I cloistered myself in our office for a full day and night working on the first volume, which is my posts from 2006 — 200-plus pages. Volume two, all my 2007 posts, took a little less time and is only 128 pages.
For anyone thinking about doing this, the software is free and very easy to use. It imports all your blog posts and photos, in chronological order if you choose, and puts them on pages for you. Then you get to edit and tweak the layouts. There are tons of options for layouts, colors, fonts, etc. I found that because I tend to shrink my photos fairly small before putting them on my blog, I wasn't able to run them very large in the book (unless I were willing to reimport all of them from the original ... which I was not, except for cover art).
The first volume came in the mail yesterday. They weren't cheap (About $70 per book, and I bought two — one for Daniel and one for Ben and unlimited access for Steve, of course), but I'm so happy with the print and paper quality. I uploaded and ordered volume two today, and it should get here in about a week.
24 comments:
Ohmygosh, that is the COOLEST! I have often thought your blog could and should be a book and have imagined what it would look like.
There is something about the bound book format that confers a credibility, formality, permanence and magic.
I think a very large audience would buy your book, given the chance, but this is a special gift for your sons. Way to find this and do it!
That is so freaking cool!
LYMI, LizzieBoo
And here I thought you'd need my scapebooking help... Your book is way cooler than any scapebook we could come up with...
Margaret
That is so cool. What a wonderful keepsake.
THANK YOU for posting about this- I know I initially questioned this but was wondering how much time and $$ it would cost. I am SO doing this! Beautiful!! I'm so happy you did this!! Hugs to you
I'm so glad that you got it! It looks wonderful, I love the cover photo! What an awesome keepsake!
I checked out this website a LONG time ago and it is something I had wished about.
I think it is so neat that you did that. Not even thinking on a 'just in case' basis, it's a nice thing for your children to have anyways..
OMG, that is awesome. The cover picture looks just great.
This is just absolute genius. I've been painstakingly trying to cut and paste my own blog entries into a Word doc as a way to keep a backup...in lieu, I guess, of a baby book, and gosh, is that ever a pain. These sound a little expensive, but it would be SO worth the annoyance and anguish of doing it the other way. Plus, MUCH higher production value! Thanks for sharing this.
[I'm a friend of (raspberry) Liz's...and I generally lurk rather than comment...but I also want you to know that I love your blog, and think of you and your family often. You're an inspiration.]
Cool -- what a great idea. I've heard great things about blurb.com.
It must be a very satisfying feeling to hold the "fruits of your labor" in your hands! :)
Megan
Awesome! I've been tempted to quit printing 4x6 photos and just print quarterly or bi-annual photo books instead.
I'm glad your ER trip was fairly uneventful. :)
We were wondering if there is a way to do this. Thanks for sharing! We'll definitely publish ours, too. Like you said, it's our way of scrapbooking.
Your book is beautiful. A great keepsake for your sons.
Emilie, how wonderful. I love the cover - what a great idea, that's such an awesome gift for your boys.
OMG that is beautiful. Simply beautiful. What a gorgeous thing to give your sons.
*hugs*
What a great idea!
Very cool idea. I like it.
Hi Emilie, been hooked on your blog since you were featured on Story of My Life. Not to schill for them, but you should also put your stuff there as they have a non-profit foundation to keep stuff forever in digital format too, in case anything happens to the books (or even if blurb goes under in the future). It's the whole point of their service.
Rooting for you all the way...
Brian Childers
Wow! An ex-boyfriend of mine works there, but I didn't know you could make blogs into books. What a wonderful gift for your boys. :)
That is so cool. What a wonderful way of keeping it all.
Em -
Grasshopper here. Elena sent me the link.
Miss you and love you lots ... thank you for giving so much of yourself so we all can know ourselves better.
- Chris China
Emilie, this is just great! Seriously! You told me how you wanted to leave something for your boys (only "just in case"), and this is it! It's already written, so you don't have to stress out about what to write! Like a hand in a glove.
- Susanne
Thats a great idea!! Even when things end up turning out great and healthy at the end of all this...you kids will still LOVE to have this keepsake.
And that cover picture is beautiful!!!!!
That is awesome! Thank you for the idea!
What a wonderful gift to your boys.
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