a new journey begins

Today was it - the very last day. We went over to the store this evening and I ran the vacuum for the last time, put the brass cover on the floor outlet and said goodbye with a tear in my eye. The rooms are empty, the sconces and pendants have been taken down and the phone and alarm have been disconnected. You'd never know how great it looked unless you had a picture like this:

Having the business has been a wonderful, exciting adventure for me. And as I keep telling myself, I haven't closed the business, I've just closed the store. The adventure will continue, just in a different setting. You'll find a new store, an online store, on our website in the spring. Come along with us on that new journey...and remember the good times on Main Street.

terra cotta warriors

It's been a busy week since we closed the shop's doors last Saturday.


On Sunday, several different groups of local merchants came in to pick up their chosen items: bookcases, tables, chairs, lamps, custom shadow box cases. The room looked pretty naked after they left, but there was still jewelry on the wall shelves and locked in the floor cases. Then it was time to organize the joolz.


All the consignment jewelry had to been inventoried and taken out of QuickBooks for return to its owners. All the wholesale jewelry had to be inventoried and put back in the safe. Believe it or not, the work on the consignment items took several days of computer input and relabeling, finished off with mailing to out of town artists and personal delivery to Rochester area artists. The last box goes out today.


Then I was able to see all the display busts and other black velvet pieces more clearly. In order to count each type, for posting on Craigslist, I organized them by size and lined them up. Doesn't this shot of the big busts remind you of pictures of the Chinese terra cotta warriors?


Yesterday, in clear weather with no snow on the ground, the safe was moved without incident. Remember last time? One day like that was enough. One of the moving company workers injured himself while moving the safe and had to be transported to the hospital. No ED visits this time, thank goodness.




Now all that remains is some more clean out and a final sweep through with the vacuum cleaner. Will the warriors be watching from the top of the case, or will I have stuffed them all into a big plastic bag for the ride home?