The end of a year can either cause you to reflect with frustration on what happened that year and more importantly, what didn’t happen by the end of the  year that you had hoped would. Or it can cause you to look forward with hope to the coming year that maybe, just maybe, you’ll do better, be better, accomplish more. I’m guessing for most of us it’s a bit of both. Hopefully we’re not completely despairing anyway

I have to say that in many ways 2012 was our favorite year so far, with the realization of our long-time dream of working from home together full time. It was also certainly a time of growth, and we are really stoked that we met a ton of great people this year – both online and in person!

I am always excited to start a new year, although it seems that every year the years get shorter…! While I’m not one for making resolutions, per se, we do know it’s very important to set goals – if you aim at nothing you’ll hit it every time, after all So we still need to nail down a few business and financial targets, and I have a few things in mind for the blog as well.

1. I want to try to write one post a week with a “why” focus, similar to this, this, and this.
2. We’re going to start a monthly group vlog. This will be fun! Stay tuned
3. I’m going to aim to do better with linking up, and also continuing to work on refining the blog design and focus.

That last one reminds me, do you guys prefer to scroll down on blogs or have columns of archives that you have to click on (like we were currently trying out on here). I personally feel like I prefer scrolling, because I hate having to click in to read something, but at the same time, I do like being able to get an idea at a glance at what you’ve been writing about. What do you think?

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OK, if you’re not in the IRLO Mashup, you can just scroll down and leave your answer to that last question in the comments:) If you are in the race, let’s wrap up the challenges!

Here are the last 4 individual challenge points entries – make sure to enter them in the Rafflecopter below so that we know you did them:

1. Tweet something like “someone I met through the #IRLOMashup was _____” and tag the person or just link to their blog. Make sure to use the #IRLOMashup tag and tag @TicoandTina as well
2. Tweet thanks to the #IRLOMashup sponsors @CandleWarmerEtc @HoutzHouseParty @gr8manyThings @PaintAdventure @TicoandTina (can be all one tweet, it’s set up in the Rafflecopter below)
3. Comment on this post and tell us what your favorite thing about the IRLO Mashup was.
4. Like Candle Warmers Etc, Houtz House Party, and A Great and Many Things on Facebook – duh, I don’t know why I didn’t have that in the entries before.

a Rafflecopter giveaway