Hello everyone! We have had a rough couple of days – snow, sleet, wind, power outages – just plain yucky. Luckily, the longest power outage so far was just 2 hours. Though it is inconvenient, I realize it could be much worse. Nevertheless, I am well and truly sick of winter. Officially. Be gone, Winter! Welcome, Spring! (Am I jumping the gun, do you think?)

I’ve been wanting to share this with you for quite some time. However, I wanted my parents to have their own copy as a surprise, so I had to wait until they received their copy in the mail. What is it? It is my very own hardcover book containing the blog posts and photos from my first year of blogging. I got it through Blurb. Since I first put this together last summer, there are even more blog to book sites available, but I am happy with Blurb. (This isn’t a plug for Blurb, by the way, this is just my experience with this process!)

I wanted a permanent record of my posts as they do indeed chronicle our life here at Mockingbird Hill Cottage. I was so excited last summer when my copy arrived. Oh, I see several volumes lined up prettily on my bookshelf, just waiting to be thumbed through.

If you’re interested in something like this there are all sorts of price ranges and sites available. I chose a hardcover version. In the case of Blurb, you just go to their site, download the software and then get to work editing your posts and photos. Actually, it isn’t work at all – it’s fun.

I learned a great deal working on the first volume and just finished editing the second volume. Since I post a lot more than I did the first year, this one will be twice as many pages. I’ve learned more about editing the photos and I’ve changed the post font to the same font I use on my blog – papyrus. The only thing lacking is the ability to show my blog background on each page, but that is a minor complaint.

I don’t write in a journal. In fact, I tried for many years to journal and failed miserably. When I started to blog it quickly became clear to me that blogging was my form of journaling. I spend a lot of time taking photos and writing and editing my posts; I am thrilled to have a book which is a permanent record of them.

I’ll be sure to post about Mockingbird Hill Cottage – the second year when it arrives.

Hey, does this mean that I am a published author?