Kathryn (Katie) M.
Interests: BUILDING, DESIGNING, RENOVATING, DANCING, PUBLIC SPEAKING, SINGING, CREATING, WRITING
BLOG POSTS
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2022-11-10 A Rebirth Through Art
2022-03-19 Custom Built “Simplicity” Desk
2021-10-28 Healing Center Architectural Plans
2018-09-29 Healing After Harvey Art Showcase
2018-08-06: Light Your Fire Within
2018-06-29 Transforming Chaos into Peace Workshop
2018-03-07: What Happens To Me, Happens To You
2018-02-15: Laugh Until Life Makes Sense
2017-12-11: Bless This Home And All Who Enter
2024-11-15: Becoming ME
“You abandoned me” were the words that released the built-up energy within my pelvis that had unknowingly deposited years prior. Expressed to a dear loved one in all honesty after a major life decision left us deeply wounded, I felt this energy move up from this region and escape like a balloon that had just popped and all the helium exited into thin air. When Justin Morris, the choreographer for “Stealing breaths. Stilling breaths. Is my practice not my prayer here?” asked me where I stored my grief, I immediately knew the answer, my hips. In fact, he asked this to all the dancers with answers varying from their shoulders to their throats to their hearts. This grieving process of being cracked open allowed the light to finally enter into a very dark phase of my life where I learned how to become me again, which was beautifully portrayed in Waeli Wang’s choreographed piece entitled, “No Need to Look Anywhere Else”. This self-reflection of my own transformation from grief to becoming me was the highlight of my dance performance during this year’s 2024 Saddleback College Dance Collective.
During my grieving process, I rarely ever showed my face in photos. I’d moved from California to Texas and my now long-distance friends were upset with me because they felt they never got to see me anymore, in person or in photos.
When Justin shared how some cultures choose to not show their faces during their grieving ceremonies and how the opening choreography was all about hiding my face from the audience, I knew exactly what he was talking about. I had personally experienced this. Then when he expressed how the shakiness in my movement was very interesting, I recollected how weak I felt during that time period of my life and how accurately we were portraying this process. Hearing from another dancer that they witnessed a lady in the front row crying as she watched us dance, I too felt very touched by the music and movements performed by my body.
We were each experiencing one another’s grieving process throughout the dance as we took turns being the support system.
Only being able to stay down in the emotion of grief for so long, I recalled during those years naturally turning again towards the light. When we started Waeli’s piece, she asked us to pick out a poem that resonated with us so we could create movement symbolizing the words in the poem. My poem was simple and read as follows:
I dive into the well of my body
and end up in another world.
Everything I need already exists in me.
There’s no need to look anywhere else.
In this piece I was fortunate to have a moment to myself on stage where my hand first depicted a mirror, then flipped upwards to turn into a book. Being able to look at myself in the mirror unmasked was a challenging, but necessary part of my transformational process. Once I could do this, I took a deep dive into writing where my story naturally came forth. The transition from these simple hand gestures in the dance therefore were very symbolic of what I went through.
The other dancers felt like the great friends I’d developed over the years who continued to support me through thick and thin. Our “puppy pile” being the place where we breathed together, leaned on one another, and turned our pain into fierceness, which clearly was shown as the opening and closing formations.
Overall, this dance represented for me a realization that everything I needed was already within myself and by taking this deeper dive, I was coming out as another person. One that was in alignment with who I knew I was meant to be.
TIMESTAMPS
13:15-21:17 Stealing breaths. Stilling breaths. Is my practice not my prayer here? by Justin Morris in collaboration with dancers & Crystal Negrete
27:38- 34:49 No Need To Look Anywhere Else by Waeli Wang in collaboration with dancers
CREDITS:
Photography by Steven Wylie
2024-10-18: Healing Hands
When I worked as a nurse, what frustrated me the most was not always getting to the root cause of the patient’s issues. I wanted to help so much more on a mental and spiritual level to assist with the physical healing, but that wasn’t exactly possible with the way the western medical system is designed now a days. Therefore, after I left my hospital position in 2014, I took this desire and let it stay in my heart until I found a way for it to come forth. As I began working with others through the Path(s) Leading Back to Me program, I realized I was doing what I originally wanted. Through self-reflection, I saw people get to a deeper cause of their ailments and if they so choose, learn to work on those parts of themselves that could be causing their physical issues. For myself, writing became a huge part of this process, and little did I realize, accepting an assignment to write fiction for the first time allowed me to share in a supernatural way a deeper level of healing that I sought to achieve with my patients. This fictional story entitled “Healing Hands” ended up being published in the 2024 edition of the nationally awarded WALL Literary Journal. Here I got the opportunity to do a public reading of a small portion of this story during the WordFest OC event on October 18th, 2024 in southern California.
Little did I realize, my dear friend, Viktoria Tauz’s artwork entitled “Moon with Me” would be accepted into this same journal and placed on the adjacent page next to my story. She had gifted this art piece to me prior to writing the story and the two went hand in hand together. I felt so incredibly blessed to share the pages of this journal with Viktoria while also getting an opportunity to serve as the personal narrative and art editor for this edition of WALL.
Being moon themed that year, the faculty supervisor for the WALL journal, Gina Shaffer sought to have additional entertainment besides the public readings and sharing of the works published in the literary journal during WordFest OC. After coming to see one of my live dance performances, Professor Shaffer asked if I’d be willing to choreograph a piece to a mix of moon themed songs she chose. Preparing to take a choreography class that next semester, I decided it was a good idea to dive right in and get my feet wet. Even though my mind kept wanting to back out of the process up until the very end, I pushed through this resistance and with the help of three other dancers, James Selby, Sam Harriman, Mona Davarmanesh, we put together a beautiful piece opening with a tap and Persian style dance that moved into a bit of salsa and partner work, which flowed into a lyrical solo to “Moon River”, and wove into an intricate collaboration using some teal fabric at the end. Everything all perfectly mixed with the style of music we were given to tell a beautiful moon themed story.
In addition to the live readings and dancing, we had an extra special performance from one of my dear friends, Sandy Siegel who played “Moon River” on the guitar. I met Sandy during an emeritus voice class in the summer of 2024 and knowing about WordFest OC, asked if he’d be willing to perform during the event. Like me, Sandy tried to resist this calling even up to the end when he phoned me a few days before and said his voice wasn’t in good enough condition to sing. After talking it through, we tested out his performance the next day in the space and his confidence level increased enough to where he didn’t stop himself any longer. The end result was a beautiful rendition of Audrey Hepburn’s “Moon River” that left Professor Shaffer very touched. He even got his picture in the newspaper (pictured right) when the OC Register wrote about the event. Later that semester, Sandy gifted me “The Art of War” by Steven Pressfield as a reminder to both of us to keep pursing our talents and never let our resistance stop us from doing what we’re meant to do.
I’m so thankful for this experience and the many more opportunities that will come our way to dance, share our stories, sing, and perform pushing past our limitations and becoming who we’re meant to be.
TIMESTAMPS
10:40-15:23 Moon Dance with James Selby, Sam Harriman, Mona Davarmanesh, and myself
41:16-52:22 “Moon River” performance by Sandy Siegel, Viktoria Tauz’s presentation of “Moon With Me”, my public reading of “Healing Hands”
Next WordFest OC event will be held October 23, 2025. We hope you can join us!
2022-11-10: A Rebirth Through Art
This painting came back to me at the perfect time. Originally entitled, "Window To The Soul", it was created for a dear friend to help her understand that each person's eyes were a window to the goodness of their soul despite the imperfections seen on the outside (Read “Surprise Art Retreat” blog post). It stayed in her outdoor meditation space until she moved across country and couldn't fit it in her suitcases so it came back to me.
I immediately was drawn to start working on the piece.
↠ Taking the canvas off the frame.
↠ Cutting in-between the purple tentacles
↠ Burning the edges including my signature
This was cathartic for me because at this point in my life I was ready to shed an old last name. One that for me resembled so many wonderful, but challenging adventures that I'll hold near and dear to my heart forever. But it was time for a rebirth and a letting go.
When we go through a transformation like this, we take one giant leap forward in this new direction and then we try to undo what just happened. Fear sets in and we want to go back. This painting was a clear example of this. I remember when I poured the epoxy, I came out a few hours later...freaked out!...and tried using alcohol to remove the canvas from the dried epoxy so I could go back to how it was. This wasn't the way forward though. I needed to accept the changes that occurred and keep on.
After the mixed media was complete, I put it up on the garage door so I could take pictures. I noticed with each picture, my image was being reflected in the plexiglass. It looked like I was apart of the painting and in a way I very much was. It went through a transformation just like me and I appreciated the way it symbolized this so beautifully.
So I share with you this updated mixed media work I've completed called, "Rebirth". Thank you to another friend of mine who gave me the idea for this new name. It fits it perfectly.
2022-03-19: Custom Built "Simplicity" Desk
After COVID hit, we all had a bit of aches and pains to get through. Many were because of the adjustments to the “stay at home” life. For me, I was hunched over the side of my bed on zoom calls most of the day because I didn’t have a desk yet (or the room for one) and my back was screaming. I ended up going to Anthropologie after the 2021 New Year and found two shelves on clearance (regular $60/each marked down to $7/each). It was a steal. I wasn’t quite sure how we were going to do it, but I brought the boards over to my dad and asked if we could build a simple desk. Nothing fancy. All I wanted was something ergonomic. His ideas were to put two aluminum bars underneath to hold the boards together and to add 1x1in wooden legs to each corner. Easiest design you could think up with what he was given.
There was some left over green paint, and blue and burgundy stain from the “Stay Wild” artwork that I used to create a distressed, bark look on the legs.
The desk stayed like this for some time. It served it’s purpose of getting me upright on zoom calls and my back was feeling much better. This is when my imagination stepped in. I kept envisioning wood panels on all sides of the desk to not only give the legs better stability, but also to make it more interesting to look at.
At home depot, there were these wood stakes you normally use to build mini fences. I especially liked the arrow on the end because it would draw your eye in a certain direction. Now one thing I learned about myself here was when I have an idea, I want to try it out right away without always thinking it through. Luckily my dad is a total problem solver and helped me pause so we could do this correctly. We used both our hearts and minds to come up with something pretty cool. We’d support the wood stakes with a wider piece of aluminum that attached to the wood top and an aluminum bar at the bottom. I took to charring the wood stakes, added coffee, green pastel, and blue stain, and outlined some areas in sharpie to keep the “tree” look. See below.
Around the same time, I started doing an embroidery that resembled an artwork I’d completed awhile back that said, “My life is rooted in Simplicity”. This had become my word for the year because everything in 2020 seemed incredibly difficult. I knew in order for me to grow I was going to have to
simplify everything and it was uncanny how it reflected in the simplistic design of this desk. This embroidery became an inlay with a plexiglass covering to place my drinks and cookies.
Next up, the front of the desk. I went to home depot and found a piece of wood that was pressure treated. It was this deep green color with all these interesting knots and without realizing how toxic it was for me to be touching and breathing in, I brought it back to my dad and we started to work with it.
Shortly after, I started getting this feeling like I should ask around to see if others I knew who made furniture would use pressure treated wood. I landed back at home depot in lumbar section. This young kid about 19-20 years old starts telling me all about the chemicals they put on this type of wood and how it should only be used as a flooring for outdoor sheds because insects don’t like it. I felt it was a very clear sign I needed to let go of this design and go in a different direction. No money wasted though because a few days later I brought it back to Home Depot, told them the story of what happened, and the employee took it right back. Said he would go throw it out back in the garbage.
My conceptual drawing
The second design was trickier to figure out. See photo to the left of my conceptual drawing. Similar to the first one, but this would have a bar in the center that I was envisioning symbolized a spine. Told my dad the supplies I wanted to use and how the arrows were to line up with the ones on the two sides. They would point towards the metal piece with gorgeous diamond cut outs. Figuring out how to connect it all using horizontally placed metal and brass bars would be the challenging part. But we always enjoy a challenge and you know we figured it out (well mostly my dad did, but I helped cheer him on).
The diamond cut outs needed to be filled and my brother happened to get me an epoxy kit for Christmas so I decided to move in this direction. Inside the epoxy I would put dried flowers, aluminum pieces, and gold flakes. We needed to make sure the epoxy didn’t drip out so we cut out plexiglass to mount in the middle of each diamond and siliconed the edges. I prototyped the entire process first and then used the prototypes to create a lotus shaped piece for the top of the “spine” that was inlayed using a router. The spine was connect with superglue and embroidery thread.
Last, and definitely scariest, was deciding to stain the top black. Yikes. It already looked great and the last thing you want to do is make the top a different color only to find out you preferred it the other way. Good thing this didn’t happen. Phew! We all ended up loving it and we’re super pleased with the results.
Then for Father’s Day, I drew one of my favorite photos I took of my dad during this process and made a card for him.
All in all, the desk fixed my back issues and turned out lookin’ pretty darn cool. Better than I ever could have expected and super sturdy and lightweight too!
2021-10-28: Healing Center Architectural Plans
When we owned the Little House (see blog posts below), I had this vision of what the farmhouse would look like completely renovated. Money and resources were tight at the time so we only got to renovate bits of the kitchen, bathroom, and master bedroom, but of course that left me feeling like the desire wasn’t completely fulfilled. After we sold it, this vision stayed in the back of my mind and I felt I wouldn’t be able to let it go unless I put it onto paper. During COVID, when things were quiet, I decided to take to the drawing board and put together the below plans with details.
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Those who want to dive deeper into learning more about who they are.
Those who want to recover from medical procedures / surgeries so they can get back to doing what they’re interested in.
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Pre-assessment on where you are with your Path(s) Leading Back to Me (PLBTM).
Upon arrival, an initial session with a mentor will be conducted where guidance and a personalized PLBTM packet is reviewed with you.
Half-way through your stay, a check in session with a mentor will be conducted to see how everything is going and if you need any additional resources to assist you.
Group Workshops
Personalized sessions with a local expert in your avenue of interest.
Opportunity to test out the entire line of skincare products.
Nurturing, wholesome, Ayurvedic meals (breakfast, lunch, and dinner) will be provided.
Lots of walking paths to venture out into nature
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Cross-shaped Farmhouse
Wrap around porch
2 bedrooms, 2 full bathrooms
Private porch entrances for visitors
Communal kitchen, dining, and living space
Loft for quiet activities: reading, writing, drawing, meditation
Large barn for workshops & weddings
Personalized medical personnel, equipment, supplies
Furniture: Pieces throughout will be hand-crafted lil’ kaytro designs
Inspiring artwork & nick nacks by Kathryn McClusky & local artisans
Exterior: Shou Shugi Ban wood siding, tin roof, mustard colored, dutch-style doors, yellow quartz glass to let in UV rays to supply the body with magnetic spiritual nutriment (Lesson 86, p. 8)
Landscaping: Fig trees, rosemary, lavender, succulents
Now I completely understand, that we sometimes need to let go of our dreams because they aren’t for us anymore. I kept the original drawing for about a year and decided it was best to toss it. If this was truly meant for me, it would become an opportunity in the future. If it wasn’t, I said I would release all attachment to the desire and fully let it go. We have to do this sometimes for us to either move forward into what is meant for us or for the original desire to get a chance to blossom. Time will tell for me. At least it’s down into form and doesn’t keep circulating through my thoughts.
2018-09-29: Healing After Harvey Art Showcase
Collaborating with Mental Health America to support Houstonians after a hurricane
Hurricane Harvey was a devastating category 4 hurricane that hit Texas in August 2017 and left many people without a home for months due to flooding.
When Loveleen and I met the coordinator of events at Mental Health America, I completely understood what she was referring to when she stated the organization was looking to put on an art showcase with creative workshops so visitors could attend and work through this creative process to help them heal emotionally after Hurricane Harvey. Using art as a means to release built-up emotions onto the page was right up my alley so I was all in.
This trying time showed how resilient our community was, but even with this strength, there was still much healing that needed to be done.
Loveleen arranged it all with this lovely coordinator and brought on board three additional artists besides myself to facilitate these workshops.
Rebuilding through Writing: Kathryn Chaput
Expressive Art for Kids: Ivan Camarena
Envisioning through Collage: Bridget Fernandez
Relax Your Mind Through Yoga: Sheila
We all gathered together at the DuVin Pintor Gallery in Houston and invited the visitors as they came through our area to attend our creative workshops. Each of us provided our unique tools to help facilitate this process and provided a safe space for the visitors to introspect afterwards on what came to the surface.
Workshop Facilitators In Action
During my workshop, I walked the visitors through the “It’s Complicated to Understanding” stepping stone from the PLBTM. I wanted them to find gratitude in the complicated situations Hurricane Harvey brought on them and to gain an understanding for the great life lessons and inner growth that could be mastered from this trying time.
This showcase showed me how helpful it was to collaborate with other artists who bring to the table different kinds of tools that uniquely fit a particular individual and their interests thus helping them cope in a healthy, more relatable way.
All in all, we were extremely grateful to participate and serve our community in this great time of need.
2018-06-29: Transforming Chaos Into Peace
Teaming up with Zilpini to help Houstonians find peace through intuitive writing
After I finished writing and organizing the stepping stones of the Path Leading Back to Me, I teamed up with Zilpini, a start up company that was offering a digital platform for artists to connect with their local communities and share their talents with interested individuals who wanted to explore these avenues further. Loveleen, the Illustrator of the PLBTM, and her husband were the founders of this new company and I was excited about this adventure because I had a feeling it was going to tie in perfectly to this whole PLBTM process.
Picture here from left to right: myself, Loveleen (workshop coordinator), Linda Pose (intuitive painting facilitator)
The workshop was organized at a local coffee shop in Houston where I was going to walk a group of participants through the Chaos to Peace activities. Another artist, Linda Pose was going to facilitate an intuitive painting class prior to my workshop.
The intuitive painting class was a great starter because it got everyone into a peaceful state of mind to then dive deeper into the intuitive writing workshop. As the group traveled through the inspirational drawing, writings, affirmations, and prompts pictured to the left, you could see the stress of the day fall off their shoulders and a quiet peace wash over them. It was quite beautiful.
We shared as a group what activities we were all interested in that brought us peace. One participant talked about her enjoyment of fishing with her boys. Another was tuning in to the coffee shop music and mentioned how he forgot how much he loved sitting back and listening to good tunes over a hot cup of coffee. These simple stories inspired all of us, but what was most felt was a sense of peace despite the noise from the busy street in front of the coffee shop.
I called out this noise and said to the group how it is always around us and we can either absorb the noise or we can learn how to maintain this new feeling. By incorporating more things we’re interested in doing that bring us peace, the more we’ll be able to use it as a shield against the outside stresses that impinge on us constantly.
We all learned a little more about ourselves and each other that evening. I look forward to future Zilpini workshops that continue to inspire the talented individuals who facilitate them and the participants who are eager to explore and unveil their own inner talents.
2018-08-06: Light Your Fire Within
We suffocated the Little House the first year we owned her. Our progress was at a complete standstill for most of the year because we (especially me) kept a strong grip on what we wanted the Little House to become.
This farmhouse was supposed to be our home. How did our plan we had been working on for the last 6 years not fall into place like we dreamed of? We had moved all the way from California to Texas because we dreamed of owning acreage and living out in the country where we could roam around free to be who we truly were without feeling the confines of city living.
When we lived in our tiny studio apartment in California, Matthew used to say to me, "We could have a piece of land with a house on it for the same amount we’re paying in rent" and he was completely right. Our mortgage ended up being the same amount our rent was. When I saw this number, it assured me we were making the correct decision by purchasing the land and farmhouse we had always wanted. Little did we realize the next year and a half would be the toughest one yet because the Little House had to teach us to let go of what we wanted her to become so she could show us the greater plan in what she was meant to teach us.
This difficult lesson was one about unconditional love. To truly love someone or something, you have to learn to set them free so they can grow to their fullest potential.
My heart was devastated when we made the decision to sell the farmhouse, but I knew it was the right thing to do at this point in our lives. This decision lit a fire within me, one I fueled with greater determination, to try and try again to bring to life this vision that the Little House unveiled to me.
I wasn’t going to give up and I ask you to never give up on your dreams either. If you experience failure, let it light your fire within to keep at it even if you have to give it a rest for sometime and do it on your own the next time around. It doesn’t matter. What does matter is your continued effort to succeed. Because in the end, you will make a success out of whatever you set your mind too.
FINAL RENOVATION PHOTOS
KIND WORDS
FROM OUR AIRBNB GUESTS
2018-03-07: What Happens To Me, Happens To You
Everything that happens with the Little House is a direct reflection of what’s happening with me. Matthew & I created a business together in December. It was very rocky at first and we didn’t know how to build it. We had all these ideas with no
solid ground work. When our pipe broke last month and the workers came to demo the kitchen and bath, I saw how rotted our subfloors were. The Little House was trying to show me in order to build up, we had to build a solid ground to work upon.
This past month, the workbook for The Path Leading Back to Me got published and the first couple copies were printed and sold. This being the fundamental starting point was a reminder for me that in order to keep growing the program, we needed the core piece to be complete. I had been delaying the publication because I wanted it to be perfect, but as my Dad wisely told me, there comes a time where you just need to let go and get it out there.
Matthew and I are ready now to fix the floors at the Little House. We see that we have made our core foundation strong in our business together. We are now ready to make the floors we walk upon strong at the Little House too. We want them to easily support anybody who walks through her doors even as weak as they might feel. The Little House will support them no matter where they are in life. This will hopefully help ground our guests and rebuild their inner strength by feeling the solid floors underneath them.
It took me a while to connect these dots that the Little House REALLY was transforming with us. I said it in the first blog post about Our Journey with the Little House, but it didn’t really sink in until this past month. I had felt stagnant for a while and couldn’t figure out why the Little House wasn’t progressing like Matthew and I wanted her too, but I realize now it was because I needed to progress in what I wanted and in what we wanted together.
May this teach us all to keep moving. Spring is in the air and we need to keep progressing forward surrendering to internal guidance. When we surrender and let our life take shape, we can remove any blocks hindering us from keeping our eye on our end target.
2018-02-15: Laugh Until Life Makes Sense
A few weeks ago, Texas had below freezing temperatures, which unfortunately froze our pipes and caused one to crack. When Matthew & I found the water gushing from underneath the house and up onto the sub floors in the kitchen and
bathroom, there was nothing we can do expect throw our hands up and simply say, “We surrender.”
When anybody gets to this point in their lives, they are about to experience a major shift. What I learned as I was watching the workers pull up our floors was that Matthew and I were walking on a very weak surface not just in the Little House, but in life. We were trying to build our dream life not realizing that the foundation upon which we were building was about to crumble, and the only way to keep moving forward would be to excavate the old and build anew.
Whether we make it through this and continue to pursue our dreams, or whether we let go and take the lessons learned will be determined over the next few weeks. Either way we are here in this game of life to take the experiences from the past to help shape us for a better future. Whatever direction our lives go, we will do just that with our heads held high knowing we put forth our absolute best effort.
Failure is a part of the game and it is not something to be ashamed of. In fact, it should be something we are proud of because it propels us to want to succeed even more. This strengthens our will and creates a solid mindset for success to build upon.
May we all express gratitude for our failures and successes knowing that without them nobody would be where they are today. No matter where that is it’s always a good place because it means we are all learning and trying to grow. Let’s not take life too seriously for a game is supposed to be fun. This game of life is not meant to pull us down, but instead get us to laugh at it until it all starts making some sense.
2018-01-06: It's Not Always Easy To Love You
Matthew and I have had our ups and downs with the Little House. Some days we make good progress and other days everything breaks down on us. We want to easily love this farmhouse, but when it does this frustration sets in.
As I sit and ponder over this thought, I begin to understand all love tends to move through these same ups and downs. Some days we love ourselves, our loved ones, our creative projects with all our hearts and find it easy to express
this love. Other days we get off track with ourselves, get into fights with others, and make no progress with our creativity while finding it increasingly difficult to share our love. This does not mean though we stop the flow of love towards these things because if we do that, they will deteriorate.
We found the Little House when it had stopped being loved. Matthew and I saw what the lack of love did to it. If we don’t take care of something even when it’s in an imperfect state, how can we expect for it to reach perfection?
Love is what makes real change happen. By loving ourselves, we can release the hold on our imperfections and connect with our true selves, which is perfection. By loving others just as they are, we can uplift them to become their best selves. By loving all things creative in whatever current state they’re in, we can open up a channel for more creative energy to flow through us.
See love moves everything forward in the right direction and I firmly believe love will move this Little House to become its perfect self. Matthew and I will see past the imperfections and remember at the core of this farmhouse is the word “Love” written on the back of a wood panel. We were meant to take off this panel during one of our early visits to the Little House because she wanted us to see love was at her core.
May we all love more deeply today than yesterday. Let us all see past our imperfections, others imperfections, and our creative imperfections. By believing more in love, we can connect with our true selves and push the world onward and upward into its highest state of perfection.
2017-12-11: Bless This Home And All Who Enter
When we fill our homes with love, we bless every person who walks through its doors.
Before Matthew and I purchased the Little House, I told myself the next place we go, I am only bringing with us the things we love.
I had been on a journey of decluttering my body, my mind, and everything around me since our move from California to Texas. After we purchased the Little House, I remember how freeing it felt to fill a Penske truck two sizes smaller than the one we originally rented during our move across country.
The Little House became filled with love as our belongings we so adored found their right place throughout the farmhouse. We didn’t have much, but what we did have was unique and special. Many of our belongings are made by our friends and family. As I look around, I am reminded of these people we love and think about how grateful we are to have them in our lives. Our love has encompassed the empty spaces inside the Little House rather than being cluttered with materialistic items that have no meaning.
The Little House became filled with love as our belongings we so adored found their right place throughout the farmhouse. We didn’t have much, but what we did have was unique and special. Many of our belongings are made by our friends and family. As I look around, I am reminded of these people we love and think about how grateful we are to have them in our lives. Our love has encompassed the empty spaces inside the Little House rather than being cluttered with materialistic items that have no meaning.
I have come to learn throughout this journey that love is the only thing that heals. Matthew and I had to first remember how to love ourselves so we could learn to love the Little House. By expanding this love towards all things within the house, we learned how to create love so it filled the spaces and blessed everybody who came to visit.
As I think about how special a home can be, I send forth my blessings to all who read this. I pray that you too remember to fill any empty spaces in your life with love.
Whether in our hearts or in our homes, let us let go of whatever is taking up the space where love should reside. When the space is cleared, may we request for love to enter and feel its boundless beauty as it fills our abandoned hearts with a love that will heal us all.
2017-11-13: In Order To Heal, We Must Listen
In order for the Little House to become a center to help facilitate the healing process, it must first be healed. When Matthew and I purchased the farmhouse back in February, it felt cold, dark, eerie when you walked through it. But there was a quiet feeling
we felt from the house that said, "Don't just look at my exterior structure, look at my core. See that despite the negative layers that surround me, my light is still shining through. Find the light within me and you'll find the beauty you are looking for in this house."
As Matthew and I started spending some time at the Little House, we'd find treasures that confirmed this house was meant to become a center to facilitate the healing process. For example, when we pulled off some of the ship lap in the kitchen, there was a plank that had the word "Love" written on the back. When we cleared the landscaping around the house, we found pieces of petrified wood, which is known to promote healing and help you remember your dreams. During our 1-2 visits a month, we'd just happen to see a harvest moon or a double rainbow. It was like the Little House was giving us signs that we were moving in the right direction.
Shiplap with love written on it
Petrified wood found on the property
Double Rainbow
When Hurricane Harvey hit Houston, we put the Little House up on Airbnb as a place for those who lost their homes to come and stay. Matthew and I spent a good 3 days getting the house ready for our first guests and with just a few simple changes and a thorough cleaning, the farmhouse completely transformed. Before her light was so dim, we could only feel it. But after our first couple guests, we started to see her light really shine. She loved being a place for people to come to feel some inner peace.
A few weeks after, I received some artwork from a friend who wanted me to start selling her pieces in Houston. I brought the box of artwork with me to the Little House and decided to put it up on the wall in the living room. It was a shiplap wall that had random nails so I hung the pieces in random fashion. As I looked around at the other artwork I had already hung, I realized the house was transforming into an art gallery. There was art everywhere and I loved it! I felt the house whisper to me, "Don't you remember you always wanted to own an art gallery?" I realized, we were not only helping the Little House to come to life, but the Little House was reminding us to do the same by fulfilling our dreams.
Mixed media artwork on shiplap wall by Amber Maida
Three Iceland photos in gray frames on beige wall by Bridget Fernandes
As we all know, with any kind of healing, it takes time and effort. The right kind of decisions need to be made and the right kind of energy must be applied to the process. This is not easy to do when you have to listen to what you feel versus hearing actual words.
This is what the Little House has been teaching us. We wanted so badly to rush the process in the beginning just to get the center up and running, but detours happen for a reason and everything works out the way it should.
Matthew and I are thankful for the journey the Little House has taken us on so far. We are just starting to get our feet wet with these renovations and know there is so much more ahead of us. We hope to continue to be patient and listen to her guidance so we can undergo the right kind of transformation we all are in need of.
2017-02-13: Houston, We Have A Wasp Problem
An unexpected surprise came our way the second weekend we drove up to the farmhouse. We had moved out of our apartment, we’re coming to drop off our furniture to store in the living room area while the foundation got repaired and make our way back down to our
friend’s AirBNB to stay until the repairs were complete. The weather had gotten a lot warmer since the 30-40 degree temperatures in December when we originally went to view the house prior to purchase. Well what we quickly learned was that wasps go underground when it’s cold out and come back out to play when temperatures rise. They happily welcomed us in many different places around and within the house as we began exploring.
Master bedroom circling the ceiling fan
Side porch hiding in the birdhouse
We called the local exterminator. Luckily they were hanging out at the office with nothing to do so they headed right over. I could see one of the two gentlemen was going to have a lot of fun with this. It was like he became a little kid with Matthew getting out his ladder, climbing up on the roof, pulling off siding and searching for these lil’ stingers. I’m still baffled by the fact that none of us got stung during this whole process.
With our furniture stuffed into a few corners, the siding torn off on the side of the house, sheet rocked pulled down on the main wall of the master bedroom, and the wasp that were still hanging on to be cleaned up off of the floor during the next visit, we finished out our second week of owning the farmhouse. What a journey it’s been thus far. Let’s see where it continues.
2017-02-06: Bought A 1935 Texas Farmhouse
There was a central park at our apartments in Irvine, CA. When I’d have a night off from the hospital, Matthew and I would walk around the complex and end up at one of these park benches to share our dreams. He would always mention about wanting a piece of property and how it was going to be challenging to do that in California where the price of land was so expensive. I didn’t have many dreams at that time, but instead let life come to me as it did so I become inspired by his vision.
When we moved across country, we weren’t doing it only for Matthew’s potential new job. We were doing it because of the opportunity to purchase land. After settling in for about a year and a half in Texas, we began looking at our options. Real estate agents showed us the beautiful, newly built suburban homes, which were wonderful, but my mind kept going back to our park bench talks. I said to myself, “If we’re going to do this and really go for what we want, we need to just do it.” I knew we needed more for a down payment so I made the life decision to cash out on my retirement accounts. My thought process was to put the money into a piece of property, which would give me a greater return on my investment than the 401k account. So that’s what I did. And the next place we went to go check out after cashing the retirement checks was a 14 acre property near Brenham, TX that had a 1935 abandoned farmhouse on it.
The “S” shaped dirt driveway that curved around the property going alongside a central pond and the many bird houses placed throughout for the wildlife was what first sold me.
“S” shaped driveway
< Birdhouses >
katie's space is lovely! it was much larger than i anticipated - seems to be 1000-1200 sq feet. i guess i was thinking closer to 800ish. the decor is fabulous and very chic, yet livable and comfortable (even with our two big dogs!). literally every bed i've ever stayed in has caused me back stiffness in the morning, but the mattress did not-- i was very impressed and happy about that! the kitchen was super well-stocked with appliances, pots/pans/dishes, large fridge, table etc. having a washer/dryer was a very nice surprise (i didn't look for one when searching so i didn't know it was there). there is no tv or internet- which was fine for us (again, didn't look for either in the listing). the grounds are lovely and perfect for exploring with dogs- it was great to just let them out to explore. tbh my favorite part was being alone on the property lol. all in all a better experience than i expected. i took off a star for location because it's legit in bfe, but that's only bc i thought it was a bit closer to houston/cypress and not the fault of the host.