We’re working on hanging our new pendant lights so we’ll be back to share those pics in the morning. In the meantime, let’s talk about something people ask about all the time: photo storage. Ever since seeing Katie Bower’s family photo book two summers ago, we’ve been drinking the photo book Kool-Aid – starting with our very first Family “Yearbook” that we made last summer (you can read about that here). And now that another year has wrapped up, well, let’s just say this arrived last week:
It’s one big glossy photo book stuffed to the gills with all of our family photos from 2011. Except the perk is that while it has around 600 photos, it’s only about a half-inch thick. Which is awesome for storage purposes (way less cumbersome than thick overstuffed photo albums that only hold 100-200 pics each). We ordered it through MyPublisher and thanks to a promotion they were running for free extra pages, we got to max out their page limit (100) and pay nothing extra. The discount (which has ended since we received our book – but they tend to pop up pretty frequently) actually saved us $79! And we’d easily pay $44.99 to print all those pics (not to mention having to buy a bunch of albums to put them in) so a photo book can actually end up being quite the deal. And no, they didn’t pay/perk us to write this, we just like our photo books. Haha.
We did our last “yearbook” way after the fact (like mid-2011), so it took a bit of backtracking to organize all of the photos. But for 2011 we planned ahead and kept all of our photos in one iPhoto album (which automatically kept them in chronological order for us), which is why it only took a couple of weeks into the new year to actually get this one done. So let’s take a quick look through all one hundred pages… just kidding. We’ll just take a peek at some of the highlights – like our opening page that we edited to include some text to summarize some of the, well, highlights from the past year. We think we’ll love looking back on it (and having a summary of the whole year on one page).
We also tried to group big events, holidays, and milestones – like the several spreads of Clara’s 1st birthday party. Check out how dark our kitchen was in the bottom left corner!
We also used the preset page designs to give some really special photos the layouts they deserved, like the ones Katie B. snapped when we visited the Bowers in June.
And since it’s not hard for these albums to turn into a Clara-fest, we paid special attention to making sure Burger got plenty of love as well. He even scored a few dedicated pages throughout (every album needs a good Burger-montage or three).
We also thought it was fun to put all of the photos we took for our Blogiversary “Day In The Life” post into the yearbook in order. That way in 15 years we can look back and sort of remember what a normal day was like way back when…
We nearly ran out of pages by the time we got to Christmas (darn 100 page limit!) but managed to make room. Heck, we even squeezed in a collage of a bunch of our holiday card outtakes. Yeah, we’re kind of into our kiddos.
So since we’re on a family yearbook high – especially now that our collection is two albums strong! – we’re already excited to make the 2012 version.
But because that’s not possible yet (unless we want it to be 3 pages long) we’re thinking that we may try to organize our old digital photos and make one or two books that’ll hold all of the photos from 2005 (when we met) to 2008 (right before our 2009 album picks up). Maybe we’ll work on those books once a certain manuscript is in the can.
Oh yeah, and here’s our favorite photo bomber again, just trying to get in on the action.
Anyone else making photo books or albums to document the past year? Or any other event or period of time? We’d love to hear other systems people have for organizing and displaying their family photos.
Lauren says
Have you tried any sites besides MyPublisher? I used Shutterfly for some gifts once but am curious about your opinions on MyPublisher (and I have seen the website where the person ordered on from every place!).
YoungHouseLove says
We just heard great things from more savvy photographers who seem to prefer mypublisher, so we wonder if their quality is the best? We certainly love how they look!
xo
s
Cassidy says
What website is that? I’d love to see actual side by side comparisons!
YoungHouseLove says
We just read other blogger reviews and know one photographer who prefers it! Not sure what they were comparing it to, just said they liked my publisher best.
xo,
s
Lauren says
It is a few years old but here’s the site I was talking about:
http://www.digitalhomethoughts.com/news/show/97676/the-great-photo-book-round-up-review-who-makes-the-best-photo-books.html
YoungHouseLove says
Cool! Thanks for sharing!
xo,
s
Carly says
I absolutely LOVE this idea and will be “stealing” it for sure. We’re having our first baby in about 10 weeks and I love the idea of a yearbook.
Ann L says
Such a cute idea and definitely one I’m going to steal when we eventually start a family! If you ever need to go over your 100 page limit, check out Blurb.com. I’ve used them for our photobooks in the past and the quality is awesome and you can get up to something like 450 pages!
YoungHouseLove says
Woah- that’s amazing!
xo,
s
Angela @ Happy Fit Mama says
I’ve been doing this with each of my kids since they were born in 2010. I break it up into 6 month time frames so it’s a whole book dedicated to 6 months of their life. They(and I) love to look at them all the time!
Sophie says
I delved into photo book creation recently. I’ve yet to attempt making one online (I’m still a print and stick kinda gal I think) but the one that I made was for my best friend. We’re college freshmen and hew new school five hours away from me and all our old friends.
So for her birthday back in December, I made her a big book of photos of all of us across the 7 years we’ve known each other.
I think I might make one online next time, but I think handmaking this one was just a little bit more special for her. She cried, I cried. Great birthday ^_^
allison says
I am on my second year of doing the same thing!!!
I have SO many photo albums that take up so much space, I started with the much smaller photobooks to document the year after looking at old high school yearbooks and thinking what a great idea to leave for your children! (I dont have kids yet – but one day).
JSi says
I started doing this years ago, and it saves me so much space! My Publisher is by far my favorite site. Even though it’s really convenient to use the album feature in iphoto, I just can’t bring myself to give up My Publisher. You guys did a great job with your album from the looks of it, and WOW, talk about a great promo!
Rebecca says
Do you save all the digital files used in the book on one DVD or CD so all the photos are saved together? If you look back at a photo book five years down the road and want to print and frame the photo on page 12, would you know exactly where to find the jpg file? This is the organizational thing I have the most problem with!
YoungHouseLove says
Nah, that would be really organized though! I think my publisher saves the books for a long time so you can go back and reorder them layer if you’d like. We just saved the folder in iphoto that was our 2011 folder (all backed up on flickr too in case our house flooded/caught on fire, etc).
xo,
s
Kristen says
I’ve been working on a photo book for over a year! It’s ridiculous! We went on a two week adventure in Europe and wanted a book with all our photos. We’d planned to put little captions in but I think if we ever want it printed the captions are going to get the boot. Love your yearbooks!
Tara G. says
I do all our albums through an online company- if the movers wreck one, I can claim it and simply order a new one (we’re military). I’m a little behind- that’s what happens when you make a bunch of moves and through more kids into the mix! But there was a time I was able to put pages together monthly and then order. We have at least 2 books/year.
Amy @ Lovely Nest says
I really love this idea! Since it’s early enough this year, I might try to get organized now so it will be easy to make one for 2012!
Alan says
Love this idea!
marci lambert says
i’ve been using Kodak Gallery for the past 5 or so years to make a “Year in Review” album that i give to all the grandparents (and keep one for us). they LOVE it. since they all live far away they feel like they can keep up with what the girls are up to. and my girls love to sit down with them and look back. i’m sure clara will love having these when she’s older.
YoungHouseLove says
So sweet! I love that idea!
xo,
s
Kate @ zMOMbie says
Fabulous. This was one of the things I had on my resolution list for this year. I made photo books for our wedding, but want to do the yearbook thing.
Carla Mahony says
Your 2009/2010 yearbook inspired me to make my own family yearbook for 2011. We received it sat week and I am obsessed with it, it’s gorgeous if I do say so myself!! Like you guys, I am already inspired to do the 2012 version. So thanks for a great idea, everyone I have shown loves it and I think it may be inspiring many other family yearbooks all the way Down Under ;)
YoungHouseLove says
Aw, that’s so sweet Carla! So glad!
xo,
s
Lauren M. says
I love this idea for a yearly project! It will give me something to do with all of the pictures that I take, store and never see again :)
LrnMDesign.com
Bree says
Mine should come back tomorrow!! Here’s ours: http://www.blurb.com/bookstore/invited/2367642/384af9b9f6ced3444c1dc6ffd10fbcdd9d2a57cc
Loved your yearbook!!
YoungHouseLove says
Wahoo! I love all the links you guys are sharing. Fun!
xo,
s
Jenn says
I really love this idea – this is gonna sound crazy, but I never really thought of doing a photo book to keep for ourselves. I have made photo books for Christmas/Mother’s Day/Father’s Day presents many many times, but never just one to keep! I did make my husband one for Father’s Day, but I think it would be nice to make one for myself with older pictures. For some reason I had this weird block about going back farther than the past year.
Thanks for the why-didn’t-I-think-of-that moment!
Amanda says
Oooh! This is SO awesome!!!!! I’ve been meaning to do something with our wedding pictures since, well, I got married a year and a half ago!
Hopefully your inspiration will get me on it, so that we can finally have a finished wedding album!!
Allison says
I just made one to use as my wedding guest book. It just shipped yesterday and I can’t wait to see it!
maria says
I love photobooks, and the ones from MyPublisher come out so gorgeous. We made our first one recently as a wedding album! It came our gorgeous and is easy to store and pass around for everyone to look at! I may just have to hop on the family yearbook train now that my husband, dog and I all share a last name!
Lindsay says
I made a photo book for our wedding and used Mixbook.com. I loved it! It was all online so could be done on any computer and it even had where you could change the backgrounds and add stickers – flowers, sayings, etc. And I love all the promotions they run. I still want to do one for all the pics of us as a couple until the wedding but just haven’t had the time!
They even have wedding restoration albums. I did a wedding album for my parents as a surprise where I scanned the photos and recreated their wedding album! I even did it as a Christmas gift for one of my cousins that has been married for 20 years.
Erin says
This is something I want to try! Printed photos + blank albums = more time and money and space on my shelf, although I’ll still treasure my older printed photos in their albums and my big high school scrapbook. This reminds me of a project I did a few years ago with my sister when she was about 9. We took some stuffed animals, made up a story about them, then took pictures that illustrated the story and I put it all together in a book using Blurb! Such a good memory, and not too expensive!
Petra says
I just ordered four photobooks (MyPublisher) last night! I took last minute advantage of their Valentine’s Day Sale (50% off Deluxe Books). Can’t wait for its arrival! I was only an hour away (Pacific Time) from missing the deadline…next time I’d love to be more prepared like you were for this year book! ;-D
merylrose says
I make a photobook each year for my boyfriend of all the house projects we do and I narrate it with my blog and his website. I also include fun stuff that we’re able to fit in between the house work. So far our books have been 160 pages each time (largest blurb allows with premium paper). They are totally fun to look back on and a great journal of work, PLUS the slim storage is fantabulous!
http://picardyproject.blogspot.com/2011/02/picardy-vol-2.html
Jimmy says
We want to do one of these so bad, but man it seems daunting right now – especially being so late. Our son was born in October 2010, so we’d really like to get one of his first year. He was two months preemie, which meant a month stay in the hospital where – aside from grandparents – all our friends and family could only see him through pictures. That meant we took probably thousands from that time alone.
I can’t even begin to think about narrowing it down. Put it on the project list…
amanda says
This title is misleading! I definitely expected your high school year book pictures : )
YoungHouseLove says
Haha, next time.
xo,
s
John says
We had about 2000 slides my dad took put on CD’s for all of us to enjoy. Easier than using slide trays and a carousel.
Hillary says
This is the coolest idea ever.
Stealing it! ; )
Thelma says
Love it! are the collage type pages your own layout designs or preset layouts from Mypublisher. I love digi scrapbooking but spend alot of time creating layouts, need to figure out a way to speed the process.
Caitlin @ Hardly Housewives says
Glad to hear you liked using MyPublisher! I’ve been meaning to do one for the last two years. The problem (if you can call it a problem) is that we’ve done big trips the 2 weeks after Christmas for the last 2 years (the joys of DINK) and so some trips span 2010-2011 and 2011-2012. I’m trying to figure out now if I want to do separate books for our many vacation photos!
Yours looks just great! And I love that you call it a yearbook! It’ll look so great when you have a collection of all those years and photos together!
Kate says
Once your manuscript is “in the can”? It sounds like you’re about to throw it in the toilet/trashcan!
YoungHouseLove says
Haha- more that we just want to get the book in the can (aka: done!!!). Haha.
xo,
s
Meghan says
LOVE this idea! We recently had a coffee table book made from our wedding photos with Shutterfly. A family yearbook would be a great addition!
SueP says
*Mixing up the photobook Kool-Aid and handing out glassfuls*
A couple of years ago I made my first photobook as an anniversary present for my husband, featuring all of the places to which we’ve traveled, aptly named “Come Away With Me.”
I also have made gift books for a girl’s weekend getaway, and a gift for friends who had thrown their son’s graduation party, and were so busy working the party that they didn’t have time to take pictures of guests or to see the fun that everyone was having.
My Publisher does beautiful work, but I’ve been equally pleased with Shutterfly. Just depends who is offering the best deal when the inspiration hits.
YoungHouseLove says
Haha, I love it.
xo,
s
Natalie @ Living Green Chicago says
What a GREAT idea! Each time I import another camera full of photos into iPhoto I get the mean warning that I’m running out of space. I have TONS of my brother’s soccer games, and my husband flying his RC toys, but NEVER even thought about putting them into a book. You two are clever :)
Cristen says
We do a yearly grandkids photobook for our family that I love but think I might start doing this as well. I love your highlights page for the year. As a photographer I end up with so many more photos of my kids than needs to be in the grandkids book and this might be the perfect solution.
Amie says
I love this idea. One of my best friend’s boyfriend started a yearly Volume of their years together, for their anniversary. It was adorable.
SarahW says
Such a great idea! That’s how I organize all my pics too except I make mine through Shutterfly. It’s so fun to go back through the years and look at them.
Liz S. says
I used to do scrapbooking when I worked at a scrapbook store (got a great discount!), but they were always so big and the supplies got expensive. Now I use http://www.snapfish.com to make photobooks. They have nice layouts and backgrounds. I keep a book going all the time, adding pictures periodically. Then when there’s a good sale I buy it! It’s nice because they stay on the website so if I ever need a copy of a book it’s ready to print.
Peggy says
I have gone back and done one for every year since we met as well. I didn’t even start until around 2008 so I had to go and sort through all of the previous 6 years PLUS I did our wedding as a separate book. Then I have a few extra books of just our vacations. I’m a photo nut so I take LOTS of pics and my vacation pics require a book of their own :) I love, love, love MyPublisher! All together I think I’ve made close to 13 books, not to mention the ones I’ve made as gifts for relatives. We did a book for my in-laws 48th anniversary as a yearbook of their life starting from their wedding to the birth of their great grandchildren. They loved it!
Lilly says
get out of town, am I from mars? I’ve never seen anything like this for family pics. Seriously u guys need to stop being so awesome. Its too much. U guys r ridiculously awesome. U guys should be voted like people of the year or something.
YoungHouseLove says
Bwahahah. That comment made me laugh because it’s ridiculous and hilarious. We are probably the ones from mars and have no place being people of the year or even people of the week anywhere. Haha.
xo,
s
Sarah @ Redhead in Ruffled Flats says
I LOVE My Publisher!
As parent wedding gifts, we promised my parents and my in-laws a beautiful photo book of our wedding photos. We didn’t want to skimp out, but didn’t have a lot of money, so we waited a few weeks after the wedding until one of the “free extra pages” sales was going on and went all-out with the largest size, the linen cover, and 100 pages of wedding photos. I used some backgrounds they already had to make the pages prettier. They turned out amazing! We saved about $400 from the sale and were able to buy one for ourselves!
Carol N. says
This is wonderful! I think I’ll get together some of the pictures of ancestors up to current and make books for my cousins twin babies to have in the future. So they can see where they came from many moons ago!
Debbie C says
I love this idea! A good friend of ours does the same for his family. Guess I better start organizing our pics…
mariela says
Wow! What an inspiration! My husband and I just got married about 2 months ago and we bought our first house in July. This is such a cute idea!! I MUST start making photobooks, so years from now we can go back and reminisce!
Jen @ This Hollywood Life says
For our wedding favors we hand made recipe books that included family recipes from both sides of our families, plus from each of our bridal party. They were simple and just text that I printed and bound together at home, I am currently working on turning it into a hardback book with pictures from the wedding so that we can print one up for us, and our families… who knows, maybe we’ll print smaller ones for our bridal party as a special “Thanks for being in our wedding 5 years ago” gifts. :)
Sara B. says
Love your albums — I did, however, notice that John’s head is a little chopped off on the cover photo. That has happened with my photo albums at times, too. If the proof you looked at did not have that, I would go back to the printer and ask for a reprint. You want the cover to look perfect!
YoungHouseLove says
Oh no, we don’t mind a cropped photo like that. Haha. Usually because of our height difference (and especially with Burger in the shot, who’s so small) someone gets cut a little. Haha. But the proof showed that I think!
xo,
s
Amanda says
Holy crap! I LOVE this! I am such a photo-nut. I so want to go home from work and do this right now. lol Yours looks so beautiful.
Maria says
We got a promotion for a free Shutterfly book (via Best Buy when we bought a Christmas present) — so we are definitely doing this!! We’re going to start with last year’s photos, then as other promos come along we’ll go back in time. That is SUCH a good idea to keep a folder as you go…thanks! Your books look awesome!
Claire says
I *just* finished sorting through the 1,000+ photos from a 9 day trip to Europe for our first photobook. While I have a giant collage wall (thanks for inspiring that, too) already it just can’t hold ALL of the favorites! Now I have it culled down to a manageable 250 images. Can’t wait to put it together!