Blog to Book & Owl Update

Yes! I actually made my blog into a book! {Well, at least the 1st 5 months anyway!}

Like many of you, a BIG motivation for blogging is to have a photo scrap book at the end of the year. After shopping around I think I found a great vendor {Blog2Print} and product. If you don't care that you can't edit each page you might like this one too. You'll have to let me know if you've found something you like, but I'm VERY happy with how it turned out!

So, let me give you a quick little tour of the Toad's Treasures 2009 blog to book...

{The Outside} I chose the cover and color, title, and picture from a number of options that they had...

They even had me pick a picture for the very back of the book!

{Title Page} Welcome to our title page...

{Table of Contents} Here's one of my favorite features: A Table of Contents! Each blog post is listed by date in the front so you can easily find what you are looking for...

{The Binding} Check out this binding! This is a great hard cover that is a step up from photo books I've made before using Shutterfly...

With this particular company they pretty much just took the whole blog and put it into book form page by page. There was little I could do edit the posts accept to add more pictures...

{The Scoop}

FYI: I only put the 1st 5 months of 2009 into book form for 2 reasons:

1) I had 1060 pictures {yes, crazy!} and it could only put 1000 in a book at one time, and

2) I wanted to see if I liked it before I spent any more $ on it. This book ended up with 118 pages and was about $65. That may sound like alot to some of you, but for me it was WELL worth the time and scrap booking materials that it saved me!

So, just a few tips I learned and will do when I print the rest of last year's blog...

-Go through and edit your posts. Delete posts that are irrelevant or that you don't want in your book. For example...last year I had a post that was 2 sentences that said, "I lost my cell phone. You can call my home phone if you need to get a hold of me." Yes, it was a waste of book space!:)

-Add pictures you'd like to "scrap book" but didn't put in your posts. Even though they don't let you change much, they do let you add pictures!

-Watch for coupons! Yeah, that's when I'll be ordering 2009 June-December.

And for those of you interested in the "owl update"...

I'll be "owling" tonight while the boys slumber!

For those of you who missed {or couldn't make it all the way to the end} of my last post, I'll be sharing these cute owls soon.

This sweet little guy is my latest. But sorry, he's taken...Ethan snatched him right up fresh off the machine! {Those that frequent the blog will see the familiar fabric that I trying to use up...}

This next picture and story is to make all of you moms feels a little better...

Meet my little nemisis. I say "Stop" he goes harder. I say his name, he turns and runs. I pull the toothbrush out of his hand that he's swirling in the toilet, he sticks his whole hand in and drinks the toilet water out of it. I'll stop there...you get the picture!;)

{Pictured above: This little man is very mad at his mom and thinks she is very mean. You see, she wouldn't let him push the mini picnic table over to reach the DVD player to push all of the buttons, and take all of the DVD's out. Poor guy.}

Along those lines, here's a story for ya...

Since Aidan can wiggle his way out of the buckles on the shopping carts at stores (I caught him mid air when I turned around one day), a few weeks ago I decided that I would let him walk by me since it would be a "one item" trip to Joann's. It may sound crazy and is ALOT more work, but he's happier and I don't have to worry that he's going to take a faceplant onto the hard floor.

We made it about 20 feet into the store before disaster struck. There was beautiful display set up...a bamboo Japanese folding curtain about 6 feet tall, with 5 fancy, large {2 feet}, leaf filled vases in front of it. As we walked behind it, it only took one little push from one tiny little hand and the entire display was on the ground. And what did the little culprit say? You guessed it: "Ah, oh." Fortunately nothing broke.

A sales woman came running over and helped me pick it up, and we went on our way. Finally-- after wiping sweat from my brow several times, getting a rude remark from some random, not so nice, gray short haired middle-aged woman {who had obviously never had a toddler before}, and holding Aidan who was red faced and SCREAMING at the top of his lungs as we checked out--we were on our way.

But on the brighter side: At least he didn't burn the place down, I didn't have a melt down, and the owls are a fun project...right?:)

See you soon.