Pick Yourself Up...

and dust yourself off. That's about all you can do after a very disappointing studio tour. Jeff and I spent half of Thursday and all day Friday, cleaning and rearranging our studio and gallery space. We didn't finish until 11:00pm, which is when we started to cook dinner.

I filled cache pots and vases with flowers and put our special event signs out by the road.

Our three "open" flags were flying outside at 9:45 in the morning. It was after 11:00 am before we saw people. It wasn't until noon that we had our first sale... $20.00.

Halfway through the day we were worried that we weren't even going to recover the fee we paid to be part of the tour. By 5:00 pm we had 7 small sales. All we could do was hope for a better Sunday.
But it didn't happen. We had a small amount of visitors, and three sales.

I can't even express how disappointed, and worried we are about how the weekend went. We were prepared for extra traffic, since we are now "in town". In the past this has been a REALLY good event for us. It has provided us with a boost in revenue, after the long slow winter. We are scrambling to find a way to recover.

Some say  it's a new location and it will take time to re-establish. Perhaps, but ours sales were four times better during our first Spring studio tour, when hardly anyone knew who we were. One of the biggest drawbacks for us right now, is that we are in the wrong location on the Seagrove potters map. The new map was printed a few months before we moved. The studio tour map had us in the right location, but the map was extremely small this year and you needed a magnifying glass to read it. Most of our visitors said they weren't using the tour map, just the list of participants on one side and were cross referencing them on the big map... which has us in the wrong location.

Our best sale of the weekend came at 5:00 on Sunday, when a young couple came hurrying in and said,"We finally found you!". They drove by the log cabin and we weren't there. Eventually they landed at Creations, a gallery in town, who then told them where to find us. A big thank you to the fine folks who run the gallery!

photo credit: Lee Love

Jeff said next year we should get one of these "pottery head" costumes. One of us can wear it and dance around at the end of the driveway to draw attention to us.
If we are desperate, we just might.

guilt, obligation, and disappointment

Another Hallmark holiday has come and gone. Mothers Day. I awoke and turned on my computer to see all the facebook postings of breakfast in bed, fancy brunches, etc. This is one those days that I have never really felt a part of. I think the only time I have had breakfast in bed was when I was in the hospital giving birth or having minor surgery!

The day for me has usually been spent visiting my mother or someone else's mother and typically that means getting up in the morning and making some sort of food to bring for the gathering and drive an hour or more to get there on time. While the days have been enjoyable, my mind is often elsewhere...

I have had two Mothers Days that were very memorable. I was selling new construction for a builder at the time and worked every weekend, Mothers Day was no exception. One year my daughter brought lunch to the model home for us. We were having torrential rain and most of NH experienced serious flooding that weekend and we had virtually no customers. My partner Mark was there and he opened a bottle of wine that we had in the fridge, washed some of the glasses that were part of our decor, and poured us each a glass. It felt so indulgent (and sneaky!) to be enjoying a glass of wine and a tasty lunch with my girl while at work!

The next year the weather was much better. After work I met Danielle at a very nice Italian restaurant nearby for an early dinner that included some very good martinis. We then went to her house and took a long walk in the countryside together.

Danielle and I have had many, many days like this, it just happens to be that these two were planned around Mothers Day... we don't need a "special" day set aside to enjoy each others company. Too often "holidays" like Mothers & Fathers day make people feel guilty, obligated, or disappointed. I know that over the years I have experienced each of those emotions on the so-called Hallmark holidays. It took me a long time to get over it... and I will admit that sometimes it's still a work in progress.