1,000 words and/or picture(book)

If I could go back, I'd do them ALL like I've done the last two- "picture wrapped" covers instead of dust jackets...

Tabitha turned one. Im woefully behind in book-writing. My phone got so overloaded with pictures that I couldn't download the new operating system....and then my computer, ummm yeah basically MAXED OUT because of all the pictures stored on its harddrive.  All these things came together to give me my New Year's Goal ( resolutions are so 2005).


This year I'm staying more on top of my pictures and memory capturing.  This of course is much harder right now because not only do I need to stay on top of "January" but I also need to some how make up for the waaaay behindness that the last few years have garnered.

So my goal consists of several parts, which I'll cover in a couple of posts:
Photobooks
Photo storage
Photo printing.

And since I just  finished up "2012: Part two" photo book yesterday, I'll start with my photobooks.  Now that I've gotten 2012 well and truly documented ( almost 500 pictures, and 110 pages in just the last six months?! Whaaaaat?!? )  That will then leave me with 4 books* to make this year, not to mention the book for this actual year! So, yeah, luckily they aren't TOO hard to make!

(My favorite is the  "Standard Landscape" 10x8 in/24x20cm)

I find that making "photo books" is way "cleaner" and actually more cost affective than printing out pictures and doing either photo albums ( hey, last decade called they want your albums back!) OOOOOOR doing a scrap book. Scrapbooking is for crafty people and people that do not have 1 year olds who eat paper. SO photobooks it is! Also, lets say the house burns down. Every last one of my photobooks is saved in my account for easy re-ordering. That would literally be a life saver!!

If you're curious, I use the company Blurb.com   ( and hey, if you decide to use Blurb because of my recommendation, though they did not ask me to, do me a solid and click on this link! If you order a book then we'll BOTH get $20 off!! WOO!!). They are really easy to use and work well with both iphotos, flickr, photobucket and several other photo sights to make your book/photo making easier. They have already set up layouts you can use, or if your a design nazi like me, you can EASILY make your own page layouts and incorporate those too. To be honest this is why I like Blurb better than say Snapfish or Shutterfly. Bottomline, I hate the thought of me having a photobook that would even REMOTELY resemble someone else's. But they have totally different pictures, Abigail.  I didn't say it was at all logical!!
I also like Blurb because they will frequently have rockin Groupon deals and so I'll make a book and wait to buy it till a time when I have a Groupon to cash in. Simple.
My last, recent fav thing, which other companies may be doing now too- is with the purchase of my book I can buy a digital copy for just 5 bucks! This means we've got kindle versions of all our photo albums! Want to walk down memory lane while out with your ipad? Easy peasy!

So there you have it! I'm SO excited to get my next book in the mail next week! EEEK!!! Ransom loves these books too and will sit for hours looking at pictures of himself. It's so great having a hard "in your hands" copy to enjoy together! And since the books are so easy to re-order I don't worry too much about grimy hands or accidental tears. Our books are to be enjoyed!

*I still need to make a photo book of the year that Brett was deployed. I've procrastinated because in my mind it's "two years" worth of pictures! But after putting some thought into it, I think I'm now just going to go month by month and have "Brett's January/Abigail's January" then "Brett's February/Abigail's February"....it'll hopefully be fun for us and the kids to see just how DIFFERENT our lives were!

I also have Tabitha's First Year book which I will be making just like I did Ransom's. Instead of just pictures of the year it will also include her birthstory plus a letter that I wrote to here each month that first year.    

And since there are a lot of other pictures from 2013 that aren't just Tabitha oriented, I can't seem to figure out a way to just not have a 2013 book as well. And, let's be honest, there will probably be TWO books for 2013. Because I take far too many picture and I have no ability to cut any pictures, THEY ARE ALL IMPORTANT GOSH DARN IT!

THEN if I get all that done, I've been really itching to make a photobook of my years at the University of Otago, or just a book of my time in New Zealand period! My kids have no IDEA about that part of my life, and I doubt they'll care for a few more years yet, but hopefully ONE day they'll enjoy a look into a different culture and the beautiful country and people that was so influential in my life...Plus, it'll be 10 years since I left this coming December (!!!!!!!) and that seems like a fun way to mark the occasion!

So, there you have it! My photobook goals for the year! We'll see how much I get done! Ha. ha. ha.