Prior to moving to the United States from her native Scotland 11 years ago, Morag Grassie had been deeply immersed in her career as a scientific researcher. After earning a bachelor’s degree in molecular biology from Glasgow University and doctorate degree at the Institute of Virology, a government agency, she worked as a research fellow and professor, then spent eight years in psychiatric drug development and finally in human genome DNA research, leading one company’s large pharmacological department. The family moved here (they’re now in Redding, kids aged 21, 19 and 15) for the sake of her husband’s career and “I left my other life,” Grassie recalled on a recent afternoon. Unable after just a few years out of her field to re-penetrate the job market in the United States at a hard-won, accustomed level, Grassie decided “I’m doing something different,” she recalled, “and I started to look for a property to do this business idea that had been incubating for quite a while.”
Born of her own penchant for working with textiles—Grassie had started making items such as purses, and partly out of boredom been working with an interior designer, reupholstering furniture—she thought about “how great to have your perfect craft show open in bricks and mortar, year-round.”
Welcome to Ally-Bally-Bee, a handcrafted gift store that’s operated in Ridgefield for five years and is scheduled to open March 30 on Elm Street in New Canaan. A co-op model shop that features an approximately even split between the works of dozens of local artists and handcrafted items selected by Grassie at shows throughout the United States (and beyond)—Ally-Bally-Bee is named for a Scottish nursery rhyme that includes a line about “sittin’ on yer mammy’s knee.” For Grassie, who had felt at the point she was ready to name the new business that she’d been losing her connection to Scotland, the name also made great sense because “so many artists learn from their mothers.”
Ally-Bally-Bee is a nice fit for New Canaan (she’s keeping the Ridgefield location, too), she said, because “it’s such a community-based town that wants to support local businesses and artists.”
“We are a destination store and I always think of New Canaan as a great destination location for shopping.
