Can y'all believe that 2017 is almost over?!
This is my last post of 2017 & y'all-it's been a big, big year for me.
This year I've shared over 100 posts with you guys (102 to be exact, counting this one), I finally hit 100,000 views on the blog, I hit over 1,000 Instagram followers, and most importantly I really feel like I've started building a little community here on the internet of people that I love interacting with and I love sharing my life with!
In today's post I'm going to share some big moments from my life & then to wrap up at the end, I'm going to share my top 10 most popular posts from Southern & Style with y'all!
The first big even of the New Year for us was in February where we attended the Alabama Young Farmer's Conference & competed in Outstanding Young Farm Family.
We didn't win in 2017, but maybe 2018 will be our year!
In March, the school I taught at took our History Club students on a field trip to Tannehill State Park.
It's always such a cool experience to be on the other side of teaching & I loved this group of kids, they were awesome!
Also in March, Chris and I attended the SLE Rodeo in Montgomery, which is a tradition that we've done ever since we were dating.
It's always so much fun to get to walk around and see all the kids that are showing their calves & to watch the rodeo.
At the end of March, Chris' brother Cody got married to his sweet bride, Alex & we of course happily attended their beautiful wedding.
It was a fun affair & we had a blast celebrating them!
April & May were full of canoeing trips for the three of us-yep, three!
This was the first year we took Forrest with us & he was a natural as you might expect, since he's a lab.
We love taking him with us, but we also had such a great time canoeing with some of our best friends, too!
At the end of May, my time at Central Junior High came to a close. I was filling an empty position while a teacher went on military leave for a year & a half, so he returned for the 2017-2018 school year.
I loved my time at Central SO much, however it's been so fulfilling to be on the farm full time, helping Christopher daily & also getting to spend more time blogging as well.
In June we took a little getaway trip to Warm Springs/Pine Mountain, Georgia and visited Calloway Gardens & Roosevelt's Little White House.
I absolutely love having a husband that indulges my inner history nerd.
In July, we were able to celebrate our country's independence on the lake with some of our best friends. We spent the day out on the water & the night watching fireworks from the dock!
In August, I got to spend a fun night out with my sister going to see Matchbox 20.
We always have a blast whenever we're together & it was so much fun!
Also in August, we celebrated the impending birth of Miss Anna Claire!
My best friend, Paige and Chris' best friend Kane are married and had their sweet little girl in September.
At the end of August, Chris & I headed up to Nashville-but not to see the eclipse everyone else was excited about...we were just trying to squeeze in an early Christmas gift for Chis; a trip to see the PBR at the Bridgestone Arena!
We also visited Carnton Plantation, which was another check off my historical bucket list (I can be such a nerd, y'all!)
It was amazingly beautiful & so moving, but the real treat of the weekend was how amazing the PBR was!
In September, we celebrated my oldest sister, Trystan's, birthday with a night on the town in Birmingham out to eat & then to see Mary Chapin Carpenter at the Lyric Theatre.
MCC may have let us down, but we still had a blast laughing the night away with each other.
In October, my middle sister, Julie, my mom, and I headed to the pumpkin patch with my nephew & niece, Dexter & Lola in tow.
We had a blast playing & taking pictures-it was a fun day!
Also in October (because Chris and I both swore off ever going to the beach in the summertime again) we headed down to Panama City & had a beautiful few days there just relaxing and eating all of our favorite things (ALL the seafood, y'all!)
The stark contrast between the temperature in these two pictures makes me shiver just looking at them!
We also went to our third fair ever in 2017-yay for the Alabama State Fair!
Chris' brother Russell and his girlfriend went with us & we watched Brother's Osbourne perform-it was a cold, but really fun night!
Early December, Alabama had a blizzard!
Aka, it snowed 10 inches in my little town.
It was so beautiful and enjoyable; minus the power outages, the messy conditions, the lack of grazing for our animals-meaning we had to feed everything, a lot.
But man, was it beautiful for a little while.
And lastly, celebrating Christmas!
We had a fun day on Christmas Day, the three of us visited both sides of our families and then went to work on the farm for a little while-the perfect day ❤
Now for my most popular posts; some of these were surprising, others not so much...let's round them up really quickly!
This is my most recent post & for some reason, it took off like wildfire!
These roundup posts are some of my favorites & in this one I shared some of my favorite Christmas things and some of my picks from the Spring Hearth & Hand collection at Target. It's really recent, so check it out if you haven't seen this one yet.
I was so pleasantly surprised when I posted during the month of May (our anniversary month!) these Wedding Wednesday posts and how popular they were!
Niki & Josh share the same photographer I use(d) and so that's how we connected.
Their day was so, so beautiful which probably is what made it my second most popular post of the year.
I think I'll be doing the Wedding Wednesday series again each May, so if you'd like to be featured, please comment with your email or you can email me at SouthAndStyle@outlook.com !
Another Wedding Wednesday post that absolutely took off was the wedding of Kendall and Colby!
They also used Amy-Cole Photography, my personal favorite photographer of life 😉 and their barn wedding was so stunning.
Kendall was a radiant bride & the love Colby shows in these photos from her is so sweet.
I loved featuring these brides and grooms during my love month!
This was my first ever style post on the blog & y'all blew me away with your response!
I really dove into fashion content after sharing this post because of the confidence it gave me to be comfortable in front of the camera.
Plus, isn't the jewelry I shared so pretty?
One of my favorite parts about our home is decorating it & make it feel welcoming and cozy to all those who enter it, which even includes those of you who virtually enter it for my home tours!
This Fall, I kept things pretty minimal & just simply cozy.
My most favorite part of the decor this year is my hutch (click through the post to see it!) with it's blue & white makeover!
I think I've pretty much reached the phase of my life where I love to give (& pick out presents) for others, rather than to really receive (although, since gifts are my love-language, I really do love to get them too!)
This gift guide served as (hopefully!) an inspiration post for those of you who are around my age or have to buy for women around my age, but it also served as a help to those who were buying for me.
I did end up getting some cozy socks, a beautiful journal, some sheet masks, and the monogrammed necklace from my wish list, along with many other beautiful gift items!
It was an absolutely wonderful Christmas!
I put a lot of thought into our cards this year.
We didn't send too many out, so I wanted them to be really special for those I did send them too and I feel like they really were!
My sister did the beautiful calligraphy, my favorite photog (Amy-Cole!) did our photos, and of course, Forrest had a special spot on the back.
I put a lot of time, effort, and promotion into my yearly Shop for a Cure posts because the cause is one that is near and dear my heart.
It's so important for me to not only share these products with my readers, but also to educate you on where your money goes with each product.
Plus, it is a really fun roundup of cute, pink products that give back-and who doesn't love that?
Sometimes it's the most funny & random posts that make this top ten (like number one?!) but that just shows me that y'all love roundup style posts, which I really enjoy doing too-so it's a win win situation for me!
This one was special because it was a post while I was on Spring Break from teaching!
This was a style post + some fun photos from when we took my niece and nephew to our local pumpkin patch in October and it was so fun!
I loved this outfit (the epitome of Fall in the South) and sharing it with y'all because y'all enjoyed it.
Overall, I'm really happy about what my top performing posts of 2017 were because they were some of my favorite to write and share as well!
Which of these posts were your favorites to read?
Or just what are your favorite blog posts to read from anyone?
Let me know below!
Until next time. . .
xoxo,
