How-to

When I was in Grade 3 my mom enrolled me in Ukrainian Cross Stitch lessons. I had always been a creative child, but cross-stitch took my abstract painting and Play-Doh-ing to a whole new level. There’s something inspiring about being able to look at a pile of “stuff” and see something beautiful. It’s almost like being a MacGyver of sorts. Some might see a twig and a glue stick. I see a beautiful centerpiece. The thing is, to craft like a pro you don’t just need the desire to do so, but you need the right tools and an organized space.

We’ve said goodbye to all things kale and hello to cauliflower, given up on the cronut and opened our ovens to the southern buttermilk biscuit. Thanks to the latest food trends, menus this year are going to be seriously delicious. Here are a few recipes you can try at home to tap into what’s hot in food for 2015.

Even if your dining room table is currently covered in electronics and newspapers or your closet is chaos, there are still simple steps you can take to organize your house. It doesn’t have to be overwhelming either – just take it one baby step at a time. Here are a few proven organizational strategies I’ve used to get control of my clutter and organize my home like a pro.

Maybe your perfect Valentine’s Day is just you and your special someone. Perhaps instead you’d like to include a group of friends in your Valentine’s Day plans. Whichever you choose, here are some recipes you can use to plan the perfect Valentine’s Day dinner at home.

When my children were younger, I remember my wife and I contemplating questions like: when is my child ready for music? and How can I make sure they’ll like it? Even though we’re both classically trained pianists and I write and produce music for a living, we STILL grappled with these questions! Well I’m going to try to give all parents some answers. In addition to my own perspective on this subject, I bounced a few ideas off Jennifer Gasoi (2014 Grammy Award Winner- Best Children’s Album). She obviously has some fantastic insights and tips. You’ll see her perspective liberally peppered throughout this post.

Money – you can’t live with it, you can’t live without it, and it’s all too easy to let it slip through your fingers on a day-to-day basis without even knowing where it’s gone off too. I think it’s a real skill balancing a household budget, and it’s all too easy to slip back into free and easy spending. But if you put a few of these tips into place, you’ll start seeing positive results right away.

Stream the content you want without upgrading your television with one of these great media streaming devices!

A lot of people do a pizza night at least once a week, and for many of us that night is usually Friday. Having pizza for dinner is a nice, casual start to the weekend and there are so many different varieties you just can’t get bored of eating it. If it’s pizza night at your house and you’re staring at the same old ham and pineapple, here are a few of my favourite pizza recipes to add some inspiration to your pizza night.  

Given the amount of money we spend on things like smartphones, tablets and PCs it’s understandable that physical protection—cases, covers, screen protectors and laptop bags—are big business. What’s on these devices is often overlooked, though. If your basement floods and your PC is submerged you can buy a new PC. If you haven’t backed up the data on that computer’s drive, you have a much bigger problem and files like your digital photos, school work  and music could be gone for good. Don’t let that happen. Here’s how to protect your data like a pro.

If what we saw coming out of the Consumer Electronic Show is any indication, 2015 is going to be the year of the smart home. I wasn’t prepared for how much I would love smart devices like the mydlink Wi-Fi Smart Plug and the mydlink Wi-Fi Smart Plug+, or how handy the mydlink Wi-Fi motion sensor would be when it comes to keeping me informed on what’s going on around my house.Here’s what I found out when I set up my very own mydlink Connected Home.