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One of my great mommy friends, Amy, told me about something a few months ago and I filed it in the back of my mind and forgot about it.  She had told me about a company that can take your blog and turn it into a book.  She didn't know the company's name, but knew that one existed.  I loved this idea and had been wanting to print out my blog and stick it in a binder since day one. 

I never really started printing it out, but the idea to have all my stories in a tangible form really appealed to me.  I love that I am keeping a day-to-day diary of our life and what the kids are going through.  From the mundane to the momentous, I am documenting most of it and I hope one day Ian and Sam will appreciate the opportunity to go back and read about their lives growing up. And in a more morbid view, I like that I am leaving something behind that I hope the kids will find special.  Something that tells them all the stuff we experienced (good, bad and crazy!) and just how much I loved them. 

About 2 weeks ago, the idea to turn my blog into a book popped back into my head.  I quickly googled "turning blog into a book" and about 4 different companies appeared on the search page.  I decided to go with Blurb and in about an hour, had downloaded the software, uploaded my blog entries and formatted the book.  It was super easy.  Since my blog is an ongoing, never-ending project, I decided to create volumes.  Volume 1 is May 2009 (the start of my blog) to December 31, 2009. Each January, I will create another volume of the previous year and order it.  I found the pricing to be incredibly reasonable.  156 pages, in 4 color, with an image wrapped cover (complete with photos on the cover and back cover) was only $60.  I'd probably pay more in printer ink if I printed out that many pages.

I love how easy it was to pick the dates of the blog to input.  It made each page a new blog entry (I had my choice to keep it continually flowing or create page breaks after each entry) and it included all the photos I used.  In addition, I could go through and edit or change any of the pages.  Actually, every aspect of creating this book could be customized to my heart's content.

I am very excited about this discovery and so pleased that I  started my Mommy Meltdowns volume set before too many years of material got written.  Many thanks to Amy for letting me know this was possible.



This is the cover I designed for Volume 1