Top 5 Posts of 2015

Happy New Year everyone! I hope you had wonderful holidays with family and friends. We were in Pittsburgh for almost a week after Christmas and enjoyed seeing all kinds of relatives–parents, siblings, and cousins galore. We topped it all off with a special dinner to celebrate my sweet mother-in-law’s 80th birthday. We thoroughly enjoyed ourselves, but it does feel like it’s time to get back to some blogging.

Today I thought I’d look back on the year’s five most popular posts.

#5 Glittery Toilet Paper Tube Christmas Trees. These glittery trees were one of my personal favorites for the year, and they happen to coordinate perfectly with vintage Putz houses and bottle brush trees. The Hometalk newsletter featured it not too long ago, resulting in a nice boost in traffic.

#4 Junky Vintage Christmas Tree.  After seeing a few of these Christmas trees on Pinterest, like the one at My Salvaged Treasures, I decided to make one of my own, using rulers and “junk” I had lying around. Lots of new visitors stopped by via a Huffington Post article that the staff at Hometalk put together, 35 Breathtaking Christmas Trees You’ll Wish Were in Your Living Room Right Now.  

#3 Ironstone Price Guide. This year I introduced a new feature on my blog, a series of vintage and antique price guides. The ironstone guide has turned out to be the most popular of them all, confirming that ironstone is the “queen” of collectibles for many of us. Check out my other price guides on my side bar: transferware, Christmas, crackle glass, enamelware, and baskets. More will be coming in the new year!

#2 Graphic Transfer Farmhouse Art. What I love most about this project is that anyone can do it. All that you really need is some scrap wood and a ink jet printer, and the results can be terrific. This post received a tremendous boost in popularity after being selected as a feature by Donna at Funky Junk Interiors. If you are a DIYer or crafter who loves to take something junky or vintage and repurpose or beautify it, then you should visit her Friday evening party, Party Junk.

#1 Vintage Style Mini Mannequin Upcycle. The popularity of my number one post of the year came as a total surprise to me. In fact, I had questioned whether I should even post my little mannequin, but I’m sure glad I did. Something about this project captured people’s imagination and they went crazy for it. Numerous blogs featured it, along with an online magazine and a German sewing website, which all brought a lot of traffic. Hometalk featured it on their Facebook page, which also dramatically contributed to this post’s popularity. I have to say it was rather exciting watching this post go crazy and top out at 121,000 views (on Hometalk).

I think you can see a theme running through this year’s top five posts–when Hometalk likes your post, it can dramatically affect your pageviews. I owe many thanks to their wonderful staff, who not only highlight posts on their own social media, newsletter, and site sidebar, but also put together collections of posts that the media, like Huffington Post, might be interested in. Thanks Hometalk!

Another commonality among these top five posts is the interesting fact that readers enjoy my vintage crafts and repurposed projects. I promise I won’t stop serving them up to you in 2016! Along with crafty DIY posts, you’ll continue to see plenty of vintage finds and posts that help you learn more about vintage and antiques, like my price guides and category-specific articles. My post about Overlooked and Undervalued Garage Sale Items is one of my all-time, most popular posts (from 2014), and I plan to write a follow-up  article this year. I also have some plans regarding my Vintage Blog of the Week feature, as well as my FaiTHoughts posts, that I’ll be filling you in on soon. Thanks faithful followers and friends for making 2015 a super, blogging year. Here’s to a happy and healthy 2016 for us all!

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Bye for now,