Tech Wish List for My Valentine.

With Valentine’s Day fast approaching thoughts often turn to what to gift to loved ones. Even though we do not really go all in for gift giving on Valentine’s Day, mostly due to lack of money, the day can be a good excuse to treat loved ones and show them how much you care with a gift they will love. As it is a rare occasion that I get to treat Lee, especially since becoming parents, and he has gifted me thoughtful and memorable gifts over the years such as writing me poems, gifting me beautiful jewellery and treating me to once in a lifetime days out, if money was no issue I would love to get him an extra special gift.

Lee is a bit of a tech geek so I would love to treat him to some tech I know he has been lusting after – yes Lee I do listen to and remember your hints about a Panasonic 4K TV. If I was lucky enough to stumble upon that money tree or find a pot of gold at the end of the rainbow before Valentine’s Day here is what I would love to buy my Valentine –

Panasonic 4K TV

As a gamer, sports enthusiast and film fanatic Lee has nearly as good of a relationship with the TV as he does with me. Whilst our old TV does the job, as technology progresses and improves the lure of a new TV with better picture quality and improved features is strong.

Panasonic Smart Network HDD Recorder with Twin HD DMR-HWT250EB review.

Manufacturer’s Description: Enjoy a variety of content with this Freeview Play compatible Recorder. 4K Video Playback lets you play 4K content via a USB connection. Internet apps, such as those, for NETFLIX and amazon instant video are also supported. And TV Anywhere lets you watch and record programmes both at home and while you’re away.

I must admit I enjoy relaxing of an evening when the children are finally asleep and the mounting chores are ignored to watch my favourite shows. However with only a basic freeview box and no TV subscription services when busy life gets in the way so I don’t get to sit down to watch my shows I often miss them. Whilst I can at times catch up online on my laptop I can’t always rely on this as not all channels offer this catch-up service online. Another downside to basic freeview is that there is no guarantee that shows Bug likes will be on the TV when he is enjoying a bit of TV time after being busy and having adventures.

As it can be disappointing to miss my favourite shows I was keen to test out the Panasonic Smart Network HDD Recorder in the hope that it would be the solution to me missing my favourite shows and Bug’s disappointment at not getting to watch the children’s shows he wants when he wants.

Keeping your home safe this Christmas.

As the nights are now darker your chances of being burgled are greater than during spring and summer months. Darkness provides burglars cover from being seen when breaking into homes to steal people’s prised possessions. Not only is this time of year appealing to burglars due to the early dark nights, but also due to the fact that Christmas is on the horizon.

Christmas is an attractive time for burglars with presents aplenty sitting appealingly under decorated Christmas trees. Burglars pray on the wealth of presents occupying homes across the country before and after Christmas, with all the new gifts being a prosperous bounty for criminals.

As your chances of being burgled are higher during the festive season it is worthwhile taking a look at your home security.

To try to prevent your home being targeted by burglars it is vital to ensure your home security is at its best and that any security weaknesses are fixed.

To help you check and improve your home security why not take a look at the following tips -

Choosing the right fridge freezer.

For a little while now we have been slowly saving up to buy a new fridge freezer to replace our existing one which is unsurprisingly on its last legs having given us 10 years plus of loyal service after being given to me second hand.

Being a family on a tight budget the expense of buying a new fridge freezer is a large expense for us, and as such I want to make sure we buy the best fridge freezer for us and our budget. As there are so many brands and models of fridge freezers available on the market to narrow down our search and help find the right one for us, I have been looking researching what we should consider when buying a fridge freezer.

Fridge Freezer types

As I mentioned there is a huge array of fridge freezers available on the market, with the choice of styles and sizes being a vast one, but when looking at fridge freezer types there are 3 basic types to consider -

Freestanding fridge freezers: can be fitted anywhere in your kitchen/pantry and come in a range of sizes and colours. They are type of fridge freezer that is popular and plentiful on the market and often is the cheapest type of fridge freezer.

American-style fridge freezers: are large with fridge and freezer side-by-side, and as they are large they take up a lot of floor space. Not only are they expensive to buy they can also be expensive to run. Thanks to their large size they hold a huge amount of food and often have lots of extra features.

Integrated fridge freezers: fit behind kitchen cupboard doors rather than being on display. Integrated models tend to have a higher price tag than freestanding models with fewer models available on the market.

Whilst the novelty of an American-style model is appealing due to funds and lack of space they are not an option for us and as we cannot fit an integrated fridge freezer into our kitchen we are planning on getting a freestanding fridge freezer (this type is what we already have) which has the added benefit of being a model that would be easiest to take with us and fit in a new kitchen if we move.

Appliances to make family life a little easier this Christmas.

Family life can be hectic and with Christmas fast approaching the hectic-ness of family life is sure to get even more chaotic and busy than normal. Thankfully family life can be made a little bit easier with the help of useful and practical appliances. Best of all with the festive season looming there are deals and discounts to be had on a huge range of appliances.

Kitchen appliances

Making Christmas dinner for the whole family can be hard work so why not get some new kitchen appliances that will help make the process of cooking up a yummy Christmas extravaganza that little bit easier. If you are cooking the Christmas dinner for the whole family yourself, with a big roast turkey or duck as the centrepiece, investing in a sparkling new oven with lots of oven space and useful technology will help make cooking the Christmas feast a smooth affair. Not only will a new oven be a useful appliance to use over the festive season but it is also a worthwhile investment that will help make family life that little bit easier for years to come.

A new microwave might also be useful especially if the one you already have is old and not working as good as it once did. If you are a cook who likes to prepare in advance, cooking and reheating in bulk especially when catering for a large, extravagant Christmas feast for the whole family a new microwave with the latest technology will be a very useful and practical appliance to make life that little bit easier.

Jo Pratt recipes for quick and tasty meals.

As a mum I always try to make sure that my family have fresh and healthy meals and that Bug gets his 5 a day, but juggling a busy life can sometimes make creating fresh, healthy and tasty family meals hard work. 

In an attempt to be a little more like a kitchen goddess for my family and create deliciously healthy family meals in spite of a busy life I am always keen to learn about quick and easy family recipes and kitchen gadgets to make life a little easier.

Realising that it can be hard work to create fresh, healthy and tasty family meals especially when juggling a busy life, Panasonic have produced new Premium Combi Ovens that help you save time cooking thanks to their ‘turbo cook’ feature, making it a lot easier to create fresh, healthy and tasty family meals quickly and easily.

To showcase how easy it is to create delicious meals using their Premium Combi Ovens and highlight the oven’s useful features, Panasonic have teamed up with TV chef Jo Pratt to share some quick and easy to make family recipes.  Using the new Panasonic combination microwave oven Jo Pratt created two tasty dishes completely from scratch.

Hot, hot, hot.....keeping cool thanks to fridge freezer technology.

Even though we have been enjoying the lovely weather of late I have welcomed the cooler weather that has arrived over the past few days.  Both Bug and I found the sweltering heat a tad unbearable.  In an attempt to cool down a little and find cooling relief to the oppressive heat we have been savouring cold drinks and icy-cold homemade ice lollies.

With our excessive consumption of cold drinks and ice lollies during the overbearing heatwave our fridge freezer has taken a hammering.  Our poor old fridge freezer has been working excessively hard keeping our drinks refreshingly cold and freezing our yummy homemade ice lollies for us to enjoy as an icy-cold refreshing treat.

I have been extremely grateful that our fridge freezer has not conked out on us with it being so old and struggling to keep up with our demand of cold and frozen food and drinks.  Our fridge freezer is years old, I have had it a number of years and was given it by a family friend who had it for a number of years before then, so it is surprising that it is still working.

Panasonic Lumix TZ40 camera.

I have a passion for photography and I love taking photographs especially when capturing special moments with Bug.  Sadly my digital camera broke about a month ago, since then I feel lost without my little camera.  As I love taking photographs so much and miss having a digital camera I am saving up to buy a new camera.  Even though saving up for a new camera is slow progress I am researching different cameras for when I have enough pennies to treat myself to a shiny new camera.

I have yearned for a Panasonic Lumix camera for ages; admiring the gorgeous cameras that have fantastic features that would allow me to photograph special moments with Bug and capture our little adventures.   After watching a video for the Lumix TZ40 camera my desire for a Lumix camera is even stronger.  The amusing video is very memorable and I love how they have highlighted the fantastic features of the camera throughout the video……I particularly love the funny beach scene in the video.  

Fingers crossed my camera fund will be big enough soon so that I can get a Lumix TZ40 camera and capture magical moments with a little help from the camera’s fantastic features.  I am sure Lee would also love the Lumix TZ40 camera as he also loves photography and cameras with impressive technology but he best not re-enact the beach scene from the video otherwise we will be having words!  
*  Sponsored video posted on behalf of SpreadItFast * 

Capturing special moments - Panasonic Camcorders and Remote Shooting technology.

Since having Bug my love of photography and videography has become an integral part of my daily life.  I love taking photos and videos of Bug, capturing moments to treasure forever.  As well as capturing moments of daily life I particularly love capturing special moments such as Bug’s firsts and milestone achievements, his birthdays, Christmas and special occasions.

As I love using videos and photos to capture moments of our family life I appreciate new technology that makes capturing moments in our life even easier.  Panasonics new camcorders for 2013 do just that, making it even easier to capture videos thanks to their remote shooting technology and Wi-Fi capability.

The Panasonic UK video “Why camcorders love Wi-Fi – 1. Remote shooting” perfectly highlights the benefit of using their remote shooting technology to capture special moments, showing the technology and camcorder being used to capture a birthday moment for the family to treasure for years to come.

The video has made me love the technology so much I now have a yearning desire to have a new Panasonic camcorder so that I can make use of the remote shooting and capture many moments on video.