Coast to Coast with Lyn & Leigh

We had a big delivery yesterday at the New For Baby warehouse in Portland, Oregon. Included in the shipment was our hottest seller the Original One-Piece now in 10 colors and 3 sizes. I am so excited about this because I have been wearing the cocoa, sky & celery one on Grant since he was born and I love it. For this photo shoot I was not about to change Little G 10 times, so my awesome, profesh photographer friend, Jennifer Bearden took a ton of shots in her studio of him squirming around on a black back drop. Then, I changed all the colors in photoshop to match our 10 colors. Rubio and I are getting sick of shipping stuff across the country for photo shoots too, so this worked perfectly. My mom Bonnie and I both LOVE the pose where he is wearing the Ocean colored One-Piece, second in from bottom right. Just look how sweet he looks there!

Which is your favorite? Select your favorite and your name will be placed in a random drawing to win a New For Baby Original One-Piece in the color & size of your choice!

Here’s an interesting article that Lyn’s hubby Michael emailed us - about how Moms are, in essence, making their own rules when it comes to work. Many of us want to be with our kids full-time, but still have a lot to offer in the way of professional talent. The article focuses on several staffing agencies that connect career-women-turned-stay-at-home-moms with employers that want experienced, highly skilled workers for temporary work that is flexible in hours and location. Many allow Moms to work from home, and with their own hours.

The article calls these jobs a part of the ‘new normal of flex careers.’ And they are usually NOT about the money. It’s part-time after all. But think about it this way - you’re not paying for childcare! It’s also a good way to avoid a huge gap on your resume.

Lyn and I are happy to be a part of the Mommy Power trend with our company. New For Baby uses a Mommy photographer, Mommies for order processing, with hours that work with their kids’ schedules… it makes sense, really. Who better to represent our company, than those with babies themselves? And we definitely make our own rules. Conference calls during our kids’ naps and/or quiet time, inventory while hubby is playing with the kids, and a lot of late nights on our computers! Just the other day I took a call from an editor while I was watching the girls’ gymnastics. You can’t always have it all, but you can have the important stuff.

These kids are what it’s all about. We don’t want to miss a thing.

Any Tori and Dean watchers out there? I admit to being surprised at how much I loved Tori & Dean Inn Love and now their Home Sweet Hollywood. I think it’s fun to peek into someone else’s life now and again. Lyn and I were saying how Tori would fit right in as a great friend! She’s funny, a bit zany, and loves being a Mommy. Anyway, I was watching last night, seeing Tori so preggo with baby #2, and had a flashback to when Tori first had Liam.

I had been cruising the internet and - BAM! - saw this picture of Tori in a green shirt that matched baby Liam’s outfit that looked like New For Baby - zoom in - OHMYGOSH that IS New For Baby! It almost looked like a private photo shoot, and the picture ended up on EOnline and in several tabloids. Our first NFB Celeb Sighting. And with someone who loves fashion - what a compliment! Thanks, Tori… we knew we liked you.

If you have a toddler or older child, you know how fast time flies when you try and recall them as a tiny baby. At the same time, it can feel like yesterday that you went into the hospital to deliver. We’re feeling the same way about New For Baby today, as we celebrate TWO YEARS.

We had spent about a year with the concept and pre-production/production of our garments. But good grief, that launch week was stressful! We had decided on a launch date, and I geared up to have a big party here in Oregon. Malia was still very young, so Lyn stayed in Charleston (but sent the sweet flowers below - my fave Gerber daisies!). This also turned out to be the same weekend as Alyssa’s first dance recital (this recital was not messing around, people - two 3 hour shows on the same day, with a dress rehearsal the day before). Well, I made it through the dance recital, juggling my backstage duties and baby Haylie.

I managed to get the party prepped… PowerPoint show was ready, clothing displayed, gift sets packaged, goodie bags by the door, chocolate fountain a-flowin’… What we hadn’t prepared for was the WEBSITE. You’d think that in that year of production we would’ve had a better timeline with building the site, and the problems that can arise! Our poor web developer was working triple overtime, and then we sat in virtual torture as we helplessly waited what seemed like forever for the internet to find us and point to us. The party was done. Peeps were excited. The press push had begun. No site. I will never forget when it was finally up, and when the first order magically appeared. An enormous weight was lifted off our shoulders.

And here we are, 2 years later! We’re still loving (almost) every minute of it. We’re still so excited about what’s coming next, how our brand is coming together, and how the possibilities seem endless. Thanks for being a part of the ride!

Here are my stats… born in Pittsburgh, grew up in the suburbs, went to the University of Pittsburgh, love the Pittsburgh Steelers - hate Pittsburgh weather. Moved to sunny South Carolina with Michael in 2004 with the goal of exiting ‘Corporate America’ to start our own business. One idea was opening a bicycle shop. There were probably a few more ideas that I don’t remember now… we decided to design and manufacture our own clothing collection for women.

Cut to April 2005, as we sat at our 5th and final trade show in NYC. I was 2 months pregnant with Malia, and we decided the womens circuit wasn’t for us, but agreed we had learned so much about apparel manufacturing that we wanted to do something else with that… we needed to sell our production run and dream up our next venture. We wanted to come up with something that was a staple, where we wouldn’t have to think of 6 collections to release each year.

Right at that time, my cousin called me and asked if I would mind if her friend Leigh gave me a buzz because she had this great idea for a baby clothing collection and wanted to pick my brain about the business of apparel manufacturing, etc. She told me I would love Leigh and that she was fashionable & bubbly. I said no problem, and the very next day Leigh called me and told me all about her ideas for a clothing collection designed specifically to fit newborns - that she wanted to call ‘new’. Something was very strange about this call, because I had received phone calls like this before, and as most people are in the business of apparel manufacturing, I am usually very guarded about my contacts and my system. I did not feel this way with Leigh. We were chatting like we had known each other for years. So, I gave her some ideas and I could totally picture everything she had described about her idea in my head. I was pretty excited for her and this concept. The very next day she called me back and said “do you want to just do this together?” I was literally dancing around the room. I mean, this is exactly what Michael and I had been talking about. We knew we wanted to get away from woman’s apparel and this was a great idea. Um… yes please.

Over the next year, Leigh and I designed and manufactured a 16 piece newborn baby collection we now call New: The Hip Baby’s First Wardrobe. It’s funny how the timing of my past experiences created a path for this venture, which has influenced not only my designs, but also my life!

A super-fast recap of my life’s story:  Born in beautiful North Bay Area, California, great family, rode horses (show jumping), was nostalgic even as a kid.  College at University of Oregon (Go Ducks!), Journalism/PR degree, off to LA, worked in entertainment biz, got burnt out, volunteered at the Y, fell in love with teaching, went to grad school, became a teacher, fell in love with old flame, got married, moved to Happy Valley (Portland suburb), had Alyssa, joined MOMS Club (thank GOSH), had Haylie, and THEN…

What’s the deal?  I felt practically like a baby pro at this point, and was quite annoyed at ill-fitting, NOT hip newborn clothing. I knew what I loved (foldover cuffs, One Piece garments, sleep gowns…), but I couldn’t find high quality items that actually FIT Haylie, let alone were mix and match and modern cute. I was chatting about my frustrations with my girlfriends at MOMS Club playdates, and everyone started in with their two cents about newbie necessities and fave garments.  I even ’sketched’ out the items I would have, and the name ‘new’ and the startings of the baby face logo (even Simply New and New Deluxe). I could NOT get this idea out of my head, even though (as seen above) I had absolutely no experience in clothing manufacturing and design!

My turning point moment was watching the Today Show and seeing Maria Shriver being interviewed about a book she wrote.  I wasn’t even paying attention until I heard her say something about “how important it is to once a year, do something that scares you.”  And it just clicked.  Why couldn’t I start a business?  Why not me? I knew what I wanted - but that was about it.  What was the next step?  Enter Lyn.  A good friend mentioned that her cousin was a clothing designer, and perhaps I could call her and pick her brain.  I remember the call like it was yesterday.  I was nervous.  She was hesitant at first.  And then when I told her my vision, it all seemed to fall into place.  I think we even talked about being business partners in that first phone call!  

I never once thought about the possibility of failure.  Naive?  Perhaps.  I decided I would have this dream and actually take action.  An entrepreneur in me was forming.  And my goal was simple: to bring it all to life. Lyn was able to hear my ideas and take them up to a level I couldn’t have imagined.  I remember tearing up at the first sketches of the collection.

The vision come to life - on my dining room table!

Now… how does Lyn remember it?

So, Lyn and I dig ‘chick lit.’ Books that are an easy read, enjoyable, with likable characters that become your friends. Our absolute fave? The Shopaholic series by Sophie Kinsella (I do believe that Becky Bloomwood is a total friend soulmate!). I also dig this series by Emily Giffin: Something Borrowed and Something Blue. It takes a love triangle story and tells it from two points of view. The last time I visited Charleston I took them with me to give to Lyn, and it got us thinking…

Why not tell OUR story? Peeps are always curious about why we started New For Baby, how we manage it on our own (and so far away from each other!). It’s the story of two people, on two different coasts, on two different paths in their lives, and then fate steps in (oh, I am quite the romantic, I know!), and brings us together to form a company and a sister-like friendship. All with only being together in person 3 times (and counting!).

I’ll start it off with my side of the story, then Lyn will tell us hers. And after that,… maybe some tales from the ‘Mompreneur’ side of it all (the good, the bad, and the sometimes hilarious).