Fall Decorating Tips

With the fall here to stay, it’s time to change those decorations around your front door.

The oranges and golds of October take the stage for fall. Their warm colors are a welcomed sight for everyone passing by or entering your home.

Golden chrysanthemums, orange pumpkins, interesting gourds, and squashes take center stage. Sometimes corn stalks can add beauty, depending on how skillful you are at arrangements.

When decorating the outside of your home, don’t neglect the porch. You can bring some of the elements from your yard onto the porch, and then carry those elements into the house. For instance, if you have used red mums out in the yard, use them on the porch as well. Tie some of the onto the columns for the porch and then put groups of Indian corn on the stalks.

For the door, create a wreath with grape vines and put Indian corn on it. Spray paint some pine cones before hot gluing them to the wreath. Add silk mums, use cranberries, or other dried fruit to add more color and variety to your wreath. Create a bow using raffia and hot glue it to the top or bottom of the wreath as the final touch before hanging it on the door.

Once inside the home, don’t go overboard with the harvest decorations. If you have stairs in the foyer, consider wrapping a garland of fall leaves along the handrail. Put a small display at the base of the stairs. Most importantly, though, create the mood you’d like with scent rather than decorations. You could bake a pumpkin pie, or use one of the many available today.

Don’t overdo decorations and save the major decorations for the table. Start with a solid as the base for the table decorations. Those decorations can include the dishes and napkins, or it could be a centerpiece of the same red and yellow mums, painted pine cones, and Indian corn. A cornucopia with fruit and nuts cascading from it would also be nice choice.

However you plan to decorate, whether inside or outside, remember that harvest decorations are about more than pumpkins and scarecrows. Use what nature provides to decorate your home, and have fun while you plan each display. Decorations are a plus, but the love that your guests feel at your home will be what brings them back.

Craft Kit**Make money at home Autumn Hanger decoration

Galbreth's Mask of Autumn Fairy Art Tile Decoration

Halloween Decoration 6 foot tall Scarecrow Fall Autumn

Delicious Sweet Potato Casserole

Ingredients:

2 (15 ounce) cans sweet potatoes
1/4 cup orange juice
3/4 cup all-purpose flour
1/2 cup white sugar
1 tsp ground cinnamon
1 pinch salt
1/2 cup margarine
1 1/2 cups miniature marshmallows

Instructions:

Drain sweet potatoes and place in a shallow baking dish. Pour orange juice over the top of potatoes. Fold flour, sugar, cinnamon and salt together in a large bowl. Add margarine and cut in with a pastry blender until mixture is crumbly. Top potatoes with the crumb mixture being sure to cover the potatoes completely. Bake 25 minutes or until heated through in a preheated 350 degree oven. Add marshmallows to top and broil until marshmallows are slightly brown.

Talking With Your Child About Cancer - 10 Tips

October is National Breast Cancer Awareness Month, so I thought it would be fitting to talk about how to prepare our kids to deal with a family member battling cancer.

Cancer is hard enough for adults to deal with, but it is extremely difficult to explain to children. However, kids can grasp a lot more things than adults think they can. It just has to be explained in a way that makes sense to them. Whether it’s an adult in their life that has the cancer or the child themselves, honesty is the only way to deal with explaining it.

1. Keep it simple, especially with younger children. A good rule of thumb is to let them ask questions and simply answer what they ask. Don’t give them more information than they need at the time.
2. Practice what you want to say before you sit down with the child. It won’t prepare you for all their possible questions, but it will help you to have a better idea of the direction and tone of your conversation.
3. Reassure the child that the cancer is not catching. When they hear it’s a disease and it makes people sick, they will want to know if they can get it.
4. Talk to them in terms they will understand, such as the cancer cells are like the bad guys attacking the body and the doctors are like Superman or Batman, trying to fight the bad guys.
5. Tell them it’s ok to be scared and mad. Show them healthy ways to express and deal with those feelings.
6. When treatments begin, explain the changes that will occur: the stomach problems, the hair loss, weakness and any other differences to what they are used to.
7. Find a support group for the family because it helps them to know they aren’t the only ones going through this. Knowing someone else has been where they are can really help a child to feel like there is hope.
8. Let them know that people can and do survive cancer, but it will be a tough fight and the family will have to work together to make the most of their time.
9. Talk to the child about death, especially if they haven’t lost a loved one before. It’s a tough concept, even for adults, but it will help even if just a little. Remember to keep it in terms they can understand.
10. Always take the time to make memories and tell them you love them.

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