Have you ever received a gift that was way too pretty to unwrap? Lots of thought goes into picking out the perfect gift for loved ones, so why not take the time to make the wrapping just as memorable as the gift? But wait, just because you want your package to be gorgeous, doesn’t mean that it has to be expensive. Here’s a book that we wrapped last year and...

Call me old-fashioned, but I love holiday traditions and I hope that my annual November get-together with friends to make tourtières, a traditional meat pie from Québec, will continue for years to come.  Here I am with friends (from left to right) me, Pam, Anne, Karen, Carolyn, Cathy and Shirley, celebrating another successful tourtière-making afternoon. Coming from a large French Canadian family (nine kids), on Christmas Eve my mom would put...

Hanging a mirror above a mantle is an excellent way to accentuate a fireplace as the focal point of a room. The mirror can reflect and increase the light in the room, and if you’re lucky enough to have a great view from a window that faces the fireplace, a mirror will showcase the reflection of the scenery. With that said, not everyone is lucky enough to have a great view...

Art hung along a staircase can make for a stunning look, but if you have a busy household it’s important to make sure your art is well secured to keep it from crashing on the stairs when the kids race up and down the steps. Here are a couple of tips to make this high traffic area safe: Hang your frames as flush as possible against the wall to prevent...

This is an outdoor decorating project that takes less than 15 minutes to do and is guaranteed to wow your guests every time. One winter, I hung the balls on a day when there was no snow, but by the next morning the ornaments were covered with fresh white fluffy snow which looked unbelievably Xmas-y. This crab apple tree is in my teeny tiny city backyard, and as boring as...

It's almost December 1, have you had a chance to hang your Advent calendar yet? I have. I’ve hung one at home and one at the office for big kids like me to enjoy. Now, we’ll need to figure out who gets to open a tin each day and who gets the large one on the 25th, which has a chocolate and a bonus gift card in it.

I did a little investigating over the weekend to search out the most popular Christmas stocking hangers sold in retail stores and almost all of the large DIY stores carried both weighted stocking hangers and mantle clips, each of which have their own advantages and disadvantages. You should choose a hanger depending on your needs: i.e. whether it’s for decorating purposes only and/or for safety purposes. Here are some tips...

This has to be one of the easiest way to add instant holiday flair to your house: simply add a big red bow. Adding red bows to anything during the holiday season just screams “Christmas” and makes a huge impact with minimal effort. Red bows are inexpensive, that is if you buy the plastiky-velvety kind like I bought, and in the right situation they don’t look as tacky as you...

A professional handyman tries hundreds of tools, so when he gives something a thumbs up, it means a lot. That’s why we were so excited to hear how handyman Shawn Schmidt had done just that for our Hang & Level, Déco Hammer and Anchor Points. In his demo for KFRY-TV, Shawn was quick to point out that our tools are especially handy for those who don’t need or have expensive professional tools around...

This Christmas we’ve decided to spend as much time on gift wrapping as we do on the gift itself. Since most people would expect to find tools in a tool box, we thought we’d surprise our friends and family with unexpected cool gifts tucked inside each box. We jazzed up our plain store-bought tool box  with white polka dots to turn it into the perfect red and white holiday packaging...

Next time you’re hanging a group of pictures remember this tip, which could save you time and mistake holes in your walls too. Lay all the pieces right in front of the wall where you will display them. Imagine a vertical line running through the middle of your square or rectangular display and arrange your frames so that items on either side of it are visually equal in weight. Balance colored...

If hanging a holiday wreath on your front door is not an option and you still would like to welcome family and friends with a bit of holiday cheer, why not hang a wreath on a mirror (if you have one) in your entryway?  A colorful wreath will add instant holiday flair to the entrance of your home.  I like to off-center mine on the mirror to still allow myself...