MPix cards: great quality, value

I decided this year to send out year-in-review "holiday" cards after a bit of debate. For one, we don't really celebrate winter holidays, so the design choices are limited. Then, there's the price. This year, there's also the fact that we'll likely be sending out birth announcements some time in January for our son. How much mail does anyone care to receive from us? Also, does anyone care about receiving photos of our family in the mail in general? (Thankfully, this guy was never on our distribution list.) But then I figured, life's too short; let's send a card to people who might like to receive one.

After getting bombarded by Black Friday email deals from sites such as Tiny Prints and Minted, companies which I love but are just really expensive, I settled on the significantly cheaper option of MPix. (Sidenote: I don't work for MPix, and this is not a sponsored post.) I feel like MPix is this awesome little secret card maker of the Internet. I'm a long-time customer of the site, but until last year when we sent out New Years cards I'd never realized the site offers high-quality, reasonably priced customizable cards. I don't think many people realize this, either, because of the dozens of cards we get in our mailbox each year not one appears to be from MPix.

MPix was running a 25% off special on Black Friday, so I put in our order that day. I went with the Happy Everything theme because it seemed the most fitting for our family. Plus, I love the way this design, along with so many other MPix designs, includes room for photos on the back of the card as well as the front. Here's the design with the dummy photos:

Here are the photos we used:

I ordered two sets of 25 5x7" flat cards on signature paper with no gloss and rounded corners. The rounded corners cost an extra $2.50, but I prefer the look. I love MPix's signature paper. It is so thick and the photos on it stay true to the colors that I see on my computer screen when arranging the photos on the template. Even if I hadn't placed the order on Black Friday when I paid only $46.45 for the cards and shipping, the total for 50 cards would have been just $50.50 plus $7.95 shipping using standard USPS delivery. I think this is a great deal in the world of customizable cards, considering I would have paid double at Tiny Prints and more than double at Minted (but man do I love those cards, too).

Besides the amazing price and quality of the finished product, I also like the fact that MPix does not print its name anywhere on the card. This is bad advertising on the company's part, but good for me! Also, my order was sent out within about 12 hours of placing it. Even though I chose the slowest shipping speed, I still received the package within five days from the date the cards were printed.

My only complaint about MPix is that in my limited experience with customizable cards, MPix seems to limit the number of customizable options. For example, I thought I would be able to change the greeting on the back of the card. The "wonder and magic of this season" isn't really my style of writing or expressing emotion, but I only realized I couldn't change that after about 45 minutes of playing around with photos and finalizing the card, so I said *whatever* and figured the greeting is what people pay the least attention to (until you blog about it, I guess).

Other users might complain that MPix doesn't offer nearly as many design options as its competitors do, which I think is valid, but that particular issue hasn't been a concern for me.

Oh, and something silly: I happened to choose a design with space for five horizontal photos and space for only one quasi-vertical photo. In attempting to include a photo of Natalie and me as well as one of Natalie and Matt, I discovered that in all of 2013 I managed to avoid having a single horizontal photo of myself with my daughter. Goal for 2014: get horizontal and vertical photos of me and both of my children.

If you're thinking of sending out cards this year and haven't placed an order yet, you might want to give this lesser-known site a chance.

A special anniversary and a new lens purchase

A year ago this weekend, during the last Columbus Day tax-free Energy Star appliance weekend in Virginia, Matt and I purchased our stainless steel fridge and dishwasher. We've been thoroughly enjoying them all this time. Not only do they look great but they function perfectly and -- perhaps most importantly to us -- make hardly any noise. This is a major life upgrade.

But, last week, my typical need for cleanliness or my pregnancy nesting instinct took over (call it what you will), and I realized that I had not thoroughly cleaned the fridge and freezer in the entire time we've owned it. Yes, I have cleaned out each produce drawer several times and wiped down sticky shelves on numerous occasions, but our beloved fridge has never received the head-to-toe treatment it deserves.

So I started with the freezer and my handy Clorox wipes, which I find to be the most effective (though I once again admit, perhaps least environmentally friendly) way of cleaning out the various poppy seeds from bagels and leaves from various vegetables that get stuck in the nooks and crannies of our fridge. We're not big freezer users (yet) so there wasn't too much to sort through, and I am not someone who has an amazing system for organizing the contents of our freezer or our fridge.

The fridge is more satisfying to organize than the freezer, and completely emptying it out and leaving it spotless before throwing out expired goods and rearranging the contents of the shelves made me feel amazingly accomplished.

I documented the freezer and fridge clean-out progress using our new 50 mm f/1.4 lens (for our Canon Rebel XTi DSLR) which just arrived in the mail midway through last week. (We bought it through the site Adorama rather than Amazon because the two sites were charging the same price, but Adorama threw in a free 58 mm UV filter and lens cleaning kit -- two things I've been wanting for some time.)

Here's the (completely unretouched) photo of our freezer contents taken at approximately 9 p.m. Wednesday using our original lens

And here's the same photo taken from the same spot in our kitchen using our new 50 mm lens

Because of the lighting in our house I still had to take both photos on manual settings with an ISO of 1600. Granted, when I take photos to post on this blog or share with friends I almost always retouch them, adjusting usually the exposure and sometimes the saturation. But I wanted to show you the raw files of these images to help you get a sense of what the new lens will do. Namely, while the new lens does not have zooming capabilities, it does have a much more important feature: the ability to take better photos indoors in really low light. Though you might not be able to appreciate it in the examples above, the photos taken with the new lens have way less digital noise (i.e. obvious grainy pixels) than the photos taken with the old lens.

Why did we get this new lens? Well, probably at this point for obvious reasons. As we prepare our lives for Baby Awesomerod, we want to be able to take a ton of pictures of her, and since she'll be arriving during almost the dead of winter, we figure we are going to take almost all our photos indoors in low lighting. We'd rather not take photos using the flash since it tends to have a rather jarring effect.  Our friends Dawn and Jon have taken lots of adorable pictures of their daughter indoors using the same lens that inspired this purchase, and Matt, being the tech guru that he is, was totally happy to buy this lens after seeing what their lens could do.

I am totally thrilled to have a clean fridge AND a new awesome lens to document our lives. Now we need to get Photoshop Elements so I can learn to do a better job at editing photos.

Dining room wall reveal

In late June, before taking off for our European vacation, I decided I was totally fed up with our dining room wall -- the wall containing giant bolts left over from the previous owners; the wall I refuse to paint right now because we have enough keeping us busy; the wall where the pictures were all horribly spaced apart. Well, it was a slow process, but because of my diligence in looking for deals (and a little birthday gift to boot) I managed to get the project done this weekend on a tiny budget. Here's how it went down.

Step 1: Roughly lay out the frames.
This was actually the second-most-annoying of all the steps. Fortunately, though, I like puzzles, and as a teacher I've developed an impressive level of patience, so it could have been a lot worse.

One rule I set for myself was to purchase as few additional materials as possible for this project. So, I rounded up all the black frames in our house. Then I discovered that my wall would not be complete without the addition of two new frames, so I scurried over to Home Goods and picked up two 8"x10" frames for under $25 total, so I figured that was a decent start.

After a couple hours of rearranging all the puzzle pieces, I went from this...

...to this...

Step 2: Determine which photos to purchase
Still on the lookout for deals, I waited to make my final decisions regarding the photos I'd used to fill the frames until I saw a sale. Two sales emerged within a few days of each other, and I ordered five free 8"x10" photos from Ritz online (well, free, but I still had to pay a $3 handling fee), and then I ordered the seven missing 5"x7" photos from Mpix when they were having a 15% off sale. I'd never ordered from Ritz before, and I am really pleased with the quality of their photos.

It actually worked out that I had to wait until late August for these sales, because it took me a while to decide how many horizontal and vertical photos I'd need along with their dimensions. I was pretty pleased that I needed five 8"x10" photos, and that's exactly how many Ritz was offering for "free." Win!

Although my original grand idea was to take photos of kitchens in Europe, that was clearly idealistic and therefore didn't work out, so instead I went with these photos highlighting some of our favorite moments on our trip:

8"x10"s

5"x7"s

Step 3: Buy/make mats for frames
Starting out, three of my 12 frames had white mats, so I decided I'd use those three and buy nine more. Armed with a $50 gift card to Michael's from my birthday and dimensions for all my frames, I waited until a Friday rolled around (when teachers get an additional 10% off their entire purchase, including sale items). A few of my frames have odd dimensions, so I stood in the mat aisle for a long time, wondering if I could come up with a plan to make this work. Then it dawned on me: I could make my own mats for the weird-dimension frames. So, I bought six normal-dimension mats and then bought two pieces of mat board and an Exacto knife so I could cut my own mats. All in, my purchase rang up at about $43, so I still had some money to spare on my gift card!

When I got home to create my mats, it took me a while to figure out the best system. Because I was working with abnormal frame sizes, I knew these mats would wind up being wider than your typical mat. So, I figured this little inconsistency might add to the charm of the frame collage, and I think it does!

There is no doubt an easier way to make your own mats, and I don't claim to be an expert frame-matter, so I'll send you to another site to find a better system.
Here's one of the big mats I made...

and here it is inside its frame.

Step 4: Level all the frames
Because one of the main goals of this project, besides filling up a big wall, was to cover up the giant bolts, I tried to use the bolts to my advantage in hanging my frames. Then, after stepping back and buying a better level, I made a discovery: the giant bolts are not level. Awesome. These giant bolts are good for nothing.

Remember how I said roughly laying out the frames was maybe the second most annoying part of this project? The most annoying part, by far, was leveling the frames.

At Home Depot, when buying brass polish, I also bought a Ryobi Airgrip Laser Level, the kind that attaches to your wall. Despite the fact that our first purchase clearly did not work -- there was no laser! -- I have to say that the $20 we spent on this gadget was well worth it. We owned a cheap level before -- a cheap level that led me astray by telling me my frames were level when they weren't, as anyone with decent-enough eye sight could tell. Yes, it is kind of hard to see a red laser up against red paint, but that's where my keen 20/10 vision came into play.

Several hours later, when I was about ready to give up, I finally had a level wall, complete with 12 photos chronicling one amazing summer.

Not level...then level! (Watch the changing time by tracking the light from the window...)

Painstaking, but worth it!

Total cost = $51
$25 for frames
$6 for photos
$20 for level
mats -- free, thanks to gift card!

Mpix update: success!

Last week I posted that I was planning to take down some of the multitude of wedding photos blanketing our walls and replace them with some married-life photos. Using my newly-wed-friend Lindsay's recommendation after ordering her wedding pics, I figured I would give Mpix.com a shot. Here are the results:

Timeline:

• I placed an order on February 5.
• I received an e-mail on February 8 saying my order had shipped.
• I got my photos in the mail this afternoon, February 11 (but the speed of the mail is difficult to gauge right now thanks to the sporadic snow service).

Price:

• I ordered 37 4x6 photos on E-Surface paper at $0.29 each.
• I order 1 5x7 photo on E-Surface paper at $0.99 each.
• I opted for the cheapest shipping -- 1st Class Mail -- at $3.
• Total price: $14.72

The verdict:

• The default option for Mpix is matte finish, which I love -- none of those fingerprints that you get with glossy-finish photos.
• The crispness of the images is better than what I've gotten from Kodak Gallery and Snapfish, two companies I've used in the past.
• Even though Mpix is more expensive than Snapfish, it's significantly better quality. And, unlike Kodak, Mpix does not charge extra for black-and-white prints. I converted four photos into black-and-white using our iPhoto software, and these came out great in Mpix. If I had used Kodak those black-and-white prints would have cost $0.38 each.
• The site is exceptionally easy to use.
• The service and shipment was prompt.

I order photos only about once or twice a year, but even so, I think I have found my new site. I love the look of their gallery wraps, too, so sometime down the line when I take the perfect shot I'll have to order one and let you know how it goes!

Snowtastic time: Make the most of a snow day (or week)!

As all you D.C.-area people head out to get your supplies for the impending snow storm, also think about how you'd like to spend your time while you're buried under 18-24 inches of snow. They've already canceled classes in several school districts (including my own) and the Federal Government has issued an unscheduled leave policy. Plot prediction: People will use it liberally. So, looks like many of us will have time on our hands tomorrow. Let's make the most of it!

Here are some activities you can do at home, with a little preparation:

• Paint a room. I know it sounds a little ambitious, but I would say half the painting in our house has taken place on snow days. And, it requires a little money and a few supplies: the paint, rollers, roller covers, roller tray, brushes, painter's tape, an edger tool, and an extension pole (if you also have ridiculously high ceilings).
• Do that craft project you always meant to do but never did. I have two special projects lined up for tomorrow, and I'll share the photos when the projects are done. If you shop at Michael's for craft supplies, don't forget (as I almost did yesterday) that when you sign up for online coupons, they send you 60 percent off coupons to use, as opposed to the standard 40 percent off coupons in the Sunday circulars.

And here are some activities you can do at home with what you've already got:

• Organize those digital photos. I also plan to order some from a site recommended by my friend Lindsay -- mpix.com. I need to replace some of the wedding photos hanging on what seems like all our walls. I am ready to take that step, but I will keep some weddings photos up, never fear! Once my mpix.com photos arrive in the mail I'll post a report.
• Make a coffee table book of your digital photos. I am partial to MyPublisher.com. Here are some example pages from the wedding album I made there and here is a link to our awesome photographer Chris Baltazar.

 

  

  

  

 

• Clean out your closet. I'll post more in the future about closet organization, but for now, get out some big bags and prepare to fill them with all the shoes and clothes you haven't worn in at least a year. I know some people follow the "if it hasn't been worn in two years then I'll toss it" rule, but frankly, if you haven't worn it in a year, you're not going to. By the time you gain or lose weight, those clothes will be out of style and you'll want new clothes anyway. Then, figure out where you'll donate the clothes once the roads clear.
• Clean out and organize your pantry. Check all expiration dates. Group items by genre and frequency of use.
• Clean out your fridge. Give it a thorough scrubbing in all compartments, shelves, draw units. Don't forget the freezer. I sometimes forget that frozen foods still have a shelf life.
• Organize your recipes. Here's my post about making a recipe notebook. Even if you don't have all the recipe notebook supplies, at least gather all your recipes and develop a filing system.
• Arrange your books and/or DVDs. I like to organize my books by genre (and sometimes, for aesthetic purposes, by color!). It's amazing how much better a streamlined bookcase can look than one that's overflowing with materials.

 

  

 

• Plan your upcoming vacation! I will be reading the rest of our Lonely Planet Spain travel book, and then I'll take a stab at the Italy book for our upcoming three-week vacation this July.
• File your taxes. I would like to do this, but we're still waiting on one final tax document....grrrr.

And, don't forget to:

• take a nap
• watch a movie
• go through your DVR
• check out OnDemand
• read a book
• start a journal (or blog?!)
• catch up on your blog reading
• play video games
• develop make-shift skis
• write someone you miss an e-mail
• break out that camera for some phenomenal photos

Next up...the Droid post, for real this time!

Tip 14: Dealing with digital photos

We bought a Mac in the summer of 2008 (right after the end of our month-long cross-country road trip...it was an expensive month). I never was one to think Windows PCs are difficult to deal with, but my inner artist and organization freak loves the clean, simple and, dare I say, pretty programs of Apple, particularly iPhoto. Fortunately, I hear that the Windows' iPhoto-semi-equivalent Live Photo Gallery ain't too bad. But, before you figure out what to do with your photos...

Tip 14: Upload your photos as soon as you take them, and delete them from your camera.

I used to save my photos on my camera even though I'd already loaded them onto my computer. I guess I worried about what would happen if my computer suddenly died...at least I would still have those last 50 photos! That, of course, has never happened, and I was simply wasting electronic space, and wasted space, regardless of its form, is still wasted space! So, when my computer kindly asks me, "Would you like to delete these photos after upload?" I kindly respond, "Why yes!"

I upload the photos quickly because I often want to share them with other people, and everyone loves instant photo gratification. I think back to our honeymoon in Maui, sitting at our hotel, getting links to photos from our wedding just a day or two after the big event. It was awesome to see friends' photos before we got our photographer's photos almost a month later.

Tip 14 continued:...Then, use your photo program's labels and/or folders to keep them in order.

Here, I turn to iPhoto. Here's what I love:
Events -- label your photos as a group when you upload them, and then they show up like this on your screen

Maps -- label where you took your photos, and they'll appear as pins on a map, an easy way to retrieve photos you are looking for easily. (Note: this system isn't always perfect. There is one mistake on this map, a pin off the coast of Africa. We have not been there, but iPhoto thinks we honeymooned there. Fortunately, it pinned Maui correctly.)

Last 12 Months -- this label is fun because when I occasionally scroll through it gives me that great, "Wow, look at everything I've done this year" kind of feeling. That, and warm fuzzies.

And what I don't like about iPhoto:
Faces -- Yes, you can tag people's faces in iPhoto much as you do in Facebook. This is one way to find photos of friends, and it's great if you're making a photo gift for a friend and want an easy way to keep track of those photos. After you've labeled all the photos you want, then iPhoto gives you a message saying "Stephanie may also be in the photos below." Too often Stephanie is not in those photos and it instead thinks I am someone with blond hair or a boy. If I want to go through and do all the face labeling myself (I realize that sounds weird), it works great, but the program doesn't do a great job by itself.

What do you do to keep your digital photos organized?

Next up...Craigslist success and failure.