We love Throwing Mud Gallery. It’s been over 3-1/2 years since we opened and we never could have imagined how our lives would change and the many new friends we would make. We work long days and hours, but (most of the time) it doesn’t feel like work. We’re doing what we love and we’re the ones in charge of our future. I wouldn’t want to go back to a job where I sat in an office cubicle all day, and Mark isn’t missing all the hard work involved in doing art shows all summer. If he wasn’t at an art show, he was making pottery for the next show.
Mark didn’t get paid vacations and couldn’t justify time away from his pottery wheel. When the kids were younger, family vacations were maybe a few days on the Oregon Coast at the end of summer. Our travel budget was reserved for visiting family in Chicago for holidays. However, there were a few times that we took “bigger” vacations….DisneyWorld, Disneyland, Mexico, Hawaii …and I went to Norway for my cousin’s wedding.
It can seem almost impossible to take time away from work when you own your business, especially a retail business where your sales come from customers walking into your store. It’s just the 2 of us here and we worry how much business we could lose by being closed.
I’ve been reading more and more about how a temporary break is essential to the physical, mental and emotional health of small business owners. Like everyone else, we need time away to relax, rejuvenate, and regroup.
With that in mind, Throwing Mud Gallery will be closed starting at 4pm on Saturday, August 30th and will not open again until noon on Monday, September 8th.
We are going to spend some time sitting on a beach reading, doing some wine tasting, taking a short hike, gardening at home, and maybe just sitting around doing absolutely nothing.
Have a great Labor Day weekend and we’ll see you in September!
