These are the days...

I've been thinking lately that I should write a weekly article here where I talk about the latest app that's been keeping my attention. Usually its a game or something photo-related, but I absolutely love to get the latest geeky gossip as to what other people love to use, too. Maybe this will finally be the first in that series, but even if its the only one I ever get around to writing up, I've got to tell you about this cool photo app I've found!

(OK, "found" makes it seems like *I* somehow did the work to discover it when really it was an email from someone working with the company saying, "Hey, you wanna try this?" Po-tay-to po-tah-to.)

Anyway, its called Mosaic and what it is is an app that builds photo books for you from the photos on your phone. Its brilliance is its simplicity...I created my photo book in about five minutes. There are no editing tools in the app, and the photos are entered into the 6" square book one to a page, in the order in which you select them. You choose white pages or black, and you can shuffle the photos that appear through the die cut openings in the cover, but that's pretty much it. Obviously there are hundreds of other apps out there that provide editing tools or pretty filters, but if you're anything like me, the biggest challenge you face is getting any pictures printed at all.

My book arrived in a pretty little box and my kids paged through it over and over and over!

The last photos I had printed were from my trip to San Francisco last October.

Honestly, I kinda rushed through putting my book together because I had told this nice PR lady I'd try it out and didn't want to leave her hanging. I chose 20 photos, ordered my book, and a few days later it was delivered to my office.

And it had me teary at my desk.

There, in the pages of this little book, was a picture of my boys smiling with their week old cousin. My five-year-old on his first day of Kindergarten, smiling proudly at the red table with his name tag around his neck, blue crayon poised and ready to color in a giraffe. My kids at a Brewer game and posing with me at my work picnic. All images that would have been stuck for years in the digital confines of a DVD, on a shelf in the binder where I store them.

What a shame more don't ever get printed.

I know I have a tendency to cringe at the thought of putting together a photo book. As much as I love the idea and have hundreds of photos I should be putting in them, I know myself well enough to know that I'll spend HOURS upon HOURS getting the layout *just* right, then I won't like it and I'll tweak it some more. Then, just when I'm ready to put in my order, the promo code will expire, making my mammoth book cost $168 and I'll remember those other couple of photos I totally forgot to include but totally should.

These little books from Mosaic are $20 each. I could see easily creating an album on my phone for those pics that are "book worthy" and ordering one a quarter or so. At that price, they're perfect gifts for Grandma, too.


I've tried for the past hour to find an online link to the app store for the photo app simply called 'Mosaic' to no avail. (Of course, I find it with no problem on my phone, go figure!) The app is free and the icon looks like the cover of the box in the top left corner of my photo. Check it out - I'm sure you've got plenty of "book worthy" photos on your phone, too!

I received a free photo book for consideration in writing this post, but all opinions (and real goofy chick tears) are my own. I'd *love* to hear which photo apps you love! I created the image in this post with another free photo app called Diptic.