Friday, October 1, 2010

Friday..........

Looking down from Cadillac Mountain

October 1st and the frame shop is officially closed.  I still have work to do with the ones who had their foot in the door before the closing date.  We opened the gallery the second year we were married as my wife was a stay at home mom and painting was her thing.  We built the gallery ourselves and opened not knowing that people were going to pressure us to become a frame shop.  I made my own frames at first with mouldings from the lumber stores.

Twenty five years later and thousands of things that we framed on my Saturdays off every weekend and now we are quitting.  We became a very good custom framing shop and framed everything that didn't move.  We framed things that most people wouldn't touch including large glass window designs, stove pipe hats, tatting tools,  to every kind of crochet item on the face of the earth.

We are quitting as our suppliers of mat board are shrinking in the local area and the price per sheet of mat is  too expensive for a small town shop.

Our customers have been coming to us expecting us to give them a better deal than the Hobby Lobby stores.  We have done that too much and now barely get paid a profit.  One of my last jobs is a big one and I know that I am not making much of a profit for the time I have put into it.  I just want to finish her work and send her on her way.

We have loved being a personal frame shop and have made many new friends and have even counseled and comforted across the counter so many times but it is time to move on to other things.  Not having the shop which is connected to our house will afford us to have a lot of our privacy back to being our own.

Thanks for stopping in to check things out...............

4 comments:

Gigi Ann said...

Enjoy your extra time, I love my retirement. I am busy, but in different areas. Doing fun things that I want to do.

Larry said...

I love the view in your top photo... I assume it's from Cadillac mountain? You don't seem too disheartened from the decision to close your shop... I hope it's a good thing for you, although it must be bittersweet in many ways... L

Anonymous said...

Wishing you two much happiness as your frame shop closes. I know you look forward to having more free time. Hope the weekend is very nice for you both. This is a lovely photo in this post.

Far Side of Fifty said...

Hi Larry..it is the end of an era..what will you do with that area..just keep it as a private gallery? Hope you finish the last of the projects and can just be done! :)