Mothers love photos of their families, friends, pets, that day trip you took up the coast together, just the two of you, even photos from a weekend with the grandchildren. Little memories that we capture with our phones, transfer to our computers, and then promptly forget about.

There’s a new app that can help with the memories captured in the moment, Mosaic by Mixbook. I first saw it as a sponsored ad on Facebook and it piqued my curiosity, but out of sight out of mind and I forgot about it. I was super surprised, and excited, when I was asked to review one. So let me tell you about it. (Mixbook also has customizable templates for cards and photo albums.)

Mosaic is a free app for your iPhone or iPad (it may work on an iPod but I’m not sure) that lets you quickly create a 7″ x 7″, linen covered, 20 page photo book of the photos stored on your device.

It took me longer to choose the photos I wanted to use than it did to actually create the book. I routinely upload the photos from my phone and then delete them, so I didn’t have many on my phone to chaise from. Instead I went through my photos starting last summer through just a few weeks ago, picked out which ones I liked, put them in my “iPhone” folder in iPhoto, uploaded them to my phone and went to work making my photo book. This also means that I was able to use photos taken with my DSLR. You could scan in old photos or create a photo collage and have more than one photo on each page! I’m all about getting more for less.

Mosaic’s interface is simple to use. The order of the photos in the book is the same as the order in which you select them. Once you’ve selected the 20 photos you want to use Mosaic creates a mosaic with 13 of them. If you don’t like the first one thats created, just click “shuffle cover,” repeat until you have a mosaic you like, then click “place order.”

It’s that simple, really.

It took about ten minutes for the photos to upload to Mosaic, but please keep in mind I had a mix of DSLR and phone photos, plus I was sending it over the 4g network, not wifi. I would expect it to be much quicker on a wifi connection. Once your order is complete you’ll receive an expected arrival date and be asked if you would like to receive “push notifications.” I chose yes because I wanted to know when my order actually shipped.

Mosaic has cute graphics that shows the state of your when it is being printed, once it has been shipped and for when it’s been delivered. (Not necessarily important to its function but little things like this make my world go round.)

The book is nestled in a protective cover ensuring that your photo book arrives in the best possible condition. The photos are printed on a high quality paper and look great. Some of my iPhone photos actually look better than ones I took with my DSLR.

I had high hopes for this app and it did not let me down. I will be ordering another as soon as I can. Now I just have to decide if I’m going to give the book to my mom or keep it for myself.

Now, I’m sure you’re wondering how this is going to help you when Mother’s Day is less than a week away. This is how. Mosaic only takes four days. Four! I ordered at nearly 8pm on Monday and had the book on Friday. Well, I had a slight shipping snafu, I entered a street address thinking the book was coming UPS when in fact it was coming USPS. This isn’t a problem except when you live in a town that doesn’t deliver mail to street addresses and everyone has a PO Box. Add in that it had my name ? my friends name and my friends address and the post office was thoroughly confused. This meant that I didn’t get the book until this past Friday, but that wasn’t really their fault.

So, here’s the best part. I get to give away one free Mosaic. Just leave a comment saying what memories you’d love to share with your mom below. Comments will close at about 5am PST on Tuesday, May 6th. I will pick the winner first thing Tuesday morning, May 6th, via a random number generator and notify the winner.

20 photos for $20*. No worries about layouts or having so many photos that the book is going to cost so much your spouse is going to cut up your credit cards. What more could a girl ask for?

You can see a few more photos in my Mosaic set on Flickr.

*20 photos for $20, plus tax and shipping brings you to about $27.

I received a Mosaic photo book free of charge, including shipping and tax, but the opinions and photos are my own.

Music and food are more than words to fill a page in this novel. Instead they are used to help describe the relationship between the characters and they’re surroundings, their relationships, and their growth.

A must read for 2013, I had a hard time putting the book down, and am looking forward to picking it up and reading it again.

This is a paid review for BlogHer Book Club but the opinions are my own.

“>This is my word cloud. I may be doing this more often, its fun.

Give it a try, its fun.

One thing to remember is that you can save it to the public library but that if you don’t save the URl for your word cloud you’re not likely to ever find it again.

Pinhole cameras are easy and fun!

I know what I’m making more of this weekend.

It’s about a mom, Amy, who leaves her job to stay home with her kids and even though she’s part of the PTA she doesn’t feel like she has a real “friend.” Then a new family moves to town and Amy and Grace, they just click, until they don’t.

Mayhem, mommy wars, and a little murder made this show a must see for me. I can relate to how Amy feels. I may not live in the ‘burbs in an affluent neighborhood, but feelings are not exclusive to those who are better off financially.

Playdate aired the first of thirteen episodes today.

It’s being promoted as a Momcentric dark comedy, and I think that’s an accurate description.

*I was provided a copy of the first episode to screen at my leisure, you know, after the kids were in bed and Shawn was watching a movie in the livingroom, the opinions are my own.

Biggify

Suki turned 10. I don’t know how it happened but it did.

I couldn’t find a big enough roasting pan to recreate her first Thanksgiving photo, so this will have to do.

Ignoring me.

This one needs to be framed.

A “smile” for me without me having to ask.

Smiling even bigger.

This photo sums up her feelings about getting getting clothes for gifts.

We had one of the most beautiful sunsets tonight. They don’t happen often here, so I really enjoy it when they do.

We had cake instead of pie.

I cooked a 20 pound bird to feed 4 1/2 adults and one child. It was really yummy.

Tom carved the bird for me.

I made gluten free stuffing and it was surprisingly good. Not Pepperidge Farm good, but good enough to make again.

I used a real tablecloth (from target on clearance last fall), napkins Sue made me, one of Sue’s table toppers, and the china my Gram gave me. I’ve had the china since 2003 and this is the first time I’ve ever used it.

Suki chose to use these candles, even though there were more than ten. Yes, she counted to make sure there were at least ten.

But the thing I am most grateful for is having Tom and Sue with us this Thanksgiving.