Conversations with Crystal Caudill

Today we’d like to introduce you to Crystal Caudill.

Hi Crystal, thanks for sharing your story with us. To start, maybe you can tell our readers some of your backstory.
I grew up in a small, southern Kentucky town, raised by my grandparents, where my Mammy Ann (Momma) as I referred to her, taught me how to cook, keep a home, love Jesus, and love our neighbors.

As a child, our home was always filled with people. My Momma was the most hospitable person in the county and people came over just to be in her good company, listen to her miraculous stories about Jesus, and to eat her amazing southern cooking!

Momma was always in the kitchen making something from scratch. She was known for her comfort foods!

Holidays were the best in our home. Momma baked and cooked for days and made sure the house was always adorned with seasonal decor. The whole family, as well as neighbors and friends, would gather at our home for the holidays!

Folks found refuge at Momma’s house. It was a place where people felt seen, heard, safe, loved, and they always left with a full belly! We had neighborhood kids get off of the bus at our house with us in the evenings just to eat Mammy Ann’s cooking.

From church folks, to neighbors, to sometimes total strangers, Momma never turned anyone away. Children loved her. Neighbors depended on her. Church folks admired her testimonies of healing and victories of a life full of tough battles that Jesus seen her through. Momma turned our little house into a home for anyone that needed a haven.

After losing my father at the age of 5 and my mother abandoning us at the age of 3, my grandparents adopted me and my two younger siblings. The safety and love we felt in our home was everything to me, after losing our birth parents.

The smell of a home cooked meal, the gatherings of family and people, the gardens we planted and worked together, the pies and cakes we baked, the holiday decorating, the catfish fries and BBQ’s we had, the gospel hymns we sat around and sang together, the laughter, the love, it all helped me to get through such a difficult time of loss as a child.

Home…..Home is what healed me!

As a kid, I loved watching Momma around the house. I would often sneak away to the woods in the back of our property and build little houses and churches of my own out of sticks, stones, and anything I could find.

I would take old furniture that Momma was getting rid of to furnish my playhouses in the woods. I remember sweeping away leaves on my dirt floors and hanging clothes on my clothes lines. I remember pretending to cook and host people. I made decorations from pine cones and leaves to hang up in my little playhouses. I drew water from the creek to fill up my little kitchen sink. And my grandpa even built me a wooden podium to put in my little church so that I could sing and preach to the birds and the squirrels and tell them all about Jesus.

Design and decor just came natural to me as a young child and those ole Kentucky woods is where I learned to harness and cultivate my creativity. Its also where I drew closer to the Lord and where He molded my heart into caring for and providing for others, just like my Momma had always done.

I also had a deep drive as a child to have my own businesses, and to one day give other people jobs where they could use their creativity to help me create beautiful spaces and provide for their families.

As a little girl, I hired my best friend and next door neighbor, to help me start a green house in my back yard. We would sneak out to Momma’s gardens, dig up her flowers and plants, re-pot them, and sell them to other kids in the neighborhood to give as gifts for their Mommas. The business was a success until Momma found out and shut our little green house down for digging up her flowers! Haha!

So then I moved on to baking and crafting, selling homemade cakes and brownies as well as things that I would paint or crochet that folks could hang in their homes.

I carried all of these life lessons with me, taught by Momma, into adult hood.

After high school I began pursuing careers in the teaching and medical fields to make money and do what others would see as being successful, but my heart was always in homemaking, creating, and making folks feel special and loved.

On the side I would decorate homes for the holidays. I would help friends and family design and paint their homes. I would go shopping with them and show them pieces to buy for certain spaces and how to arrange their furniture. Everyone called me for my design and decor ideas.

At my own home, I loved hosting and entertaining. Holidays and special events started taking place at my house. My home was decorated for every season, every holiday, and every event. And like my Momma, folks loved gathering at my home for my cooking and my hospitality.

My home slowly started becoming a space where people came to relax, be fed, laugh, be prayed for, and to feel safe.

In my 30’s I began baking professionally for events such as weddings, birthdays, etc, as well as designing and decorating the event spaces for clients.

Seeing people come together in celebration of someone else, filled my heart to overflowing! I love celebrating folks and creating beautiful spaces and food to make those events even more memorable.

My husband and I also began opening our doors to children and parents who needed a home until they could get on their feet and eventually helped them get into homes of their own.

A few years back, as we were hosting Thanksgiving, a friend said, “Crystal, your home and the spaces you create provide healing in so many ways!”

Immediately, I was taken back to Momma’s house, as a little Kentucky girl, who realized I had been healed by the home that my Momma had created. And that’s when I knew that this is what God had destined for me to do! To create beautiful spaces that healed people, mentally, emotionally, spiritually, and eventually, physically.

Now, my husband and I are the proud owners of Caudill Investments and Design, LLC in central Ohio where we live with our 6 children.

We love taking old houses and restoring them for families to create their own homes and sanctuaries.
I am the visionary and the designer, and my husband is the business man and the carpenter, bringing all of my visions to life in the old homes that we flip, and making sure that we stay on budget.

I am also the proud owner of The Cottage Cakery & Events, where I am an event planner and cake artist! I have loved using some of Mommas recipes throughout the years in this business endeavor. She would be proud to know that her recipes are being used to make someone else’s day so special!

Currently, my husband and I are living in a house that we bought as an investment property in 2020.
It is a 5 bedroom, 4 bath, 3 story cottage that we are completely renovating from the inside out.

I started a YouTube channel and social media platforms on Facebook and Instagram, where I share our cottage renovations and show others how to design and decorate their homes. It’s called Caudill Cottage. We also share other homes that we have flipped as well.
You will also see me sharing recipes for an upcoming cookbook, as well as cakes that I create and events that I design on my social media platforms.

Our most recent endeavor has been starting our own ministry on YouTube, called Even Now Ministries, where we will be sharing wonderful testimonies of miracles that we have seen the Lord do in our lives and the lives of others. Its no secret that our lives have been established and richly blessed by the Lord, and we love sharing His hope and love with others!

Our future goal is to settle in the mountains of Tennessee, once we get Caudill Cottage completely renovated.

In the mountains, our dream is to build cabins and cottages, an event/wedding barn, a little chapel/church, a festival area full of orchards, gardens, and playgrounds, a restaurant/bakery, home decor shops, places in nature where you can ride horses or go fishing….a place where families and children can gather, laugh, play, enjoy nature, have fun, relax, and make lasting memories!

And most of all, my dream and desire is to carry on Momma’s legacy and to create beautiful spaces for people to feel seen, loved, and celebrated….a place where they can HEAL!

Would you say it’s been a smooth road, and if not what are some of the biggest challenges you’ve faced along the way?
Creating anything worth anything is never easy! As my Momma use to say, “New levels bring new devils”….and boy have we had some devils to come up along the way.

From financial woes, to construction oopsies, to friends and family trying to hold us back and talk us out of our dreams, we have been through it all trying to create and start up new businesses.

I think the toughest battle, however, has been finding good folks to partner with, that share the same dream and heart for others as we do. But we know the right team is coming!

However, we know that God always works all things together for our good, and when there is a brick in the road, we just pick it up and use it to continue building with!

Can you tell our readers more about what you do and what you think sets you apart from others?
I always tell everyone that God created me to create!

I have always been a visionary and a dreamer! I take great pride in creating beautiful spaces, whether it be a room in a home, a whole house, or an event…I enjoy creating spaces that make folks feel something deep, like, “ahhhh I just wanna linger here a little longer!”

I also enjoy creating beautiful food and desserts! I want folks to always have full bellies but to also remember the presentation and the taste of something created out of love, from scratch! Food is just another way to create art for me and that art is what makes the food memorable and special to others.

I would say that I am known for my creative spaces, my cakes, and for my love for Jesus!

I believe my story and my faith, along with my creative gifts and talents, is what sets me apart from others!

Is there any advice you’d like to share with our readers who might just be starting out?
My advice to anyone starting out on their own business journey is to have a vision using the gifts and talents God has given you. If you struggle with knowing what to do in life, do what comes natural and what creates happiness for you! Its out of that happiness that you will help others to create their happiness. Business thrives when you have a solution for someone else!

Next, write that vision down and do something every single day that puts you one step closer to achieving that vision/dream.

And most importantly, keep God at the center of all that you do and you will flourish!

Contact Info:

• Website: https://EvenNowMinistries.Org
• Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/caudillcottage_737?igsi=aXJyZjAwZzltZ2Ex
• Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/share/1Hq9Ej38V7/
• Youtube: https://youtube.com/@caudillcottage?si=0hbe2WsB0g30744h