Hey Everyone!
Here it is: our gift to Il Volo this summer!
(note: the pink text on each photo does not appear in the actual book)
I have to say, Il Volo has the best fans in the world! I know they know that; we know that. But, I’m just amazed each time we ask, you guys deliver. 🙂 So many beautiful sentiments/pictures were sent, and so many monetary donations. Thank you for your generosity!
I can’t take a picture of every page, but if you sent me something, I put it into the book — even the things people sent to my home. Every comment and picture was included. Finished, the book is 31 pages long, an additional 11 pages to the 20 it came with.
We also included some posts from the site. I have to thank Marie for doing the lion’s share of work on that piece of the project. She went through all of our posts (do you know that we have over 700?!) and then emailed me her top 50. I have no idea how she narrowed it down even that much. 😀 You all have been so prolific and engaging here that there were so many that we wanted to include.
In the end, I narrowed it down to 10 and then further when I received the converted .pdf files (thanks to WordPress for helping me figure out how to do that). Some of the posts were much too long when converted into documents (some were 20 pages by themselves), and on others, the integrity of the formatting/text was actually compromised, so they couldn’t be used. The posts that were included are:
- Il Volo is a Phenomenon ~~ by Jeannette
- Music Notes; Myron’s Take on Eurovision ~~ by Myron
- Indescribable ~~ Flight Crew game to use every letter of the alphabet to describe Il Volo
- Grande Amore; The Wait is Over ~~ by Jana
- Coming Home ~~ by Marie
- One Soul With Love for the Holidays
I will ship the books to our wonderful news contributor, LiJoy this week. She graciously agreed to carry our gift with her to Italy. I have not included pictures of gift wrapping since…well I haven’t bought it yet. 🙂 But, LiJoy has asked that they be gift bags; they will be easy to pack, easy to use when it’s time to give them to The Guys and will still allow her to get through security and customs during her journey since the books won’t already be wrapped.
Now down to brass tacks. I promised that I would be up front with you about how your donations were being spent, so here we go:
- Over $200 was given for this project. Our order for 3 books (one for each of them) with shipping came to just over $100 during Shutterfly’s 4th of July sale.
- The package will be sent UPS to allow me to receive a tracking number, have insurance provided and insure that it is taken care of better than when it goes through the post office. The gift bags will also be purchased out of this money.
- The remainder of the money has been saved. We can use that for another project or for something else. We will “talk” with you before using any of it to get your input.
I hope this meets with your approval. Thank you again for participating and your generous help in providing this gift for Our Guys. I hope they love it! And thank you, LiJoy, for taking it to them!
~~Kelly
The book looks beautiful! I see some pictures from our wonderful trip in May and pictures of me and the girls. Thank you. I’m sure they will love it.
Kelly, the book looks amazing! You did a beautiful job of putting it together. They are going to love this thoughtful gift! Would any of us be able to purchase the same book through Shutterfly if we want to?
Project so well done👍👍
The book looks beautiful!!! I am so excited that the guys will have them soon!!! Thanks for thinking of making a book for them, Marie & Kelly! I gave them each a Rome coffee mug last year at the Greek theater! Put them in polka dot gift bags of their favorite color! I know they will love their books!!!
What a wonderful idea this was to make books for the guys. I will look forward to their comments. Well done sisters. Joanie G
It is beautiful! 💗💞💖
DEar Kelly & Marie Super job I know the guys will love the books and they will know how much they are loved.
Kelly and Marie, You have done a wonderful job putting it all together. I can’t wait to hear what our boys have to say about them.
And like Jane, I am also wondering if there is a way we can get copies of the book. Would love to have one.
Hi Kelly
Unless I am mistaken you haven’t shown the cover, just the title page.
Is that golden heart also on the cover?
They really look terrific, thanks to you and Marie and whoever else worked on this project–you guys did a magnificent job and a labor of love!
You all did a wonderful job! It looks great, and I would be interested in having a copy, too, if possible!
What a job! It looks awesome! Thanks for all the dedication, time and work you and Marie put into this.
Dear Kelly and Marie, I am impressed!! These books look much nicer then what I imagined. A wonderful job, and thank you for all your hard work putting it all together.
Thank You everyone. You need to know that this was Kelly’s project start to finish. I only reviewed past posts for her.
Thank you! I’m glad you guys like it. 🙂
I still have the book in our account, so you probably could buy it if you wanted. You can not go to the site and order it yourself, though. If you want to order one, please e-mail us, and I will try to help you each individually.
The idea of this book is wonderful and it looks wonderful. I can only imagine how pleased the guys will be when they see it.
Thank you so much Kelly for your dedication to the Flight Crew and the time and effort it took to put this beautiful book together for Gianluca,Ignazio and Piero. And thank you Marie for spending hours pouring through all those posts and Lijoy for offering to deliver the books to them in Italy. It was a labor of love and I really think they will be touched by the outpouring of love inside this very special Keepsake and hopefully treasure it just as we treasure and love them 💕💕
( And thanks for making my message and photos look great Kelly !! )
Obviously a lot of us would LOVE to have a copy of this special Keepsake Book. Is it possible to create a list of all of us devoted fans who would like a copy, and an address where we can send our money for the cost of the book and its mailing, then perhaps you can order us up a bunch of copies???
Looks like a job well done, Kelly. What a nice thought to put this all together. I’m sure it will go over with Il Volo like gangbusters.
I would like to share with you interesting information that I read. You know, yesterday was released the video of the Spanish version of Grande Amore, I love it <3 !According to some (yet unconfirmed) information, to July 2016 guys will have around 97 concerts, 10 of which are in Italy, the rest throughout Europe. Details are not known yet.. The new CD, that will present in September, it will consist of 7 unedited and 7 cover songs. The same disc will also have version in Spanish.
Ladies what a beautiful job you did with the book. I would love to have seen the book myself, bur mostly each of their faces when they open the gifts up! I like Sharon’s idea of having copies made for the people who would like to buy one.
Just wish I could have had a picture to contribute for the book but I don’t. I was too far away to get a good picture 🙁 and couldn’t stay for the M&G. You all are and amazing Team ILVolo <3
Hi All!
Love to hear all of your conversations and I do read all even if I seldom participate. It seems a few have questions about how I will get the books to our guys. I am blessed to have the opportunity to attend 7 concerts over a three week period, many of the concerts I have front row seats. I am also in contact with family and friends in Italy who have promised to help make sure the Flight Crew gifts are delivered. Not guaranteeing photos of the event but I will let you know what they say.
I agree with all of the other comments, Kelly did a great job on the photo books, Thank you Kelly. Marie, it must have taken you a lot of time going through all of the posts. Thank you. The boys will LOVE the photo books. One of our DIL’s made us two of the photo books as gifts, one for each child they have and we love and treasure them. They are so nice.
Second, I must say again that this is such a nice website and really keeps us up to date on our Boys. Thank you to all that put their time and effort into this.
I have read but have not had a lot of time to post for a while.
Lastly, I very much would like to purchase a Photo Book also, as a keepsake.
I wonder if there would be a discount if a certain number of books were purchased. Not sure how it could be worked out for the mailing and postage though. Just a thought.