Category: CAMERA

Project 52 into a photo book

Last year’s project “A portrait of my child, once a week, every week in 2013” has been a success! Although I started at week 3 I managed to carry on for the entire year and ended up with more than 52 pictures of Olivia. Between my inexperience and an ever more active toddler, not all of the pictures were great, but some were good enough to make it onto 30x20cm canvases.
But I really wanted a photo book to capture the changes into my daughter’s life throughout a year. Also, each week, together with the picture, I had made a note of some facts about Olivia’s life, her achievements and some funny stories. And I wanted to keep a record of that too.

I decided to go through Photobox, a trusted site I used many time before. The quality of their product is awesome, and if for any reason you are not satisfied, they’ll do whatever they can to meet your expectations.
I chose two different sizes for the books, a square spiral softcover one and a small soft cover one. The first one was for the grandparents, big photos and no text. Because the notes were written in English and they don’t speak English, I thought it was too much effort to translate everything in Italian. But they ended up with about 60 full pages (20x20cm) picturing their beloved granddaughter, and so far they have not complained a bit!

The smaller book was for us to keep. I liked it because it was rectangular (approx. 18x14cm) and perfect for fitting both pictures and text side by side. I used the same layout throughout, except where there was too much text to fit in and in that case I used a double page spread for just one week. Probably a bigger size would have been better, but surely not cheap.

The site was fairly easy to use, I uploaded all the pictures at once, chose the type of book and the layout for the cover and for the inner pages, and the book was automatically created. Of course you can make changes and move things around, change the colour of the background and so on.

To add the text I copied it first from my blog onto a word document, and then manually copied it onto the site in the text box available on each page. A bit tedious but well worth it.
Olivia loves looking at her pictures, and I’m sure she will appreciate reading through my notes once she’ll be old enough to do so.

Disclaimer: This is not a sponsored post. I’m just sharing my experience with Photobox because I love their products and used them many time before.

7/52

It’s week 7 and we are still eagerly waiting for this weather to get better! There has been a lot of indoor playing this week and a trip to the swimming pool with papa.
“A portrait of my children, once a week, every week in 2014”
Olivia: Sometimes during the day she has been asking to get to bed or the couch with the dummy and her beloved puppets, her favourite blanket and the light off and has been lying still for a good half hour. She has been suffering a bit with her back molars coming through, or it was just a cheeky way to get her dummy back during the day!
Baby-to-be: I’ll get a new picture soon!
Linking up with Jody from Practising Simplicity.

6/52

It’s week 6 and I’m playing catch up! I couldn’t get a decent photo over the past week and I tried to make up for it yesterday during my lunch break and last night at bath time. 
 
“A portrait of my children, once a week, every week in 2014”
Olivia: She still loves bath time (and so do I). She loves washing herself, including her hair (finally!). The tricky thing is getting her out of the tub when the water starts to get cold. Yesterday, I managed to persuade her with a face cream, which ended up everywhere on her body, hair included….she’s such a girlie girl!
Baby-to-be: We (well, it was just me!) heard the heartbeat for the first time, and it was nice to know everything is going well especially after my fall down the stairs a few weeks back!
And we have a new banner for this year’s project from one of my favourite artist, Oana Befort. Click on the sidebar to see all my previous posts.
Linking up with Jody from Practising Simplicity.

5/52

It’s week 5 and things are great! It’s still cold and wet, but the mornings are getting lighter and that is a good sign that spring will come, no matter how long winter will be.
 
 
“A portrait of my children, once a week, every week in 2014”
Olivia: She’s still obsessed over wipes, a lot! Sometimes they even replace her puppets when we go out or to nursery (like she did this morning). She knows where they are on the shelf at our local supermarket, and she goes straight there to pick a pack every time we go there. Fortunately, she has now found a new and better use than wiping herself, her puppets, or the floor, the walls and all our furniture: playing pick-a-boo! 
Baby-to-be: Nothing to report this week, except my daily food cravings and some tiredness in the evening, aka 7pm cat nap on the couch!
Linking up with Jody from Practising Simplicity.

4/52

It’s week 4, and I’m making some changes to this project. I’ve decided to include the “fruits of the womb” project in here as well, to keep track and record the week of both my babies. Hope it works!
“A portrait of my children, once a week, every week in 2014”
Olivia: She’s still enjoying bath time very much (and so do I!). She insists on washing herself, including her hair and loves singing while doing so; although the singing continues all day long.
Baby-to-be: He/she is still very quiet. I can feel my belly  growing almost daily, and my weird food cravings are being accommodated.
Linking up with Jody from Practising Simplicity.