Giveaway Winners!

Thank you to all that provided feedback on my "Go Healthy" tutorial - I'm so glad that it sparked some interest in a few of you! We did the draw for the winner at midnight last night and the winner is...

*drumroll pls*

All of you! You can thank my little girl who has put my in a very festive mood with all her excitement lately around Santa, snow and reindeer. A mom can't resist! So instead of just one winner, a FREE pair of Abbey Lane's Holiday Candy Swirl Hair Clips will go to all my commentators on the Go Healthy post. Congratulations everyone!!

Please send me an email through my store www.etsy.com/shop/abbeylane or DM on twitter @abbeylane to provide me with your full name and shipping details.

Happy Holidays!

Abbey Lane Baby Boutique

Go Healthy: Making Your Own Almond Milk

I'm sure you have heard the rumblings around how processed our food has become, how the industrialization of food now lends to it having more chemicals than beneficial nutrients, etc. I'm not a vegetarian, I'm not a vegan, I'm not a health nut, and I don't only eat raw foods. I'm your average gal who works everyday and comes home to a lovely husband and cute little toddler. That said, I haven't ignored the research out there and continue to read on the latest findings, thinking, etc. around our food and our food consumption. This has led me to try small changes that hopefully enhance the well being of myself and my family. That, and it is kind of fun to explore new things. I'll save my awesome recipe for juicing a REAL V8, and the photos of a gorgeous shot of wheat grass and all it's benefits for later. For now, many of you on twitter have asked me to post how I made my almond milk, so here it is.

STEP 1:
Go to the bulk barn or grocery store and buy organic raw almonds. You want the almond in its rawest form and nothing with it being roasted, salted, flavored, etc.

STEP 2:
Give those babies a good overnight soak. Soak them in purified water (I used Brita water) to keep the milk as 'clean' as possible. Let them soak for 24 to 48 hours. I am pretty impatient so I let my sit for about 24 hours and it worked fine. The purpose of soaking them for this long is to release all the starches from the almonds.

STEP 3:

Drain the almonds and then give one last rinse to get rid of any remaining starch residue. Put the almonds into a blender and add purified water. The amount of water is dependent on how thick you want your milk to be. My rule of thumb is to basically add enough water that covers twice the amount of almonds. So if you had a half cup of almonds, I would add in 1 cup of water. Give the blender a whiz until all the almonds are broken down into tiny, tiny pieces.

STEP 4:
Grab your nut bag (yes, I said nut bag) which is available at any health food store. It basically functions much like a cheese cloth so you could try using that too. The nut bag I am using is 100% organic hemp which was about $7 US. Put the bag over a wide mouthed vessel and then pour the liquid from the blender into the nut bag and draw the string shut. You will now "milk" the bag to squeeze out the liquid.

STEP 5:

Once you squeeze all the liquid out, you will be left with only the crumbled almonds in the bag. TIP: Don't throw this out!! This makes for an awesome add-in to any baking and it smells sooo good in it's raw form. Look how beautiful those below photos are!

The Finished Product - Raw, Natural Almond Milk

My package of almonds yielded me 4 cups of almond milk. They say it lasts generally for up to 4 weeks. It does naturally separate in the fridge after a day or two but much like soy milk, you just give it a shake and it's fine - this does not mean it has gone bad. Give it a try - it's super easy and fun when you can make your own end products out of raw, natural foods! I hope you enjoyed this tutorial and always welcome feedback! Follow me on Twitter as well @abbeylane

Going Martha For Nugget's Birthday

A last minute travel requirement had us going to NYC/LA/NYC and back all before the nugget's 2nd birthday. We flew back Friday night and were having people over that Sunday at 2pm to celebrate her 2nd birthday.

I'll sidebar here, as any mother must, to mention the obvious that I only started to grasp the minute she was born...time flies! It's a happy and sad thing for me. I'm in awe every day when I look at her and see how much she has grown. I think back to when she could only manage to roll her little body around the carpet and needed her tiny bowling ball head held up by the palm of my hand. Now she toddles around talking and pushing her very own baby in a stroller that she takes care of. *sigh*

I should stop now as this could quickly turn into a sappy, mommy drool post about how there are days I wish I could stop time and just keep her at this age. And trust me, the more of this fine wine I sip while writing this, the more I fear that will happen...SO - on to her birthday!

All along, I had this brilliant idea that I would do an owl themed birthday. So Saturday morning I woke up and set out to make the:

a) owl cupcakes
b) owl lootbags
c) owl confetti
d) owl decor
e) owl tags

...yes, I was so having an over compensating crazy Martha mommy moment because I felt bad I had only 1 day to plan a fab birthday. Needless to say, my great husband pitched in and helped me pull it all together. I even managed to make birthday themed shooters (for the adults) cause what doesn't scream kiddie party then some shooters welcoming you at the door?!

I've posted some pics from the party as I think it turned out pretty well! What do you think?

New Fabrics Added

Spring/Summer 2009

We are pleased to announce that we have added a few new fabrics to the lineup. These fabrics are available to our customers to customize the look of any of our baby products available in our boutique. See below for images of our super cute fabric lineup!

I'm very excited to announce that I am now selling some of my dresses in a store in Europe! It's a small deal but one that I am extremely proud of. I've sold quite a few things that have gone across the pond, mostly in Paris, Belgium & the UK. Seems that one of my customers in Paris had a friend who saw one of my dresses and wanted to carry some in a local shop she runs. Love word of mouth advertising!

That aside, I have finished a new design! I sourced some great new fabrics and got inspired to make my baby girl a nice dress for the summer. It is now a part of the Abbey Lane line and can be custom made according to the fabrics you select! Let me know what you think!

FREE SHIPPING WORLDWIDE ON ABBEY LANE BABY BOUTIQUE HAIR CLIPS

Finally people! It is starting to feel like spring! You don't know how excited that makes us after a very loooong winter of grey skies and cold, cold air.

Since we are in such a good mood and have started designing some spring line items, we thought it would be a great opportunity to offer our worldwide FREE SHIPPING opportunity on our Abbey Lane Baby Boutique Designer Hair Clips.

So here it is folks! Abbey Lane is offering free shipping worldwide on the full line of hair clips up until April 21st. Check in now to see what's new and what's on sale. We look forward to having you stop by and as always, please let us know if you have any questions regarding our AbbeyLane products.

Cheers!

It's those little things...

Do you ever stop for a moment and look back when you were single and think about what you thought 'romance' should be all about? I did yesterday - I really did. I liked what I thought romance should be all about. I liked that no man ever achieved my ideal romantic notions - it kept the hunt interesting. ;)

What's funny though, is after just a few years of marriage and a baby, the idea of romance vastly changes. For example, my little one and I have been sick with a cold lately. We've been cooped up in sick mode and over the weekend my husband suggested we go for a car ride to get some fresh air. Now indulge me because this part requires a bit of explanation. In order to start said car, you only need the little transmitter to be ON you and not IN the ignition. So many times, he leaves the house ahead of me, packs that baby in and starts the car. When I come out with the diaper bag, I then have to (everytimeeee) go to the car, get the house keys that are attached on the 'transmitter', take it back to the house, lock up, and get back in the car. Yes, I know, no big deal, but my brain says to myself every time "really hubbie? you know i need the keys, but you're just gonna sit there".

----Okay so back to romance. ---

So this weekend, my poor sickly body shuffles around to gather the diaper bag items and as I open the door and get ready to go to the car to grab the keys...HE IS ON THE STEPS READY TO LOCK UP! My draw dropped and I literally shed a tear - just one. That my friend, was romance.

Me: Awww, really? You never do that!
Hubbie: I know..but my sweetie is all sick
Me: sniff, you are the best
Hubbie: *smooch* let's go get a coffee!

Ya, my perception of romance has changed but I would never go back. This tiny little insignificant thing (that, let's be honest, if I heard myself 10 years ago I would think was lame) was the best moment of that Saturday.

heh. romance. go figure!