v 3 issue 21: Keepsakes

Document and create memories with products from our Keepsakes issue. These heirloom products make the perfect gift and our picks for documentation will help you organize your favorite memories.

Cover by Kristin Franke

Keepsakes for your memories


1- Wear your memories with style when you wear Sentimental Silver pieces by Christij. Find handstamped personalized pendants, sterling silver photo jewelry, and custom mommy jewelry...even a little something for Fido. Each pure silver (.999%) pendant is made completely by hand using recycled silver. Every piece is truly one of a kind...a perfect gift for mothers and grandmothers!
2- Catch all of baby’s important first stories with Tiny Tales. Nothing is more important to a mother than capturing Baby’s first’s. Document every amazing milestone and funny story with one of their keepsake kits. Check off a category and jot down the story, then slip the note behind the appropriate divider. With its modern and classy design, you can conveniently keep it close by on the counter. Available for baby or choose toddler tales for ages 1-4.
3-When only a classic, handcrafted gift will do…send a NannyGram heirloom piece. Find gorgeous hand-knit layettes, sweaters, hats and booties all luxurious and all stitched with love by “knitting nannies” that create luxurious gifts made of cashmere and merino blends. Each NannyGram is packaged, tied with a bow and delivered with a personalized notecard…perfect for gift giving.
4-Keep all those treasured memories and keepsakes in a hand-painted keepsake box by Stacie Dale Designs. Keepsake chests are the ideal way to store and protect memories and make the perfect gift for new parents or for a special event. Each box is hand painted and may be customized.
5-These couture keepsakes by Keepsake Concepts are the perfect accessory for your baby shower, birth announcement or invitation. Adorable, handmade and personalized; these keepsakes help celebrate a cherished moment of your life.
6-Make remembering easy with Aimeej’s Mini Baby Days album. This 8x8 signature memory album is made of luxury paper and suede with 20 uniquely designed baby scrapbook pages to remember baby’s first year (with included page protectors). Pages are acid and lignin free and are post bound so pages can be added and removed. Personalize your album with an added touch at aimeej.com.
7-Create memories with the gorgeous My First Pearls Classic Beauty freshwater cultured pearl keepsake bracelet for your little girl. This beautiful bracelet is made with timeless Freshwater Cultured Pearls and comes with Genuine Swarovski Crystal accents. Personalize with a birthstone crystal color.



Tips for compiling your memories
1. Determine how much time you want to put into your album. If your goal is to simply record milestones without the fuss of adding a lot of photos a smaller memory album is for you. Selecting the perfect album size is the first step to compiling your memories.
2. If selecting a keepsake/memory album, you must be diligent about recording milestones/dates or your album will be empty! An easy solution is to keep a small calendar handy (in your purse, on your nightstand, etc.) and note when events take place (baby smiled, crawled, took first steps, etc.). Later when you have time, you can transfer all this information to your keepsake album.
3. Take a lot of photos! In our digital world, most photos just stay on our hard drives but at least you will have them available to print when you need hard copies of them. Print your favorites for your albums and organize the rest on a CD by year. Although with digital technology changing all the time, there is no guarantee that you will have access to those photos forever. I'm optimistic that my CD storage will be accessible forever but I may be naive! Our suggestion is to print any photo you'd hate to lose!!
4. Only use archival, acid and lignin free products, including the pen you use. By using acid and lignin free products your photos will never fade or turn yellow like the photos in many of our baby photo albums or our parent's wedding albums. It's a tragedy to see all the photos with brown curled up corners and yellow overtones from years past!
5. Take time to remember. Life is busy and there is little free time for anything. Days turn to weeks to months... Try to take a day each month to dedicate to updating your keepsake/photo albums. This way the task won't be overwhelming but will be a fun way to reflect on the milestones that month.
Make scrapbooking easy with AimeeJ. Ironically, as the owner of aimeej, I have never scrapbooked! You can certainly use our paper products or albums and embellish them with all the fabulous scrapbook products on the market but for a clean, simple look, we designed our frames made easy, which coordinate with all our baby and kids pages. All of aimeej's products are acid and lignin free which means your photos will never fade or turn yellow. Shop our comparison page to find the album that fits your needs best.

Aimee Jacobson is a Mom of 2 boys (6 and 4) and is fortunate enough to run a business and still stay home to raise her kids. After a corporate career in San Francisco, she moved to Kansas City with her husband and 3 month old first son and started the company after a long search for the perfect baby album. 6 years ago there was no selection for high end luxury keepsake albums or other products. Since the first 12x12 baby album, the company has grown into a full line of baby, kids and wedding albums, keepsake boxes, brag books, photo albums and more. The goal at aimeej is to make remembering easy and as a busy Mom, Aimee knows the importance of time management. She hopes to continue to provide products that will be cherished for a lifetime.

www.aimeej.com

This week's mom tips
Cleaning Tip: Remove ring around the collar with shampoo! Shampoo is designed to remove body oils. A savvy stain remover; keep a cheap bottle by the washer for use on all sorts of stains.
Time Saving Tip: Puchase Method bath wipes (found at Target) and keep them under your bathroom sink. They are quick, efficient and perfect for when a visitor drops by unannounced.
Organizing Tip: Purchase baskets/bins for the hall closet and label them for each family member. This way you can put everyone’s hats, mittens, bags etc in their basket for later picking up or just to keep the closet organized.
Financial Tip: Drive the speed limit. Cars use about 20% more fuel driving at 70 miles per hour than they do at 55 miles per hour.