utility workers sitting under trees in our neighborhood eating their lunch and sweating bullets.
There’s hundreds of workers and crews here from all over the United States working tirelessly to restore power.
Dave just told me there’s five bucket trucks from Florida Power & Light working one street over from us.
The combination of still air, boiling heat, and oppressive humidity deals a hellish hand to all.
May God bless and keep them all safe.
Phone (landline and cellular), cable, and internet is spotty if working at all.
Many residents, residences, and businesses depend on these services in their daily business operations and especially in emergency situations.
In fact, many service organizations, financial institutions, restaurants, etc… strictly handle operations, payment, and orders online.
First day of no power what was cold in the refrigerator was cold, and what was in the freezer was nice and frozen.
Fourth day in the defrosting began.
On the sixth day of no power my true love gave to me,
A helping hand and a Hefty.
Bagged up and to the street it went.
The restocking of fridge and freezer to full capacity is a work in progress.
City wide boil advisories until further notice means when ice drops it goes.
Locating food is not as difficult as locating ice.
I called the local Super 1 Foods to inquire if the commercial ice machines were producing ice.
Unbeknownst to me, Super 1 Foods (Brookshire’s) was giving out boxes of free ice on a first come, first served basis.
It is a wonderful thing to see firsthand the coming together of corporations, local businesses, churches, agencies, politicians, schools, athletic teams, and simply good citizens to help, aid, and assist the many in need.
Don’t buy into the nonsense and the narrative some broadcast as truth.
Great people with good hearts are the majority.
My brother lives roughly ten miles west of us.
His property got the flip knocked out of it.
He and several neighbors immediately jumped into action rounding up his horses and dealing with downed power lines, poles, and timber.
On the left in the image below is my brother’s Black Lab Sadie taking her daily dip in the pool the day before Hurricane Laura hit.
On the right is Sadie doing laps in the pool on the afternoon after Hurricane Laura left her mark that morning.
What a difference a day, a hurricane, and a generous amount of chlorine makes.
Our nephew and his wife sent an Amazon care package filled with battery operated fans, batteries, car phone chargers, granola bars, sports drinks and assorted snacks.
Clothes and towels continue to pile up due to the extremely low water pressure and please don’t do laundry if at all possible pleas from City officials.
Tide’s Loads of Hope will be in our area tomorrow morning.
We’re going to have some good clean fun!
Dave the Builder and I both look a sight.
My brother came by today, and when I opened the front door to let him in I warned him at present ugly lives here.
Debris removal at Places In The Home is complete, and the new fence to replace the one blown down by the winds of Hurricane Laura will be installed next week.
I’m slowly coming back online, and will be back fully operational with a fall is in the air (better than a hurricane!) post to get us all in the mood for better days.
Spring break is not canceled on the beaches of Places In The Home. Reality of late is some serious stuff, which brings us to the necessity of taking a spring break to calm these choppy seas.
At home and on demand music stations and smooth jazz concerts inspire the inner DJ in all of us to create live in-house concerts and dance parties to beat the band.
Today’s just a friendly October reminder post inspiration comes from the beloved L. M. Montgomery Anne of Green Gables quote “I’m so glad I live in a world where there are Octobers.”
Most of you know the role music plays in my daily as it is constant company while I write, cook, source, develop- you get the idea.
I posted the following image into the post, being sure to take thoughtful note of the weight and meaning of the words.
Although in a degree of deep thought, the public service announcement caught my ear.
Turning my full attention to the PSA, the subject of the spot made me think of yet another famous quote and how its meaning serves to further the message.
“An Ounce of Prevention Is Worth A Pound of Cure.”
– Ben Franklin
October is National Fire Prevention Month, and the week of October 9 is Fire Prevention Week.
Take the time this month to put safety measures into place to help prevent a fire in your home as well as carbon monoxide poisoning.
Discuss and devise a fire escape plan with all members of your household.
Around the house tips for preventing a house fire include:
Changing furnace filters regularly will cut down on a buildup of dust and lint that can catch fire.
Inspect space heaters before and after each use, making sure to place heaters a minimum of three feet away from anything combustible.
Never place items close to the heating element or pilot light of a water heater.
Clean out the dryer lint filter after each drying cycle.
Give the area behind and around the dryer a quick check for lint build up or laundry items that have fallen under or behind the dryer.
Kitchens are hot spots for a house fires to originate in. Never leave anything flammable near the stove or oven or on stovetop.
Be mindful of kitchen towels and oven mitts when using around heating elements.
Never leave the kitchen area with pots and pans in use on the stovetop.
It’s so easy to become distracted by something else.
I know how easy it is because I did just that a couple of weeks ago and burned up a saucepan.
UPS knocked on the front door, I got into a conversation with the delivery guy, and totally forgot about the brown sugar onions cooking away on the stovetop burner.
Crisp autumn nights tap the shoulder with an October reminder.
When using a fireplace, give the ashes ample time to cool down before disposing of them.
Always place fireplace ash in a metal container used only for this purpose.
Creosote buildup is the lead cause of chimney fires.
Hiring a professional chimney sweep to clean your chimney at least once a year is the way to go.
Our chimney sweep even wears the traditional outfit and top hat.
According to the National Fire Protection Association, three out of every five home fire deaths result from fires in homes without smoke alarms or with non-working smoke alarms.
Carbon monoxide, better known as the silent killer, is:
Invisible
Odorless
Tasteless
Flammable
Deadly
Common household sources of carbon monoxide (CO) include fuel-burning appliances such as:
Carbon monoxide alarms/detectors is the only way to detect carbon monoxide.
Combination smoke and carbon monoxide alarms equipped with a 10-year battery cover the spectrum of both smoke and carbon monoxide detection.
The Kidde Worry Free 10-Year Sealed battery smoke and carbon monoxide combination detector with voice alarm is a battery-operated (no hardwire required) smoke detector that comes with a 10-year lithium battery lasting the life of the alarm.
Smart safety and smart home protection is found in the Nest Protect Battery Smoke and Carbon Monoxide Detector.
It has an industrial-grade smoke sensor, detects both fast and slow burning fires, can be silenced from your phone, detects carbon monoxide, and lasts for up to 10 years.
A working fire extinguisher is as vital a piece of kitchen equipment as a stove or cookware.
Places In The Home is equipped with both two recreational fire extinguishers for the washroom and bedroom area and one kitchen fire extinguisher for the kitchen/breakfast room area.
Remember the acronym PASS when using a fire extinguisher.
Pull the pin on the extinguisher.
Aim the nozzle low toward the base of the fire.
Squeeze trigger.
Sweep nozzle from side-to-side.
Make time this October to install smoke and carbon monoxide detectors throughout your home, and if your home is already equipped with them now is a good time to replace the batteries.
Just a friendly October reminder to roll up your sleeve and get your flu shot.
Getting a flu shot helps to reduce the risk of getting the flu and the complications that come with it.
The one and only time I had the flu it liked to have killed me. I was down for almost eight weeks, with one week of that spent in the hospital.
No, thank you.
October is breast cancer awareness month.
Annual mammograms can detect cancer early when it is most treatable. The American Cancer Society recommends that women at average risk of breast cancer begin having a yearly mammogram at age 45, and a mammogram every other year beginning at age 55.
Getting your mammogram is a pressing matter in terms of procedure and prevention.
Mammography is a fast procedure (about 20 minutes).
Discomfort is minimal for most women.
The procedure is safe.
Early detection through a routine mammogram is one of the attributing factors in my mother’s breast cancer being caught in the early stages which contributed to her survival.
It made a believer out of me, so every October a mammogram it is.
Housekeeping goes beyond the everyday of all things house that make a home.
Prevention and wellness drives this well-oiled machine we call home and family.
Just a friendly October reminder to embrace the beauty of the season, and to do what it takes to keep you, your family, and your home safe and healthy.
Today’s A Most Fetching Friday opens up the window to let the sunshine in.
A glorious spring day sun kissed by nature and seasonally blessed with pleasant temperatures is made for open windows and a let the sunshine in attitude.
Mother’s Day Gift Ideas 2018 guide is updated for 2023 today with gifts ideas that run the gift giving gamut.
Thoughtful, gracious or funny Mother’s Day cards show and tell your mother, grandmother, mother-in-law, like a mother to me, sister moms, and best friends how much she is loved, admired and appreciated.
Warmer days and evenings of late spring into summer call for classic casual chic attire.
From patio dates to meet and greets and garden parties in-between, the classic color combination of black and white mixes so stylishly with in season trends and timeless accessories.
Mom, grandmother, mother-in-law, like a mother to me, sister moms, and best friends deserve a token of gratitude for all she is, means, and does to and for her loved ones.
I hope the suggestions of the Places In The Home Mother’s Day Gift Ideas gift you with ideas and inspiration for selecting the perfect Mother’s Day gift.
I hope you have a most fetching Friday and a lovely spring forward weekend.
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Henri Matisse, Fenêtre, 1911
