and the winner is....

Well our Salon's contest was a great success 100s of people participated. Sadly only one can win!

As verified by our in-house accounting firm of Munchkin & Monkey Associates (proof below)



The winner is: Stefanie Gagne

Congrats!

And thank you all for participating

Salon de Maternite et Paternite

Good Morning all, Bon Matin

Babyburrito's launch was a great success. People came out in hoards, regardless of what the economists are saying- there is a serious baby boom here in Quebec that is keeping the economy quite happy. Thank you for everyone who stopped by and said hello or took away a little babyburrito with them. The reaction to my company keeping products made here in Quebec was very welcoming and encouraging. It is impossible to compete with products made in China- not that I can or want to.

I will be posting the winner of the contest by weeks end and will also be sending out coupons towards an online purchase for all those participants who signed up as a thank you. No minimum purchase necessary. :-)

Once again my slings were a great success. I love that they are easy to use yet offer a stylish option for parents who want to keep their fashionable edge. The summer hats earned a honourable mention as did the organic sleep sacks and receiving blankets with silk screening.

I will post some pictures soon, but for now I am just catching up on some one on one with my son who did not see much of me over the last four days. We're doing matching tattoos as I write this.

Going The Extra Mile

I have to share a really great experience I recently had of someone going over and beyond my expectations. It seems small but when you are developing a business and have time issues and are trying to get marketing, production, packaging, web sites and catalogs all done withing a short amount of time, it can sometimes feel daunting. So when someone helps you out and exceeds expectations I think praise is needed. I love to get compliments so I assume other people do too.

While I am revamping my packaging needs for my slings. Janice and Viola of Kwik Kopy were so great with giving me options in different price brackets and taking time to show me exactly how each sample would look. It seems small but I find so often people don't take the time anymore and when you are starting a business any mistakes that can be missed is huge for a small run business like my own.

So if you are in Montreal and need someone to help you out in printing I highly recommend this company for personal service that is so lacking in this day and age.

Early Easter Hunt Is On

Good morning everyone. Typical spring day; gloomy, wet but warm. I like.

Well just wanted to let you all know we are having a contest to win one of our new organic cotton/bamboo swaddling blankets. Write us a sales pitch and whoever has the best one wins.

We will pick the winner April 11th 2009.

Good Luck.

May the best pitch win.

Cheers,
Lianne

Tanya Zaleski Photographer Extraordinaire

Here are some of the shots from the photo shoot-let's just say working with toddlers and infants around nap time and snack time can been challenging. Kudos to Tanya who does this for a living. Hope you like our little tea party for Spring.Thanks to the two great moms for displacing themselves on this rainy day.





Above is Melissa and my sling muse and super awesome baby boy-name excluded for privacy- call him doe eyes. Here are the shots from the shoots-let me know what you all think. Need to make some posters this week.
A keeper for sure.

You may start seeing this cutie pie more and more on my site- he is my new muse and happy go lucky lil boy. Melissa you are a lucky girl to have such a sweetie.






Here are the other two little munchkins who had a great time, especially when the oatmeal cookies came out. Lost count at five cookies.




Here is the sleep sack on my little 15 month old model-let's call him speedie- the sleep sack is versatile as your child grows and can be rolled up onto the waist like an elastic waist band pant, allowing your child to motor around freely.







I can touch my toes mom!!!
Who you lookin at? Love our new sleep sacks- so roomy so no toes will pop out. Bamboo is such a great fabric, keeps you cooler in summer and warmer in cooler temperatures. auto regulating. It also wicks away moisture and offers UV protection.

Here is the original babyburrito- he is getting to be such a big boy. Time for another lil babyburrito.

Stay tuned as I update this crazy week before my next big show for Salon Maternite- should be fun.
cheers,
lianne head honcho

babyburrito Organics have arrived

Before I talk about my new collection I need to share with you a new furniture designer who will be seen at a local shop near you in the future. I don't know about most of you, but I have recently started shopping for a new kitchen table, I did the whole IKEA thing when i moved out 16 years ago and now I want quality, cool design and something that will last. I have a list of things I am looking for, like reclaimed wood, local, no laminates or pressed wood and has to last longer than five years. Well I have come up empty until I saw this designer's latest work. All his designs are originals (with taste running from the 1930's to ultra modern) and he does try to use as much reclaimed wood as he can get his hands on (so if you know of any studios/ companies that just throw out their scraps let him know). He was recently featured in an American magazine's website called FineWoodworking; a furniture designers mecca for up and coming designers. So please check him out as he does mostly custom work.

Did I also mention he is my little brother, Jason Hogan.

I promised my new collection for February and I am happy to give you all a little peek at what will soon be appearing on my web site. I am over the moon happy with how everything turned out.

It was my first time working with a local company of seamstresses and I can be a "little picky" when it comes to quality, so when I first saw the items coming out of the boxes I was:

• A) very happy
• B) very, very happy.

Wish my son was still small enough to wear my organic cotton bamboo sleep sacques. The fabric I chose - bamboo-cotton blend - will become more like cashmere the more you wash and dry it, not to mention bamboo's natural wicking abilities which will help babies regulate their temperature and humidity. I chose to do sacques as I found that with my little guy I was constantly buying pyjamas (every week for the first two months) because his feet were huge and did not match the size of the pyjama for his age group. So this design eliminates that problem and the sizing actually allows the baby to wear it longer.

Here are some shots I took of some of my new collection of change pads, sleep sacques with matching receiving blankets and my new line of baby lounge wear of kimonos. Sizes run from 6 months to 4 years for the kimonos, but I will be adding the sizes to 6 years so I can selfishly have my son wear them for a few more years. I want my son to be a big burrito in the school yard.












I have so much to say in this blog that I will be cramming several blogs into this one, so stay with me I promise it will be worth it.

Many thanks go out to the organizer of girl geek dinners last tuesday night. I had the pleasure of meeting Tanya who organizes these really engaging cool soirees for local entrepreneurs. Hosted at maman bébé et café, I finally had the chance to meet Naomi Goldapple (I say finally because our husbands work together - small world), the owner of this innovative mom/dad destination (her business is geared for parents that want to connect with other parents in a setting that is both fun and relaxing). Whether you go for the food, the shopping, the spa or some of the fun classes offered for parents and babies, there is something there for everyone. For a little retail therapy check out Azure Wraps located in her store. They carry these awesome cloth diapers called apple cheeks, offered in almost every colour under the rainbow.

Met Kim Vallée who is one of Montreal's most successful bloggers about lifestyle and trends. Her site is soo great that you'll have to prepare yourself to want to redecorate your house to mimic what she finds for you all over North America. Martha Stewart with an edge and way more appeal. She generously just blogged about my line babyburrito which in turn created a spike in traffic for my site. So big thank you for that. babyburrito can now stamp Italy into its passport (we had a sale to Venice).

Had the chance to reacquaint with old friends too, Josée St-Amand who created a great line of stylish eco friendly bags called Lily&colo. She's has also been instrumental in helping me find many sources when I moved back here from Vancouver. Forget those bags the stores try to sell you, these ones you'll actually want to bring with you to shop.

New Batch of Slings

It has been a little while since I last posted so here is what I have been working on in my little sweatshop. This is my third batch of slings that I have sent out in the last two weeks (which can be found at Bure et Linon), and the first chance I have had to take some shots of them. It has been a crazy few weeks, emails ( as well as laundry and snow) have piled up and sewing has taken priority. Which is fine by me, I like the view from my machine. Maybe I will get a chance to tackle both those other piles this week.


Stay tuned as I will be posting in a few weeks, my new babyburrito spring collection 2009. To which will include my new organic line of sleepwear and receiving blankets with silk screening, as well as my perennial blankets, change pads and slings. I hope you will like my new choices in fabrics. Took some risks, so we'll see...