My Merry Gift of Glory.

This year for Christmas, Kev gave me a treasure of a gift...

He (well, "he" meaning "me" - but "he" meaning "he" bought the gift...  Smell my cookin?") printed off one year of my blog and had it made into a book for me.  And I absolutely love it.  As far as "crafty/sentimental/keepsake" Mom's go - on a scale of one to ten - I think I fall somewhere right in the middle.

I do a fairly detailed scrapbook for them up until the age of two.  And I think the only reason why I picked that magically random age of two is because that's how far I did Kaden's baby book -- and I have always said that what I do for one child, I will do for all the rest.  So, anyway, each of their lives are scrapbooked in fairly decent detail until they are two...and then...well, it's kind of like they died or something.  Other than a Christmas album that I do a page or two in every year - I don't do anything else with albums for my kids.

Not sure why.  I think I'm just pretty impressed with myself for getting that far in their lives.

However.
There is that measure of Mama guilt that I feel when I remember that nowhere do they have pictures or recorded memories of first teeth falling out, of potty training, of first days of school, etc. etc. etc.  It's like they just don't exist anymore.  And while I am getting very good at giving myself big baths of grace, and of learning not to compare, and of giving myself a big dose of reality in knowing that none of my three boys anyway, will probably give a flying flip about taking these ginormous baby album scrapbooks with them into their own homes someday...

I still want our life to be remembered.

Enter this little deal-io shmeal-io of delight.

This works for me on so many levels.  First of all, I pretty much started blogging right around when Kaden turned two.  SO.  If I go back through the years, and print each year all the way from the beginning...there's really no gap.  And another thing - if you print your blog through blog2print - the entire process takes about twenty minutes.  And for me, time is money, Baby.

There is another printing company out there, as well called Blurb, and if you're feeling super crafty and you have a little more time on your hands, Blurb allows you more creative freedom than blog2print.  It allows you to choose the layout of each page and to choose exactly where you want your pictures placed.  It's more of a true online scrapbook.  Blog2print gives you only two options:  have it printed exactly the way your blog is laid out online, or have it printed in the most space-saving way - thus having some of your pictures maybe placed not exactly the way that you laid them out when you posted; however - potentially saving you significant money - as you pay per page after the initial  $19.99 for a 20-40 page scrapbook.

I chose the most space-effective way, because I write a lot of posts in a year.  So, you can see in the picture above - this two page spread has a lot of my text on one page and then all of my pictures on the other.

Next year, when I print my blog again, I may choose to have it printed exactly the way I write my posts and just see how much of a difference in cost it is.  Other than that, however, I am more than pleased with the quality of this book.  The pictures are crisp, the pages are thick and shiny, and the book is a nice, solid, hearty, able-to-withstand-many-hands-looking-at-it kind of a book.

And the time it took me to put it together?  Twenty minutes.  Max.
I chose the cover, chose the title, chose the front picture, chose the back picture, and wrote a dedication.
Sha-zam!

These days, THAT'S my kind of style...
Get in.  Get out.  Get 'er done, Baby.
Easy sneezy.

And while this blog is more of a journal of their Mama's journey through life, I still write about each one of them and about our family's highlights.  It's more of a day to day snapshot of our family and our life, and it's something that I would love for them to have when they are grown and when I am gone.

And it also makes me happy to have a solid copy of my heart on paper - in my hands - should our computer ever crash.  I'm kind of old school like that...

So, for those friends who blog but who don't scrapbook...I just thought I'd pass this info and my review along - for what it's worth.  This will indeed be my Christmas and my birthday presents for many years to come.

Oh!  And!  Should you be interested in doing this...learn from my mistakes.  While you are choosing your cover, dedication, etc. etc....wait a bit of time between your start and your finish and ordering.  Blog2print will see you working on your project...and they will sent a nifty little "free shipping" coupon into your email box.  Amy, however, in all of her zealousness went from start to finish like it was a wild rat race, failed to have a little patience in waiting an extra day, failed to check her inbox in the meantime, and paid full shipping.

Well, "Amy" meaning "Kevin" paid for this.  Ahem.

Joy to the world and all things glorious.
But Kev thinks I'm worth it.
I think.
Merry Christmas to me, anyway...

And now for a confession....
Blog2Print offers rewards if we recommend friends to their company.  So, if you are receiving offers in your inbox...I do confess...those are because of me.  Sorry if they hound you for life, and feel free to delete at will.  But, if you ever do choose to print your blog into a book ~ I would love you forever if you told them your dear friend Amy recommended you....

Thus endeth my commercial.
Now back to your regularly scheduled programming...