Archive for the ‘Nest’ Category
annaholler on September 26th, 2009
Powdered Sugar Baby tags itself as “functional fashion for on-the-go parents.” This company is powered by a family who is bonded by sweets and based in Chicago and Denver. Powdered Sugar Baby began as a creative idea between sisters, Kris and Anna, and has grown into a sassy business venture that is guided by their mother.
Powdered Sugar Baby specializes in four adorable products that were created to make fashionable parents lives a little bit easier. The first is the sugar sleeve, a product designed to slip over bracelets and watches when you are holding your baby. It enables you to still be able to check the time without scratching your newborn and better yet, the sugar sleeve doubles as a burp cloth or cover for your favorite sippy cup!
The Boutique Hair Clips are a perfect, bright, fun accessory to pull those baby wisps away from your baby’s face!
The Sugar Baby Blanket is wildly soft and made from chenille/minky fabrics that are reversible based on preference. They’re sized for stroller rides and nappy car trips!
Powdered Sugar Baby was sweet enough to send me a Kushie Tushie to review! This pad makes a perfect cushion for my stroller. The print is fun and the fabric seems durable without being harsh or abrasive on your child’s skin. If my children were younger I would definitely turn my kushie tushie into a cushion for the changing table.
The size is perfect for high chairs and grocery carts too! My thought is that the Kushie Tushie will work well for a new mom with a newborn baby and then will grow with your family! I found my four year old has made it a permanent bed for her American Girl doll!
annaholler on September 19th, 2009
Today marks my first attempt at making broccoli and cheese soup. I’m having one of those mornings where I wanted to create something incredible for lunch by using only things we have in our pantry. I hoped for it to be creative, relatively easy and new to my children.
My children will regularly beg me to stop at Panera to buy them a bowl of broccoli and cheese soup. After researching recipes online, I felt knowledgeable enough to give it a-go. I didn’t have everything that each recipe required, so where I fell short, I improvised!
I suggest serving this with toasted flatbread! Mmmmm.
Happy slurping!
INGREDIENTS:
1 1/2 cups of boiling water
3 chicken bouillon cubes
1/2 tsp. salt
2 cups 2% milk
1 cup frozen broccoli (fresh would have been better, but I didn’t have it.)
1 sprinkle dried basil
a few shakes of pepper
1 shake of garlic salt
3 tbsp. butter
3 tbsp flour
2 finely chopped garlic cloves
3/4 cup shredded cheddar cheese
3/4 cup shredded mozzarella cheese
1 shredded carrot
HOW TO:
Boil water and add bouillon cubes in a large sauce pan.
In a separate pan melt butter and brown garlic
Add flour and stir constantly until the flour is well mixed
Add the flour mix to the broth/ water mixture
Stir together
Add milk and stir in cheeses
Stir in broccoli
Stir in carrot
Add seasonings
reduce heat to a simmer and cover.
Let simmer for about 1/2 and hour!
ENJOY!!!!!
annaholler on September 11th, 2009
“The glue doesn’t fall far from the stick!“ Such is certainly the case for mother/daughter power-craft duo, Stampin’ Mama and her little Girly!
You may remember the four week series MTW ran on Stampin’ Mama a couple of months back. She’s certainly one of our favorite craftsters here! Recently, her own craft loving daughter, Girly, opened up an Etsy shop and began a crafting blog. I am blown away by how talented Girly really is! Her soaps are creative, fun and amazingly professional in packaging and appearance.
Girly’s shop is home to her handmade soaps. You will find anything from bars of oatmeal and ylang-ylang soap to lemon scented gold and green sun soaps fashioned into the shape of frogs!
Stop in Girly’s Shop to support this tiny-talent! Everything Girly makes is very reasonably priced, ranging from about $2.50 to $10.00. Better still, Girly donates 20% of all proceeds to www.village2villageproject.org – a grass-roots project helping orphaned children in Uganda!
Laura on October 15th, 2008
We are sad to announce that Fooey USA will be closing it’s virtual doors. However, they are having a closeout sale that you won’t want to miss! It’s all rad stuff, and it’s super cheap! My mom got these shorts for Noel & Lennon (they won’t fit Noel next summer) for $8.99! They are SOOOOO CUTE. Fooey’s also got the best collection of shirts for kids and infants. Some are as low as $3.99, people, but they won’t last! Get over there, and say goodbye to one of the best stores out there. Fooey, we are sorry to see you go!
On a sunnier note, Ashlee has come up with a new name for her store! Nonny & Boo, formerly Nest Baby Sling, now offers even more great items, like wraps (that are the coolest EVER), hoodies, and plushies! As usual, Ashlee’s wares are quite simply the coolest! Pictured here, are Steph and Ivy in nonny & boo’s bamboo sling. We have this sling, and Elliott and I share it. We love it. The fabric is light, but very strong, and it works well going out in the Texas heat. We just heart the lady over at nonny & boo, and you will too.
Laura on September 14th, 2008
Since we’ve already told you about Bethany’s awesome store, I thought MumsTheWurd! could instead help spread the word about Bethany’s latest undertaking-adopting a new child! Baby Luxe is sponsoring a raffle on behalf of the Balsis family, who is preparing to go to Russia to meet the newest member of their family-a little girl, Addison.
From the BabyLuxe post:
Bethany & her husband have been very busy lately, preparing for their trip to Russia, to meet their future little girl, Addison; a Down Syndrome orphan whom she and her family are adopting in the coming weeks. The Balsis’ already have two biological children, a little boy Mason & a little girl Payton. Payton also has Down Syndrome, so the Balsis’ are well versed in the special care that Addison will require.
As many of you know, adoption is a very expensive process, and the costs to bring home their new little girl will likely be high. On top of that, Addison’s initial medical expenses will likely be high.
To help with this wonderful cause, BabyLuxe is proud to be co-hosting a major fund-raising event for the Balsis family, which is taking place on
The Mom Crowd. They will be selling raffle tickets for $5 each, and 100% of the proceeds will go directly towards the adoption of Addison.
Many of the designers that are donating to the raffle include: Serena & Lily, Bella Tunno, SaraBear Baskets, Baby Rock Apparel, SlickSugar, Ellie Bellie Kids, Made by Angie, Wet Happened? Wet Bags, Georgie Tees, Baby K’tan, JP Lizzy, Ribbies Clippies, Paperluxe Studio and more!
We hope that you will take a moment to check out the raffle, which ends on September 24th. Pick up a few raffle tickets; and whether you win or lose, simply know that you are contributing to bettering the life of a special little girl who is truly in need; Miss Addison.
Thanks a bunch!!
The Balsis’ are chronicling their adoption journey on their blog, Dreaming on an Angel. Go support them with a comment, or a contribution!
You can show your support by click the “Buy Now” PayPal button below. Donating just $5 will get you a raffle ticket to enter to win prizes listed over at The Mom Crowd. If you do not have PayPal, you can mail a check and include a note with your contact information to:
Balsis Family Adoption Fund
Raffle Tickets
PO Box 61
Washington, Virginia 22747
*Mailed entries must be received before Sept. 24th
Laura on June 27th, 2008
We are excited to tell you a little more about the beautiful Ashlee Allen. Since she was unable to podcast with us a few weeks ago, we sent her a couple of questions. Here’s a little info about the Nest mama:
MTW: What inspired you to start nest?
Ashlee: I had always planned to wear my baby but when Xavier was born unexpectedly at 28 weeks I knew babywearing and kangaroo care would be critical. Through our journey I discovered that while there were many carriers I adored, I couldn’t find *the one*, so I made it! Nest as a business evolved from there.
MTW: What did you do before you became a “mompreneur”? How did you get started?
Ashlee: I’ve dabbled in many carrers other than mom – photography, psychology, advertising, yoga instructor, nanny and of course mama. After making slings for many friends and people I’d run into all over the place I realized my life would be easier if I had a place to send people. So after much research, I started designing and thanks to my sewing and my husband’s design skills nest was hatched.
MTW: Without giving away any of your “secrets”, where/how do you find the items for your store?
Ashlee: I lauch new collections in the spring and fall and am always on the look out new styles and fabric. One of my favorite things to do is scout out random fabric shops in person and online and I, of course, pay attention to the current fashion scene for inspiration.
MTW: What are some of your favorite items?
Ashlee: Our limited edition slings are always my favorite, the Heart Nouveau being my current favorite. The hatchlings are super cute and we actually have some items in production that I can’t wait to launch- I’m in love! ***I am too! This is why we’re waiting to tell you about E$’s Sling!!!***
MTW: Tell us more about Project X.
Ashlee: Project X provides person to person support to NICU familes. As I mentioned before our son Xavier was born at 28 weeks and spent 6 weeks in NICU. It was a really terrifying time for us and the biggest help was talking to other people who had been there. We do a lot of one on one work, but our biggest event is Project Christmas, provinding a traditional Christmas dinner to all of the local NICU’s. We spent Xavier’s first Christmas in the hospital and having just a hint of normalcy would have made all the difference. Since our first year in 2006 we’ve had several sister programs launch in cities nationwide. 10% off all nest profits are donated directly to Project X.
MTW: Tell us a bit about you and your family!
Ashlee: I get to spend my days with my amazing 2 (going on 17) year old X and my super cool, artist husband David. When David’s not tattooing, I’m not sewing or blogging and X isn’t napping you’ll likely find us up to our eyebrows in paint or building some killer lego cities.
See what else Ashlee’s up to here, here, here, and here.
Laura on June 15th, 2008
*Update: Congratulations to Melissa! She is our Nest Baby Sling winner and has been notified via email.
As we’ve talked about many times here on MTW, we think babywearing is pretty darn cool. I’ve been wearing Lennon since he was born, and he & I both love it. I even got my husband on board and got him is very own black sling to go with his black t & jeans uniform 
. Through her blogs and twitter, we’ve gotten a chance to get to know a rad babywearer and sling maker extraordinaire, Ashlee Allen. Her sling store is Nest, and her designs are sure to please. E$ and I both dig our Nest slings! Here’s mine. It’s beautiful! Elliott’s, we will speak about soon…
Ashlee wants you to have one of her gorgeous slings for yourself.
WIN IT!
Email us at mumsthewurd [at] gmail [dot] com and tell us the name of Ashlee’s preemie project, which you can learn more about HERE. 
This contest ends on Friday, June 20th. Winner will be chosen randomly, notified via email and announced here on Saturday.
We’ll tell you more about Ashlee and her boutique, “Nest” soon, but for now, enter the contest for one of Ashlee’s awesome slings! I totally love mine!
