If you have read any of the Dummies series books, you know the format. This book is a very easy read and gives wonderful step by step instructions for everything you will need including opening an account, creating boards, pinning, commenting and sharing pins.Kelby includes a lot of photos to help you through each step.

While the book is geared more towards Pinterest newbies, as a long-time Pinterest addict, I learned a many things too. The chapters that I learned the most from are the Self-Promoting on Pinterest and Pinterest Etiquette chapters.

Be sure to follow Kelby Carr on Pinterest and me, ScrappinMichele on Pinterest. I love to pin anything from technology, color palettes, quotes, pretty pictures and anything orange.

Pinterest For Dummies Giveaway

I have been provided one (1) copy of Pinterest for Dummies to give away to one (1) lucky reader.

To Enter: Answer one of the following 3 questions in a comment below and leave me a link to your Pinterest boards.

• What would you like to learn from Pinterest For Dummies?
• What do you use (or want to use) Pinterest for?
• What one thing about Pinterest confuses you the most?

Extra Entry:

Tweet the following and leave a comment below with a link to your tweet. May tweet once each day.

I just entered to win awesome new book, Pinterest for Dummies from @scrappinmichele. http://bit.ly/JTdGUK

Details:

1. Giveaways are limited to US and Canada only.
2. Approx. Retail Value of prize is $16.99.
3. The giveaway will end at 5:00 pm EST on Tuesday, May 29, 2012.
4. One winner will be randomly chosen using the And The Winner Is plugin.
5. Valid winner will be notified via e-mail and will have 24 hours to respond or another winner will be chosen.

Let’s Talk About Pinterest For Dummies!

Don’t forget to leave me a link to your Pinterest boards. I love following new pinners.

Disclosure: I received a copy of the Pinterest for Dummies book to facilitate this review. All opinions are 100% my own. Affiliate links within post.

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Pinterest For Dummies Book Review #Giveaway originally posted at Scraps of My Geek Life.

S.A.S.S. Yourself Slim

S.A.S.S. Yourself Slim is the same program that Cynthia Sass introduced to us in the Cinch! book, but has a new title and more success stories. As I said, in my Cinch! post, this program is not just a diet for weight loss, but a healthy lifestyle to maintain forever.

In my experience, you will lose weight using this plan. I have done the 5 day plan and lost 7 pounds. I have had more problems with the core plan because I hate to cook and my family doesn’t want to eat any of the foods I prepare on the core plan.

The Plan

S.A.S.S. Yourself Slim starts with an optional 5-day 5 food Fast Forward. You eat only 5 foods (raspberries, eggs, almonds, spinach and yogurt) for 5 days and if followed correctly will lose up to 7 lbs. You then move on to the 25 Day Core Plan.

Each of the foods you eat on S.A.S.S. plan has a purpose. Cynthia explains in detail why she chose the foods on the plan and what it will do for your body. The timing of the meals is as important as the food.

My favorite part of the plan is that there is NO calorie counting and includes a daily dose of dark chocolate. My least favorite part of the plan?  No diet soda or red meat in the Fast Forward or Core plan.

About the Author

Cynthia Sass has a bachelor’s and master’s degree in nutrition science with a second master’s degree in public health  (focus on community and family health education.) She also has completed a personal-training certification and has formal culinary training in vegan organic culinary arts. Sass is also the author of the Flat Belly Diet! books.

The book is an easy read and includes recipes, meal plans and full explanations of the how and why behind the plan. The book ends with a maintenance plan to help you live this healthy lifestyle for the rest of your life.

Cynthia Sass , M.P.H., R.D. can be found online on her website, Facebook, Pinterest and Twitter.

Disclosure: I was given a copy of the book by One2One Network  in exchange for this review. All opinions are 100% my own. Affiliate links within post. 

Related posts:

1. Cinch! by Cynthia Sass, a Lifestyle Not a Diet
2. Healthy Lifestyle! Why Do It?
3. 3 Tools to Track Your Healthy Lifestyle Online

The S.A.S.S. Yourself Slim Healthy Lifestyle originally posted at Scraps of My Geek Life.

Chi Marathon: The Breakthrough Natural Running Program for a Pain-Free Half Marathon and Marathon

Chi Running Philosophy

Chi Running’s philosophy is based on the idea that humans are born to run (which makes total sense to me.) We were not born to drive a car. Our legs are our built-in mode of transportation.

The Chi in Chi Marathon is for Tai’ Chi because the authors, Danny & Katherine Dreyer have incorporated the philosophies of Tai’ Chi into their running program.

Chi Marathon Training

Chi Marathon works on your mind along with your body when training you for your race. I know that conquering the half marathon is as much a mind game as it is a body game. After reading the first few chapters, I’m convinced that this training plan will have me better prepared for running my next half marathon.

I’m going to train using the Chi Marathon methods and I will keep you posted on my progress. I struggle more with the mental part of running and I do worry about injury from overdoing it and not training correctly.

If the Chi part of the Chi Marathon has stopped you from reading the book, don’t! Read the book!

Let’s Talk About Chi Marathon!

Do you use a “method” of running? Have you had any running injuries? Have you read Chi Running or Chi Marathon? Share your thoughts!

Disclosure: I received the Chi Marathon book in exchange for this review. All opinions are 100% my own. Affiliate links within the post.

Related posts:

1. Run Your First Marathon Book Review
2. Half Marathon Training – Week 5
3. Half Marathon Training; 2 Weeks Out + Earthquake in Virginia

Chi Marathon Running Book Surprised Me originally posted at Scraps of My Geek Life.

WD TV Live Hub

Digital Storage

Not only can you watch internet TV with the WD TV Live Hub, but it has a 1 TB hard drive to store video, photos or music. I decided to back up all of my family photos to the WD TV Live Hub drive and now we can look at photos on our TV. My kids love being able to access the photos themselves.

We connected the WD TV Live Hub to our home network and now we can access all our digital files on any computer (Mac or PC) in our home. My kids often needs pictures of themselves for class projects. I have given them all access to the photos from every computer they use. That saves me from having to search through all the photos for them.

As you can see from the photo above, the menu is easy to use and you can customize the photo. My kids didn’t have any problems figuring out where they needed to go.

Watching Internet TV

We subscribe to Netflix streaming and Hulu Plus, so having access to both services (plus many more) on the WD TV Live Hub is a huge plus. And if the movie or show is available in HD and you are watching on an HD TV, you will be able to watch in HD!

WD Mobile Apps

The WD TV Live Hub works with two WD mobile apps, WD TV Remote and WD Photos.

WD TV Remote – Download the remote and control the WD TV Live Hub from your mobile device. This makes it easier to search for movies to watch or use the keyboard.

WD Photos - With the WD Photos app on your mobile device, you have access to all the media on the WD TV Live Hub and you can take photos or video and upload directly to the Live Hub.

Central Location

The WD TV Live Hub is small enough to easily add to your home media system and make it the central place for all of your digital media. Imagine being able to go to only one place to get access to any media to want to watch whether it’s personal media stored on YouTube, Flickr, Vimeo or the latest episode of Glee on Hulu Plus

To check out all the digital formats that are supported on the WD TV Live Hub, go to the website.

Be sure to check out the full WD TV Live family of products. Follow WD TV Live on Twitter.

Disclosure: I received the WD TV Live Hub media center in exchange for this review. All opinions are 100% my own. Affiliate links within post.

Let’s Talk About The WD TV Live Hub Media Center!

How do you store your media now? Do you have videos, music and photos on several hard drives and online?

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WD TV Live Hub Brings All Your Media To One Central Location originally posted at Scraps of My Geek Life.

momAgenda Home Office Planner

The new momAgenda Home Office Edition is a 9″ x 11″ spiral bound planner with the monthly and weekly views that you’ve come to love from momAgenda.

Here is what I love best about it:

• Hardcover
• Spiral bound
• Tabs for each month

• Motivating quote each week
• Lots of room to write in each day
• Pockets on the inside of the covers for loose papers
• Awesome colors (hot pink, charcoal, lime, navy)

Home office planner, the month view.

Weekly view in the home office planner.

Home Office Edition Giveaway

To Enter: Tweet the following and leave a link to the tweet in the comments below. Can be tweeted once/day, but must include link to the tweet in the comments each day you tweet it.

I want a @momAgenda for Mother’s Day! I just entered the #giveaway @ScrappinMichele http://bit.ly/IAXNyw #momAgendaCOMM

Extra entries: Be sure to leave a comment for each extra entry.

  Pin this post on Pinterest and leave a link to the pin below.

 Go to momAgenda’s Home Office Edition page and tell me which color is your favorite! Leave me a comment below.

Disclosure: As a member of the momAgendaCOMM team, I receive compensation in the form of product and money. All opinions are 100% my own. 

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3. Getting Organized; Back-to-School With momAgenda List Pads

momAgenda Home Office Planner Review originally posted at Scraps of My Geek Life.

Bobble Bots Moshi Monsters

Planning a Monster Party

My kids set up most of the Moshi Monsters town before the party because they wanted to be sure that they knew how it worked. They set up the town, opened up a few of the Moshi Monsters and of course they decided which ones they wanted first and I picked out my orange, Moshi Meggie as I call her.

Moshi Meggie

My son suggested veggie stick chips and Sprite for the food. I told the kids this party was theirs to plan because they were really excited about it. So we went to the store to buy veggie stick chips (Moshi Sticks we called them) and Sprite (or Moshi Monster Juice.)

We set up my Moshi Monster up online before the party also. Moshi Meggie has a room and likes to play games. We haven’t had a lot of time to explore the full online site, but so far we have had fun. You can visit my room on Moshi Monsters if you’d like.

Moshi Monsters Party

Each child had a few friends over they took turns playing with the Moshi Monsters (boys first, then the girls.) The boys raced the Moshi Monsters all over the town and had fun setting up obstacles to try to block each other from making to the next place. They decided that trying Moshi Monsters with the HEXBUGS would be a lot of fun, but we decided to try that another day.

The girls played with the Moshi Monsters in a more calm way. They discussed why each Monster was going into each store making up stories. Each Moshi Monster had a spouse and at least one kid by the end of their game.

Moshi Monsters Gross-ery Store

Later on, when only a few were left, I took this video and had them show me how the Moshi Monsters work and we realized we had not set up the last store, the Grossery.

Moshi Monsters Final Verdict

My kids enjoyed playing with the Moshi Monsters, but all agreed that it would be really cool to play the Moshi Monsters with the HEXBUG sets. They loved the online game and naming their own Monster. My daughter plays with the online game quite often.

Follow Moshi Monsters on YouTube, Facebook & Twitter.

Disclosure: I received the Bobble Bots Moshi Monsters sets from Mommy Party in exchange for this post. All opinions are 100% my own (and my kids.)

Let’s Talk About Moshi Monsters!

Have you heard of Moshi Monsters? Do your kids like to play with toys that have both online and offline fun?

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Bobble Bots Moshi Monsters Are Loads of Fun Online & Offline originally posted at Scraps of My Geek Life.

Serif MoviePlus X6

For this review, I’m going to show you how easy it is to create a video in just about 15 minutes. I created this one without reading the instruction book. I wanted to see if the software would walk me through the editing.

Creating a Quick Movie

When you first open up MoviePlus, you will get this screen:

Choose the second option, Create a QuickMovie. Next, you need to choose a theme. You can click on the theme and play to see if it will fit your video’s topic.

Once you pick your theme, you can add your video by either uploading from your hard drive, capturing with your webcam or uploading directly from your camcorder.

When your edits are complete, click next and you can add your title slides and music.

Click Finish and you are ready to view your movie.

If you want to make more advanced edits to your movie, you may at this time or export it to a format that is suitable for your final product.

Exporting Your Movie

When you export your movie from Serif MoviePlus, you choose the final output (DVD, Blu-Ray, YouTube, iTunes, etc.) I uploaded my movie directly to YouTube and here it is.

It took me less than 15 minutes to put that video together. It was easy and fun too.

Best Feature of MoviePlus X6

What I like best about Serif MoviePlus X6 is that I can easily create a video without much fuss or if I need the full advanced features of movie editing software, they are also available. It will grow with you as you learn more about editing movies.

Serif MoviePlus X6 is available for PC and retails for $79.99.

Disclosure: I received a copy of  Serif MoviePlus X6 in exchange for this review and post. All opinions are 100% my own. Affiliate links in post. 

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Using Serif MoviePlus X6 To Create a Quick Video in 15 Minutes originally posted at Scraps of My Geek Life.

Convenient Charging Technology

My Apple keyboard, trackpad and Magic Mouse always lose batter power at the most inconvenient times and often, I don’t have batteries in the house so I’m scrounging around looking for another gadget to steal batteries from. With the Mobee charging technology, I don’t have to do that anymore. Mobee has made it really easy to keep all three charged up conveniently using the power from your computer.

The Power Bar

The Power Bar is for the Apple Trackpad. You replace the batteries in the trackpad with a rechargeable power bar that fits into the batter compartment. When you need to charge up the trackpad, you plug the Power Bar into your computer with the USB cord and let it charge. Retails for $29.90.

The Magic Bar

The Magic Bar is for the small keyboard that comes with the newer iMacs. You replace the batteries in the keyboard with a rechargeable power bar that fits into the batter compartment. When you need to charge up the keyboard, you place the keyboard into the Magic Bar and let it charge. Retails for $59.90.

The Magic Charger

The Magic Charger is for the Magic Mouse. Replace your batteries in the Magic Mouse with the rechargeable battery pack from Mobee. When you need a charge, place the Magic Mouse on the Magic Charger (which plugs into your computer via USB) and let it charge without wires. Retails for $49.90.

Using all three of these will save you money in batteries and time searching for batteries. I used the Magic Bar and the Magic Charger for the last few weeks. I charged my keyboard and Magic Mouse completely and I have not had to recharge yet. I also have noticed that I don’t have as many problems with my Magic Mouse becoming disconnected which was happening a LOT with regular batteries.

The Magic NumPad

So, you have the small keyboard all charged up with the Magic Bar and you have your Trackpad, but there is no numpad? How inconvenient is that? Mobee has a solution…..Magic Numpad. It is an overlay which you put on your trackpad and it turns your Apple Trackpad into a NumPad.The NumPad comes with several different layouts for the extra keys, so you can choose which one works best for you. Retails for $29.90.

You install a small application on the computer that will let you change from NumPad to Trackpad mode. It works really well, but you do have to watch yourself press the numbers because you can’t feel the different keys. I got used to the different NumPad style very quickly.

Enhance My Life

I love that Mobee Technology has taken some daily inconveniences and created a solution for them. These gadgets have definitely enhanced my life.

Disclosure: I received the Magic NumPad from my husband for Valentine’s Day (he paid for it.) I received the Magic Bar and the Magic Charger in exchange for this review. I have not personally tried the Power Bar. All opinions are 100% my own. Amazon affiliate links within the post.

Follow Mobee on Facebook and Twitter.

Amazon Links

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Mobee Does Magic With Your Magic Mouse, Apple Keyboard & Trackpad originally posted at Scraps of My Geek Life.

As an AMD Tech Mom, I get to test and review some awesome computers and this one has some new features that I am so excited about.

HP dv6 with 4 Beats Audio speakers.

HP dv6 Stats

Let’s just get some of the important stats out-of-the-way so I can move on to telling you about the fun features I’m excited about.

• AMD Quad-Core A8-3520M Accelerated Processor (2.5GHz/1.6GHz, 4MB L2 Cache)
• 640GB Hard Drive
• 6144MB DDR3 SDRAM (max 16MB)
• DVD Optical Drive
• 15.6″ HD BrightView LED Display
• AMD Radeon HD 6620G Discrete-Class Graphics
• Beats Audio with 4 speakers
• 6-cell Lithium-Ion battery (up to 5.75 hours)
• Built in TrueVision HD webcam.

HP dv6 Fun Stuff

Beats Audio

I am in love with the Beats Audio. The Beats Audio makes my music and movies sound awesome. Playing Sims 3 with the Beats Audio is a lot of fun too.

Beats Audio speakers on the HP dv6

AMD A8 Quad-Core Processor

The AMD quad-core processor gives the HP dv6 enough power to listen to music, edit a movie and update my blog at the same time. Those are tasks that I often do and the AMD A8 could handle it. I quite often work in bed and with the HP dv6, I didn’t burn my legs or have any hot flashes. The laptop stayed very cool (with HP’s coolsense technology.)

The fingerprint reader is to the right of the A8 sticker and above the Windows 7. That indent is the fingerprint reader.

Fingerprint Reader

The fingerprint reader is a feature that comes in handy when you have hundreds of passwords that you don’t want to remember. It’s also perfect when you have kids because no matter how many times they try, they are not going to figure out how to bypass the fingerprint reader. After I got the hang of the fingerprint reader, I didn’t have any problems with it. I started by moving my finger too slow, but the computer walked me through it.

Keyboard & Touchpad

The HP dv6 has a full keyboard including a number pad. I like the feel of the keys when I’m typing. The touchpad is more sensitive than I’d like and I’m still playing around with the settings to get it right. I love that the touchpad is backlit, I only wish the keyboard was backlit also. It would make the laptop perfect!

15.6″ Display

The display is small enough so that the laptop is still very portable, yet big enough to be able to easily work on this laptop. The display is very bright and watching HD movies is awesome. I also loved showing slideshows of my pictures on this display. The pictures look awesome too.

DVD Drive

Many of the smaller laptops do not have a DVD drive, so that is a huge plus on the HP dv6.

DVD drive

HP dv6 has 2 USB 3.0 ports, 2 USB 2.0 ports, HDMI, VGA.

5-in-1 digital media card reader on the front of the computer. Makes it real easy to pop the SD card in the slot and upload your pictures.

Final Thoughts on HP dv6

The HP dv6 laptop is perfect for a college student, office on the go and a work-at-home mom because it is light enough to take with you, yet powerful enough to not restrict what you can do. The HP dv6 weighs 6 lbs and is 14.88″ (L) x 9.71″ (W) x 1.39″ (max H). I averaged about 5 hours of battery life.

The HP dv6 with AMD A8 vision technology starts at $499.99 which makes this laptop a great buy.

Disclosure: As an AMD Tech Mom, I receive compensation in the form of product, money and sponsorships in exchange for my participation as an AMD brand ambassador. I received the HP dv6 in exchange for this review. All opinions are 100% my own.

Let’s Talk About the HP dv6!

Do you own the HP dv6? What are your thoughts on the specs?

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HP dv6 With AMD A8 Quad-Core Processor & Beats Audio originally posted at Scraps of My Geek Life.

Print directly from your tablet.

Why ePrint?

I tested the ePrint with both my iPad & iPhone using the HP ePrint Home & Biz app. I was able to do the following using the app:

• Take a photo with my iPhone or iPad while away from home and have it print at home on the HP Deskjet (watch the video to see how our family uses this to stay close even when we are apart.)
• Scan in a document on the HP Deskjet and have it show up in the iPad’s HP ePrint app.
• While searching the internet for recipes to make for dinner, I sent the recipes from my iPad to the HP Deskjet to print.
• Search the internet for photos to make flash cards for my son to study for his science and social studies tests and print them directly from the tablet.

It was starting to be more like a game with my daughter and I trying to come up with new ways we could use the printer to print.

Email For Your Printer

With ePrint, you will set up an email address for your printer. Keep that in your address book on your tablet and smartphone and you can email anything directly to your printer.

HP Deskjet 3052A Video Review

Being able to print your memories immediately is such an awesome feature. When I’m paper scrapbooking, finding and printing my photos takes the most time. Being able to do it directly from my tablet will save me so much time.

Let’s Talk ABout the HP Deskjet 3052A ePrint Feature!

How would you use the HP ePrint feature?

Disclosure: Through MomSelect, I received the print in exchange for the video and review. All opinions  are 100% my own. 

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HP DeskJet 3052A e-All-In-One Printer; Print From Tablet or Smartphone originally posted at Scraps of My Geek Life.