My blogging review of 2013

2013 was my second full year of blogging.  My goal was 100 posts and I fell short of that by 3.  Still, 97 posts aren't too bad.

50 of those posts were part of Sally Russick's "Focus on Life" series.  (The last two were posted in January.)

Sally's idea was to take one photograph a week, concentrating on our day to day lives.

I missed a few weeks here and there, but ultimately, was able to catch up and offer 52 photos for the year.

Here are a few of my favorites:

Like last year, I participated in several beading challenges.

My favorites this year were Erin Prais-Hintz's Challenge of Travel and Christine Altmiller's Rolling Blog Hop.

I made this beauty in honor of the fountains in Kansas city.

I made a similar necklace using a spool from Christine.

As you might be able to tell from the photos above, I took an interest in chain maille this year, thanks to Rebeca Mojica, founder of Blue Buddha Boutique.

This bracelet, made from Rebeca's Intricate Chain Maille pattern, is my favorite to date.

In non beading news, I hit a milestone in 2012 and achieved my first black belt in karate.

That brick held the honor of being my arch nemesis for some time, but I am happy to say, I prevailed.

My weapons test was postponed from October 2012 to April 2013, so I will spend the first part of 2013 with these.

We took our second family vacation in July of 2013.  We visited Chicago and the kiddo has a fabulous time at the aquarium, the planetarium, the zoo and the nature museum, not to mention the hotel pool.

About a month after our vacation, the kiddo started first grade.  *sniff*  Her first year of all day school was a success and I cannot believe how well she is reading and writing after only 5 months of school.

Her math skills are also out of this world, thanks to her keeping score in Five Crowns.  It is truly amazing to watch her grow and learn.

According to google analytics, from January 1 - December 31, 2013, a whopping 11,691 people visited my blog a total of 16,098 times and viewed 27,479 pages.

While most of my blog traffic originated from google searches, a few referring sites stood out:

• many people found my blog through pinterest
• again this year, several people visited from Lorelei's blog 
• many people visited from Sally's blog to see my "focus on life" photos
• this post from Sharyl's Jewelry is still bringing visitors (thank you, Sharyl)

This was my most popular post in 2013, though it was written in 2012.

I would like to thank everyone who has visited, commented on and followed my blog in 2013.  Every page hit and every comment means the world to me.

I hope everyone has a wonderful 2014.