I did quite a few personalized gifts this year for Christmas. Thanks to Karenee I discovered Blurb.com. It is a POD(print on demand) publisher. Several years ago my father-in-law gave me a copy of his brother's testimony, which he gave about a year before he passsed away. He wanted me to clean it up a bit, so I have been working on it slowly over the years and my dream was to have it put into a book form, but I didn't even know where to begin. So one day last month I found the link to Blurb on one of Karen's blogs, and knew I had found what I was looking for. The nice thing is you can order just one copy. So I also made a book for splitcat of some of his photography and his old poetry. I never surprise him at Christmas, but I did this year. Both books turned out beautifully. You can choose between softcover and hardcover and you can put your book up for sale at the Blurb bookstore. If I had been thinking straight, I also would have done books for my mom and mil of photos of the kids from the past year, but I missed the deadline and instead ordered photobooks from CVS photo online. They also turned out well.
Another good thing I discovered is a musician named JJ Heller. I saw her in the Family bookstore catalog where it said something like if you like Over the Rhine...so I found some audio clips online and thought splitcat might enjoy it, so after some digging, the nice folks at FBS found the one copy they had for me. I don't know about splitcat, but I really like it.
Oh, and my sister-in-law got my name for our Christmas exchange. She got me this (look for the one called Pirates of the Caribbean 3). When I pulled it out, I started laughing. I just told everyone it was a skin for my phone, so splitcat, who can't see it, says, so who is it? Johnny Depp? She got me the grey one so splitcat wouldn't be too embarrassed to use my phone. It blends right in with my phone so it isn't too noticeable at first glance(I also have a small phone). I also got a USB cord and a mini-sd card(from splitcat) for my phone so I can finally load music on it. I have a Sony-Ericcson Walkman phone, I can listen to fm radio or load music on to it and use it as an mp3 player. My sil gave it to me when she got a new phone.
Overall, a good Christmas was had by all.
Now I am working on getting back into real life mode. I took the tree down the day after Christmas. I usually leave it till after New Years, but I was tired of trying to keep the twins away from it. Yesterday I finally got my room totally cleaned up. I am now going to implement my no folding laundry in my bedroom plan(unless it is the laundry that belongs in there). I end up with stacks of folded laundry all over the place because while I do derive a certain pleasure from folding laundry(especially towels) I absolutely loathe putting it all away. So my new rule is to try and do at least one load per day and it all has to be put away before another load comes out of the dryer. So as soon as my mom brings splitcats camera back(we left it there on Christmas) and I fix a couple of spots, I'll finally put up the pictures of my redone room.
Another good thing I discovered is a musician named JJ Heller. I saw her in the Family bookstore catalog where it said something like if you like Over the Rhine...so I found some audio clips online and thought splitcat might enjoy it, so after some digging, the nice folks at FBS found the one copy they had for me. I don't know about splitcat, but I really like it.
Oh, and my sister-in-law got my name for our Christmas exchange. She got me this (look for the one called Pirates of the Caribbean 3). When I pulled it out, I started laughing. I just told everyone it was a skin for my phone, so splitcat, who can't see it, says, so who is it? Johnny Depp? She got me the grey one so splitcat wouldn't be too embarrassed to use my phone. It blends right in with my phone so it isn't too noticeable at first glance(I also have a small phone). I also got a USB cord and a mini-sd card(from splitcat) for my phone so I can finally load music on it. I have a Sony-Ericcson Walkman phone, I can listen to fm radio or load music on to it and use it as an mp3 player. My sil gave it to me when she got a new phone.
Overall, a good Christmas was had by all.
Now I am working on getting back into real life mode. I took the tree down the day after Christmas. I usually leave it till after New Years, but I was tired of trying to keep the twins away from it. Yesterday I finally got my room totally cleaned up. I am now going to implement my no folding laundry in my bedroom plan(unless it is the laundry that belongs in there). I end up with stacks of folded laundry all over the place because while I do derive a certain pleasure from folding laundry(especially towels) I absolutely loathe putting it all away. So my new rule is to try and do at least one load per day and it all has to be put away before another load comes out of the dryer. So as soon as my mom brings splitcats camera back(we left it there on Christmas) and I fix a couple of spots, I'll finally put up the pictures of my redone room.
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