Hello and welcome…

‘The girl had dreamt of having her own store for as long as she could remember. Ask her mother and she would tell you endless tales of little bookshops, petal filled perfumeries, garden cafes and tiny boutiques. She spent her days making earrings out of cardboard and rainbow coloured pasta necklaces. She stitched and painted, cut and pasted. She transformed cereal boxes into cash registers and made price lists and hand drawn catalogues to promote her wares. She set up a desk beneath her bunk bed, arranging crisp sheets of drawing paper, tubs of candy coloured crayons and ribbons into old wooden seed trays, inviting her school friends to spend their pocket money in her tiny shop.’

Yes, you guessed it, the little girl was me and despite being fully grown with children of my own, the same dream that I had as a small girl, still burns bright. Despite never opening the tiny store of my dreams, my life has followed a path of adventure and creativity. I spent most of my 20s and 30s living in London, teaching art alongside trying my hand at a multitude of creative side-hustles. I ran paper flower making workshops in farmers fields, styled pop-ups and baby showers. Hand printing stationery to sell in London, making button badges for a tiny French boutique and designing an accessories line for a concept store in Japan.  I even made a brief appearance on television, teaching the nation how to design and print the perfect christmas gift wrap.

I now find myself in my mid forties, living in a small town in Northern California with my husband and two children. Whilst the days are mostly sunny and the landscape unquestionably beautiful, I no longer have the teaching career that I had in London and without a working visa, the days can feel long and sometimes lacking in purpose. As I walk and wander, my head frequently in the clouds dreaming and scheming, a ticking clock and slightly nagging voice tells me to stop wasting time and simply begin, so here I am.

I would love you to join me on my journey as I work towards bringing my shopkeeper dreams to life. I am hoping that by building a creative community we can encourage each other to take a leap of faith in following our passions, whatever our age or stage of life. We can keep each other inspired and motivated to take small shuffling steps forward. To borrow the words of author Karen Lamb ‘a year from now you may wish you had started today’.

Why subscribe?

I will be posting a newsletter every week sharing the behind the scenes of creating The Tiny Department Store. Answering all of the questions that you may currently have. What exactly is The Tiny Department Store? Why is it tiny? When will it open? What will it sell?

I will share the highs and lows as well as sharing tips and tricks for creating and curating handmade collections of products. I have over twelve years of teaching experience so once a month plan to share an art project that you can join in with. I will also weave through the strands of my everyday life; what I am reading or cooking as well as the art and craft projects that I do with my children. I hope that it will be a two way dialogue and that over the coming months my substack will become a hive of inspiration and community, a tiny creative universe that will benefit us all. I would love you to join me on this journey.

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