Redirecting The Dream
Closing The StoreSome people will be thinking to themselves: "I knew this wouldn't work" or perhaps even more self congratulatory thoughts such as "I told them and they didn't listen to my infinite wisdom and that's why they've FAILED and are SHAMED." To anyone harboring such very small and unhappy thoughts, all I can say is that it's a reflection of your inner life that these are the thoughts you are now having, I think I have no space in my life for such petty narrow thinking. So SHOO fly!
We have decided to close the store. It may seem like a death in the family, but please don't tip toe around me. Dustpan Alley may no longer be found on the hallowed streets of the downtown, but it is far from dead. Dustpan Alley was a wholesale company with a retail web store before it was a downtown McMinnville feature. I am returning it to it's roots. It may seem shrunken at first but if you think about it for just a minute longer, you will have to take note of some amazing differences:
We have decided to close the store. It may seem like a death in the family, but please don't tip toe around me. Dustpan Alley may no longer be found on the hallowed streets of the downtown, but it is far from dead. Dustpan Alley was a wholesale company with a retail web store before it was a downtown McMinnville feature. I am returning it to it's roots. It may seem shrunken at first but if you think about it for just a minute longer, you will have to take note of some amazing differences:
- I now have an official label.
- I finally have a web store that is how I imagined it.
- Now there are actually people out there who know who we are.
- I am now set up to create a Dustpan Alley line of bath products.
I will now have time to design new products and produce sewing patterns. I will now have time for my little boy. And my dog. And my garden. And all the million things that feed my spirit so much more that running a store do. I have learned so much from this whole adventure. I have gained confidence as a business owner. I know that I can put together a great store; I am seriously proud of what we created.
This is not the day to write a great long post about this. I got up early so I can go exercise with my friend Lisa B. and naturally my kid had to get up just as early so I couldn't really dig into a meaty post before leaving. Such is life.
I know that I'm supposed to be sad right now. Opportunities fading out and all that, but I find it impossible to be sad when this new direction for Dustpan Alley promises so much. I will be able to get some of my health back and maybe even become merely chubby* again, rather than fat. I'll still be quite a busy person because it's in my nature to have fifteen projects going at once, but it will be more manageable. And I'll be home more. We will still be facing the puzzle of making a living, always quite daunting, but I have a lot of hope for what comes next.
*I like being a roundish gal, I'm comfortable being plus sized...I just don't like where I'm at now.
**While Max is distracted I'll take this minute to say that while book deals seem to be falling into many blogger's laps these days, I doubt there's a fairy-god-mother editor just hovering above my head waiting to publish me. So another reason to be excited about starting fresh and closer to home is that I will be able to write up a book proposal*** and start haunting publishers, and I can also start stalking all the local papers until one of them hires me to write a column. Or at least one or two articles. Anyway, the point is, the store is why I started this blog, which has helped me improve my writing skills tenfold and given me a kind of focus I never had before. I call that brilliant! By the way, the blog isn't going anywhere so if you find yourself interested in what's going on over here, stay tuned!
***You are dying to know what the book will be about, huh? Ha ha! I'm going to see how long I can keep my intentions a secret! (This is a great game as I am generally not good at keeping my mouth shut about my ideas. Do you think this is insufferably coy? I don't mean to be. I just don't want to jinx myself.)
This is not the day to write a great long post about this. I got up early so I can go exercise with my friend Lisa B. and naturally my kid had to get up just as early so I couldn't really dig into a meaty post before leaving. Such is life.
I know that I'm supposed to be sad right now. Opportunities fading out and all that, but I find it impossible to be sad when this new direction for Dustpan Alley promises so much. I will be able to get some of my health back and maybe even become merely chubby* again, rather than fat. I'll still be quite a busy person because it's in my nature to have fifteen projects going at once, but it will be more manageable. And I'll be home more. We will still be facing the puzzle of making a living, always quite daunting, but I have a lot of hope for what comes next.
*I like being a roundish gal, I'm comfortable being plus sized...I just don't like where I'm at now.
**While Max is distracted I'll take this minute to say that while book deals seem to be falling into many blogger's laps these days, I doubt there's a fairy-god-mother editor just hovering above my head waiting to publish me. So another reason to be excited about starting fresh and closer to home is that I will be able to write up a book proposal*** and start haunting publishers, and I can also start stalking all the local papers until one of them hires me to write a column. Or at least one or two articles. Anyway, the point is, the store is why I started this blog, which has helped me improve my writing skills tenfold and given me a kind of focus I never had before. I call that brilliant! By the way, the blog isn't going anywhere so if you find yourself interested in what's going on over here, stay tuned!
***You are dying to know what the book will be about, huh? Ha ha! I'm going to see how long I can keep my intentions a secret! (This is a great game as I am generally not good at keeping my mouth shut about my ideas. Do you think this is insufferably coy? I don't mean to be. I just don't want to jinx myself.)