Blog Books

I decided that after all the work and time I'd put into blogging, I wanted a more permanent copy of our lives. Not just on the computer. So, I put even more work and time into creating blog books. And money. They are not cheap.
So I started from the beginning. I blogged a lot in 2008, and it quickly became evident that I wouldn't have enough room in one book for the whole year, so I broke the year into two books.

For these books, I used a program/service called picaboo. I really liked it; it was very user friendly, but my favorite thing about it was the multitude of cute backgrounds that you could find for all occasions and themes. It was easy to arrange things how you wanted them too. And one thing that I liked a lot was the feature that allowed you to make the text box lighter, so if the background was dark, the lighter foreground would still enable you to read the words. If done correctly.

A major downfall for this was the price. Ex pen sive. I had a 60% off coupon for one, and bought the other during a half off promo, and still spent a lot on them. My memory is fuzzy, but I know the pre-discount price was over $100. But I like how they turned out.

Then I got another coupon for a different company. Blurb. With Blurb I made the books for 2009. At first, I was very disappointed. Not as user friendly, hardly any backgrounds, and they were boring. But as I got more familiar with it, I found some features that I like better. For instance, you can design a template and save it. The saving part is what I liked. Oh, and the software connected to your blog and imported those pictures and posts in order that you wanted them. That was actually pretty awesome. It saved a lot of time.

I think the finished product looks a little more sleek and professional too. I like the size better. Oh, and I got a couple different kinds for these books. The one on the right has the picture and printing just on the hardcover. The left has a dust jacket. I MUCH prefer the former, and wish I had spent the $7 or so extra bucks both times. I hate dust jackets.
I also liked that I could load up the back cover of the book with pictures. I could design how I wanted it to look.
The inside wasn't as fun though.

Another plus about Blurb was the price. Much, much, cheaper.

Now I have to do 2010. And guess what? I got me a coupon to yet another company. They will be done with Mixbook.
I really like having these though. And Morgan does too. We read from them every night before he goes to bed.