Why, hello there!

Hello!

I wanted to take this opportunity to introduce myself, and our brand.

Who am I?

I am Rose, the founder of Kiin Baby! I'll be the author of our blog. I'm a 32 year old mother of one, and I'm currently pregnant with another on the way right now. I would describe myself as an introverted, creative homebody who likes to live life in the slow lane. I do life alongside my partner of 12 years, Michael & our 3 year old daughter, Hazel.

I spent my 20's studying both Graphic Design & Photography, and following my creative intuitions in a few different directions. I created my first online business, Oh Deer Vintage; selling vintage clothing online & at markets. I then created the brand Luxx; making & selling soy candles. Later, my friend Vienna & I started up Maggie May Bridal; selling vintage wedding gowns online & through our showroom. Amidst all of these ventures I was a freelance photographer, working mostly on weddings, family & fashion photography.

The story of Kiin Baby

The initial idea for Kiin Baby was sparked in my mind back in 2017, I was pregnant with my first daughter, Hazel. In trying to plan the nursery, I found myself daydreaming products that I wished existed, particularly in neutral & earthy tones in a modern bohemian style. Hazel was soon born, and I continued to slowy build on those initial ideas whilst I adjusted to life as a new mum.

When naming our brand, I knew it needed to be something with significant meaning, but also something simple that would be easy identifiable & memorable. I thought, what is the brand about? Simply, at it's core; family. So of course, the word kin instantly came to mind.

Kiin.
/kɪn/
from 'kin' meaning family.

With a background in graphic design & photography, along with the support of my own business savvy mum Merrill, over a year and a half was spent developing Kiin Baby; from daydreaming, designing, researching manufacturers & suppliers, having samples made and finessed.

It wasn’t all a smooth process (what’s that saying... “nothing worth having comes easy”) there was a point in time where I very almost threw in the towel, after we’d been ripped off several thousand dollars by a dodgy manufacturer. It was the most disheartening experience, but we decided that we’d come this far already, so we may as well soldier on and at least give it a shot. It was through this experience that we pivoted away from an initial idea for Kiin, and moved toward a different direction - I’m sure it was meant to be. 

We finally launched the online boutique at the beginning of 2019, and released the first collection of Kiin Baby products! which consisted of muslin swaddles (in just 4 designs) & natural moses baskets that were hand-made using Maize (corn husk).

Mum & I were very proud of our new little online store, it was simple & minimal. We had hoped that others would love our original little collection, and excitedly awaited our first order! We had planned that we’d set up a regular stall at our local markets to showcase our products, little did we know that our online store would very quickly garner attention and we'd almost instantly become too busy keeping up with orders & maintaining the online store, that we never even got a chance to head off to the markets! We were honestly in shock at the wonderful response & feedback we began to receive, our expectations were so far exceeded (and still are to this day!)

So, we hit the ground running. It was about 12 months into it, that we realised we had well & truly outgrown working from my home, our office was my spare bedroom and we had our stock stored in multiple garage spaces. Even though couriers would pick up our parcels every morning, they began to constantly impede on our living room space, and we hadn’t been able to use our dining room for over a year, due to it being our designated packing area 😅 We knew at this point that we had to make a change. 

We found just the perfect space, and moved into our new headquarters (Kiin HQ, yay!) in early 2020, at a double story office/warehouse space located in the Tuggerah business park. This new office not only made workflow MUCH more efficient, it gave us a fresh & inspiring space to breathe and build slowly on the business. 

We now have an all-female staff of just 5 (including mum & I). We are very much a small and family-owned business, which I think does sometimes come as a surprise to some! I guess when you don’t see behind the scenes of a business like ours, it could be easily assumed that we are a larger company. But the reality is that there’s just a few of us humble human beings bopping along to 90’s hits, drinking coffees & giggling away whilst hand packing orders each and every morning! 

We are ever grateful for the opportunity to offer our collection of beautiful essentials for newborns & expecting parents, as well as décor for the nursery. Our focus is on our products quality - made to love & last. We pride ourselves on taking inspiration from the natural world whilst striving to have minimal impact on it. We are constantly learning & evolving, and always open to suggestions & feedback! 

What I hope to bring to this blog

I hope to show & share a lot more behind the scenes of business (and life!) our creative processes, product features, styling inspiration, useful guides or information for new mummas & growing families, and much more.

Supporting other small businesses & creators is also very important to me, and I hope to not only feature many of them but also to invite guest bloggers to post here as well.

I'd love to know what content you would love to see and read about too. Please don’t be shy, comment on this blog post and let us know your thoughts, or if you have any questions or comments 😊

Bye for now!

Rose xx