i.heart.shutterfly

Why don't we take a much need break from running posts and talk about my favorite online shop, mmmmk?  Before we delve right in, raise your hand if you have a Shutterfly account already.....good!  Now if you don't, go sign up now! It will change your life. :)

I am totally not a scrapper (that's what they call themselves, right?!). I've made two in my life - when I was head-over-heels in love with Nic as a newly graduated high school senior about to embark on a college adventure a whole 250 miles away from him. I took "our song" (I Wish You Were Here by Incubus) and plastered a bunch of photos from our 6 month relationship onto 30 or so pages. I made two identical books, one for him and one for me (I of course, kept the one that turned out the best).

Never again.  That is all just way to kitchy for me.  I am not a kitchy person.

So nearly 9 years later (omg - I have been with Nic for nearly 9 yaers!), Nic and I have wed and are the happiest we have ever been (puke).  Now we have actual memories that we want to preserve and in the age of digital cameras, we rarely print any of the 4,578,934,589 photos we take on a monthly basis (I am not turning into Barb, I am not turning into Barb, I am not turning...).

Enter Shutterfly.

Shutterfly's photo books are my favorite things ever! Sleek, clean, crisp, beautiful. On Christmas Day 2009 I surprised Nic with a photo book that I created using Shutterfly of our first year + together.  I love that photo book.  Actually, I stayed up one night and did the entire book.  It turned out so well that we decided we needed to make one for every year.

Of course I am now a year behind - as our 2009 book was just delivered the other day.  My goal is to complete our 2010 book before we head overseas on Christmas Eve.

Seriously, I love our photo books!  So much so in face I've decided that I am going to start doing some yearly racing photo books where I can keep track of all my runs in one place - and have a place (besides a shoebox) to put all my race bibs.

Here's a sneak peak of our 2009 photobook.  (Please disregard fat Kierstan...)



Love it.  I've flipped through it at least 5 times in 2 days.  If people cared enough about our lives, these photo books would make great Christmas gifts!  Maybe when/if we have kids, the grandparents would like to have a year in the life of little __________________ (insert cute name here) photo book.

Shutterfly also has a TON of great card designs for the holidays.  It might be too late in the game to get them for this season, but seriously, I've played around we a few designs and just love them!  Here are a few of my favorites:



I am thinking our families and friends will get a post European vacation photo card from us...you know, just to rub it in! "Hey - where were you on Christmas Day? Oh yeah? Well we were in PARIS! Frickin' Paris! Sitting in Notre Dame Cathedral that was just a stones throw from our apartment. Paris!"  Harhar, okay, I will try not to be that mean.  But look - they even have a Christmas card tempalte in French! :)



Another project that I am hoping to work on before we take off is a 2011 calendar.  I've never made one before because we always get one from Jackson - which is adorable.  But Shutterfly is going to make it easy for me to remember everyone's birthdays...because they have calendar templates where you can upload photos to a certain day reminding you of important events!  I LOVE THIS! These would make great gifts.

And then maybe someday, we'll be able to send out a photo card like this (Dear bosses - please don't worry, we will not be moving any time soon, we PROMISE!)



Alright, I think I have sung the praises of Shutterfly sufficiently.  Now go create!