I couldn't post this before Christmas, because it was one of Raina's presents, but I ordered one of the photo books Flickr sells in partnership with Qoop, and it looks great. Here's how easy it is to do.

First I made a new set of my Flickr photos and included all the photos I uploaded in 2005. Then I reordered them from oldest to newest so they'd be in chronological order. Then I clicked on the set to get to my Flickr page for that set and selected "Make Stuff" in the menu bar. That took me to the Qoop page where I selected an 8x10, 2 photos to a page, two sided, glossy photo album. I refreshed the cover page selection until I got a mix I liked and titled the book "Newsome Family Photos 2005." I bought 2 115 page, professionally bound photo books for a hair over $100 each. I gave one to Raina and one to my sister. These books are reasonably priced and look great. I can't recommend them highly enough. I can't believe you can actually buy something like this- and for only $100!

Yesterday I decided to print some photos of Luke to send to people back home. I selected the photos I wanted to print via the "Order Prints" link on the menu bar of the photo page, and went to checkout, where I was again amazed by Flickr. I paid 20 cents a piece for the prints, and was given the option of having the prints mailed or picking them up at my neighborhood Target store in one hour- that's right, in one hour. I decided to pick them up, which was easy and fast. And the prints look great. Plus, you must get a number of prints free, since I ordered 10 and my total price was $0.

Flickr continues to amaze me. What a great site and what great service.