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Wednesday, March 21, 2012

Cleaning Out

I was snitching photos from my mother's camera to show you the great book party this past weekend, and I found a few of her "pre-event" photos too. They are actually a little sad... a deserted store... but interesting too. Yes, it took us three months to clean out most of the store. And truthfully, it's nowhere near actually being clean. My kids, Alex and Lilah, helped me push all the remaining product and extra displays into the storage room and stamp room. Anything we couldn't move, we covered with pretty cloths. Lilah was in heaven! It was a huge, colorful, empty space to dance and twirl around.

Take a look at the pics in the next post to see how pretty it looked (cleaned up!)

The TOY section... gone.
Games, puzzles, Klutz... gone
Books... sorta gone. It's amazing what was still left even after we offered to GIVE stuff away!?
27 boxes donated to World Vision. Seriously. And this was the SECOND batch. The room felt HUGE when they were gone!
I think I need to do a yard sale at the shop to get rid of the extra displays - big and small. Then... maybe some new paint... then a killer idea of what to DO in this space now! I have a few ideas, but I am open to hearing more. Put your opinion in the comments below - what would you like to see in this space?

BEFORE and AFTER  (I kept the kids, but I'm storing them elsewhere)

5 comments:

  1. It looks like you had the kind of store my wife and I have talked about opening sometimes. I can't imagine how hard it would have been to close it down. However, I'm glad your book writing and workshops are growing. Perhaps some day you'll be in Texas, so that I can attend one of your book signings and/or workshops. Blessings!

    PS - The kids are definitely keepers. LOL!

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  2. Well let me reccommend to you what my daughter is always telling me to do with my life.....lol....she says i need to open a shop to local artists to sell their wares.....A venue i guess , maybe charge a percentage or something i don't know. But she says that way i could sell my art there too. :) Best of luck whatever you do.

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  3. Yes, it WAS a dream store, for the first six years...
    Funny about the idea of selling artist's work! When we first opened, that's what we did. We had other artists work, paintings, photos, pewter, jewelry, music CDs... and my stained glass, rubber stamps, prints... it was hard to sell art in this area. And, once i was working 12 hour days at the store, it was weird, but i no longer had time to make art! THIS time, maybe I'll only have the store open one week a month, or 3 days a week... or I get my Lilah Bean minions to run it. Oh, right, they don't have fingers and don't talk!

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  4. Sandy,

    I miss all of your supplies!! You can't get the "stuff" you carried at Michaels or Joannes...You filled a big hole.... all the claudia helmuth, ranger, etc. Also, everytime I read a craft magazine and wanted to try a new technique - everyone at your store was so helpful and would demonstrate.... and your stamps...oh, how I miss those..... ox Mary Ann

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  5. Sad, but moving forward. I know what it's like to dismantle a large, working art studio full of 15 years' worth of projects and materials. Where does it all go?
    I like Kate's idea for her Kamala designs store/studio. I met Kate at CZT #8 in Providence this February. Among other things, she's offering her studio space for rent as a working reference library/space to tangle. http://www.kamalaboutique.com/index.html
    I think she described it on the CZT Yahoo group...
    Whatever you space evolves into, it is already imbued with a richness of past positive creativity,so you already have a head start...

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