Luke's Baby Book Series - The Beginning - Our Pregnancy and Birth Journal

Okay, if you have ever ordered from them before then I am confident that you already know what I am about to say....Shutterfly is happiness in a bright orange box! Especially when you spend lots of screen time sitting in front of your computer, organizing all of your pictures, playing around with the tons of different layouts and design elements they offer, you meticulously put it all together, hit submit and wait for it to arrive, and when it shows up at your doorstep it is exactly what you envisioned...or maybe even a little better!

I decided to create a photobook that would capture our entire pregnancy and birth story all in one place.  I always have these day dreams that someday I will get to sit with Luke and look through all of the pictures and show him just exactly how much he meant to us and how loved he was from the very first second we knew him in my tummy.  And then again when he's older to share it with the girl he loves and will want to marry and have his own incredible journey of life and love and hopefully some super cute babies with (but not until he's like at least 35, because I don't know that I will be ready for any of that to happen any earlier than that, lol)!

Here's a little peek at the book I made and below are some tips for getting it for the lowest price possible.

I started out with our pregnancy announcement - My precious dog daughter holding a sign that she was going to be a big sister...

And from there this book followed me through my first OB appointment, all of our ultra sounds, our BaBy-Q Baby shower, Maternity Pics, our family dinner the night before my scheduled c-section, LUKE'S BIRTH-DAY (!!!), the few days we spent in the hospital

and his first car ride when we brought him home. It is the beginning of his journey and this awesome adventure we have embarked upon as a family, all in one beautiful presentation.  I truly, truly cherish it.

I ended up getting a 12"x12" book with almost 50 pages of memories because I just kept adding more pages instead of narrowing down all of the pictures to fewer pages.

My plan is to do a "Year Book" for each year of his life going forward.  I can't wait to get started on my next one for his first year of life, since we have already experienced so many special moments with our little munchkin, and had some many experiences that make my heart feel like it may just burst when I think about them.

So here's where hopefully I am helpful in some way to anyone reading this....

YOU CAN SCORE SOME SERIOUS DEALS AND DISCOUNTS FOR SHUTTERFLY if you do a little looking around and practice a lot of patience!

I'm sure you've heard the old adage...."Patience is a Virtue." First of all, I learned that to get the best deal, you need to finish your project and have it ready to go...and then you wait.  This is where the patience part comes in. I waited 6 weeks before I felt like I had finally amassed enough discounts and deals to make out like a bandit. Then I took my already finished draft and clicked submit. So work on your book or collage or whatever it may be, get it perfect and ready to print, and then save it for all of the deal stars to align.

As for the discounts and deals, when I was pregnant I signed up for all of the little freebie business reply mail stuff that I got in baby magazines, and online, and I always registered any baby product we purchased by filling out the little postage paid card and mailing it back. And let me tell you, it was worth the 30 seconds it took each time!  We got tons of free stuff: Coupons, offer codes, formula, little insulated bags, bottles, even a $40 gift card to go out to eat at Olive Garden or Red Lobster because we were new parents! But here's where the Shutterfly part comes in...we got probably 5 different offers or coupon books sent to us from Shutterfly for baby books and such.

If you save all of these, plus sign up for their emails to be alerted of sales and specials, plus look online on the numerous coupon and deal code websites that have popped up out there you can usually use them IN COMBINATION with each other....yes, not just limited to one per transaction, but in combo when I did it, and save a lot of money!  On top of all of those options, I also bought a Groupon that I could apply towards the cost of my book, and I waited and waited and waited until I saw that they were running a sale, and then BAM! I took my finished book that had just been waiting patiently in cyberspace and clicked purchase, typed in all of my codes, used my Groupon, snagged the sale price and saved myself over $100! You read that correctly....ONE HUNDRED DOLLARS!

I am keeping my fingers crossed that all of you are able to create something you love as much as I love my first try at a photobook.  And hopefully you are able to take some of my tips and tricks and get something beautiful for a lot less money than you would have otherwise spent!

As always, thank you so much for reading. I appreciate that you have taken the time out of your day to check out my blog!

Time Flies and life passes by much too quickly...a little update...

WOW! I started this blog back in 2011 and I had the best of intentions of posting all of the time.  I thought oh this will be easy to just write up a quick little post, snap some pictures to go along with it, send it out there into the world and go about my busy day.  Well back then I was working full time, running a household, being social when I had extra time and always taking on new projects here and there.....all of which didn't really jive well with having the time I needed to devote to posting regularly. I was actually chuckling because when I logged in I re-read my about me and it was like I was reading about a stranger, not myself and the "about me" I associate myself with now.  I was a busy working girl who had just gotten engaged, and was about to begin planning a wedding.

Well to bring you up to speed and show just how long it's been since I last posted...I planned a wedding, got married, got pregnant, had a baby, and have been home raising that precious precious baby for the past 10 months, and began working on the start of my own business! So it's safe to say it was time to update my about me ;)

As you can see, life took over (which I am sure everyone can relate to) and so many things kept getting moved higher on the priority list that my short lived blogging days always just fell by the wayside.

So for the past few months I have been thinking about my blog on here and how lonely it must be getting without me checking on it EVERRRR.  I decided to login today and when I did I couldn't believe it! I actually had thousands of views on my previous posts! PEOPLE READ WHAT I WROTE! And on top of that, I had a few comments! WAIT, so you're telling me that people not only somehow found my blog (side note: Pinterest is really to thank I think for pointing folks in my direction), and read what I wrote, but they ALSO COMMENTED! No freaking way! How cool is that??!?!

So I am vowing to myself that I am going to try to be more diligent when it comes to keeping up with my posts. I have had so many amazing things happen in the past few years.  I have had some incredible celebrations with lots and lots of cute DIY and fun ideas that I want to share with others so that you all can maybe get inspired and use some of it for important moments in your own lives.

I opened up drafts of the following upcoming topics and I hope they will serve as inspiration for others to stretch your creativity muscles, I plan to start working on these topics over the next few weeks (who am I kidding, it will probably be months):

• My Parisian Themed Bridal Shower
• Our Wedding - LOTS of DIY and also links to my Etsy.com store where I sell many of the items featured in my wedding
• Blush Pink and Doily Themed Champagne Brunch
• And Baby makes Three! - All about our little munchkin Luke and our journey to becoming parents (I am so excited now to also be able to share with fellow and future mommies my thoughts and ratings on baby related items, something I relied heavily upon when planning and shopping)
• BaBy-Q Baby Shower
• Our Pregnancy and Birth Photo Journal - Featuring my Shutterfly photobook I made and some tips on how to save big on your own!
• I started a Boutique! - Yes I Did! Or at least I am trying to, and learning the ropes of being in business for myself (first thing I have learned...Quickbooks is HARD and I may need to go back to college to understand it lol)

Check out my boutique on Instagram: shopfrillsboutique and on Facebook: Frills Boutique, and once the website is finished I will be sure to post an update!

So hopefully I will be able to block out some time every once in a while to write a new post, share a new project or party (my friends and I LOVE a good outfit and a good party....and trust me, between all of us, we have lots of both), or just post a few quick pics that you can use for your own special occasions.  

As always, thank you so so SO MUCH for reading (apparently there are more of you that check this out than I ever realized), I truly appreciate it!