Show Your Home Some Love This Valentine's Day

This Valentine's Day, why not show your home some love? Your home should be your happy place. The place where you feel most relaxed and at peace. It’s not always easy to make maintaining and improving your living space a priority though. Life gets busy and before you know it, rather than a source of peace, your home’s become a source of stress - everywhere you look all you can see is something that needs be fixed, cleaned, or organized. That's why this Valentine's Day, we invite you to show your home some love with the following tips and tricks. Take care of your home, and it'll take care of you.

Light Up Your Home The Right Way

Lighting can truly either make or break a space in your home. No matter how much effort you've put into picking out…

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Local Gifts for the Home | The Local Experts Gift Guide

Small businesses around Halifax Regional Municipality are my favourite places to find Christmas gifts. I can always find the most thoughtful, personal gifts, and browsing shops that were lovingly curated and decorated is just so much nicer than stressing amongst the crowds of big box stores. Everyone wins shopping small - you find the most unique, high quality items while supporting your local community!

So as part of #C21AllPointsHomefortheHolidays, we're sharing the small businesses that make our home so special! Every Tuesday and Thursday until Christmas we'll be sharing some of our favourite products from local businesses all over Halifax Regional Municipality, we hope you get some ideas to treat that special someone - or yourself!

Circle &…

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Keeping Your Home Warm & Your Energy Bill Low

The cold of winter is coming to Halifax sooner than later. With rising oil costs and general inflation, using (and paying for) more energy in your home than you actually need is something we'd all like to avoid.

Before cranking up your thermostat, and in turn your heating bill, here's five other things you can do to keep your home cozy and warm, all while keeping your energy bill low.

Fix Drafty Windows and Doors

Cold air can sneak through windows and doors in any home, cooling your home overall and leaving you reaching for the thermostat. So next windy, cold day check around your home for drafts by looking out for a soft breeze around your windows and doors. Stop these drafts in their place by re-caulking and weather stripping where…

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How to Host the Perfect Thanksgiving Dinner

Have you ever hosted Thanksgiving dinner? With lots of people, lots of dishes and lots of decor involved, it takes a whole lot of preparation to pull off the perfect, cozy-feeling and belly-filling Thanksgiving Dinner.

If it's your first time hosting a Thanksgiving Dinner, or you're just looking for tips to spruce up your usual routine, read on for our best tips for hosting the Thanksgiving Dinner of your dreams.

Plan the Menu

Thanksgiving Dinner is no small feat and a lot of cooking for one person. Guests will likely expect turkey, stuffing, cranberry sauce, mashed potatoes, dessert...the list goes on! Plan with your guests who's cooking what and who's bringing what. If homemade is not your route of choice this year, there's lots of great…

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How to Prepare Your Home for Fall Hurricanes

With the arrival of the Fall season comes the likely arrival of Fall hurricanes. The first of this season, Hurricane Fiona, is making its way to Halifax, predicted to hit Atlantic Canada this weekend as a "potent post-tropical storm". The Canadian Hurricane Centre warns us of potential heavy rains, damaging winds and flooding.

As longtime Haligonians, we're well acquainted with the damage a Fall storm can do in Halifax - does Hurricane Juan or Hurricane Dorian ring a bell? When your home is well prepared though, watching the leaves twirl and the sky open up with rain can be quite enjoyable and strangely relaxing. Prepare your home for Fall storms right with the following tips so you can sit back and relax while mother nature does it's thing.

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How To Prepare for Winter Weather

It's not unusual for Halifax to be hit with a winter storm or two (or five) during the first few months of the year. As seasoned Nova Scotians, we’re no strangers to the damage winter storms can cause. Do everything you can to lessen the damage and keep you, your family, and your property safe with the following tips!

1. Stay In The Know

The first step in preparing yourself for winter storms is staying in the know of what’s going on in your region. You can’t prepare for something you don't know is coming!

Monitor Environment Canada and keep up with local media for weather warnings and updates in the winter months and especially when a storm's predicted to hit.

Throughout a storm, monitor power outages across Nova Scotia and check in with…

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Preparing Your Home for Fall

Fall is in full swing! The mornings are crisper, the leaves are turning, and pumpkins are popping up on doorsteps all around the city. Fall in Nova Scotia also marks the arrival of an often turbulent weather season, making it the perfect time to prepare our homes for impending Fall storms. We’ve gathered our best tips for defending your property against the elements of the season.

Clear The Way

In the event of some turbulent weather, you’ll want to make sure that drains are clear of obstacles.

Water damage can be a killer during the Fall months. Avoid water accumulation on your property by ensuring that your downspouts extend three to six feet, storm drains are clear of leaves and debris, and that the ground around your downspouts is angled to…

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5 Ways to Organize Your Home to Have the Best School Year Yet

Ah, back to school, some say it's the most wonderful time of the year! A time to reset and get back to routine after the summer. It’s a fresh new school year so why not give our homes a little refresh? Below are 5 ways to organize your home to have the best school year yet.

1. Backpack Drop Zone

The last thing on your child’s mind once getting home after school is organizing the contents of their backpack. It doesn’t take long for papers, leftover snacks, extra clothing and who knows what else to accumulate though.

Create a system to make backpack emptying part of the daily routine to avoid a build up weeks down the line.

Set out bins for your child to sort out everything in their backpack and where each item should be. Label each bin with the…

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Thanksgiving Desserts Reimagined

When preparing your Thanksgiving feast this year, take some time to reconsider how and what you serve for dessert. Often after a big meal, a full slice of pie or cake is daunting and all the work that goes in to making them ends up being eaten as take-away by guests. 

As an alternative, consider mini versions of some of your favourite fall desserts. These are two of the favourites in our family

These cheesecakes are the perfect way to end your Thanksgiving meal. Begin with a crust made of gingersnaps, a smooth filling with all the flavours of pumpkin pie and top it with cool, creamy whipped cream.

Ingredients

• 24 Gingersnaps, crushed
• 3 Tbsp Melted Butter
• 8oz Cream Cheese
• 1/2 Cup Pumpkin Puree
• 1/2 Cup…

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Cinco de Mayo at Home!

Cinco de Mayo is a Mexican Holiday that celebrates the Mexican Army’s victory over the French Empire at the Battle of the Puebla, on May 5, 1862. This Holiday is more often celebrated north of the border and has taken on a different significance, that of Mexican-American culture, which began in California as early as 1863. Mexican celebrations of Cinco de Mayo are much more ceremonial and feature things like military parades or battle reenactments. 

Here in Canada, we celebrate the day with our favourite Mexican-inspired food & drink!

This year, celebrations will have to take place at home so we’ve complied a few of our favourite recipes that are super simple to make & we’ve included lots of substitutions to hopefully minimize your trips to the…

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