We HEART Chatbooks

Hi, my name is Bry [insert monotone "hiiiiiiii bry" here] and I have an addiction.

I am a documentation-aholic.

There, I said it.

Throughout our 4 years of marriage I have fallen in love with photos, videos, journaling, blogging, photobooks, photo garlands, family history charts, storehouse, baby journaling, and the most recent chatbooks. I love to try out new apps and programs too so if you have any you like, shout em' out! Some work great for me and some not so much so it's really all personal preference. What it all comes down to is bottling up life and having these memories for future generations so you have to find whatever works for your lifestyle.

Now, let me clarify that I am no expert at this whatsoever. In fact, at times I find it completely overwhelming and leave it alone for a bit. However, with how much media I accumulate and because Remi is just too gosh darn cute I quickly circle back to my "addiction". I just can't help it! From listening to others, apparently I will suck at documenting come baby #2 so I might as well go a little overkill while I can right?

I just find documenting to be very time consuming and all this digital chaos can be overwhelming so let's organize it!

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You can check out the Chatbook website here but you are actually going to want to get the app because access and convenience are key for me when it comes to journalling! I like the idea of having it right at my fingertips so I can quickly jot down an entry as I wait for an appointment or just before I fall asleep. It's super easy!

To be honest I didn't like chatbooks at first. I already create a yearbook at the end of every year with my instagram/photos documented in them but I started to realize that I kind of like the idea of having 1 photo a page with a caption to explain the fun details. A picture speaks a thousand words but sometimes a little explanation is necessary.

Another wall I also ran into at first with Chatbooks was that found myself and all of my friends would post instagram photos constantly and it started to annoy me. I can only imagine how people following me felt. How many times have you seen the caption, "sorry for the picture overload, but these are for my chatbooks". Riiiight?!

Well, I found a solution. 

I decided to create a private IG account that only I use and see. I love the quick access to posting as many pictures as you like with a cute personalized caption. Heck, it could be a mile long caption if you wanted. Once you hit 60 pics, BAM, Chatbooks prints them off for you and sends them to your house. It's magic!

No one is annoyed, IG overload is solved, and I have some pretty cute books on my coffee table for just $6! Winner.

So there you have it, a fun way to quickly (and privately) document your iPhone photos without a million steps.

Like I said, chatbooks are genius.

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UPDATE!
Chatbooks has updated and added some convenient little changes to their process. For one, you now can create your own custom book at whatever amount of pages you would like (min60). They also have reformatted things to be a bit more user-friendly in my opinion. They have added some sturdy hard cover books for just $2 extra. Might dive into those soon as Remi is wearing a few of my soft covers out. She loves them!
My favorite update is that you can add a text page. JUST TEXT. When Remi was first born I started a little Love Notes book and I have been having to type things out and save them as screenshots because the text limits were too small. This has been a game changer.

I think this will officially be my new journal for 2016! Finally journalling meets photo. Can I get a HALLELUJAH!?!