blurb.

i don't know if you know but i love documenting. i have done some here and here and even played along here. and also this blog - a virtual scrapbook to my kids & husband about them and our life. love documenting. love telling our story in photo's and love photo's. we have over 25,000 documented in our ten years as a family. yikes i know. digital is the best thing that has ever happened. i was an avid film snapper as well but the costs at the end of the day were astronomical! ridiculous.
digital has definitely fueled the fire.
also most of the art in our house is family photo's captured to gaze at for years to come.

i have a crazy inclination to document everything in our life.

through this site and that one i stumbled upon photo books. beautiful glossy books produced by someone else to capture the essence of something. an experience. i love coffee table books that feature professional photographers images. the hard covers. the gloss. the beauty.
never did i think i could make one myself. never!

slowly but surely these companies that allow you to do such a thing are popping up. but they are all in the states. of course. nothing cool is ever in canada.....

YES THEY ARE!!!!

i found the company, blurb, a few months ago through elise's blog and i decide i had to have one. so i began exploring their site, seeing what their international shipping prices would be, what coupon specials were currently on the table and could i justify this in the end. in my travels through the fine print i stumbled upon something so exiting that i have to share it with you today.....THEY HAVE A DIVISION IN CANADA!!! there is no international shipping. there is actually something cool to order here and it's affordable!!!! i don't throw this around alot but - OMG!!

we had such an amazing new year's day and took some gorgeous photo's and i knew i wanted to create our first book from this day. i went to their site, used there book making software and by the end of the day i was done and it looked pretty perfect. it took me a while as i played around with the layouts - adjusting the box sizes, customizing the pages to suit us, going over it and over it. but you could be done super quick - it really is no muss no fuss. you just drag and drop your photo's. you can write text as well if you want. i choose not to. i just wanted the photo's to tell the story. and you if read it from front to back you see it. the story of the day is there.
and i think it's a pretty cool one.

{you are welcome to check out our entire book electronically here.}

happy book making!

the bonus: from now till the end of the month save 15% on your Blurb Photo Book purchase with the code SPRING15OFF. This offer is good for 15% off your product total up to a max discount of $150 USD, CAD & AUD, or 100 Euros. Each code may only be used once per user and on books made by you.  Offer expires at 11.59pm (local time) on March 31st, 2013. Offer may not be used in conjunction with any other offers, volume discounts or retroactively applied to any previous orders. 

Please note : this is NOT a sponsored post, but links throughout are affiliate links which means if you buy a book through one, I will make a small commission on that sale. Thanks! And have fun bookmaking!!

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while i was getting all hooked up with blurb I discovered a wonderful new site called Craftsy! Craftsy is the #1 spot for online crafting courses from the best instructors from around the world. They have courses in cake decorating, jewelry making, quilting, sewing, baking and more. Craftsy also offers free mini courses and great deals on craft supplies and patterns from indie designers. Check out Craftsy today and let me know what you think!
I am so excited to take some classes - i am already signed up for the bag making mini course and i have my eye on the gardening ones! i can't believe i never knew this was out there!!!!

happy crafting!