The time has come to wrap up the FANTASTIC “One Word, One Goal” series for 2012.
Please tell me you were as COMPLETELY inspired by it as I was!!!

Every single day made me think about things in my life that I want to work on.  But I never felt guilt.  Just inspiration.  And it is quite possibly the MOST uplifting month of blogging I’ve ever had.

shout-out and THANK YOU to all of the fantastic bloggie ladies that agreed to share their words with all of us.
I hope they know that by sharing, they influenced a TON of people!

(I meant to make this all fancy and clickable…but I didn’t…because I’m “refining” what is important there you go!)

MAKE SURE these blogs are on your “must read” lists.

Whipperberry

UCreate

House of Smiths

Funky, Vintage, Lovely

Brassy Apple

30 Days

Somewhat Simple

Blue Cricket

KoJo Designs

SNAP! Conference

The Crafting Chicks

Crap I’ve Made

Eighteen25

The Idea Room

Vintage Revivals

I have been so inspired that I will be super sad to see it all go…..but I do have to admit that I’m EXCITED to get back to “blogging as normal”, and sharing some fun Valentine Tutorials as well as a Holiday Printable or two.

But before we let all this fantastic inspiration go…I have ONE MORE PROJECT.  I have received SO many lovely comments and E-Mails about your personal “One Word, One Goal” posts for this year.  I WISH I could feature each of these posts individually.  But instead, I thought I’d make a place where we can gather them all together.

In lieu of a tradish “linky party” to share our “One Word” goals.  I’ve created a “One Word, One Goal” board on the fab-oo PINTEREST SITE.

If you have a “One Word, One Goal” post sharing your personal word for 2012, please leave a link here in the LCMF comments.  (or shoot me an e-mail) and I’d LOVE to “Pin It” to our inspirational board.  How fun will it be to have a BUNCH of inspirational posts all within one click?

I’ve already got all the LCMF One Word 2012 posts up and ready to go.  And I can’t WAIT to add yours!

Well, the time has come. Today’s “One Word, One Goal 2012″ guest will be very last. (what’s that thing? Last the best of all the game? Or…I could break out into a sultry rendition of Vanessa Williams “Save the Best for Last.” –why are 90′s songs so freakin’ awesome?–

Anyway. I LOVE the last contributor for this series!

Mandi from Vintage Revivals

I think I first met Mandi on Twitter.  And MAN she cracked me up.  Plus it was probably about 4 tweets in before she told me she “loved my guts.”    And I was pretty much smitten after that.  She has SINGLE HANDEDLY defined my design tastes over the last year.  Yep.  She’s gotten me to re-embrace gold.  And she and I even named a paper-mache Rhino together. (pretty sure it was that shout-out on TV that cemented my love for Mandi for all-times!)

If you want to get into a groove with decor….check out Mandi’s blog!

And on a completely serious note….which I rarely do…Miss Mandi has inspired thousands of people with her “real life story“.  It reads like a novel, and ends with the most glorious family ever.  I am not only in love with Mandi’s style, but I am in love with her courage.  Courage to walk through whatever is handed to her.  And courage to share with others.  That’s the kind of friends I need.  People that inspire me to be better.

Mandi, you make me wanna be a better woman, sista!

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So I know that every single amazing blogger that has gone before me has professed their love for Miss Ellie G.

BUT I love her more than anyone else does.  I just need to say that.  Moving on.

My one word for 2012 is Choose.

I am a busy lady, there are tons and tons of things that I feel my life up with.  Stupid things, great things, important things, things that should not be important.  You feel me right?  I cant tell you how many times I look up from my computer and its 2:30 and time to pick my daughter up from school and I have not done a DANG thing all day (cue the Mom, Wife, friend guilt).

I get so frustrated with myself because of the things that I let take my time.  Things that aren’t  important.  Like Facebook.  Or the Kardashians.

So this year I am going to CHOOSE (like as in make a conscious decision) about what I am going to do.  I am going to play with my girls more, I am going to be the kind of wife that my husband deserves.  But the most important choice is the one that is inspired by this quote by Ezra Taft Benson:

“May we be convinced that Jesus is the Christ, CHOOSE to follow Him, be changed for Him, captained by Him, consumed in Him, and born again”

Life is made up of small choices.  Sometimes the choices that seem the smallest are the most important in the long run because those small choices make up our days, weeks, months and years.
Yay Mandi!  See why I love her so?  And for the record, I love the Kardashians.  Khloe and I are gonna be besties one day.  You just wait!

I actually LOVE the word “choose”.  It’s just so freeing.  It says “I’m driving this ship!”

Like: “I can choose to be pleasant today or I can choose to be a hag.”
“I can choose to eat this entire bag of chocolate Twizzlers or I can choose to eat some grapes.”
“I can choose to skip showering today or I can choose to smell like a foot.”

It’s all up to me. So stinkin’ empowering!

If you aren’t already…get on the stick and head over to Mandi’s blog! Tell her Ellie G sent you, and mention that I love her guts!

PS….be sure to check in tomorrow for a wrap-up of the “One Word” series, and a way for you to share your very own “One Word”

Today’s One Word guest…well…I might be at a loss for words to describe how much I love her. Not in a huggie way. ‘Cause she hates that. But probably in a “I feel kind of sad-ish on days I don’t talk to you” way.

Char from Crap I’ve Made

Char and I bond over being in the “Our Dad’s Died” club.  We both have an affinity for pom-poms.  She is a bright color girl.  And she put “Crap” in the title of her blog.  Which pretty much made me like her from the get go.  She is kind.  Even though she jokes a lot and will tell you differently…..she is KIND!

She is seriously the BEST MOM!  Her kids are hysterical. And my daughter MAY one to marry one of her sons.

She’s the first one to admit that she’s bought 2 Diet Cokes in the McDonald’s drive-thru.  And they were both for her.  And immediately I thought “why the HECK didn’t I think of that??”

She just had her Valentine’s Day mantel featured on Better Homes & Gardens website. (yay Char!)

And I support her 100% in her recent announcement that she’s “quitting the BUSINESS of blogging“.  As long as she still checks in with me everyday.  I don’t need a pillow made for me, Char.  But a little off color humor is ALWAYS appreciated.

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Hey there! Char here from Crap I’ve Made. SUPER glad to be here on account of my undying love and devotion for Lara and also on account of the fact that I NEEDED to come up with a word this year. I usually do some sort of resolving/goals/setting myself up for failure, but this year I wanted to do better. I wanted to do more.

I’ve had this word selected for a couple of weeks, even before I posted yesterday about quitting the business of blogging. In fact, this word may have been what drove me to it….

mend

1. to make (something broken, worn, torn, or otherwise damaged) whole, sound, or usable by repairing.

2. to remove or correct defects or errors in.

3. to set right; make better;

Mend also has a sew-y connotation for me, which I love (I’m a sewing dork at heart). I like the idea that mending is not “replacing with bigger and better and flashier”, it’s fixing what you’ve got and making it whole, sound, and usable again. It’s admitting that what you have and who you are is good enough. It’s a process of improvement and correction.

And so, I’m beginning to mend.

I’m beginning to mend relationships.

I’m beginning to mend habits.

I’m beginning to mend life.

If we’re keeping it real (‘cause that’s the only way I know how to be), we ALL have something that needs mending…something we want to “make better”, right? Maybe you handled something badly with your kids or your spouse. Maybe you haven’t called a friend you really should have. Maybe you said something unkind. Maybe you thought about doing a good deed and didn’t.

Now’s your chance.

Mend something.

For reals.  It’s like she goes from comedian to wise advisor in a split second!  Now you can see why I love this girl so much!  That, and the fact that she tells me to “shut it” in the most LOVING way.  She’s hysterical!

We will all be checking out Crap I’ve Made whenever Char feels like checking in.  Because she’s only blogging for herself now.  And I pretty much think that’s absolute genius!