This week has already been pretty word-heavy with two big construction tutorials and a laundry saga, so we thought some lighter fare was in order – especially since a bunch of you have been asking if we made a family photo book again this year, and if so, when we’d share the details. Well, in the ever esteemed words of Madame Britney, “oops, we did it again.” In fact, the newest edition of the Petersik Family Yearbook landed on our doorstep this weekend.
I have to say that we’re still so stunned at how thin-yet-picture-packed these books are. That picture above shows how five years of photos (over 2,400 of them!) can be stored in the same amount of space as one traditional photo album (which might hold 200 photos by comparison).
Here’s the cover that we chose for this year’s album: a somewhat goofy snapshot from our summer vacation to Florida. Yup, Sherry convinced me to go topless for this year’s cover (actually I think Clara’s happy grin sold us all on this photo).
For those keeping track, this is now our fourth year of condensing 365-days’ worth of family photographs into one nicely bound volume that we buy from MyPublisher (here are the posts on our books from 2012, 2011 and 2009/10). This year’s picture is so light that the white title on the cover isn’t as visible from afar, but it’s easier to see in person when you’re holding it.
We followed our usual format and wrapped the spine and back in a color borrowed from the cover photo – so this year’s was a soft seafoam-ish green.
We always time our order to take advantage of MyPublisher’s “Free Extra Pages” discount, which cycles around every few weeks. It means that we can print a 99-page book without paying the surcharge they usually tack on for anything longer than 35 pages. You can see this year it saved us nearly $80. And while the final $48 price tag isn’t nothing, we’ve always felt that it’s comparable (if not better) than what we’d pay to order all of those prints along with buying a traditional photo album (or three) to stuff them into.
We also like the “insurance” of these photo books, since we have files for each book saved on our computer (so we could quickly get one reprinted if something happened to the original). Even if our entire house was destroyed, MyPublisher keeps files remotely on their end as well, so everything we’ve ever purchased (even dating back to that first 2009/2010 book) could easily be reordered.
But I promised this post would be less wordy, right? Can you tell we have trouble with that? Let’s just take a peek inside at some of the pages, starting with our summary page at the very beginning of the book. For anyone wondering, you can add type while creating your layout, so we just make two type columns, and fill them in with notable things that we did (in a general order of when they occurred).
And here are some of our interior pages. We packed a lot of pictures into some of them, like this spread full of book tour adventures.
We also used some pages for comparisons, like this series of shots of Clara with Sherry’s mom and my parents, who all just happened to all be with us on her birthday for the last four years since her birth.
Some pages got bigger/fewer photos (like the right one below, which just has two of our favorite Clara-party pics).
And we had fun looking back at other big events, like our move (we’re so glad we took those empty house photos before we locked that door for the last time).
One change this year is that we tried to include more pictures of us doing projects (since that’s clearly a big part of our lives). In the past, our technique of backing up “blog photos” and “family photos” separately has meant a lot of the photos of us building/painting/de-wallpapering don’t end up in the family folder that we draw from to make our yearbook. So throughout this year we both tried to be better at plucking out certain blog pictures and making sure they also went into our family file.
For those who wonder how we generally organize photos, we just use iPhoto. We have one album called Family 2013, and throughout the entire year we dump family photos in there, where it keeps them all nice and chronological. Then we go through and pick the ones we love most, import them into the MyPublisher software (it’s free to download) and layout the yearbook.
And of course, we couldn’t resist making a page that celebrates how much we’re looking forward to 2014 for an extra special reason…
We also saved a dozen or so pages at the end of the book to make fun little grids of Instagram pictures. It’s not all of the IG pics we shared in 2013, just some of our favorites. There’s something about seeing them en masse at the end of the book that’s more exciting than sprinkling them throughout the album (they have a more casual and random feeling, so it’s cool to flip through them at the end, like some sort of relaxed wrap-up).
Since this is my fourth time assembling one of these, I’ve definitely honed my skills at pacing out my pages. In past years I’ve hit MyPublisher’s 100-page max before I even got to Halloween photos. But this time I even had a spare spread to put the last 12 photos from Clara’s monthly photo project.
Ahhh, the memories…
How are you guys memorializing 2013? Please tell me that we’re not the only ones running a little late with any end-of-the-year traditions. Are you newly on the bound-photobook bandwagon? Or are you committed to tried-and-true photo albums? Is there some new software or service we should check out?
Emily says
I love seeing these! I am about to post about the second book I just did for my boyfriend and I’s photos. I will eventually be caught up. I started last year printing a book (I use blurb) of our photos together. Last year was the accumulation of our 1 year of photos. This year was our 2 year of photos. We are about to have our 5 year anniversary so I am still trying to catch up! Eventually I am going to make an album like this for my family.
Emily
eageremily.blogspot.com
Claire says
check out groovebook. You get 100 photo quality pictures per month shipped for $2.99. It is a subscription but I think it is cool and totally reasonable. The book is even perforated so you can tear out pics for grandparents/friends/refrigerator/etc.
YoungHouseLove says
We heard about this recently! Sounds fun for the grandparents :)
xo
s
Tara says
Looks great! I am interested in learning about your photo storage system as I know you likely take a million photos a year. Do you have any past posts that describe your system? How much storage do you have on your iPhone/iCloud? How often (and where) do you back up all your photos? Would love a few tips on the process you go through from taking a photo (either on your camera or your iPhones) through uploading through storage, etc. Thanks!! PS. Great week on your blog, esp the baby nursery. There are some prints for sale on cb2 that remind me of your bike prints, though I like yours better, esp the frames!
YoungHouseLove says
Will have to check out those CB2 prints! Thanks for the tip! As for backing up images, we use amazon.cloud for all of our blog photos, so it helps to have those stored remotely (we have 100,000+ of those guys! eeks!) and for family ones we use an external hard drive (just backing up each of these photobooks covers us for each year, and we also like that MyPublisher stores them on their server as well, if something happened to ours). Oh and we use youtube.com for our videos (some private for family things, and some public when we share them on the blog).
xo
s
Katherine says
I’m so happy you still do your monthly Clara shots – you must have to get two yards of fabric every month now since she’s getting so big?
As a quilter and admitted fabric hoarder (Hi, my name is Katherine and I collect way too much fabric), I totally love your fabric photo idea, and will probably steal it if/when I have a kid just for the excuse to buy a new yard or two of fabric every month!! And, it looks gorgeous, too. So sweet!
I know you have sewn a quilt for Clara, and made a few other projects with it as well, but gosh what will you do with all that fabric? The prospect is exciting to me!
YoungHouseLove says
Sorry to be confusing! We stopped monthly Clara-shots when she turned three, so we haven’t been doing any recently (she’s just so wiggly and we hate forcing her to do something she might not be as interested in anymore). We’re so happy to have that year of weekly photos followed by monthly ones from age 1 -3 though! She grew so much!
As for all the fabric we have, I have made a table runner for her party, a beanbag, a quilt, a birthday bunting, and a few other things with it – but I still have tons! So I smell more projects, although I’m not sure what those will be just yet :)
xo,
s
Allison says
I love close-up shots of your bookshelves because I enjoy seeing the various decorating books you display. I’ve already gotten the Domino book at your tacit recommendation; any other decorating books that are faves?
YoungHouseLove says
I need to write a post about that soon! I have so many favorites and haven’t blogged about design books since like 2008!
xo
s
Cat says
This is great! I need to make the transition over from the regular albums. Printing, then organizing the pictures and securing them down, adding photo corners, etc. does take so long. Maybe I will try MyPublisher too. You know, because I am so on the ball that I have yet to make our family’s 2013 photo album. Or even begin to organize our photos to pick out which ones to print…
YoungHouseLove says
Haha! Good luck Cat!
xo
s
Julie Joy says
I love family yearbooks! Last year I made the first one through Shutterfly and I am totally going to check out my publisher to make our 2013 one! Thanks for sharing! :)
Katherine says
My husband and I aren’t big picture takers, so my photo project books tend to be more project heavy than photo heavy (like making cookbooks of favorite pinned recipes). This year I am very behind on an end of year tradition: drawing/writing/printing a short storybook for my “nieces” (my cousin’s daughters), starring them! Last year the book saw them competing in the Olympics (they loved getting to watch a little bit of the events, especially the gymnastics). Although the pictures are finished, scanned, and ready to go, I am behind on the writing aspect. I hope to be done soon! (We get together with them after Christmas each year, for some one-on-one time, so it’s not AS bad that I’m so late, since that get together hasn’t happened yet.)
Nicole B. says
Love the idea of an annual book!! Do the books from My Publisher have a glossy cover or matte?? I have a couple books from Blurb of our engagement and wedding photos which I love for their beautiful matte covers, but Blurb is a bit pricey! Books I have ordered from Shutterfly in the past are a great price but have a glossy cover. I’m looking for a cheaper option with matte book covers!
YoungHouseLove says
You can choose a glossy or matte cover (for the same price), so we always go with matte.
xo
s
Lindsay says
Are the matte covers still wipeable like the glossy? Just curious since there will potentially be little ones with the books.
YoungHouseLove says
They don’t feel like paper (they’re more protected than that), so it’s sort of like using matte mod podge instead of the glossy stuff. Still durable and wipeable but not super shiny if that makes sense.
xo
s
Lina says
LOVE your yearbooks! I’m looking to DIY my wedding album. Do you think that the photo quality would do wedding pictures justice?
YoungHouseLove says
Oh yes, definitely! We have loved the quality of MyPublisher! It even warns you if something’s too low res (in case you have a thumbnail in there instead of the real image).
xo
s
Amanda says
We also make photo year books. Ours focus on our kids (instead of the whole family). They are gifts to each grandma every Christmas. Making it a gift motivates me to actually make them, and they take the place of all those “JC Penny” portraits that we have opted not to do but that are expected by our moms.
YoungHouseLove says
I love that! So sweet.
xo
s
katelyn says
Thank you so much for starting and sharing this tradition! I got married this past October and I had already created our “dating” yearbook, and I just ordered our engagement yearbook but I’m so excited to continue this tradition for years to come. I just had to thank you for the brilliant idea and inspiration. :)
Much love!
YoungHouseLove says
You’re so sweet Katelyn! Those sound awesome.
xo
s
Emily @ Love, Pasta and a Tool Belt says
I love this! We really need to do a yearly scrapbook. I just love pictures and having scrapbooks. We had a big year with a move as well and have been doing remodeling on our house. That would be fun to document. So far we just have it documented on our blog. We loved house hunting and shared 6 Key House Hunting Tips. Would love to have your input on that since you have lots of experience.
http://lovepastatoolbelt.com/?p=2517
YoungHouseLove says
Love your tips! They’re all things we did! A list and driving around are key, just to help you focus on what you really want and get a feel for potential neighborhoods!
xo
s
Ashley@AttemptsAtDomestication says
Love these books! I have a few from our wedding and honeymoon and I’ve been working on one from our big Europe trip for months now. I really need to buckle down and finish it!
Keeley says
Your photo books are so awesome! I’ve been meaning to start this tradition with our family since 2012, but I haven’t done it. It looks like I have some catching up to do.
I was considering ordering my books through Costco (who I think no longer uses My Publisher), but with the discount codes it may be just better to go for My Publisher. We’ll see.
I just need to set aside the time and go for it… of course, this is coming from the woman who didn’t manage to make Christmas cards this year.
Beth Boman says
I am also one of the “umm… still working on 2012” people. BUT, I will say in 2013 I did finally finish a book for 2007-2011 (those years we didn’t take many photos), and I worked on the 2012 book on and off for the last 10 months (OMG I have no idea how you got so quick- it is taking me forever! hours and hours and hours). But 2012 was the birth of our son so it is a crazy-huge endeavor of way too many photos, and it really is 95% done.
I have used Shutterfly and now I’m using Photobook America for making this new one- the reviews of quality are awesome for Photobook America and I found a good Groupon for them, but I’m thinking now for 2013 I’ll use Blurb. I’ve found the page layouts more limited with PA than it is on Shutterfly. The perfect photo layout and ease of website is SO key!
YoungHouseLove says
Never heard of Photobook America! So interesting that they have great reviews but more limited layouts. Good luck!
xo
s
Meghan F says
I love your book! I use Becky Higgins project life products to digitally make my pages in photoshop. The last few years I’ve used shutterfly to print my book, but this year I’m going to try blurb since I’m told they don’t have a page limit.
Sally G says
This is my New Year’s resolution! I had all my pictures organized to start and then my HD crashed. :( I really need to get my momentum back! I love that you keep the wording to a minimum. With these things it is easy to get paralysis of analysis! I think you guys have a great balance. The books have always looked fabulous.
YoungHouseLove says
Oh no Sally! I’m so sorry about that crash! Good luck with everything!
xo
s
Dona Stone says
I love your annual Yearbook. You inspired me to dump all the scrapbooking debris I collected over the years on Craigslist(streamlined my craft closet) and go digital. I’m such a Dona-Come-Lately. I loved my first MyPublisher book and getting ready to start my next one. I even got a coupon on Living Social that I need to use by March, so now I have a deadline.
YoungHouseLove says
Wahoo! Go Dona, go!
xo
s
Maggie says
Dona – Check out Kelle Hamptons blog she creates digital scrapbooks for her children and prints them on 12×12 photobooks.
Here is a sample:
http://www.kellehampton.com/p/photography.html
The 6th question explains how she does them:
http://www.kellehampton.com/p/photography.html
Here is another blogger that uses Picasa to digital scrapbook:
http://www.memoriesoncloverlane.com/2011/01/more-scrapbooking-with-picasa-using.html
I wish I had the time to make books like these!
KathyG says
I do these books too now, thanks for the suggestion!
Catching up on posts, I love the nursery built ins! Didn’t you say you were going to also do some kind of similar builtins for the master?
YoungHouseLove says
We were thinking about doing cabinets with open box shelves and a window seat, which on one hand would be somewhat different, but might still feel a little too close to these so now we’re not sure. Will have to see where we end up I think!
xo
s
Dana says
Love your yearbook posts! Such a great idea! I actually used My Publisher back in 2009 to make some coffee table books with pictures I took while backpacking through Europe so I was pleased to see you guys give it the thumbs up too! I got married in 2013 so I thought that was the perfect year to start my own family yearbooks!
I’m pretty photo obsessed so this was the perfect little project for me! I ordered mine with the free extra pages deal too and received it this weekend! I love it! (I used the flat pages this time too and like it a lot better than my non flat pages from my Europe books. And the flat pages were on sale when I ordered so it was only an extra $13)
Going through all of the year’s photos to make the book was the best part :) A fun way to wrap up the year.
Thanks for the idea! This is a tradition I know I’ll enjoy for years to come!
YoungHouseLove says
Those sound awesome Dana!
xo
s
Bonnie @ The Pin Junkie says
I love these types of books! I’ve made one for each of our family’s vacations. I’ve also made gift books for family members (like grandparents) and they love ’em!
carly says
I have started the photobook thing as well. I have them for each year. Haven’t printed 11 or finished 12! I love them. I think I might make a book of our first house. I just need to do a better job of backing up photos overall.
Ginny @ Goofy Monkeys says
I need to do this – I love the idea of a family yearbook!
Do you work on it year round or do you put together in one big huge project?
YoungHouseLove says
We do ours all at the end of the year, but have heard from others who do one month at a time as the year goes on, which is really smart!
xo
s
Kayla says
This is definitely something I’m planning to start in 2014….since we are expecting our first baby. I could probably do something for the past few years since we’ve been married six+, but that seems like so much work. =/
Lisa says
Our family felt inspired by your original post about creating family yearbooks and have been doing so for the last two years. The only problem is, we’re doing a four volume set for each year. I hope to cut it down to just one book for 2014! I have always been a photo album fanatic, so this made much more sense financially and aesthetically. I am planning on checking out MyPublisher going forward. I’ve done Snapfish in the past, which has been fine, but your tip about “free extra pages” would save me a lot of money. Thanks!
YoungHouseLove says
Good luck Lisa!
xo
s
Rachel G says
I just went on MyPublisher, and they have an offer for a free photo book for new customers. Just FYI
YoungHouseLove says
That’s awesome!
xo
s
minneapplegirl14 says
I love it! We give our parents a similar book every year for Christmas. It’s their favorite gift!
Kate says
I’ve thought about it, but sadly enough I’ve realized that we don’t take enough photos, even now that we have our daughter. :( I guess I just need to take that as a sign that I need to improve on capturing those special moments (especially while my daughter is still young) and maybe do rolling books (instead of calendar years) and just have them printed when they get full!
How are the pages on the My Publisher books? I printed one out on Blurb with our wedding photos and was underwhelmed by the quality (they felt rather thin) and at the time they didn’t have the options for thicker pages, flat binding, etc.
YoungHouseLove says
We have been so happy with the print quality with MyPublisher, and you have so many add on options if you’d like (lay flat pages, etc).
xo
s
Laci says
It’s probably my pregnancy hormones, but “And of course, we couldn’t resist making a page that celebrates how much we’re looking forward to 2014 for an extra special reason…” really got me. Oh emotional outbursts in the middle of clinic, my patients and staff are going to think I’m crazy! ;-) I’m greatful for the reminder about why my family is also so excited about 2014!
YoungHouseLove says
You’re so sweet Laci! You’re going to make me get all teary over here.
xo
s
McKenzie says
That is awesome. I do the EXACT same thing for my family. The only difference is I glue in a CD sleeve on the back cover (inside). Then I burn all the pictures I have taken that entire year onto a CD and keep it in the back. I already have my pictures and back up (and the back ups back up) but this way it’s one extra step. Plus, it is really easy for me to grab all pictures if I need them!
YoungHouseLove says
GENIUS!
xo
s
Lindsay says
Hi guys,
I love the photo yearbooks. And we actually get to see Sherry with her hair down! That’s rare, right? :)
xoxo
Lindsay
YoungHouseLove says
It’s true! I was living on the edge.
xo
s
CohoesMom5 says
I have done several digital photobooks but I have also been making a manual Christmas scrapbook for the past couple of years. Since I really love the hands-on creativity of paper scrapbooking, but don’t have the time to do it for everything, I like doing a Christmas themed one. It is a manageable size and timeframe and I usually get it done by the next summer.
Meredith says
I think you’re doing great! I am the same age as you guys and my mom recently handed down my baby book. It was meant to be through age 7; well, I’m a second born and there are just little notes jotted down after about 3 months and the entire back half is empty. So, she’s about 31 years behind! :)
Melody B says
I wish I had your decision making skills! I have been doing quarterly books for two years because I’m awful at making decisions and cuts! I just can’t seem to pare down to one album per year! I think it’s that I take too many pictures of my daughter! I love to use Shutterfly because it allows me to really personalize it… scrapbooking/ journaling. Plus, the albums are a HUGE hit at our daughter’s birthday parties! The guests absolutely love to look at them!
Allison says
I’m still a photo album kind of girl, but probably once we have kids I wouldn’t mind doing this sort of thing. Our albums the last couple years have mostly consisted of pictures of our (really adorable) dog, so I’m hoping to learn how to skim down the amount of photos I actually pay to get developed….
Betehany says
I decided to make a yearbook for the first time ever, but chose the “11×17” option (because why? bigger is better??). Not only does the book not fit on any of my bookshelves – one of the pages is a single photo of my head, and an 11×17 me is just embarrassing.
Next time I’ll go with a smaller size!! Your books look so great stacked next to each other. :)
YoungHouseLove says
Oh no! Never would have expected that! I could have done the same thing!
xo
s
Alexis says
I’m still working on my annual photo book through Shutterfly. This year I started on it early so that I wouldn’t have to do a whole year’s at one time. I did however finish a different annual photo book just last night. I used Shutterfly to make an Instagram photo book. I just started using Instagram this past year and wanted a book of just those. I time out my order for sales and discount codes that Shutterfly sends me. This time I received a code for a free book with the coupons I got from grocery shopping. My book only cost $8.17!
Seeing how well your books have turned out using My Publisher, I might have to try them again.
YoungHouseLove says
That’s awesome Alexis!
xo
s
Tiffani says
One of your other yearbook photos inspired me to start doing this a few years ago starting with the year we got married. I love having them around for ourselves and our family and friends. Thanks for the idea! Now I have to master getting all of my photos in under 100 pages :\
Sarah says
Love these! I do the same thing for our family every year using Blurb and I love that you can customize literally anything. I had over 2600 photos in this year’s family year book. I also do my kids baby books this way (rather than buying a pre-made book with blanks to fill in) and focus on the first year. My husband and I devote one page at the end of each month to writing our children a letter about what they did that month, and now I go back and read them and cry. Really special stuff!
YoungHouseLove says
That’s SO HEARTFELT! I love that.
xo
s
Maggie says
I love My Publisher! I have been using it for the past 5 years and I agree I will never order a book without a coupon. Another favorite of mine is Blurb they have an instagram book ( http://www.blurb.com/instagram-books ) that allows you to upload your photos directly from Instagram. I have made a small 8×8 softcover book for the past 3 years of my instagram photos in chronological order. I have kept it simple by choosing a different color for each cover and I just include the title Instagram and the year on the cover.
Susie says
I love you guys! Seriously! You always brighten up my day and inspire me to make a beautiful life with my family. Thank you :)
YoungHouseLove says
You’re so sweet Susie, thanks so much!
xo
s
Leslie says
Sherry, unrelated question, but how is your morning sickness going? I’m 7 weeks preg and in the thick of it! Have you ever tried the Unisom+B6 remedy?
YoungHouseLove says
Alas, I tried it but it didn’t work for me. I hear it’s awesome for some people though! I’m back to having all day sickness (it calms down to just mornings and then flairs up to all-day again). IT SUCKS! But it’s all worth it for this little guy. I’m just trying to keep my eye on the prize ;)
xo
s
Beks says
Love the photo albums. They’re so cute! Clara will love having her project to go back to when she’s older, and see how she changed month to month. Are you going to do something like that for Barnacle? Or have them share photo space? Maybe do something special that’s just him?
YoungHouseLove says
Yes, we’d love to do a photo project for the Barnacle like we did for Clara, and we’ll make him his own little book of them (we have one of them devoted to Clara’s as well).
xo
s
Manda Wolf says
Looks great! I do ours in MixBook. I love that I can add pretty much however many pages I want. In fact we made a special one for our trip to Destin and it has almost 300 pages in it.
YoungHouseLove says
That sounds awesome!
xo
s
Jennifer says
I know you guys well enough to know that you won’t want to change the service you guys are using, you love consistency! But I use Artifact Uprising, it is very very cool. Similar to mypublisher but they have a lot of offerings. The paper quality they use is amazing, it feels like a piece of artwork. You can get nice fabric covers, or use their paperbacks. Take a look!
YoungHouseLove says
Someone else said they loved that too! Sounds awesome (especially those fabric covers)!
xo
s
Brittney says
I love this idea so much! We used MyPublisher to design a wedding album, and I love it! I can’t wait to start making these year books…maybe we will have one for 2014!
Alison says
We have been using Shutterfly to make family albums since 2006. One thing I love about that company is they replace a book free of charge if for some reason the binding starts to come apart. Littel hands were a wee bit rough with one or our earlier albums.
I make a hard cover album for each year and then if we go on a big vacation, like when we went to Disney World or Cabo, that gets it’s own soft cover album. It’s so fun to look back on all the fun memmories and to see how our family has grown through the years.
YoungHouseLove says
That’s a really nice service! Didn’t know they did that!
xo
s
Kristin says
I’m still sorta new to the whole YHL fantabulousness so please forgive if you address this elsewhere. What accessories do you guys use to get such bright and crisp pics? I have an awesome camera but love the quality and grain of your snapshots. on topic, I lurves MyPublisher and the book is gorgeous! I mean, you guys are ALL easy on the eyes, so that helps. But, in all the sentiment is wonderful.
YoungHouseLove says
Thanks Kristin, you’re so sweet! A lot of these photos are just from our iPhone (sometimes we put it on “HDR” but usually it’s just regular iPhone shooting and we tap the screen to focus). Some are also from our good camera (we have a Nikon D3200 and we are finally learning to shoot in Manual – we love the pictures it takes).
xo
s
Alisha says
Was there a post for Clara’s last birthday part? I don’t know how I could have missed it. I thought the last party was the dragon one…
YoungHouseLove says
Yes, the dragon party was her latest party, so those were photos from that (she had a worm party for age 2, and here’s the post about her first birthday). She’s born in May, so we’ll have another one this spring for her. So far she’s leaning towards a “pink and gold party” – haha!
xo
s