the not shop, shop!

Funny title for a post, but that's what the kids call it!  

If you've been reading this blog awhile, you may recall a post here about a milkhouse on the farm. For a long while I've been thinking it could make a nice little spot for customers to pick up Cottage Foods...baked goods, jams, honey, breads...items our state doesn't require a commercial kitchen for bakers to sell. 

I can't open a shop, but I can have people stop by to pick up their cottage foods...that's why it's the "not shop, shop!"

And so finally, after ages of plotting & planning, on August 5, I had an open house.  I invited friends & neighbors to visit and sample baked goods, then give me an opinion on what they liked and thought would be best sellers. We had a grand time!  

Last week, was my first official day open...just for 3 hours in the afternoon, once the farmers' market on the town square closes at 12, my hope is people will swing by to see what's for sale here.

And so I turned the sign to "OPEN" and surprise, I had some neighbors, friends & people who were just driving by stopped in...yay, off to a good start!

Anyway, I thought you might like to see a few pictures of how the milkhouse looked before and then after improvements were made.  Yes, it was in really rough shape when I began...built in the 1950's and honestly, neglected for years (low priority, I admit). 

Visit YouTube™ for a song that was constantly going through my mind as I tried to keep thinking about and working toward the end, just click here: 

Panic! at the Disco, High Hopes  

BEFORE...

I swept, dusted, scraped paint, washed windows, filled cracks in the cement block, stained the floor, and then finally the fun stuff began. I had our local hardware store match paint so it would be the original color, then I pulled out spare items to decorate with...some goodies had been given as gifts over the years, others I found for a song at a mercantile shop, while still others were hiding in the barn just waiting to be dusted off. 

There's no electricity (yet - fingers crossed, someday!) so I have battery-operated twinkle lights in minnow buckets hanging from the ceiling, and twinkle lights in the old kerosene stove and the antique potbelly stove (which couldn't be installed because, hmmm, it was old, with no UL rating, so it isn't seen as safe for indoor use).

AFTER!

If you want to see what's happening at the "not shop" from time to time, you can click here -

Thanks for taking my little before & after tour!