2014 Best of the year blog posts!

Welcome to 2015 my friends!

To kick off the year I wanted to take a look back at 2014 on my blog!  I like to go through my stats and see which posts were favourites amongst my readers.  It’s a very eye opening activity…sometimes I’m surprised by what becomes popular, and what doesn’t.  And I’m quite often surprised to see that my faves are not yours.  Sometimes my most favourite posts to make and put together are my least viewed posts, and I can never figure out why…like this Salad Roll Bar from 2013 that I loved but didn’t get viewed much.  Or this Spaghetti Sauce from 2013 that I put up kind of last minute without much thought, and has now turned out to be in the top 3 of my most viewed and pinned posts of all time.  Who knew?

Anyway, let’s have a look at 2014 over here at ‘A Pretty Life’.  I’ve split this post up into 3 parts:  Your Favourite Recipes, Your Favourite DIYs and My Favourite Posts of 2014.

This Cheesy Jalapeno Popper Baked Penne was my #1 most viewed post of 2014!  And I can see why…this dish is so good!  Creamy and so cheesy!

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This post of 15 Easy & Delicious Camping Recipes has been very popular!  I love that because these are tried and true recipes that we go-to for our camping trips!

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Seems like y’all love a creamy and cheesy dish!  These Creamy Chicken & Green Chili Enchiladas were a hit in 2014!

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This S’more Cheesecake Dip was popular too!  Anything S’mores seems to be a fave!

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These Crunchy Coconut Chicken Bites are a steady favourite over here!  This recipe has been viewed 10’s of thousands of times!

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Dutch Babies are our favourite breakfast recipe, and it looks like this Apple Baked Dutch Baby recipe is a favourite amongst you as well!

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I was surprised to see my Homemade Ginger Tea in the top posts of 2014!  And this makes me super happy because this tea is a staple in our house…I swear it keeps away colds and flu bugs!

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My marshmallow dips have always been popular over here, so it was no surprise to see my Chocolate Marshmallow Fluff Dip in the top posts for 2014!

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Comfort food was a hit here on my blog in 2014!  This Chicken Pot Pie has been pinned and viewed thousands of times!  This recipe is SO good, so I’m thrilled to see that you like it too!

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This post for Easy & Delicious Flavoured Waters was a big surprise to me!  Who knew water could be so popular!  😉

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Now I know that I mostly post recipes over here, but I do like to sprinkle in some home projects and crafts…I just kind of make what I feel like, you know?  Sometimes I cook, sometimes I craft and sometimes we do home projects…my blog mirrors a lot of my real life goings-on.  So here are my most popular DIYs from 2014.

I made this $5 DIY Egg Carton Lamp for a little contest with AllYou Magazine, and I am SHOCKED at how popular it has been!  Who knew?!  It is pretty cool.

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Organizing posts are always a hit, so I am not too surprised to see my post on Tips for Organizing a Shared Boys Bedroom in the top posts of 2014!  Now if I could just have this room look like this ALL the time!  😉

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My $20 DIY Fall Wreath also made it into my top posts of 2014!  I think so many of you love a simple, uncomplicated and inexpensive project just as much as I do!  I’m going to try to do more projects like this in 2015.

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I was thrilled to see My Christmas Home Tour in the top posts.  Initially I was really hesitant to put this post up, because I felt like it didn’t measure up to so many of the beautiful home tours in blogland. But I’m embracing our home…it’s ours and it’s lovely.

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My Front Porch Makeover was popular this year as well, which I think is great because I love it too!  It has made such a difference to our home!

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Now, I also wanted to share my most favourite posts from 2014.  I love a lot of the ones featured already, but my favourites by far are the ones below…

One of my favourite recipes from 2014 is this Coconut Pound Cake with Coconut Sugar Glaze.  SO moist and coconut-y!

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I also really loved the Wine & Cheese party I put together for Chatelaine!  SO fun and delicious!

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I had to include this post of our summer trip to Ucluelet because it was such a great time!  I want to do more travel posts over here this year…we plan to do much more exploring as a family in 2015!

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I absolutely loved my Fall Mantel this year!

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This Turkey Meatball Noodle Soup is one of my most favourite soups from 2015.  Perfect for the next few cooooold winter months!

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Whew that was a long post!  If you made it this far, I THANK YOU!  🙂 Anyway, I really wanted to thank you for reading along with me in 2014, and I look forward to a fun 2015 over here!  I have a lot of recipes and projects swirling around in my head and I can’t wait to get started and share them with you!

Happy New Year friends!