The top twelve from 2014

Hello! How have you been enjoying 2015 so far? I always feel like January is kinda a weird month, you know? Like, it's just the introduction to the year and I never really get much done. That said, I have been enjoying spending my time catching up with friends and family, looking for a new job, planning for a holiday in February which will be my first time leaving the country (!!!), and sitting on the fence over the decision to complete my honours degree this year. And, I thought this would be a good time to jump on the bandwagon of "things I did in 2014" posts. I went through and looked at which of my posts were the most popular last year and I must say some of the results surprised me! Here's the top 12 ...

12.

First up: the Pineapple and AT-AT string art. This project still looks just the same as the day I made it, so I can confirm they hold up well! I still want to make more geometric crafts, I love the fun impact they have! And I still think pineapples are the coolest fruit ^___^

 

 11.

Ahh, Instagram. A social media format that I love so much I made a pillow of the logo. I've had this on my couch since its creation, and it's gotten a lot of nice comments from visitors. If they're a little concerned by my commitment to a photo sharing app, well, they're too kind to say anything to me about it! ~____^  

10.

This one is a draw between the daisy flower crown I made using a loom, and my Lumpy Space Princess cosplay. My daisy flower crown is still looking good, and I made another one as a gift for a friend which she hung as bunting. I think I need to do that as well! Or, make some kind of flower crown display as I have accumulated a few by now. My LSP cosplay has held up pretty well; one of the bows of the shoes came loose from its clips, and one of the arms fell off my handbag. This is what I get for being rushed and using hot glue: E6000 is obviously the answer ~___^

 

9.

This one is perhaps not entirely accurate, as the post that included my crochet BMO brooch also included mention of two shrinky dink brooches and a ('nother) flower crown. But, awww, look at those faces! Surely BMO is the one who commanded all those page views, right? I wear a lot of my brooches to work (I have to wear a lanyard so I don't really bother with necklaces) and my Adventure Time brooches are always a hit with the kids. And some of the adults too! ^___^

8.

The Nyan Cat pillow that I made for my friend Molly's firstborn child was the closest I got to amigurumi this year and probably could top any list I made for "crafts with lots of parts" (which would certainly be a highly niche list ...). I'm glad this made the list as often I forget about crafts that I give away. This is one of the reasons why I like to take photos of everything!

7.

My crochet black rose flower crown is one of my most worn hair accessories and it's still going strong! I originally tied the roses onto the headband, but taking them off to wear the roses separately caused the ties to become loose so I ended up gluing them into place. The black roses seem to work with every hair colour that I've had this year (and that's a few!) and I've used it to add a fun touch to many, many outfits.

6.

The coffin purse was kinda a surprise addition to this list - at least to me! It's a bit of a different project to what I normally do so it's nice to see it got some love this year. And some of that love was from people specifically searching for coffin purses (at least according to my traffic sources). Isn't that cool?! I used this purse a couple of times for evening outings this year and it held up well. It's roomier than it looks and since the basic structure is thick cardboard, it's fairly sturdy. 

 

5.

My knitted pineapple tea cosy made it into the top five! I gifted this cosy to my friend Pip so I haven't examined it lately, but I'm sure she would have told me if it had spontaneously unraveled ~___^ I was really pleased with this project because knitting doesn't come easy to me. I must remember to continue perservering with it though, because I feel like I am missing out on lots of fun projects!

4.

The cat, rabbit, and bear planters are number four, but I'm not using these for planters currently (it seems it is downright impossible for me to grow plants inside). They are instead sitting in my laundry holding important things such as scrubbing brushes, soap, and fabric dyes and I can report that they're doing a very good job of it.

3.

I crocheted Wicket the Ewok cushion for International Star Wars Day and since then he has been hanging out on our couch; getting sat on and squished and occasionally thrown at people (I'm placing all the blame for that last one on rambunctious house guests by the way. You know who you are ~___^) and he still looks as good as new. That wide eyed smile gets me every time ...

 

2.

On a completely different note to all these other projects, my post on my Pyrex collection was popular enough to make it almost to the top of the list! My collection is still growing and I may need to do a follow-up post soon to add information about some of the other designs I've brought home ^___^

1.

The top spot this year was claimed by my post announcing the Giant Pineapple Cosy KAL that Tanya and I organised! Doing the KAL was such fun, and Tanya is such a wonderful and lovely crafter to work with, so I'm really glad you all got excited about it too! My crocheted version of the pineapple tea cosy lives happily in prime position in my kitchen. It's still looking wonderful, and everyone who has been served tea in it has loved it ^___^

 

 I hope you had a fantastic 2014, and that 2015 shapes up to be even better! Did you make a favourite project in 2014? Did any of my posts on this list surprise you? Did I miss out your favourite? Do you know the airspeed velocity of an unladen swallow? ~___^

- Lisa xx