artifact uprising + capsoul

If you’ve ever taken small children to the grocery store you’ve probably been reminded by the eldery woman behind you in line that the time you have with small kids flies by in the blink of an eye.  We all have this sense of urgency to make sure our history and memories are documented. With Instagram and blogs, it’s easier than ever to keep track of memories and important dates, and take quick snapshots of our days.  After doing some serious research we found two amazing companies that help us do just that.

First up, Artifact Uprising! Emily recently looked into printing books from her Instagram feed  and had lots of different recommendations. After taking one long night of trying them all out, Artifact Uprising was her favorite. Easy to use, beautifully simple design, and after exchanging a few emails, befriended a family business that you can’t help but feel loyal to. She ordered her books and they emailed her back double checking about a typo. That kind of Quality Control doesn’t seem to exist anymore, but it was much appreciated!

You can order as inexpensively as a paperback flip book for $12 or create a beautiful bulky hard-bound coffee table book. It is easy to use, easy to format, add text and upload from Instagram or other social networking sites.

Second on our list of favorites is CapSoul! We met the CapSoul team at Alt Summit and were instantly moved by the concept.

CapSoul does many things, but our favorite are the personal films. Using your computer’s webcam (the mobile app is launching in a few months and will make that process even easier!) you can record a message to your loved one. Once you have it recorded, you can have CapSoul deliver that message at any date in the future.

Again, we put Emily on the case. She has written individual letters to each of her boys each month of the first year and a half of their lives. A love letter of sorts, and a way to document  thoughts and milestones. While those letters are safely saved to the computer, she thought it would be even better to film herself reading those letters. She filmed them and scheduled them to be delivered on birthdays in five, ten, fifteen years for her boys. Imagining them all grown up watching her in her mid-twenties telling them all the wonderful things about their childhood is such a wonderful thought!

Emily vividly remembers when she was maybe ten years old when she was digging in storage and accidentally dumped out a box of her mom’s mementos from high school. A box of love letters, pictures of friends and trips to the beach fluttered out. It was a pivotal moment for her to realize that her mom had a life before “mom.” Interests, talents, heartbreak, and secrets. All of these elements make CapSoul such a brilliant concept. A way to share a piece of ourselves from a certain moment in time. A way to offer words of encouragement and love to be sent on important dates. The perfect marriage of now and then.

These aren’t collaborative posts, we really just love both of these companies and know you will, too!