What I've Been Up To

My daughter commented recently that I hadn't been posting much lately. So true, but it was nice knowing someone was checking to see, and that meant hopefully they were interested in my comings and goings.

I've been busy on a project, but I wasn't in a position to talk about it until now. My oldest grandson is celebrating his 4th birthday. He has acquired 2 new things that are great for 4 year-olds. 1) A huge new playground and 2) a bird feeder.

A birdfeeder is a wonderful way for a little boy to see the world from the sofa, and will be especially nice in the winter when he can't go out to play. And a birdfeeder is MUCH easier to care for than an aquarium which is also a great thing for a little boy to watch.

For Warren's 4th birthday I decided I wanted to make him a bird book. My original idea was simple. Print out some of the pictures of birds I've taken at our feeder. Label the bird names. Put them into a little photo album. Give it to him as a little present from Granberry. So Simple and Easy.

Have you ever had a project start small and then begin to grow? This one reminds me of one of those folk tales where the turnip was so big that once it was pulled out of the ground no one could get it to market....Ah, what an analogy!

After identifying the bird pictures I would print, I wanted to add a few identifying traits. Suddenly I had the makings of a book. Someone suggested I print it out like a book. I checked with a local printing place.

Put it into Publisher, and convert it to Adobe they suggested. My experience with Publisher is limited, but I did it. I shared it with a few people who are either in publishing or work with young children. They gave suggestions. I edited it some more. I got very positive feedback...but more work with each step.

My simple idea had ballooned. A few hours here, several more hours there....the turnip was getting very big. And now to market.... I took the final draft to Office Max.  The weirdest thing happened. The first person who looked at it got it to print in book form and in the proper page order, but the format came out very small. A different person tried to print it and it came out perfectly formatted (it was actually kind of exciting to see it) but in the wrong page order! No one could explain what was happening, but all agreed I had set it up in Publisher the wrong way. (Did I mention I have only a little experience with Publisher?)

I shared the book with my daughter and she really liked it so I have spent the better part of a day re-ordering the pages. It's time for the final effort to get this turnip to market. This time it had better work!