CLICK AND DOUBLE CLICK: FALL ADVICE IS PLENTIFUL ON THE NET

There's a chill in the air and that means real fall weather may have finally arrived. This is my very favorite time of year. I love the change of seasons and the cooler weather. I also love fall baking and decorating.

We were baking leaf cookies at my church on Saturday, and one member of the group pointed out she enjoys Martha Stewart.com for all the decorating and baking tips. OK, let's check it out.

* www.marthastewart.com

Martha Stewart's site is divided into 10 different categories: from cooking to gardening to crafts. She also has home advice and decorating tips for the holidays.

You can pursue more than 1,000 recipes under the cooking category.

You can search for recipes by keyword or category. You can also only call up those with the "Quick Cook" designation, which means they can be prepared in less than an hour.

There are also lots of choices for entertaining for specific holidays or the general choice "Cooking for a Crowd." When I clicked on Christmas recipes, the search returned 178 choices -- neatly separated in 16 categories. Each recipe has a photograph and step by step instructions.

In the Home area, you can pick up decorating tips or exchange ideas on the bulletin boards or live discussions. You have to be a member to chat, but there's no charge to sign up.

Anyone who knows me, can appreciate the fact I went right to the craft section of the site. (I'm a frustrated artist who dabbles in all kinds of crafts.) I found some interesting crepe-paper Halloween costumes. Did you know that during the Depression, inexpensive crepe paper was used to make baskets, clothing and even jewelry?

Under holidays, check out the Rogue's Gallery of Pumpkins, which provides lots of carving and decorating tips. OK, I must admit -- this is a pretty good site.

Next stop, another "Crafty Betty" site that I enjoy to visit: Better Homes and Gardens.

* www.bhg.com

This popular magazine has a very deep Web site with lots of home, food and gardening advice. Of course, I enjoy the craft section as well, along with family advice.

Under the Home category, you can study the Home Improvement Encyclopedia with lots of home repair advice. There's also a Decorating Attitude quiz: Are you Casual? Slick? Formal? Eclectic? Find out with this fun quiz.

You can also search home plans online or check out their Best of the Web suggestions.

Their crafting section is divided into crafts and decorating, cross stitch and needlework, decorating paint and my favorite -- quilting. Their expanded quilting site is called Quilt Village. Obviously, this is worth some quality time at a return visit.

If you're looking for recipes, check out recipe.bhg.com or click on the Food button at the top of the page. You can browse recipes by category, ingredients, cuisine or more. You can also save your recipes online with My Recipe File or check out other member's favorite recipes.

Another interesting feature is called "What's for Dinner?" You tell them what ingredients you have online and they'll provide recipes that include those ingredients. Pretty nifty.

In the Family section, you can take the stress quiz (why confirm what we already know?) or read about kids' bedtimes. You can chat with other parents about such issues as "How much to pay a baby sitter" or "My kid's teacher has a pierced tongue." Modern issues can be such a headache.

Another popular home decorating magazine also offers lots of seasonal expertise. Country Living offers advice on decorating, collecting or entertaining.

* www.countryliving.com

You can find such features as "Ask the Expert" and "Room of the Week." You can also take house tours to compare design tastes of others. There's a gallery of homes you can tour, including a chance to navigate room by room.

There's plenty of advice about country living, and a chance to share decorating ideas with others that visit this site.

Are you one of those people who have a hard time visualizing what decorating ideas would look like in your home? Then check out this unusual site.

* www.cmyvision.com

This is an interactive site that allows you to scan in a picture of your house or a room of your house (or use one of CMyVision's) and redecorate it in virtual reality. Try on new paint colors or wallpaper, add furniture, or plan holiday decorations. The site provides helpful instructions on how to use the available features.

You can also scan in a photograph of yourself so you can see what images of Internet catalog product images will look when purchased and worn on your body type. Some Internet sites are already experimenting with this software, but it might be fun to try a trial version at home.

And don't forget to check out Southern Living for advice on cooking and decorating. I've enjoyed learning more about Southern Living during their trips to Cape Girardeau for the cooking shows.

* www.southernliving.com

Not long ago, their site was merely a promotional vehicle for the magazine. But they've really expanded since last year. You can check out their top-rating menus for October, which includes 29 recipes. Any recipe I've ever made from their cookbooks has been first-class and a big hit.

Their other Web site categories include: homes and interiors, gardening and travel, in the South. As the name implies, this site has a Southern flair, but that usually implies good food and comfortable living.

In addition to the recipes, the site also offers such handy tips as baking basics, handy substitutions, shortcut strategies and storage success.

I like to check out HGTV on cable to see all the things I could be doing, but never have time to do. Their online version also has plenty of tips and advice.

www.hgtv.com

You can find advice on building and remodeling, design and decorating, gardening and landscaping, crafts and collectibles or food and lifestyle. Whew, that's a lot of choices.

You can also get live expert advice as HGTV hosts and experts answer your questions in live hosted chats scheduled weekly. Or you can view the transcripts of past discussions.

There's also plenty of people-to-people advice on the message boards.

In addition to words, there is audio and video advice from the HGTV experts.

You might also want to check out their calculators. They're one of the choices at the top of the site. They can help you calculate such projects as fences, grass seed, paint, tile and wallpaper. With this kind of advice, you're ready to roll up your sleeves and get busy.

OK, Martha Stewart clones, are you ready for fall projects? There's plenty of food and decorating tips on these Web sites. Now, if the Internet could only do something about the lack of time.

What's your favorite home/garden/food site on the Internet? E-mail me at jonia@sehosp.org.

See you in Cyberspace.

Joni Adams is the webmaster at Southeast Missouri Hospital.