Closing one door and opening another

Birthday girl happily painting one of our ceramic pieces at her party.

In the Fall of 2015 we opened a shop called Paint It Yourself on Etsy. The shop mainly focused  on selling unpainted ceramic figurines for others to paint, with the occasional custom order for a painted item. We have been running this shop online for five and a half years now, shipping ceramics all over the world: everywhere from England to Australia, and all over the United States.

Packaged and ready to go!

For a family of amateur ceramicists, the shop has done really well. We've had over a thousand sales and made just shy of $25,000 during the first 5 years. Not bad for a side business. Right now, one might say we are at the top of our game with great holiday sales and repeat customers. So one might wonder why, when things were really getting going for the shop, did I choose to close it?

Rylan, age 9, cleaning the seamline off of a piece of greenware

This shop has been a huge blessing for us over the last five years, providing lots of needed income. And it has been so much fun to watch all of my children gain skills and talents pertaining to making ceramics. From my 9-year-old to my 16-year-old, all of my children have the ability to make a beautiful ceramic piece, start to finish, without my help.

Rhyor, age 8, pouring molds.

Over the past 2 months I have deeply reflected on the purpose of this shop and if this was something we really wanted to keep doing. Since moving to Utah last fall, our life has changed so much. With Randall working full time now, I no longer have him by my side doing the ceramics. What once was a joyful family business has lost some of its joy with one family member missing.

The mold has been opened and the pieces are air drying before being lifted out.

However, the biggest reason why we're closing our doors has to do with the spiritual impression that "it's time". It's time to close this door so that another one might be opened. Doing ceramics is time consuming and labor intensive. Those ceramic molds aren't light. Whatever God has next for us on this crazy journey we call life might get overlooked because we are so busy playing in the mud.

I'm excited for what's next on the journey, and feel okay about this closing door while looking forward to the opening of another door. So, for now, I am being patient, waiting for God's timing and looking for that next opening door.