startoverdarling

    Today, was a VERY rainy day.  One of those days where you want to eat warm food and not stray far from your bed. My boyfriend and I listened to church online, as it continued to rain outside. The pastor talked about Joy VS. Happiness . Explaining, that these two words have very different meanings. Hundreds of thousands of people every year search the word "happiness." So many (including myself), are searching for relief from this economy, answers to questions, and their identities that they are convinced they have lost. I've seen a multitude of How To Find  Happiness & Self Fulfillment books at the thrift store. In full transparency, I'm sure some of these books have made it into my buggy.  For some reason, these books that are supposed to give these life altering answers always get donated back. As I listened to the sermon, I learned that happiness is a feeling created from positive events happening around us. While joy, despite what is going on, is created

      My boyfriend and I have discovered this new bins store near us called, Where Ya Bin. Apparently, this store sells only Amazon returns at discounted prices. I wish I had a picture of the entire place but imagine the Goodwill Bins and that is pretty much it! The prices vary by day and decrease as the week goes on. Yesterday, it was $3 day. I picked up a few things like some crochet tools that I'm going to use to work with clay. Can you tell that I like to repurpose stuff haha! Today, everything at this store was $1. I picked up about $8 work of items. One being this wood mallet above. Though it has a big crack down the back of it, I thought aesthetically it was beautiful. As soon as I saw this guy, he literally called to me!       Another very interesting find is this fierce looking werwolf Halloween mask that I found right before I left. Something About the gold & black coloring just really grabbed my attention. This mask, though made of foam, reminds me of a bronze statue

       Tonight, for the first time, I made little clay pugs. I've been seeing these adorable clay animals on Youtube and Etsy.  The other day I was at Barnes & Noble and found Polymer Clay For Beginners book by Emily Chen. All of the animals looked so tiny that I assumed making them would take a tiny bit of effort. WRONG hahaha. I have never concentrated so hard on making a clay ball with some ears. With that being said, my little pug creations are above. Granted, the ears on the third one look like they are about to blow off. All of their tongues are also ridiculously long too. But, they are here!       I think trying anything for the first time is really challenging.  I've found that I have a continuous inner struggle with allowing myself to fail or suck at something. I'm organized and like to understand the outcome of my project before I even attempt it. This goes for recipes, trips, or jobs that I never hold on to long. Unfortunately, life does not usually go tha

      I continue to believe that a big part of starting over is reconnecting with yourself. It is important to remind yourself things you used to find passion in. I'm the happiest when I am feeling truly authentic. Selling has been a part of my soul for as long as I can remember. Unfortunately, it continues to be an area that I "take a break from" or compromise on when it comes to giving something up.  It's essential to not feel shame about having things in your life that bring you peace.  I took time this weekend to pick out some cute packaging from the Dollar Tree to wrap one of my latest sales in.  As you can see, I have little cactus stickers, adorable rainbow paper, and to die for mini kitty cat card in this picture. I'm hoping that my buyer will smile when they open their package and that this bit of color will add sunshine to their day.      Something about myself that I have observed is that it is really on the day before I go back to work that I get truly

  Anyone else feel like they are struggling to get through each and every day?  You may be familiar with burn out spreading through your workplace like a wildfire.  Everyone looks like they are having an out of body experience from the level of stress they are experiencing, right? I know one of the biggest questions running through my mind right now is, what should I do to balance my life in the midst of the chaos. Todays answer: declutter my closet and donate 5 full trash bags of clothes (amongst other items).  For some reason, cleaning either my closet or car makes me feel like my life is semi together. The feeling never lasts, but it is a good short term stress relieving solution.  I thought in this blog I could make a list of things that I do to balance my life, in hopes that it may help someone that is starting over or looking for alternative ideas for handling stress.  Organizing/Donating - This topic I know I just mentioned. However, I want to emphasize how important it is to j

  When I finally hit a breaking point in my marriage in 2022, I realized I had to separate from my husband.  My mental health was crashing and I didn't know who I was anymore. The only thing that I had an answer too was that it was over. The impact of that decision was exhausting, stressful, and defeating. There had been no plan set in place to protect or guide me through the process of completely starting over. Thankfully, I was born incredibly loud and stubborn. Little did I know, this would be my most valuable resource in times of completely restructuring my life.  Could there have been a plan? Or, a large savings account awaiting my departure? Absolutely. But there wasn't. I'm a believer that it is impossible to prepare for everything.  Especially, extremely painful moments & choices. I do not discredit the importance of planning. If I could go back and talk to my younger self, I would have planned around a lot of the experiences I ended up going through. We can on