Blurb Book Reviews

This is what I have been up to. Putting my blog into books, as well as making separate gift books for family. What you're looking at is about 950 pages of work. I am Superwoman!!!! I did all of this in 4 months, and 3/4 of it in 10 days! I had to rush to get it all done in time for a big sale. I thought I was going to die by the end and was literally shedding tears because I thought the work would never end. It was stressful. But now it's DONE!!!! On top is a cookbook I made of Pat's recipes, the middle two is our entire online blog of Europe, and the bottom one is a present, so I won't tell about that.

My cousin Kristi, I believe, wanted to see how they turned out, so I thought I'd put pics and my thoughts on here, for all who have been wondering about these blurb books. They look better in real life, the flash, or lack of flash, can mess with the colors, etc. So keep that in mind. These are all just examples. There's a bunch of different layouts you can use- these are just the ones that worked for me.

Front cover- it's pretty cool how you can just put pics right on the cover!

The back cover.

My favorite pages are the ones that are all blown up, without a border. And I LOVE writing on the pictures. I just think it looks cool.

I LOVE doing collages like this. I think they're always really cute and a great way to combine pictures.

The few other blurb books I've seen, most people do something simple like this. The "blog layout" will automatically put your pictures and text just like this. For me, it's my least favorite layout and I hardly use it. I just drag all my text and pics, as I go into different layouts.

I like to just make pics BIG like this.

You can do all kinds of colors.

This layout is nice, because if you have a bunch of pictures that are similar, you can just throw them all together like this. The pictures are small, but you can still see all the detail.

If you're wanting to do this, be prepared to put in some LONG HOURS!!!! Most people I know, use one basic layout and it takes them a few hours. I make each page different and it takes weeks. So I guess it just depends on how you want it to look. Greg and I have both been very happy with it all. They have different options for big books or small, hard bound or soft cover. Greg and I have done the small square one and loved it. Hopefully that gives people a better idea, if they've had it in their heads for awhile.

And I have to say- if I just made you feel bad for NOT doing it. Don't you dare. I have NO kids and have been unemployed for 4 months. And more than that, I LIKE doing it. I love journals and history and pictures. Though we are told to document our family history, for me it's more about a fun hobby than anything else. I just really like looking at old albums and things. Much more than the average person, I'm realizing. I've loved looking at my parents old yearbooks, and wish they had more I could look at of their younger days. I guess that's my motivation. I think my kids might get a kick out of what I did "when I was their age". If not, I just plain like looking at old pictures myself, and remembering things.

Among other things, when we have time, Greg and I have been having lots of fun cooking!!!

As I've mentioned before, we're completely sold on America's Test Kitchen and ordered there Best International Recipe book. So far, so good. We haven't cooked a TON out of it. But we made all these mexican dishes from it and it was SO good. Greg, Pat and I were all making something different from it and it was GREAT!!! I made "street corn" and mexican rice. Greg made the filling for the tacos and Pat made corn tortillas from scratch! It was fun.

I've been working and it's been going well. I definitely prefer the spa/salon approach of it all, but I've come to realize, I just love doing hair and absolutely LOVE talking to people all day long. I just love meeting different people and hearing what they have to say! It's been a good reminder, not to judge. People will come in and I might think they're a little odd or that their hair is gross and I don't want to touch them, but by the middle of the haircut, I once again realize that they're really nice and end up loving them by the end! So silly to judge people! I just need to stop doing it! So that's been good for me.

Greg's on a ride-along with the Medford Police, right now. Hopefully that goes well and he can make a good contact. He took a test for the Salem Police, last night. We were really worried about his wrist not being strong enough, for the push ups, but it wasn't a problem! He did really well! He has 3 interviews, a group project and the physical test for the Medford police on Monday. Poor guy has to wake up at 5:30am to get there on time. Yikes. Since we had to go to Salem, we stayed with Amy and Mike. It was so good to see them. Amy only has one more round of chemo and then it should all be done! I remember when it seemed like it would never end and suddenly it's here!!! I'm so happy.

Greg and I are really getting anxious for him to get a job. I guess we just feel he really has a good shot at the police. And if he gets it, we'd be able to buy a house! How awesome would that be? We find ourselves looking at houses and talking about decorating. We're trying not to get ahead of ourselves, but it's hard not to. We'll see what happens. We've decided if he doesn't get hired on with the police, we'll move back to Eugene. So, either way, we'll be on our own again. I think that's why I'm feeling anxious, either way, we'll be moving on.

This doesn't connect with anything else I've said, but I really want a piano. I am missing it so bad. It's been over 4 months now, and that's just too long.