One Little Word – Those Missing Pieces

This is my first year doing One Little Word and I am totally hooked. I love this project already. I am witnessing my word in daily life and making small (and large) changes as I reflect on it. Making the album is a great reminder and a great inspiration for keeping it going.

Here are my cover and my first few pages.

I enlarged a 3×4 card from the Ali Edwards One Little Word Main Digital Kit to 6×8 and added the one little word word art (also from Ali). The black star tab at the top is from one of Ali’s story kits and the black polka dot paper is a recolored Ali card from a digital story kit, and the black stickers are from the One Little Word sticker kit (currently sold out but the stickers are also part of the digital kit.) The COMMIT alphas and gray patterned paper that is the background frame for the page as well as the scalloped strip behind my word are from Felicity Jane.

The Intentions page is part of the main digital kit, the I can do this sticker from the sticker kit, and the Gray stars are Gossamer Blue (out of business now – boo hoo!). I used some more of the black polka dot strips to both sides of this spread to create some uniformity. I see a color palette definitely repeating throughout the rest of my album! I also added an Avery Index tab to a 3×8 page protector where my self portrait is housed (of half of a self-portrait!) and added the embrace your word sticker into the tab from the sticker kit. Here is a close up of the tab. I actually really like this portrait, which is rare for me! I took it as part of the #Thursday3 that I am participating in this year.

The One Little Word transparency behind the photo is from the One Little Word physical Main Kit (also sold out.)

This is the back side of the 3×8 self-portrait. I created this in Photoshop using the twenty eighteen word art by Paislee Press. I added my word as a text layer behind the year word art and then typed some quotes on a rectangular clipping mask.

These are my opening pages for the January prompts. The Jan card is from the physical One Little Word Main kit and the card below it was included in my Powersheets order from Cultivate What Matters. The Powersheets are an awesome goal setting (and accountability) tracing system and I am excited to try them out this year. When I got the card in the package with my order, I knew I had to include it in my OLW album. The saying is the perfect quote for the reason why I chose Commit as my word this year!

These cards are all from the One Little Word Main Digital Kit with the labels and stickers from the physical main kit.

I can’t wait to fill in the rest of January with all of my accomplishments!

If you have not heard about One Little Word®, it is a tradition developed by my soul sister, spirit animal, and scrapbook guru, Ali Edwards where you pick one word for the year that you want to be your focus for the year to reflect upon and incorporate into your life. I have never been one on New Year’s resolutions because they always seems to fizzle out within a few months (or even a few weeks in some cases). But over the last few months, I was reflecting upon the year 2010 when I created a monthly challenge for myself for the year. I called it my To Do List and each month I challenged myself in specific categories:

1. Try a new recipe
2. Learn something new
3. Read More
4. Take More Pictures
5. Move More

I did a lot better on 1-3 then on 4 or 5. But I posted every month what my progress was and held myself accountable. I tried some recipes I still love, read some new books, learned how to quilt and some sign language, and much more. I look back on this year as a great accomplishment and knew I wanted to do something like that again for 2018. So when I attended Story Camp in October and was surrounded by others who do One Little Word® regularly, my word hit me, and I knew I wanted to participate.

So this year, my very first, my One Little Word® is Commit.

Because of all the things that I say “One day I want to…” or “One day I am going to…,” now that day has come. I will commit to those things that I keep saying I want to do. I will commit to myself and my happiness and the happiness of my family above all. I will commit to better myself and make 2018 a great year.

There were three specific categories I wanted to focus on: Happiness, Health, and Household. Then I broke those categories into SMART goals that are more specific and measurable.

Happiness
• Schedule Craft Time – at least 30 minutes per week
• Schedule Blog Time every Sunday
• One week per month no phone/disconnect
• READ at least two books per months (and blog about it!)
• Participate in photo challenges to improve photo skills and GET IN THE PICTURE
• Schedule a family camping trip

Health
• Walk every day and get to 70,000 steps per week.
• Meditate at least once per week
• Stretch or Yoga at least once a week
• Listen to the Happiness Podcast and do one “try this at home” exercise per month

Household
• Declutter one room per month (where I listed what room I am going to tackle in which month).
• Purchase one new decorative item per quarter
• Install a dog door
• Get carpet replaced!

That is quite a list to tackle but I feel it is very manageable. Scheduling in my planner is going to be my friend this year! I have felt a change in me (for the better!) in the last few months and I feel like One Little Word® is just the momentum I need to keep that going and stay on track.

I had a bracelet made by Laurel Denise who I discovered while at Story Camp. My Story Sisters and I each got a bracelet by Laurel Denise from the local jewelry shop as a reminder of our fabulous weekend and I knew when I saw it that I wanted one with my word for 2018.

Are you participating? What is your One Little Word®?

Category: One Little Word

One Little Word Album in the Works

One Little Word 2018