A little about Kathleen

I am an Air Force brat and spent all of my childhood moving every 2.5 years from one place to another. I swore when I grew up I was never going to move and live in a house with a white picket fence. As with most childhood dreams, none of that was fulfilled.

I spent seven years in Sweden, learning the language, learning to hate the beloved midnight sun in the summer and to loathe the 2 hour sun-lacking days during the winters. Okay, so they were 4 hours long and sometimes the sun DID shine. It was there that I met an Englishman, followed him to England where I began the next phase in my life. That of being a mother.

After my first child was born, I discovered I really didn’t like allopathic remedies for things like pink-eye and was soon studying about herbs. It didn’t take me long to figure out that it would take me YEARS to learn how to use them without killing off my family.

Fortunately, one day I wandered into Culpeppers and found these lovely little bottles of oils and that propelled me into going to college and getting a diploma in Aromatherapy and becoming a member of the Federation of Holistic Therapists. This was in 1997. Shortly there after I had child number three and we moved to California.

Not being the type who is delighted to spend 24/7 cooing at her children, I started up a couple of businesses. One was selling Handcrafted Aromatherapy products. While I enjoyed a modest success with that, I found that by and large, my most popular items were Woobeys (Microwavable therapeutic pillows). Somewhere in there I had child number 4 and found that once again things had changed.

My favorite color up to this point was green. I still love green but after having Theo I found myself pulled towards lilac, lavender, violet, Purple of all shades, but especially the lighter shades. I even found myself liking pinks, some pinks and something in me started pulling me towards beads, semi precious stones and making things with them. I found myself developing into a serious color whore and making jewelry was just the outlet for it.

Seven years after my last child was born, I moved back to Spokane and hooked up with my best friend of over 30 years. She was unemployed and couldn’t find a job no matter how hard she looked, and she LOOKED.

It was then I proposed a partnership, we would make jewelry under the name of Beadhussy. We still make jewelry of all shades and colors there but we decided also to focus on our passion for Purple and all it’s shades. I also wanted to go back to my holistic roots so “Color Us Purple” was born. A website that concentrates on purple jewelry AND issues that affect women.

So after all the traveling, all the learning and growing, I finally got my “forever home” without the picket fence, my four children, three cats and two dogs ( a schnoodle and a labradoodle) and a career that I love.

And on that note, welcome to Color Us Purple, I hope you enjoy your stay and come back often.