When I was approached to see if I was interested in receiving a (Customized!) Flip MinoHD I had to sit back and ponder it for, oh, three seconds or so. A few friends of mine have one and they have done nothing but rave about how great they are. I keep a point and shoot camera in my purse that has video capability, but the clips are limited to one minute in length. I could haul our regular video camera around to catch the every day moments that occur when we are out and about but, no.

When deciding what to customize the Flip with, the choice was pretty easy. I have a photo of my three kids’ feet that is blown up and hangs on our living room wall. It’s one of the all-time favorite photos I’ve taken and I was pretty sure it would turn out well. The day the Flip arrived I excitedly opened the box to see how it looked.

Isn’t it FANTASTIC? I sure think so.

I couldn’t wait to try it out and knew that Emily’s ballet class would be a great place to use it. My husband Matthew has only seen photos of her class but hasn’t come with us to see her dance yet. We have to sit behind the glass, which means that instead of hearing the piano you get to hear the conversations of those around me. I thought about dubbing some music over it but I (am lazy, and) found that Graham’s captured conversation struck me as funny. It doesn’t start until about a minute in, but then he does not. stop. talking.

Dancing Queen from Angella on Vimeo.

Welcome to my life.

I’ve also posted a few other daily moments over on Flickr. There’s the one of my kids dancing after dinner,  as well as the one of them singing and dancing to Kung Fu Panda while riding in the minivan. Never a dull moment around these parts.

I was asked to give an honest review of the Flip and, well, I love it. It’s easy to use and is so compact that it fits in one of the small inner pockets of my purse. One other thing that I love about it is that the video is easy for me to deal with. Let me explain further.

We have an HD video camera that takes great video, is easy to use, etc. As I said above, it may be small but not quite “carry around every day” small. The other problem I have with is is that while I can easily download a video to my Macbook, in order to use it in iMovie I have to first run it through another program to make the file compatible. It’s a huge time waster. The videos I take on the Flip are easily downloaded onto my laptop and import into iMovie with no special conversion needed. Easy peasy. Maybe I’ll finally be inspired to learn how to be creative with iMovie. Maybe.

As is usually the case, when a company gives a product away for someone to review, they give their readers a chance to win one of their own. Let the people rejoice!

The people from Mom Central (Who hooked me up with my pretty little Flip) are giving away three Flip MinoHD cameras. You need a “Flip Password” and they gave me one to pass along:

Dutch

Here are the promotion details:

You can enter 2 ways:  By signing up for their Mom Product Testing Panel at www.momcentral.com/canada and entering the promo code when you sign up.

OR

You can enter by sending an email to momcentral@live.com with the promo code in the subject.

You can see full contest details at www.momcentral.com and the promotion ends October 19, 2009.  The giveaway is open to Canadians only and you must be 18 or older to enter.

So, what are you waiting for? Go enter!

This is a compensated review from BlogHer and Estée Lauder Advanced Night Repair

If you are a close friend of mine, you have heard me complain about one of my pet peeves of growing older. No, it’s not the shape of my body. I am actually more fit now than I have ever been. Please don’t hate me; I have an addictive personality and exercise is my newest addiction.

I hate seeing the effects of age on my skin.

My husband comes from a family who has dark, olive, oily skin. Those natural oils make it so that the women in his family (And the men) have nary a wrinkle to be seen.

I, however, have Irish blood. My skin is fair, and pretty awesome in general, but the wrinkles? THEY HAVE SHOWN THEMSELVES.

When the call was thrown out for bloggers who might be interested in trying out Estée Lauder’s Advanced Night Repair I responded with an excited, “Pick me! Pick me!” I need all of the help I can get. We all know how costly a skin care regime can be, so the chance to try one out in exchange for a review was right up my alley. Before I knew it a little blue box had arrived in my mail box.

I opened it up and saw an interesting little brown bottle.

I unscrewed the lid and saw something that I had not seen before. A dropper.

Now, maybe you are a makeup/skin care aficionado, but I am a drugstore shopper. I have veered away from the high-end brands because I am cheap frugal. I saw the dropper and had some questions.

How was I to get this potion to work for me? Squirt it up my nose? Add it to a drink? So that maybe it could do its magic from the inside out? I consulted the instruction booklet.

I was supposed use the dropper to squirt the lotion onto my skin. It really was that simple. Just like me.

I have to say that I gave the lotion a run for its money. Summer has finally ARRIVED. After a long (and cold) winter I have been spending every spare moment outside. While we all know that sun is damaging to the skin, I can’t stay away from it. Eight months of winter just about did me in. I’m like that fly on A Bug’s Life that is zooming towards the zapper. When he buddy tells him to stay away from the light he responds, “I…can’t…help…it…”

I didn’t take any “before” photos (Because I am awesome like that) but I did take an “after” photo. This is me, unedited (Except for a bump in the contrast).

My skin may not be dewy and flawless, but I am THIRTY-FOUR YEARS OLD. All things considered, I think that a good skin care regimen makes all of the difference. Seriously.

I am not the only one who had the pleasure of turning back time. Here is the round-up of others who got to try the Estée Lauder Advanced Night Repair:

BlogHer Reviewers

If you like free stuff then do I have a deal for you.

Estée Lauder invites you to AMERICAS NIGHT TO REPAIR. On Thursday, July 23, 5-9PM, visit any Estée Lauder Counter and get a free 10-day supply of New Advanced Night Repair, no purchase necessary (while supplies last)(It retails for $47.50)

For more information on the Advanced Night Repair, you can check out their website.

I will be at the giveaway in Chicago during BlogHer. Will I see you there? If you can’t make it to Chicago, are you going to hit up your local Estee Lauder? IT’S FREE, PEOPLE.

Please tell me that you’re going to attend somewhere.

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