Top Ten for 2011

All over the Blogosphere people are doing their 2011 post recaps for the year. I've never done one before, so I thought it would be fun to give it a try this year.

My top ten posts are the ten most viewed posts from 2011 that were posted in 2011. I decided to disregard posts prior to 2011 because my sidebar does a nice job of keeping my overall posts ranked and current. That, and I'm just dang tired of looking at those posts. I'm even a little tempted to delete them. But I won't, because they're my top ten and they generate a lot of traffic.

Ho hum. With no further ado, here are my 2011 top ten:

#1, by a landslide, was Menu Planning Redo

#2 - Flexible Chore Charts

#3 - You Asked For It . . . Thoughts in Vinyl

#4 - Digital Scrapbooking with sbcStudio for Mac

I feel like I should wash my mouth out with soap for this one. I finally gave up on the Mac software and made the switch to Photoshop Elements. I've said it before, and I'll say it again, if you have a PC, the Creative Memories StoryBook Creator Plus software is awesome, but if you have a Mac, don't waste your time.

#5 - Band-Aid Boxes for Teachers

#6 - I Was Going To . . .

#7 - Water Chestnuts Wrapped in Bacon

All I had to do here was to say "bacon" and everyone came running. Knocked me right over.

#8 - Backpack ID Tags Round Three

I'm happy to report that the third time's a charm. This round of ID tags is holding up very nicely.

#9 - You Stress Me Out

#10 - Turkey Salami Wraps

Now, let's just pretend that Google Analytics doesn't exist and I get to pick my own favorite posts for 2011. This is how it would all shake out.

#1 - The Life Cycle of a Spider and Other Zen-Like Ponderings

#2 - If My Kids Scream in the Forest and I'm Not Around to Hear Them, Do They Make a Sound?

#3 - Annie Get Your Gun . . . The Peace and the Love Continues

#4 - Death in the Family

#5 - The Adventures of Compass Man and Perpetually Lost Girl

Oopsie, that's all I have. No top ten because I don't even think I posted ten times this year. My bad.

Clearly I'm not doing that SEO thing and clearly Google doesn't think the post titles I'm choosing for my favorites are worthy of being ranked by the SEO thingamajig. I'd promise to do better, but the truth is, I like making obscure post titles.

It's not me, Google, it's you.

Thank You Note Etiquette (or Lack Thereof)

I torture my kids by making them write thank you notes for the gifts they receive for their birthdays and Christmas. It's great fun.

Not. If I'm going to be perfectly honest, it's like pulling teeth. Without anesthesia.

What has been fun though is to see their thank you notes evolve from very simple "Thank you for the blah, blah," into more elaborate notes that do not always stick to proper etiquette. 

This thank you note to The Barefoot Contessa from Stinkerbell is my case in point. In case you find it difficult to read, I shall recount it for you.

Dear Grandma Louie-Ann,

This year you got me and Zoe millions of toys and clothes. Since you got me 1,000 dollars in my collage account and all that stuff you got me for Christmas I think you're RICH! But mom says you just spend your money wisely. But that is true. Thank you for the Puzzle Roll, Clothes (my favorite is the Diary of a Wimpy Kid shirt!), Pony Care Set, MORE clothes, Jasmine, Black Sparkly Sweater, and the Biffy Puzzle. They're great!

Love,

Annie

This thank you note makes me laugh. I have questions though. Is a collage account a place to store cut out pictures until you're in the mood to paste them onto a piece of poster board? And do you get the feeling that the Stink is alarmed by the amount of clothes she got for Christmas?

A Quick Note About Pinterest

I received a comment today from a reader, scrapbookmomx5, and she asked me if she could Pin things from my blog onto Pinterest. She was worried that my copyright blah blah on my sidebar forbade such activity.

I quickly crafted my reply, only to realize that scrapbookmomx5 does not have her e-mail address attached to her Blogger profile, so my e-mail was simply going to be sent into the abyss that is known as noreply-comment@blogger.com. It's a dark and dismal place.

So, in case anyone else is also wondering, here is where I stand. Absolutely YES, you can pin any ding dang thing on my blog that you want. The copyright blah blah is to discourage people from posting my pictures and my content on their own blogs. Believe me, it has happened, and it does happen. It's very awkward.

My copyright blah blah is not intended to apply to Pinterest. Pin away, if you so choose. I would be hard pressed to find a blogger that didn't allow pinning from their blog, and really, how can we stop it? The reality is that Pinterest brings a lot of traffic to blogs. I get almost as much traffic from Pinterest as I get from Google, and I would be crazy to turn people away from Pinterest. Well, I am crazy, but you know what I mean. CrazyER.

Pin away, Peeps, and thank you for all your pins! They are much appreciated by me.