I have been spending a lot of time today resting. I keep moving my foot, and trying to stretch it a bit, but it's hard to remember.
All morning long, my youngest (who is home sick with me) has been watching Disney TV, running around taking pictures with my camera, and playing with her dress-up beads.
As for me, since I've firmly planted myself on the couch with some Aleve for my PF, I decided to go online to Shutterfly to work on my Christmas Cards.
Christmas Cards? It's only early November!
Ah, but won't the time fly, especially when I won't have this enforced time with nothing much to do once I head back to work next week.
I used Shutterfly this past May when I took a solo trip to Hawaii for my 44th birthday. Upon my return, I decided to make two photo books of my travels. I was totally delighted with how they turned out. One was a photo journal of the trip, and the second one I titled "The Art of Oahu", and it contained my favorite photos of the islands, grouped by subject--flowers, beaches, palm trees, people, and so forth.
That particular book is now on a display stand in my classroom, where I can see it every day. It's a nice reminder. I liked the books so much, I'm in the process of making two more about our move home to Maine this summer.
Today, however, my sights were firmly set on Christmas cards.
Last year, I had used Walgreens photo cards. I liked the fact that I could have a panel of four photos, and the price was reasonable, but I got something that resembled a photo rather than an actual card--you know the kind--and I decided this year, I wanted something different.
This past week, I found out about an offer for free shipping on orders over $30 for Shutterfly, so I decided to check out the cards.
What a great lineup they have! I went online to Shutterfly's Christmas card page, specifically looking for a folding card, which could handle more than four photos. I really wanted six or seven, if I could find a card that could accommodate that many. I was sorely tempted by their Holiday Story Cards, which allow you to chronicle your year right on the card, but eventually I decided to go for a straight photo card because I figured I'd just be writing a family Christmas newsletter, as I do every year.
I was very pleased when I found not just one option for multiple-photo layouts, but many. It turns out that Shutterfly has many different card layouts that will accommodate multiple photographs. The cards in this particular group, which stand in either portrait or landscape format, hold four or more photos apiece on the cover. And the prices are actually quite reasonable for personalized cards. I eventually chose "Merry and Glee" by Stacy Claire Boyd; the cost for the quantity I need to order (50) would be less than $1.50 a card, thanks to their current 20% off sale.
Add in my free shipping, and I just got a way better deal than if I'd gone to a brick-and-mortar retail store like Crane Paper Co. or Papyrus to order them.
Imagine my surprise and delight when, as I worked on putting my choice of pictures inside, I discovered I could write the inside greeting myself. There wasn't one cheesy "stock" greeting that you get stuck with. Instead, I could make a short or long comment, change the font, and even change the font size.
Then I noticed that I had an option to edit the top half of the card as well. When I clicked on it, I found that I could add more photos if I wanted, and more text, this time customizable by format, font style, and size. After experimenting around, I decided upon a six-photo inside spread with three good-sized paragraphs that cover the major events of my family for the year.
I mentioned this top-half photo-and-text layout option to my best friend a bit later, and sent her a screen shot to look at. She was impressed, then she asked me in surprise, "That didn't cost EXTRA?"
No, in fact, it didn't--the cards were still the exact same price.
What a godsend Shutterfly has turned out to be. Thanks to those three paragraphs I was allowed to write, the line at the bottom that I added with our updated contact information, and the twelve (TWELVE!!) photos I was able to put onto the card, this year--for once--I won't feel like I need to write a Christmas newsletter. It is a process that takes hours and hours of designing, writing, rewriting, revising, editing, and proofreading, not to mention the printing and folding. It also usually requires the purchase of at least one new color printer ink cartridge--often at an inconvenient time of night when the old one runs out unexpectedly and I'm in a time crunch.
Shutterfly actually just saved me a huge amount of time and money. I had lots of options to view, preview, edit, preview again, and tweak things around--the size/orientation of a photo, a word here and there--so that I am very happy that this is the best card I could possibly create.
So now I get to order them. The final cost should run about $70 for 50 cards, but again, that beats any other personalized folding 5x7 card, particularly when you add in the time and cost savings on that family newsletter.
<UPDATE: I just found out this afternoon that if you are a blogger like me, you also have the chance (like I now do!) to earn 50 free cards from Shutterfly, thanks to their current blogger promotion: Bloggers get 50 free holiday cards from Shutterfly… sign up: http://bit.ly/sfly2010! Wow! Shutterfly really does make my life easy!>
It will be nice to simply sign the cards, stuff them in envelopes, address and mail them. Of course...if I wanted to pay a buck extra per card, Shutterfly would actually do all that for me too--except the signing, of course. Still, I have a "thing" about cards that are printed with family greetings but not signed. I'm simply not interested in it.
So it has been a productive morning. My cards are done, I found my Christmas list, and if I buy some labels, I may even be able to just import my address book into labels and just print those out as well.
Now wouldn't that be a nice time-saver.
Of course, as long as I'm battling stomach flu and PF, I have the opportunity to get stuff like this done. It's the stuff that is important but not a priority, in my professional life at least, that really gets to me--that's the stuff that hangs over me and needles me with guilty feelings.
This has truly been a week out of time. Unfortunate and, at times, filled with bad news, it has also been, at the same time, a week of slowing down. It's been a week for reorganizing my head, taking a breath, and calming down; a week to myself that I have desperately needed since the whirlwind process of packing, moving, and launching into new jobs began late last July.
July. No wonder I've felt so frazzled and like I needed get away. I needed a week to chill out, settle down, get my head on straight, breathe, and just do nothing but watch pointless tv, read, and think. Just--calm.
For once, I feel like I have caught up to myself. I'm even blogging again...how's that for cool?
This gift-week was a week I wouldn't have gotten otherwise. So I guess there really is a positive side to everything, even to something serious like this stomach flu and PF. If it hadn't come along and smacked me down and made me stop and take care of myself, I would have been focusing on a class, or cleaning, or meals, or kids, or discipline--or even correcting, errands, or bills.
Not to say I haven't done some of that stuff. I have, but I've also...chilled. And took one day, today, with my toddler, to just reminisce about what it was like to be home all day with her once more.
LOL. Maybe it's time to think about making another trip to Hawaii. February might be nice.
Meanwhile, I have a lot to write about, don't I? Hawaii, Vegas, the move, and even our new Trader Joe's...not to mention the excitement of a day that starts at 6:15 a.m. and doesn't settle down until after I get home sometime after 5 p.m., when I still have to feed, bathe, and put to bed two kids. Plus there is my eventual plan for how I am going to fit exercise and fitness into that timetable...after the PF gets better, that is.
Definitely check out Shutterfly. You can send out cool cards with your own photos, all while saving yourself time, hassle, and money.
Oh...and that free shipping code? From the Shutterfly site itself:
Free shipping on orders $30+, Promo Code SHIP30
Until next time,
--Karina
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