The Photobook

I think I may have spent a post saying how wonderful digital scrapbooking is.
Quick, easy, convenient...

True, but it can also be expensive!

A month or two back I decided to get my butt in gear, and start working on my photos of Ireland. I knew I wanted to go digital...couldn't bring myself to even consider printing off a chunk of my thousands of pics.
I also knew I wanted the book to be 12x12. With so many pictures to document, they needed sufficient room.
I had lots of other criteria, but it will bore you. My point:

Turns out Shutterfly came the closest to my specifications. Not perfect, but the lesser of many evils.

I set up an account, and got to work.

For the last 2 weeks or so I've been working hard...no really. It is hard work doing these things.
Not like sweaty-brow hard work...mental and emotional hard work!

My patience has been tested with horrendous uploading times, failed uploads, pictures that won't fit the template, tiny spaces for text, and randomly bumping something that will delete the last hour's progress...you know the one.

Its also been really weird just going through all these old pictures, trying to remember names, places, and thoughts, from the time. I dug out a lot of old memorabilia for reference, and even cracked open my journal from that year. Whew! Emotional overload! I'm tellin' ya...this wasn't an easy project!

Once all the pictures and text were in place, it was time for the tedious work. Clicking page by page...checking that all fonts and font sizes were consistent, that they fit, were spelled correctly, spaced properly, etc. Also adjusting cropped pictures, and making some last-minute swaps.

It took hours...and hours...and hours...

When I knew there was realistically nothing else that needed to be done, I still couldn't click the "next" button. I was afraid.

Afraid that I missed a glaring error, and as soon as it was sent away I would remember and go, "OH NO!"...

and afraid of the price...

I knew roughly remembered how much the book would cost, with its 20 "complimentary" pages. But my book had reached about, well...would you believe me if I said it was 90 pages long? I could hardly believe it either. I didn't know how much those extra 70 pages were gonna cost me.

When I finally decided to get this other with, and went to the "checkout" I had another heart attack. I knew it wouldn't be cheap, but I wasn't expecting it to be quite THAT much!!! (I can't tell you the number, because I can't quite comprehend it myself). It was even 20% off, with some promotional deal going on.

It was a big dilemma. A BIG dilemma.
I began weighing the pros and cons. And thinking of alternatives...

But once the thought of, "Start over and scrapbook them the old-fashioned way" hit my brain, my mind was made up.

After all this time, my corneas bleeding from staring at the glow of the computer screen until the wee morning hours, uploading, typing, re-uploading, and re-typing...

All those hours, wasted?

I couldn't face it, guys.
I couldn't face having to start alllll over again.
So I clicked, "Order".

And that was that.

But get this...

THAT WASN'T EVEN ALL MY PICTURES!

I didn't put any of my backpacking trip in June in that book. Nada.

That's like...another 10,000 pictures! (not really, I don't know how many pics I have from that, but probably an equal amount)

For a second I contemplated starting another shutterfly book...but last night, I decided NO.

I will do them the old fashioned way.

Whether or not its cheaper in the long run, we will have to see. But since I already have a lot of paper, and all the basics needed, I think it will be a better deal.

That's what I'm telling myself, because I won't ever pay that much for a photobook ever again!