Aaaah, autumn! It’s the perfect time to entertain outdoors — most of the bugs are gone, the sun isn’t scorching even though it’s warm enough to enjoy an afternoon or evening al fresco, and there’s a bounty of good things to serve for an outdoor meal.

Because the days are shorter in the autumn, outdoor entertaining in the fall calls for special attention to lighting and temperature.

Lighting

The earlier sunset will afford you an ideal opportunity to bathe your outdoor space in evening lights. Use soft light, but use plenty of it. Try dozens of votive candles in jars and glasses to protect the flame from the wind, hurricane lamps, or kerosene lanterns set on low. Create cozy seating areas and equip each with a glowing light source.

Heating

The method you’ll use to chase the chill from the night will vary depending on your climate and your outdoor space. If you have a yard (and community by-laws allow), a campfire is a wonderful informal party setting. In smaller gardens, consider self-contained fire pits or a chimenea.

For a more formal affair, you can install a propane-powered heater. These units are available in a range of heating powers and prices. Or, drape attractive throws or quilts on each chair for your guests to wrap around their shoulders to ward off the night air.

Of course, you’ll want to take advantage of the wonderful colors and textures of autumn in your decorating scheme and table settings.

Color

Autumn’s colors are deep and rich — russet, crimson, burnt orange, gold, dark green, and the color of hay. Use these hues repeatedly in tablecloths and settings, flowers, centerpieces, and even the food. Scoop out pumpkins and other squash and fit them with containers of water to make vases. Mass potted mums in vivid colors. Use orange Chinese lanterns, bright rosehips, stems of red or orange berries, or chilies. Wrap vibrant maple or sumac leaves around votive candleholders or napkin rings. Sunflower heads can be strewn on the tabletop, or left on the flower stalks in a container.

Texture

The textures of fall are earthy and rustic. Especially play these up if your gathering is informal — a corn roast, a bonfire, a jeans and sweater evening. Use burlap or rough cotton to cover your buffet table, and dish towels as napkins. Weigh down your tablecloth with apples or pears hung on rough twine. Or use rattan placemats and wicker baskets. Terracotta pot saucers make great paper plate holders.

If you’re hosting a fancy sit-down outdoor dinner, use the subtler textures of hydrangea blossoms and colored leaves on a linen tablecloth. Try bringing your indoor dining table outdoors for the evening-it will add unexpected elegance to your setting. Paint gold lettering on small gourds to use as place cards. Grace your table with late-blooming roses in crystal vases.

Whether you hold a harvest hoedown or a stylish sit-down dinner party for eight, fall for outside entertaining this autumn!

Debbie Rodgers, the haven maven, owns and operates Paradise Porch, and is dedicated to helping people create outdoor living spaces that nurture and enrich them. Her latest how-to guide “Attracting Butterflies to Your Home and Garden” is now available on her web site.

Heat is not the most unbearable thing in summer.What we hate most is the pesky mosquitoes.Because of the mosquitoes,we can not go out lightheartedly when night falls. Mosquito bites aren’t only uncomfortable, but potentially dangerous. Mosquitoes can carry several different diseases, including Malaria and Yellow Fever.Here are some great  tips to keep you and your family safe and itch-free on those beautiful summer nights!

• Cover up, but dress lightly: It is best to wear light colored clothes like khaki or white since mosquitoes are attracted to dark and bright colors. Cover up as much as you can with lightweight long sleeves and long pants to make it more difficult for the bothersome pests to bite you.
• Sip water not beer: A recent French study found that mosquitoes preferred the taste of beer drinkers over folks sipping on water. Other forms of alcohol have yet to be studied, so drinking wine or spirits may also make you attractive to skeeters.
• Skip the perfume: Mosquitoes also dine on flower nectar so you don’t want to smell like a floral garden. Skip the perfume spritz before heading out in the evening. You might want to check your clothing detergent; it could be making your clothes smell like blossoms.
• Exercise in the morning: Lactic acid, a byproduct of working out, attracts mosquitoes, as do perspiration and body heat. Work out earlier in the day, preferably the morning, to avoid baking in the heat and to decrease the bugs ability to find you in a crowd.

Heat can not represent the summertime.Do not forget that heavy rains and lightning occur frequently in summer.If you meet the heavy rain and lightning ,you should not relax your vigilance.If you are struck by lightning,it does usually more serious than heatstroke.But how to get away from the lightning? Follow the next tips,the rate of being struck by lightning is reduced.

1、Follow the 30/30 rule. Count the seconds after a lightning flash. If you hear thunder within 30 seconds, seek safe shelter (see step 2). Do not go outside again until 30 minutes after the last lightning strike.

More than half of lightning-related deaths happen after the thunderstorm has passed. Danger exists whenever thunderstorms are in the area, even when clear skies are directly overhead.

2、Only use safe shelters. Full-size buildings, such as houses or businesses, work best. Stay away from sheds or open shelters (picnic awnings or baseball dugouts). Hard-top cars, vans and trucks work well, but not golf carts, soft-top convertibles (even with the top up), bicycles, or motorcycles. Whether in a building or a car, keep all windows and doors closed.

3、While inside, avoid anything that conducts electricity and is plugged into a wall socket — phones, electrical outlets, lights, desktop computers, televisions, stereos, and water faucets (metal plumbing conducts electricity) are just some of the items to avoid. Portable devices such as wireless phones (stay away from the base station that’s plugged into the wall), flashlights, unplugged laptop computers, and personal MP3 players are all fine. Avoid metal door or window frames.

4、If you’re caught outside, go inside immediately. No safe options exist outside. Run to your car or a safe building as soon as you hear thunder.

5、Lightning can and does strike in the same place twice — hundreds of times, really. Conditions that draw lightning aren’t likely to change. If lightning strikes close to you, do not assume you are safe until the storm passes. See Step 1.

6、If you are struck by lightning, call the police and the hospital immediately. If you see someone struck by lightning, call the police and the hospital and treat any injuries as appropriate. Follow the same basic first aid steps as for any other victim. Expect to see burns, and if the victim is not breathing, begin CPR immediately. There’s no reason to avoid treating the victim; victims are not charged with electricity and are completely safe to touch.

But, how could we do to prevent and clean up the mold? Next seven tips may help you combat the mold.

1.     Kill mold naturally.  Pour white distilled vinegar into a spray bottle and spray on the moldy area. Let it set without rinsing.

2.     Toss the bleach. Hydrogen peroxide kills mold effectively on clothes, floors, bathroom fixtures, walls and even kitchen appliances. It’s a great alternative to chlorine bleach because it’s safe for families and the environment. It also doesn’t leave behind toxic residue or produce toxic fumes as chlorine bleach does.

3.     Keep it dry. Keep the humidity level in your home between 40 to 60 percent. Use a dehumidifier during humid summer months and especially in damp spaces, like basements.

4.     Clean humidifiers.  Clean humidifiers on a regular basis to eliminate it as a breeding ground for bacteria and mold.

5.     Store with care. Put away collectibles and winter clothes in plastic storage bags to prevent mold growth on clothes and other household items not in regular use.

6.     Use caution when wet. Dry all kitchen and bath surfaces thoroughly after use. Also check for leaks in the plumbing, walls and roof that can encourage mold growth.

7.     Keep air moving. Double-check the ventilation throughout the home. Use exhaust fans that vent outside the home in the kitchen and bathroom. Ensure clothes dryers vent outdoors as well.

What you will need：

-Chair with drop-in seat;
-Ffine-grade sandpaper;
-Low-sheen acrylic paint;
-Paintbrush;
-Slotted (flat head) screwdriver;
-Staple gun;
-Small hammer (from hardware stores);
-Upholstery tacks;
-Calico (if the seat padding is in poor condition);
-Upholstery fabric (from fabric stores).
-Photography: Andrew Lehmann   Styling: Rachel Brown

How to cover your seat ：

Step 1:

Remove the seat by pushing from below and set aside. Sand the chair frame with fine-grade sandpaper. Use a damp cloth to remove any dust. Paint the chair frame and allow to dry, then paint a second coat.

 Step 2:

Remove the old fabric from the seat by sliding a screwdriver under the staples or tacks and easing them out. Keep the old cover to use as a pattern for your new cover. If the padding is in bad condition, you might want to cover it with calico first (use the same method as for covering, below).
 

Step 3:

The old seat cover as a pattern to cut the fabric cover. Ensure there is an 8cm excess of fabric around the edge for securing to the seat.

Step 4:

Place the fabric wrong side up and iron to remove wrinkles. Place the seat, wrong side up, on the fabric. Fold one side of the fabric over the seat and lightly tack in place. Repeat on the opposite side. Once the fabric is stretched smooth and tight, use a staple gun to secure in place. Repeat with the remaining sides. For a round seat, tack in four places then pleat the fabric evenly around the perimeter using a staple gun to secure each pleat. To finish, place the seat in the chair frame.

An old adage says “a woman’s work is never done.” The phrase is just as true, if not more so, today as it was over 300 years ago when the phrase first came about. In addition to traditional roles as wives, mothers, and daughters, today’s women are also under pressure to achieve professional success.

As women take on all these roles, it’s not surprising that a retreat that allows women to escape their busy lives and focus on personal development would be in demand. While women’s bookstores have long been established, they’re a rarity in China.

The Lady Book Saloon in Beijing is working to fill that void. While shying away from the word “feminist,” planning director Sun Tingting says the bookstore, now expanded to three branches, fills a special need that women have. “Reading is an effective method for spiritual growth,” she explains. “Through reading and communicating, women obtain an inner strength to be better employees, better wives, better daughters, and better mothers.”

The first branch, on Chengfu Road near Tsinghua University, opened in 2007, and the concept has been wildly successful. The bookstore’s membership numbers over 1,600 and about a million women have signed up to receive the store’s newsletter.

Members pay an annual fee, but in return get access to free books and a DVD library, food and beverage discounts and event discounts. They can even join in planning some of the store’s events and classes.

On a normal day, women can curl up with a book in the store’s reading area, relax in the house café, or surf the internet using the store’s Wi-Fi network. There is even a play area for women who bring along their tots. Events and educational classes are popular, focusing on subjects from art to food and even relationships. One recently-held class taught women how to use essential oils in home beauty treatments.

The Chongwen branch is tucked into a corner on the second floor of the New World Lady’s Mall. A free shuttle car runs between the subway exit and the entrance to the mall. With a soft lavender-themed interior and feminine decorations such as tea sets and scented candles for sale, there’s no mistake about the target audience. The books here are divided into sections, “Books written by women,” “Books written for women” and “Books women should read.” They include both domestic and international titles. The Lady Book Saloon is most popular with women aged between 20 and 45. Sun explains that women in this age group are experiencing changes in family and professional relationships, but still need to focus on inner growth.

Bookstores are facing increasing pressure from online book outlets, but Sun is confident that the Lady Book Saloon’s niche market and unique service will continue to allow the company to grow. “We don’t have a price advantage, so we take a more personal approach with warmer service and a more intimate experience,” she says. “Technology makes life more convenient, but the need for personal communication can not be replaced.”

Keeping with the idea of a personal experience, the Lady Book Saloon holds monthly meetings to get feedback and suggestions from customers to better expand services in the future. Sun envisions future bookstores as being cultural landmarks. “We will develop into a women’s club, where like-minded women can make friends and improve themselves through reading and communication,” she says of her plans for the bookstore chain.

The formula seems to be working. A new branch is set to open this fall in Beijing’s Xinjiekou neighborhood.

The cottage playhouse will let your child have hours of fun outside in their house. My child has her friends over all the time to play in her house. They have a great time playing pretend and imagining all kinds of grown-up things.

I love all of the memories that come to mind as I watch my daughter playing in her house with her friends. My playhouse did not look anything like the modern house she has but I still had great times. This house has columns in the front and it looks like it is made of brick. It even has a play fireplace inside. Even the boys like to play here.

If you could hear my little girl talk about her house, you would think it was real. The children will be inside discussing what they are going to make for lunch, and who should pour the drinks and who is going to make the salad. They are not pouring real drinks or making real food, but do not let them know that.

You find out just how much your children learn when you hear them play. When my daughter and her friends are discussing what food they will make, you can hear that they talk about the same foods we eat at our meals. Now I know that having good healthy meals is something she remembers.

There is also a play phone inside the cottage playhouse, you can hear the boys and girls each taking their turn calling their friends and making other important calls. There will be times when someone even calls their job. I love seeing their imaginations grow as they play with all of the different things in the house.

The fireplace really comes in handy on chilly days, even though it doesn’t really work, the kids will talk about who will get to start it. The children decide who is going to go outside and get the wood and who is going to build the fire. The fireplace is a trap door too, sometimes when one of the Moms goes to get her child they try and sneak out the trap door. They think that we don’t know about it and you can hear them laughing inside as we pretend to look for the lost child.

The cottage playhouse will hold four or five children with room so they can all move around. When there are too many kids to fit in the house, they talk through the windows and take turns going inside. There is also a half door on the front so they can hand each other drinks and snacks.

It is easy to understand why the kids love this house so much. There are so many things for them to do inside. Some of the children even suggested that we plant a garden in front of the cottage playhouse to make it look more like our real house.

Sweat, bug-bites, a few skull-meets-falling-orange episodes later… and I’m now officially hooked. Why? It’s fun! Whether you’re a social type or more of a contemplative loner, it’s honestly a great way to spend a few hours. Sure, there’s the do-gooder feeling that comes from knowing you’re bringing previously-wasted produce to poor families in need of nutritious food. But there’s also something actually enjoyable about plucking ripe, orange spheres from the sky and delivering them into boxes where they sort of glow against their own greenery. Before I wax too poetic about the whole thing, I’ll stop and say: Just come on. You can meet great people and make friends, or just find your own tree and let your thoughts wander while you help feed people.

If you have young children, your trip to Genting Highlands would be more complete if you visited the Strawberry Farm in Genting Highlands. It is best to visit the Strawberry Farm on the way home rather than on the way to Genting. Well, that is only my personal opinion.

You see, on the way to Genting, the kids are so excited about the prospect of playing all the games and rides, they probably couldn’t care less about picking strawberries. lol. However, on the way home, they are disappointed and a bit down and the strawberry farm is the best place to pick up their spirits again before leaving Genting. All you need is another 20-30 minutes for a walkabout.

You can handpick strawberries at the Strawberry Farm, look at the mushroom farm, the flower farm and the organic bean sprouts. There is a little Strawberry Farmhouse Cafe if you need a little snack. They also sell pretty kites and strawberry print umbrellas.

Playing Kite with your families and friends in Spring is a good recreation way and sports. This is not only a chance to touch with the nature, but also a good way of enjoy life.

Kite as a Chinese invention, has been praised as the forerunner of the modern aeroplane.They began there use in the military’s of China and then became and intricate part of their arts and entertainment.Chinese kites became so popular they spread worldwide. Now they are used for art, competition and even sports like surfing.

Most ancient Chinese butterfly kites were made from carefully chosen bamboo and silk cloth. However, light-weight paper or tissue is sometimes used as a sail material.

The weight and strength of the sail material, whether tissue or silk, must be matched to the size of the kite being made. The sails are made slightly over-size, with the excess material folded over the outline of the kite frame and glued down.

With silk kites, the sail is generally painted after the kite is constructed. The kite frame conveniently holds the silk taut while the brush strokes are applied. However, mass produced silk kite sails are screen printed before being cut out and attached to the kites.

Paper lends itself to having the art work done first, before it is attached to the kite frame. This includes applique, where colored cut-outs are glued to the sail to form a design.

Summarizing the methods, a kite can be hand-painted, screen printed, appliqued, or even a combination of these.

My family and I enjoy the art of Chinese kite making. There’s nothing more gratifying that seeing the kite you made in flight. Kite Crafts teach kids construction abilities, problem solving, patience and art all in one easy to do project. Kites are the foundation for many great inventions we see today, such as the Airplane, ever heard of it? Chinese kites are where it all started!

Lantern Festival or Yuanxiao Jie is a traditional Chinese festival, which is fall on the 15th of the first month of the Chinese New Year. It is the last day of two week long Chinese New Year cerebration. People with their family will gather in the show place to enjoy the beautiful lanterns displayed by individuals or the local municipal. Kids will carry their own lanterns to participate in the showcase. Usually there is competition for the most beautiful lantern.

There was a beautiful bird flew down to the earth from the heaven. It was hunted by the village people. The Jade Emperor in Heaven was very anger, because the bird was his favorite one. He ordered to destroy the village and kill all people with a storm of fire on the 15th lunar day. The daughter of Jade Emperor heard of this act of vengeance, and warned the villagers to prepare for that. Everybody worried about it and no one had any idea to face the fact.

Luckily, a wise man past the village and made the suggestion that every house should hang red lanterns around the house, setup campfire on the street, explode the bamboo firecracker, made fireworks on 14th, 15th and 16th lunar days. In this way, Jade Emperor might think all village people die under fire and all the villagers can save their lives and properties.

On the night of 15th lunar day, the troop coming down from the heaven looked the village was ablaze and returned back to heaven to report the Jade Emperor. Satisfied with the result, the Jade Emperor decided not to burn down the village. From that day on, people celebrated the anniversary on 15th lunar day every year by carrying red lanterns on the streets and explode the firecracker and fireworks.

The lantern displays can be found in the town center square and temples. Usually. there is the lantern competition at the temple. Traditional lanterns are made by paper. They can make the lantern tuning around by the heat circulation from the candle inside. Today the light of the lantern is from the electricity. People like to design lantern using zodiac animals, historical figures, saint and gods of Taoism or Buddhism. Certainly, the current year’s animal symbol of the Chinese calendar is most popular subject. Using the computer tool today, they can design the lantern with different movements, the different colors of light and even using the laser light with special visual and sound effects.

Lantern Festival is also called. Yuan-Xiao Festival. This is because Chinese eat Yuan-Xiao on this day. This custom originated from the Eastern Jin Dynasty in the fourth century, then became popular during the Tang and Song Dynasty.

Yuan-Xiao just like Tang-Yuan . They are made of sweet rice flour into sticky glutinous balls. They can be filled in with sesame, red-bean or peanut butter paste. Usually, they are severed with sugar water. But some people still make salty Tang-Yuan.

The difference between Yuan-Xiao and Tang-Yuan is the way they are made and cooked. This is because that Chinese in different geographic area prepare the food in different way. Chinese call the one they eat on Winter Solstice Day is Tang-Yuan. The one they eat on the Lantern festival is called Yuan-Xiao.