happy new year! (also: a roundup.)

I thought it might be fun to take a peek at my analytics to see what the most-read posts of 2013 were, and interestingly enough, they’re pretty much all posts that I wrote before 2013.

Which either means that I didn’t write anything good in 2013, or that posts which have been making their way around the internet for years tend to get more pageviews (since they turn up higher in Google searches).

(Hopefully the latter!)

At any rate, here’s the roundup.

Oh, first let me apologize off the bat for any wonky formatting in the posts I’m linking to.

At least on my computer, my older posts are sprinkled with odd black question marks since the site migration.

Also, I can’t edit old posts at the moment (which is so frustrating! I never realized how often I access that feature to grab photos.), so I can’t even remove the question marks.

The migration team is working on it (presumably not today!), so the problem should be fixed eventually.

(Can I just say again that I am so happy that I hired help for the migration? I can’t imagine trying to figure out all of these problems myself. And if I’d done the migration myself, I’d have probably created a whole bunch of new problems!)

1. How to paint wooden furniture

Somehow or another, this post got to be the top result for that search phrase on google, and it’s consistently the most-viewed post on my blog.

A lot of you probably found my blog through that post, actually!

2. How to make homemade yogurt

I am such a big fan of homemade yogurt…it’s so cheap and tasty, and my method requires no special equipment. I make this at least three times a month, and more in the summertime.

3. Easy, ridiculously good roasted carrots

Oh, goodness. These are like vegetable candy, without any added sugar. So. Delicious. (Of course, I got the recipe from Cook’s Illustrated. Duh.)

4. How we watch TV without cable service

We don’t watch a whole lot of TV here at Chez FG, so our handy-dandy Roku box, a Netflix account (and an Amazon prime account, which I think we got since I wrote that post) suit us just fine.

5. What to buy (and what not to buy) at Aldi

I wrote this post eons ago (in blog time, that is), but I updated it fairly recently to change a few things. For instance, I used to hate their sour cream, but it’s been great of late!

6. How to make Cinnamon Applesauce Ornaments

The girls and I gave this a try for the first time last year…it’s a fun, easy, and super inexpensive project that even not-very-crafty people can execute.

7. Homemade Chai Latte Mix

I first made this a few years ago, and since then, I’ve mostly converted to brewing chai bags and adding sweetener and cream (I think it’s a more natural option than the mix.)

The comments on this post are a good read, though, as a number of people figured out methods to make this without the powdered creamer.

8. How to make Chocolate Pudding from Scratch

Chocolate pudding mixes (especially the no-cook sort) are filled with odd ingredients, but you can make your own at home with milk, cocoa powder, sugar, vanilla, and cornstarch.

That’s it.

You could totally handle it.

9. How to make cheap, cheap, cheap French Bread

This recipe is about as close as you can get to making something from nothing. Five simple ingredients (one of which is water!), and you’ve got yourself a loaf of delicious bread. This is a great recipe for first-time yeast bakers to try, as it’s nearly foolproof.

(To wit: Money Saving Mom had tried to bake French bread without success before, and she managed to pull it off with my recipe.)

10. Want to see my new black nightstands?

This post is enduringly popular (moreso than my other painting project posts), and the only reason I can think of is that there’s a link to it in my how to paint furniture post.

If you love to see painting projects, check out my painting post roundup. And finish up, here are a few popular posts that were just published in the last year:

1. Homemade Fish Cakes

Even if you don’t really like fish, you’ll probably enjoy this recipe. It’s so mild, and it honestly tastes an awful lot like a crab cake (but for a fraction of the cost.) We eat them as is with tartar sauce or sometimes we make sandwiches. I even like them leftover and cold (which is quite shocking, because normally I can barely choke down leftover fish!)

2. Homemade Oxi-Clean for Armpit Stains

Not gonna lie…having the photo of my sweated-up shirt armpit plastered all over Pinterest is slightly embarrassing, but hey, it’s for a good cause! This homemade mixture fixes armpit stains like nothing I’ve tried before, and I’ve saved piles of my shirts from the rag bag by using this method.

3. How much stuff should you own? The answer is simpler than you think.

I read some minimalist articles and blogs, and occasionally I’m left with the feeling that I have too much stuff (which is true to a degree!)

However, I realized that as long as I’m regularly using something, it’s probably just fine to own it. The problem comes when you have so much stuff that you can’t use it regularly.

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I always enjoy reading roundup posts on my favorite blogs, and it was kind of fun to pull one together on my own blog.

I’d be remiss if I closed this without saying thank you to all of you.

Thank you for reading, thank you for the encouraging emails you send me, thank you for sharing my blog with others, and thank you for the lovely comments you leave (I love to hear from you in the comments, so don’t be a stranger!)

Things can get a little nuts out there on the internet (reference the comments section on any news article anywhere ever on the web), so I am super grateful to have such an overwhelmingly pleasant community experience here…thank you.

And happy new year to you and yours!