My Story

Hello, I'm Dina.

Creator. Storyteller. Designer. Dreamer. A woman still becoming.

Bella Nicci Studios was born from a simple belief: we are never finished becoming who we are meant to be.

For much of my life, creativity has followed me everywhere.

Through fashion.

Through words.

Through photographs and faraway places.

Through music that becomes the soundtrack to a moment.

Through beautiful spaces that make us feel at home.

And through the stories we collect along the way.

For years, these passions lived in different corners of my life. Eventually, I realized they were never separate at all.

They were all expressions of the same thing:

the way I see the world.

Bella Nicci Studios is where those worlds finally meet.

It is the creative home for Bella Nicci Clothing, where fashion becomes an expression of individuality and evolution;

Decora Rose, where thoughtful spaces support meaningful living; and Anorra Skye, my literary world of poetry, storytelling, imagination, travel, and reflection.

But there is another part of me here, too.

The woman behind the camera.

The traveler who believes a place can change you.

The music lover forever creating a soundtrack.

The collector of beautiful objects, interesting stories, old things, new ideas, and moments worth remembering. I don't believe we have to choose just one thing to be.

We can evolve. Reinvent ourselves. Return to forgotten dreams. Discover entirely new ones. We can begin again at twenty-five, forty-five, fifty-five-or whenever life whispers, there is more for you.

This chapter of my life is about answering that whisper.

Bella Nicci Studios is not simply a collection of things I create. It is a celebration of living creatively, authentically, and with intention.

Some of what you'll find here has been newly imagined.

Some has been waiting quietly for years.

And some is still becoming.

Just like me.

Welcome to my world.

This poem was written in 2022, but its story began years earlier—in September of 2018, when I made the life-changing decision to leave a career I had known for fifteen years.

I didn't know it then, but that single decision would become a catalyst, setting in motion a chain of events that would change the course of my life.

Sometimes we recognize a turning point only after we've lived beyond it. We look back and realize that what once felt like an ending was quietly making room for everything that came next.

Circle of Life was born from that realization.

— Dina Courtney


Circle of Life.

Who am I?

I don’t know who I am

But I know who I once was

I am now simply………..becoming.

I am rebirth

Shedding its skin from a traumatic past

I stand up

untethered and no longer burdened

by self imposed limitations

I am hunger

I am desire

I am complex

My life at a standstill

My life in transition

My life trapped as I reminisce

lost sentiments

and shared memories of chaotic bliss

As I look into the mirror today

I can’t help but wonder

How did I end up this way

Time well spent

Or time spent wasted

Once drained and purposeless

Now healing with a purpose

Slowly I rise from the ashes

Of my tormented creation

Haunted by the passion of another

I crave the intimacy from a soul connection

I’ve yet to discover.