Project Life 2013 Wrap

I did it! I completed an entire year of layouts - 52 two-page layouts, to be exact! Some weeks were a little more difficult than others and I had to push to get pictures taken, but overall it wasn't terrible and I LOVE the result!

I ordered my book from Mixbook and I will definitely be using them again!

I have to say - I originally ordered from Persnickety Prints because I'd read such great things about their print quality for separate pages. I had only read one book review, but it too was rated very favorably. However, that book was a mess - the cover was a type of plastic-y coating that was already coming off by the time I got it. The packaging was horrible and the corners were already worn as well. I was extremely sad because I had SO been looking forward to getting this project in hand after a full year of waiting.  I called their office in California, was directed to send an email to the owner and she promptly replied within an hour with a full refund and was glad I had sent pictures. I was impressed with their customer service, but didn't want to reprint this book with them. Perhaps if I ever get single pages printed I will look them up.

Anyway - more research and I found this company. Their book was a little more expensive than I was hoping to spend but after the first debacle I was hoping "You get what you pay for" would be very true in this instance.

It has a book cover, but under that is a really nice "leather" cover.

The print quality inside is good. I knew that it wouldn't be quite up to the standard as if I had these pages printed individually due to the printing process of any bound book. These are good though, and I am very pleased with them.

I debated getting these pages individually printed just for the purpose of better quality. However, size of book won out. If I had these individually printed I would have easily had to use two books for each year and I really didn't want that. Plus, it would have really pushed the cost of this project.

I was extremely happy to find a coupon online that gave me 30% off the book, plus free shipping! That actually ended up bringing the cost to $5 below the first book I ordered and it was such better quality. Plus, it arrived shrink wrapped to protect it from the elements and in a box that actually fit it (versus the mega-sized box the other company had sent theirs in that allowed a lot of jostling in transit). I think a lot of companies offer good discounts at the beginning of the year for just such projects so I am going to make sure everything is ready to go in January 2015 to jump on the great deals!

The best part of this whole process?  This...

Each kid has spent time looking through it. Mike has spent time looking through it. I've spent time looking through it. We've all giggled and reminisced over some things from last year. Everyone has enjoyed it and I hope it will be pulled out many times over the years to come!