Top Ten of 2011

 
Happy New Year!

Shh...let's just pretend I'm not two weeks late on this.  I've been absent from this space for a few weeks and need something easy to get back in, so...top ten it is! 

Here, in increasing order of popularity, are my most widely-read posts from 2011:

10. The DIY Skeleton Puzzle Set, a little dollar store craft I whipped up for the kiddos for Halloween of 2010. 

9. Embroidering on Fruit and Vegetable Mesh, a fun repurposing project we tried last January.

8. The Thing about Beauty, some thoughts on the reactions to this blog after it was nominated for a single parenting blog award.

7. The Snowy Day Art Buffet, an idea for getting messy with the kiddos on a cold day.

6.  Fingerknitted Headband: an Easy Preschool Project, a little DIY gift project for the littles (with a little grown-up help.)

5.  Growing Beans in Glass Jars, a super fun gardening project from early 2010.  This cracks me up, to be honest.  Did you know that somewhere on earth, every day, someone searches Google images for "beans in jars" or "growing beans in jars" or "grow beans in glass jars"?  I knew this...because it comes up on my stats constantly.  This post is far and away the one that has been reached by the greatest number of people who have found me through a Google image search.

4. The Rock Washing Station: a little sensory activity with a purpose.

3. Book Talk: Winter-themed Children's Books, a timely post for the moment.  I love writing book posts so much, but they're so time-consuming!  Hopefully I'll do some more soon.

2. The Trolley Garden: Our New Natural Playscape, about how, with our neighbors, we reinvented our backyard.  I take this post's popularity to mean that more people are creating these kinds of play spaces for the kids.  Yay!

And finally...

1. How to Make an Outdoor Ice Bunting, a little ice jewel decoration we entertained ourselves with last winter (see photo above).  This post was viewed over 6,000 times last year and has gotten a lot of hits so far this month.  I'm so excited that people like this idea!  Within a few weeks of posting it, I received loads of emails from people who had made their own, many of whom sent photos.  I ended up writing a follow-up post with their photos, found here.

Thank you, thank you, thank you dear readers!  I love hearing from you, sharing with you, and interacting with you.  I've gotten so many good ideas from your comments and emails, and I really appreciate your visits.

Here's to a lovely 2012!

Jaimie