Happy New Year friends! My wish for you is that 2024 is a year of happiness and health for all of you. I really appreciate you joining me in 2023! Thank you for reading my posts and for all your comments. I especially love it when you share how you’ve been inspired in small ways by my blog. In 2023, I wrote about crafts and small DIY projects, as well as participating in home tours for my favourite holidays, and the One Room Challenge for our basement yoga, meditation, and exercise room.
I always aim to write posts about the topics you most love and want to learn more about. Today’s post, My Top 5 Blog Posts of 2023, is all about your favourites, determined by Google Analytics. For the fifth year in a row, I’m sharing my top posts of the past year. For 2023, these are a mix of everything I love about blogging, including crafts, DIY’s, IKEA everything, seasonal home tours, and renovations.
Personal Life
New Year’s Eve is always a time of personal reflection for me and I’m happy to share a little of that with you today. In 2023, I focused on health, family and work. I joined a gym in February and it’s been such a game changer. I’m grateful to have found a facility with amazing classes and a great pool within a welcoming and inclusive environment. Aerial hoop, yoga, and barre are now a part of my weekly routine. We also made good progress on our basement renovation. We still have to finish the home office and a few details which I will share with you in 2024. It was also a good year for travelling- returning to our favourite campsite in Algonquin Park with extended family this summer, touring New York state with my son’s violin ensemble, and visiting Costa Rica with family in November.
Transitions
We also had some pretty big transitions in 2023. My first-born child graduated from high school and started university away from home in September. There were so many bittersweet last moments in the spring and summer as my son performed for the last time with his violin teacher, violin ensemble, youth orchestra, and school orchestra. He attended prom, graduation, and Cadenza, which is a full-day event for the graduating music students at his arts high school (one of my favourite memories of 2023). And then there were all the preparations for university and residence life. It was all worth it as he loves his new school, city, and studying music performance full time. For the rest of our family of five, it has been a challenge adjusting to his absence at home.
The second transition occurred in December, with the deterioration of my Dad’s health. After a couple of emergency hospital visits as well as an upcoming surgery, we decided to have him move in with us until his surgery and recovery. We’re working to keep him as comfortable as possible and to understand some of his health issues and how best to care for him. Our home has been particularly busy and full over the holidays with a household of six, plus visitors at times.
The Coming Year
In the coming year, I will be sharing more of your favourite blog topics. In 2023, I wrote 25 posts which is about half of what I usually publish, and the reason why this post is about my top five posts of the year rather than the top ten which I normally do. Given some of the challenges I see for the coming year, I think 25 posts is an achievable goal for 2024. Writing fewer posts means really honing in on the decor projects I most enjoy doing and researching what you, my readers, want to see the most of. I will continue to share my seasonal decor, ideas for entertaining, my favourite decor products and hacks, and craft and DIY projects.
My Top 5 Blog Posts Of 2023
#5 – The Prettiest Spring Tablescape for Your Easter Gathering
My spring home tour was the most popular of my home tours in 2023. For this home tour, I decided to focus on the dining room, creating a clean and simple, yet whimsical tablescape in shades of white and beige. I had fun with the napkins, folding them in a bunny shape. I also included spring-flowering bulbs and unique potted plants for my table centrepiece. For me, tablescapes are all about layering and including interesting things to look at.
#4 – How to Whitewash Terra Cotta Pots
This project was the quickest and easiest project of the year and I couldn’t be happier with how it turned out. In the post, I share the best tips to achieve this look. You can scale this up for larger pots and it can even be used for outdoor pots. I used these pots in my Easter tablescape but I’ve been enjoying them all year round throughout the home. I think it would be a fun technique to use on other colours of clay pots, especially dark grey ones.
#3 – How to Make a Microwaveable Heating Pad
This was a very popular and easy DIY project I shared last year. There are so many possibilities with colour and pattern. I chose a flannel houndstooth fabric in green and white for the neck warmers and a pink and white flannel for the hand warmers. I made some for gifts and some to keep and have used them pretty much every week throughout the year and every day during the past month. If you live in a cold climate or often have a tense back or neck, you will want to make some of these!
#2 – Upgrading Your IKEA Farlov Sofa With Comfort Works Slipcovers
It’s no secret that IKEA posts have always been my most popular posts, so seeing this post at #2 is not surprising. Many of us own IKEA sofas and having the ability to effortlessly upgrade a sofa is a great option. In this post, I share my experience of ordering and using the Comfort Works Slipcovers. IKEA has a very limited selection of fabrics whereas Comfort Works has close to a hundred different options for colour and fabric content. You can customize based on your style and functional considerations.
#1 – The Best New IKEA Products for 2023
I write this post every year and it’s often my most popular post of the year. IKEA is appealing to so many people, from those getting their first apartment to families not wanting to spend a fortune on furniture to older people wanting to downsize. The new IKEA products for 2023 were right on trend and beautiful, modern, and functional. I’m happy to share that I’ll soon be starting work on my post about the best new IKEA products for 2024. It’s usually one of the first posts I write in the new year as the new products are released.
Summary Of My Top 5 Blog Posts Of 2023
I only wrote two IKEA posts in 2023 and they were my top two posts. I’m still a huge fan of IKEA and I really think I should write a few more IKEA posts this year. Two of my top five posts were quick and easy craft/DIY projects. There are many DIYs I’d love to share with all of you and the 2023 posts are proof that easy can also be beautiful, valuable, and functional. I was happy to see a home tour tablescape round out my list of top posts of 2023. It’s been fun reviewing and thinking about the previous year. Thank you so much for reading my post, My Top 5 Blog Posts of 2023. Did you have a favourite post this year and what would you like to see more of on the blog in 2024?
Enjoy the rest of your holidays friends! You’ll find me reading a good book on the IKEA sofa whenever I get the chance.
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