Curating - Mid September

It's just over a month since I last wrote to you all.

I woke up early on Saturday 22 August all ready to celebrate Paul's birthday weekend, and before the celebrations got underway, I put the final finishes to my mid August missive.

You'll probably remember that I'd just got back from a few wonderful days in France with my family. And then we had family and friends of Paul's arriving to celebrate his birthday with him.

It was a wonderful weekend with glorious weather and highlights included The Flower Belt in Helmsley on Friday, a delicious meal at The Cooks Place in Malton on Saturday and then a memorable day at Pool Bridge Farm swimming and enjoying the sunshine on Sunday. And not forgetting a fabulous picnic lunch on the Castle Howard Estate on Saturday too.

The latter part of August went in a way I really wasn't expecting with my step father, who had suffered a fairly bad fall in early August, being taken to hospital with pneumonia and suspected sepsis. And so I spent most of the last two weeks of August in the north east supporting my sister and step sister to ensure he had plenty of visitors in hospital and, once he was home, to ensure he had round the clock care from family.

I dashed back to Malton to work in the store on Saturday and Sunday of the Bank Holiday weekend; it was an amazing weekend of sales and the Bank Holiday Bargain rail with

£30.00 pieces did extremely well.

Many of you will know that I decided to close the store for a few days at the start of September mainly due to family circumstances as well as to enable us to pack up any spring and summer styles that had not sold and, more importantly, to hang the brand new Autumn 2026 Collection.

Our lovely DIY guy, Nathan, spent the first weekend of September in the store creating two new storage cupboards on the ground floor, building new shelving areas and generally helped to position furniture to create a new store look.

The Bias Team love it, especially the new longer counter. In fact we've gone back to the look similar to the one we had when we first opened. And, from what customers share with us, I think you're enjoying our new look too!

What a wonderful start we've had to the new season collection; we spent a lovely afternoon on Wednesday 9 September with many loyal customers joining us in store to see what the new autumn styles looked like. And for those of you who haven't been in store yet, I can tell you its fabulous - but then of course I'm biased! Lots of cord, beautiful 100% wool knits including a wonderful new brand called Eribe, cool shirting and lots of denim. I'm loving it but then, I'm always partial to an autumn curation.

Last week, Paul and I had the joy of looking after our twin grandchildren for a few days; mum and dad were celebrating their tenth wedding anniversary with a long weekend in Corfu and so we got to spend some very special time with them.

After that I enjoyed a few days back working in the store and then I popped to Durham again to spend the weekend with my step father including a very enjoyable coffee trip to Stanhope home of the notorious Dennis Stafford, he of the 'One-armed bandit murder' in the north east. Apparently he often has coffee in the cafe we went to! And on Sunday morning I treated myself to a trip to RE in Corbridge. I absolutely love that store and luckily, Bias is able to buy some wholesale pieces from them which means I can sell them in store too! I thoroughly enjoyed browsing their garden collection as well as purchasing some little treasures too for my sisters birthday.

Driving back to Malton on Sunday evening I was listening to Radio 4's 'Pick of the Week' with presenter Paulette Edwards from Sheffield. She made me smile because she'd been a teacher for a number of years and at one point, she referred to always buying a new pair of shoes, a pencil case and a new bag at the start of every new school year. And that's exactly what I do; I still live my life around the academic year and often my purchases match the start of a new school term or year! You won't be surprised to hear that I've done all three this September.

I'm writing this on another train journey; this time going down to London for a couple of days to celebrate my sisters birthday on Tuesday. I'm leaving Malton on the 16.18 train and expect to be joining them in a restaurant on Farringdon Road by 19.30.

When trains are on time one can cross miles of this country in a very short space of time. The train network can be impressive; it's just when it doesn't work to schedule it can be frustrating.

So, I'm going to sign off with this newsletter saying it's now 8pm on Thursday evening and I'm back in York Station. I had a lovely time in London and indeed, I did get to the restaurant in Farringdon for 19.30 and enjoyed a delicious french meal with my family.

Today I've had another great day with the wonderful twins and I'm now heading back to Malton ready for a few days in the store.

I hope to see you there!

Sally x

Curating - Mid September

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