Last year around Christmas time, I had a brilliant gift idea. I decided to write mine and Philip’s love story, from the beginning of summer 2006 (just days before we met), to the day we got married, and then print it for Philip in a nice bound book. Unfortunately I couldn’t pull it off in time so I decided to make it a Valentines Day gift. Well..then I procrastinated and only got about 30 pages written before V-day rolled around. Without printing it, I gave it to Philip on the computer, let him read it, and then promptly forgot about working on it again.

In July or August, Philip brought up the book again, saying how much he had loved the first 30 pages and that he hoped I would finish it. This was the extra boost I needed, so I spent the next few months writing down the rest of the story, adding photos, editing, and spell checking. Finally in November it was done and I got it all printed up.

I was very happy with the final product:

I knew Philip was too since he read it cover to cover three times on Christmas day.
I made this book through Blurb.com. On their site, I downloaded their Booksmart program and then worked on my book whenever I got a chance. They provide all the formatting options (the dedication page, the table of contents, the pages with photos, etc). Basically it was the easiest thing ever. Then once I was done writing, I hit the “Publish” button, filled out my shipping information, got a free shipping coupon, paid a total of $17, and had the book in my hands within about a week.

My sister, Janssen, also printed a book this year for Christmas through Blurb and had an equally positive experience. So what I’m saying is, if you want to write a book, or you want to print your journal, or whatever, Blurb is the way to go. Soft bound books start at like $5, and seriously..how can you go wrong with that?

Oh, and I always know I’ve given a good Christmas gift if it makes Philip emotional. Let’s just say, I did good 🙂