How to create and print your own album with Blurb

When we left Switzerland I decided I wanted to make an album so we can remember all the experiences we had there. Both Andre and I love photos. He really enjoys taking the photos and improving his photography. I don't have the patience for that, but I enjoy the editing and everything else that comes after pressing the shutter button.

So imagine how many photos I had after 11 months in Switzerland. And also with it being such a beautiful country. You can't help taking so many photos! There's the mountains, lakes with crystal clear water... Now I'm missing all that a bit!

So anyway, I was going to tell you about Blurb.

It's very easy to use. You download their software called Booksmart. I usually watch all the tutorials I can find before starting anything new as it just helps you to use it to it's maximum and not miss out on any nice editing tools.

Import your photos to Booksmart by either dragging it there, searching for it on your computer or getting it straight from iPhoto if you use this, which is what I did and found the easiest.

Then you just drag photos onto the pages of your album and that's it basically!

You can change page layouts by clicking on 'edit page' if you cannot find the exact layout you want in the templates. I used this for most of my pages. Changing the layout slightly to get it the way I want it. This way you can add text boxes where you want in the size you want and can have a mixture of portrait and landscape layouts on one page.

When you're done, upload your album to Blurb and order it!

The only only thing I missed in Booksmart was being able to rotate picture frames. Sometimes you want a more informal look and have pictures stacked at angles to each other on the page. That you can't do with this program.


Before starting my Switzerland album I made a small album of our wedding (both of them!) and our honeymoom (again, both honeymoons!). I also added some pictures of the bachelor(ette) parties. Since we already have a beautiful big album of our January wedding day and reception taken by our photographer, this time I used pictures taken by guests at our wedding so it's a more informal fun wedding album. Oh yes, I even have some engagement photos in there as well, so it really tells the whole story!

I did this to check what Blurb's printing and colour and quality would be like. I chose the smallest and cheapest album they had, which was only around £7, as a test. Their prices are reasonable. The printing turned out very good and I am very impressed and happy with my albums. I eventually (after more than 6 months!) finished my Switzerland album too which I ordered in hardcover.

Here is the link to my book on Blurb: A Year in Switzerland. If you click on the book you should be able to view the inside pages.

So yes, I would recommend using Blurb. Good quality, good prices and user friendly! And it is possible to create an album in 30 minutes instead of the 6 months I took!

All Things Sweet

As part of the business Charlene and I have started (we have three parts to it!) we are baking what we call Petite Sweets. Mini cupcakes, completely edible so no paper wrapper, and so much better than a normal cupcake. We have a secret ingredient inside!

Yesterday we had an appointment with the food inspector. We did a lot of research before starting and found out that we have to register as a food business. Anyone selling anything edible has to register. And so the food inspector came to inspect our premises and see what we do.

I can tell you that we passed with flying colours. :-)

He was impressed that we already had the file called "Safer Food Better Business" and had worked through it and filled in everything that applied to our business. It tells you about hygiene, cooking, cooling, freezing and storing food and many other things. He had brought such a file with to give us but we were already one step ahead of him!

He was also impressed that we had one kitchen cupboard designated for all our business baking ingredients so it was separate from other food in the kitchen.

He also told us about 'Scores on the Doors' where restaurants are given stars, 5 stars being the highest, for hygiene. You can go to the site, type in a restaurant name and it will tell you their score. We won't be on there as we're only a small business, but it was interesting to hear about and I've already checked out a few places where we've eaten.

Here's the link to our website All Things Petite. Click on All Things Sweet to see what we're baking.

Blogging Time vs Business Time

I don't know where time is flying to. I am really trying to make time to write blog posts, but I'm hardly getting time anymore to read the blogs I follow. And I feel like I'm missing out. Some of these bloggers like The Pioneer Woman blog everyday so I really need to keep reading to keep up with her!!

I used to have facebook time and then blog time after that every morning. Not so anymore. I'm a business woman now! Working hard but not earning money yet! Yet.

I promise next time I will tell you about our new business and share the website with you. Promise promise. But I need more time to write a special post to introduce it to you and I need to go have dinner in two minutes! I made a spinach quiche. With mushrooms and bacon and feta. I think Andre put some extra cheese over too.

But here's a sneak peak screenshot of our new home page:

We're working on getting it to the front of the google line, but go google so long and see if you can find it. Don't forget to leave me a comment if you do find it! Tomorrow we'll add some more tags to hopefully bring it up easier in a google search.

Now go google!

zoom zoom

Yay! I have my own car now! Andre bought me this cute little MX5 on Friday. Not a spur of the moment buy, we did look at 12 MX5's the past two weeks before buying this one.

We've had plenty of opportunity this weekend to drive it around with the top down.

On Friday (Andre took the day off :-) we drove south to Hayling Island. To the beach. A nice long drive. It was just a bit windy down there. But that didn't bother us too much, we still had the top down!

I will be enjoying the freedom of being able to drive around where I need to go this week.

Mom and Jürgen's first visit to us here in the UK

We my mom and Jürgen up at the airport on Friday, a few weeks ago already.

I love going to the airport, even if I'm not the one going on holiday. They came to stay for the weekend.

Saturday we took the train to London. It was fun going on the train with them. In the past 6 months that we've been living here I have only been on the train three times, including this outing. For some reason I don't like going on the train here. It just scares me. In Switzerland I used the train every day and loved it. It was so easy. Anyway. I'm getting a car tomorrow so I can avoid the trains. Not that there are any close to us anyway.

So we arrived at Waterloo station and started walking and walking and walking.

We saw the changing of the guard at Buckingham Palace. My first time seeing this. There were so many people all over town. The handful of other times I've been to London I've never seen it this busy.

We had a drink at the Sherlock Holmes Pub. Drink stops were necessary to rest our tired legs.

We went to Harrods (very large and famous department store), another first for me. It was huge and we only had a quick walk around there and then went for a cake break to rest again at a coffee shop inside Harrods. We'll have to take my sister here. But maybe I'll have to keep her money safe for her.

We ended the day with dinner at a restaurant close to Tower Bridge. It was such a beautiful evening.

Sunday we went for lunch at a pub, one I think I've written about before. It's called The Anchor, in Wisley and is right on a lock so you get to see the long boats coming through.

We were very lucky that it didn't rain on Saturday while we were in London. It felt like it rained the entire month of August! But not that weekend. Except for a few drops while at the pub on Sunday. It didn't stop anybody from sitting outside though!

Windsor Horse Races

It was my first time ever to go see horse racing. We bet a little bit for fun, but it was more fun just being there, watching the people, and the horses of course. It was not a big fancy do with hats and all, you could dress as you like, but I took the opportunity to at least dress up a little bit. 

Charlene and I studied the horses, trying to pick one that could win us some money. We didn't win anything, but enjoyed the Pimms.

The parade ring where the horses, well parade, before they start the race. 

This one had a fancy hair cut.

Number one decided he had done enough parading and wanted to get started.

At the finishing line, waiting for the horses to come past. Farryn is getting heavier now so we conned Andre into holding her for a while.

Time to catch up

I have so much to write about, but I just don't seem to have as much time as I had in Switzerland! It's great though, having more to do, more friends to see. I just made a list of all the things I need to blog about, so maybe today I'll be able to do some catching up. Although I have to go out in a little while (I have the car today!!), still have another load of washing to do and try to vacuum the house too.

It's been a very wet August, with rain all day long almost every day. It just kept coming down.

But it seems September might be better. We've had the most beautiful blue skies all week and I just hope it will last for the weekend too.

One good thing with all the rain, our lawn is looking so much better. Greener. And the bald patches are getting smaller.

Here's a before:

And an after, or rather now:

The gardening is not yet completed and we need to do some more work before winter I suppose. We also need to clean out the garage from all the daddy long leg spiders before it gets too cold to work in there. We were going to do that on Monday. It was a public holiday on Monday. But it was also our two year anniversary so we thought it better not to clean the garage on our special day. We went to a pub for drinks instead.

Things I still need to tell you about and pictures I need to show you:

1. My mom and Jürgen's visit which was already 2 weeks ago. They're on their way to my sister in California right now.

2. The Windsor horse races we went to last Saturday.

3. The berries I picked in our garden and what I made with it.

4. Some photo shoots Andre did.

5. And the new business ventures Charlene and I are planning. This one you'll have to wait for until I can show you our completed website. Almost there!