I recently left teaching after my 14th year as a full time high school math teacher. I taught Precalculus, AP Calculus, and Multivariable Calculus to advanced and gifted students at a magnet school in Georgia. I LOVED many parts of my job. I loved the students, I loved expressing my enjoyment for math and seeing it reflected in them (sometimes, let's be realistic here :)), I loved explaining a challenging topic or answering a difficult question and seeing the students "get it". Sadly, as the years passed though there were so many things about my job that sucked the joy out of teaching. So in 2015 I started Julie's Woodcrafts as a way to supplement my income and support my goal of teaching only part time in the coming years instead of full time. I am lucky enough to have this opportunity only because my husband owns his own business. He builds custom arcade machines (@Monster Arcades) and so for his business he purchased a large CNC router a few years ago. He has been using the router to cut out all the pieces of the arcade machines he builds and he and I decided that I could learn to use the router for a whole different and beautiful :) purpose and thus Julie's Woodcrafts began. Over the summer of 2015 I taught myself, along with my husband's help, to design for and program the router to cut the pretty pieces you now see for sale in my Etsy shop in addition to lots of custom pieces I do as well. After designing and then cutting I also sand and sometimes stain or paint them as well. In addition to my Etsy shop I also have a website that I have a shop on. I also go to arts and crafts shows/festivals often to sell my pieces and they are lots of work but also fun and rewarding. Additionally, I have my pieces for sale in 4 local stores. I am LOVING the opportunity to be creative! Being an entrepreneur is an exciting and totally different experience than I have ever had in my life and I am really enjoying the autonomy as well as the ownership I feel over my future career now. Thank you so much for supporting my business and my family!