Dana Rose Lee Blog

I Have an Obsession with Planners

Hi, my name is Dana and I have an obsession with planners and all the pretty stationary. My favorite part of going back to school was always shopping for school supplies. Many moons later, I still get to shop like I am going back to school, although I don’t dread the school part. I have tried planner after planner. I am pretty positive I found the one with Plum Paper Planner (now say that three times in a row). Can we talk about how cute their packaging is?! 

Plum Paper Planner is completely customizable, which is what I love. Finding “the” planner that fits your list of prerequisites is hard, which is why this won me over. There are many many cover options. For an indecisive person (like me), this might make you add many more minutes to your design time, but it is worth it. What makes my first planner so special? My new monogram with my new last name thanks to tying the knot in September!Planners, Goals, New Year, 2017, Plum Paper, Organization, Organized, Business, Monogram, Custom

Once you design the cover, it is off to the races for the inside. There are plenty of options for monthly layouts. I personally can’t follow an hourly scheduled (I tried with the Day Designer and failed), so I opted for the two sided days weekly view. Planners, Goals, New Year, 2017, Plum Paper, Organization, Organized, Business, Custom

You also get a monthly spread so you can see the full month in one glance. I love that there is a monthly highlight page for you to write 3 goals in, include birthdays and events as well as things to remember. Planners, Goals, New Year, 2017, Plum Paper, Organization, Organized, Business, Custom

At the end of the month I included extra to-do list pages. Goodbye sticky notes, hello all-in-one place organization. Planners, Goals, New Year, 2017, Plum Paper, Organization, Organized, Business, Custom

There is also another page where you can add your ideas, goals and plans. I mean, you could go crazy with all the space you have!

Planners, Goals, New Year, 2017, Plum Paper, Organization, Organized, Business, Custom

When building your planner, they also give you other add-ons and I was pretty dang excited when I saw you could add a blog section. I added this to the back of my Plum Paper Planner. You can betcha I have already filled January in. Attacking one of my New Years Goals one post at a time. Planners, Goals, New Year, 2017, Plum Paper, Organization, Organized, Business, Custom

I also added a contacts page section at the back. I plan on putting friends and family in here as well as some of my Young Living friends, especially the ones I continually send mail to and always have to look their addresses up. Planners, Goals, New Year, 2017, Plum Paper, Organization, Organized, Business, Custom

Then there is a cute little pocket folder in the back. Planners, Goals, New Year, 2017, Plum Paper, Organization, Organized, Business, Custom

I have spent the last few days planning out my planner and I can’t wait to fill it in more! If you are in search of a planner, click here and prepare to fall in planner heaven. Planners gotta plan, right?

Out with the Old, In with the New | Balance in 2017

Oh what a year 2016 was, but it is out with the old and in with the new! I am welcoming 2017 with wide open arms. While it is not the first day of the New Year, it is the first Monday of the year, so I am making today the day of new goals, big dreams and a year of balance. Balance. I have chosen this word as my word for 2017. I have never chosen a word of the year. In fact, when I first saw people posting about their future words of the year, I was hesitant. How do you choose just ONE word to dedicate 365 days to? A lot of thought went into this and I have decided that I am going to live intentionally and the word balance will lead me to this.

Out with the Old, In with the New, Balance, New Year, Goals, Plans, Intentional, Life, Living,

2016 was a very big year for me/us (because Josh is included). We welcomed Roxie, our Vizsla puppy, into our family. On September 17th, we got married! We traveled to many places, including our most recent trip to Hawaii for our honeymoon. I ran two profitable businesses, however they took up all of my time, a lot of time sacrificing being present. Hawaii was the first time I fully unplugged and it made our trip about just us. It was the best trip we have ever been on. The social media world can wait and it did. Taking these 12 days off made me realize that my life is quite unbalanced and I need to create balance, not try to find it.

So in 2017 I am focusing on my health and wellness, my marriage and family and investing more of my time into a few things instead of all the things. I have to tell you that change is scary and announcing this makes me extremely anxious (so I am applying all the stress-away from Young Living), but you only have one life so here we go. On the quest for balance, I am scaling back my photography business. While photography is still one of my passions and I will never let go of it completely, I cannot continue running my business like I have in the past.

I want weekends with my family, being present instead of behind my computer, editing all night. While I typically am drowning in editing during the busy season, I want this year and this Fall to be different. I hope to invest my time into full sessions instead of rushing through shorter sessions with time constraints to pack everyone in.  Lastly, I would love to be valued for my work instead of being valued for discounted prices.

So…I will no longer be offering mini sessions. I will also be scaling back and only offering a limited number of full sessions, so I recommend booking now! This decision did not come easy. However, setting these guidelines will help me balance my life. It will also make more time for my essential oil business, which continues to flourish. I didn’t fully anticipate my success with Young Living and the fact that my team has 3,056 people and is growing daily. But I am so grateful for it.

To my past clients, thank you for letting me document your family. I hope that you will continue to invest in me even through these changes. I know in my heart that scaling back on Dana Rose Lee Photography is the right decision in this season of life.

So 2017, I am coming for ya, so get ready! Today is the second “blank page of a 365 page book. Write a good one” – Brad Paisley.