Don't ya hate it when

[Octoberbride03]

You have an AWESOME idea for a gift and no way to get the idea done by the event you need the gift for?

Awhile back my dad was given a box of pictures of his family that 1 of his brothers found while decluttering. We're talking pics of his immediate family and ancestors dating back quite possibly 100 years or more. While I've seen a bunch I haven't even had time to scratch the surface of them and neither has he. He has had a couple of them framed and now displayed. But what I want do is get the rest of them and have them scanned and uploaded for a digital scrapbook for Christmas or his bday in Feb. like I did with my cruise pictures.

Great idea right?

Well here my parents' 40 wedding anniversary is May 1st. And of course up in their attic somewhere is a box full of a million pictures taken through the course of the 40. And AFTER I'm home it occurs to me I could have done this same gift for the anniversary if I'd only thought of it a year ago. NOW, I'm in VA and they're in DE and I won't be able to get back up there and home and get time to do the scanning and uploading and creating all in the space of 2 weeks.

Drives me crazy when I have a truly great brainstorm and can't act on it for when it would be a great time to give it. :

 

[beck0321]

You have an AWESOME idea for a gift and no way to get the idea done by the event you need the gift for?

Awhile back my dad was given a box of pictures of his family that 1 of his brothers found while decluttering. We're talking pics of his immediate family and ancestors dating back quite possibly 100 years or more. While I've seen a bunch I haven't even had time to scratch the surface of them and neither has he. He has had a couple of them framed and now displayed. But what I want do is get the rest of them and have them scanned and uploaded for a digital scrapbook for Christmas or his bday in Feb. like I did with my cruise pictures.

Great idea right?

Well here my parents' 40 wedding anniversary is May 1st. And of course up in their attic somewhere is a box full of a million pictures taken through the course of the 40. And AFTER I'm home it occurs to me I could have done this same gift for the anniversary if I'd only thought of it a year ago. NOW, I'm in VA and they're in DE and I won't be able to get back up there and home and get time to do the scanning and uploading and creating all in the space of 2 weeks.

Drives me crazy when I have a truly great brainstorm and can't act on it for when it would be a great time to give it. :

Can't you ask one of them to find the box and FedEx it? I mean you can tell them you'll pay them back for shipping. They don't need to know exactly what it's for. Just tell them you want to digitize all those old photos.

ETA: It would also be nice to put some in a slide show and have it playing on the TV in the background so that everyone can see them (if they are having a get-together that is)

 

[Octoberbride03]

Can't you ask one of them to find the box and FedEx it? I mean you can tell them you'll pay them back for shipping. They don't need to know exactly what it's for. Just tell them you want to digitize all those old photos.

ETA: It would also be nice to put some in a slide show and have it playing on the TV in the background so that everyone can see them (if they are having a get-together that is)

I can do that. But, even if they do FEDEX it, it is still several hundred pics to go through at a minimum, this is assuming of course that all 40yrs of pics are 1 box, and easily marked and found, knowing my parents, not likely. And to do the book right it will take quite a number of hours to do. The last time i did 1 of these was for my cruise in 2008. There was a deal and a page limit to the book to get the deal. That i nearly forgot about and wound up spending about 8-10hrs on it on the last day to get the deal. That was a 20 page book. Now I know better. Do it early and spend however much time i need to make it look right. And not have a page limit either. 20 pages was fine for a cruise, not neccessarily a 40 yr life together KWIM.

So even if my sister had time to find them tonight and ship em out tomorrow(she doesn't) it will take overnight b4 they get here. I'm working this weekend at the store as part of 6 days in a row. Throw in the other stuff I normally do in a week and even IF i get everything done, scanned, uploaded and book finished for printing, it still needs another 48 hours to print b4 it ships and unless I overnight it, another few days to arrive here. Seeing as how I'd want to give the book in person appropriately wrapped that would mean sending it here instead of up to them.

2 weeks is pretty much undoable to get it done and looking nice. This is why I wish I'd had this idea months ago. Even 2 months ago would have been better. A year is completely manageable.

 

[Octoberbride03]

And what drives me nuts about their home is that the attic stairs are in my parents' bedroom So the next time i come up I can't just wait until they go to bed and bring down the attic steps to get this stuff myself. Nope, would wake up dad. In our old house it was in my room. Instant access 24/7. Ah for the good old days.

 

[NeverlandClub23]

YES! This happens to me all of the time. My cousin's baby shower is this weekend (I'm particularly close to this cousin) and I found the cutest personalized bags on etsy.com but wouldn't get it in time for the shower. I ended up with another personalized one from ebay (that I received yesterday and it is super cute) and plan on filling it with items from her registry. I just wish I had found the other bag sooner .

But this happens to me just about every holiday or gift giving occasion.

 

[beck0321]

I just thought about this. You might not have time to scan upload pictures to it before their anniversary, but you could let them know you're going to do it...What about one of those digital photo frames? You can load A LOT of pictures on there and they scroll through when it's on. My sister got my parents one for some holiday/birthday and they have it on everytime I visit. It's kind of a cool idea because it's something you can always see. Once you load the pictures on it and set it up for them, I would think they would only have to turn it on and off. Not really a surprise but do you think they would like something like that?