How many times have you tried to grab your baby’s attention by desperately waving your hands in the air while making kooky sounds? I know I’ve had plenty of those moments. I even had Greg stand behind me making funny faces to get Boogie to look at the camera. The ShutterBuddy is an innovative products used to grab an infant’s attention during a photoshoot. It’s checkboard pattern grabs and holds an infant’s attention long enough to capture the perfect shot. The ShutterBuddy works well with infants up to 9 months of age and fits over the lens of most digital cameras. On DSLRs, the fit may be tight. Here’s what the ShutterBuddy looks like on my 50mm lens.

As you can see, it is obstructing the built in flash. Since I use the Lightscoop to bounce the flash backwards, it isn’t an issue. The ShutterBuddy is a great addition to my collection of camera equipment. It will definitely come in handy when photographing babies.

Price: $19.99

Congrats to Lisa of stephie-stephsblog.blogspot.com!

She won with her daily tweet:
Win an HP TouchSmart 600 from @mommydaddyblog and @hpdirect ! http://tinyurl.com/yf82wld #hp #computers #gadgets

When I first got my smart phone, I became so used to touching the screen that I would accidentally touch the screen on my laptop. This happened a few times in public and I felt like an idiot. The thought of being able to navigate through my personal computer by touching the monitor was a sweet idea, I thought. Unfortunately, HP beat me to bringing that idea to life with their the HP TouchSmart 600 PC.

The HP TouchSmart 600 is definitely on my wishlist. I’m all about space saving. I hate clunky items. The HP TouchSmart provides everything that would be housed in a traditional tower in what is about the size of a flat panel monitor. The sleek design and the ability to get rid of my mouse instantly won me over. There are lots of features I’d love to try out, like Windows 7 and the touch enabled entertainment apps all in HD quality, or even taking a stab at illustrating since I could draw directly on the monitor. Since I have yet to try out the HP TouchSmart 600, I’ll let HP do the rest of the talking!

www.youtube.com/watch?v=p0GYC5nxjok

The very generous folks at HP have provided us with an HP TouchSmart 600 to give away to one Mommy Daddy Blog reader! Yes, you read right, we are giving away an HP Touchsmart 600 computer to one of YOU! Lets proceed to the rules!

Mandatory Entry: Learn about the HP TouchSmart 600 and leave a comment stating a feature that makes you drool.

Extra Entry (worth 1 entry): Grab the button and place it on your blog. Leave a comment letting me know that you’ve done so.

<a href="http://mommydaddyblog.com/buzz/2009/11/were-giving-away-an-hp-touchsmart-600-just-sayin" target="_blank"><img src="http://i4.photobucket.com/albums/y125/sheeniebabie/hptouchsmartmommydaddyblog.jpg" border="0" alt="HP TouchSmart Giveaway"/></a>

Extra Entry (worth 1 entry): Follow @hp_pc on Twitter. Leave an additional comment with your Twitter name letting me know that you’ve done so.

Extra Entry (worth 1 entry): Become a fan of HP for Home (United States) on Facebook. Be sure to post on their wall letting them know that Mommy Daddy Blog sent you!

Extra Entry (worth 1 entry): Follow @mommydaddyblog on Twitter. Leave an additional comment with your twitter name letting me know that you’ve done so.

Extra Entry (worth 1 entry): Become a fan of Mommy Daddy Blog on Facebook. Leave a comment with your Facebook name or URL.

Extra Entry (worth 1 entry): Subscribe to our Buzz feed. Leave a separate comment letting me know that you have done so.

Extra Entry (worth 1 entry): Tweet about this giveaway and leave an additional comment linking to your tweet (how to link directly to a tweet). You can write whatever you’d like or you can copy and paste the text provided below. You can do this once a day, just make sure you come back and leave a comment to your tweet each time you tweet!

Win an HP TouchSmart 600 from @mommydaddyblog and @hp_pc ! http://tinyurl.com/yf82wld #hp #computers #gadgets

This giveaway will run until December 15th, 2009 at 7PM CST.

Don’t forget to enter our Big Holiday Giveaway To Help Needy Families! We’re giving away an Epson Artisan 810 printer, toys from Hasbro and Playskool as well as some other awesome prizes!

This year, we are using our Holiday Gift Guide to help raise money for our Libby’s Virtual Canned Food Drive. This is something new that we are doing, so we’ve started our goal at $500. Hopefully we can meet that goal or even surpass it! It is our hope that through this giveaway, we can bring awareness to the food drive and you’ll be inclined to donate. We’d like to offer something in return, but legally we cannot. We hope that knowing that you are helping provide food to families in need is sufficient . Can you believe that by donating $5, you would be providing 35 meals to needy families?!

Donations $5 or More
For donations of $5 or more, please donate directly to our Libby’s Virtual Canned Food Drive. You can choose to donate more than $5, but there is an option to donate a minimum of $5. Simply select to help provide as many meals for hungry families as possible and type in $5.00. Anything less won’t go through, we already tried, which is why we are presenting another option below.

Donations Less Than $5
For donations less than $5, please donate to our Chipin Virtual Canned Food Drive. You don’t have to have a Paypal account to donate; there is an option to donate via credit/debit above the card logos.

I’ve always avoided taking pictures in low light situations because they’d always turn out disastrous. I try my hardest to not use the built in flash because I get hot spots, shadows, and hideous glares. When I don’t use my flash, I hike up my ISO to the highest setting which results in lots of noise, blur, and not so sharp subjects. Because of this, I added a $300 external flash to my wishlist hoping it wold solve my problem. For a year I’ve been trying to work up the courage to make the purchase. Needless to say, that external flash has been sitting on my wishlist for, hmmm, a year? I am so glad that I waited because I found the perfect solution, the Lightscoop.

The Lightscoop is a simple device that creates natural light by redirecting the flash to the ceiling or wall. It attaches to the hot shoe of most DSLR cameras. By setting up your camera using the easy to follow instructions, you can shoot in low light situations in minutes! The Lightscoop works best in neutral-colored ceilings no higher than 8-12 feet or walls no farther than 3-4 feet from the camera. So if you’re needing to shoot in an open church or gymnasism, then the Lightscoop may not be for you. I am so grateful for this product. You guys just don’t know, I am a sap when it comes to my photography. Now, I can stop chasing the sun for natural light everyday and I can spend that $300 on a new lens and other photography goodies I’ve been wishing for!

Do you want to win a Lightscoop? Click here to enter to win a Lightscoop and other awesome prizes!

Price: $34.95

A sample of the Lightscoop Standard was provided for review.

Labelers have surely come a long way. The last labeler that I used was a manual Dymo labeler. With that, I had to crank a wheel to each letter and then I had to squeeze a handle to imprint each letter on to the label tape. I’m feeling a little old here. Had Brother not nudged me to review their new P-touch Labeling System, I would still probably be oblivious to electronic labelers. I’m not a hardcore labeler, so I don’t keep up with the latest labeling systems.

There’s one thing that I have trouble doing, and that’s staying organized. Life would be so much easier if I was organized and having the P-touch labeler around is motivation to get on the ball. Since we moved a few weeks ago, the house isn’t 100% how we’d like it. We’re still in the planning stages of our journey to organization. We have some ideas of how we want to put the P-touch to use.

Ideas we plan on using the P-touch for:
Labelling Boogie’s dressers drawers by underwear, cloth diapers, shirts, pants, and pjs.
Setting up a recipe box and sorting the recipes by breakfast, lunch, dinner, and desserts.
Replacing the handwritten labels in our file box.

I took the P-touch on a few test runs. I had a minor set back since it takes a whopping 6 AAA batteries which aren’t included. I grabbed some from the store and have since replaced them with Energizer rechargeables. Once I got passed the battery issue, I was able to proceed with testing the P-touch Labelling System. It was very simple to use. You don’t even need the instructions unless you want to get fancy. I love using the Bohemia font with frames. The leaf frame is my absolute favorite. I enjoyed creating labels especially when I discovered the frames, each label took less than a minute to create and print. I had to stop myself before I became addicted! Here are some labels that I’ve created so far.

Product Specifications:
Estimated Street Price: $39.99 (may vary)
15 Deco Mode Patterns to create extra-stylish and decorative labels
2 Professional Fonts
Prints labels up to 1/2″ wide on laminated indoor/outdoor “TZ” series tapes
Easy-view, 15-character LCD display
Professional Deco Mode layouts accommodate two rows of text
Prints 1 or 2 lines of crisp text
6 Auto Formats and 7 Framing Options
Built-in memory, saves up to 9 of your favorite labels
Automatically adjusts text size based on tape width

Brother would like to give one Mommy Daddy Blog reader a chance to win a P-touch Labeling System!

Mandatory Entry: To enter, leave a comment telling me what you’d label with your P-touch Labeling System!

Extra Entry (worth 1 entry): Subscribe to our Buzz feed. Leave a separate comment letting me know that you have done so.

Extra Entry (worth 1 entry): Tweet about this giveaway and leave an additional comment linking to your tweet (how to link directly to a tweet). You can write whatever you’d like or you can copy and paste the text provided below.

This giveaway will run until October 6th 2009 7PM CST!

This is a review written by my dear friend 1stopmom.

When I look at gadgets my eyes tend to gloss over. I love anything that can make my life easier. The idea of trying an email only device really appeals to me. I can easily get distracted with other things on the internet, which makes going through my email such a long task.

Through Sheena of Mommy Daddy Blog and Peek, I was able to give the black Peek a test run. It turned out to be much smaller and more lightweight than I thought, in fact. It fit very comfortably in the palm of my hand and it is much lighter than my cell phone. The system was pretty quick to set up. I was able to set up my hotmail account and download all of my contacts with no hiccups. I didn’t even need to pull out the instructions which is always nice.

The Peek has a nice sized screen that is clear, crisp and bright, even outdoors. A cute little envelope in the left hand corner flashes whenever an email is delivered to the device. Emails and settings are all accessed simply by using the scrolling wheel on the right side of The Peek. Though, I would prefer arrows because sometimes the wheel doesn’t “catch”. I absolutely love the keyboard. It is a full keyboard that glows. I was able to type emails with out my fingers cramping or having to constantly press the shift key.

I prefer using The Peek for checking my email but not for texting. I am not comfortable with the format and the message delivery isn’t instant. This type of texting is through email and I am not a big fan of it.

The battery life is pretty good. The Peek stays powered on without being plugged up to the charger for a couple of days, more less if you receive a lot of email. While using the Peek while out and about, I experienced a few bouts of signal issues, but not so much where it would be a problem for me.

The Peek is definitely a good alternative for someone that wants to stay in touch through email but doesn’t need a lot of bells and whistles.

Earlier this week, we had a really bad thunderstorm that knocked out power all across the neighborhood. Jayden had just woken up from a nap and went hysterical when he couldn’t see anything. So while holding him in my arms as he clutched on for dear life, and using my cell phone (which has a reeeeally dim backlight even at the highest setting by the way) as a guide, I searched the house up and down for a lighter to light up some candles. After 20 frustrating minutes, I finally found one buried at the bottom of a drawer. After that, I vowed to buy a flashlight for future situations like this.

Luckily, though, we received the LED Lenser P7 flashlight the next day to review. And boy am I glad it came when it did, because any flashlight I would’ve gone out and purchased probably wouldn’t have impressed me as well as the P7 has!

The P7 is way better than those cheap flashlights I’m used to buying. If you’ve ever been one to use those huge, chunky, plastic flashlights found at retail and bargain stores, you’d really appreciate the P7. The P7 is only a fraction of the size of those flashlights, but the light quality is leaps and bounds better. The light reaches up to an amazing 738 feet and is amazingly bright! This is because of the advanced technology packed inside the P7. The P7 uses high quality LEDs which results in brighter light than that of lower quality LEDs. The P7 also has what’s called Power Transformation Technology, which allows it to shine such a bright light from such a compact-sized compartment.

The P7 also features an Advanced Focus System, where simply sliding the flashlight head forward will focus the light on a small area (“spot beam”), and sliding it back into its original position will focus the light on a great amount of area (“flood beam”). I just love the ease of it.

As I said earlier, the P7 is really compact. Measuring at only 5.5 inches in length, it’s only about as tall as a can of pop when stood up on its head. It’s also lightweight, weighing in at only 7 ounces. Jayden was even able to carry it around with no problem. It’s size would enable it to be stored in the glove compartment of a car. We live in a town where the only roads out are long, dark, and have no street lights. The P7 would definitely come in handy in the case of an emergency breakdown on one of those roads at night.

The P7 packs up to 78 hours of battery life. This is a huge step up from flashlights I’ve used in the past where the batteries would die out after only a few light uses. I really don’t use flashlights much, hence why we didn’t have one before the P7. So it should be a while before I need to swap the batteries out for new ones.

The P7 is designed for professional and tactical use, and I can definitely see police officers, firefighters, other rescue workers, and those who work in dark environments benefiting from this flashlight. The light quality and brightness is amazing, and the simplicity of switching from spot beam to flood beam makes it really efficient while on the job.

The P7 comes as a nice little package, which includes four AAA batteries and a pouch that the P7 can be slipped into and worn on your waist. The package retails for $89, which I believe is a decent price for everything you get out of this bad boy!

Alright, so by now you guys probably get the hint that we are HP freaks lovers and we just so happen to have a little thing going on with the HP fairies. As part of an extensive blogger review program, HP sent us the Moonlight White HP DV2. In this long term review program, we will be offering our honest feedback to you, our readers, and the HP tech team from the perspective of a mom and dad. We do not claim to be tech experts, but being parents doesn’t make us any less of tech enthusiasts.

(Note: Greg’s comments will be in black and Sheena’s comments will be in magenta.)

I really like the sleekness and shininess of the DV2, which is a huge step up from my previous laptop which was bulky and looked and felt like cheap plastic. The DV2 features pinstriping design on the palmrests and is outlined with a chrome trim (the touchpad is also in chrome) which gives it a sleek, modern look. The DV2 has a glossy finish which unfortunately leaves all traces of fingerprints. There are currently traces of small handprints all over the screen and frame. I wonder who they belong to!

I also love the DV2′s keyboard. They keys are nice and flat, and feel comfortable against my fingertips. The keys also have quiet clicks, which is a big deal for those who have experienced typing on loud, clunky keyboards. The keys are 92% of standard size and I have no problem typing even though I have big hands.

The DV2 is less than 1″ thick and weighs less than 4 lbs., which makes it easy to travel with. Like the HP Mini, the DV2 slips right in to a purse. It is about 2lbs. heavier and 2″ larger in width than the Mini. So it is also a perfect machine to have around at those omg.i.must.blog/tweet moments!

The DV2 has a HD LED widescreen which is very pleasing on the eyes. This, along with the external Blu-ray DVD drive that comes with the DV2, is a big plus for me since I’m a big movie watcher. I can’t wait to see the quality of the movies on the DV2.

The DV2 comes with SRS Premium Sound, but since the speakers are located on the bottom of the laptop, my crotch will be enjoying more of the premium sound than my ears will. The sound isn’t all that bad though, actually it’s pretty good compared to my past laptops. But, I just think that it would be even better if the speakers were located on top of the keyboard frame rather than the bottom of the laptop.

There is a built in webcam and microphone. I look forward to using it to chat on Skype and HP Gabble. So far, I’ve done a sound and video test with Skype and it works perfect.

The DV2 has a huge 320GB hard drive, which I didn’t even know was possible for laptops since I’m used to hard drive space amounts in the double digits from my previous laptops. We have loads of videos of Jayden that we’d never upload to our previous laptops because of the amount of space they would take up. But, that’s a thing of the past with the DV2!

The DV2 has 4GB of RAM… all I can say is wow! That’s twice as much as we have on our desktop computer. Although I doubt we’ll ever even exceed 3GB on the DV2, it’s good to know it can handle Firefox, Vista, some occasional gaming, and the multiple applications we usually have open all at once.

There is also a built in 5-n-1 media card reader which is compatible with SD, MS Pro Duo, MMC, and XD cards. I use a collection of digital cameras, all of which take different memory cards. It’s so convenient to be able to pop in a memory card versus having to connect via USB cord. I do however, have to connect to my Canon Rebel via USB since the 5-n-1 media card reader doesn’t support CF cards. It’s not that big of a deal because I know that the memory cards supported are not in the same “family” as CF cards. On SD, MS Pro Duo, MMC, and XD cards, the metal contacts are exposed on the backside of the card and the contacts on the CF card are internal.

Another feature that I like about the DV2 is that it automatically locks to guard against internal damage when dropped. This definitely comes in handy when there’s a wild soon-to-be-toddler running around the house! You never know!

The DV2′s battery life is said to be between 3 and 4 hours, depending on the settings, which isn’t too bad. I frequently use laptops without the AC adapter plugged in, so I like to know that I can comfortably work on the DV2 while unplugged without worrying about it shutting off on me an hour later.

The DV2 comes equipped with Windows Vista Home Premium. We also received Microsoft Office 2007 as an added bonus. I’m a frequent Word and Excel user, and I just love the interface of Office 2007. It’s a big step up from previous versions.

We are enjoying the DV2 thus far and are very excited about seeing what this baby can do! So stay tuned for the next part of our review where we’ll be cracking open the DV2 and sharing our experience with the programs and performance!

The Epson Artisan 800 All-in-One Printer does it all. It does so much that I haven’t even gotten through half of the features yet. I do however, want to touch on some features that I have been enjoying thus far.

Touch Screen – The large 3.5” LCD screen lights up to display buttons for easy navigation and previewing photos. I am fascinated with all things touchscreen. I often catch myself touching and tapping at gadgets that don’t have this capability, simply because I’ve grown so accustomed to the feature.

Copying & Printing Original Photos – It is so convenient being able to copy and print original photos right away. Back in October we attended a wedding and the photographer took a picture of us. Later on that month, we were outraged to see that a 5×7 print would cost $11 + shipping! Needless to say, we only ordered one. We made copies on the Epson Artisan 800 to send to family – they came out perfect, no scan lines. Take a look.

Printing From Memory Card – I usually shoot in natural sunlight to keep from having to edit the lighting in my photos. Just like the HP A826, I can pop in my compact flash memory cards and print directly from them.

Results With Different Brands Of Paper – Although Epson recommends using Epson papers for the best performance, I’ve gotten great results with Georgia-Pacific Copy Paper and HP Advanced Photo Paper as well. I’m such a rebel.

Upon, installing the printer, I did have a few concerns. So far, I only have two.

6 Ink Cartridges? – Ink always scares me. The Epson Artisan 800 requires 6 ink cartridges. Yikes! Each cartridge ranges from $15.99 – $17.00. Yea. We don’t print much in color so this shouldn’t be much of an issue.

USB Cable Not Included – Since we no longer have wifi set up, we needed to connect to the printer via USB cable. Luckily, we had a a cord laying around from a previous printer to use.

Since the Epson Artisan 800 has soooo many features, I’ve decided to address them in a series of posts. Until next time!

Epson received five prestigious Hot One 2009 Awards from Professional Photographer magazine for the Artisan 800, Epson Stylus Photo R2880, the Epson Stylus Pro 7900 and Epson Stylus Pro 9900, and the Epson P-7000 Multimedia Photo Viewer. A panel of 18 judges, all independent working professional photographers, participated in the 2009 voting process. This year, special attention was placed on value for the price, and Epson came out ahead in consumer, enthusiast and professional ink jet printing.

To honor Earth Day (April 22 2009), HP has decided to offer more earth-friendly products. Check them out!

To help families celebrate Earth Day, HP launched the new Eco Kid Kits on HP’s Creative Studio. Kids can print out fun little projects such as, light switch covers and garbage can signs, to remind them to conserve energy around the home.

The HP Deskjet D2600 Printer Series is an affordable, easy-to-use, high quality printer that is perfect for everyday projects. The printer is made of 50 percent recycled materials and its HP 60 ink cartridges are made from 50 percent recycled plastics. The HP Deskjet D2600 Printer Series also has a paper-saving printing option that allows customers to print on both sides of the paper.

To eliminate paper waste, the included HP Smart Web Printing software allows users to select and organize text, graphics and photos from multiple web pages to print only what is needed on a single page.

Using the stainless steel commuter mug from Snapfish.com is a perfect way to reduce the use of paper coffee cups while jazzing up your morning cup of Joe with keepsakes.

Related Green Links:

Earth Day Every Day Challenge – Your school could win a $500 Wal-Mart gift card and the chance to compete for a $20,000 grant, to be used toward activities and projects that are helping to make the school more eco-friendly.

Keep My Earth Green – A “green-living” guide to saving beautiful Mother Earth. Have more fun in your life – naturally!

Ideal Bite – Fun, free eco living tips delivered M-F to your inbox.

Design a Reusable Shopping Bag Contest – Design a reusable shopping bag with Kroger for a chance to win a $1,000 gift card and see your bag in stores!

Rainforest Rescue – This game is part of a larger effort Tropicana has undertaken to help save the rainforest. They have teamed up with Cool Earth, an international trust dedicated to protecting the rainforest, where people can save 100 square feet of rain forest for each Tropicana on-pack code they enter online.