Monday, December 13, 2010

Yes I am socially inept

Conversation I overheard in the women's room today:

Girl1: [cleaning some lint off her black dress] I always seem to pick up white on myself when I wear black, and black when I wear white!

Response I started to give: Actually it's probably just that the lint and stuff is various shades of gray, so it appears white on a black background, and black on a white background... {this apparently is socially the wrong thing to say. I didn't actually say it because...}

Socially capable girl next to me: I guess the answer is to wear grey!

[both giggle and share some type of bond based on a mutual social understanding that I lack]

The end.

Thursday, December 9, 2010

You would not believe your eyes If ten million Shutterflys...

...lit up the world as I fell asleep... (title inspired by the song Fireflies by Owl City)

Well guys, I guess I'm a real blogger now! Shutterfly offered me 50 free cards if I wrote a post about how awesome they are! And they are awesome! (...and I'm not just saying that because of the 50 free cards.) Think of how. many. thousands. of digital photos you have sitting on your hardrive. And backed up on your external harddrive. And maybe if you're really efficient, burned to CDs and put in a safe place. And yet, how many times do you actually LOOK at those photos? If you're anything like me, about once every 6 months or so when you decide to change your Facebook profile picture. But thanks to Shutterfly, that can change! You can take all those binary 1s and 0s that make up a file that is that awesome picture of you in front of the Eiffel Tower from that trip to Paris you took 3 years ago, and PRINT it! Then you might actually see it once in a while.

Not only can you simply print photos, you can make them into desk calendars, or Christmas cards, or my personal favorite: a Photobook! I spent a few weeks this fall putting together a photobook* for my brother about our trip to Europe we took a few years ago, and I have to say it was probably one of the greatest things I have ever done with my digital photos. My copy sits on the coffee table in my livingroom and when guests come over they pick it up and look at it, and ask about the pictures. Sometimes I will just idly leaf through it and bask in all the memories from all the places we went: London, Loch Ness, Dublin, Paris, Berlin, Rome, Venice, Brussels, Copenhagen... but, I digress. The point I was making is that photobooks are AWESOME! Make one. They might seem a bit pricey, but I promise they are well worth it to give your pictures a little bit of center-stage time.

This year, for probably the first time in my life, I plan on sending out Christmas cards. And I'm going to use Shutterfly cards to make a personalized card with a picture of me, or maybe one of the awesome things I've done or places I've gone this year. I'm not really one for Christmas -news- brag letters, but I think a photo card is a cool way to show off a bit of my personality and adventures without being too obnoxious about it. Shutterfly has some awesome looking templates where you can use multiple photos and the final card looks nice and professional. I think I will probably use the Many Memories Tree card which I would like to point out is 20% off right now.

I will probably put pictures of myself on it instead of the cute little blond girl...

Anyway, look at me, being a real blogger that gets free stuff for writing blog posts!!! (This may very well be the first AND last time this happens, so I'm going to enjoy it!) Best day ever.


*Disclaimer: the photobook that I made was not through Shutterfly but some other website I don't remember now. I used them because they were having a really good sale. Shutterfly has very competitive prices, and next time I make a photobook I will definitely consider them. Unfortunately I can't comment on the quality of their photobooks as I have never made one before, but if/when I do, I'll let you know.