You know that interview question “How do you deal with stress?” Well after some soul searching my answer is “I decorate!”

When I look back on my life, I can document some major home décor projects that were initiated due to very stressful situations.

Little life moments like moving into my first apartment, starting my first job, getting married, moving multiple times, having a baby, friends moving, and well getting divorced too. We will talk about that more later…

Luckily the path I’ve been put on has given me the opportunity to exercise and improve my home decor and home improvement skills. Like working in apparel and home textiles, composite decking, molding, hand tools, caulk, paint, bath and cabinet hardware.

Phew, that’s a lot of experience and in between all of that I was a stay-at-home mom and then a single working mom. It makes a woman handy and resilient! There isn’t much I won’t tackle myself. Call me frugal and over confidant.

Back to that divorce…when my husband left, I was hurt and scared. I had been out of the work world for 5 years and was worried about how I was going to support myself and my son.

To ease my mind and stress level I redecorated his room to make it a “big boy room” for our next home – just the two of us.

I painted unfinished furniture, sewed curtains and bedding, framed pictures all to keep my my hands busy and to keep from crying.

During my son’s naps I would sit on my front porch and daydream about the next chapter with forgiveness, hope, and optimism. That’s when I first became a “porch daydreamer”.

The divorce pushed me back into the career world and brought with it the most amazing experiences, filled me with confidence once again, and brought best friends that I never would have met otherwise.

I learned how to be a single parent and working mom while rising to the rank of vice president. My life has been so much more interesting and I am a much happier person having gone through what I did.

Making the choice to forgive was the best decision I ever made for me and my son. Luckily I was right to dream big, my son’s dad and I have been true co-parents and he’s been a great support system.

My son has turned out to be a person that I am SO proud of and is one of the coolest and kindest people I know! Now he’s going to play football in college, wow.

That brings me to the next stressful moment in my life and unfortunately it is two-fold. I suddenly found myself unemployed and my son is leaving for college. So now my emotional stress is compounded with financial stress. An empty nester, without a paycheck. Lovely.

How will I cope? By decorating on a budget of course! Oh yeah, and start a blog to document it all – past and present. My mission is to help inspire others to get through stressful times with a purpose and come out the other side a better person.

It all happens for a reason. You will get through your own stressfull times in your own way. I hope I can be a little inspiring and help lift your spirits. Plus teach you about what I’ve learned building and decorating 4 houses and surviving the stress of it all!

Come, sit on the porch with me and daydream about a beautiful life.

Porch Daydreamer

Tracey