I recently hosted a writing contest to win a Blissdom Conference ticket. I was overwhelmed with the amount of great blog posts the contest received and even more so with the support these amazing women received from their communities.

I am happy to announce that the winner is Layla Palmer with her post Living Life to the Fullest – Giving Our Home TLC, which got 657 comments. Layla writes The Lettered Cottage, and I can’t wait to meet her in Nashville.

Thank you for everyone participating, commenting, and supporting each others! I am so happy with the response this contest got that my question is… which conference ticket you would like me to giveaway next…?

The idea of writing a post about living life to the fullest immediately intrigued me because I spend so much time trying to do just that!

Back in 2003, my husband and I bought our first house and I painted a huge reminder to “live life” across the wall in our dining room:

It read, “ENJOY THE LIFE OF YOUR TIME”. I used to love strolling in there in the morning and starting my day off with a smile. :-)

Nowadays, we call The Lettered Cottage home, and blogging about putting a smile back on its ugly, unhappy face has become such a wonderfully fulfilling adventure. There is a excitement in not knowing what you’re going to reveal about yourself and your home from one day to the next, and I have never felt so fulfilled.

But living life to the fullest doesn’t have to mean everything is all sunshine and rainbows. In fact, I find that the more risks I take and the more mistakes I make, the more fulfilled I feel too. Why? Because the art of living passionately lies in the ability to laugh at yourself and find fun in plain old, ordinary, everyday life.

So don’t be afraid to get your hands dirty and do something that scares you once in a while!
Then go out and climb more mountains, limbo like no one is looking, paint the town raspberry and don’t forget to smile! It doesn’t cost a thing and the world will be a brighter place because of it. :-)

Written by Layla Palmer. Layla Palmer writes The Lettered Cottage, where she shares everything beautiful and inspires us to creating a place that makes our souls smile. She is a design consultant who literally brings the TLC. You can follow her at Twitter @letteredcottage

This post is part of Blissdom Conference ticket giveaway.