HOME IMPROVEMENT
FIX IT UP Freedom Painting and Handyman Services
WOODWORK Bringing a young entrepreneur’s dream to life
DO IT YOURSELF Meet the DIY Guru at the Shabby Tree
March/April 2021
CONTENTS
MARCH / APRIL 2021
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Starting Over Eric and Ashley Safier’s home improvement company
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Woodworking Bringing a young entrepreneur’s dream to life
@dawsoncountynews @dawsonnews
Dawson Faces Meet Barb Lewis, owner of the Shabby Tree
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EDITOR Alexander Popp
PHOTOGRAPHY Alexander Popp, Erica Schmidt
PUBLISHER Stephanie Woody
CONTRIBUTING WRITERS Erica Schmidt, Jacob Smith, Sabrina Kerns
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March/April 2021
HOME IMPROVEMENT
‘Starting Over’
HOW A DAWSONVILLE COUPLE QUIT THEIR JOBS AND STARTED THEIR OWN HANDYMAN COMPANY By Jacob Smith We all know the moment of walking through the front door after a long day of work, sprawling out on the couch and muttering about how we wish we could just quit our job and do what we love. After another night of watching his wife do just that, Eric Safier said he had enough. “That was the thing from the beginning for us to do this together,” Eric said. “I walked in and told her to quit her job and let’s go work.” Both he and his wife, Ashley Safier, liked doing things with their hands. He had his residential building license until the 2008 recession, when he let it expire. “He’s the one who had the idea of starting the handyman business,” Ashley said. “It started out that it was just painting and then we started inching our way into everything else.” So Ashley quit her job with an exterminating company and Eric quit his job in construction and together they started Freedom Painting and Handyman Services. Eric said the name is a nod to his family and friends serving in the military. At their first job, it was just the two of them. They were nervous and not too confident, but their first client, Mike Jason, handed them the keys before they even gave him their estimate. “It made us feel like ‘Woah, we can really do this,’” Ashley said. “So, we did that job and then he referred us and the rest was word of mouth.” From that point on, Freedom Painting
and Handyman Services became a staple in Dawsonville and it’s surrounding areas without having to put much money into advertising, according to Eric. Eric being native to Dawsonville and Ashley to Dahlonega made the people they knew and grew up with more than happy to request their services. Whenever they are not doing a painting job, Eric said he likes working on renovation projects that have a big before-and-after effect, like a bathroom. While Eric and his assistant work on smaller projects together throughout the week, Ashley runs and operates the two crews of teams that fulfill Freedom’s larger orders. Eric said that Ashley is definitely the brains of the operation and he “guesses” he’s the brawn. “We really are like a dream team though,” Ashley said. “We work well together and we don’t really argue. Everyone always says ‘How can you be married, work together and run a business together?’” It just works for us.” Eric said the only time business has ever slowed down was right at the beginning of COVID-19, when people began postponing or canceling projects. However, the couple said that 2020 ended up being their most profitable year to date and they said they only have their customers to thank for that. “It means a lot to be able to work locally in Dawsonville and Dahlonega,” Ashley said. “It’s very amazing. We are beyond blessed. It’s exciting to know that we get to stay within the community and not have to venture too far out. I really think 2021 is our year. I project us from here going up.”
March/April 2021
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WOODWORKING
Building a business
HOW THE COMMUNITY RALLIED TOGETHER TO HELP THIS LITTLE BOY TAKE HIS CREATIONS FROM WORKSHOP TO RETAIL Story by Sabrina Kerns Kristy and Brent McKee showed little surprise when their 8-year-old son, Ryder, came to them one afternoon in January and said he wanted to start his own business. The third grader is constantly looking for something new to work on, enrolling in gifted classes at Poole’s Mill Elementary where he attends school, playing in sports alongside his older brother and learning all he can about the projects his parents work on as part of their local carpentry business, Barn Doors and More of Forsyth County. Kristy said her little boy has been interested in building and renovating since he was a baby, picking up a hammer and trying to help with home renovations even before he could fully walk and talk. “He has always followed right along behind dad, doing everything that he did,” Kristy said. When he came to him with the idea of starting his own business, they asked what he wanted to do, and he immediately said, “I want to build something.” His dad started to help him make his first items, and within days, the third grader established Red Ryder Woodworks, which has quickly grown into a thriving business within the community. Brent guided Ryder through making trays in all different colors with rope or metal handles and wooden cutting boards in all different shapes and sizes. Kristy said Ryder mostly creates the items on his own, but Brent cuts all of the wood for him as they are not quite ready to let their 8-yearold wield a saw just yet. Kristy posted photos of some of his items on the Facebook page for Barn Doors and More of Forsyth, showing a little bit of pride for their son and letting customers know about his new business. This is where
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Lindsay Letourneau, the owner of Peaches and Pine, first saw the news about Ryder’s venture. Peaches of Pine is a new retail store in the Matt community in north Forsyth featuring home decor items and clothing, and even since before opening the store, Letourneau said she planned to partner with and support local artisans in the community to help sell their goods in the store located in Matt Town Center off of Matt Highway. Ryder sounded like the perfect partner for her and the store, and she invited him and his mom to come to Peaches and Pine to discuss a possible agreement. “She brought Ryder in at the beginning of the week, and he went over his product line with me and he gave me a sales pitch,” Letourneau said. “And we came to an agreement together and decided that I would carry his items in the store to help him market them a little bit more. His parents were just kind of posting it on their Facebook page. We have a pretty good following with the community, so I was happy to help him in any way that I could.” Ryder left some of his products with Letourneau at Peaches and Pine that day, attaching his own price tags to the grey and white wooden trays. After she also posted his products on Facebook and customers started to see more of his items, Red Ryder Woodworks took off in the community. In less than a week, Letourneau noticed that she was completely sold out of Ryder’s items in her store, and she had to call back to ask for a restock. Ryder also started receiving orders from all over the community and even a few from out-of-state customers. Kristy said she couldn’t believe just how quickly his business had gained traction. Kristy and Brent decided to use his
WOODWORKING growing business as an opportunity to teach both Ryder and their older son, Riley, about the importance of giving back to their community. They tasked Ryder with using his spare time and money to work on service projects that could help others in the community. When he heard this from his parents, Mr. Todd, a member of their church and friend of theirs, immediately came to mind. Mr. Todd gets around in a wheelchair, and they had recently found out that the lift in his home, which he uses to go up and down the stairs, had been broken for quite some time. “So Mr. Todd has to go outside, no matter what the weather is, go around the house in his wheelchair, go down to the basement to get in just to go to bed,” Kristy said. “And then in the morning, of course, he has to come back upstairs.” Knowing this weighed on Ryder’s heart, and in no time at all, he decided he wanted to use the money from his business to help Mr. Todd and repair the lift. Mr. Todd knew that Ryder had started his own business venture, but he had no idea what Ryder had planned to do with the money until he arrived home one day to see Ryder and his parents waiting there. They had called the manufacturer that made the lift ahead of time and paid for and scheduled a time for a crew to come out and fix the lift. They also paid for a year warranty so if anything else happens to the lift, Mr. Todd will be able to easily have it fixed again. Mr. Todd was thrilled to find his lift fixed and ready to use again, and Ryder and his parents were happy to help out in any way they could. “This is not about notoriety for Ryder or our family because nothing we do we can do without God’s help …. We don’t need the recognition,” Kristy said. “It’s really about right now in the world, there is so much negative and hate and anger and division. Even in our own little hometown right here, there are so many people that could just use a hand up.” Ryder has since decided to work on a new service project every month to use his continuing support from the community to give back in some way. As the community has rallied behind Ryder and his new business, he has filled more than 100 orders, and others in the community have volunteered to help him out in marketing his items and teaching him more about running a retail business. He has already made other agreements with three other stores in the community, and he hopes to open his own store in the future. “He is even shipping to other states and is working [out] a deal with a coffee shop in Arkansas,” Kristy said. Ryder officially took over the title of CEO at Red Ryder Woodworks on Feb. 12, and his parents are excited to see what the future holds for their son and his business. Kristy and Ryder wanted to thank Thad Hulsey, Ryder’s PE teacher at school and the owner of Hulsey Farm Tables in Gainesville, who donated wood to Ryder that he used to make his first items. Hulsey was also Ryder’s very first customer, purchasing a wooden tray from him as soon as he started the business. They also thanked Lanier Cabinets, who donated scrap, Ed’s Roofing, who has helped out where they could, and all of the others in the community who have rallied behind Ryder and purchased his products. “I think the biggest thing we want Ryder to take away from all of these experiences is …. we are so blessed,” Kristy said.
March/April 2021
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DAW S O N FAC E S
MEET BARB LEWIS,
DIY GURU AND OWNER OF THE SHABBY TREE By Erica Schmidt eschmidt@dawsonnews.com Barb Lewis has been crafting for as far back as she can remember. When she got married and started having children, Lewis embraced her new role as a stay-at-home mom, but knew that she had to find a way to keep herself busy. So she started making crafts to sell at local antique markets and decided to record herself crafting to post on Facebook. Lewis’ Facebook live streams started off with a grand total of one, maybe two people watching, but before long, she started gaining followers. In October 2018, Lewis officially began her crafting channel and boutique The Shabby Tree. Now, almost three years later, the Shabby Tree is almost at a million followers and continues to grow every day. Every day, Lewis does crafts through the Shabby Tree, both on Facebook live streams and through the Shabby Tree blog. She said that
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her inspiration a lot of times comes from looking at an everyday item and imagining what else it could be. “A lot of it is just looking at the craft supplies and coming up with something,” Lewis said. “I kind of just go in the dollar tree, look at stuff and see what we could turn it into.” A recent example of Lewis’ craftyness was making paint rollers into carrots for an Easter decoration. She said that this idea came to her when she saw the orange-tinted rollers and thought of carrots. This way of thinking is something she encourages her followers to do too. “What I tell everybody is to look at it and don’t look at what it’s supposed to be used for,” Lewis said. “We tell them all the time, try to look at it in a different way and turn it into something else.” Another inspiration for the craft ideas are the Shady Tree’s followers and their ideas. “The followers will send us ideas too, and I’ll give credit to the follower
when she sends me an idea,” Lewis said. “So we’ll make it and say ‘so-andso sent us this idea and we’re gonna try it out today’.” Some of Lewis’ favorite craft items to make are banners, message boards and ornaments. She especially loves making decorations for every holiday, but she says that the Shabby Tree crafts are for all year round. “We do everything, it’s not just holidays,” Lewis said. “I always try to teach them to make unique fashion items, jewelry and home decor.” Another important thing Lewis does through Shabby Tree is show her viewers how to turn trash into treasures, as well as showing them how to hunt down the best craft supplies in the most unexpected places. “Before the virus hit we would be in Goodwill every day on live and I would show them how to just buy all that Goodwill stuff and turn it into something,” Lewis said. “We haven’t done that as much lately, but a lot of what we’ve done during quarantine is
DAW S O N FAC E S showing people how to make crafts out of stuff they already have around their house.” The Shabby Tree also has a booth at Antiques and Collectibles of Dahlonega, showcasing clothing and home decor items from the boutique. While doing her Facebook Live streams, Lewis said that she’d often get questions about where she bought the clothes she was wearing. Because of these questions, Lewis came up with the idea to start her own boutique so viewers could order their own clothes like the pieces she was wearing. “A store was not in my intentions, it just kinda happened — everybody kept saying ‘where’d you get this’ so we just opened a store so when they ask they can get it off the boutique,” Lewis said. “And as far as the clothing in the boutique, we try to keep it unique; not something that you’re gonna go in Walmart or Target and find.” Lewis sells clothing and home decor through her boutique, and is continually expanding the items she offers through it. Lewis said that she is constantly impressed by her followers’ creativity in the crafts that they send her. “They spend a lot of time; they really love crafting,” Lewis said. “They’re very creative and there’s a lot of them that are all very special. They just love the Shabby Tree and they’re very sweet people.” But the fellowship among her followers is more than just sending the crafts to Lewis. She said that her followers are always finding ways to interact with and support one another. “The Shabby Tree followers are really a family; like there was a family whose daughter was in the hospital and they loved the doll I had in my video, so another follower bought the doll and sent it to them,” Lewis said. “Or like other people will say ‘I have Covid and I want to craft but I don’t have this’ and someone else will send them a big box of crafting supplies.” One of the ways Lewis and her
followers support each other is through her “prayer thankful room”, a room that is completely filled with paper tags with prayer requests or things to be thankful for. The followers send in the tags to Lewis, who reads them on her channel and hangs them up in the room. “We get on and we read their tags out loud, and all of these were sent in by followers,” Lewis said. “And they’re all praying for different things or thankful for different things — this is one of our most popular rooms the followers talk about and it’s just beautiful.” Not only is Lewis now able to make a living through her business, but it has grown so much that now her entire family is able to work alongside her. Her husband Wally and her daughter Hope manage shipping, and her daughter Joy manages the boutique side of the business. Lewis’ son Bo attends college full-time but is able to help with the online orders while he is away at school. Even Hope’s dog, Opal, comes into the warehouse with the family when they’re filling orders or filming videos. The Shabby Tree keeps growing more and more each day, and Lewis has plans to keep increasing what she does with it. “When we get to a million then we’re gonna do something fun — I’m not sure what quite yet, but something fun,” Lewis said. “And one day we’re gonna do a meet and greet if the virus ever goes away; we’re gonna pick a different state and do kind of a craft event where we’re gonna craft and there will be soo many tickets to buy.” Lewis said that she loves what she does, and that her followers are the biggest part of what makes up the Shabby Tree. “I love them and I love crafting with them,” Lewis said. “I could never do this on my own and I could never do this without the followers — it’s a full time job so it’s all day every day, but I love it.”
March/April 2021
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BREAKFAST FAVORITES
It has only been a few weeks and this year is certainly looking to be as unpredictable as 2020 was. Meanwhile our communities Best of Forsyth financial planner, David Fountain is on a mission to uncover Dawsonville’s favorite dining spots.
Here in North Georgia breakfast is clearly defined as country style, with homemade biscuits the ultimate comfort food as the basis of any Southern breakfast. This hearty meal is brought to life with a country sausage gravy, thick slice of country ham, fried hash brown potatoes, a homemade waffle topped with some perfectly fried chicken. As David and his foodie followers set out to explore the local breakfast options the adventure quickly began looking and feeling very similar to the challenge that they ran into when searching for Forsyth County’s best pizza at the end of 2019 – “it’s complicated, but so much to love!”
THE FAVORITE BREAKFAST SPOTS Local’s Best Breakfast Papa’s Place (Behind Outlet Mall) Favorite Blessed Biscuit & More Billie’s Country Kitchen (Hwy 9 North of town) Favorite Southern Style Breakfast Big D’s BBQ (Hwy 53 & Ga 400) Favorite Biscuit Pickup J&S Kitchen (Hwy 53 East of Town) Favorite Breakfast Buffet Country Café (Hwy 53 East of Ga 400) THE FOOD ADVENTURE CONTINUES: It’s BBQ Time!! As you read this David and fellow foodies are beginning their search for those spots that just have a way with rubbing, smokin’, and making that BBQ taste so good. So, let us know of your favorite spots for good ol’ Bar-B-Que!!
You can read the complete brunch review, or reach David, at www.FountainsFoodAdventures.com. Follow the “Food Adventure” on Facebook and Instagram.
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