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 have created possibly 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.
I recently read
Ali LaBelle’s witty and wonderful newsletter and noticed that she was celebrating her first year on Substack. This caused me to pause and wonder if I too had been on Substack for an entire year and the answer was a resounding yes. I sent my first newsletter into the world on January 19th 2023 with a degree of uncertainty but also the security that it was only going to be read by my mum, my husband and a handful of good friends. It has grown little by little over the past twelve months and is now being read by several hundred of you lovely people.I have published 38 newsletters and whilst this is admittedly less than the weekly posts that I had planned, I am still hugely proud of what I have achieved in the last twelve months.
‘A small girl with an enormous dream’ was my first letter and shared my childhood longings to open my very own tiny store. I shared how this stubborn dream had followed me around from Manchester to London to Amsterdam and finally California.
When the world felt grey and overwhelming she would close her eyes for just a few moments, imagining tiny woven baskets brimming with hand stitched hair ties, jars full of paper confetti, boxes of cards and small posies of paper flowers. These fanciful daydreams turned her world from black and white into blush pink and sherbert lemon. The ideas popped in her brain like fizzing bubbles and made her heart feel warm and content. As the bus reached its stop, she came back to earth with a bump and she tucked the dream back where it belonged.
At the beginning of 2023 I decided to stop waiting for a ‘one day’ that never seemed to arrive and to commit to making consistent daily actions to making my dream come to fruition. I wrote about receiving a small unexpected sum of money which I used to purchase a bicycle and how that changed everything.
I wanted to share my story of building my dream brick by brick (or in my case pebble by pebble!) The ups and downs, the small wins and the importance of keeping on ‘chipping away’ - thanks for this life lesson Dad!
In September ‘The Tiny Department Store’ took her maiden voyage and popped up outside Longway my favourite local store/coffee shop. My great friend Kris, who has always been a huge supporter of my dreams gave me so much encouragement and helped me to spread the word. I have now had four pop-ups in total, each with a new collection and a hand illustrated menu that shares the story of the theme and each of the handmade products. It has been an incredible creative experiment, with every launch teaching me so much.
I absolutely love being here on Substack, it holds me accountable and is a wonderful way to document my journey. It is an incredible way to connect and build a community. I feel like I am only just dipping my toe into the water of all that it has to offer and look forward to continuing to share and connect.
Thank you so much for being here. I have included a couple of links to some of my favourite posts in case you have missed them:
Leaving dreamland for pastures new
Messaging a stranger and a serendipitous chain of events
Whether you are brand new here or have been with me from the start, thank you for being here. As always I love to connect, feel free to drop me a 🫶 or a line.
Until next week, Kate x
Congratulations, I’m looking forward to following another year of your journey 💕
Happiest of birthdays 🎉