{"id":955,"date":"2025-10-26T04:35:10","date_gmt":"2025-10-25T20:35:10","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/veryauto.org\/index.php\/2025\/11\/22\/top-posts-for-2014-and-what-a-year-its-been\/"},"modified":"2025-11-22T14:42:11","modified_gmt":"2025-11-22T06:42:11","slug":"top-posts-for-2014-and-what-a-year-its-been","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/veryauto.org\/?p=955","title":{"rendered":"Top Posts for 2014 \u2013 And What A Year It\u2019s Been!"},"content":{"rendered":"
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\"Top<\/p>\n

Wow! \u00a0It\u2019s hard to believe my first full year of blogging is coming to a close. \u00a0I\u2019ve been officially blogging for 14 months now and it has been quite the wild ride. \u00a0I\u2019ve had moments where my jaw hit the floor in shock and moments when I wanted to pull my hair out and cry. \u00a0Thankfully, the good has far outweighed those few bad moments in blogging this year. \u00a0Here\u2019s a look back at my top 10 most popular posts this year.<\/p>\n

10. Cherry Pie Moonshine<\/h4>\n

\"Cherry<\/p>\n

9. Pottery Barn-Inspired Console Table<\/h4>\n

\"Pottery<\/p>\n

\u00a08. 14 Inspired Craft Room Ideas<\/h4>\n

\"14<\/p>\n

7. DIY Farmhouse Table with Extensions<\/h4>\n

\"DIY<\/p>\n

6. How to Build Your Own Butcher Block<\/h4>\n

\"How<\/p>\n

5. DIY Laundry Pedestal<\/h4>\n

\"DIY<\/p>\n

4. DIY Painted Kitchen Towels<\/h4>\n

\"DIY<\/p>\n

3. Patriotic Mason Jar Lanterns<\/h4>\n

\"Patriotic<\/p>\n

2. Apple Pie Moonshine<\/h4>\n

\"Apple<\/p>\n

1. Peach Pie Moonshine<\/h4>\n

\"Peach<\/p>\n

I have to say I\u2019m a tad surprised that three out of the 10 top posts were moonshine recipes, but given how good they are, I guess I can\u2019t bee too surprised. \u00a0Did you have a favorite project from this year? \u00a0It\u2019s hard for me to pick. \u00a0I love them all!<\/p>\n

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What a year it\u2019s been!<\/h3>\n

If you were to tell me that by the end of this year I\u2019d have met all of my first year blogging goals, I\u2019d look at you like you were insane! \u00a0Honestly, though, I didn\u2019t set too many goals. \u00a0I really had no clue what to expect, which means I didn\u2019t set the loftiest goals. \u00a0The main goals I had was to gain some blogging friendships and to reach 100,000 pageviews by the end of the year. \u00a0When I started the year with 15,000 pageviews, I figured that goal would definitely take the longest. \u00a0Then in June, Country Living shared my\u00a0patriotic mason jar lanterns\u00a0<\/strong>and I about died! \u00a0I called one of my girlfriends, squealing with excitement about my favorite magazine sharing one of my posts! \u00a0That started the ball rolling for them to share many other projects of mine over the next few months. \u00a0I also had several projects featured on BuzzFeed, Today.com, and Apartment Therapy. \u00a0I feel beyond blessed to have these major websites share my work, even though I still sometimes scratch my head trying to figure out how they found me in the first place. \u00a0Of course, these features also caused several tears when my site went down a few times. \u00a0It\u2019s a really terrible feeling to put so much time and effort into something and realize you still aren\u2019t in control.<\/p>\n

\"889152101-resized\"<\/p>\n

Earlier this year, I also opened up on a subject that has made my husband and I feel both heartbroken and helpless. \u00a0Our oldest son was diagnosed with Tourette Syndrome<\/strong>. \u00a0It has been a year of ups and downs with his tics going back and forth from being almost nonexistent to a constant part of his day. \u00a0It\u2019s been such an emotional rollercoaster for us as parents, but his strength and courage through all of this has blown us away. \u00a0Our youngest son has also shocked me with how he handles what has to be a very frustrating situation, and he never, ever makes his brother feel like he is different.<\/p>\n

We also dealt with a great loss as we said goodbye to the patriarch of my \u00a0husband\u2019s family. \u00a0His grandfather passed away in July of this year. \u00a0We managed to see him one last time when we traveled to Texas in June for a family vacation. \u00a0We are so grateful we got to see him that one last time.<\/p>\n

This year I have made so many blogging friends. \u00a0One of which has become like a best friend and I was so excited to finally get to meet her face to face as well as many others at the Haven Blogging Conference<\/strong>\u00a0in Atlanta. \u00a0<\/p>\n

\"IMG_4615-edited\"<\/p>\n

We can\u2019t wait until SNAP! in April to get together again.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Not only did I meet so many new blogging friends, but I also became a brand ambassador for\u00a0HomeRight,\u00a0<\/strong>an affiliate for\u00a0Silhouette America,\u00a0<\/strong>and I\u2019m sure I\u2019m missing a few things. \u00a0Bottom line\u2026It\u2019s been a great year! \u00a0Thank you all so much for making this year so great! \u00a0It couldn\u2019t have been done without all of you, my fabulous readers!<\/p>\n

I\u2019ve got some big goals and plans for 2015 and I can\u2019t wait to share them all with you. \u00a0There will be some huge projects starting on our home, including a pool and a 2,400 square foot workshop. \u00a0I\u2019m still in shock about the fact that we\u2019ll be putting in those additions, but it will be amazing. \u00a0Plus the shop will mean bigger and better things for me to share on the blog!<\/p>\n

I hope you all have a wonderful and safe new year and I can\u2019t wait to see you all in 2015!<\/p>\n

\u00a0<\/p>\n

<\/div>\n<\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Wow! \u00a0It\u2019s hard to believe my first full year of blogging is coming to a close. \u00a0I\u2019ve been<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":956,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[25],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/veryauto.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/955"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/veryauto.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/veryauto.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/veryauto.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/veryauto.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=955"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/veryauto.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/955\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":1025,"href":"https:\/\/veryauto.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/955\/revisions\/1025"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/veryauto.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/956"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/veryauto.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=955"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/veryauto.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=955"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/veryauto.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=955"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}