Life is kind of made of flops, huh? Flops aren’t always negative, but they are always something from which you (hopefully) learn. It is kind of surreal to think that we have been blogging for a year! It has been at times a very quick year and at other times, a very long year. Whichever way… it has been showcased right here in the pages of this blog. When looking at the back catalog in preparations for this week’s celebration posts, finding favorites was easy. Finding flops was decidedly more difficult as we strive to never/rarely “phone it in” or write about anything that doesn’t hold OUR interest. But, then again, there were still THOSE posts. Hope you didn’t catch a peek, but our blog learning curve was showing. We are hoping you have forgotten Coralie’s Chili-dog casserole or her self-described floundering attempt at parenting advice. And let’s just say you might want to sweep Leigh’s blatent “I’m sick” post Warm and Fuzzy under the rug.
But, we did it. One year. Boom. When we were brainstorming what we wanted this blog to become, we had originally named it, “Waiting on Life’s Instruction Manual” because (in more ways than one) we were both waiting for the universe to open up and show us what we were supposed to be doing with our lives. In the last year, it has become obvious that we are supposed to be blogging! We are always surprised at which posts hit and which don’t gain traction. As of right now (the numbers are always changing), Leigh’s post about removing paint from plastic containers with nail polish remover has the most visits on the site. Which is hilarious. Monday we showcased our favorites but today, we are going to share our favorite flops! Our definition of “flop” varies and we hope you enjoy our poking fun at ourselves. Just like our list of favorites, playlist rules apply. Here’s our list in no particular order.
Our Favorite Flops
10. (Coralie) – Leigh and I started talking about doing these blogaversary posts at least a month, maybe six weeks ago and the first post of mine that jumped into my brain was the one about the cocktail flu. See, what had happened was… I enjoyed just 1 too many cocktails one evening and forgot to do a post for the following morning. It doesn’t happen often, but it happened that day. I called or texted Leigh and she was very graceful about the situation and she was like, hey- just post a ‘Deep Thoughts’ essay- but, all I could think about was getting the Alka-Seltzer Plus Cold in my body— so, that’s what that post became- an ode to Alka-Seltzer. What’s mind boggling about that post is that it has had over 2300 visits, which in our world is big.
9. Quinoa Breakfast Bowl- A Gut Buster In the BEST Possible Way – (Leigh) Although I still stand by the fact that this is a great breakfast, I feel like this post is a flop due to the fact that it is just a glorified referral. No original pictures. Although the body of content is still solid- like the breakfast!- I never felt like I could promote it because the picture and content weren’t mine. I tried to give as much credit as possible to the original source, but I still get the squeeems about it. Oh the Internet! You and your dubious code of proprietary ethics!
8. Polishing: A Pinterest and Blog Experiment! – (Leigh) While we are still polishing the blog, this post about alternative silver cleaning was originally a flop because my camera broke and I only had one picture… but then the silver polishing technique itself turned out to be a flop. So much so, that I had to update the post just to let people know not to polish their silver that way. Oof!
7. (Coralie) – Another post of mine that came to life as a reflection of what was going on in my world was the post I did about beach camping for Bub’s 40th birthday. As a matter of fact, that trip went from a one night excursion to a 2 night affair and I had to call Leigh and ask to trade a day because I was not ahead on my post (that was a novel concept way back then!). When I got home from camping I was so beat, that I just threw that post together… 4800 visits later, I guess people are interested in beach camping and sunburn remedies!
6. Spicing Up My Life! – (Leigh) We try and cross promote our posts across multiple social networking platforms. That’s just part of the game. We’re pretty consistent about it, but sometimes some posts fail to get a status update on Facebook- either due to forgetfulness, or voluntary omission. This post was one of them. I recognize that a lot of people don’t share my enthusiasm for optimum space fill-age (see: Things Fitting Perfectly Into Other Things) but, after writing it, I asked myself who in the world would care about the best way to store spices in my specific kitchen. I’m working on an update to the post as this system ended up not working out and we are now onto something much better. Should an update follow? Does anyone care about cabinet storage?
5. (Coralie) – Now, I have another post that can also be found on our favorites list… Chargrilled oysters and injected chicken and let’s not forget the spinach salad. Yes, that was so much fun. I sincerely hope that our Thanksgiving Eve dinner with family and friends becomes a cemented tradition that we do every year but this year, you will get the pleasure of reading about it in multiple posts. By that I mean more than 2 because the sidekick to that post The Best Cheesecake and Pecan Pie… Did you get that- 5 different and independently wonderful recipes crammed in 2 posts. Those are flops because they had too much going on! There’s that learning curve.
4. (Leigh) – I acknowledge that I am not the best blogger ever. I can be found often kicking myself for not properly documenting a project photographically. I am working on becoming better but there are some posts that seem more talky when they should be more showy. Although they are two of my favorite posts, and super popular on the site, An Appliqued T-Shirt Mod and Star Trek Onesie: Make it Sew! are flops, to me, in that I wish I had more pictures of some of the more intricate steps. It’s like there is a page missing in the instruction manual. I should do another applique and rectify this!
3. (Coralie) – I have secret to share, the cabinet in the kitchen that we cleaned and designated as the garbage can cabinet– yeah, well, that didn’t last. The garbage can is and has been back out and in the middle of everything. That cabinet is once again home to the brooms— oh! Maybe we should address that cabinet again and give ourselves some much needed storage! (stay tuned!)
2. (Leigh) – You never know. Sometimes the post that started as “phoned-in” winds up becoming something wonderful, in an unexpected way. Coralie is much better at doing her posts in advance than I am, as I have mentioned several times. Around holidays and trips, things seem to get crazier than the normal day-to-day routine– duh doy. And, as such, all the time that I think I’ll have to write thoughtful posts about the holidays seems to disappears leaving me the night before the post is due furiously typing. See: Procrasti…..nation. That isn’t to say that the post isn’t thoughtful or well-written… but it certainly isn’t my favorite writing environment in which to work. Odd that I find myself there so frequently. Again, these posts are heart-felt… but maybe not… the best? My Small World post doesn’t even have a picture! I’ll never forget being so physically and emotionally exhausted from moving out of our Chicago apartment and STILL writing a post that night from the hotel room. That is why I’m loving the improved, year-2.0 version of FTTDWYW which includes Hall Passes. Could have used a few of those this past year!
1. (Coralie) – Do you remember what I posted about on August 21? You don’t? Oh good! Because it was a flop! Maybe it should get lost in the shuffle- but, I will say, I do hope it doesn’t rain half as much this summer as it did last summer!
We hope that you have enjoyed our guided tour of our favorites and our flops from the past year. We are constantly in awe that there are people out there in the blogosphere who take time to tune into our world and what we have cooking… or crafty-ing… or what ever we’re thinking. Looking back is a chance for us to take stock of how far we have come and gives us motivation to keep on keeping on! Thank you for joining us.
What do you think? We’re you expecting Leigh’s book review of Moby Dick to make the list? Did we miss a post that you think smelled to high-heaven? As always, let us know!
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