It's all a Blurb now.

Daniel gave me such a great gift for my b-day (the plant presses - see September entry) that I was in a fuddle about what to give him for his b-day in November.  When we returned from the big collecting trip a few friends, and Daniel, suggested that the blog be made into a book so it wouldn't ever be totally lost.  We trust Google, but...

A friend mentioned that there is great blog publishing software on line.  I looked into it.  I did find some that will print your blog but there is little freedom in layout etc. 

Then I found Blurb.  Blurb lets you publish a book so easily it is amazing.  It is a free software program you download to your computer.  It allows you to create a book easily.  I basically just cut and pasted my copy off the blog and drag and dropped the photos from Picasa or from iPhoto.  I resized the photos to make it visually more interesting than the blog.  The three-four month blog translated to a 160 page book.  I was amazed.  When my friend Doris said there was a book in my blog I did not think there was enough content.  Was I wrong.

So this is what it looks like.  I ordered one copy in hardcover.  Softcover would be less expensive.  Blurb recommends that you start with one to make sure it looks the way you envision it.  They are right.  I found so many typos...

I corrected the typos and ordered two more.  A total of three books printed.

So now there is a permanent record of the trip.  The flora...

And some of the bouquets I made.  I love that there is an option to create two color spreads..for impact! 

And single page spreads, and images that overlap...

So I am a fan of Blurb.  I think the books were about $75 each.  That's hardcover.  There are ways to save with different paper stock.  I am thinking of scanning family photos and making a Blurb book for my brothers of images from the family albums.  There is so much you can do and it really is easy. Not sure when I will be adding any more to the blog or even if there will be more trips.  But printing a book of the whole experience was very satisfying.  If you want a copy let me know and I'll set it up so you can order it on Blurb with no up-charge.