Here’s the thing, I’m not a learn on the go person. I am not a fly by the seat of my pants. I am not an always see the bright-side kind of person.
These are LEARNED traits I am working to include in my tool belt each day. I chalk that up to my marriage, thank goodness for my husband Ben, because quite frankly, he talks me down and into a lot of things. Like, “Hey, let’s leave the suburbs and run a farm.” YEP. That’s how this started…
Let’s go back to the beginning, since First grade in Mrs. Simari’s class, I knew I wanted to be a teacher. I took babysitting courses, worked at a day care, volunteered in classrooms, got jobs working with kids, just to further my knowledge of how to become the BEST TEACHER I can be.
You could say, I am a planner, so why would I deviate from my plan? I mean I put myself through college to become a teacher, y’all know that is a pricey piece of paper!
I went through a time when I didn’t have confidence in myself, I didn’t have passions, I felt HOME-less. After plastering the word HOME all over my apartment in various forms of signs I started developing a passion for CREATING. I started to see what I was able to MAKE from my own hands.
Let me introduce to the man I married, Ben, the craziest person I know. (I love you honey, I mean that with love…) He has the confidence and the “what’s the worst that could happen” attitude, that allows him to TRY new things and FAIL, and try again.
I told him, I am making these cute decorations for my classroom, but I spend all night cutting the paper for them..insert the skit from FRIENDS when Joey opens a carton of milk, “There’s gotta be another way!” Ben’s answer; a CRICUT, a fancy cutting machine, which was an investment and I thought he was again…. CRAZY for spending money like that.
Me, being me, too afraid to jump into a new project without doing the planning… CRICUT sat in the box for months until Ben’s words of; “what’s the worst thing that could happen?”
And so, Simply Stained Shop, a decor company, was built. Don’t get me wrong, he is definitely the backbone of this company, but, I take the credit for this baby, this is a story about a teacher finding the confidence in herself to LET GO, try, learn, and believe in big dreams!
I said it in the beginning, I don’t know a lot about everything, but I know a little about somethings.
Since starting Simply Stained Shop, Ben sold his construction company, I paused my teaching role, and we moved to Oklahoma to start a ranch from scratch. We have the huge blessing to live on a little piece of heaven a long with my parents, where we focus on sharing what we learn along the way.
Thank you for being here! I know our livelihood would not be here without you. Thank you from the bottom of my heart.
