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Tips to Create an Awesome Photo Book

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Photo books are one of the best ways to both display and store your digital photographs. Just like an old-fashioned photo album, though, there are many different ways to utilize the photo book format. If you want your memories to be displayed in a unique and memorable way, then you should pull inspiration from at least a couple of the tips listed below.

Cohesiveness is Key

One of the worst things that you can do is create a photo book that contains a random mixture of photos. Although this will allow you to have printed access to your photos, it will make it difficult for you to find whichever image you are looking for. By selecting photos that make sense when they go together, you will not only make things easier on yourself, but you will also provide future generations with a better look into exactly who your family was.

Representative Themes are Best

You will have the option to pick from several different themes when you are creating a photo book, but choosing one that is actually representative of the events that are captured in the book is the best route to take. For example, if your photo book depicts your daughter’s high school graduation, then you should look for a graduation theme. You can also tie someone’s specific interests into the theme. If your book contains images from the third year of your son’s life, consider using a photo book theme of his favorite cartoon character. Not only will that give the book some added personality, but it will also help him reflect upon his childhood when he is older.

Utilize the Captions

Most photo book templates provide space for captions, and it is definitely a good idea to take advantage of them. You can use them to simply input people’s names and the date, but your book will be much more lively if you write something humorous that captures the occasion instead. If you do not have the natural tendency to be a funny writer, though, you can still use the captions to help tell the story behind each of the photos.

Go in Order

Although it might be tempting to place favorite images next to each other, it is always best to showcase an event in order. After all, it makes no sense to show the bride and groom cutting the cake before they exchange rings. Keep in mind that the photo book will bring the event to life for future generations. If the order of the photos makes no sense, then it will be difficult for others to get a true understanding of exactly what happened.

Keep this in Mind

As you can see, a lot of consideration should go into the construction of your photo book. Although it will take longer to follow the advice listed above than it would to simply throw a bunch of photos together, you and your family will be much happier with the end result. Therefore, it is always best to put the proper time and care into building each of your photo books.

Attached Images:
  •  License: Image author owned

Harriet McDonnell is a mother of 2 sweet angels and full time blogger. She writes for various photo book companies including Elephoto, a Canadian owned photo book company that allows people to design their books, cards, calendars and canvas prints online.

Travelling With A Child? Then Carry These Necessary Car Accessories

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Kids are curious by nature. They experience and learn with the use of their senses. They like to touch objects and feel them. How many times have you had to keep your kid from stuffing all sorts of things in his or her mouth? But that’s who they are. Till they have satisfied their curiosity, they are going to touch, feel and taste almost everything they can lay their hands on!

As a parent it is your responsibility to watch over your child. You are responsible for his or her safety and well-being. It is because of this sense of responsibility that a parent feels the need to apply thought in anything which involves their child. This includes customizing your car with a whole range of car accessories which will convert the long hours spent in a car a joy ride for your child. Buying a car seat is just the beginning.

A car seat is an absolute must especially if you have a toddler or an infant on board. Even if your child has grown up beyond the use of a car seat, make sure he or she is always seated on the rear seat. Where children are concerned, safety always comes first. However you can accessorize the back of your car with fun things which can keep your toddler entertained for hours!

  • Backseat Organizers: They are not just efficient to keep the baby’s feeding bottles, wipes and other paraphernalia handy, but if you sneak in a couple of small toys into one of the backseat organizer pockets, your child is going to never need anything else
  • Padded Seat straps: Especially the ones which come with a teddy bear face or stuffed animal face attached to it. They make for a great toy and provide comfort and safety
  • Sun Shades: You get all sorts of stick on sun shades with various cartoon pictures on them! You can shield your kid from the sun while having some fun
  • Car Window Toys: Keys, Rattles, Zoos, there are a variety of window toys that you can stick on to the glass of your window to keep your child entertained

There are a whole lot of other accessories from you to choose from to turn your car into an entertaining space for your kid. It would help to keep the following things in mind before you make your purchase

Buy for the Kid and not for yourself

This is the biggest mistake parents make. Just because you like something, does not mean your child will love it too. Give special attention to the kinds of colors and sounds he or she prefers. The more you buy things in tune with your kid’s likes and dislikes, the more fun it is going to be.

Mobility

All kids travel accessories must be easy to dismantle and easy to carry. Kids tend to get bored easily and hence you might need to keep changing the accessories you use quite often.

Carry Enough

Depending on how long a journey you plan to undertake, make sure you are stacked with enough accessories to ensure the child’s comfort. Things like neck pillows, sipper holders, padded straps and additional toys should never be forgotten on a long journey.

This post is authored by Andiee Landsberg.






How to Solve an Oil Leak

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Most of us are not mechanics, and while we might wish that we knew more about cars or even posture as though we do, for the vast majority of the population the inner workings of any vehicle is pretty much a mystery.

As such then when something goes wrong we will often find ourselves in trouble and seriously inconvenienced. If you have the number of a good break down service or mobile mechanic then you should be able to get someone out to help, and if you’re insured then you may not have to pay for it, but even then you will have been forced to wait on the side of the road for a long stretch of time making you late to whatever social engagement you were heading to and potentially causing you to get cold or even put your health at risk.

Worse we might sometimes end up carrying on driving and ignoring whatever problem our car has which can be dangerous and bad for the environment. Take for instance an oil leak – it’s a potentially simple problem to fix, but it can be dangerous and damaging to ignore.

Next time then, here’s what you need to do to fix it…

Gaskets

The first thing to do is to check the gaskets. To do this you need to look under the hood and then consult your car owner’s manual to find them. If you don’t know what they look like, these are essentially like little metal frisbees that are flat disks, often arranged in a line. If you have a car with a high mileage engine then you will probably be required to change the gasket more regularly, and all cars require them changing them from time to time. However in the short run all you’ll need to do is to find the screws and tighten them up with a screwdriver. In most cases this will be enough to keep your car from leaking until you can get to a garage.

The Oil Pan

If your gaskets are fine then you probably have a problem with the oil pan. This is normally located again inside the bonnet, this time at the front of the car by the bumper. Get a torch if it’s dark and look for leaks in the pan which is meant to catch oil. If you do find one then you should remove the pan (carefully so that you don’t spill oil out everywhere) and then clean it up. Next get something like a cloth or some masking tape and seal the hole or plug it as much as possible to stop the leaking. This of course is only a temporary fix, and when you get home you might want to instead use a silicone sealant so that you can more permanently plug the hole, or you might want to call in the mechanics and have them permanently replaced.

Obviously you should make sure you’ve pulled over somewhere safe and out the way of traffic before you begin doing this, and if you can’t fix the problem easily do still call in a professional to help.

The article is written by Joseph Corris who is a car blogger and often writes guest posts on tips related to cars and its maintenance.

Work, overtime and guitars

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My husbands been busy working a lot of extra shifts in the last week or so. One of his co-workers is on holiday and he’s been covering some of her shifts so he’s been working almost continuously. He’s pretty tired.

The one good thing about it one my side of things is the house is quite so I’ve been able to get more studying done. That’s a good thing. Well .. at least until he comes home. Sometimes Chris picks up his guitar when he gets home and starts playing as it helps him relax .. and of course because he enjoys it. I don’t mind the music at all, but it does disturb my studying. Oh and he found yet another guitar to drool over. It’s a fender electric guitar at musicians friend. He just loves Fenders, the older the better. He has six or seven guitars already so I don’t think he’ll be buying another anytime soon, but I guess he’s got another on his wish list.

Perhaps he’s thinking of using all his overtime money on this new guitar? Hmmm .. I’d better have a talk with him just in case that’s what he’s thinking … LOL

photo by: gedankenstuecke

Time for a new bed?

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I think it’s time to get a new mattress. Don’t they say that you should replace your mattress every 10 or 15 years or so depending upon what kind you purchased? If that’s true mine is due for a change very soon. The bed in our bedroom as well as the mattress was purchased when we moved into our house in 2001 so that means that it’s 11 years old.

I haven’t been sleeping as well lately and my back has been hurting a little bit on and off and I’ve been starting to wonder if it’s because of my bed. The mattress still seems like it’s in good shape but I suppose it’s quite possible that it’s starting to wear out.

I think in a few months when I’m back working at the hospital I might go looking for a new bed set. Especially if I’m still having some trouble sleeping and my back has continued to bother me. I’m actually taking a trip in a couple of months to LA … maybe while I’m there I’ll do some shopping and check out mattress stores los angeles while I’m there. Of course I think I’ll probably be pretty busy and if I go shopping it will be clothes shopping rather than for something I can’t bring on a plane … but there’s nothing wrong with a little window shopping no matter where you are, right?

Any suggestions from anyone on the best brands to buy? I can’t afford to spend thousands on a bed set but I know the higher the quality the longer they last.

photo by: bedzine

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