OUR 4TH OF JULY

hope you all had a fun 4th of july! ours was wonderful! we got to spend time with our aunts, uncles and cousins - it was fun! we had great food and got to see fireworks too! i didn't take many pictures but here's a little bit of how our 4th of july looks like...

we hung our flag up at our house.

where the party was at - i promise there were people there :)my husband sitting on a pink chair.
we ended the night with our cousins lighting up the fireworks (it was much prettier in person than in video :))
have a great weekend!

xoxo,
athena

HAPPY FATHER'S DAY!

"the quality of a father can be seen in the goals, dreams and aspirations he sets not only for himself, but for his family."

i may have had some challenges and tough times throughout my life but i don't think the hardships i've gone through can compare to the hardships that my father went through in order to get me to where i started. i can't thank my dad enough for carrying the American dream and for believing in himself and his family to get us to where we are today. also, to my father-in-law who i know has also gone through a lot yet happily and graciously gave himself entirely to his role as a father. last but not least to my Father from above who never fails me, He always gives me love when i needed it, He continuously blesses me and laid Himself down to save me. happy father's day to my wonderful dads - love you very much - and to all the fathers in the world!

enjoy your celebration today everyone!

xoxo,
athena

A Lovely Surprise

I had an awesome surprise on Friday...a Valentine chocolate strawberry cake from the same maker of our wedding cake! We had the most awesome wedding cake for our wedding and I've been wanting to eat it again. My husband was lovely to pre-order it for me. My favorite cake flavor is chocolate strawberry (with real strawberries) cake and whipped creme and that's exactly what he got me. It's so good and dangerous at the same time :)

The design of our wedding cake was inspired by a photo of a vintage cake and they tried to make the Valentine cake in a similar way. Pretty awesome!

so surprised look.

love it look.

eat the cake now look.

yummy...

Saturday.

I made heart shape banana pancakes Saturday morning and it didn't turn out too good. Hand crafting wasn't easy with pancakes :) I end up burning a couple pieces..lol...but it's ok I sometimes like stuff to be a little burnt. After breakfast we went to the movies to watch The Vow and it was a very sweet movie - inspired by true events. Then we had dinner at a Korean restaurant - was so delicious. Now I'm off to the thrift store. My weekend has been awesome so far. Hope yours is too! Happy Sunday!

Love,
Athena

V-Day Tuesday

On Valentine's Day I woke up with a card and my favorite sweet chocolate from my husband. Love how he crossed out the word "lucky" and replaced it with "blessed." Yes, we believe everything we have and work hard for is a blessing not because we're lucky :)

Pork chops. Recipe from my BFF's mom...so good!

I made a simple warm dinner for us to celebrate Valentine together.

My favorite dessert - strawberries with chocolate...mmmm
We both exchanged our little Valentine gift and lo and behold I got a pair of boots that I so wanted. Yes, I collect shoes :) Muah! Love you husband!

I got another surprise on Friday that I will share later :)

Love,
Athena
p.s. I got him shoes too ;)
p.s.s. I'm wearing a 1970's vintage dress

Heart's Day

Another one of my favorite holiday is Valentine's Day because I love hearts a lot - who doesn't, right? Anyways, I think it's a very sentimental holiday and doesn't necessary mean you only celebrate it with your spouse/boyfriend/girlfriend - it could be with your family, friends or even kids :) Here are some very sweet ideas that I love for the Heart's Day.

Delicious sweet treats...


Mmmmm...looks like i know what to make for breakfast on the Heart's Day :)


Cute little gifts that you can make - doesn't cost a lot but could mean a lot. I kinda need this owl for my collection...





Awesome cute versatile decoration! I definitely have some new projects to work on...

Ah, heart bows idea for present.

This pom pom vase is the next project on the line for me!

Building this fabulous, comfy fort - I can't get the idea off my mind!

All pictures found on Pinterest.

Happy Tuesday!

XoXo,
Athena

my birthday :)

Just to brag a little about my wonderful husband, he planned a surprise birthday event for me last Friday on my 32nd birthday - not old just wiser :)

He took me out to a fancy dinner at Redstone on Friday night after work. Awesome food there! My favorite is the jumbo spicy buffalo shrimp that they have (top left picture). You have to try them if you're going to dine at Redstone.

Caught on camera chowing down the buffalo shrimp.
After dinner we went to the movie and watched Mission Impossible but that's not it...

The next day I was completely clueless as to where we were going for my second birthday surprise. He took me to watch a play called Charley's Aunt at the Guthrie Theater in Minneapolis - the setting was in the 1800s and I love it. It was very good and hilarious! I love watching theatrical performances and been wanting to go for a long time. My husband is not a big fan of plays but he did enjoy it as well. What a lovely birthday it was! Thank you husband! :)

Love,
Athena

Happy New Year!

Wow, how time flies by so fast! We can't believe 2012 is already here! 2011 has been a great year for us at Embriven. We got our blog up and running and were able to gain a few friends in the blogging world. We also had a great success in sponsoring the Embrace Fashion Show. Not to mention, the Embriven website is up and we got our shop going. It was a lot accomplished for us especially, when we have to juggle between our full time jobs, blogging, building a store and of course enjoying life with friends and family.

With the new year coming we also have new goals and resolution hoping to bring fun and exciting things to you my friends. Thank you for all your support and your interest in our little corner of the internet world. Let 2012 be your year of joy, prosperity, and fulfillment of your dreams.

"The past is behind, learn from it. The future is ahead, prepare for it. The present is here, live it."

Love,
Embriven

Seasons Greeting from Minnesota!

The holiday is not over yet...the new year is coming :) I had a wonderful Christmas and hope you all did too. I skyped on Christmas eve with my family in California (we have been for the past couple years) and watched each other open presents. It's always nice to feel like I'm there for part of the Christmas even though I'm really not there...you know what I mean :). Thanks to skype!


The husband and I woke up early on Christmas morning to see what Santa bought us this year. I'm happy to find out that one of the gifts was a pair of new boots that I've been wanting! Yepee!
Christmas morning tea with my new monogram cup.
After our little Christmas morning we dressed ourselves up to get ready to spend the rest of our Christmas with my in-laws. It was a fabulous time! What makes it so fun this year was our little Santa helper - helping Santa distributing presents...so cute!
And we had some delicious food!

It was definitely a wonderful Christmas with the family! Looking forward to a new year!

xoxo,
Athena

Seasons Greeting from California!

Hope you all had a great Christmas this year. It sure felt like the holidays crept up on me but I still had a wonderful time with friends and family. What an eventful weekend =)

Kicked off the weekend with an Ugly Christmas Sweater Party


Santa got me a Kindle this year!


Favorite Christmas ornaments from Target.


And of course topped it off with a beautiful Christmas service with the family at our home church, a delightful lunch with friends and family and the first day of the NBA season. Who could ask for a better Christmas...

XOXO,

Dora D.

Merry Christmas!

Embriven is wishing you and your family a very MERRY CHRISTMAS! Have fun celebrating this special day this weekend!

And here are some last, last minute Christmas gift suggestions...
"To your enemy, forgiveness.
To an opponent, tolerance.
To a friend, your heart.
To a customer, service...
To every child, a good example.
To yourself, respect”
To God, servant hood
and to all, LOVE



Let the spirit of Christmas bring you peace, the gladness of Christmas give you hope, the warmth of Christmas grant you love!

XOXO,
embriven

accessorize the tree

hello! so my sister came to visit me last week and we had a wonderful time spent together. the sis definitely did the shop till you drop :)

we also accessorize the Christmas tree and play with the lights :) here's a glimpse of the tiny Christmas tree...i love accessorizing the tree with knitted and handmade ornaments.
i finished it up with some of the awesome vintage ornaments i found over the weekend and am soooo excited about it.

what do you like to accessorize your Christmas tree with?

love,
athena

Christmas Spirit

Can't believe December is here so fast and it has been very cold in Minnesota. Of course with lots of snow too. Most exciting month of the year!

We finally had a chance to pick out our Christmas tree today...I know it's a little late but it's better than no tree. For the most part, our family have always had a Christmas tree growing up and my mother would always get a real tree...there's just something about the smell of that pine tree in your home that makes it feel even more like Christmas. I went through Christmas with no tree last year and it just didn't feel right. That's our little baby tree we picked out today! :)


This is a peek of our holiday pictures...making it simple and getting ready to send out those Christmas cards!

I'm pretty much done with my Christmas gift shopping (maybe a couple more to go) and the majority of it was done online...love the convenience of online shopping. This week will be full of decorations, wrapping and shipping out presents and waiting for a special guest to arrive! Whoo hoo! Starting to feel a lot like Christmas!

XoXo,
Athena

thankful for...

hope your thanksgiving was wonderful! mine was great! i don't get to spend time with my family in california on thanksgiving but i always have an awesome time spent with my in-laws. i couldn't be more happy to have such wonderful in-laws! i love this quote and it is so true. i have so many things to be thankful for...too much to list them. overall, life is so awesome and having a breath of life should be enough to be happy and thankful for - forever!

happy tuesday!

love,
athena

Happy Turkey Day!

Thank you for growing with us this year. As we celebrate with friends and family today, we'd like to extend our sincerest thank you for sharing the seasons with us this year.



embriven is all about embracing the things we have in life and the things that we cherish. We also embrace the things that motivate and drives us to keep moving forward (such as dreams, goals, desires, etc.). We believe if you really put your heart to it... good things will come.

We want to take this time to encourage all of you to stay in the fight... Keep dreaming... and keep believing... Be grateful for the things around you...

We also want to encourage you today to reach out to those in need when the opportunity arises. Say hello to a stranger, pray for the hurting, feed the hungry, spare some change, be a shoulder to cry on, and the list goes on... These simple gestures can ultimately be a life changing experience for others... Let someone know you care because I can guarantee it'll speak life into someone's heart =)

Happy Thanksgiving everyone and hope you enjoy this video!

We love because He first loved us... 1 John 4:19


xoxo,
embriven

Thank you Veterans!

Sometimes we are so busy with our lives and so busy living it that we forget to take a moment to think about how there are actually people out there fighting for our freedom and how we don't even know how to thank them. I remember seeing a lady in her army suit one time and asked her if she's in the army. She answered yes and I reached out my hand and shook hers and told her how much I appreciate her serving the country and thanked her for everything she has done. I only share you this story because I can never forget the joy and the smile on that lady's face after I thanked her. I could see that she was happy to hear that there was actually someone out there that appreciated her service. I hope the next time you run into a Veteran you will also reach out your hand to thank them or if you have a great story to tell please share. I want your story to inspire everyone including me.

I want to take this moment to thank all the Veterans of the USA. Veterans, we honor you. We recognize and appreciate all you have done, all you are doing and all you will do to bring safety, protection and freedom to our country. Thank you to you and your family!!!

“The willingness of America's veterans to sacrifice for our country has earned them our lasting gratitude.” –Jeff Miller

This video says it all...please enjoy

Love,
Athena

Aarontine's Day

Happy Thursday! Thought I should share with you about Aarontine's Day. The husband was sick on Valentine's Day so we didn't get to do anything but he made it up last weekend with so-called "Aarontine's Day." It was so sweet and cute! We hung out together the whole day, we had Thai food for lunch - yummy! And he prepared a candle light dinner with steak and corn. The husband did such a great job with the steak - sooooooooo good! Here's a peak of our Aarontine's dinner...
I got a gift card from UO - my favorite place to shop and the cutest card. It was such a wonderful time! Big thanks to the husband! MUAH!