I was inspired...

I figured, why not. I said in this post that if I could do photo books all day, every day, I'd be a happy girl.

So here's to hoping I can do at least a couple a month or so.

Whatever makes a girl happy, right?

http://www.natalietopper.com/

Open to suggestions!

A morning cup of coffee...

Snapfish did this very clever marketing move - the week of Mother's Day I began to get emails offering me 50% off Father's Day gifts.

Hook, line and sinker.

I started looking through their "qualified" Father's Day items and saw something I thought my dad just might like.

A photo mug!

Brad's grandmother was given one of them for her 80th birthday and I know she's really enjoyed it. My dad is a devoted morning coffee man and while they have a bazillion and one coffee mugs, I have a feeling this will be the one used daily.

You can put up to I believe 16 pictures on a mug and there's a couple of different sizes of mugs, 11oz-17oz. I went with the 15oz coffee mug (the 17oz is a Latte mug). I took pictures of my brother and I as kids, of my mom and dad, and wedding pictures from both of our weddings...and of course the two grandpuppies! I'm probably going to get a small bag of gourmet coffee to put with it. Even though I'm far away, he can have his coffee with his baby girl every morning!

Oh, and by the way. With my 50% off, even with tax and shipping my total came to $15.35. Normally they start at $16.99. Still not bad, but my 50% off was nice :)

Mother's Day, Take 2

I posted earlier about my mother's gift for Mother's Day. Today, my mother-in-law gets the stage.

A few months ago, my in-laws took me, my husband, my brother-in-law and my brother-in-law's girlfriend on a 10 day cruise in the Caribbean. Yes, I know that you all hate me right now. It was fantastic. Just what I needed in the middle of the cold, dreary winter.

After my husband and I got married, I created a photo book of some pictures from our wedding. Not an album, but an actual book. My mother-in-law asked me to just make two copies of it and give one to her (she says she's not creative enough to put one together). She loved the book and loved having something to show people when they asked for wedding pictures.

I told her after the cruise that I needed her pictures so I could put together a book of pictures from the cruise. But after she gave me her cd's, I told her I was busy with school so I would work on the book between spring and summer semesters. She hasn't asked about it yet - and my semester ends Tuesday.

Well, I went ahead and put together a book of pictures from the cruise. Between her two cd's worth and my nearly 1,000 pictures - I had a ton of great pictures to choose from.

 The front of the book says Cruising Through the Caribbean 2011 and a list of all the countries we visited. I should have taken a picture of it, but the first page shows the dates, the towns and countries that we visited. The second page is a map I created through the Apple software that highlights the countries we visited. That's my favorite part of this book. I was proud of that little attribute :) It also has the little paper cover around it - but the picture on the front of the cover is also on the actual front cover of the book. So you can choose to have the cover or not.

I tried to hold myself to 2-4 pages of pictures per country. It was hard, because there were SO many gorgeous pictures to choose from. This was the first time I used Apple and I'm very pleased with the quality of the book. I use iPhotos anyway, so it was great to be able to just drag my pictures into my book. I used Mpix for my wedding book, but since then they've changed their system and to do the more advanced features that I like to do - they simply won't let me. If I want anything beyond their simple version, I had to employ one of THEIR graphic designers to do it for me. Apple takes a little more time to figure out, but I'm really happy with how it turned out.

That's my (hopefully) future sister-in-law and me with the captain of the ship. He was quite the hottie and quite young. We considered going after him butttttt settled for a picture.

Overall, I'm extremely pleased with Apple's quality. The first and last pages seem to be a linen material and the pictures came out crisp and clear. It cost me $56 for this book and 18 pages (it doesn't sound like a lot, but to see it in person, it looks like a normal coffee table book.

There are tons of other sites you can do for cheaper - Snapfish, Shutterfly, etc. And if you're not the creative type, you can just upload your pictures and let them arrange the pictures for you.

It's an absolutely fantastic gift for people though. I know she's going to be excited to get it. And I had a blast doing it. If I could just make photo books for people all day long for a living - I would be in heaven :)

Just a note...

Great gifts come from personalization. I’m not talking about finger painting someone’s name on a jewelry box (although, paint from the right tiny fingers could be quite the treasure!). I like to make things for people. I’m not necessarily crafty, but I am resourceful (and budget-minded!).

Yes, emails from a hundred online companies are annoying. But I have a special email set up just for companies that I want to know what’s going on with. Snapfish, Mpix, Shutterfly and Inkubook are all a few of the printing companies I have used – and I often pit them against each other. Not long ago, I saw that Snapfish was having a pretty awesome sale – 50% off plus free shipping during a limited time frame. Now, I didn’t necessarily need anything at that point…but I thought towards the future. Mother’s Day was coming up on May 8 (there’s still time!) and my best friend’s birthday was coming up on the 14^th. Hmmmm.

I got back from a 10 day Caribbean cruise in March (go ahead, throw something at me, I can take it!). My in-laws bought me an incredibly nice camera for Christmas so I took some amazing pictures while we were in the Caribbean. I decided to turn some of those pictures into notecards for both my mom and my bff (since yes, they DO still write notecards!).

I finished my mom’s gift up yesterday. I got a small plastic bin at Dollar General ($1), a few packs of her favorite spearmint gum and a small bag of Tootsie Rolls (wrapped in a plastic bag JUST in case it gets crazy hot in the mail – don’t want chocolate smudging my notecards!). I’m really happy how it all came out!

I haven't filled my bff's box yet, but I still have some time to find some fun candies or accessory. This is also a really good idea for showers - you know the recipient is going to be writing thank-you notes so take pictures of the happy couple or have a baby-themed photo shoot. You don't have to be a professional photographer to take pretty pictures!

Oh, and a week after I received the notecards, my mom called and asked if I would turn some of my pictures into notecards for her. Talk about knowing someone J

Amazon

I've mentioned before that I love Amazon for buying gifts. There's just so much selection, so much randomness and so much STUFF! Now they've gone and made it even better.

Now I can make gift lists for anyone I buy gifts for - all the better to remember what I meant to buy them!

One thing I love about Amazon is it keeps track of all your previous purchases. Now, they let you go back through those purchases and make lists based on that. The two-person bicycle ornament? That was for Cinnamon. The book on how to tie your shoes in crazy ways? That was Beth! Based on these previous orders and any other items you add to that person - Amazon will then recommend other gifts! I don't always agree, but it's really nice to just surf around sometimes, find a gift that would be *perfect* for _____. All I have to do is just click and it's saved until birthday/anniversary/Christmas!

Gift giving just became a whole lot easier.

PS. Even if you don't want to actually buy from Amazon, it could be helpful to set up the account anyway. You can always buy the stuff from another company - although in my experience, Amazon typically is the cheapest!

Um...

Today's blog is a reversal of my regular blogs. Today's blog is a gift that I am begging you NOT to buy anyone.

I like to think that my array of friends and family are quite diverse. I have some conservatives, some liberals, Christians, athiests, fairly normal and fairly not...but this one. I just can't imagine one person on my lists...no, I take that back. I can't imagine anyone, PERIOD that I would ever buy this for. Or anyone that I can imagine buying for me.

A belly cast??

Really???

I'm not sure I'm going to want to remember that forever. Don't get me wrong, I think baby bumps are adorable. But I'm pretty sure pictures will suffice. Where would you put your belly cast? On your kitchen table? In the foyer? How would you store it???

For $20, I can take a TON of pictures from every angle. I'm good.

So note to everyone, don't buy this for me. 'Kay?

Thanks.

In the works...

Check back at the end of June. I've just booked my husband's birthday present and it is going to be insanely awesome. His birthday isn't until July 5, but what I have planned only happens certain days each month. I gave him an option of June 21-25 or July 12-14 time frames.

I'll give you a sneak peak by telling you what hubby knows:

- Leaving Wednesday, June 22 after we both get off work. Destination: Teaneck, NJ (right outside NYC).
- Spending two nights at the Marriott Glenpointe
- Thursday morning/early afternoon we will be doing "birthday extravaganza surprise"
- Thursday evening will be spent hanging out in NYC.
- Home on Friday, before the city weekend rush starts.

What a few of my friends are saying:

"oh my. he is going to be in heaven. seriously. you will never have to worry about a divorce from this one simple present. hahaha"

"Seriously, I don't know if you will ever be able to top this gift!"