I'm not a regular coffee drinker (I might have one or two cups each week) but my husband has coffee daily. We haven't really been able to find the perfect coffee system, but I thought I'd give this a try, especially since it was available at Costco (if we hated it, we could easily return it).

The major impetus for choosing this machine was the ease of use (practically no cleanup, at least on a per-use basis), and the ability to make smaller servings. We've tried a variety of different methods, and had settled on the french press. But as fast as it was to boil water and press coffee, I wanted to look for something faster (I can't stand to waste any more precious minutes than we have to). Read more

Tags: Costco, food

We got this Big Bobby car for A on his first birthday, and can't say enough great things about it. Read more

Tags: M, A, Costco, toys

Last year, we decided to try to start sending out holiday cards, which has always been difficult for me to do consistently. I usually end up having a stack of unwritten cards around New Year's, and then I give up. I understand why everyone with kids sends photo cards. They grow so much over the year. The only problem for me is that I think nice holiday cards are too expensive, often costing $2-3 per card. Which means spending a small fortune each year (not including postage), depending on how many you need to send.

I had a free sample of 20 cards from Shutterfly last year, so I decided to give them a try. They made beautiful cards - we were very pleased. But they were a bit out of our budget. If I wanted to have nice, professional looking, cardstock-quality cards, I'd totally order from them. I've ordered enlargement prints from them, as well as photo books, and they make good stuff. Shipping adds up though. My pick for prints and enlargements is Costco. They just have amazing prices and a rock-solid guarantee. They have holiday cards too, but they have very limited layout designs, and they are basically photo prints with a designed template on them. And frankly, I wasn't as impressed with their layout choices as I was with those from Shutterfly.

Determined to have a stylish, yet affordable holiday card, I decided to turn to Adobe Photoshop Elements. We've always been fortunate enough to have access to it, and it is a great tool to have for anyone who needs a bit more flexibility with photos and layouts. I created a basic 5x7 layout and pasted our photos on there, and voila - a custom card for a fraction of the cost. Granted, they were still only 5x7 prints and not cards, but it was a good compromise for us. We included a brief update letter (cheesy, but what can you do?). And the price was right - only 39 cents per print and free shipping (or option to pick-up directly at the Costco warehouse).

This is what we sent out last year:


It actually doubled as a nice photo for me to carry around in my white coat pocket to glance at from time to time during the day while I was on the wards.

I am putting the finishing touches on the card for this year, which will be a similar style, but blue. Hopefully I will have them mailed out by the end of the week. I'll post it later this month.

For those of you who'd like to try it out, Shutterfly has two promotions going on right now:

20% off calendars and photo books. Coupon code 33AF-CLBK (expires 1-3-2008)

20% off $40. Coupon code 32AF-11DR (expires 12-04-07)

Tags: holiday, Costco

J has meticulously reviewed some of our more gadgety purchases (Zooper Boogie, Burley Solo) and now he's done a fantastic job with our biggest purchase so far (other than the car): our new digital SLR. We went back and forth about whether or not to get it, since it was a pretty hefty purchase (total cost of everything together came out to over $1000). Most of the time, our shopping habits have been dedicated to saving time, money, and space, but this was indeed a splurge, if you will. That said, I have not once regretted this purchase, even with the high price tag. It's a long-term investment that I feel will give us visual treasures to keep, long after the boys are grown. From day one, we have noticed a drastic improvement in the quality of our photos, especially indoor ones. But even the outdoor ones were superior. And with an active toddler and soon-to-be crawling baby, our point-and-shoot just wasn't working well in all circumstances. I was tired of getting blurry shots, or clear ones with a washed-out flash look. We still find it useful to have the small camera (Canon Elph), as it's handy when we don't bring the SLR with us. The Elph takes good photos in ideal lighting conditions (sunny day, outdoors) while the SLR does well overall. Most photos on this site were taken with the SLR (we bought it in November). Any early photos of A or M were taken with the Elph.

To give you an idea of the difference between the two cameras when it comes to outdoor conditions, take a look at these pictures of M riding a tricycle at daycare. Short of doing a side-by-side comparison experiment of the two cameras, it was the best example I could come up with of the subtle but (what I believe to be) striking difference in clarity and background blur (bokeh). I realize that they weren't taken the same day and with the exact same lighting conditions (however, coincidentally, M is wearing very similar clothing), but you'll get the idea.





See how the first shot is grainy and somewhat plain? Most everything is in focus, but he doesn't really stand out against the play structure behind him. In the second photo, there is some blurring of the background and he seems to stand out more. The colors also seem a tad more vibrant in the second photo. There's nothing wrong with the first photo at all, but it just looks somewhat average compared with the second one. This is an example of a subtle difference we've noticed in our photos. We are quite amazed with some of the striking "winners" we've taken as well - some of them come out looking like they were taken by professionals (which, believe me, we are not).

Here's one you've seen before, the first photo of M I took with the SLR:




And this indoor photo could never have been taken without flash on the Elph:


A few things I wanted to mention that I like about the new camera, before you get into the more technical things. It's fast - no more delay between the time you press the shutter button and the time it takes the photo. That's more important now that M is running around. Also, it's pretty easy to use, even for me. I'm sort of a technology junkie, but not so much with cameras. We've taken thousands of new photos with the SLR (really) and had many more keepers than we ever had with the Elph.

In any case, you can read all about the details in J's comprehensive review.

Tags: Amazon, Costco, photography

We bought this play gym when M was one month old, and are still putting it to good use today. Brief Review

Tags: toys, Costco

A few weeks ago, I posted about M's Christmas present - a KidKraft Island Kitchen. We finally built it a few days ago, and I have to say that I am quite impressed with the set. First of all, it's very cute and relatively compact. It has activites on both sides, so it's not meant to be pushed up against a wall, but it has a smaller footprint than most kitchens I've seen. I like the primary colors too, since it's much more gender neutral. It didn't take too long to put together either (about 30 minutes), and has a solid feel to it. The clear plastic on the oven and microwave doors are a nice touch too. As expected, M loves it, and really enjoys cooking his pretend food. The cooking set we have really goes quite well with it too. I am sure it'll entertain him for quite some time.

You'll notice in the photo that he loves the paper towel dispenser, which we've had to re-roll a few times already (I don't really mind). We're really happy with this purchase (~$120 shipped from Costco.com). The only thing I'd change is to add an inner shelf to the refrigerator. This particular kitchen is no longer available, but a pastel version is online for $130 shipped. A larger pastel kitchen set is also available for about $160 shipped.

Tags: toys, Costco, M

We live in graduate student family housing and the carpeting was designed to be durable, rather than comfortable. In other words, it's very industrial and not at all plush. Jason describes our flooring as "concrete with a layer of felt on top." I'm always worried that M is going to take a spill and fracture something - our floors are that hard. And it's really uncomfortable when I'm kneeling down or sitting on the floor to play with the kids (or maybe I am just getting old). In any case, I wanted to either get a nice, plush rug in the middle of the living room or some kind of play mat. Function trumped fashion when it came to this choice and we went with a $33 (shipping included) EVA foam play mat from Costco.com. A rug would have been nice, but even a cheap one would have cost at least a hundred dollars for the size we needed. This mat is 6ft x 6ft and has letters and numbers. It fits nicely in the living room, bordered by the sectional and also comes with a set of 50 foam blocks. The pieces are about a third of an inch thick, so it's not terribly supportive but is better than nothing. I found some 1/2 inch thick mats online but they were about $50 plus shipping from retailers that I had never heard of.

I should note that the colors vary and don't necessarily alternate as nicely as the ones in the website image. We have same-colored squares adjacent to each other in the set, but I don't mind. The letters and numbers pop out like puzzle pieces, although we aren't planning to take them apart (M might have other ideas though). There are also edge pieces to make the clean square shape. I figured it was a fairly low-risk purchase that was worth a try. Costco not only has a great return policy but they also refund your shipping cost if you bought it online (didn't matter in this case). That's great for things that aren't available in the store. I think we'll probably keep it despite the fact that our living room now looks like a daycare - my knees feel better already and it's nice to have a softer play area for the kids that is easy to clean.

Tags: Costco, toys

Tired of spending too much money on fancy burp cloths? The answer might be as simple as a shop towel. Read more

Tags: Costco