Milestones at SaltedWords The behind the scenes version
Posted by Robin Saylor on
I’ve considered writing a year in review or share a selection of pics to show what we’ve been up to or maybe what our hopes and dreams are for the future and I still might do all of those things but today I think I’d like to share some of SaltedWords milestones.
To say we’ve come a long way is an understatement and to say we’ve arrived at our destination is an understatement as well. We’re on a journey and a very exciting one at that.
I’ll try to quickly get to the point of this blog entry but I need to lay down some back story first.
Many years ago I went into a home decor store and saw some wood signs with thoughtful and inspiring quotes on them and I knew the perfect place in my home that I could place them only to turn them around to see the price and realize that it wasn’t in the budget at the moment, we had four children at home with a large grocery bill as well as a budget that didn’t have much stretch for home decor items, so I set out to make some for myself. As I started to put all the pieces together in my mind of just how I was going to make these two signs, I also came to the conclusion that I would need a saw or two, possibly three (insert the giggle that my list of power tools grew rapidly) a sander, a router, some wood, paint, paint brushes and some way to put the words on the signs…phew, so many tools and supplies and materials were needed to start this project in retrospect I could’ve just bought the signs… but we wouldn’t be where we are today if I’d of gone that route. 
Moving on, my husband loved the artistic venture so he bought me some tools as gifts and wow were they gifts! My heart fell hard for the power tools and continues the love affair to this day and I’m proud to say that I sccessfully passed it along to Robin as she has climbed on the back of my original power tool love affair and has topped my meager tool collection with some of the beastliest saws she could get her hands on, but back to the story.
I now have tools, materials and plenty of ideas and energy to start this sign making endeavor, my husband is on board, our son showed us how to safely and properly use all of the tools, I feel encouraged and inspired so here we go.
I made three signs, 4x36 routered edged beauties, I don’t remember what they said and I don’t know where they went but I remember how accomplished I felt and that I wanted to make more, a lot more.
Our youngest child is Robin and she was in high school at the time and she would come home from school and help make these painted wood quote signs and loved it as much as I did and was very good at it. Looking back it was God’s way of instilling and honing a love of our future work within us. 
Let’s jump ahead. I was making signs for fun, we were having a creative blast in our garage and really learning how to make beautiful wood signs, learning all about or new tools, designing good working spaces etc., etc.,…. Life has a way of halting things. Our family changed and with that change our signs stopped, the fun stopped, the creativity stopped as well as what seemed like time stopped.
Our family suffered a devastating loss, our son was in a fatal car accident and we all fragmented into what seemed like the abyss, everything just stopped, our beloved son had gone on to be with The Lord.
God was still there, He was still working, He was still holding us and He was caring for us in ways that we still don’t know and can't possibly understand, He would soon recreate us in interesting ways.
As a family we had to learn how to be a family again, we didn’t fall out of love with each other, only more but we definitely had to learn how to be a family of five instead of six…. We came full circle and are not only a family of six but now 18! God is amazing.
(this is a picture of part of our family)
Now I have debated going into full detail and taking you through the mountains, the valleys, the fields and the plains but I’ve decided that I'll get on with the story a little faster except I do have to tell a few details so stay with me.
Robin came home from college and announced that she was getting married, that her future husband was actually at that very moment in the garage asking her dad for her hand in marriage and by the way, she was giving us our first grand child! I instantly fell in love with that new baby that was growing in her belly and everything changed in that moment, new life, new miracles and the sun was coming back out from behind the darkness it had been hiding behind.
Fast forward 9 months, Robin had a new baby and her husband wanted to be their family's provider so that she could stay home and care for their baby and home and she was great with that except she really wanted to something creative, adventurous, exciting to do, you know how it goes, sometimes a girl just can't sit at home so she said to me, "hey Mom, how would you feel about making wood signs again?" of course you know I said yes. We went back into the garage (three years had passed by) and started up the saws, dusted off the tools, made a list of signs we wanted to make and went and bought some materials. We made plans to enter ourselves into a local craft show, it was great fun, we were hooked. But wait, we needed a name, can you guess what we named our little sign shop? It wasn't Saltedwords, you thought the story was over didn't you, not quite yet. We named our shop Ryan's Place Home Decor, in honor of our Son and Brother and it was such a lovely feeling to give that to him.
We became involved in the craft show circuit and loved it and were quite happy but customers kept asking to order customs and if we had a website or an etsy shop, they wanted more so we opened an etsy store named Ryan's Place and still operate it to this day.
Ryan’s Place was doing well on Etsy and at the craft shows and we were so proud of our little business and the creativity was so fulfilling, we truly felt like God poured out this beautiful little blessing and then in the midst of this new adventure God gave me a new name, SaltedWords, but I really didn't know what to do with it, we couldn't possibly change the name of Ryan's place so the brilliant idea dawned on me, more like my angel told me what to do wink wink, I asked Robin if she would like to open another shop, of course she said yes.
Fast forward three more years, business was great, we were busy, it was meaningful work, we felt successful and with that we were outgrowing our small one car garage but no idea about where to move or should we build or rent somewhere, we just had knew our space was too small and getting smaller by the day.
this is our office space at my house (our daughters old bedroom)
There was an old dilapidated tire shop that had been boarded up for about ten years, it was so bad and so dreamy at the same time, we knew just what we would do with this broken down building, we would make it beautiful. Every single person that we showed hated it! As in, they all seriously hated it, every single person we consulted said "don't buy it" so we did the best thing we could think of, we called our pastor out to pray over it and although he also didn't like it, he still prayed over our building. 
Saltedwords was always meant to be, it has a place in history that will never be erased, God wanted it here before we knew that we wanted it here. So all of this to say, God has a way of leading His people on beautiful journeys, the paths aren't always enjoyable, they're sometimes more painful than one can barely stand and they sometimes feel like we're just wandering in the dark but soon the light will start to shine a little brighter and when it does, look out, it's going to be something good.
So the milestones keep coming and they also keep passing, the blessings are there all along, the guardrails are firmly in place, the light shines on ahead to lead us in our way and we’re thoroughly enjoying this beautiful ride.
What a beautiful story! God has lead you to where you should be! Thanks for listening to Him!!