Angry Julie Monday

How Our Family Uses the HP ENVY 20 and Windows 8 #PinTheHalls

January 8, 2013

We’ve had the HP ENVY 20 TouchSmart AiO for about a month now in conjunction with the HP and Snapfish by HP #PinTheHalls Campaign that I’ve been working on. My son is obsessed with using this PC. My husband used it for several days until we moved it from the kitchen table. One the computer made it to our home office, it was in the domain of the 7 year old. Plus, he was just for two weeks on Holiday Break.

I’m super impressed with my son’s computer skills. I think he figured out how to use Windows 8 before my husband and I did. I love the TouchSmart touch screen features on the PC. It is super easy and simple to figure out. Also I love the app based applications in Windows 8. My husband says that programs or software is all going to be “app based” now. Rather than walking into the store to buy software, you just download the app, and use it instantly.

The ability to touch, tap, swipe and pinch on Windows 8 computers is what makes the new operating system come to life. You can still use Windows 8 without a touchscreen, but that’s kind of like tossing aside the remote, getting up, and repeatedly pushing buttons to change the channel on your TV — it’s an old-fashioned drag.-CNN Money

I found some articles online about using Windows 8, {Six Hidden Windows 8 Features You Can’t Live Without, 10 Reasons Why Windows 8 Makes Sense For Business, and 18 Best Windows 8 Apps}, which helped me a ton. I love finding tips and tricks online. There are always great articles out when a new operating system comes out, i.e. Windows 8. I need the “I barely know how to work the operating system, just give me the shortcuts” tip pages. I am very appreciative of tech writers, they make my life easier.

By using the HP ENVY 20 TouchSmart AiO, we’ve gotten more use out of some awesome apps that we have always used, plus we have found some great new apps that we had never heard of before.

I’ve put together a video of our family using the HP ENVY 20 TouchSmart AiO PC in the past month. It starts with the un-boxing off the PC, using Apps, and my final thoughts on the PC. I am not a huge video blogger or vlogger so be patient with me. As you can see, my son is very comfortable on video. He loves to explain how everything works. I see a YouTube channel of his own, in the near future.

As you saw in the video. I talk about some of the Apps that we’ve used on the HP ENVY 20 TouchSmart AiO PC.

Here are some Windows 8 Apps that the “Angry Julie Monday” Family Recommends:

Netflix

My son loves to find old shows, new shows, and movies on Netflix. I think it is because he prefers the commercial-free viewing. About a year ago, he discovered the old GI Joe cartoon series from the 1980’s. That brought back some flashbacks to my husband, and even me. Netflix is available for instant viewing via a paid monthly subscription service, prices vary.

I Heart Radio

I Heart Radio is a FREE digital radio service. You can find more than 1500 live radio stations, or create your own commercial-free custom music stations featuring songs or artists that you like. I use I Heart Radio all-the-time to listen to local radio stations. I turn up the volume on the PC while I’m doing chores {slave labor} throughout our house, and turn on the I Heart Radio app.

Snapfish by HP

Snapfish a digital photo printing, free online photo album, online photo sharing, and online photo gift site. This app will allow you to upload photos from your digital camera, phone, or even the photos taken on your PC with your webcam. You can store your photos in their FREE photo storage, share photos with friends and family, or make gifts with your photos. Site is free to use and prices vary for prints and photo projects.

Draw Free

A FREE drawing app that uses your fingers for drawing and creativity. Using multiple colors, brushes, and stamps, you can make awesome pics with the touch of your finger. You can even save and print out your drawings.

While I’ve been working with HP, I’ve “pinned” some great ideas, projects, and products from HP over on Pinterest! Please check out my boards:

Holiday Gift Ideas

Holiday Inspiration {decor, parties, family time, arts & crafts}

I also gave away a fabulous HP ENVY 120 e-All-in-One Printer, $50 Snapfish Gift Card, and a Holiday Gift Pack at the end of the month. Coleen from San Clemente, CA won the Printer, Gift Card, and Holiday Gift Pack when random.org selected her as a winner! Congratulations to Coleen!

I cannot wait to use this PC more and attempt to further figure out and investigate what Windows 8 has to offer. I do know one thing, a TouchScreen PC is super fun to use and I’m very spoiled by it. I’m sure that my son will have it completely figured out soon. We are actually letting him use this PC as his personal computer. We are setting up some parental controls before we completely turn it over though.

Disclaimer: I am posting as part of the Pin the Halls program with HP/Snapfish. I received products however all opinions and most photos (except the stock product photos) are my own.

Filed Under: Blogging, Just Julie, Parenting 2 Comments

Wordless Wednesday: A New Year’s Day Run

January 2, 2013

I didn’t have an exciting New Year’s Eve, because I was out cold by eleven o’clock. I had to work early on New Year’s Day. But when I got home, I knew I had to run. I wasn’t going to run for a “resolution kind of thing” because I was just following my training plan. I have two half marathons coming up in the next few weeks and I have a training plan posted on my refrigerator outlining the mileage that I am supposed to do. Yesterday, it said, “3 miles”. I know that because my son announced it when I was lacing up my shoes.

I left my house with the intention of running just 3 miles. I had 47% of my battery left on my iPhone, which I use for music during my runs. But something clicked around mile 2 of my run. I was standing on a bridge overlooking the freeway. I remembered running over this bridge a few months ago, and how hard it was to get to this point. And like Forrest Gump said, “Now you wouldn’t believe me if I told you, but I could run like the wind blows. From that day on, if I was going somewhere, I was running!” Only, I am not that fast, and can’t run like the wind blows…but I kept running. At about mile 8.5, my husband called me. He asked where I was. I said a half mile from the house. He said, “how far have you ran and weren’t you only supposed to do 3 miles?” My family was hungry, my iPhone battery was very low so I just ran home.

Honestly, I set out to do 13 miles for 2013. I was 4 miles short. I’m still kinda irked about that. Plus it was getting cold and with no music, it would have sucked. So 9 miles on New Year’s Day!

New Year's Run done! I got to 9 miles & then husband called me to ask where I was. I was only supposed to do 3 miles tonight. #runchat

Welcome to “Angry Julie Monday’s Wordless Wednesday Linky”!

If this your first time here, HELLO! I do a link-up every Wednesday! Post a picture(s) and link back to it here. Wordless Wednesday is a great day to post an awesome picture that “speaks” for itself, no words needed.

Be sure to check out Wordless Wednesday Link-Ups at these other sites also:

Project Alicia, Better in Bulk, Crazy About My Baybah, Dear Crissy, Five Minutes For Mom, Live and Love…Out Loud, Sarah Halstead, Parenting By Dummies, Seven Clown Circus, The Divine Miss Mommy

Also, Lindsey from The Pleated Poppy does “What I Wore Wednesday” every week with a great big link-up.

Filed Under: Just Julie, Photography, Running, Wordless Wednesday 3 Comments

Wordless Wednesday: The “Official Holiday Card” of The Angry Family

December 26, 2012

I had a heck of a time trying to figure out a Holiday card for our family this year. We didn’t have professional photos taken this year, nor did we have a photo with all 3 of us together. But at the last minute, I decided to use a photo that I took on my iPhone while we were in Palm Springs a few weeks ago.

Linking up with

Walk With Me by Faith, Kelly’s Korner, Lil Light O’ Mine, and Mama Kat’s Losin’ It

for Holiday Card Link-Ups!

**********

Welcome to “Angry Julie Monday’s Wordless Wednesday Linky”!

Be sure to check out Wordless Wednesday Link-Ups at these other sites also:

Project Alicia, Better in Bulk, Crazy About My Baybah, Dear Crissy, Five Minutes For Mom, Live and Love…Out Loud, Sarah Halstead, Parenting By Dummies, Seven Clown Circus, The Divine Miss Mommy

Also, Lindsey from The Pleated Poppy does “What I Wore Wednesday” every week with a great big link-up.

Filed Under: Holidays, Just Julie, Project 365, Wordless Wednesday 18 Comments

Merry Christmas

December 25, 2012

It is that time of the year!

when you think of Christmas, you think of friends, family and gifts
when you think of Christmas you think of building snowmen and making snow angels and drinking hot coco
when you think of Christmas you think of the month of December
when i think of Christmas i picture you and me
when i think of Christmas i think of you as my snow angel
when i picture Christmas the best gift i could possibly receive is you

-Luke Weinberg

P.S. Squeeeeee, typing this post from my new Macbook Pro. [Read more…]

Filed Under: Holidays, Photography Leave a Comment

Using the HP ENVY 20 For Some Holiday Creativity #pinthehalls

December 23, 2012

It is rare for my to use my personal computer for word processing when I do so much of that at work. My main uses for a personal computer are for 1. music storage, 2. photo storage, 3. surfing the Internet, 4. social media, 5. photo editing and creative projects.

Using the HP ENVY 20 TouchSmart AiO has been a ton of fun for our family, especially with the touch screen feature. Pinterest is one of my favorite social media sites, and using the TouchSmart feature for “pinning” has been quite addictive. It is like I’m really “pinning” the items “old-school style” with push pins, rather than just saving them on a website.

Check out some of my HP and Snapfish by HP Inspired Pinterest Boards {#pinthehalls}:

Holiday Gift Ideas

Holiday Inspiration {decor, parties, family time, arts & crafts}

Using an app that came with the computer, HP Creative Studio for Home, I was able to print out super cute Holiday {Winter Wonderland} gift tags and stickers for the presents that I was wrapping over the weekend. Oh, and I love that the desktop has these free built-in features with cool printables. Design & download projects for cards, games, gifts & more at HP Creative Studio. Using some photo paper that I had already, I just printed out these super cute sheets of tags and stickers.

While checking out the apps offered in Windows 8, I saw that my husband and son had already accessed. HP Connected Photo which is powered by Snapfish. It has a great interface which syncs your PC photos and your Mobile Photos all in one place. You can sign into Snapfish and/or Facebook with HP Connected Photo. My husband and son used the HP TrueVision HD webcam to take their portrait with the HP ENVY 20. Using the photo that they took I can post it to social media sites, or upload it into Snapfish to order prints, gifts, or even add it to a photo book in progress.

I’m hope to get some of my photo projects done by the end of the year. My long-term goal is to put all my photos that I’ve taken the past few years into photo books.

I’m working on a video to showcase all of the features that the HP ENVY 20 TouchSmart All-in-One Desktop PC has. It is much easier to do with video than cropped photos and screenshots. Now if I could pull my son and his friends away from the PC to actually use it myself.

*Don’t forget about my GIVEAWAY that I am hosting of the HP Envy 120 e-All-in-One Printer, a $50 Snapfish Gift Card& HP Holiday Value Pack (10 5×7 sheets of photo paper, 10 envelopes, and a “swatch book” that contains photo project ideas). It is a great package and the giveaway ends soon!

On December 17th, the HP ENVY 120 printer, the holiday value pack, and www.hp.com/holiday were all featured on the Rachael Ray show as part of a special segment where she and Regis Philbin surprised an audience of Hurricane Sandy victims with an early holiday present that included the ENVY 120, a SpaFinder gift card, and a gift card from The Container Store.

Disclaimer: I am posting as part of the Pin the Halls program with HP/Snapfish. I received products however all opinions and most photos (except the stock product photos) are my own.

Filed Under: Holidays, Just Julie Leave a Comment

Wordless Wednesday: Gingerbread House

December 19, 2012

Every since the stores starting carrying Holiday merchandise, my son has been asking to make a gingerbread house. I love all of the awesome kits that they carry now. I was at the store the other day and picked up a cheap kit for my son. We made the house last night. This is what a gingerbread house looks like when a 37 year old woman and a 7 year old boy decorate it.

Welcome to “Angry Julie Monday’s Wordless Wednesday Linky”!

Be sure to check out Wordless Wednesday Link-Ups at these other sites also:

Project Alicia, Better in Bulk, Crazy About My Baybah, Dear Crissy, Five Minutes For Mom, Live and Love…Out Loud, Naptime Momtog, Parenting By Dummies, Seven Clown Circus, The Divine Miss Mommy

Also, Lindsey from The Pleated Poppy does “What I Wore Wednesday” every week with a great big link-up.

Filed Under: Holidays, Parenting, Photography, Wordless Wednesday 5 Comments

pv.Body, Fitnesswear By Subscription

December 19, 2012

I run or workout at least five days a week. You can imagine the amount of laundry that I have from all of those workouts. It seems like I wear running or workout clothes more than normal clothing lately. But that is ok with me.

I have also become somewhat of a workout clothing snob. And buying workout clothing can get expensive when you are buying “better” brands.

I recently got a new workout outfit from pv.body. With pv.Body you take a quiz to determine your “workout profile” whether it be “I love to run”, “I love the gym”, “I love yoga”, or “I love being comfy”. Then it asks where you prefer to workout, “home”, “yoga studio”, “gym”, or “outdoors”. You then select your sizes for tops and bottoms, and what styles of tops and bottoms you prefer.

I was sent a raspberry tank top and charcoal leggings. They are super soft and make me look thinner than I really am. I have a HUGE problem of buying clothing that is too big for me. I’ve done it for quite some time. I usually go and grab the XL straight off the rack. I’ve been much better lately with trying things on and getting a better fit. When selecting my profile, I made a conscientious effort to get the proper and right sizing for myself. I ended up selecting a “M or Medium” rather than the large or x-large that I usually grab. The tank and pants fit me perfectly.

I would have taken a photo of myself in the outfit, but the mirrors in my house aren’t really full body. Plus there was nobody home when I tried out my new awesome workout outfit from pv.Body. I did include some photos below of what items from pv.Body look like on those model-type of people. Just imagine me, in the first outfit, with a little more body mass to love.

pv.Body is based on a monthly subscription where you receive a new top brand workout outfit every month for $49.95. I think that I’ve paid more than $49.95 for most of my shirts that I wear running. Like I said before, I’m a brand snob.

I can’t wait to get my next shipment. And you can try it out too…signing up for pv.Body gets you a $15 Lululemon gift card, plus 25% off your first month subscription. What are you waiting for? Check it out now!

How Does It Work?

Easy peasy lemon squeezy: pv.Body is easy. Take the quiz, sign up and boom, an awesome package arrives at your door each month with a hand picked outfit for you!

Every outfit is styled just for you by a pv.Body expert. Each month you receive an outfit worth $150, but you pay just $49.95. You’re getting great, quality pieces for a fraction of the retail cost thanks to the relationships pvBody has built.

pv.Body is not just another clothing company, but a lifestyle brand. Their blog is a great place to check out tips and tricks for healthy, delicious meals and at home workouts.

Disclosure: This is a sponsored post written by me on behalf of pv.body. The opinions and text are all mine.

Filed Under: Blogging, Just Julie, Running Leave a Comment

Lego Star Wars ZipBin Large Millennium Falcon Messenger Bag Review

December 18, 2012

My son is an avid collector of Lego Star Wars kits. They are scattered throughout his room, whether they are put together or disassembled. It can get very frustrating because these kits are not cheap.

I was given the opportunity to review a Lego Star Wars ZipBin Large Millennium Falcon Messenger Bag recently from Neat-Oh! International. Not only does this messenger bag hold over 500 Lego bricks but it also functions as a playmat. It is a great bag to take alone on trips, keep in the car, and to also stimulate play with the Lego Star Wars vehicles and Mini-figs that you probably already have in your house.

I know that I’ve stepped on, I mean found hundreds of Lego Star Wars items inside my son’s room. What a great place to store all of this awesomeness, and to also encourage play. I love that there are little slots for Mini-figs to fit into also. What a great way to make sure that your Lego Star Wars collection stays intact.

The Lego Star Wars ZipBin Large Millennium Falcon Messenger Bag is rated for ages 3+ and it is 10.75 x 3.25 x 13.7 inches in size. It is also perfect material for easy cleaning and no mess. You just wipe it with a damp cloth.

My son is 7 years old and he loves this messenger bag. It also helped provided a new experience for him to play with his Lego Star Wars stuff. Even better when it makes old toys new again!

Disclosure: I was given this item for review purposes, free of charge. I was not compensated with cash for this review. All photographs (craptastic or otherwise) are mine, and so are the random thoughts.

Filed Under: Parenting, Reviews 2 Comments