Planning a wedding? Here are some tips on how to create the most effective Wedding Registry.

Maybe you’re the bride or groom, and you’ve finally found the time to sit down and really think about your gift registry. Or, you’re looking for a few wedding gift ideas for the many weddings you’ll be attending this summer, and you have no idea where to start.  Whatever your reason or whomever you are, finding the best wedding gifts are a piece of cake when you spend some time checking out the appliance aisle.

Today’s appliances aren’t anything like your mother’s handy crockpot either (although those are great to have too). Because so many people move in together before the wedding, newlyweds want to move on to bigger and better home appliance options than the usual starter kit of pots and pans. And with so many choices out there, the perfect wedding gift to start their newlywed life off in the right direction is simple to choose.

Celebrate Earth Day on April 22 with these eco-friendly products!

Wouldn’t it be amazing if we all had outdoor space the size of an English garden? Imagine the flowers, the extra living area, and the outdoor decorating you could do. Unfortunately most of our homes aren’t the size of English manors, and our outdoor living space amounts to a small deck or balcony in the middle of the city.

But there’s no reason why you can’t capture all of the beauty of the great outdoors and place it right on your very own deck. Here are a few great patio ideas to create an outdoor paradise on your balcony.

With spring in full swing in Vancouver, everyone is looking to upgrade their patio and move from the dining room to the deck!

For the most part, every major holiday elicits a certain association. Valentine’s Day? Red roses and chocolates. Christmas? Turkey, stockings, eggnog, and the obligatory tacky sweater. Thanksgiving? Pilgrims, cornucopias, and, well, more turkey. When it comes to Easter, the most prevalent associations tend to be bunnies, pastels, and oh-so-glorious sweets! And since Easter is just around the corner, it is imperative that the bakers among us are equipped with the essentials to produce mouth watering (completely calorie free, of course ) goodies for our friends and family. 

Spring has sprung, and Easter is right around the corner. At my house, Easter is almost as big of a deal as Christmas, with the Easter bunny visiting our yard and hiding eggs everywhere. But besides eggs at Easter, it’s also a time for entertaining, with friends and family heading over for a day of treats and a big meal after.

If you want to get a jump on your Easter plans, here’s a few ways to prep your kitchen and entertain the family this Easter 2013:

Even though you may still be feeling sluggish because of the time change, you can’t argue with the fact that it feels like spring is in the air. And when spring is right around the corner, thoughts of home decorating, bright colours, and birds singing tend to fill my head.

So even if the day is rainy, you can start getting ready to bring spring into your home decorating right now. Here’s how:

Even if your workday officially ends at 6 pm, if you’re like most people, you bring your laptop home to play catch up on whatever you missed during the day. Emails, extra projects, and paperwork can take over if you don’t put in the hours, and having a comfortable home office to kick back and relax with your laptop really can relieve a lot of work related stress.

Makita makes excellent quality tools for the price, so much so that you will find professional contractors and tradespeople using these same tools because of their durability and versatility. The Makita combo kit of impact driver and hammer drill are likely going to be the power tools that you end up using the most as they will be able to tackle any job around the home. The convernience of cordless is fantastic as you don't have to find an outlet nearby and then fight with the cord while working. The battery power is so good you will not notice any compromise in power and torque, and for the price this combo unit is great value as it will last a long time.

Valentine’s day can be a tough one to plan. Restaurants are crowded, loud and over priced.

Break away from the pack and create the perfect Valentine’s dinner at home – just the two of you with no interruptions.

Here are some ideas to help set the stage for romance.

When you really think about it, New Year’s Eve is quite an odd holiday. I mean, who decided that December would be the last month of the year? Why not April or June? And why do we all get dressed up, throw on hideous party hats and scream like crazy people at the stroke of midnight? I’m sure there is some history there that I could easily Google, but when you really boil it down, it is all really a little strange.

Strange though it is, it has to be one of the best times of year. Good wine, good food and good friends almost always equate to a memorable night. So this New Year’s Eve, whether you are hosting a party and need to stock up on essentials, or you’re attending a party and need to bring a fabulous hostess gift, we have you covered. 

This holiday season I have decided to step away from all things digital (for a brief period) and step into an apron and the world of holiday baking.  I’m not sure exactly how this experiment will go, I have a feeling my shortbread cookies will be decorated with website URL’s and my gingerbread men will be in the shape of smartphones; the gadget geek in me comes through no matter what.

I’ve just outfitted my kitchen transforming it from a reheat only area to a full out baking zone.  If you’re looking to get into the holiday spirit and get some coworkers or friends and family on a good ol’ sugar high here’s my must have’s for baking excellence.

It’s not often you get to sleep on the job. So. naturally I said yes to testing three King Koil memory foam pillows.

My previous encounter with magical memory foam was at my local mall where a quick try-out on a King Koil mattress turned into a 20 minute nap. Not my fault! Memory foam is sensitive to temperature and molds to your body for that “melting into the mattress feeling.”

Also known as visco-elastic, memory foam was developed by NASA. While it never made it into the space program, it has been showing up in our pillows and mattresses for the last decade when pricing breakthroughs made it affordable to consumers.

Having out of town friends and family visit can be a highlight of any holiday season. Create a comfortable and luxurious guest bedroom by starting with the basics and building from there. Once you have the foundation of your guest room you can tailor it for whoever is coming to stay.

I can’t say I’ve ever been a burn water type of girl. I think it would go against my genetic code if I couldn’t make a decent pasta sauce or the perfect omelet by the time I was 13. I still enjoy baking more than cooking on most days, but I’ve discovered a little secret that really makes cooking a lot more fun and productive.

Good cookware is really the starting point for everything. More than good recipe, more than just having the right ingredients – If you don’t have a decent set of cookware, anything you try to fry or boil could end up sticking, burning, or gluing itself to your pans and not your plate. In short, it won’t turn out quite right (or even worse, it could end up in the waste bin).

Even if you love cooking, it can get a little time consuming creating dish after dish. Have a craving for peach pie? Not only can it take you an hour of prep time, it’s an hour to bake and then you’ll have to hang around until it’s cool enough to eat it.  Wouldn’t it be nice to be able to speed things up a bit?

That’s why having the right kitchen tools and appliances are so important. But I’m not talking about the usual things like cheese graters or ice cream scoops. I’m talking about the appliances that get you to the finish line faster – Things like pie makers, hot dog stands, fondue makers, and a appliance created just to help you serve up cupcakes.

The laundry might not be able to do itself (although we’ve come a long way since hand wringing), the stove can’t quite cook you dinner yet, but there is one task that’s completely automated if you’re armed with the right tool – The iRobot Roomba Robotic Vacuum completely automates one of the most tedious parts of house cleaning – Vacuuming those floors!

A cylinder disk that glides across the floor, the Roomba picks up all of your dirt, dust bunnies, and even pet dander wherever it lands. It works on carpet and hardwood, and automatically adjusts to each surface so you don’t have to do a thing when it’s rolling around.

I’m not really a marvel in the kitchen, and definitely would never label myself as a foodie.  So when it comes to food I’m all about consumption, not so much preparation.  While I do enjoy dabbling in the kitchen, it’s my guy who can whip up a meal like nobody's business. With that said, buying for a novice chef is time well spent. I’m all about strategically equipping him with the proper tools so that he can keep me fuelled.

Tis’ the season for friends and family to come together and enjoy all the holidays have to offer.  Even though cooking is not my passion, I do enjoy hosting a good party. If you have a house full of people to entertain don’t fall short serving them with chipped or mismatched table wear.  Thinking back to the first time I ever hosted a dinner party, I had everything planned and ready to go weeks before the actual party. I was hoping to impress the guests and be the “Hostess with the Mostest”. 

Everything was coming together until I realized that the yummy bits I was serving were going to be plated on my old tableware and even, dare I admit it, the baking sheet they came out of the oven on.  Martha Stewart would have probably died there on the spot if she were on the guest list.

When we think of Best Buy, we typically think of beautiful big flat screen televisions, the latest in tablets, laptops, mobile devices, cameras, home audio and a host of other electronic eye candy.  But there’s lots more to the Best Buy website, and store, than what first comes to mind.  

Here are 15 great products that you probably didn’t know are just a point and click away from becoming another person crossed off your holiday shopping list. 

I don’t know about you, but I’m ready to ditch the bag of Halloween mini-chocolate bars and scary ghosts and goblins littering the walls and windows of my house in favour of the more refined things in life. The fact that Christmas and holiday entertaining are just around the corner have me ripping down the pumpkins, hanging up some white lights, and getting my recipe box ready for another season of baking, cooking, and eating.

Soon we’ll be decking the halls with boughs of holly, family, and the scents of Christmas trees, and if that seems stressful to you, don’t you worry - Here’s a few things you can pick up right now to take the stress out of holiday entertaining. This is the year you’ll really enjoy it, I promise:

The outdoors, we can't avoid it, we can simply prepair, and Best Buy's expanded assortment aims to arm you with the gear you need.

I can’t say I’m much of a cook. I’m one of those rare breed of people who love to bake, but when it’s time to put dinner on the table, I’d rather pick up a menu and order sushi. Part of the problem is the duration of prep work involved in cooking a big meal - Slicing, dicing, and sautéing take up a lot of time, and I’m always left with sticky pots and pans to scrub.  The other problem? Not having the proper tools to make cooking as simple, safe, and fun as possible.

In my family, it’s hard not to get on the baking bandwagon. I grew up hanging out in my Grandmother’s kitchen in Saskatchewan, watching her bake fresh bread and buns every day, not to mention a ton of cakes, cookies, and cupcakes whenever a special event would happen. I’m pretty sure her oven ran from dawn until dusk, and because of that, I picked up a thing or two about baking and the tools you need to make everything you whip up perfect.

My Grandma was a stickler for cast iron loaf pans and big, black cookie sheets with years of wear, but I’m pretty sure if I tried to bake with those right now, I’d burn everything I attempt. My baking pans and cookie sheets of choice? Wilton bakeware. Whether you use a cake mix and just do it for fun or you’re a hardcore ‘everything from scratch’ type of person like I am, Wilton bakeware is perfectly created for anyone who enjoys baking. 

I’m what you might call a ‘frequent-pillow-switcher.’ I’m not sure if I’ve ever known anyone who switches out pillows on their bed as often as I do. When asked why I do this, the answer is simple – I can’t stand a flat pillow, and every pillow I’ve had flattens out within a few months max. With flat pillows come neck cramps, sore muscles, and headaches in the mornings. That’s when I know it’s time to put the poor thing out of its misery and start over.

That sacred space of manliness, filled with all your dude things (if they haven't been relegated to the garage that is).  A Man Cave is an important place, and assembling it correctly is no simple task, but, rest easy friends, Best Buy is here to help.

One of the hardest things about home decorating is finding inspiration, but if you really look for it, inspiration can be found everywhere. A certain colour of lamp, a desk set that coordinates with your bookshelves, a piece of art that becomes the focal point for an entire room – both small pieces and large can inspire you to create a room that’s perfect for you and your family.

If you're doing some refinishing work around the house, you may be in the market for a polisher and/or sander. King Canada Polisher and Sander Kitmay be exactly what you're looking for.

Are you in the market for a new drill? If so, then the King Canada 12V Cordless Drill might be the one for you!