How-to

Having a new baby and expanding your family is an exciting time, and being prepared for the duration of your pregnancy will help your transition into bringing a baby home. Read on for some things you can do to prepare yourself before you have a baby.

Not satisfied with the default ringtones in iOS 7? Many iPhone owners are happy enough with “Cosmic,” “Stargaze” or classics like “Old Phone.” But if you’re bored with the ringtones you get as part of iOS 7 or you’re tired of reaching for your phone (along with dozens of people around you in the mall) every time you hear that familiar ring, maybe it’s time to change things up. Maybe you’d like a riff from your favourite song instead. While you can buy pre-made music ringtones directly from your iPhone, it’s easy to create your own from your iTunes music library. Here’s how.  

I love to eat in restaurants, and I seem to love to eat in them more in the winter months when the weather is gloomy. There is always tons of cozy, comfort food choices on the menu, and spending a few hours out of the house can really brighten up a chilly day.   But what do you do when you’ve got a craving for something you’ve only had off a menu but don’t have the option of going out?  That’s where copykat recipes come in.

Muffins can be the perfect food for lunchboxes as a meal or a treat. They were always a staple in my household growing up so if course I make them for my boys now too. Anytime I put a muffin in my boys lunchboxes I know it will get eaten and I don’t have to worry about them going hungry at school.

While going through the old letters researching my ancestry, I also came across old recipes. There’s nothing like food to trigger memories of growing up, and when I look back I remember different German dishes on my Grandma’s kitchen table. Because it’s Octoberfest, I’ve been creating authentic German weiner schnitzel, frying pans full of cabbage, and big, puffy Bavarian pretzels. If that sounds delicious, it is, so today I thought I’d share a ‘how to’ make Bavarian pretzels on Shelly’s Friday Favourites.  

I’ve got some news for you folks. You may not want to hear it, but it’s inevitable. Yes, it’s true; summer is coming to an end. Sigh. Fall is right around the corner, and with it will come even shorter days, cooler nights, and a whole lot of wet stuff falling from the sky. But it’s not all bad news, because fall is synonymous with many awesome things, including delicious comfort food. So rather than mourn the end of another summer season, let’s embrace the fact that the season of warm, gluttonous, nap-inducing food is upon us. Food like homemade, hot, cheesy, toasty, oven baked pizza.

  Did you make a New Years Resolution for 2016? If not, you might consider setting the goal of better time management for the remainder of the year. After all, we all have those days where we’re running late sometimes, messing up our appointments and wreaking havoc on our schedules. It’s not that we want to be late, but sometimes stuff just happens, and other times it’s because we’ve failed to be organized. If this is an issue for you, then you might want to read today’s blog. Inside you’ll find a number of extremely useful time management tools that will help to keep you on track—and on time, in 2016. Read on to get your new year off to a timely start!

 Are you looking to start a home-based business, but are worried about what it all entails, and more importantly, how much it will cost? While once it may have been quite an investment to create your own work environment in your abode, today, thanks to better and more inexpensive tech, running a home-based business is easier now than ever.

Soccer fans across Canada are gearing up for a month-long competition/party as the 2014 FIFA World Cup kicks off today, with host country Brazil going up against Croatia. If you haven’t seen the cars sporting the window-mounted flags already, high-fived a co-worker wearing the appropriate team jersey, or heard the siren call of the vuvuzela, you soon will. And no, Canada will not be playing (last I checked, we were ranked 100th in the world by FIFA), but our neighbours to the South — ranked 13th— will be there. The problem with the FIFA World Cup is that many of the matches are played during inconvenient times. When you’re at work, for example. You only get so many sick days, so how do you maximize your soccer fix without jeopardizing your career or giving up on things like grocery shopping in favour of being glued to your TV? Look no further than your mobile device.

Being able to print on demand is a great option. Every home should have a printer, especially when there are students living there (the printing of assignments just never seems to stop). Wireless printing? Even better! Without having to worry about a wired connection, you can put the printer wherever you want and print to it from virtually any device. Here’s how to configure your home for wireless printing.