An apology and a mini love list

Finding comfort in the familiar and celebrating tiny wins

Hello, and welcome to the home of The Tiny Department Store. Here you will find my weekly newsletter where I share the behind the scenes of setting up a small business and working towards making my dream of opening a concept store a reality. Without premises or a large budget I plan to create the world’s tiniest department store, measuring just the dimensions of the wooden box on the front of my shiny blue bicycle. The Tiny Department Store will pop up once a month with a new theme and a limited edition range of products that constantly evolve. I will also give you a peek inside my world, sharing snippets of my daily life, travels and inspirations. I would love you to join me on this journey.

Substack friends, I have to apologise for my brief hiatus. After twenty five weeks of writing to you weekly, I broke my chain and I have to say a tiny little piece of my heart broke too. We received some big news whilst traveling in the summer and trying to process this along with moving frequently, solo parenting for several weeks and balancing the need to wait for things to unravel whilst making all manner of contingency plans suddenly took its toll.

Hopefully things will begin to look clearer in the coming weeks and I will be able to share more but for now I have realised the importance of getting back to ‘business as usual’ and for me that is showing up here weekly and continuing to make progress with The Tiny Department Store.

This last week I have set myself small creative tasks every day and have been amazed at the mood boosting power of setting a goal and achieving it. I don’t know why I so often forget the transformative magic of tiny wins and how they really do move the needle. I will return next week with a detailed update on The Tiny Department Store, but for now I want to leave you with a tiny list of the things that I have been loving this month.

Reading

I really felt in need of comfort, so decided to re-visit a very old favourite, Circle of Friends by Maeve Binchy. Set in 1950’s Ireland, the book transports you to a small rural town, where best friends Benny and Eve dream of going to university in Dublin. I was surprised to discover that it was written in 1990 and I am sure that I first read it not long after, curled up in my tiny childhood bedroom. I read the entire book in just a day or two and it was exactly what I needed.

Eating

Lovely Mary at her Blooms End pop up at Tenfold Farm

Beautiful flowers at Tenfold Farm

As well as eating lots of delicious summer berries, I also had the pleasure of driving to the lovely farm stand in Petaluma to a Blooms End pop-up. I have loved Mary’s exquisite bakes for a long while but our paths haven’t crossed for a while. When I heard she was a summertime regular at the Ten Fold farm stand, I decided it was the perfect opportunity to treat myself to a delicious pastry. An unexpected bonus was discovering so many other delights at Tenfold. Beautiful flowers, a wide range of produce and freshly baked sourdough, as well as a seed exchange and a mini library. I will definitely be returning.

Shopping

I honestly could buy everything at Form Lifestyle Store

During our summer travels I visited one of my favorite independent shops in Manchester, Form Lifestyle Store. I honestly couldn’t love it more. The building itself is exquisite, tucked away on a back street in the Northern Quarter with a beautiful spiral staircase when you walk inside. It sells a perfectly curated collection of ceramics, wood, glassware, textiles and art. Celebrating small makers and craftsmanship, it is always a pleasure to discover new brands and get inspired. I treated myself to a beautiful ceramic bowl and re-stocked my card box. Jake spent a while smelling all of the handmade soaps before choosing his favourite. I desperately wanted to buy some cushions, but alas would have had to leave all of my clothes behind to fit them into my suitcase.

Listening

My favourite episode of the Caro podcast

I have really enjoyed listening to a relatively new podcast, called Caro. It is hosted by Natalie Jones, former owner of the beautiful shop Caro in Bruton. Natalie talks to creators and I really enjoyed the first episode where she interviewed Flora Shedden of renowned bakery Aran and writer of two of my favourite cook books Aran and Supper. Another favourite episode was her inspiring chat with Sofia Shakarchi from Another Pantry. It made me think again about the possibility of recording my newsletters so that they could be podcasts to listen to on the go and I have promised myself that I will give it a go this autumn.

Thank you for sticking with me through my small glitch. I will be back next week with an update on The Tiny Department Store. I really am getting close to launch and just need a large dose of courage to wheel my bicycle out of the house and pop up!

As always I love to hear from you or indeed just send me a little 🫶 if you are enjoying reading these letters, Kate x