A Blogging Milestone

I reached a milestone last week in blogging -- I hit 100,000 total page views.  Yep, that little clicker on my dashboard that counts the page views like a car odometer counts your miles, turned over 100,000.  I know this is really small potatoes to the super-bloggers who probably get 100,000 page views in one week.  I don't have that kind of following here on my blog, so I was excited to reach this number.

I really appreciate those loyal folks who read my blog posts faithfully and regularly leave me comments.  You make my day and my week!!  I've enjoyed getting to know you and learning something about your lives.  How fun to meet people from Canada, England, Ecuador, Texas, New York, Maine, Colorado, California, Georgia, Alabama, and North Carolina.  It's great to discover the things we have in common (a lot, it seems) and I've learned so much from all of you.  Great decorating tips, recipes, book recommendations, craft ideas, shopping tips, and beautiful photography, just to name a few.

In just a few months, I will have been blogging for three years.  Oh how time flies!  I thought I'd share my top-viewed posts over these past three years.  The number one most viewed post is "MERRY CHRISTMAS AND GOD BLESS US EVERY ONE."

Still Cleaning and Organizing

Hi everyone!  I hope you've had a lovely fall weekend!  The weather has been so nice in North Carolina -- our favorite time of year here at Forest Manor.

This past week, hubby and I watched "The Book of Manning" on ESPN, and we loved it!

source

Fall Cleaning and Organizing

I'd really rather be going to the North Carolina mountains to get fresh apples, taking pretty outdoor pictures, or decorating my house and porch for fall.  That will come (sooner rather than later, I hope) but for now, I'm cleaning out closets and drawers and trying to re-organize everything.  Why am I doing this?  I'm afraid the people from "Hoarders" are going to show up on our doorstep any day now if I don't do something with some of this stuff.

The late George Carlin famously said that "A house is just a place to keep your stuff while you go out and get more stuff."  :)  So funny and so true.  At least it's funny until you're forced to have to find a place to store all this stuff.

I've mentioned before that our house was built in 1972, so that was before the time of really big closets.  Our first house, the 1924 bungalow in Greensboro...

It's Fall Y'all!

Happy Monday and Happy Fall!  I feel like my blog posts and visits to others have been rather sporadic the past week or so.  Am I the only one out there who starts a big project only to get sidetracked by something small and then something else, and well...you get the picture?  I feel like I'm all over the place and my brain just won't focus.  Maybe I have fall fever, as opposed to spring fever.  :)

I want to take a minute to say a very big "THANK YOU" to the ladies who kindly featured my kitchen last week in their link parties.  Cindy at Dwellings-The Heart of Your Home featured my post last week on her "Amaze Me Monday" party.  Thank you so much, Cindy!!  Cindy is a North Carolina blogger, like me.  If you haven't visited Cindy's blog before, you really should pay her a visit.  She has a lovely home, and she's a lovely person, inside and out.  :)  Cindy has a great talent for capturing beautiful outdoor shots in her garden, and she writes about decorating, travel, family, gardening, and more.  She's currently in the midst of starting a kitchen renovation in her home, and I can't wait to see her progress on that.

I also want to thank the ladies who host the "Homework Wednesday" party every week for featuring my kitchen renovation last week, as one of their Quick-Peek Features.  Thank you Amy at Atta Girl Says, Barb at The Everyday Home, Marty at Marty's Musings, and Suzy at Worthing Court!!  I'm honored to have been featured on "Homework Wednesday!"  Hope you'll stop by these talented ladies' blogs (also North Carolina bloggers) for some creative ideas on decorating, cooking, DIY, family, and more.

I also want to thank all of you readers who visited me and had such nice, complimentary things to say about our kitchen.  We love the way it turned out, but you don't always know if others will like what you've done.  :)

What are you up to this week?  Are you enjoying these lovely fall days?  Have you noticed how the quality of the sunlight is different this time of year?  It's a softer light, somehow, and I absolutely love it -- one of the many things I love about fall.  Thank you for your visit and I hope you have a great Monday!!

Denise

The Harvest Moon

Earlier this evening my husband and I ran an errand to WalMart, or Wally World, as hubby fondly refers to it.  :)  There was a beautiful moon coming up in the sky, and it looked a lot like the one below.  I remembered that I had done a post on the Harvest Moon back in September of 2011 (my first year of blogging).  I decided to re-post it tonight because it's that time of year again.  If you're sky gazers like we are, you might find the history of the Harvest Moon interesting.  Even if you don't care about the historical facts, it's hard to ignore the uncommon beauty of this autumn moon.

 

Image Credit:  Dan Bush of Missouri Skies

Summer's End

Hello all!  I know most of you are probably kicking into fall mode now (I am too) but before I completely leave summer behind for another year, I want to share a few images from the beach trip we took over Labor Day weekend.  We normally go to the beach much earlier in the summer, like May for instance, but this year we couldn't manage that.

September and October are beautiful times to be at the coast, too; we've discovered that in years past.  After all the rain, rain, rain, and dismal skies we had most of the summer here, it was beautiful and sunny for the three days we were at Oak Island.

Dry Street Pizza in Southport, North Carolina

Happy Friday

Happy Friday, everyone!  I just wanted to say a quick "Thank You" to Sherry, at The Charm of Home, for featuring my kitchen renovation on her Friday Home Sweet Home link party today!

It's being featured along with four other blog posts from last week's party.  I'm so honored to be featured there.  Please go by and check out Sherry's blog, if you haven't already; she has such a pretty blog.  She always shares wonderful recipes, lovely vignettes, and great craft ideas.

Thank you again, Sherry!

Denise

Our Kitchen -- Before and After

I noticed yesterday that a post I wrote early in 2012 is now being viewed again.  The post was written at the time that we were just beginning our kitchen remodel, and I showed lots of pics of our kitchen as it used to be for the first 15 years that we lived here.  Then I showed some more pictures of the ongoing renovation, but I've never shown a real kitchen "reveal" since we've completed everything.  That's mainly because we waited about three months to hang anything on the walls because we couldn't stand the thought of messing up that pristine paint job.  :)  By then, we were into the 2012 holiday season, so again, I put off showing the kitchen until after the holidays.  I wanted everything to look perfect for my reveal pictures, so I kept putting off doing the post, and I finally realized that I just need to show you how everything turned out.

*WARNING*  Picture Heavy Post

There are several pictures here (the understatement of the century).  They were taken on different days at different times during the day with two different cameras, so please overlook the fact that the quality of some are not as good as others.

Happy September!

Hi everyone!  I hope this day finds you well and enjoying some sunshine in your part of the world.  I've missed visiting you and leaving comments on your blogs, but once again, life got kind of busy around here.  In addition, we just returned yesterday from a trip to the seashore.