Short Book Review and Tiny Home Goal Update

Hi All! It’s been a while, yet again, but I found a snippet of time just now to write :-)! I finished the book, The Beginner’s Guide to Tiny Houses, over a month ago now and have been meaning to get on here to provide a review about it while it was still fresh in my mind. Overall, it was a truly informative book in which I highly recommend to anyone looking to embark on tiny home living. On a rating of 5 being the best to 1 being poorly done, I give this book a 4 1/2. The 1/2 star is because I wanted the whole thing to be strictly about tiny homes, but they added a ton of information about schoolies (converting a school bus into a home) and other tiny-homes…such as yurts. I have mentioned this before: nothing at all against schoolie or yurts, I think they are both rad, it’s just that I have no interest in living in either of those types of homes so I ended up just having to skip through those parts.

Took me a minute (if a minute equals 3 months) to finish this book, but alas, I finally finished reading it!

The book had a lot of great information about possible places to live with a tiny home and provided many outlets in which to look for land to either rent or buy for tiny home living. There were many resources listed (especially in the back of the book) of different websites or avenues to look for where it’s possible to place your tiny home. There was also great information about what to look for in companies that build tiny homes if you are having yours built for you (which I am because let’s face it folks, if I tried to build it myself it would probably take over a decade and even then, the big bad wolf would probably still be able to blow it down).

The Beginner’s Guide to Tiny Houses also provided different ideas to consider when having your tiny home built for you, including important financial decisions to consider such as what appliances the company provides in the total price of the tiny house and what extra amenities you might need to consider buying yourself. There was also a fun quiz to take in the beginning of the book to guide you in how ready you might be to live in a tiny home, my result was “Tiny All the Way!” I’d say that was a pretty accurate result 😅.

☝️Part of the quiz that is in the book The Beginner’s Guide to Tiny Houses. It was a pretty intensive quiz (11 pages long). I felt it was very accurate if you answered the questions truthfully 😁

This is a book that I am definitely keeping on hand for the rest of my tiny home journey as I feel I’ll reference it a lot for different decisions I’ll be making along the way. I am more than halfway to my savings goal of buying my tiny house🙌and I have gotten incredibly diligent in my monthly budgeting so that if I stay the course and stick with it, I can reach my goal of buying a tiny home at some point in 2023, which is literally just around the corner.

Despite having a really strict budget in order to save up to buy a tiny home, I managed to put away a savings fund for vacations and am planning to attend a friend’s wedding on the West Coast this summer. I had an amazing coincidence come up where one of the air bnb’s that I picked out to stay at in Oregon just so happens to be a tiny home constructed by the same company that I am planning to have build mine. The owner of the Airbnb has been actively communicating with me all about her experiences with them and is super open about me asking her tons of questions, she also said she’d be happy to meet up with me when I arrive to show me the four different tiny homes she has had built by them. I’ll definitely have updates for you all after that trip and thanks for following along with me on my journey so far!🙏☺️

Suncoast Tiny House Festival Review

Hi All! Hope everyone is having a wonderful start to their week 🙂 I just wanted to pop on here quickly to share with you guys how my experience was going to the Suncoast Tiny House Festival in Pinellas Park, FL a few weeks ago. I had been looking forward to this event for months! I had seen an ad for it when I was really starting to get into tiny house researching back last autumn. In the ad, it showed a bunch of tiny houses in the 20’-32’ range. I thought of it as a way to really get up close and personal with my tiny home vision since I still had yet to see a real one, I have only seen them on websites and videos.

This was one of the 16-20’ tiny homes you could check out at the fest.

The morning I left to head down south (the festival was about an hour and a half away from where I’m living) it was beautiful and sunny out. I was feeling ecstatic. It felt like I had been waiting to go to this festival for eons, it had been a few months since I got tickets for the event and the months seemed to drag on. My mom and son came along too, I’m really thankful she was able to help watch him because it would have been a lot of work if I had gone alone with him and try to see all that I wanted to. Although…as it turned out, there wasn’t that much to see!

Right before we got to the parking area for the event, my gas light came on so I stopped to get gas, but as we drove by the event on the way to the gas station, all I could see was school buses. If you didn’t know, there is another alternative lifestyle with tiny home living where people live on school buses by transforming them into a “schoolie.” It has more of an RV or fifth-wheel feel to them and while they’re super neat, it’s not what I’m into at all. As I drove by though, that is literally all I could see and then I saw a couple small 16-foot tiny homes, also though…not what I am not into. I felt a sinking feeling of disappointment, but my mom kept things positive by pointing out at least we were checking out a new area of Florida and it was a gorgeous day.

After fueling up and heading back to the event, I thought…maybe there are more tiny homes on the other side of the field that I hadn’t noticed before during the quick drive-by. But, that soon dissipated as we got closer and closer to the staff that took our tickets, they stood next to a giant chalkboard that stated “There are 40 school buses and 4 tiny homes at today’s event.” I kept thinking what a sham it was that they named it a “Tiny Home” fest, why not name it a “Schoolie” fest, which it actually was!

I’m a complete YouTube novice, but this video has more about my tiny house festival experience and I hope you enjoy!

Despite the crushing disappointment of not getting to see a 24’-30’ size tiny home, which is what I’m actually looking for, there were some silver linings in getting some more information about tiny homes. I met a couple of inspiring women who shared their stories of their tiny home journeys. One of them had her 16’ tiny home available for us to walk through and the other one was selling her book about her and her partner’s tiny home journey (see photo below), which I will write a book review on soon…along with another tiny home book I’m reading at the moment! So not all was lost and my tiny home journey will go on 🙂

Purchased this book from an inspiring lady at the festival and will write a review on it soon…stay posted!

Feeling Hopeful

Hi All! Hope everyone is having a beautiful week wherever they may be. I wanted to give a little update since I was aiming to write in here at least a couple times per month. There isn’t huge news and my dream of owning my tiny home feels so far away, but in reality it will sneak up fast. I am fortunately in a good position right now to put much of my income into savings, so it will stack up quickly!

I have been eyeing a ton of different tiny home builders, but I have only found a couple that fit my needs. I am looking for builders that have a layout that matches my vision, are flexible with personal design requests, and are affordable. It has been difficult to find builders that match those three things, but I have found two! And out of those two, only one has been actively communicating with me, but luckily it has been the one that has felt most right for me. I am trying to stay open too, as not to put all of my tiny home dreams in one basket.

Another thing that I have been working heavily on is getting my budget in order. As long as I stick to a specific savings goal each month for one year straight, I should hopefully have enough to purchase a tiny home without needing to finance one, which is ideal for me. I have been debt-free for a year (shout out to Dave Ramsey and his whole team for inspiring me with the plethora of YouTube videos that inspired me to become debt-free!) My end goal with my tiny home is to only have the monthly expense of land to place it on.

Alongside of scouring ads online of tiny home listings, I have also been scouring ads online for tiny home communities to live in. There are a surprisingly large amount of tiny home communities, but that’s counted across the whole nation. In my state there are only two tiny home communities, one of which is three hours away from family and friends. So naturally, I contacted the closest tiny home community to friends and family; I found out that there’s a pretty long waitlist to get in it, but the lady that owns it added me on and has been super kind in all of our interactions, I’m feeling good about the community there!

Most exciting is that coming up in February I am going to a Tiny Home Festival. It will be so nice to see layouts up close and personal! I hope to connect with a builder or two as well that can dream up my vision with me. That’s all for updates though at the moment, but thanks for stopping by to read and dream along with me 🙂

Tiny Home Vision

Hi All! It has been a long time since I have touched this blog as I have had some pretty major life changes in the last couple of years, but I’m going to attempt my hand at it again! I hope that all is well with you, reader, wherever you may be.

I have recently gotten really into tiny homes. I have watched almost all of the mini-documentaries on Netflix regarding tiny homes and have watched a good chunk of YouTube videos all about tiny homes: from learning about construction of tiny homes, to learning about rules on what kind of land you can stick your tiny home on, and seeing all the different styles of tiny homes. I have scoured through dozens of online used tiny home listings. All of this obsession has truly led me to one thing and that is: my tiny home vision!

I started this blog almost ten years ago to keep track of my goal to meditate daily and then it sort of twisted and turned more into random musings. Well, now I’m gonna use this blog to keep track of and focus on my newest goal and vision: buy my own tiny home within two years! That is the goal and with previous goals and plans of mine, I always found it nice to record them somewhere like a blog, where it might inspire others who are following along and it has always helped me to reflect while on the journey and after the journey.

I have always been a minimalist and not super into materialistic things. I have even lived in a couple tiny places before: a studio called “The Treehouse Studio” in Portland, Oregon because it was literally in a studio on top of a home, nestled next to the biggest tree on the block and I also lived in a couple huts near the salty air of the Pacific Ocean while working at farms on Maui. Some might have described the spaces that I lived in claustrophobic, but they were truly everything that I needed in my day-to-day life.

There are so many things about the tiny house lifestyle that are appealing to me too. I love the idea of having a place that is easy to move with me since I can’t seem to stay in one place for too long. The simplicity of a tiny home is another draw of it; to only have to spend an hour on cleaning up my whole place sounds divine. Lower costs all around, from the actual purchase of a tiny home to the monthly utilities would feel like a big weight lifted! Only bringing into my home that which I really need and use seems appealing as well, really living and embracing minimalism.

So welcome to my newest edition of this blog! I hope to inspire and ignite others’ dreams and visions, whether that goal is to also live a tiny house lifestyle or something completely different…either way, I hope this new little project of mine inspires you too in some way. I am hoping to log-in to this blog at least a couple times out of the month with updates on where I am at with my savings and budgeting towards buying a tiny home. I also want to record any insights or new things I have learned about tiny homes. I will also give updates about whether I plan to have one custom built or buy a used one. The options feel endless right now, it’s been a while since I have felt this inspired! Until next time, take care and thanks for reading!

The Magical Power of Touch Points

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Last winter after I resigned from my job and decided to head overseas for an adventure, I volunteered at a 10-day silent meditation retreat as a transitional activity to ease my mind and to get comfortable with the complete change in my normal routine that would be coming soon.  I had sat at a 10-day silent meditation retreat before as a student and I had volunteered half-time at another one, but I had never volunteered a full course.  I expected the usual hard work in the kitchen where about six to seven of us would start the day at 4:30 in the morning to cook three meals per day for 70-plus students.  While the work could be strenuous, it was fun to chat with my colleagues in the kitchen and have friendly banter. We also had three different times during the day where we were able to sit for a full hour and meditate with the students.

Soon enough my work-in-the-kitchen and meditate-on-the-side routine became very comfortable five days into the retreat, but on the sixth day that all came crashing down. The manager of all 40 of the female students took a nasty fall on some ice and all eyes (literally and figuratively) were on me to step in as the female manager as she ended up having to leave the retreat early.  I had no experience at any point ever in my life of being the manager of anything.  The stress of the situation felt very dense as it was the sixth day in and I could tell that many of the students’ mental states were being tested. The main female meditation teacher sent me on three different errands within the first hour of being the manager, mostly to help check in on girls that were having sickness or intense emotional trauma.

Just as with most big changes in my life, even ones that from an outsider’s perspective might seem small, my egoic mind started racing.  Not only were the thoughts in my mind racing, but they were crashing into each other like children playing bumper cars for the first time.  Here I thought that I was such a good meditator, but I figured out that this was a real-life situation where I was being tested on how skillful I had become with my mind. On the second day of being female manager, I almost had a sheer panic attack as I had to stand in front of 70 pairs of eyes peering at me as I counted to make sure that every female meditator was in the meditation hall and if they weren’t there I’d have to discuss with the teacher and go to find them.

I mentioned to the meditation teacher that second night of being female manager that I have an extreme fear of being in any spotlight, even at a silent meditation retreat.  I told her about how I was on the verge of a panic attack a multitude of times that day.  She had great advice which to this day still sticks with me.  Her advice was that as soon as I felt that panicky feeling come on, to notice my extremities.  She told me to feel where my fingers and toes were at the moment of panic or anxiety; for an example, right now I can sense my fingers tapping against this shiny keyboard and my feet…they are resting on top of each other on this cool pavement below me. It instantly brought me back into my body and out of my head.

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I have brought this tool with me throughout all the hustle and bustle of daily life.  I often get anxiety attacks in grocery stores.  Most recently I was at a grocery store on a weeknight around 6:00 and I was standing in line with crowds of people around me.  I had that familiar panicky feeling come on, where I felt as if the floor below me was just about to collapse and the walls were going to come down, but before that full on anxiety attack could hit me, I brought awareness to the extremities and was instantly calmed.  As soon as I sensed my fingers placed on the handle of my shopping cart and my toes were resting in my shoes that were flat on the shiny white floor, I felt soothed.  I am so thankful for learning this technique and highly recommend it if you struggle with anxiety or panic attacks.

Peace out!  🙂

–Ilona

Gratitude in Action

“I am so incredibly grateful that you and your car got us from Portland to this trailhead safely,” my friend Mary stated.

And now it was my turn...”I am so incredibly grateful that I have a refrigerator and cupboard stocked full of healthy foods.”

Another steep part of the hike was upon us, we both went back into the solitude of our minds until we reached flat land again.

I am so grateful for the household that I live in,” Mary said.

I am so grateful that I have my health to be able to do this awesome hike,” I said.

My friend Mary and I have been on many hikes throughout the Pacific Northwest together since I started hanging out with her almost three years ago.  A few weeks ago we ventured on a hike and came up with a new way of hiking. Each time we came upon a new incline to hike up, we had to each think of something near and dear to our heart that we were grateful for and then once we reached flat land again, we’d share with each other what we were thinking. We did it in some back lands behind Silver Falls in Silverton, Oregon.  The trail had many inclinations and there were no other souls around.  I felt so light and as if my body was buzzing throughout the hike.

I have always known the power of gratitude as I have seen it work wonders in others’ lives and my own.  Meditation has helped me to further integrate into the wonderful energy of gratitude. By being so completely present in the moment, everything seems like a miracle.  Of course, the monkey mind comes back quite often (dang it, I’m still human!) But for the most part, ever since starting my meditation practice half a decade ago, everything…a spoonful of delicious soup, resting my body on a comfortable bed, or having a meaningful conversation with a dear friend  have all become moments of gold.

A couple different spiritual teachers that I have been listening to lately have inspired me to start a new daily practice, I made up my own term for it, I call it “3 and 3.”  It’s super easy, doesn’t take a lot of time and is incredibly powerful.  I either do it at night or in the morning when I’m having my coffee.  Basically, I list three things in which I am grateful for, but honestly it’s more than just listing them…I actually try to really feel how deep my gratitude is for them.  Then I list three intentions that I have for that day (or if I’m doing this at night, I list three intentions for the next day.) I have found this to be a very powerful practice because more often than not I reach almost all of those intentions that day.

If that seems like a lot of extra activity to your already packed world, maybe just try to do it for the week.  So before the week starts, list three things you intend to get done that week and three things that you are in gratitude of from the last week.  I have found that actually writing them out, with pen and paper really seems to make it happen.  Do whatever works for you yo, I just hope you do give it a shot and see for yourself!

Peace out!

Listen to Your Heart! And Woah! I did a video?!

Took a hike to one of my favorite waterfalls and decided to try and attempt something that scares the crap outta me: vlogging!  Click and watch a short 2-minute video done by a rookie.  The message is all about following the heart!

Materialistic Mindfulness

AmericanBeauty

After my first 10-day meditation retreat, something within me really snapped and shifted.  All of a sudden I wanted to get rid of a ton of personal belongings.  I still found a few items very meaningful: my journal, coffeemaker and hygienic tools were things that were important to me. However, my shelves upon shelves of dusty DVDs, CDs, books, and random knick-knacks felt heavy. Impulsively, I grabbed a few large garbage bags and just started pulling all of these items that felt heavy to me and gently placed them into the garbage bags.  Without thinking twice, I jetted the collected items over to my local thrift store and dropped them all of without looking behind.  I felt a lightness in my mental and physical state instantly.

Materialism has never been my thing, but especially since starting meditation in 2011, it seems that any fractal of interest in it has dwindled even more.  Almost a year into my 20-minute daily meditation practice, I was inspired to write a piece for Lightworkers World about how I feel in regards to the idea of physical things creating inner happiness. The deeper and deeper that I have gone into the depths of my soul, the further I have gotten from caring about comparing what others’ have to what I have. I have instead thought more and more about how I appreciate the things that I do have and truly taste the blessings that I am given on a daily basis. The cravings for more lessen as I see how amazing it is that I have a fully stocked kitchen, efficient means of transportation, and ohhhhhh so much more!

ChuckP

When I was visiting my sister on the East Coast over this past winter, I had a couple of Netflix binges and upon doing so came across an incredibly inspiring documentary entitled “Minimalism: A Documentary About the Important Things.”  The main two cast members of the documentary Joshua Fields Millburn and Ryan Nicodermus also have an inspiring website, The Minimalists, which you should definitely check out if you have time.  A lot of what they mentioned in their documentary was exactly the same thoughts that I had been having shortly after my first 10-day meditation retreat.  They touch upon the last few decades of American culture and how it has heavily influenced our consumer mindset.  We have somehow been driven to think that things create happiness, but as the late George Carlin would state “trying to be happy by accumulating possessions is like trying to satisfy hunger by taping sandwiches all of your body.”

Over the last six years, I have moved about eight times (what can I say, a spiritual awakening can cause a bit of chaos, hehe) and one of the moves was cross-country. With each move, my amount of possessions has lessened and I find myself only holding onto the things that I find necessary.  Not having a whole lot of clothes makes life so much easier to me and the few clothing items that I do have are my absolute favorite, so I get excited to wear them.  Everything that I own, besides some old mementos stored in family and friends’ attics, fits into my vehicle. It feels so freeing to be able to pick up and go to a new place if my heart is calling it, I feel incredibly blessed to be able to do this.

I am excited to see a lot of other people feeling the same way about materialism, how it’s not truly all that it’s cracked up to be.  Advertisements are unfortunately always going to be around as long as money is around, but at least as we get more and more in touch with ourselves and remembering who we truly are, we will be able to get less swayed by those advertisements.  How are you feeling about all the things that surround you right now? Do you truly need all of it?  Or might you be able to donate some of those extra items that you haven’t touched in ages?

344Everything that I owned in 2011 as I made my way from the Midwest to the West Coast of the U.S.

As always, please comment and share your thoughts with me, I love feedback 🙂

Take care, much peace and love!  ❤

Meditate With Me!

Wooh!  Spring is in the air, summer is right around the corner and the collective energy feels exciting. With that excitement, there is a slight undertone of feeling scattered. It feels like everyone is making plans for the future: backpacking trips, camping trips, road trips.  All of these thoughts of making future plans makes it feel difficult to stay focused in the here and now.  This is how the last couple of weeks has felt for me at least. Whenever I start to feel overwhelmed and as if I am being pulled in a million different directions I try to find a spare 10 minutes to sit and meditate, adding this onto my other daily habit of 20 minutes of meditation in the morning.

In the spirit of community I thought it would be awesome to record a 10-minute guided meditation.  This meditation is one that I have shared with countless friends and acquaintances when they have asked me if I could instruct them in meditating.  I learned this one from the “Insight” meditation group that I joined in Portland, Oregon back in 2012.  What exactly is “Insight” meditation might you ask? It is derived from one of India’s most ancient techniques of meditation called “Vipassana” meditation. Vipassana involves focusing on the deep interconnection between mind and body.  It involves focusing on your breath and anytime your attention wavers, you gently bring yourself back to your breath.

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I start out the meditation with having us take a few deep breaths together which helps to ground us into the present moment.  I then ask us to notice three touch-points, noticing your connection to whichever surface they might be on (i.e. your hands resting against your knees or thighs, your bottom on a cushion or a chair.)  We then will bring our attention up to our nostrils and become aware of the cool air coming in and the warm air as we breathe out. Paying attention to the sensation of the in and out breath is the main focus for the rest of the 10 minutes.  Some might not like this type of meditation, but I am hoping that it does help a few. There are an incredible number of different types of meditation and mindfulness techniques, so if one doesn’t work for you, don’t you worry because there are countless others to try.

Click on the recording below (best listened to with headphones) and join me for 10 minutes of meditation, I hope this helps you!! 🙂

Never Underestimate the Healing Powers of……

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Life can throw curve balls at us, some days are tougher than others. We are all in need of healing as long as we are living in these bodies, in this world. I thought it would be fun to make a list of what has helped me in healing myself from the struggles life can seem to make. I would love if you added activities/actions that have helped you to heal your mind, body and soul in the “comments” section below. Hope you enjoy! 🙂

Never Underestimate the Healing Powers of…..

–Curling up under a blanket and getting lost in a book.
–Waking up in the morning and drinking a full glass of water.
–Getting a back massage from a friend.
–Finding a new park or neighborhood that you have never been to and going for a walk in it.
–Writing three full pages of whatever is on your mind and not stopping until you get to the third page.
–Savoring a warm cup of hot chocolate/tea/coffee, drinking each sip mindfully.
–Sitting for twenty minutes, doing nothing but focusing strictly on each in-breath and each out-breath.
–Volunteering in your community.
–Playing music with others.
–Cooking a meal that you have never cooked before.
–Running/jogging for twenty minutes without stopping.
–Writing down what you dreamt of the night before.
–Drawing a picture.
–Painting a picture.
–Photography (check out my photos from Freak Alley in Boise, Idaho if you have time: Freak Alley.)
–Writing a story.
–Catching up with a friend that lives near you over a bowl of steaming Vietnamese pho.
–Hugging others fully, with two arms and for longer than three seconds.
–Caring for a furry friend.
–Having life conversation with an elderly person.
–Having life conversation with a child.
–Watching a good movie.
–Traveling to a city that you have never been to before, alone.
–Listening to music.
–Being here, NOW, over and over remembering to come back to right here, right NOW.
–Playing a childhood recess game with your adult friends.
–Getting a new haircut.
–Going for a hike in nature.
–Biking.
–Skating (roller skating, roller blading, skateboarding.)
–Working in a garden.
–Sampling new beers or wines.
–Blogging.
–Exploring a new city with friends.
–Walking alongside large bodies of water.
–Writing down three things that you are grateful for on a daily basis.
–Learning a new skill.
–Having a phone date with a friend far away.
–Kissing a good kisser.
–Going on spontaneous road trips/drives/car rides with music blasting out of the car speakers.