review: www.blurb.com - part 2

As I mentioned in an earlier post, I was given a neat opportunity by the website Blurb to create a book of my choosing using their downloadable software. A pretty sweet offer... except I couldn't for the life of me figure out what type of book I wanted to make. The fact that Baby S would be plastered all over it was a given. But what KIND of book... I pondered it for days. Perhaps an album of our recent trip to Nantucket? Or her life, in photos, to date? Completely out of left field: maybe a cookbook of family recipes? I should mention that quick decision-making is not one of my better attributes. Unleash me on a grocery store cereal aisle and you'll see what I mean.

I blame this completely on Blurb, by the way, as their options are endless (see here for categories & examples). After much "himming and hawwing" -- I actually confirmed that spelling on Urban Dictionary -- I made my decision. I created a book for Baby S of her "first days." I assume in a few years she will be curious to know about her birth story, so along with photos I included details like time of birth, her height & weight, friends who visited in the hospital, etc. Not included? The pain and torture of her delivery. Some things are better left to the imagination, and I'll have plenty of time to tell her about that when she's an obnoxious teenager giving me trouble about something. Because that's bound to happen, right?

Firstly, it's quite simple to download the software needed to make a Blurb book (this is coming from a techno-phobe, by the way). I found the instructions for picking a template (a wide variety of colors & designs are offered) to be straightforward. Budget your time for working on this project, because if you're anything like me, it'll take you a while to figure out how you want each page to look. The drag and drop feature is a simple and pretty standard way of placing photo to page. Uploading my photos was pretty simple. I must say I didn't get into the editing of photo sizes and templates TOO much... I basically stuck to what was offered. And before I got too in over my head, my creation was finished and sent off to print. Done and done!

I'm excited to report that Baby S' book arrived carefully packaged and looking beautiful. I am really happy with the finished product, and I hope she'll enjoy having it as a memento down the road. The glossy pages and binding would make you think I was a professional... which I wager is the secret behind their success.