The die is cast....

Up at stupid o'clock this morning due to it being a momentous day and having been awake half the night, tossing and turning.

Today is the day I formally submit my business closure notice to HMRC.  I feel there should be some sort of drum roll flourish, *boom tish*

Tomorrow the website formally closes, although it will likely remain as a ghostly presence until its life support is turned off by the hosting company.  So tomorrow I'll be removing the few remaining items from the shop and turning off the lights before I leave.

Next week I'll be closing the business bank accounts and business PayPal account, and preparing the final end of year accounts for submission in early April. 

My business email address will stop functioning as soon as the website disappears, so for all things doll and miniature related I will have a new email address which I'll notify in my final Tower House Dolls newsletter next week. 

The Tower House Dolls Facebook page has been renamed Sandra Morris Dolls and I will definitely maintain this blog, as it contains the repository of my life over the past 17 years, not to mention the many (mis)adventures of Small Dog, so I simply can’t bear to close it too.

As I prepare to set sail into the sunset of retirement I’m already dusting off my personal projects notebooks which contains years worth of ideas which I’ve never had the time to make.  I also, inevitably, have several projects in progress which have been languishing for way too long, which I’m planning to revisit.  

I have a dwindling cache of tiny undressed dolls to last me a year or two, so I will likely have the occasional special little doll or miniature available for sale, and if so, I will post details on my blog  and FB page, as well as sending out a newsletter.

I am also keeping the FB ‘Mignonette Doll Club’ running for the foreseeable future… as somewhere to share ideas and have a good moan when I mess something up.  It’s a private group so if you would like to join you’ll have to request it.

So, although Tower House Dolls is no more, I’m still going to be around.  There’s a very apposite saying “when your hobby becomes your business, it stops being fun”.   Certainly running a business involves lots of responsibilities, many of which I won’t miss.  

Yes... bookkeeping/accounts/tax returns, I’m looking at you!

However I can truthfully say I’ve enjoyed most of it over the past 35 years, even packing for fairs till the early hours and setting off at stupid o’clock to then spend hours setting up.  All the many years I organised and taught classes and workshops for miniatures clubs or at my home were a joy and I got to meet so many lovely ladies, several of whom remain friends to this day.

I’m looking forward to beginning a whole new chapter in my miniatures journey and of freeing my creative urges to see where they take me.  I may even have already ordered a little miniature something to get me in the mood when the dust settles next week.