done well: now in a book!

Dustin totally won the "best Christmas present" award this year.

The judging system consists of up to 10 points for taste, 5 points for presentation, and 5 points for originality. Yes, this is the judging system used by Iron Chef.

My Christmas present to Dustin was a new wallet.

3 points for taste (100% leather plain black-brown non-designer wallet), 4 points for presentation (I wrapped it in a cute green and blue paper with a matching blue bow; bonus marks for double sided tape), 1 point for originality (I bought him a wallet 8 years ago; that wallet was falling apart, so I bought him another one).

Total: 8 points.

Dustin's present to me: MY BLOG IN A BOOK!

Let's break it down.

Taste: 9 points. He chose a hard cover 7"x7" cute, small size; it was printed on high quality paper by Blurb, and he kept the jacket cover simple.

Presentation: 1 point. It didn't arrive in the mail until after Christmas. Packaging was FedEX. 1 point for the easy-open-rip-tab.

Originality: 5 points. I was so surprised and soooo excited about this gift. I've mentioned in passing about backing up my blog in case something happened to blogger.com and perhaps to make it into a book. Super extra bonus marks for doing all the layout designs and personalized dedication on the jacket sleeve.

Total: 15 points. Destroyed me.

I love writing this blog. I wish I had more time to make my posts creative, but flipping through the book brought back so many great memories of adventurous and creative things that have happened in this short time.

Here are some pictures of how great the book turned out:

1. In Honour of my Grandma / My Grandma Initiative: the post that started it all. I had to wipe my tears when writing this post because I could no longer see what I was typing. I miss my grandma.

2. Tomato and Thyme Risotto: I got to write so many great things about my balcony garden and all the fruit and veggies that I made into delicious dishes!

3. Boy, am I ever beet! I went through quite the ordeal trying to find recipes for all those beets that came in our CSA box.

4. My Birdie Sling Factory: the Amy Butler Birdie Sling will always be one of my favourite things to sew.

5. Beautiful BC: my amazing trip to Garibaldi Park and the crazy hike up to the Black Tusk!

6. That's my girl: the back cover of the book was the original picture I used for my blog. My beautiful doggie (with a real knack for making you feel guilty leaving her alone at home).

Thanks so much to all of you for reading my blog! It's so motivating to hear from you through comments and emails. Here's to many more great memories and many more great blog books!