So among my other stellar personality characteristics, two stand out: impatience and laziness.
And when I found myself facing my mother-in-law’s birthday yet again without a present or card in sight (don’t EVEN get me started on my husband’s lack of preparation), I panicked. Because last year, we didn’t get her anything and boy, did we hear about it.
So imagine this: It’s 9AM on a Saturday and in two hours, we’re due to take my mother-in-law out for lunch. AND no present. Again.
THANK GOD I happened upon this at my nearby Long’s Drugs:
Well, all right. Let me back up. I knew about the HP Photo Creations kiosk before
I just stumbled in there one Saturday morning. In fact, the week before said birthday lunch, I saved my favorite photos to a CD, took them into my Long’s, inserted my CD into the HP computer and went to town creating photo books up the wazoo. For myself. Not for my mother-in-law. Actually, I didn’t think of her at all. Meaning, I should probably add “selfish” to my personality cons list. But here’s where the impatient part comes in: I hate hate hate waiting for things to be done. I don’t like sending my photos into a website, having to wait days, maybe a week for it to get back, and yada de yada. SO, I thought I could cut out the middle man, lay out my photos myself and get them back in ONE HOUR! Nothing better than the whole one hour deal for the impatient among us.
Of course, I waited a week to pick up my photo books (see laziness defect above), but when I did, a light bulb went off: possible present! My photo creation could save the day!
And it did.
So in the nick of time, I packaged up my favorite pink photo book, stuck a card in it, and gave it to my mother-in-law for her birthday. I’m also quite sure she thought it took me days to select the photos, lay them out, cover the book in nice pink canvas, and wrap the whole thing in a lotta love.
But it didn’t.
Because I’m lazy. And impatient.
I’m thinking HP Photo Creations might save the day for you loafs out there too.
Here’s the book I passed off as a thoughtful gift:
Fourteen pages of what-looked-like-I-actually-thought-about-in-advance goodness. The HP kiosk let me choose the cover, the page design, the layout, the photo orientation, the format (matte, glossy, sepia, color, etc.) and everything. Plus? It cost me about 20-ish bucks. But looking good in front of my mother-in-law? Priceless.
Here’s what the book would look like if I took better pictures:
I also got other stuff, like another photo book that I’ll probably pass off as a present someday, and several photos for framing. One of these years.
If you want to find your own HP Photo Creations kiosk to make you look less lazy and selfish, click here.
Your new title?
San Diego Momma: The Accidental Saint
Grandparents eat those photo books UP!
I’ve been hitting snapfish.com (also HP) HARD since Munchie was born. Last Christmas I gave my MIL a Shopping List notepad with Muncher’s pic on it…you would have thought I gave her diamonds?!?! Gift giving is MUCH easier now that we have a kid :)
I think we were separated at birth! We have so many of the same personality traits!
I love to make photo books. They’re my go to gift all the time. I have some of my grandmother’s old pics that I’ve scanned, I just need to put them into a book for my mom.
OMG. I know what my mother in law is getting for Christmas. Thanks for this! One other thing: who’s working on the puzzle?
You’re a genius.
GENIUS! Also? The g’parents love, love, love those nifty digital photo frames with a ton of cute pics pre-loaded. (Switching out the demo photos with your own is optional.)
holy crapola! UNREAL! you’re a hero.
seriously, I LOVE YOU.
(btw, speaking of impatient… meme. that is all.)
I am a HUGE fan of the photo book… always a great gift!
Another good one is the digital photo frame.. from Ceiva. I download photos to my parents and in-laws frames on a daily basis… it’s fantastic!
OMG I love this. If only it would work for a present for my turning-40 male colleague for the surprise party his wife is throwing him in two days. Do you think he wants 16 pages of nicely bound photos of my kids? Yeah. I didn’t think so. Now what do I do??? HELP!
These make great Christmas presents!
Photobooks are the best gift. The one that you did looks amazing. I know you were in a bind but if it were me I wouldn’t have given it up. I did a photobook for Christmas and I had one left but couldn’t part with it so never mentioned it to my MIL.
Brilliant. Too bad there aren’t any in my area. Sometimes is sucks to live in Alaska. Boo.
Thank you for sharing your experience on the HP Community Wiki.
BTW: Love your photobook. Can never have enough ideas on how to please a mother-in-law with so little guilt!
Wow Deb, such brutal honesty. I truly have had the EXACT same experience. Such as, “honey tomorrow is my mom’s bday, or niece”. One mom….and one niece on his side. Just one, I was so infuriated I nearly blew a gasket. Our cruise to Hawaii took my 6 mos to finish (My Publisher) because I had delusions of my loved ones adding to it. LOLOL!!! I finally found an occassion and made it happen. Yes of course I got one for us too, why waste all that work? I have been pulling the photo card ever since I bore me some youngins. Saves me everytime.