Book of memories {giveaway}
Lots of fun little projects have been going on lately, including:
the Pinterest-inspired photo wall for upstairs
(collecting frames in various textures, all in the same color family and picking up photo orders from Walgreens)
and Liv’s baby book.
It took me a LONG time to order a baby book, because I couldn’t find the one I created in my mind (don’t you hate when that happens?). I didn’t want it to all be entirely digital, then clicking “publish/save” and having it sent to the house. I wanted it to be more personal, organized so I wouldn’t have to scrapbook the entire thing, enable me to write (in my own, messy chicken scratch) and attach photos.
This is exactly the baby book I had in mind:
I ordered the book from Ruby Love on Etsy (they also have a website) and was able to pick out the cover fabric, color scheme and what features I wanted the book to include.
It’s perfect.
All of the basic info is there, plus unique questions for the parents to fill out
the ability to attach photos (with 24 photo-mounting sheets included)
Lots of room to write
calendar pages with stickers for milestones
and an entire back section of blank scrapbook pages.
It’s perfect.
I add a little bit to it every day, and can’t wait to start filling up the blank pages in the back. A scrapbook project I can actually look forward to… before, the only scrapbook pages I’ve made have been for my husband and the single guys deploying.
I ordered and paid for the book, but after receiving it and discovering how truly amazing it is, I contacted the seller to see if she would be interested in offering a giveaway. I was so excited when she said yes- this would be perfect for an expecting mama or as a gift.
One lucky winner will receive a custom Ruby Love baby book of their choice. All you have to do is leave a heartfelt or funny memory from when you were a child. I can’t wait to read these 🙂
I’ll pick the winner Friday night (11:59pm EST) and announce it in Saturday’s family post.
xoxo
Gina
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Love your site! Thanks for the opportunity to participate in the giveaway. A favorite memory of mine is when my mom took me to the movies. It was alway such a special treat to be taken to the big theatre at the shopping mall. Afterwards we always went to Laura Secord, a lovely shop with ice cream and chocolates where my favorite treat was a rectangular fruit flavored lollipop. A very special memory with my mom.
I loved the winter when I was little. My favorite memory was my mom filling up spray bottles with colored water and my brothers and I would build forts and decorate them, then have a big battle of course 😉 when we were done my mom had a fire made and we’d lay on the floor with our feet in the air in front of the fire arguing over who really won the battle 😉
My favorite childhood memory will always be Christmas. My mom would go all out. Decorations, lights, huge tree, cookies, the works. I always thought that it was the most fun and magical time of year thanks to her enthusiasm. She still to this day will not admit there is no Santa Claus! Haha. I hope my kids have as much fun as I did.
Every spring my mom would take me with her to buy flowers for our yard. She’d let me pick out a bunch and then she’d pick the rest. We’d plant them together – it was our special thing we did together. I learned to LOVE gardening from a young age from my mom and even now, every mothers day my mom will buy flowers for us and we’ll plant a few pots together for me and her. I’m due in less than 4 weeks with my first and it’s a girl! I’m excited to start this ‘tradition’ with her now too 🙂
I would love to win this! Just had my baby boy Mason 7 weeks ago.
a favorite childhood memory would probably be having my mom pick me up from school for a doctor’s appointment but then take me out to lunch for pizza.
Playing on the farm with my siblings with little/no supervision. Wouldn’t dream of doing that now!
One fun memory for me is swimming in our pool with a **HUGE** grin on my face the entire time. They were fun times. Thanks so much for the great giveaway!
What a nice giveaway! We’re expecting our first little one this October and this would be perfect to jot down all the lil memories!
I’m very fortunate to have many childhood memories. But the one that’s coming to minds is of my sister and mom. On weekends we run errands around town with my mom. When the errands were done, she’d rent us a movie and buy us lunch. We’d go home, turn on the movie, lay out towels on the floor and have a ‘picnic’. Such a fun memory for us!
My parents took me to see Sesame Street live when I was little and one of the characters was singing about wanting a friend supposedly I snuck up on-stage & said I’ll be your friend….then was taken out by security.
I would love to win this, I had triplets on 12/30/11. My favorite childhood memory is coming to America from Italy when I was 5. I thought America was some kind of wonderland. I don’t remember every detail but I do remember my mom’s friend giving me about 30 plastic bangles. I insisted on wearing every single one of them for the trip. Thank goodness getting through security was a bit different back then!
Thanks for posting this. I’m in the process of looking for the perfect baby book for our little one. I started my first scrapbook and as of right now, I feel like it looks like an elementary school art project :-/ One of my favorite childhood memories has to do with my mom. When my sister and I were little, we used to want to put make up on her and do her hair. Problem was, my mom has short “mom” hair so what we would do is take a comb and put a bunch of little ponytails all over her head. And instead of real makeup we’d get Q-tips wet and put them on her eyelids like it was eyeshadow. I’d like to add we did while she was “resting her eyes” on the couch. It makes me laugh thinking about it now, and it’s probably good that she didn’t have long hair!
If it was our birthday my mom would bring out our baby books for us to look at. it was always so exciting to sit with mommy and have her read our baby milestones to us, show us pictures, and read the cards we got at birth 1st birthday baptism etc.! I have a feeling my boys wont be as excited but I know it will mean a lot to them when theyre older 🙂
My sister always tricked me to think my birth mark was chocolate ice cream so I would always try to lick it off 🙂
Thanks for hosting such an awesome giveaway! I have 3 children, my oldest is 3 (almost 4), youngest is 8 months and I have not done a baby book for her at all (Its hard when you are a working mom of three!). This would be awesome! I would have to say that one of my most heartfelt childhood memories was when I saw my mom cry for the first time. I was ten, and my mom was home on maternity leave with my youngest brother. It was the very last day of her leave and she was holding him in our blue recliner when she suddenly burst into tears. My dad wasn’t at home at that moment, and she was crying so loud and and holding him so hard that I called the police! Its kind of funny looking back now, and understanding the toll returning to work takes on you emotionally, but that really truely upset me at the time. The discerning police dispatcher took my grandparents’ phone number, called them and they came out to the house to comfort my mom. Now I truely appreciate what we all go through as mothers!
my brother lived with us well into his adulthood and brought two babies and his wife with him. i helped raise my nieces starting at 11…and i loved it. i missed certain freedoms, but for whatever reason even that young, i had no problem holding a crying baby for hours and hours walking around the kitchen and singing.
What a neat giveaway! This would be great for my little girl on the way.
My fondest childhood memory is having after-school “picnics” with my mom in the living room. We moved the livingroom table over, layed out a checkered table cloth and had lunch. Then we’d read a few pages from the American Girl books until it was time to pick up my older brother from the middle school. I am loking forward to doing the same with my girls one day!
I grew up as an Army Brat, traveling all over the world. I was born in Germany and traveled to every European country by the age of 12, moved to California and Colorado, and finally settled in So Cal. At the time I didn’t realize how amazing these experiences were, all of thought about was leaving my friends behind each time. In a time without FB, it was impossible to keep in touch with some of them. Now, looking back, I just thank my dad for giving me such a full life of literally traveling the world, being well taken care of, and just giving me an unforgetable childhood. Livi is up for a real adventure. She is one of the lucky few who will get to grow up with a life like this. 🙂
One of my favorite memories is having a weekend full of soccer games. I played on two teams, and then would go and sit at my older sister’s game (hoping they’d be down players), and wait to get asked to play with them. Some weekends, I’d play in 3 games a day. I loved coming home exhausted, with soccer tan lines, all sweaty and dirty and thinking about how much fun it was. Now, at almost 30, I still play, but 1 game leaves me with that same feeling 🙂
I’m a new reader to your site, and I absolutely love your site and find it inspirational! One funny memory I have from childhood is, my younger brother, younger sister and I would take turns sitting in a laundry basket, not a tall one but a short squat one, and would push each other down the steps from the second floor to the first floor, and try to decide who went faster! Looking back, that’s kind of dangerous, but it was oh-so fun!
This is adorable. Growing up my mom was a big scrapbooker. She took pictures of us doing everything. One of my favorite memories is when my best friend and I would set up a lemonade stand in the yard to sell to our neighbors. We never could get proportions quite right and our moms would end up buying every glass.
15 weeks pregnant with my first. 🙂
My heartfelt memory is the day trips my family used to take to San Francisco when I was a little girl. I’m the middle child out of 5 and the whole family would get in the minivan (an ’84 like me – the FIRST GENERATION of minivans!) and drive the hour to San Fran. We’d picnic lunch on the beach, play in the waves, pick up sand dollars and seashells. Then we’d pile back in the car and drive around the city, up and down the hilly house-lined streets (Full House into, anyone?) while listening to my oldest sister’s Beatles tapes. The old stuff, Love Me Do, 8 Days a Week, etc. To this day, those Beatles songs remind all of us of those SF trips. And those songs warm my heart. I bought my first piece of baby clothing last week, it was a tiny black Beatles tee. I don’t know the gender of my baby yet but it will suit him or her just perfectly and I know I will cry when I see it on my wee baby.
Oh I would love this to record everything about my new little guy.
Funny childhood memory… When my brother made me sniff black pepper. I hope my kids are kinder to one another:)
This is so cute! I remember loving going to the aquarium with my family, I loved all the animals but especially the puffins. Even as an adult I love going and have a lot of fond memories.
I am 37 weeks pregnant with my second son, and still haven’t bought a baby book for him!
When I was a child I asked lots of silly questions. One of my mom’s favorites was “Are there rocks in my arms?” I thought my bones were rocks. =)
i fondly remember christmas morning…where the night before my dad would sprinkle baby powder all over the floor from the front door to the christmas tree, then leave foot steps wearing ‘santas boots’, totally made me believe!
I love those baby books! They are so much better than the typical ones you see in the store.
I’ll go with heartfelt childhood memory:
Some of my favorite times with my dad was always going hunting with him. I was a very girly-girl and loved my shopping time and dress-up with mom but dad loved to take me with him from an early age and I loved to go with him too. The whole ritual of it is really the memory. We would wake up early and it would still be dark, he would have my little camo outfit layed out for me and would put little camo paint on my face (not necessary but it was cute) and would make me a thermos of hot cocoa and he had a thermos of coffee. We would load up in the truck and I would usually just curl up next to him and sleep. We would go wherever we were going and then hike to our location and he would set up a little chair for me to sit in and snooze or drink my cocoa or just sit as quiet as I could. When we went deer hunting he would carry me on his back while we would climb the tree with the tree-stand.
I have always had a close bond with my dad and I will always remember fondly those times with him as a little girl. I am so excited for my husband and our soon-to-be born daughter to have their own experiences.
When I was little 4ish my sister and I wanted to feed the ducks. Dad took us and two bags of bread to the lake closest to our house. (A little background: My sister is the outgoing one and I am the shy one) We were feeding the ducks when for some reason my sister got spooked and hugged my dad’s legs. She was done with the ducks and didn’t want them near her. Somehow I decided that I wanted them to come closer to me instead of my scared sister so I took my little hand and made a come here duckie movement. “Here duckie duckie, here duckie!” So funny!
My grandparents always had “weeks with the kids” and took each of us alone for a week in the summer. I was about 5. It was my turn to go and had a good couple of days shopping with my grandma. She bought me this amazing new outfit I just loved!
Well, I started to miss my mom and so I sat and cried until we were left to go home and my grandma kept telling me, “If you don’t stop crying, I’m taking that box away from you!” They have a picture of me, tears and all, clutching the box to a clothing store in my grip. THEY thought it was hilarious. 🙂
What an amazing giveaway! My daughter is 9.5 months old and I’ve yet to find a baby book I like! This one looks AMAZING! I’ve bought & returned 3 already and she’s getting so big that I really need to get going on this before I forget!
Childhood memory: I remember putting on “shows” all the time. I wasn’t shy- I was the youngest in my family and of all my cousins. I used to dress up and then make sure my audience (siblings, parents and whoever got stuck in the room I was performing in) was silent and seated. I then would use the remote and sing & dance around the room. My parents tell me that I would be LIVID if anyone got up to leave or talked during my performance. Apparently I was quite the diva!
I would love to win this for my nephew. I was always a bossy know-it-all as a child and recently a family friend told me as a three year old I would debate with her topics such as astronomy and history. And apparently sometimes I made some valid arguments.
I would love to win this baby book! My baby girl was born on 4-5-12 and I have yet to order one- I hope I don’t forget anything before I get it all written down! Some of my favorite memories as a child are my mom singing to me “You are my sunshine” was a favorite. I find myself singing all of those songs to my little girl now which is so special. Perhaps one day she will sing to her little ones as well 🙂
Just came across a photo of me when I was 4 years old, sun bathing with my sister (who is 10 years older than me) laying out with my mom’s 1980’s oversized sunglasses on! I looked rediculous, but I sure loved my sister time, just tryin’ to be one of the girls!
When I was about 6, my best friends, brother and I were playing in the front yard when we discovered the newly landscaped yard at my parents house. It was full of soppy, messy mud and we thought it would be the most fun thing to play in it and get ourselves super dirty. So, we did. We got in a lot of trouble, haha, but it was so fun and we still, to this day, laugh about that one time in the mud!
I loved playing dress up with my sister growing up. We are a year and 3 days apart and loved playing make believe in our backyard with friends, the dog, and pretty much anything we could get our hands on. It’s always funny to look at the photos of us putting on shows for our parents and the imagination that went into it!
My dad is a big guy with a great big jolly laugh and until I was about 6 he had a big bushy beard as well. So it made sense my preschool would ask him to play Santa for our school Christmas pageant. For the pageant he completely shaved off his beard and mustache so the santa beard and mustache would fit better. I had absolutely no idea during the pageant and our performance that “Santa” was actually my dad. At the end of the show everyone was meeting up with their parents and a large strange man picked me up off the ground. I let out a series of blood curdling screams and preceded to hit the man anywhere I could reach (mostly his face and arms). I started screaming stranger and desperately trying to get away. He set me down and I ran to the nearest familiar adult. It took a whole 10 minutes to calm me down and realize that man was my dad. Even at 28 I have never lived that story down . It continues to be a story my dad shares at every holiday family event and will be one we share with our daughter who is due in July!
I’d love to win this as a gift for my sister, who is due in July. She’s 6 years older than me so my heartfelt childhood memory was of her – I remember I would always grab her finger and just hold onto it. I idolized her – I think that’s why I now eat left handed (I’m right handed, but I have always eaten left handed) – she’s left handed and I’m convinced I probably just watched her at the dining table and copied her!
Awesome book! I have actually been looking on Etsy at getting one of these, I just can’t pick which one I want! My little man is 5 weeks old today!
Funny childhood story/memory: my brother and I are only 15 months apart and although we fought a good amount, we were best buds. Since I didn’t have any sisters I convinced him weekly (if not daily) to let me dress him up as a girl and play Pretty Pretty Princess with me! =) He loved it almost as much as I did simply because I was spending time/paying attention to him. Poor guy!
My parents were divorced and I loved when my dad would come visit (he lived in Wisconsin and we lived in Indiana). He would take me to the park and he also taught me how to play chess. I cherished those moments.
I am currently pregnant with Quads! This would be a great start for me.
A favorite childhood memory I have is all the time I spent at my Nana’s house with my cousin who was the same age as me. We used to design bowling lanes using picnic table benches and cans. We even attempted to make our own board game.
One of my favorite memories is when I was about 3 years old my late father picked me up to spend the day together. He greeted me with a ring pop, put it on my finger and took me to the mall to buy me new tennis shoes. 🙂 Its one of my sweetest memories.
My favorite memory of mine is when my grandma would watch me when I was between 2-5 years old. I would always spend my nap time in Annie’s bed. Annie was her dog. 😉
I remember the day my lil brother was born.. i was four!! I vividly remember when they showed him to me..i yelled that’s my brother???? (enter shocking face) but he is sooo wrinkly!!!! He was bright red, bald, and had just been born… everyone laughed.. i guess i expected to see a baby that was bigger and well..more cleaned up!! Love the book!! I would love one for my little baby catalina
Wow that baby book looks amazing! I’m 39 weeks and haven’t bought one yet…
My fondest childhood memory is when I “quit” preschool because I wanted to stay home to take care of my baby sister – I was 3.5 years old 🙂
What a beautiful book!!!
My favorite childhood memory is when we got a pool put in at the house my parents were building and we got to run around in the empty pool before if got filled up with water! Sound weird but it was soooo fun 🙂
Happy Weekend to you!
My fab memory was always 4th of July. Letting off fireworks and chasing each other sparklers. It was one of the few summer nights when we got to stay up past our summertime curfew.
I’m expecting my first in December! I will always remember the night my little sister was born. I was almost 3. She was born around 8:30 at night. After visiting my Mom and meeting my sister for the first time, my Dad took me out for a special dinner at a local diner. We got hamburgers at midnight. It was such an exciting night!
I’d love the win the giveaway!
Let me start off by saying that I am sincerely and forever thankful for my grandparents. My mother gave up custody of me due to her drug addiction. Therefore my grandparents became my legal guardians. While I had a lot of not-so-great memories growing up, I do have tons of great ones with my “gram” and “pop.” Before my grandfather passed away from cancer (I was ten), he passed on to me the love of baseball/softball. I remember sitting down with him on the couch; watching the Yankees. When I was 6, I started playing softball. My second year of softball, my grandfather served as an assistant coach for my softball team. Though he pushed me hard, I remember how much I loved playing and loved him being on the field with me. On my on and off days, I remember him taking me out in the backyard to throw and work on my pitches. This is something I’ll never forget.
When i was a little one my mom wouldn’t let us have any sweets or coke until lunch time and only on the weekends. Well our days usually started pretty early due to soccer games or cheerleading practice, so if it wasn’t lunchtime yet I would sneak away and grab a coke or candy from the concession stand. My mom caught me red handed PLENTY of times and to this day I always think about the time when I reach for something sweet. In my head i’m like, “wait..is it noon yet?”, then i realize I’m a grown adult! haha
I would love to win this giveaway. I have 6 month old twins, and I haven’t even started their baby books! Eeeek!
My favorite childhood memories are going for family walks around the neighborhood in the evenings after dinner.
I’m so blessed. I have so many warm memories as a child. Yesterday (at 32 weeks pregnant) I spent the majority of the day with my mom, gardening with her to prepare her yard for my shower next week and one of the major memories we discussed was how I used to always help her in the garden. I remember pruning back tomato plants (she told me I had actually butchered some in my younger years, this was news to me), picking fresh flowers for her (roots and all), and spending whole days running through sprinklers.
These memories are so warm to me, and bring tears to my eyes. I can’t wait for my little guy to be able to help my mom pull weeds, and get all dirty with her I loved and still love those days with her, it is funny how things come full circle and how we grow.