Show Off Your Unique & Fun Finds Via the New Finds App

Growing up in Athens, Georgia, I cannot tell you how often I found unique and fun items in the downtown shops. Back then, I would share my finds my purchasing the items as gifts for special occasions. Now that I am a blogger, I have the opportunity to share many finds with all of my followers. Let me just start out by saying I LOVE to shop! I can easily waste an hour walking around Target or the mall, just looking at all the new and interesting items for sale. I get so excited when I find great products for our family and I enjoy sharing my finds with others just as much. This is why I was so excited to learn about the new app Finds, which is available for free in the iTunes store!

What's so awesome about Finds? I easily uploaded the app to both my iPhone and my iPad since I usually have one of the two with me when shopping. Then I made my account and was immediately ready to share my finds! Once you have your account (just by adding your name and email address), you can do several different things:

Share your finds- Click the + symbol to take a picture of your unique find. You can edit the picture, add information about the item and also what you think about it. We shared three of my new most favorite products I recently received and purchased. Each time I posted about an item, it immediately shares them with everyone else who has the app. Plus, it automatically links the item up to a website where others can purchase the item! Isn't that ingenious? Here are my first three finds:

My first three finds of many to come!

I found this view via clicking on my profile. By clicking on one photo, I can pull up the information about it. These are my favorite new finds and I couldn't wait to share them. The first is a Skip-Hop book bag for my son Liam. He absolutely loves this backpack and takes it everywhere with him. The pair of shoes is by Zipz and, true to its name, the top of the shoe can zip on and off, so you can add new tops designs on top of the soles. The last one is something I just bought this weekend, the new Knock Knock Clump-O-Lumps stuffed animals that have interchangeable parts. Just like the shoes, each of these animals has 3 zippered parts that you can change around to create your own new animal. I bet you've never seen a shark-frog before, but now you can! Isn't that cool?

Share your thoughts- You can not only share your thoughts about your own finds, but you can comment on the finds other people add! You can also add your favorite items to your own Wishlist for future reference. This way you can keep up with all your new finds for shopping or sharing with others at a later time.

Find some new finds- Click on the "Finds" button to discover what great finds others have found. Someone posted about Buncha Blocks earlier and they look perfect for my little boys who love to build. There were also some adorable rain boots someone added. In the description it also mentioned where she found them and that they are on sale. Those are my kinds of rain boots. All I had to do was click on the "Find" button on the product picture and I was immediately transported to the website where I could purchase them at great prices.

Rylee would love these boots!

Get inspired- By looking at all the products people have posted on the Finds app, I have found some great ideas for future birthdays and special occasions. Josiah's 6th birthday is coming up in June, so this is really the perfect place for me to find some inspiration. Plus, he can even look through the finds, too, and let me know what he likes!

My Zipz Shoes Find!

I enjoy sharing my finds and am just like a kid in that I still get excited when I find something new and fun, especially when it is something for my kiddos. My favorite thing about the Finds app is that I can see what others have found. I do a great deal of shopping online, so this makes finding new items not only fun, but easy. Plus, I saved money on the rain boots since the link went to a sale website. So, I'm thinking maybe this app can help me find new gift ideas and maybe even save me some money on the gifts.

Do you love shopping as much as I do? If so, the Finds app is definitely for you! This is a fun app for anyone and is so simple to use that even my computer illiterate mom could figure it out.  Even after using the app for the past few days, I've grown addicted to it and love checking in to see what else has been added. I love that I can use this app anywhere- on-the-go, at a store, or even at home!

A Chance to Win a $100 Visa Debit Card on Finds every week!! 

As if you needed more incentive to try out this app, Finds is giving away a $100 Visa Gift Card every week to a random user that not only has posted that week, but also has at least 3 followers. 

I participated in a campaign for Mom Central Consulting on behalf of the Finds mobile app. I received a promotional item as a thank you for participating.

MPM B-Day T11

Organize Your Summer Photos & Send e-Photo Books Via Pholium, A New iPad App!

Summer is nearing and we all know the nice weather brings around many fun events! We just celebrated my son's 5th birthday and our family is now planning our 4th of July vacation! Others may be planning a wedding or even a family reunion! Regardless of the event, one thing is for certain: there will be many pictures taken over the next few months. I think I took about 100 just during my son's birthday party. 

When you take pictures, where do you usually store them? I sometimes place them on Facebook, but they otherwise sit in in a file on my computer. Now there is a creative way to take those pictures and make something to share with others with Pholium. This amazing digital photo book iPad app allows you to make photo books and send them to others as well as receive photo books from friends and family. It's such a unique idea and a great way to share those memorable photos.

Thanks to Pholium for providing us with 5 great tips to help us all create a beautiful photo book for family members that will last a lifetime!

1. Think, but don't over think - Don't worry about the actual photo book until after the photos are taken. You want to tell a story about an event or possibly a vacation, but do so naturally without over thinking it! While taking photos just be in the moment and enjoy every single minute of it... and make sure you have plenty of batteries and memory space! Once you have already captured the moments via pictures, there is no need to provide too much detail. Let the recipient enjoy the book via photos.

2. Capture the memories - Snap those pictures! You want a variety of content to include in your photo book, so if it looks like a great photo opp, go for it! If you think there will be a chance to take photos somewhere, go ahead and pack your camera. Long gone are the days of paying for film to be processed. You can take as many pictures as you like, delete the ones that didn't turn out great and keep the ones that are perfect!

3. Represent and be present - There may be specific photos you know you want to take at an event or on vacation, but be sure to take other photos in between. Just last weekend at my son's party my husband and I took turns with the camera, snapping pictures of our guests having fun and the grandchildren playing with Grandma. The candid pictures turned out amazing and are some of the best we took! Take pictures of the scenery, but always take time to get some pictures of people. These are always the most special and memorable.

4. Don't edit or delete those photos (yet!) - Yes, we all want a "perfect" picture, but don't over analyze when snapping photos, just do it! Even if eyes are closed, someone is making a silly face or not paying attention, it's okay. Those can sometimes make for the best and funniest photo stories. My son always makes faces at the camera and I used to get mad, but now I save them as a progression of his many silly faces. Just capture the moments as you go and edit/delete later!

One of the cutest pictures we took. It is unedited and may need work, but it will be perfect for a photo book!

5. Organize and create the book the way you want it - Now that you have taken some beautiful and amazing pictures, let the story come together in your photo book. Before uploading all of the photos, which can be time consuming, think about the story you want to tell and how you want to displayed. For example, do you want it in chronological order like a progression of the year or vacation or do you want the story to be a theme? We have made photo books of each year as well as just cute theme of the boys playing together. It's important to think out the book before sifting through photos because it can sometimes become daunting and stressful. Making the photo book should be fun and easy, so don't do unnecessary work. You can even sort the albums via date, event name, location, etc. to make it easy to sift through photos when making your own one-of-a-kind photo book!

Putting photos together in a photo book can not only take some time, but is usually expensive, too. Apps like Pholium allow you to create high-quality digital photo books that are easily customized on the iPad and sent to others! Try something different this summer by getting Pholium and making photo books for your loved ones. They will appreciate the great gift and the books are always fun to look back at and remember the great times you experienced with friends and family. 

What events and vacations do you have going on this summer? Be sure to take lots of photos and give Pholium a try when organizing and making a photo book. Let us know what you think. We just know you will love this new App like we do! Be sure to "Like" Pholium on Facebook to keep up with all the latest news!

Tech Attack: iPad 2 Giveaway Event

I'm loving all of the Back To School giveaways and events going on right now, so I've jumped on the bandwagon! My husband recently got an iPad 2 and he absolutely loves it. All of the features are amazing and it's so much fun to play around with. I'm amazed that he actually gets any work done each day with the iPad sitting on his desk just waiting for him to turn it on. I want one!

Do you want an iPad2, too? I bet you do!! Who wouldn't? Children Teaching Mama has teamed up with 19 other bloggers to give our readers a chance to win an iPad2! What??

I said, WE'RE GIVING AWAY AN IPAD 2 (and a Smart Cover)!!!!!