Noel@HappyKittyFarm

For my parent’s anniversary this year, I decided to make a photobook of their retirement trip to Europe. I’ve made photobooks using Blurb.com in the past. Their program is fairly easy to use, but lacked fully in-program customizations (it’s been a couple years…maybe it’s more customizable now.) One thing that turned me to a new company was an iffy experience with them the 3rd time I used the company. I had a proof made which was great, but then when the final copy was received, it had many incorrectly cropped pages. After much back-and-forth, they only agreed to give me a 15% discount on a reprint. The book was a pricey >100 page book, so that was pretty much a kick out the door.

With so many online printing companies out there, I referred to this extremely useful and very thorough blog post for this new photobook project. I basically went with MyPublisher for the high rating and the lay-flat pages. I dislike pre-made photo layouts with the sometimes tacky clipart, so was extremely pleased that the MyPub’s program was perfectly customizable; You can move photos and text anywhere by dragging the boxes. The program had clear crop guidelines, so nothing to fear on that. I did spend some time improving many photos through Photoshop, but MyPub’s program does have some in-program photo editing for those without Photoshop.

When I received the book, the paper quality was solid. The color was spot-on. And the lay-flat page option is now my new favorite thing. For those who collect artbooks, you can understand the pain and annoyance of not having lay-flat pages. I was happy to pay the extra for that feature. The overall cost would have been about $140 for 100 pages (including shipping). I paid $60 since there was a short-lived code for 70 pages free. All-in-all, for that extra special photobook I would highly recommend this company to anyone.

Despite my best efforts to be stocked up, and draft early, I still sent out prints the Monday before Christmas. That’s ok. I’ve learned a couple new things this year. One: Using a rotary tool speeds up the process. I had a cheap rotary tool kit that I used to carve into baked sculpey back when I was experimenting with the stuff. It’s perfect for linoleum blocks since it was powerful enough to cut into the soft material, but not powerful enough to be dangerous (it won’t break skin if you accidentally run the tool onto your finger…unlike a carving tool..ouch). Also, a dust mask and eye-wear are essential. Two: Japanese rice paper is far superior than the unbranded art store printmaking paper or handmade paper. This was probably a given, right?

The Linosaurus is a cute name for a blog about linocut and woodblock print-makers.

Old people get away with most anything, don’t they. So I was attending a seminar full of people who were relieved to have gotten out of work for a day. A chatty, older woman (chatted throughout the whole seminar whether or not the speaker was speaking) was wearing some festive clothes; a little bright spot in the room. Though near the end, I was feeling a little Grinch-like at the constant background whispering.

Oh no, my poor neglected blog. My cousin got married last month and wore a couple Cinderella-esque dresses. They were very pretty. Two dresses? I don’t get it.

Another new Korean bakery opened up near the last one I reviewed. This one has more of an American-style breakfast menu and pretty chairs in the seating area. The bread was on-par with the other bakeries in the area. The only obvious downside were the pearls in the bubble tea. They were beyond chewy and so inflated that they would get stuck in the straw. Very sad. Tapioca pearls that are not cooked enough and hard, or overcooked, too big & mushy are a no-no.

I think my next post will not be about a bakery. ^_^

Tried out Jireh Bakery today. I kept passing it by since it opened last year, but I had a craving for bubble tea today and made it a point to stop here. It’s very similar to Shilla Bakery which has several locations in the area. Jireh did pretty well to distinguish itself against Shilla. The bubble tea was tastier with better tapioca pearls, and even though it was later in the day, there was a pretty full selection of fresh breads. The only downside is the harsh gravel parking lot.

Also wanted to mention The Swiss Bakery. Picked up a couple breakfast pastries a few weeks ago and so far, they are the ones to beat for really good danishes and strudels.

Mmmm…I could use a snack right now.

I stored a two-sided pen in a pen holder, and now one side is all dried up.