Here’s the deal: a lot is happening over here in order to prep my career for life with baby Charlie/Oliver/Starke, so I went through and found my 14 most popular posts as an exercise to see what was the most read/pinned/tweeted/commented on and just overall engaged with. My blog has switched from blogger to Squarespace (don’t do it) to Wordpress so it was hard to figure out just by numbers. I kinda had to think about comments, pins, tweets, press, and overall reaction. It was VERY enlightening.
This exercise is a lot like posting photos of yourself from junior high; there’s a lot you want to change about past posts (and your past self); the pictures are formatted weird on some of these; the copy alignment might be off, etc. But the content is what people engage with — not the pics — so I just left them as is.
Much like when I had braces and a camel toe in my 7th grade basketball team photo, some things you just can’t go back and fix but moving forward you try to really not repeat.
So here goes … my 14 most popular posts:
1. 15 Do’s and Don’ts to Getting and Keeping an Entry Level Design Job. This post was controversial and after rereading it I do feel like it’s harsh. I’m happy to say that I’ve grown as a manager since then and have had some really incredible assistants and interns come through, perform amazingly, and either stayed on in some way or have gotten full time jobs (where I’ve hopefully been a very good reference and some help).  I still agree with every word, but yes, it’s harsh. Be prepared for a lot of “kids these days” type of condescending language.
2. Bri’s Makeover. I did Bri’s living room makeover this year and this post went viral on Pinterest as well as L.A. Times, Apartment Therapy, and many other blogs posted about it. VERY satisfying, indeed.
3. My Living Room Makeover. This was a sponsored series with West Elm and while it looks totally kookie, so am I. One commenter said that it looked like SpongeBob SquarePants designed it, which cracks me up every time. She was wrong, but kinda right at the same time.
4. 16 Movies to Watch While Pregnant. This post is just from a couple weeks ago but man, it got some traffic and serious reader engagement. I still haven’t read all the comments (but will, I PROMISE). I’m VERY happy that all my time watching overly sentimental movies with adorable children came to some use to me, and America, in the form of this post.
5. The Hendersons Are Expanding … Sometimes you just need to finally get pregnant to drive a bunch of traffic to your site. Noted. More life changes in the works.
6. How to Deal with Negative Criticism This post took like two hours to write (which is not very many) but totally resonated with a lot of people,  mostly bloggers. Haters gonna hate.
7. Fran’s Sunrise Makeover.  It was such a happy surprise at how much people loved this post. The story got picked up by a lot of publications and I think it just hit the sentimental part of all of us. This makes me VERY, VERY, VERY happy.
8. Martha and Mormons; Why Are There So Many Mormon Design Bloggers?  I wrote this three years ago, before it was so well known that this was the case. I’m not saying I broke the story but Huffington Post‘s big story about it came out only weeks later and referenced it a lot. I was raised Mormon so I got the inside scoop.
9. Best Gray Paint Colors According to Ryan Gosling. Not sure why I don’t integrate Ryan Gosling into every post. Noted. I tried it again with Best Navy Blue Paints According to Robert Pattinson and it wasn’t NEARLY as popular. Apparently not all of my readers are as attracted to that brooding vampire Brit as I am.
10. Everything You Need to Know About Upholstering Furniture. It’s a how-to guide that hopefully makes people way less intimidated to redo their own vintage pieces. Plus, you can learn from my mistakes.
11. Joy’s Kid-Friendly, Baby-Proofed Living Room. This is where I re-did Joy’s living room (which I had done on the show) to be super kid-friendly and safe for her incredibly cute baby Ruby.
12. My 12 Styling Essentials. A super simple post about the 12 things that I buy the most. They aren’t the most exciting things of all time, but my God I should just buy them in bulk.
13. Land of Nod Tween Bedroom Makeover. Oh, how I love this happy room for this incredibly happy girl.
14. How to Mix Patterns: Styling 101. The videos have been hit and miss, despite how much more time consuming and expensive they are to produce than a regular post. So if you want my child to have proper food in his mouth, you’ll subscribe to my YouTube channel and watch these bad boys.
So there you go. Not sure what this says about me and the blog. I was happy that at least some of the design posts (that take months) were as popular as the personal posts, that take minutes.
But obviously, the more feedback from you, the better. In general, I just try to write what I would want to read but I totally fail at times as well. So if you have a favorite post or if I’m missing one that you think was really popular, PLEASE comment. I’m really trying to hone in on where I should be spending my blog time, so PLEASE help.
