The Best of Sacramento Party benefitting The March of Dimes Is Tomorrow!

We are so honored and excited to have been chosen by Sacramento Magazine as the 2010 Best of Sacramento Editor's pick for "Best Gift for Expectant Moms." This really means SO much to us, as we are both Sacramento natives and love living here!

Sacramento Magazine's Best of Sacramento Party is tomorrow,

Thursday, December 2nd from 4:30pm to 10:00pm at the Sacramento Convention Center. We have talked to so many people who have attended this event in previous years and they say it is THE BEST party in Sacramento!! We will have a table at the event displaying all our stylish hospital gowns!!! Hope to see you there!

To watch a video to see what this event was like in past years and

to find out more information on the event, click the link below.

MORE INFO HERE

The Support of Sisters During a Difficult Time

When we dreamed up Annie & Isabel together, as nurses, we envisioned bringing happiness to patients in hospitals everywhere. We thought of all the lovely patients we had encountered in the past and knew that having a designer hospital gown would have made a HUGE difference in their hospital stays. It seemed impossible to start a business, being busy mothers to 6 young boys, both working at the hospital, and running all over town juggling our boy's busy schedules. We were determined to make Annie & Isabel a reality because we thought of what good it would bring to people. We went into our nursing careers because we want to help people through tough times... We have discovered that Annie & Isabel has become another way in our lives that is rewarding and doesn't carry the emotional downsides of our stressful jobs. At work in the hospital, we interact with our patients... who have amazing courage and spirit in the face of so many terrible diagnoses. They inspire us on a daily basis and we each carry so many of them in our hearts.... So many days after working a long 12 hours shift, we come home to our sleeping boys and kiss them a little longer because of what we experienced that day. Being nurses forces us to appreciate every day that we are able to wake up with our health and mother our boys, or go to work, or send out gowns to our clients. We see how life can be so hard for so many... and we come into contact with people struggling and fighting the good fight! We feel SO honored to be nurses, and now business owners, who can help those in need of medical care with a beautiful pick-me-up such as an Annie & Isabel designer hospital gown!

That brings us to our excitement that the word is spreading about Annie & Isabel. We have sold so many gowns to beautiful mothers for upcoming births, which we love! Recently we have also been selling gowns to people going in for surgery, at home with hospice, or getting treatment in the hospital. This makes us really happy, because people stuck in the hospital are the ones who really need the benefits of an Annie & Isabel gown. We recently received an e-mail from a beautiful woman who was gifted The Annie gown from her sisters for her stay in the hospital. She said she adored her Annie gown and felt like it made a big difference in her hospital stay. She told us, "Staff and patients are always asking me where I got the gown and how cute and functional it is. What a wonderful concept the gowns are to make patients feel more comfortable, less exposed, and most of all, a little more attractive in a very sterile, unglamorous environment." We have added her full testimonial to our page and you can read it here. She was so sweet to send us this adorable pic of her in the Annie gown with her sisters. Aside from her IV, you would never know which sister was the patient! Like we always say... When you look great... You feel better and recover faster!

Our Milk Money...

It is almost July, WOW! We have fortunately been very busy bees packaging up our gowns and sending them out all over the country! In a little over 2 months, we have made over 70 women stylish and comfortable in the hospital! We already have our second shipment of fabric en route to our manufacturer in San Francisco, including the Susan Gown... this gown will be ammmmazing!

We have enjoyed connecting with other small businesses through social networking... mainly Twitter and Facebook. I guess I should have known about the power of these sites from my husband Bryan,who does social networking for the San Francisco Giants. I have been surprised to see 200 people comment on a Facebook post in just 5 minutes!...but, when people are actually finding us and reaching out to us... we've been amazed. We know we have a wonderful product and we believe in it so strongly... but, when someone comes to us with the same feelings.. we just fill with excitement!

We have discovered in ourselves a desire to support other women and men who are doing what we are doing, starting a home based business. We are so blessed because we both LOVE our day jobs as RN's... so, A&I has been a side business that we love, and if it can help us support our families, then great! We wonder if our fun business could turn into something more?? Maybe Annie & Isabel WILL help us put our 6 boys through college, yea! Ultimately we are blessed because we have the ability to work in the hospital, run Annie & Isabel, and raise our children as we want, and get a little sleep here and there:)

This desire in us to support others is much more present now that we are trying to succeed ourselves. I have found wonderful companies and people doing fantastic things. I bought a beautiful cuff from Ruby Roxanne Designs, a cool looking peanut allergy alert bracelet from Allergy Apparel for my son Henry, and oh boy.. I just discovered Stella & Dot! We've even found local people doing great things, like Kelli Wheeler, who wrote the hilarious book "MOMSERVATIONS, The Fine Print of Parenting". But in supporting these people, just like us, I was thinking it would be wonderful to have a registry to find a local business you would want to support if you needed a service or good? Well, I ran across one called Our Milk Money.... isn't that a great name? I connected with the owner, Ally, recently and what she has started is pretty awesome. OurMilkMoney.com is a online organization dedicated to supporting self-employed parents and it has inspired a nationwide movement of families who are working together to gain more control over how much time we are able to spend with our children. Unfortunately, in our current society many families are unable to support themselves on one income alone, resulting in both parents working. Most of us desire for someone to stay home, but sometimes that just isn't an option. The great news is many parents are starting small home businesses so they can be their own boss and be home with their families. Our Milk Money is an organization dedicated to supporting parents in their personal and financial goals.

The goal is to try and use the directory and support each other, creating a "mini-economy" that will allow us the choice to stay home with our kids. OurMilkMoney has been successfully growing across the country in cities such at Los Angeles, Phoenix, and now they are trying to reach Sacramento.

In just a couple of weeks, Ally Loprete, the founder, will be appearing on our Channel 10 news on Sacramento & Co with Melissa and Guy. She is asking all local parent owned businesses in Sacramento to join her on www.ourmilkmoney.com so she can adequately promote it to the community on June 30th, when the segment airs.

Usually, there is a 25$ annual membership fee when you apply to be on the registry, but she is offering to waive it for any "self-employed parent" who signs up before June 29th. Annie & Isabel is on it and the process was a breeze!

Below is more info from Ally on how to join~

We hope if you are local and have a business you will join us and we can all support each other.

We are doing it for these "guys"

To learn more about the site and the mission of OMM http://www.ourmilkmoney.com/aboutus

To apply for a free spot in the national business directory http://www.ourmilkmoney.com/joinnow

Application instructions: 1. Make sure you select Sacramento as the major market and your town as the sub-market 2. In the notes section of the application write in

"SACRAMENTO FREE"

3. Do not select any additional markets- you will be automatically entered in the national directory. 4. After you accept the terms and conditions, you will be taken to a paypal page. You do not need to enter any payment information. Just exit out. You

r application will be reviewed within 24 hours. If you would like to check on the status, or if you have any additional questions, the membership director can be reached at membership@ourmilkmoney.com