By 
I hope you all had a lovely Christmas yesterday, if you celebrated! I always find the day after Christmas to be rather disappointing… After all, the excitement and build-up is gone, and all the presents have been gifted and unwrapped. BUT, to combat the post-Christmas blues, I’m trying my best to keep myself super productive today, starting with publishing my annual New Year’s Eve blog post (albeit, a little early). I always post some sort of yearly recap on Graceful Rags—last year it was an outfit timeline—but this year I wanted to revisit what I did in 2017. That year, I shared stats about my blog, like Most Viewed Post from the Year and Most Commented Post, in the form of a celebrity award show, since the Golden Globes and the Oscars are right around the corner (Speaking of, who’s ready to see some crazy and beautiful gowns?!). For 2019, I wanted to host my Blogging Awards again and take a stroll—or should I say, a “scroll”?—down memory lane… So keep scrolling to see some of my best blog posts from 2019!
In 2019…
- My blog gained 61 new followers.
- I published 87 blog posts, including today’s and my final post that will be published on Monday.
- I gained 110 new followers on Instagram.
- I published 105 Instagram posts, including today’s and Monday’s.
- My blog posts had 439 comments.
- My blog posts had 511 likes.
- My website had 4,637 unique visitors.
- My website had 19,382 views.
Even though Graceful Rags is still small, 2019 was my most successful year yet! Thank you so much for all your comments and support this past year. I appreciate it so much, and I would have quit blogging ages ago if it weren’t for all of you.
Now without further ado, onto the blogging awards!
The first category is the Followers’ Choice Awards, which are decided—you guessed it—by you. The three awards in this category are Most Viewed Post, Most Commented Post, and Most Liked Post.
Most Viewed Post Award
Technically, the Most Viewed Post of 2019 goes to Why You Should Wear a Short Dress to Prom, with a whopping 410 views. In fact, this is my most-viewed post of all time, and for the life of me, I can’t understand why! The pictures are horrible, but I guess girls have a lot of interest in wearing short dresses to prom instead of full gowns…
For the real award, however, I decided to choose the Most Viewed Post of 2019 that was also created in 2019. And the nominees are…
Blogging Life: Behind the Scenes
My Obsession with Cost Per Wear and Excel Spreadsheets
This past year yielded a lot of really fun, unique blog posts, most of which I have my awesome friend/old roommate/photographer to thank. You got a peak into what happens in the life of a fashion blogger off the screen in Blogging Life: Behind the Scenes. All you flat-chested followers (hopefully) got a confidence boost through the quirky and awkward post Proud Member of the IBTC. And I finally revealed to you all my master clothing spreadsheet in the post My Obsession with Cost per Wear and Excel Spreadsheets. I’m glad to see that some of my all-time favorite posts were your 2019 favorites too!
And now… drumroll please… The Most Viewed Post of 2019 goes to…
Proud Member of the IBTC with 156 views!
I’m not surprised that this blog post won, as it seemed to turn a lot of heads when I first published it. In fact, I was actually really nervous to publish this post because I wasn’t sure if it would be considered “inappropriate” or if I would get uncomfortable responses. Thankfully, neither of those things happened, though I still wonder if this post will one day come back to haunt me while I’m applying to a job… Regardless, it’s a confidence-boosting and body positive post at heart, and for that I am proud.
Most Commented Post Award
For my Most Commented Post, I chose the top six nominees with the highest number of comments, as there were several ties. The nominees are…
The Story of a Rainy Day—Told Through Haikus
Pastels, Petals, and Pattern Mixing
Healthy Living: Fitness, Self-Care, Eating Habits, and More
Spring Into Easter Weekend with These Outfits
My Obsession with Cost Per Wear and Excel Spreadsheets
8 Ways to Style Animal Print This Fall
Not surprisingly, three of these blog posts are my quarterly collaborations with the Magnificent 8, which always yield a lot of comments. A post that did surprise me, however, was Spring Into Easter Weekend with These Outfits. I rounded up some of my favorite spring and fancy outfits from seasons pasts that would work perfectly for Easter, but usually these types of “round-up” posts don’t perform as well as fresh content.
And now, the Most Commented Post of 2019 goes to…
It’s a tie!
Pastels, Petals, and Pattern Mixing and Spring Into Easter Weekend with These Outfits both had a staggering 9 comments (I hope you realize that my use of “staggering” is purely sarcastic). I have to admit, a tie is pretty anticlimactic. But again, I’m shocked the Easter post was even in the running!
Most Liked Post Award
The Most Liked Post nominees are all travel-related posts. Sometimes I joke that I should have been a travel blogger instead, as my travel posts always perform really well! But enough jibber-jabber, the nominees for this category are…
Spanish Travels: Day Trip to Montserrat
El Camino de Santiago: The People
El Camino de Santiago: The Lessons Learned
I had so many incredible opportunities to travel this past year, especially fulfilling a major bucket list item of mine, walking the Camino de Santiago across Spain. Consequently, these travels allowed me to create a lot of beautiful content for the blog. So, the award for Most Liked Post of 2019 goes to…
El Camino de Santiago: The People with 22 likes!
My blog posts don’t usually get a lot of likes, but all four posts in my Camino series performed really well, as did my other travel posts in Spain. Completing the Camino is one of my proudest accomplishments, and I’m also very proud of the posts I wrote to share that journey.
Now, we move onto the Blogger’s Choice category, where I basically just choose whichever posts I liked the best, hehe. The three awards in this category are Favorite Photos, Favorite Writing, and Favorite Outfit.
Favorite Photos Award
This past year, I discovered the Lightroom editing app, which has allowed me to create and experiment with my own presets, lighten photos that were previously too dark, and stress a tremendous amount over whether I edited said photos too much. Regardless, the Lightroom app, along with my not-so-new-anymore Google Pixel 2 phone, have greatly improved the quality of my blog’s photos this past year. The blog post nominees for Favorite Photos are…
3 New Approaches to Resolutions and The New Year
The Story of a Rainy Day—Told Through Haikus
Why Photoshoots are Good for the Soul
And the award goes to…
Why Photoshoots are Good for the Soul!
Not only was this cloudy afternoon the perfect day to take photos, but I just loved how these flowers looked in the pics and that they matched my outfit perfectly.
Favorite Writing Award
Graceful Rags has never had the best photos (I know nothing about cameras), but I always try to create beautifully written posts, as writing is something I love. With that said, the blog post nominees for Favorite Writing are…
El Camino de Santiago: The Untold Stories
El Camino de Santiago: The Lessons Learned
To be completely honest, I kind of hate the post A Love Letter to You because the pictures are bad and the writing is painfully sappy… But I got a lot of messages that the writing was helpful to people feeling lonely on Valentine’s Day, so that’s why I included it in this round-up of nominees.
So the award for Favorite Writing goes to…
El Camino de Santiago: The Untold Stories!
Not only was I really proud of this blog post, but I’m also glad I’ll get to cherish it and the memories of the stories for years to come. Long live the Camino!
Favorite Outfit Award
The final award, and possibly the most important, is the Favorite Outfit Award. Obviously, I love clothes, so it’s really hard to choose a favorite look! But I was able to narrow it down to three. The blog post nominees are…
The Truth About the Freshman 15
A Gingham Wedding Guest Outfit
The pretty pastel colors in the first outfit are perfect for spring, and I loved how trendy the color lavender was then. The navy gingham dress in the middle, however, fits like a glove, and it seems like the perfect dress to wear to the Kentucky Derby, a bucket list item of mine! I love the striped outfit on the right because I never thought to pair a striped tee with a striped maxi skirt, but it turned out SO cute.
After much turmoil, I finally decided on a favorite outfit out of these three looks. And the award goes to…wait for it…
The Truth About the Freshman 15!
I first thought of pairing this top and skirt together in the laundry room, when I saw the two pieces piled on top of each other in the hamper. I never expected to love the pattern mixing as much as I do! And the sparkly headband, pink lipstick, and bow shoes added the most darling of feminine details. I’m obsessed, and I can’t wait to wear this look over and over again come spring and summer!
And just like that, 2019 is coming to a close! Those are all of my Blogging Awards, and I hope you enjoyed this fun recap of the past year. Do you have a favorite outfit that YOU wore this past year? What was your favorite blog post? I’d love to chat in the comments!
Thank you for stopping by, today and everyday, and have a wonderful Thursday.
Miles of smiles,
Grace
That was fun!! It is always cool to see which posts get the most views. i definitely get more readers certain days of the week when I link up to other bloggers link ups. As far as followers my numbers are super low but I didn’t realize for several months that the link to add as a subscriber had disappeared. And i dont like to subscribe to anyone’s because it fills up my inbox (even tough i am subscribe to a few blogs..)
Anyhow, you’re in my top 5! So continue the good work 😀. May 2020 be a great year for you!! I love all of your posts!!
Mireille
http://www.chezmireillefashiontravelmom.com
Thank you so so much Mireille, that means a lot to me!! I’m glad you like my blog. 🙂 I agree that subscribing to too many makes your inbox go crazy, and I hope you were able to get your subscriber button fixed. Have a wonderful new year!