Sunday, December 30

beyond the aisle: my favorite posts of 2012.

Yesterday I shared the ten most popular posts at Beyond the Aisle from 2012.  They were the posts that had received the most visitors and pageviews, and the posts that have appeared the most on Pinterest!  In reviewing which posts you loved, I realized that we love the same celebrities, creating crafts to wear and to decorate our homes with, and that we love inspiration - beautiful ideas for talented people about how to add color and style to everyday life.  Many of my readers are currently plannings, but the name Beyond the Aisle reminds me that married life can be just as full of sparkle and romance as the wedding day.  In this blog, I want to share ideas to celebrate the ordinary and the extraordinary in our lives.  Here are my personal favorite Beyond the Aisle posts from 2012.

#10:  Inspiration for a Black and White Anemone Wedding

Usually it's all about the color around here, so collecting inspiration for a black and white wedding styled around one of my favorite fall flowers was a lot of fun and a nice change of pace.  More than a year after my own wedding, vintage details are still where my heart lies when it comes to event design.

#9:  A Manifesto

My "deep thoughts" on event planning, marriage, relationships and blogging about those things.  No matter what Mr. Q and I are working on, I believe that simplicity is best, family is something you make, and honesty with ourselves is key to happiness.

March is when I started to re-shape what Beyond the Aisle is all about, and I guess that's a process that will continue throughout 2013.  What began as a wedding planning blog when I was a bridesmaid in college has become a big part of my life, and I want it to reflect more of my lifestyle and interests.


#7:  #Septemberstories Introduction and Recap

Instagrammers and librarians @sunlightstringer and @wkr1990 came up with a photo challenge for book lovers and I really enjoyed completing all of the prompts.  Next month, they're hosting #Januaryjourneys; hopefully I'll be able to keep up as well as I did with the book challenge!

Are Titanic dinner parties are in poor taste?  Maybe, but Mr. Q, my SIL and I had a lot of fun replicating the first and second class menus from the doomed ship.  I also explained why my seventh grade crush on Leonardo DiCaprio probably led to my bachelor's degree in English.

#5:  Summer Crafting:  Olympic Rings Tie-Dye T-Shirt

I had major Olympics fever this summer - I am a bit of an Anglophile and London is one of my dream destinations.  I also love easy crafts, and tie-dying a t-shirt is a fun, slightly retro activity.  This style of tie-dye could be used to create shirts for a lot of different colorful occasions, or in team colors.  My other Olympics posts included a post about my anticipation, decor ideas for a potluck closing ceremonies party, a dinner party, a Brazilian theme partya closing ceremonies party playlist, and recipes for a Brazilian heart of palm salad and avocado-coconut milkshake.

#4:  Guest Post from Micah:  Dresser Project

Micah from Unabashedly Me has one of my best online friends for years now and I was so happy when she offered to do a guest post for me while I was volunteering at a summer camp.  Her painted dresser DIY is a big project, but she made it really approachable and easy to understand.  It's not only one of my favorite posts but one of the most popular posts on Beyond the Aisle for 2012!


I think it's important to cover the serious parts of marriage here, too.  Mr. Q is my partner and my best friend, and this post is really about how I know I can always count on him to be there, not just for me but for my friends and for our community as well.

#2:  Giving Back:  Thank a Caregiver this Holiday Season

I was really happy to be able to help the Give a Care campaign by writing about the most amazing caregiver in my life - my mom.

#1:  When the President Came to Town...

I think my most exciting experience this year was attending a rally for President Obama.  In this post I tried to share exactly what happens at these types of political gatherings - it was really exciting, but there were a few things I wish I'd known beforehand, like to wear more comfortable shoes, to take a poncho, and to take advantage of the cups of water that were available.

Linking Up:
 


4 comments:

  1. I loved your Titanic dinner party, and only wish I had thought to do something similar in our home as well.

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    1. Thank you! Hopefully we'll be able to come up with some fun, quirky, on-the-fly celebrations this year - I think The Great Gatsby movie coming out basically DEMANDS a 1920's celebration.

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  2. I loved all your posts this year and am so excited to continue following Beyond the Aisle into the new year (even though I'm one of those currently-planning brides!)

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    1. K, I am so happy that we have become blog friends this year. I love following your planning process!

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