An honest days work

There is something to be said for an honest days work. I am so beat right now, tired beyond tired and my arms are like jello but I have such a sense of pride in myself that no amount of money could even buy. My life has been hectic lately and I have struggled with balance for months but today I finally feel that I took my first step to finally making a change.
Over the past few months I set out to change but I fall back into old patterns and find myself frustrated over and over again. One of the areas I am most struggling in is my home. To be quite frank, it's been a mess. Lucky for me I don't have guests very often so I've been able to cover my secret well.
And then yesterday morning I was sitting here thinking about how overwhelmed I was and I happened to look out into our backyard only it wasn't a backyard, it was a jungle. I know you might be chuckling because you think I'm just being funny but no...I am serious.
Then it hit me like a ton of bricks. My backyard was a total symbol of where my life was right this moment...total chaos. Weeds overgrown everywhere, toys strewn all over, spider webs growing in my daughter's playhouse and things out of place or piled here and there.
I just sat on the couch feeling sorry for myself and then there was a knock at my door. It was my super sweet neighbor Victoria. She had come to bring me back a container of Lily's clothing I had given her to sift through and take whatever she wanted for her sweet baby girl who is 6 months.
We started talking and she noticed I looked a little stressed and so I shared with her my realization. She looked at me and then looked out our window at the backyard and said "well then let's get it cleaned up so you can enjoy it"
She offered to come over and help me clean up that back yard. I was embarrassed at first and then it totally hit me. God was answering my prayers. Yes I have been praying about my life a lot and asking God to show me the way out of where I've ended up. Show me how to balance everything I am trying to do and show me how to be a better wife and mother. And he answered me.
It's so beautiful, God's love for us and in return our love for one another as friends, family and those we hold dear. I am so thankful for Victoria's kindness towards me and the offer to help me begin my journey.
I feel as though today something inside of me changed. I'm excited to fix the things that have been bugging me. I even made a list of what I want to accomplish and when I want to accomplish it by.
Then I packed up my daughter and went to pick up 3 flats of flowers that were on sale at Rite Aid to plant in all my empty pots I found in our back yard. They cost me $5.00. It was the best $5.00 I ever spent and it wasn't even on scrappy stuff!

I did create some beautiful things this week in my studio which is now clean! I mean really clean and de-cluttered and so is my kitchen. Yes fellow Fly ladies...my sink is shined too! OK I'll stop now and shift to something crafty.

Here's a box from the $ bin at Michaels I altered with some Prima goodies. It started out like this...

And I made it look like this

Ohhh I love Prima anything and this collection, Flight of Fancy is my most favorite ever!

Here's a closer look. Now creating this box was fast and easy. I only cover the top cvr with patterned paper and use Tim Holtz white crackle paint to paint the front and sides. I sed my heat tool to dry the paint for the distressed look we've all seen Tim create before. Then I used distress inks an my blending tool to go over the box to give it a old look. I then cut the center out of a doily and folded it and placed the Prima rose in the center. Applied the Prim pearl accent from their eline and secured the rose with a glue dot. Then I covered the knob with a button and a rhinestone for the center of the button.

And finally here is a travel journal I created with Japanese Masking tape for the Love My Tapes blog.

I hope you have a wonderful weekend!