It's not Sunday, but it felt fitting to make this post live today, on the last day of the year.
Like so many people I know right now, I’ve been reflecting on 2025.
On the surface, not much looks different. We still live in the same apartment. My oldest is in preschool, my youngest is still home with us. Still married, our families close by, feeling lucky that our friends haven’t moved away. I’m still a solopreneur, still building KAEIU, still trying to juggle motherhood and a business at the same time.
If I didn’t look too closely, I might even say this year felt a lot like last year.
But when I really sit with it, 2025 has been a year of profound change.
This was the year it finally clicked that building a brand is less about one thing and more about building an ecosystem of smaller things. Nothing works in isolation. Discoverability, storytelling, product, trust, it all works together. Like a machine, if a piece is missing, it either won't work or work less efficiently.
This was the year I learned how to run Meta ads myself and began building my own sales campaigns. The year I leaned into my love of storytelling and started writing emails to you. The year I finally got into Field + Supply. The year I hired our first intern. And the year I moved my office out of our apartment and, finally, my children out of our bedroom.
It was also a year of very real challenges.
Getting hit with tariffs was painful. Choosing to upgrade our hardware during that uncertainty may not have been the most conservative decision, as it significantly increased our costs. But when I sit with it, it still feels right in my gut. And I’ve learned to trust that.
I’ve always lived my life listening to my gut. The biggest gut decision I ever made was quitting my job and starting this business. I was pregnant with my son, I was the breadwinner, and I carried our health insurance. My husband was in the middle of a transition too, starting over himself. From the outside, it probably looked like the most reckless decision. But in my gut, I knew it was the right one. It said, do it. It's now or never. And my husband said, I believe in you.
So I did.
With the challenges I've encountered this year, I have been thinking a lot about resilience. How does one build it?
This year, the answer for me came from a children’s book: The Little Engine That Could. It was my two-year-old’s favorite, and I must have read it a hundred times. Are you familiar with it? The line where the little blue engine says: I think I can, I think I can, I think I can.
I can’t tell you how many times I silently chanted that to myself this year. While building marketing campaigns late at night, hauling a cart full of orders to the post office, racing the clock while setting up for pop-ups, navigating production delays, or just trying to get out the door on time when one child refused shoes and the other a jacket. And I'm chanting this to myself right now as I write this email on the eleventh hour, on New Year's Eve at 1:58 am.
I guess that’s how resilience builds. Not in the big, dramatic moments but in the small ones where you tell yourself that you'll keep going and take the next step. That's when you become, slowly and quietly, a little steadier, a little tougher, a little more trusting of yourself.
And I want you to know, your support has added strength to my chant. Thank you for being here, for reading my ramblings, for following along, and for choosing KAEIU.
I also know, saying gratitude is one thing. Showing is another.
This year, I'm choosing to show my gratitude by paying it forward. With your support, I was able to donate to organizations working with some of the most vulnerable — including Baby2Baby, Feeding America, and National Council of Aging (NCOA). Each addresses a different but deeply connected need: children and families, food insecurity, and elder care. My business is still tiny. I don’t have much. But, I'd like to bake the idea of paying it forward into the foundation of KAEIU.
My hope in 2026 is to have more "I think I can" moments. Here's to continuing to build, to showing up imperfectly, and designing more cool bags for you.
Thank you again and Happy New Year! 🥂
With love,
Maria
Founder of KAEIU