Saturday, October 18, 2008

A baby book of sorts

You can probably tell that I'm a fairly frequent blogger. I like it. It's quick, it makes me feel connected to our little guy on the other side of the world, and it keeps family and friends up to date on the adoption. But most of all, I do it for Ren. As with Claire's blog, I intend to turn Ren's blog into books for him. I used to do traditional scrapbooking but I just haven't been able to find the time to get out all my tools, get the photos printed, crop them, choose pretty papers, etc. This is a much faster way for me to capture our thoughts and memories leading up to meeting him and his life with us for the first year or two.

Very shortly after I ceased posting to e-Claire, I "slurped" it using a company called Blurb. Basically, the free software from that company just takes all your text and pictures and drops it into a book which you can then play with until you're happy with the format of your text and pictures. I now have two hardcover volumes of e-Claire for our little girl - at about $60 a piece - and an additional copy of each volume for Paul and me.

I still haven't begun Claire's lifebook (either the toddler or the older child version) because I'm waiting for her history report from China Babies. Once I finally begin, I think I'll probably do those books electronically too.

I hope Claire and Ren enjoy perusing their books when they're older. At the very least, I think they'll be able to tell how much we treasure each and every moment with them!

4 comments:

Shea said...

I love photo books. I keep tinkering with Caia's blurb book, but one of these days I need to get it printed. I've used a few other services and I loved the results. It's much more convenient to use your digital photos and make everything online.

I hope you receive your China-babies report soon!

Kim said...

LOVE those books..
I too will turn Isabella's into a book..
Great Idea..
Have a Great Weekend..

Rae said...

I'd love to see Claire's books some day. They'll be a wonderful keepsake for her.

I know you'll find this hard to believe but I haven't even started Slurping Bryn's blog yet. :)

Kath said...

The books look amazing. I'm still procrastinating with Maeve's blog book. I do a few pages each night, but that takes a long time.

Claire is going to treasure them as she grows up.