After every family vacation, I like to come up with something to recap or remember the trip with. This could be a photo, something we picked up along the way, usually something edible (I snack). Whatever! We don’t travel often, so it’s kind of a big deal when we do. Especially now that we’re parents and I really want something to remember the special moments from our travels. This past summer, we headed to Maui with my entire family to celebrate my grandparents’ anniversary. I took a BAJILLION pictures while we were there and have just sort of been hanging onto them and looking at them when I’m deeply depressed and needing to pretend I’m on a beach somewhere. I have a point! I’m going somewhere with this. I absolutely love to give gifts, but sometimes, ya just don’t have the time to make it fantastic and beautiful and oh-so-special-and-unique. Or maybe you do, but lately, I can’t seem to find the time to eat an actual meal (protein shakes for you and you and you!), let alone pick out the right gift for my husband. So to simplify things, we partnered with Blurb to create a simple & stunning book filled with all of our favorite images from the trip!

I’ve really just been hoarding these images in Dropbox for the right time. And I knew I wanted to give Logan something involving these photos. I had planned to give him a blown up print of this image:

But just never got around to it. You know how things just take a backseat sometimes, and the to-do list just grows and grows? These last two months have just been more insane and busy and stressful than I ever planned for and the time for gifting just sort of crept up on me. And Logan and I never really exchange big gifts, but we do the ol’ exchange twice a month because his birthday is just a few weeks before Christmas.

Are they cute or what? Look at that pucker. 

In between all of the raising-of-the-Vita duties and our extra blogging-diy-and-styling gigs going on this season, I uploaded our trip photos to Blurb’s easy editing software, Bookify, and made a book for the husb filled with all the good images. And it took less than an hour to do, so that was a definite bonus! You simply choose the desired layout (lots of templates to pick from!) and then click and drag your images where you want them to be. Pick the style and size of book you like – I chose a 12″ x 12″ because I’m vain and believe everything should be big and awesome, and who doesn’t want a big picture of the ocean?! I say!

It arrived all perfectly packaged and safe, and I snuck a peek before wrapping up with a little trim to give to Logan!

Those beautiful matte pages are basically just photos of me and Vita so that Logan can just be reminded of how much we love him all the time. And also, how good we look on a beach and that he should take us to one more often. This is more a gift for me in disguise. Wink wink. 

There are one million and one uses that I can think up for these books. I’m thinking the next one might be to compile a book of all of the recipes on our blog to give to someone, or you could put all of your kids’ art in one place! Heaven knows I have 100+ “sketches” of Vita’s that I can’t bare to throw away…
It looks fantastic under our mini tree! This tree is a stand-in until we can pick up our real LIVING one this weekend! Woo!!!

To wrap things up (see what I did there?), I cut out some tropical paper leaves and wrote Logan’s name on it and tied itall up with a bow. I know that most guys don’t really appreciate the packaging, and Logan is one of those guys, but it’s more for me. Only pretty things under the tree, amirite? I really love how the book turned out. I think it’s the image-wrapped cover. It’s basically art just begging to be on major display year-round! A friend told me recently that california was amazing all year around as well. She recommended whale watching california to check out if you’re in the california area because the whales are beautiful there! Onward and upward to the next adventure!

This post is in partnership with Blurb, a company that believes in printing quality books filled with your ideas & images. Design your own book in a few simple steps and give to a loved one this holiday season! Thank you for supporting the brands that help Proper keep creating! 

*styling & photography \\ Lexy Ward