Picture this...

If ever you walked into the NMTOB house, you would find yourself staring at a whole lot of pictures of our faces.  I've never really been so great at decorating and I'm even worse at finding wall art that doesn't A: resemble something you would find in a hotel or B: fail to measure up to the proportions of the wall.  The result of this is crippling design paralysis and a lot of blank walls.

However, the one investment I have been willing to make year after year is photography.  Whether it be scenery shots of my favorite places to visit or adorable snapshots that needed to live somewhere other than Instagram, every room of our house is filled with lovely photographs.  Call it boring, call it borderline narcissistic, but at least the walls aren't blank.

So, when the people from WoodSnap contacted me about a product review, I was stoked.  Their product combines my first love (beautiful pictures) and wall art in a way that makes people stop and say, "Hey, wait.  That is seriously cool."  (No, really they've done exactly that since our WoodSnap has been sitting on my mantle.)

Since we received ours, I can't stop thinking of cool things you could have printed to display.  Maps of your favorite cities.  Reprints of old family photos.  Cool collages you creative types can make in Photoshop.  Beautiful quotes in pretty fonts.  The options really are endless.

Me?  I opted for printing this lovely photo courtesy of our fourth (!!!) photo shoot with Rosser Photography.

The result was stunning:

Our WoodSnap taking up residence in our Christmas mantle display.

I am so impressed by the vibrancy of the colors and the fact that you actually have to walk up to it to see that it's made of wood.  This makes it an attractive conversation piece.

I know what you're thinking - "This would make THE PERFECT GIFT for my grandmother/mother/co-worker/sister, etc."  Right you are!  And the best news is that WoodSnap is offering 30% off orders today for Cyber Monday as well as Free Ground Shipping for US orders.  So, order the best gift today, get it here well before your first holiday gathering, and save a buck in the process.

How could it be any better?
So, hurry up.  Get those presents purchased, so you can sit back and drink some wine enjoy the holiday!

Though WoodSnap provided me with complimentary product for review on this blog,  the opinions expressed in this post are solely my own.  Obviously I barely have the time to wash my own hair daily, so I'm not going to take the time to write about a product I don't fully endorse

Look at this photograph...

I must start this post by saying that I am sorry that I quoted a Nickleback song for the title of this post.  Sometimes things just fit too well though.  So, I had to.  And I'm sorry.  Mostly that the song is now probably ringing in your head right now.  Blah.

So, as you may know, I am partnering this week with Kindred Photo App for an awesome giveaway in which three lucky winners will be receiving a "year supply" of their awesome photo booklets.  Now, I'm sure some of you might be wondering, "What am I going to do with 12 photo booklets?"  That's a fabulous question.

I also was a bit daunted by the task of coming up with some ideas of what sort of photo booklets to make, but once I got started, I almost couldn't stop.  In addition to making brag books for TIH's grandmothers, I also made a few books for myself.  One of them is my favorite photos from my Facebook album "Adventures in Chicago" in which I've been documenting all of our fun times in our new city.  The other book I called "Just the Three of Us," and it is filled with my favorite snapshots of my husband, TIH, and me.

But, there are literally endless possibilities for these books. Even if you aren't the winner of one of the three giveaway prizes, you're going to want to download this app and take advantage of this awesome subscription.  I've had such a blast coming up with these little booklets, and you will too!

Here are a few ideas for how you could use these booklets:

- Baby brag books for every member of your family (especially those who aren't on social media!)
- Monthly favorite photos for baby's first year, you could even come up with a way to bind them all together after you collected all twelve! (This would be awesome as a shower gift for a mom-to-be as well!)
- You could be as awesome as this mom and then put together the best shots in a booklet to further assert your awesomeness:

- Scan in pictures of your kiddo's artwork and organize them into several booklets (The paper quality of these booklets is much better than construction paper and will hold up better over time.)
- Make photo booklets of absolutely anything your child does for a Christmas gift for his/her grandparents
- Photo booklets for Mother's Day/Father's Day/Grandparent's Day
- Put together all of the gorgeous detail shots from your kid's photo shoots that maybe aren't something you'd frame, but that are far too gorgeous to pass up:

photo credit: Rosser Photography

- Baby's first Christmas, Halloween, any holiday (You'll have a ton of pictures and you'll want to share them all.)
- Baby's first cake smash (Photograph the entire destruction and evolution of messiness!)
- Do a family end-of-year book (This idea could also be transformed into some relatively expensive Christmas cards, but if you're only sending them out to some select family members, it would actually be the coolest thing ever!)
- Even though I know I shouldn't encourage TIH to take selfies, I kind of love the end result when he does.  I could do a full album of selfies of him, without a doubt.  Impromptu photo booth?  Why not?



Obviously, a lot of these ideas are centered around children (especially babies in their first year.)  But, trust me, winning this giveaway is not contingent on parenthood.  There are a ton of ideas for these photo booklets without having offspring.

- Take adorable pictures of your pets (Trust me, before TIH came along, Lido was the most photographed cat on the planet and I would have totally had an album of him.)
- Make a quick booklet of vacation photos before you even get off the plane to share with all of your jealous friends
- Share your favorite proofs following a photo shoot (engagement pictures, headshots, etc.) so you can get opinions before you order
- Weddings, weddings, weddings.  You could use your entire year's subscription on wedding photos alone.  Everyone is going to ask to see your wedding photos.  This will be (by far) the quickest way to share them.
- Favorite scenery photos (I love the photos of fall leaves and first snows that will be flooding my news feeds, but is my personal favorite as of right now:)

Dear Chicago.

- These would make an easy photography portfolio to whip out to show to potential clients
- Sharing/preserving ancestry photos (I know many of my family members would LOVE this.)
- Print out your Instagram photos! My Instagram photos are some of my favorites and I hate leaving them just sitting out there in the Internet.  So what if they're all pictures of food and pretty trees - those kind of things are nice to look at.
- Favorite party pics following a party (I'm totally doing this with the pics from the amazing 30th birthday party I just had!)
- Make a booklet of any special milestone - finishing a marathon, graduations, etc. - these memories are important to share!



So, now that you have a little inspiration to get you started, I hope you're making sure to enter the giveaway.  And, since you've read all of these great ideas, how about a little bonus entry?  To do so, go back to the original giveaway post, and leave another comment with an idea you have for using these photo books.  (It doesn't have to be original, you can borrow one from this post, but go do it.  NOW!)  You have the opportunities for as many as SIX entries into this contest.  Don't miss a single one!  GO NOW.



Though Kindred provided me with a complimentary subscription to their service and with a few complimentary photo books, the opinions expressed in this post are solely my own.  Obviously I barely have the time to wash my own hair sometimes, so I'm not going to take the time to write about a product I don't fully endorse.

Could you take my picture, 'cause I won't remember...

Combined with my last post y'all are going to think I hate technology and I so do not.  Also, I gave up cursing for Lent.  Let's see how that goes...

After shelling out a sizable portion of money for The Incredible Hulk's six month pictures, I made this goal for myself to buy a nice camera and learn how to use it well enough that I can take our family pictures from there on out.  The camera we have now was my wedding present to my husband and it has been fabulous.  But there are still things I don't understand or like about it.  And while sometimes we get BEAUTIFUL pictures, other times you'd think we were using some cheap point and shoot.

Like, on Sunday morning, TIH woke up in a fabulous mood and was ready to play.  I put him in the bouncer for a little while and noticed that the sun was streaming through the window and shining on him in such a beautiful way.  I tried with every setting to capture that moment on my camera.  I just never wanted to forget it.  The um, normal (?) setting made him show up blurry.  So, I tried the action setting.  Held the shutter button down for 5 seconds?  75 pictures.  You're welcome.

It was so frustrating.  And then, I looked up and TIH was smiling the sweetest smile at me.  One of those "Mommy, just how are you so wonderful?" kind of looks.  And that was when I put the camera down.

You know, my friends joke around with me and call us the paparazzi because we have so many photos of TIH and I delight in sharing them through Facebook and e-mail and the digital picture frame in my office.  But, honestly.  I need to come out from behind the camera sometimes.  Instead of wondering why I suddenly had a mini flip book of TIH jumping up and down in his bouncer - I just needed to sit there and stare at that beautiful baby smiling at me while he played.

And so, I did.

My husband and I were walking out of a restaurant the other day with the baby.  As we passed a group of people we got the requisite chorus of "Awww"s and then one voice called out after us - Don't blink.

I'm afraid I already have.  He's eight months old.  He's closer to his first birthday than he is to the actual date of his birth.  It's going so fast.

I want and need photographs to document these special days.  They're all we're going to have to back up all of our "When you were a baby..." stories.  But, on the days where I can't figure out which setting to use or we can't get his monthly bathtub shot because he's splashing around - I need to just set the dang camera down and splash around with him.  The pictures can wait.

I can't promise I won't blink.  But, I can promise that I won't take this short first year for granted.
I'm putting the camera down for now.  It's time to play.