Things have been quiet here on the blog, and I’m sorry for not giving more of an explanation. I needed to take a break and I wasn’t sure how long I was going to be away. I’ve had lots going on and my focus was split into a million directions. I needed to take some time to work on some other projects, but I’m happy to be back to blogging again! So here’s a little bit of what’s been going on over here:

I started my own law firm!

If you’ve read Dana Renee Style for any amount of time you probably know that I’m a lawyer. Well, earlier this year I decided to leave my job as the Supervising Attorney of the Small Business Division at a Baltimore County firm and go out on my own. I started my practice DM Law, LLC in Pasadena, Maryland. My practice focuses on serving artists and creative entrepreneurs as they start and grow their businesses.

I’m studying to take the bar again

As part of my efforts to grow my practice and move forward in my law career, I’m studying to take the bar again in February. I’ll be taking the UBE for admission to New York and New Jersey.

I’m becoming a Certified Clinical Aromatherapist

I’ve decided to take my love of aromatherapy to the next level and enrolled in a Certified Master Clinical Aromatherapy program through Heart of Herbs Herbal School. To document this journey, I’ve started a separate blog where I’m sharing information about my journeys and all my DIY recipes. You can check it out at Aromas for Life.

So that’s the highlights of what I’ve been up to. I’ll be sharing here again more regularly. You may see a little more in terms of personal posts, but there will still be plenty of beauty and fashion!

For the last few weeks I have been in a state of what I can only describe as creative overwhelm. Having a creative project is my get-away from the day to day. It’s my balance to what is otherwise a very technical and academic profession. Having something creative to fill my spare time helps me to relax and work through my stress.

Lately, I’ve been trying to figure out what my next project will be and I’ve been lucky enough to be inundated with ideas. And that’s never a bad thing! The problem I’m having is how to pick which idea to pursue and develop. These aren’t the type of projects that could be completed in an afternoon, but some bigger undertakings that would takes months to develop. I don’t know why but I’m scared of picking the wrong one!

I’m in love with all of these ideas and prioritizing them is proving to be a major challenge. So I thought I’d share a little bit of insight into my process and see what tips if any you all would have to add to the list.

1. Do a brain dump: I have an idea book that I keep with me and when I have inspiration I start writing and filling it up. I’ll jot down ideas as they come to me, flesh them out as best I can, and make a list of questions I have to look into.
2. Do a little research: Next I’ll look into the ideas to see if anyone else out there has already done it. I don’t want to reinvent the wheel and I don’t want to just rehash what someone else has already put out. If I can’t find a comp, then it makes the short list.
3. Outline, outline, outline: For those that make the short list, I start outlining what all it would entail. What are the pieces, the chapters, the elements that would have to come together. I’ll do this for each idea.
4. Trust my intuition: Ultimately, I go with my gut and whatever project feels right. What inspires me, what do I find myself wanting to work on, which one am I daydreaming about.

The problem is my intuition is torn between 3 really amazing projects. I need to make a decision soon. How do you decide which path to follow when inspiration strikes multiple times?

You may have noticed that there haven’t been posts on Dana Renee Style for a while. Unfortunately, I didn’t! It’s not because I haven’t been writing awesome content for you guys. I have NOT abandoned this blog. The truth is I made a really stupid mistake. I have been playing around with templates and making tweaks to the blog and when I do this I put Dana Renee Style in maintenance mode. This is so when I totally FUBAR everything, you don’t have to see it. Basically what this does is keeps the front end static and let’s me play on the back end. Well, after I was done tweaking, I may have forgotten to take it off. So when I was posting, I could see, but you–my most important VIPs–couldn’t. FML. So now I have a bunch of posts queued up and ready to share. Instead of blasting you with two months of content, I’m going to space it out a bit. I hope you understand. This blog is a fun creative outlet for me and it breaks my heart to have gone totally MIA. I made a commitment a few months ago to breathing some new life into this space and I intend to stick with it!

Big hugs on a lazy Sunday, Dana

You might remember that last year I decided to join the One Little Word workshop with Ali Edwards. In case you’re not familiar, it builds on the premise of choosing a single word to guide you throughout the year. Ali puts together a series of monthly prompts to help you reflect and engage with your word.

Although I didn’t complete all of the prompts, having a word to guide me through the year really helped me to hone in on opportunities that I otherwise might have let slip by. My word last year was “engage” and using that one word to guide my perspective really shifted my perceptions throughout the year.

For 2016, I decided that my word would be focus. Last year I engaged with my life and my surroundings, now this year its time to focus on what is really important. Focus on my health, focus on my career, focus on family, there are so many applications. This year is about filtering out the noise and the negative and focusing on positivity and opportunity. It’s about focusing on both goals and the journey to get there. It’s about seeing the big picture, but focusing on each small step along the way that will build into something great.

In addition, this word has a bit of a double meaning for me as I’m also working on further developing my photography skills. As part of my commitment to focus and photography, I started a new project on the blog releasing a photo pack of 10 photos each month that are free for bloggers to use.

I’m looking forward to seeing what 2016 holds. Are you choosing a word to guide your year? Let me know in the comments.