A Husband's Gift of Love and Style For His Wife Who Struggles with Parkinson's

We always think it so special when a loving husband purchases one...two.. or several...of our Annie & Isabel designer hospital gowns for their wife. THEY GET IT! They understand that all women really do feel better when they look better! We first "met" Ronnie when he emailed us about his lovely wife, Suzanne, who is living in a care center due to complications from Parkinson's disease. He won over our hearts with the love he has for his Suzanne. We asked him if he would share how having the Annie & Isabel designer hospital gowns has made a difference for them and this is what he said:


"I am in receipt of the two hospital gowns I purchased for my wife.  They are great.  The care center she is in provides, (standard), gowns for nightly use. On bath mornings, for convenience, they use a fresh gown with a couple of small throws I have provided, as dress for breakfast. I was looking for something "more stylish" for these occasions, and indeed found it with your product. 


I had originally brought a "heavy" terry cloth robe from a nice hotel years ago. As her Parkinson's has progressed and caused her body to be rigid that she is no longer able to stand, sit (except in a wheel chair), making it very difficult for the aids to put the robe on with her arms in the sleeves. 

I must tell you, the aids compliment me on how nice the gowns are. They are very easy to care for, just wash/dry and put on a hanger. I have decided I am going to your site and ordering one of each size in various colors. Not for Suzanne, but for friends and family who I normally send flowers, I will now give them a gown for after a surgery or whatever. These will look much better up and down the hall.


The gowns are great and I will let all know of your product! A happy customer!!!"


~Ronnie

{GIVEAWAY 12/11-12/13} Hospital Bag Essentials :: Comfy Socks

Yes... these are standard hospital socks THAT are just plain ugly! How are you supposed to feel better when you have these to look down at while you roam the halls? Today's "HOSPITAL BAG ESSENTIALS" item is your own cute and comfy pair of socks! 

We love these shea infused lounge socks from Bath and Body. They are so incredibly soft and, more importantly, have grippers on the bottom {nurses don't like you to get out of bed without the grippers}. We are giving away one pair of each of the socks below....... these so beautifully match several of our designer hospital gowns. 

To enter our giveaway today it's easy!

1. "like" our post on Facebook about this giveaway - - - {HERE}

Contest closes at midnight PST Tuesday 12/13 & we will announce our 3 winners on our Facebook wall. Contest open to US residents only and winner will be picked randomly.  

A Proud New Mom Celebrates The Birth Of Her Daughter In Her PINK Annie and Isabel Designer Hospital Gown!

Introducing baby Emilyn and her mommy Loraine... 

in The Annie Gown

Loraine received an Annie & Isabel designer hospital gown at her baby shower. We keep hearing from our customers that the gift of an Annie & Isabel gown is always the "hit gift" and "talk of the shower"! Who doesn't want to make a mom-2-be feel comfortable, stylish, and celebrated on that special day? Loraine received our Anita gown, but knew she was having a baby girl and wanted to go all out with our pink Annie gown for her upcoming birth! Baby Emilyn is absolutely precious and Loraine looks beautiful in her Annie gown! Here is what she said about her experience, 

"Thanks for being so accommodating with my gown exchange. I truly enjoyed the personal service you provided ~ even down to the pre-washing my new gown in baby friendly detergent! You went the extra mile to ensure that I would truly enjoy my Annie and Isabel hospital gown... and I did! It was so much cuter and easier to feed the baby in than the frumpy hospital issued gowns. Thanks again!

~Loraine

Happy Birthday Great Grandma Annie!

"Annie & Isabel" was named after our maternal great-grandmother Annie and our maternal grandmother Isabel. We were so blessed to have them both in our lives and had childish dreams of naming our future daughters after these amazing and influential women. Six boys later, between the two of us, we have honored them by naming our business after them.

Today would have been our Great Grandmother Annie's 111th birthday! Born February 10th, 1900, Annie Maciel was born so prematurely that her mother had all her handkerchiefs washed in order to be ready to grieve for the expected loss of their little Annie. We can't imagine what this world would have been like without her! She made an indelible mark on many peoples lives and hearts in her long life of hard work and dedication to her family. Annie lived a vivacious and full life for almost a century leaving us just before her 98th birthday. We were so lucky to have a great-grandmother who played an active role in our lives.

Grandma Annie & Anna baking a birthday cake... she always saved a little in the bowl:)

Because Grandma Annie's birthday was always before Valentines Day, we often decorated for her birthday parties with pink Valentine decor. It is for this reason that we thought it fitting to name our pink designer hospital gown with black polka dots after her. We had no idea it would become our most popular hospital gown. We are sure she has something to do with this as we know she is smiling and giggling about it from up above.

Annie was born to immigrant parents and lived at a time when nothing came easy. Life was never taken for granted and with hard work came reward. Annie's whole focus in life was to love and serve her family. She gave us the values of the past. She was spunky, selfless, and fun!

We have so many great memories of her and we thought it would be fun to share some in the pictures below.

Grandma Annie was often found in the kitchen preparing meals for the family.

Grandma Annie & Anna picking tomatoes in the field.

Anna and Grandma Annie washing our family dog Jingle.

Grandma Annie & Selena ~ She always had LOTS of love to give!

Taking a rare break from the "work that needs to be done" with Selena.

Only Grandma Annie would be out weeding the yard in her Sunday best!

3 amazing namesakes to our designer hospital gowns...

from L to R ~ Grandma Isabel, our mother Susan, and Grandma Annie

Holidays were always spent together with Grandma Annie in the kitchen...

Grandma Isabel, Grandma Annie, and Aunt Anita

Now you can see why Grandma Annie was such an influential part of our lives and why we honor her today and always through our business. We think it has been amazing to have customers actually pick our "Annie" hospital gown because of how our Grandma Annie led her long life.

On our website you can read the "Stories Behind the Gowns" to read more about our Grandma Annie and all the other beautiful and amazing women our gowns are named after.

Happy Birthday Grandma Annie!

We will always remember and love you...

The Gift of a Designer Hospital Gown

We were really touched by a group of women rallying around a dear friend just diagnosed with cancer. She is going to have to spend time in the hospital for treatment and they bought her THREE gowns to help her feel more comfortable during such an often un-comfortable time. When we started Annie & Isabel... this was exactly our vision... Here is what the giver of this thoughtful gift wrote to us,

"As you know, it just sucks to be in the hospital, to have cancer, the whole thing just sucks. This gives us a way to feel like there is something we can do for her, since we can't do what we really want to do, which is make the cancer go away. Thanks again Selena and Anna, for helping patients, and for giving those of us who care about them a way to help".

In honor of October Breast Cancer Awareness Month... We will have some great upcoming posts... Stay tuned!

Annie & Isabel Designer Hospital Gown Giveaway with MckMama

MCKMAMA AND HER NEWEST BLESSING, BABY LACHLAN

I have always loved reading blogs, long before my sister and I started our business selling designer hospital gowns. We have found some inspirational people and amazing stories from people who have allowed us to "read in" on their lives through their blogs. One day I came across a blog written by a mother, Jennifer McKinney, known by readers as MckMama. Her unborn baby and fourth child, Stellan, had a heart condition called supraventricular tachycardia, or SVT. SVT was causing Stellan's heart to beat at an accelerated and dangerous rate. This interested us because of our medical background and because we are mothers ourselves. We prayed as we followed along through the ups and downs of his fight for life. You can read more about Stellan's amazing story here.

MckMama is well known for blogging about her daily life raising her "Many Small Children", as she calls them. She is a talented photographer, and her blog is full of her creative and colorful work documenting her children's lives. As our company was making its' debut, MckMama's sister, Hilary, was getting ready to welcome her first child. We asked Hilary if she wanted to try out our first sample designer hospital gown and so she became the very first person to wear one of our gowns. She was so gracious and had nothing but wonderful things to say about her experience in our "Annie Gown" which you can read about on MckMama's blog here and find those compliments on our testimonial page. We were so excited to hear this feedback from Hilary......for the first time, our dream was beginning to be a reality.

HILARY IN OUR ANNIE GOWN ABOUT TO WELCOME HER FIRST DAUGHTER

Fast forward a few months and MckMama had exciting news of her own....she was expecting her fifth child! In the short time between Hilary's delivery and MckMama approaching due date, Annie & Isabel was in full swing. Nearing the end of MckMama's recent pregnancy she required several hospitalizations and was able to use both our "Anita" and "Evelyn" hospital gowns. We are glad that our hospital gowns were able to provide her with some comfort and dignity during these stays.

BABY LACHLAN SNUGGLED IN HIS MAMA'S BELLY JUST MOMENTS BEFORE HIS ARRIVAL!

With much anticipation, on August 2, 2010, MckMama donned her "Evelyn" Annie & Isabel designer hospital gown as she prepared to go in for her c-section. She and her family welcomed a new little miracle to the family, baby Lachlan.

This is what MckMama had to say about her experience wearing her Annie & Isabel designer hospital gowns:

"I was hospitalized a few times before actually giving birth to our fifth baby. Each time, I asked my husband to bring me one of my Annie & Isabel gowns to wear. I got compliments from my nurses constantly. Thank you, Annie & Isabel, for allowing me to feel pretty... even in the hospital! My favorite gown is the Evelyn, and I wore that one when I gave birth to our sweet son, Lachlan. Besides how gorgeous the high quality gowns are, I loved the ribbon ties and the fact that the back wraps around to the side, tying on the hip. I was wheeled and walked up to the Special Care Nursery to nurse our new baby many, many times those first days. When wearing my Annie & Isabel gown, I felt lovely and completely covered up! The nurses constantly said they wished that all the gowns on the Labor and Delivery floor were so great. Thank you for beautifying my birthing experience with your gowns!!"

MCKMAMA'S "MANY SMALL CHILDREN" ENJOYING THEIR SWEET BABY BROTHER

As we congratulate the MckMama family, Jennifer was gracious enough to host a giveaway for us to help spread the word about our company Annie & Isabel. Watch her Facebook and Twitter pages for more details about the giveaway tomorrow, Wednesday, August 25th. You can "like" MckMama on Facebook here and follow her on Twitter here. Good luck!

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!

Live Radio Broadcast About Annie & Isabel!!

We had a wonderful surprise this week. We received an email from world renowned author and lifestyle expert, Kimberly Schlegel Whitman. Kimberly does a daily lifestyle segment on Dallas, Texas radio station 103.7's the Gene and Julie show. This is the #1 morning show in Dallas, Texas and they were nominated as "The Best Morning Show in America" from 2004 to 2008. She found our website and loves our product so much that she is featuring us on her radio show this Monday, August 9th at 8am Central time!!!







Kimberly is the author of four books on entertaining and has made appearances as a style expert on The Tyra Banks Show, CBS The Early Show, Rachael Ray, Fine Living and HGTV, WB In The Morning, to name a few. She was also a featured event planner for Style Network's hit show, "Whose Wedding is it Anyway?". In addition, Kimberly has been a successful entrepreneur in event planning which has landed her in publications such as Vanity Fair, Elle, Vogue, Town & Country, The Wall Street Journal and many, many more.



Needless to say, we are very honored that she has chosen to highlight us! Please tune in Monday to 103.7 the Gene & Julie show at 8am if you are in the Dallas area. For everyone else, you can go to this link -> Gene & Julie website and click on the area at the right upper corner that says "Listen Live". If you can't wake up that early we will post the link once it is up. You can also go to the website and look for the link to the show on Monday.