Treat you say? Well, embe has just the thing!

Enjoy our free Halloween bookmark download. Just download, print, cut and share.

Have a wonderful and safe Halloween!

This past weekend, Cathy and I attended the Fran and Andy Show – it was a concert held by two of the four members of the Scottish band TRAVIS. It was an awesome show that chronicled select songs that they recorded from the very beginning until now. They’re one of our favorite bands, and we have been to a total of four of their concerts…and met the band members afterwards each time.

It’s so hard to pick a favorite song, but I’d have to say “My Eyes” off their Boy With No Name record is way on top because it reminds me of my little boy. Other favs include “Sing”, “Closer”, “Slideshow”, “20″, “Writing to Reach You”.

My little sister introduced me to TRAVIS several years ago. I had heard a couple of their songs before, but they’re not mainstream so rarely would you hear them on the radio. Their genre is alternative/indie rock and they have a pretty unique and pleasing sound…but I’m biased!

Anyway, last week’s concert took me back down memory lane to the other concerts we attended:

@ First Avenue in Minneapolis – July 22, 2007

Our first TRAVIS concert…they were promoting their record “The Boy With No Name”:

@ The Moore in Seattle – November 17, 2007

 Still on a high from our first concert, Cathy, my sister and I decided to see them in Seattle:

@ The Fine Line – April 17, 2009

Our first TRAVIS concert after the kids were born; they were promoting their “Ode to J. Smith” record:

They’re working on another album so hopefully we won’t have to wait too long until they’re on tour again!

TRAVIS: Fran Healy (lead singer), Dougie Payne (bass guitar), Andy Dunlop (lead guitar), Neil Primrose (drums)

During these challenging economic times, embe would like to spread some holiday cheer. We’d like your help to find a lucky recipient of an embe gift package which includes their choice of a select embe item from our catalog, a set of homemade note cards and a choice of knitting needles or crochet hooks. It’s our way of spreading a little holiday spirit! Nominate someone today!

We will accept nominations through December 4, 2009. The recipient will be notified by email.

When you’re in need of an activity for the little ones (or big ones) pull out those twist ties and exercise your imagination by making people, animals, buildings – anything! Not to sound cliche, but the possibilities are endless and you’re only limited by your imagination.

I discovered this art when I was setting up a computer at my old job. While waiting for software to install I started twisting them around my finger and thought, “Hmm, this looks a little like a person” and the man twist tie was born (on the right).

Always looking for a challenge, after making people I thought why not try an animal. Silhouettes were a little challenging for me so I ventured into 3-d and ta-da – little puppies!

This one is my favorite though. I like the simplicity of the curves and how they form a flower. This was formed purely by accident. I just started twirling the twist tie around my finger and then pulled the long end out. Instantly I thought it looked like a flower and did the same to the other end.

And just in time for the holidays I found this Twistie-tie Pompom Gift Toppers tutorial (from Nice Package blog) for those of you who need a job for the little helpers in your house. It’s a great way for them to feel involved with the gift wrapping while staying (a little bit) out of your hair!

As my little peanut’s first birthday comes closer and closer I’ve been thinking about what type of party to have for her. Of course I turned to some of my favorite blogs for inspiration- and boy am I in awe of some of these party themes. Check these out…

Tinkerbright theme from Hostest with the Mostest blog

When I do buy clothes for my daughter I tend to go with the brightly colored ones since we get a lot of pastels as gifts. That’s what drew me to this one – the bright bold colors used as a twist to a Tinkerbell theme.

Super Mario Brothers theme from At Home with Kim Vallee blog

Mario Kart is one of my favorite Wii games. I instantly fell in love with the Yoshii and Mario statues, the coin boxes and the colors this mom chose. I just might have to steal this idea for my own birthday and make it a Wii party too!

Robot theme from Hostest with the Mostest blog

How darling is the robot centerpiece?! I just love the plates and cups as well. Find out more about how the robot was made and where this mom got the darling plates and cups in her post at HWTM.

Ladybug theme from Hey, Bubbles blog

My baby shower theme was ladybugs so of course I had to include this one!

Fairyland theme from Hostest with the Mostest blog

This one by far is my favorite. From the color theme to the decorations (see the place settings below!!) to the entrance to “Tinks workshop” this party seems like every girls dream. It makes me want to find my own paper wings to decorate.

My little peanut has many more birthdays to come and I can only hope some of them will be as amazing as the ones above are. I’m still recovering from the slew of ladybug things my mom has gotten for my girl since the baby shower so I’m avoiding one type of theme, but I’ve got some ideas and can’t wait to get started. I’ll also share some of them after the big day so stay tuned!

*photos are from the respective blogs they are posted on.

Here’s one craft tip that my son was more than happy to partake…he got to eat it afterwards! This is a super easy way to decorate your cupcakes. All you need are the following:

1) Paper – preferably cardstock to hold a small amount of confectioner’s sugar

2) Craft punch (if you don’t have a craft punch, you can cut out your very own design)

3) Cupcakes (a dark flavor like chocolate so that the white sugar shows or you can color your sugar with food color and let dry)

4) Confectioner’s sugar & sifter

Just take your craft punch and punch out some shapes on the piece of cardstock. Using the negative portion, hold the piece of paper over the cupcake (it’s probably easier to have a helper do this!) and sift the sugar until you get the shape to show.

For the opposite effect, take the punch-out shape and place on top of the cupcake. Sift the sugar all over the cupcake and then remove the paper shape and voila! You’ve just turned some plain cupcakes into edible art!

Before my son was born, I had so many ideas on what I would do to capture those precious moments and milestones of his life…taking lots of pictures and videos, writing in my journal to record special moments, sending monthly updates to family and so on. Now that he’s almost 17 months, it’s hard to believe that I got a lot of those memories – his first year in particular – pretty well recorded. Here are a few things that I did/am still doing that you could do too:

1) “First Year” album – if you have a digital camera, it will be easy to organize your child’s pictures (from birth to present) by month so that you can pick and choose which ones you want to print for your album. And if you use a scrapbook album like I did – the one where all you have to do is add the pictures (believe me, by the time you get to putting the album together, your kid won’t let you do the real scrapbooking with all those embellishments!) – this project will be a cinch! Every now and then, I’ll flip through the album and be amazed how small my son was…and now that he’s older, he can actually recognize himself!

2) Birthday letter – one thing my husband and I started doing and that we hope to continue doing is writing our son a letter each year for his birthday. It’s a great way to tell him what he means to us and maybe even highlight those extra special moments of that year. We’ve only written one so far, but when I do get to reading it again (I included it in his “First Year” album), it takes me back and gets me all emotional! When he’s older, we’ll read it to him and when he’s a lot older, we’ll give him all those letters for posterity.

3) “First Year” movie montage – if you have time on your hands, this is definitely something you should consider doing. I’ll admit I spent countless hours making a 4-minute montage of of my son’s first year, using one of my favorite songs (‘My Eyes’) from one of my favorite bands (Travis) as the soundtrack. Having so much family back home in Texas who don’t get to see him often, I really wanted a special way to capture his first year for all to share.

4) Christmas ornaments – we bought our son his first Christmas ornament last year. It was a cute little angel. We paired that with a snow globe. In a couple of months, we’ll be looking for his next ornament and will hang it with last year’s. It’s a cute little thing to do as your child grows…and each ornament will change based on your child’s interests.

5) Growth chart – my idea for making growth charts actually came from a gift idea for my aunt’s child who is my son’s age. It was so cute that I had to make him a boy version (hence the Isaac and Sophie growth charts!). He’s been extra curious about the chart lately, especially when I added his new height markers. I’m glad I re-designed them b/c now he can’t pick them off! Anyway, it’s a great way to track your child’s height progression and something to add to the next idea!

6) Keepsake chest – after listing items 1-5, I decided that I need to create a keepsake chest for my son! I know there will be a ton of things that I’ll want to keep and hold on to, like his first real art piece, school projects, trophies and awards (no pressure kiddo!). And when he’s an adult, it will be something I’ll give to him to go through and reminisce. That won’t be for a long time so no need to feel sad yet!

7) Family Web site – I use Shutterfly create our own personal Web site to post pictures, videos and write updates to send to family. It’s a good way to keep everyone in the loop.

Anyway, this should give you a good start to building and recording memories for your kids. I just hope that I can do the same thing for my next child!!