What in the World Have I Been Up To

Inside: What in the world have I been up to? I’ll give you a hint: I’ve been busy painting wood!

Wooden tote box with mum flowers. — One of our first fall projects.

What I’ve Been Up To

When last you heard from me, I’d revealed my word for the year and goals, which I’ve pretty much not followed (the goal part), aside from the non-specific goal of being a better steward. I’ve done that, Or at least started doing that.

The surprising thing, though, has been what I have done–or, rather, what Mike and I have been doing. He’s set up a woodworking shop in the old milk barn, making things, and I sort of fell into painting his creations. What happened from there is the idea that we should open up a store, and so we have. You’ll find us at Etsy under Milkhouse Woodworking.

I’ve gotten a lot of joy working with my hands and being creative this year. Thrive, my word for 2023, really describes how I’ve felt in this new creative endeavor. And getting to do this with Mike has been amazing! It’s like we’ve come full circle from our newlywed days when we dabbled in making crafts and selling them. Now thirty-five years later, we feel as giddy as kids again!

And now, just this past week, we learned that a booth has opened up in a local antique mall–we got it! So we’re plotting and planning our little 8 x 2 foot booth–you can fit a lot more than you’d think in such a seemingly small space.

Here is a sampling of some of our creations:

wooden decorative tray — Our “Rise up and Pray” tray with reclaimed barn wood frame.

sign with holder — Created with a Purpose sign. So true, don’t you think?

Fall wooden tote with signs. — One of my favorite fall totes with some smaller signs.

floating shelf with small vase of twigs and berries — I love this shelf!

red wooden Christmas tote box. — And here’s one for Christmas.

Here is the link to our Etsy shop, Milkhouse Woodworking. Right now we are having a 12 Days of Christmas 25% off sale, running through December 12, for everything in our shop.

Which reminds me. We will be running our annual 12 post of Christmas, though we’re doing it a bit different this year. Instead of the usual posting marathon starting mid-month, I will start posting now, and not necessarily every day, as the posts line up sequentially anyway. And I won’t be pulling my hair out in the process. Also, I will be rotating in older posts along with some new as I did last year.

In the meantime, have some hot cocoa, and I’ll be back soon with Day 1 of the 12 Posts of Christmas.