Top Ten: The First Year

Does anyone else enjoy looking back through old diaries? It's always been fun for me to look back on a snapshot in time, and think about how much has changed since I put those words to paper. When I think about it now, the decision to start this blog was a natural extension of how much I enjoy reminiscing about Stuff I've Done, combined with my lifelong journaling habit. Every so often, I'll go back and look over old blog posts, cringing over the photography and formatting where appropriate and making notes about things I need to wear/eat/cook again.


I went on a massive dive through my own archives while I was writing about the first anniversary of the blog, and decided to pull together a top ten list of my favorite posts from the first year of blogging. (I'm a big fan of lists, after all!)

After I'd gone through and picked out the ten posts I'm happiest with, though, I got curious. Were my favorite posts the same ones that other people found most interesting? Well, let's find out, shall we?

My Top 10 Posts from Year One

1) A tribute to Mom-Mom

At the risk of repeating everything I said in this post, this post will always have a special place in my heart because the subject is forever in my heart. Rereading this one makes me think about all the things that made Mom-Mom such a central person in my life for close to three decades. It makes me remember the sound of her voice when she told certain jokes, or the way she'd gesture when something simply wasn't worth her time. She was truly one in a million.

2) My first Pinup Girl Clothing Queen of Hearts outfit post.

This is one of the first entries that contains photos I'm still proud of. The outfit is one I really liked, too!

3) My defense of living one's life as a work of art (or: an anti-hater screed)

This post makes me happy for three reasons. First, the photos come from my good friend Melanie. Second, this post expresses the mental middle finger I give to anyone who tears others down, but in a constructive fashion! Third, I got to talk about Nietzsche in the context of fashion. #gradschoolgoals!

4) On grad school and my personal Rocky Balboa moment

I'll admit that I was still working out the blog-photography kinks here. But this post really represents a turning point in my journey from the academic career track to life after political science, and it felt so cathartic to write. I'm happy to report that I've learned my lesson about taking photos in direct sunlight, though.

5) Shelter Island

This post is a tribute to a very special place, and it has photos of bacon. What more could I want?

6) My PUG mermaid circle skirt: a sleeper hit for the ages!

This is a fairly simple outfit, but it might be one of my favorite ones since the Dawn of the Blog. I've had the top since college, and these days, I only break it out on special occasions. I'm glad I chose to wear it with this gorgeous, vibrant skirt!

7) A red Lana dress in honor of my best friend

My favorite part about this post is how it pays homage to the queen of the long rambly story with a long rambly story.

8) The best day of my life

This one was a no-brainer. I love reminiscing about happy times, and what could be better than sharing the Best Day Ever?

9) 60 things that make me happy

Photo: Ellie Cupquake Photography

This post was an absolute joy to write. I often ask Jeff to tell me a happy thought, and attempt to tell him happy thoughts from time to time, though that works less well. Finally, I realized I could save him the trouble and just make a reference list! (Just kidding. He's still always on-call for Happy Thoughts.)

10) My mother's epic banana-split fail

Just seeing the a reference to the story from this post makes me laugh. My mom is always reliable for anecdotes with the perfect mix of good intentions, good humor, and low-level epic fail.

The Ten Most Popular Posts from Year One

1) On Living One's Life as a Work of Art

2) Kellys for All!

3) Review: Leopard Vixen Wiggle Dress

4) Walking in a Winter Wonderland: a review of my Bernie Dexter Nicole dress

5) On Style vs. Fashion

6) Today in Space Race History: the first lunar landing

7) One Skirt, Three Ways: the Oblong Box Shop midcentury house skirt

8) 6 Reasons to Love the Wiggle Dress

9) Our Honeymoon: A Venetian Vegas Vacation

10) Review: Collectif Dolores wiggle dress

Well, there you have it: my personal Thoroughly Modern Emily top ten, as well as the most popular posts from my first year of blogging! As it turns out, only one of my personal favorites made the list of most-read posts, though numbers 2, 5, 6, and 8 were close runners-up for my own list. Unsurprisingly, some of my personal favorites are... well, personal, in that they've captured something I feel deeply about. While I'm proud that those posts captured a feeling or a memory that's important to me, it makes sense that they wouldn't be quite as popular as posts that are more generally relatable. So now that you've seen these, what do you think? Are you surprised by any of the posts that made it onto these countdowns? 

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