Happy New Year, everyone!

I hope you had a great holiday and enjoyed that lull between Christmas Day and New Year’s Day.  That might be one of my favorite times of the year.  All of the work, anticipation, and the hurried pace slows to a creep.  Our family doesn’t plan any big outings or shindigs.  We just spend time together without a schedule or to-do list.  We hang out in our jammies, eat leftover Christmas treats, do puzzles, play board games, have brunch instead of breakfast, and watch movies snuggled with a dog at our feet and cats on our laps.

And, perhaps the best part, I take guilt-free time off from posting here on the blog.  I really love this little corner of the internet and it’s hard for me to stay away and intentionally neglect it.  But, in the case of this blog, absence does make the heart grow fonder.  Having a break causes me to run back to my blog with enthusiasm.  This week I’ve had so many ideas about things I wanted to do and share this year that I occasionally paced around the house to release the energy and then sat down with a notebook to make some loose plans.  I’ll share some of those plans (and ask for your participation in some of them) next week.

Until then, I wanted to take a look back at the posts you enjoyed the most in 2019.  This is based on my Google Analytics report showing which posts received the most traffic.  The interesting thing about this is that every year, posts that I wrote years ago end up on the list!  This is due to a post going viral on Pinterest and it sends the pageviews soaring.  I want to point this out because it’s a great example of the fact that not all work yields immediate results.  Some things are introduced to the world quietly, with little or no fanfare or attention, and then they gain traction somewhere along the line.

In this weird internet community where we can receive instant feedback, it’s an encouraging thing to see old content celebrated.

So, here are the top ten…

TEN

guest room dresser & mirror

When trying to outfit the new guest room, my mom and I went to a local consignment shop and hit the jackpot with a well priced antique dresser and gold-framed mirror.  Both were perfect for the room…

 

NINE

making an antique sign

I wrote this post back in 2012!  It was originally an article for Cottages & Bungalows when I wrote a monthly column for the magazine.  Once the issue was off the newsstands, I shared it on my blog and it has been a favorite for several years.

 

EIGHT

five recliners I’d have in my house

The fact that this post made it into the top ten this year made me laugh.  You see, this post came out of “stepping in it” when I made a comment about a recliner on my Instagram stories.  When I went to the ER for intense shoulder pain in February of 2019, the doctor told me I should try sleeping in a recliner.  I raised my eyebrows.  “Do I look like someone who would have a recliner in my house?”  Of course, I meant it as a joke, trying to lighten the mood while I was staring down the possibility of a joint tap, but I wasn’t allowing for the fact that there are some very nice recliners populating the rooms of many readers and followers of this blog.  Yeah, I stepped in it.

But, for those who felt rubbed the wrong way, you should feel vindication on two counts.  Number one, this post was my 8th most popular post of the year!  Number two, I ended up buying a recliner and it’s now the most sought-after seat in the house.  We practically have to have a sign-up schedule to make sure it’s not double-booked.  And, it’s not one of the pretty recliners I featured in this post, but it’s an oversized brown recliner!  It’s actually still a nice-looking chair, but not what I would’ve chosen if I didn’t have to sleep in it for two months and if we didn’t need it that very day.  I also needed a remote control, since my right arm was immobilized and all of the controls and levers are on the right side of recliners.

All of this to say, I have a new place in my affections for recliners.

SEVEN

Christmas farmhouse blog tour 2019

I am sure this post was a popular one because it was a part of a blog hop with several of my talented peers.  It was true in the early days of blogging and it’s still true today – we are better together.  Blogging can feel like a solo job since most of the time you’re sitting by yourself in front of a computer, but it’s all about community.  This post making the top-ten list reminds me that I need to do a better job of really plugging into the community instead of just “doing my thing.”

SIX

favorite things 2019

This is another blog-hop post where I shared some of my favorite things from 2019 from bells to books to hairdryers and electric kettles.

FIVE

my two cents on tidying up

This one making the list was a surprise to me, but I suppose it has to do with writing about something that was popular last January.  In this post, I share my take on Marie Kondo’s Netflix show Tidying Up.

 

FOUR

$30 craigslist dresser reveal

This post is from my very first year of blogging – 2009!!  What in the world, right?  It just goes to show that a budget-friendly project and crooked pictures with not-so-great lighting can still get a lot of attention!  This dresser was an amazing find and a pretty dramatic makeover, so I’m glad it’s still getting kicked around the internet.

THREE

quartz counters one year later

In this post, I shared a one year review of my Hanstone quartz counters.  I think it’s important to circle back on products and share how they are performing in real life, not just after a few days or weeks of use (and especially if the original content was sponsored.)  These counters are still amazing and I enjoy them every day.  They look great, they are easy to clean, and they have held up beautifully to everything our family has thrown at them.

TWO

Christmas decorating in the living room 2019

Thanks for loving this post!  Decorating for Christmas was a challenge this year with my healing shoulder, but I’m happy with how our tree and living room turned out.  (And yes, Jeff fixed the top of our tree where the fishing line was tied.  He fluffed that section for me!)

 

ONE

how to make a chair cushion

This one definitely made the list because of its popularity on Pinterest and YouTube and it was my runaway best post for 2019 by a mile.  Just as it sounds, it’s a tutorial showing how to make a cushion for a chair or sofa.  Apparently, a lot of people want to know how to do that!

And that’s the top-ten of 2019!

Thanks to everyone who joined me along the way!

  For the past several years, there have been whispers and even loud proclamations that blogging is dead.  (It always causes me to furrow my brow and look over my shoulder like something menacing is creeping up behind me.)  All of these pageviews show that blogging isn’t dead…it’s just changed.  It’s ever-changing because it’s written and read by people and people are ever-changing.  While some of the changes and new social media platforms have scooted me in directions I wasn’t planning to go, they have grown the blogging community beyond our little network and collectively challenged us to adapt.  It’s simultaneously exciting and scary.  As I’m looking ahead to 2020, planning and dreaming, I am more excited than I’ve been a long time about melding my favorite things about early days of blogging and the current technology and platforms available.

I hope you’ll join me as I dive in…