And We're Back!

I honestly don’t know how or where to start this blog post. I have so much to tell you all, about where I’ve been, what I’ve been up to and what’s going to happen with the blog.

I haven’t written a blog post, or even attempted to write a blog post, since early September.

When you’ve been doing something for as long as I’ve been blogging, it’s normal to start to feel a bit of discomfort when things that were once familiar begin to change. And blogging, especially in the last year, has dramatically changed. Even greater than the first shift in the tide from hobby blogging to blogging as a business. Whether or not all of the changes are for the better is totally up for debate, and are a matter of perspective (and I’ll dive deeper into that in a later post this week).

After pausing a few times, I think it makes the most sense to break this post down a bit. My brain works best in segments. I’m always more productive and effective when I can compartmentalize a bit…

In the past few months I’ve been:

Focusing on what really matters:

Like developing a skin care routine, getting out of the city most weekends to spend time with my family, to be around for more family dinners. I’m a huge advocate of working for the weekends. I don’t know what it is about waking up early on a Saturday morning to sneak away to a coffee shop and work that gets me going, but it does. Luckily, I’ve recently realized that staying up late on Fridays and waking up to do morning face masks with my 15 year old sister gives me the same adrenaline boost. And better skin.

Figuring out what blogging should look like for me:

Lately, I’ve felt a bit of a disconnect from blogging, it just isn’t what it used to be. Everyone used to contribute their unique gifts which came together to form one of the most amazing communities. Now, it seems that there are more imitations of what “works,” formula driven bloggers (post x + share on y * be like z = #successfulblog). Instead of blogger’s taking risks to create amazingly original new concepts and content. It seems much more popular to use your voice just to put a spin on what everyone else is doing. I don’t want to just say it my way, I want to do my own thing.

So I’ve decided to do just that in this space. This newly revamped, gorgeously designed space thanks to Kory. She pulled all of the bits and pieces from my brain (and there were many) and pieced them all together to create exactly what I was hoping for in a rebrand. I consider hiring her one of my greatest investments.

Reading:

Updates to the bookshelf to come. Digging through the bargain books tables at Barnes and Noble has become a favorite to-do of mine. Seriously, there are some incredible $5 gems there that I highly recommend digging into. Also, read this (Mindy Kahlings) if you need a laugh and read this if you love a good plot twist and always wonder what happens to the movie characters you love (or love to hate).

Cooking up a storm:

If you follow me on snapchat (I’m ambersburns there, btw) you may have seen a few of my Let’s Cook Dinner segments (using the term segment incredibly liberally here) where I walk through making a meal with all of you. I’ve always loved cooking, and after recently going through allergy testing where it was uncovered that I’ve been living with more than quite a few food and environmental allergies (MUCH more on this later), cooking has presented new challenges and opportunities in the past few months.

After taking this much needed hiatus, I can say with total confidence that the best thing to do if you’re feeling burnt out in one area of life is to let it go, and live as well as you can in the areas of life that energize you. Don’t fester in frustration in hopes that things will get better. Restore yourself fully, and then reintroduce things that you had to separate from so that you can see them with fresh eyes and an open heart.

I had to walk away from blogging so that I could come back to a space that felt like home, and a place where I can be authentically me, share the things I really want to share and create things that only I could have created. I owe so much thanks and gratitude to the amazingly talented Kory Woodard who helped me bring this vision to life. If you’re looking for a designer to help get your brand and design

So, welcome to the new ember + march, I hope you’ll stay with me on this new phase of the journey. Thank you so much for everyone who tweeted, emailed and left encouraging comments while I was away, it seriously would light me up inside and brought so much encouragement.