Woodworking and Original Paintings - It's our love story.

How did Honey's Treasures start? It's sort of a long story but basically we have always been entrepreneurs and able to figure out a way to make ends meet. We even sold our handmade things by the side of the road in Marin County for a time.

We inherited a bit of money when Michael's father passed away and we decided (at the time when the market was good) to invest in real estate and began flipping houses and did the work ourselves. For a few years this worked out for us and we were able to make a profit flipping houses locally. Then in 2008, we closed escrow on our 4th house on the California coast (3 hours north of us) to flip and the market crashed soon after. The value of the house, by the time we put all the work and money into it, wasn't worth selling so we turned it into a vacation home. Because of the location, we were able to get enough vacation rental income to help make our payments for a couple years, but as time went on, even that wasn't working for us because the economy had slowed. We lost everything we had in that house and it was a very difficult time for us but we were fortunate that we didn't lose our home where we live in Fairfield.

Enter Etsy. I told Michael that I wanted to turn the Etsy shop (Honey's Treasures) I had started into a business for us to do together. I originally began Honey's Treasures to sell my handmade girly things that I sewed, purses and totes, placemats, napkins, aprons, etc., but really didn't have much inventory and it was going nowhere.

Since we're both good with woodworking, we brainstormed some ideas for us to make and sell. At first we began with vintage and upcycled things and then our own wine rack design, which we still offer. I started upcycling small wooden jewelry boxes and they were popular until I designed the jewelry cabinet that we currently make which is a much better way to store and organize jewelry. We also designed the very popular floating shelves and Railroad Shelves which are our own unique creation that we have perfected. How we came up with the idea for the Railroad Spike Shelves is a story unto itself and kind of funny how it all happened.

We became so busy with our Etsy shop that Michael (Mike the barber as he was known in town) was able to retire from barbering after 40 years and we now make things in our home garage.

In 2013, the day following his birthday, Michael had a very bad accident on the table saw while working on some orders. The doctors worked a miracle but Michael has two fingers and a thumb on his left hand that do not bend at all. He has learned to work with them and continues to work because he loves it. We don't know what we would do without this business and are very thankful for everything. God has blessed us.

Lisa: I come from a family of artistic people. I have fallen in love with plein air painting, (on location) and travel around the San Francisco bay area several times per week with my easel, capturing the scene that inspires me.

Michael has decided that he wants to be a painter as well. He paints in acrylics and is self taught. His style is more or less a primitive and folk art style but he is growing new skills as he paints often.

Our son, Seth, joined our shop to sell his artwork. He helps us in the shop from time to time, too.

Our handmade barber poles; mikesbarberpoles.etsy.com