How do we accomplish these goals? Well, we need more money to start with, so I started looking into ways to increase our income. I have read so many posts about side hustles and they usually involve things I have no interest in, so I know I wouldn’t stick with it. All the work from home jobs in the world are not going to satisfy me in the Spring, when I just want to get outside and grow things. Sitting in front of a computer or on the phone all day sounded like torture to my husband, so we brainstormed on ways we could increase our income without selling our souls. We decided the best way to earn extra money and fulfill our goals was to turn our passions into side hustles, so we could make money while we did something we loved. This began the long process of narrowing down what we could feasibly accomplish. Joe loves woodworking, but isn’t going to have the time to make huge pieces of furniture. He still has a limited number of hours in the week, so he decided to start with making wooden bowls on the lathe and making noodle boards and  cutting boards. These take a few hours each and can be finished in a weekend, so making them to sell sounded fun to him. He started by pricing all of his materials and making a detailed list of what he needed for each project, this would help with pricing items to sell and restocking on tools, woods, paints and stains quickly. He could also customize these to fit with a customer’s décor or theme, which would heighten the appeal to a prospective buyer. Being able to create these projects would allow him more guilt free time in his workshop, which would also help him destress after a long work day or week. Now, it was my turn. What do I love? Well, my journey started with what I hate, which is stress and headaches. Some people drink wine to unwind, but I love a good cup of hot tea. Earl Grey if I’m tired, Chamomile and Peppermint when I want to relax and get rid of a minor headache, Valerian Root when I want help sleeping. I have an entire cabinet full of herbal and black tea blends, I’m constantly looking for new flavors. I also love to garden. I already started a small herb garden last year, so the idea of a tea garden started to form. I could spend the spring and summer growing, harvesting, and drying plants and herbs to create my own herbal tea blends. We had our side hustle ideas and now it was time to create our own business. Follow along on our journey and read about how we created a logo, social media presence, website, and Etsy store, all on our own! Don’t forget to follow us on Facebook, Instagram, and Pinterest to get the latest updates!

In April of 2020, my husband and I decided we wanted to change our lifestyle and do more of what we love, while cutting out as much stress as possible. Sounds like a pipe dream, right? Of course, deciding is the easy part, but then what? How do you go from nothing to a business? Well, as you can see it is now 2022 and we have spent considerable time getting our thoughts together and figuring out what would work for us. Sometimes, it seems like the dream we want is impossible. I had many days where I would be discouraged and think this is never going to work. I still have those days. It may not work, but it won’t be from a lack of trying on our part. Some days are good and we accomplish our goals and some days I end up on the couch playing on Tik Tok in my pajamas. The best advice I have ever heard is “Just get started.” So, that is what we are doing here at Abstract Living. Getting started. 

The first step we took was to write out a list of goals for ourselves and for our family. This was harder than we anticipated because it forced us to think of what kind of life we actually wanted. Both of us wanted to spend more time being creative. Joe loves woodworking, but he rarely gets time in his woodshop because of all of our obligations. I love to garden and paint furniture, but it is hard to find time to start a project when you are committed to something six days a week. We wanted to travel more as a couple and as a family. We also decided it was time to get back some of our roots. We both grew up in rural Virginia, where life was much slower. Our grandparents spent time teaching us skills like breaking beans, growing food, cooking from scratch, sewing, and building. We played outside and built forts, played in the creeks and in dirt. 

Our current life seemed to have no place for any of this. I think this is where we really started to flesh out what kind of daily life we wanted. Spending hours talking about our childhood and what we loved the most about it made us realize how far off course we were now. We decided on a semi-homemade, outside the box lifestyle. We couldn’t quit our day jobs. He works for a chemical plant and I teach at a small Christian school. Despite what HGTV would have you believe, ordinary people don’t have a budget of 2.6 million for a new home or the ability to drop everything and start from scratch.

So this is where we are starting. We know what kind of life we want, so instead of spending every weekend trying to forget about the workweek or escape our lives, we are going to spend that time building the life we actually want. Follow along as we figure this out and who knows? Maybe you will find your inspiration along the way.

Welcome to Abstract Living! This site has been in the works for over a year, I wanted to wait until I had everything ready, but life just kept getting in the way. I am never going to have it all together and that’s ok. Some of the best advice I have ever heard is “Just get started”, so here goes! Abstract Living is an idea that I’ve played around with for years, but I never really knew how to bring that to a reality. A couple of years ago, when the pandemic really hit and my family and I were stuck home, we started thinking about how to get out of the “rat race”. Obviously, income would be the major hurdle to overcome. Unlike those people you see on HGTV who train hamsters and have a housing budget of 1.3 million, we are just an average income family. We decided to create our own business that doesn’t quite follow all the rules. Follow along with us as we set up Abstract Living and maybe you will find life outside the box really is better.