Life according to Thess

Preparing for Easter!

Ever since I was a kid, the thing I love most about Easter, is the candy-filled Easter Egg! The bigger, the better! When I was single, I made them for my nephews and myself. When I met my husband, I made them for my stepson, my nephews and myself. Now, I make them or buy them every year for our staff - and myself! Sometimes I buy empty eggs and fill them with my (of course) favourite candy! And other times I buy them readymade. Today I bought clear, plastic eggs with brightly coloured ribbons and feathers. They were already filled with all kinds of chocolate! One for every member of staff - and one for me!

Keeping up with Project365/6!

I'm kind of proud of myself for keeping at this! It's much easier than I anticipated - much thanks to my iPhone! I downloaded an app that reminds me to take my daily pic, and only pics from my phone are used for these pages!

 

 

 

 

 

I'll never be cheap again...

A couple of days ago, I ran out of my moisturizer. I've been buying this lovely Chanel creme for my face for about a year now. It's disgustingly expensive, but I love it and so does my face! Several of my friends, and my husband, have asked me why I buy this "expensive-as-gold" creme and if it is really necessary? "There are so many good and inexpensive ones out there!"...

So, when my jar dried up completely Saturday-morning, I decided to go buy something else. Sunday, I remembered this when I visited a drugstore, and decided to buy a brand I know several of my friends use. At a price that equals 20% of the cost of "my" jar...

Didn't use it until Monday-morning, just before we left the house on a very cold and windy day. A couple of hours into my workday, I go to talk to my husband and one of our employees. They stare at me and my husband asks me if I've looked into a mirror recently... Or if I'm feeling hot in any way... I said that I did feel a little warm, but figured the A/C was down again and no use complaining...

My face was all red and blotchy!!!

I almost never use make up on a "normal" day, so we could rule that out. Same soap, schampoo and laundry detergent as always. The only thing I'd changed was my face creme!!!

An hour later, I was the proud owner of a brand new jar of my lovely Chanel moisturizer again! Courtesy of my dear husband!

Working on several books

I'm trying my best to get a number of books done right now. Some of them have been in the works for years now... The book on my sister's friend's wedding is nearing completion, but I can't show anything until it's done, printed and delivered to the couple!

My book on our trip to Kenya and Zanzibar in 2007 is finally going well! I'm halfway done and really enjoying working with all those photos!

Our trip to Barcelona and the Med Cruise last fall is also coming along nicely. Might be done any day (or week) now!

Both these books are mostly made with products from DesignerDigitals.com. Almost every page is made with templates by Lynn Grieveson and a couple by Katie Pertiet. All papers, alphas and most of the embellishments are also by various designers at DesignerDigitals. All styles are by Thao Cosgrove or Amanda Fraijo-Tobin at ScrapGirls. Some embellishments, doodles and brushes by either Anna Aspnes (Oscraps) or Kate Hadfield (The LilyPad).

I'm doing Project 365(+1) this year!

Well, I've tried before... But flunked out miserably quickly... With the iPhone, I have an app that reminds me to take a daily photo and I always have a camera with me - no excuses!!! I know that 2012 is not very old yet! But I have managed to keep up this far! All 28 days! I've even made weekly pages of my photos! I wasn't planning to, but the ladies over at DesignerDigitals.com are such enablers... I simply couldn't resist when I saw all their lovely weekly layouts! I've decided to keep it fairly simple. Otherwise I will start looking at this as a chore and not something fun. I'm using templates by Pattie Knox and papers by Katie Pertiet, both at DesignerDigitals. Here are my first 3 weeks:

We gave in...

...and got ourselves iPhones... iPhone4 to be exact. Black for him - White for me.

I've had mine three weeks now and I have to confess - I'm in love!!!

I love the easy to use contacts, calendar and notebook! Adore the easy to download apps for just about everything! Weather, news, exchange rates and so on. I play "Angry Bird" on it a little too often...

But the things I love the most are the camera apps! Instagram and Hipstamatic have quickly become total addictions for me. I have some other too, but these are the ones I use most frequently. Luckily for me, others are quite addicted too. And Cathy Zielske has made some fab templates to use for digiscrapping your phone-/instagram-pics!

I made this LO with some of my instagram shots:

 

Credits: Template-freebie from Cathy Zielske's blog. Everything else from DesignerDigitals.

I'm back...

I really am the worst blogger - EVER!!!

So, what have I been up to? From February through April, I was on tour with dear husband. Seeing Sweden in a very wintry outfit and selling t-shirts. May took me on a weekend-trip to Paris with Sussie (book to follow). June brought my sister home from Seattle, for almost 6 weeks!!! And now, in July, touring has begun again.

I'm trying to catch up at the office. I'm trying to ignore the problems with my parents. I'm trying to finish some scrapping projects. I'm trying to have a life...

Well, maybe some day things will be "normal" for me! Whatever "normal" really is?!

Here's my Shutterfly-book on our Paris-trip:

 

Click here to view this photo book.

Shutterfly vs. Blurb

I've been reading so many posts all over the digiscrapping community about different places to print books, and their pros and cons!

Living in Sweden, my first priority has always been to find a company that actually delivers to Sweden! There are a couple of businesses that do photobooks here, but I find their quality quite poor, and since I do my pages from scratch in Photoshop, I also need full bleed-pages and a square format. Not an easy order in my country...

In 2007, I ordered my first 12x12 Photobook from Shutterfly in the States. It was beautiful, but a couple of pages came loose right away. I contacted Shutterfly, and their customer service arranged for me to have a new copy a.s.a.p. Over the years, I've stayed with Shutterfly and the main reason has been their excellent customer service! Because I have had some problems with some of my books - like wrong color and glue on the pages - but they've always taken care of me! I've made 7 different books with Shutterfly and I'm very happy with the results!

I heard of Blurb several years ago, but at that time they didn't make a 12x12 book. Now they do. They also make books bigger than 100 pages! I haven't had the need for that yet, but I will as I'm working on books covering entire years and not only special occasions/trips.

So, I decided to conduct my own, very personal, survey.

I simply ordered the exact same book from Blurb, as I had recently ordered from Shutterfly! I figured that would give me the best insight...

With Blurb, I chose the ImageWrap Cover and Premium Paper (Lustre finish). It came to 94 pages, since they add some copyright- and logo-things. This is the only thing I dislike about Blurb...

The book-total was $113,95. The same book at Shutterfly (90 pages) was $159,99. This is without shipping. Shipping from Blurb was much less, since they printed and shipped within Europe. Shutterfly prints and ships from the US. So, Blurb is cheaper! BUT - I ordered two copies of that book from Shutterfly (for family) and got a 50% discount on the second book, which made them cost $119,99 each instead! Only $6 more than Blurb...

Now to the quality:

The Premium paper I chose with Blurb feels just like the Shutterfly-paper. I think the colors came out just the same in both books - no difference at all! The binding seems to hold up just fine in both. My husband and I have both looked through them a couple of times and given a little tug here and there!

I really like the matte cover of the Blurb-book and find the images a little bit sharper than the ones on the glossy Shutterfly-cover. But my husband is sceptical to the matte cover and thinks it will stain and become more worn, quicker.

The verdict:

I will stay with both!

Shutterfly will still be the place where I print my books on special occasions and trips. Books that are less than 100 pages! I don't mind paying a little bit more, and with Shutterfly's frequent coupons and promotions - you can easily get very good prices on your books! And dear husband will get his glossy covers!

Blurb will be the place where I print my Yearbooks! But I will have them made with the black linen-cover and printed dust jackets. I will also use Blurb if I need to do a book on a special occasion that requires more than 100 pages!

 

Shutterfly-book on Rhodes done!!!

Click here to view this photo book.

My Birthday Today!

Facebook is a pretty fantastic phenomenon! I can't help but think so... It is what you let it be. Some people let FB run their lives, or live their lives on FB. I think that might be a tad too much! ;-) But I think it is a wonderful way to keep in touch with people you really want to keep in touch with - but frankly don't have the time to do it!!! I mean, in today's society, it is hard to get time to stretch out for everything you want to fit in to a specific timeframe... Even I, who don't have any kids, find spare time to be a luxury! I like that FB enables me to keep in touch with people I like, but really don't have the time for calling or writing e-mails/letters to.

Like today - it's my birthday! It's not an even one and I shouldn't really care (too old for that), but I think it's fun to see all the old and new friends, business acquintances and family writing messages and greetings for me! My scrapping friends from all over the world, my childhood-friends from Mölltorp and Karlsborg, my stepson, my nephews, their friends, friends my husband and I have made through our travels, friends I made during my years in the restaurant-business and people I've met through my present work! It's an amazing cross-section of people that can't help but amaze me... I know so many wonderful and interesting people from all walks of life!!!

Had I been more religiously inclined - I would have thanked some higher power. Now I simply thank all my friends and acquaintances since You are what I am grateful for!

Even if this birthday was originally planned to take place on a sandy (and hopefully sunny) beach in Thailand, but now is mostly spent at the office in a very grey Gothenburg - It's a good Birthday!