Hello, friends and family! Happy New Year!

I am going to start off by apologizing. My intended “week off from blogging” has turned into nearly twelve days of no posts. That’s like The Twelve Days of Christmas, but instead of you all receiving gifts, you were given radio silence. Or internet silence, in this case. Don’t worry, though. I’m back, renewed, and am ready to knock your socks off! Let’s begin by recapping the entire year of 2014.

My first post of the year began with food, and the recipes continued to pour in over the next eleven months. I featured a dozen guest bloggers with various sweet and savory posts in my Blogger’s Dozen series. From cookies, to tarts, to pasta, to quesadillas, to hot chocolate, I had such a blast meeting and working with these amazing people, and expanding my audience to many new readers around from the world!

Next, I dedicated many posts to nature and our animals. I showed you our incredibly snowy Canadian days here, here, and here. I wrote six succulent posts since God apparently decided to finally bless me with a green thumb after twenty-eight years on this planet! This one was your most favoured, readers! Holly and Truman were never far from my mind or my keyboard. Nor were cats, horses, or other pets. I documented Holly’s health struggles which spanned the entire summer (thankfully, she is on the mend). Additionally, my big, beautiful St. Bernard, Dear Prudence, had to be put down in the spring. Between Pru and Holl, those were the most emotionally draining few months that I had ever experienced. However, whenever I felt down, I could always count on nature to fix my wounded soul.

So what did I have to be thankful for this past year? Well, the month of January meant a birthday celebration for my husband, and subsequently, many more parties followed! With one or more birthdays each month in my family, I only had time to blog about a few of them. We celebrated my oldest niece turning six with a beach party at our (then) future home, as well as my week-long winter bash. I also blogged about Valentine’s Day, St. Patrick’s Day, Canada Day/Independence Day, our fourth Wedding Anniversary, Thanksgiving, Halloween, Día de Muertos, and Christmas! Phew.

The year was one of many ‘firsts’. It began with my first iPhone, then onto my first hand tattoo, regular freelance position for a magazine, pop-up shop, and paid for photo shoot. My favourite ‘first’ had to be the opening of my retail store, Potomac Trading Post, Ltd!

January also began with one of my favourite DIYs of the year; A Painted Teapot. What followed were popular posts such as a Sherlock Terrarium, Wood and Wire Succulent Holder, Address Stamp, Classic Pumpkin, Wednesday Addams Make-Up (a post that brought in over 700 views in under two days), Harvest Wreath, Reindeer Plates, and an American Plant Holder.

Over the last year, I gave insight into blog organization, good antique shopping, tattoos, small home living, choosing an ad photo, and finding a dream home.

During this past year, readers witnessed a big change in our residence(s). We began our search for an acreage in January 2014, but I didn’t let any of you know until March. Being guarded doesn’t always go hand in hand with blogging, and it’s something that I’ve have to work on over the last two years. (Fun fact: when I first began blogging on tumblr, I didn’t reveal our first names, where we lived, or even our faces! I was simply known as *e* and readers only ever saw the back of my head.) I posted about our search for the perfect home many times over the next few months. We were finally on the right track by May, and both listed and sold our beautiful house, Little Green, by June. We ended up buying an empty lot in a provincial park, and have chronicled our adventures ever since! The final reveal will be coming within a matter of weeks. :-)))

Finally, we travelled lots but always stayed close to home, moved twice, watched many great films, ate amazing food, laughed, cried, were inspired, and learned invaluable lessons. I would say that the best part of my year was nearly each and every day, and seeing how much I grew into being a woman who knew exactly who and what she wanted out of life. Self-realization is a tricky thing, and I feel as if this year was my year for it to happen.

I hope that you are all excited to take this journey into the year 2015 with me! My blogging resolution is to gain 5,000 followers! What will yours be?

<3

Emory

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