year in review |

Happy New Year!!!

Posted on January 1, 2013 by admin

Looking back on 2012, what a year it was here at 11 Magnolia Lane!

We just wanted to take a moment and share some of our highlights, thank a few friends, and pass on a few things.

Early in the year, Terry and Christy and I got together for a much needed Girls’/Blog Pow-Pow weekend. Thanks to Jessica Oatman for taking a whole bunch of professional photos for us.

Shortly after that, we got the news that Better Homes & Gardens wanted to feature Christy’s kitchen. That magazine should be on newstands any day {we can’t wait!}. Her NC pantry is also being featured on the DIY Network website, and HouseLogic.

We were lucky enough to be featured at some of our favorite blogs. Click HERE to see us on Feature Friday at Southern Hospitality, Click HERE to see our feature at I {heart} Organizing, and Click to see us at Eclectically Vintage. Thank you so much to those girls for being so kind to write about us!

We had some of our favorite bloggers stop by and guest post. Ashli from MiniManor, Christina from Remodelando la Casa and Jessica from Four Generations One Roof. We so appreciate them lending their talents to our little spot in the blogosphere.

We made friends all over the DIY blog world. So many kind bloggers featured our posts, like Amanda at Serenity Now, Kristin from My Uncommon Slice of Surbubia, Sarah at Thrifty Decor Chick, Courtney from A Thoughtful Place come to mind, but we know we are forgetting some other wonderful blogs.

Terry shared her BIG news that she is expecting a baby this Spring, which can only mean ONE thing–we are now planning a baby shower and decorating a nursery! Woo Hoo!

We started our Facebook page and thanks to Christy’s hard work and the popular antics of her golden retriever, Harley, our page has grown to over 1100 “likes” in a short period of time. We also started “tweeting,” {@11magnolialane} and while we’re still figuring all that out {thanks, Stephanie!}, it has become our “go-to” social media when we find something at Homegoods that we think you all need to know about!

We each chose and wrote about our special cause. We are proud to share in giving back anytime we can.

Finally, so many of you take time to leave us comments, drop us notes and interact on Facebook and Twitter. Like all of you, we have busy lives and kids and while we often miss the chance to reply, or comment back on your site, each comment means the world to us. Know that we read each one, and we appreciate each of you more then you know.

We all have some big things coming up in the New Year–babies, moves and new opportunities. We can’t wait to see what our year-end post looks like 365 days from now!

Happy New Years! We wish you all peace, prosperity and joy in 2013.

XO,

Terry, Amy & Christy

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Posted in Causes Close to Our Hearts, General & About Us, Year in Review | Tagged 2012, Features, Guest Posts, highlights, new year, year in review | 2 Comments

Our Top Posts of 2012

Posted on December 31, 2012 by Amy

Happy New Year everyone! This year just FLEW by, didn’t it?

We thought we’d do a quick recap of our top {the ‘most read’ according to google analytics} posts this year, just in case you missed anything

Christy’s North Carolina Pantry lives on…and on…and on, thanks to Pinterest {oh, how we love thee, Pinterest!}

Christy’s Kitchen Makeover follows next. The Better Homes & Gardens Real-Life Kitchens & Baths issue featuring this kitchen should be out any day!

Christy’s Kitchen Re-do

Her adjacent Laundry Room also got prettied up, and it’s another “top post.” This room is in the current issue of Cottages & Bungalows magazine!

My Kids’ Bathroom makeover follows next. I called it a Part 1 post because I intended on doing some more work to the mirror, but that will have to fall into our “goals” post, I suppose!

Terry’s Kids’ Learning Center is our next most-read post; her basement is amazing and such a great use of space.

Next up is Christy’s {New} Pantry Makeover. In this post she also reveals that Better Homes is on their way to photograph her house for this spring’s Kitchens special issue.

Next up is a post with a great tip–an easy way to hang silver platters on the wall.

This tutorial post was next with a very useful chalkboard “Out of Treats” sign to end Halloween on your terms

Terry’s Camping Themed Birthday party she threw for her son is our last but not least, “most popular” post.

As always, thanks for visiting us! We are looking forward to an exciting 2013.

XO,

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Posted in Entertaining, Events, General & About Us, Home Inspiration, Real Spaces | Tagged about us, kitchen makeover, Makeover, Most popular posts, pantry makeover, pinterest, Top Posts, year in review | Leave a comment

Best of 2011 at Magnolia Lane

Posted on December 29, 2011 by Amy

We hope everyone had a wonderful holiday! Didn’t it go fast?

This is a great week across “Blogland”, as “Best Of” parties start popping up all over the place. As I read through some other favorite blogs, I started thinking of what I (we) might post here as the “Best of 2011″ from Magnolia Lane. I decided to run with this one by myself instead of collaborating for ideas from my co-blogging girls –I hope they will forgive me!

As our first full year of blogging wraps up, I wanted to take the chance to sing the praises of two of the most creative and inspiring women I know–Christy & Terry, of course!

Starting with Christy…I am going to talk about what she accomplished in her new kitchen, but I can’t NOT mention quickly her amazing, adorable AND inspiring PANTRY which has practically gone viral on Pinterest.

Isnt’ it cute? She sadly had to move from our Magnolia Lane “model” home this summer, but in her usual unstoppable fashion jumped right in transforming this kitchen…

into a new and Christy-improved version.

Then this fall she took it to the next level, which we showed you all yesterday here…

Now, I moved 3 months ago and still have boxes in places I shouldn’t mention, but in a summer’s time she knocked the cabinet painting out and still managed to entertain my gang for a week’s visit. And, if this isn’t enough, she re-vamped it even further this fall with a painted backsplash, new wall color, diy curtains and more. Its such a gorgeous room, and as you can tell, grass doesn’t grow under her feet! And, in case you missed just how amazing she is–she also homeschools, volunteers, is an supportive military wife and of course a dear friend.

I am not sure what Terry would pick for her best post, but I know what I consider her most under-recognized event on our blog. With summer starting and my impending move we didn’t get a chance to showcase this fabulous Baby Shower Terry hosted for our wonderful friend Trinity as much as (I think) it deserved.

She pulled out all her “event planner” stops to have the most beautiful, fun and genuinely sweet baby shower I have ever seen. I doubt I will ever go such a nice a baby shower again in my life! This talented girl made all the food (it wasn’t catered), decorated (it was held in her backyard with two standard tents which she completely “gussied” up), and she calmly functioned as the hostess for 30 women on a sweltering HOT day!

But, finally here is what I consider our most important/significant event of the year. It’s not a decorating or DIY post but I hope everyone will take a moment to read Terry’s 24 Days of Giving series wrap-up here to see all she accomplished.

When Terry suggested a series on 24 Random Acts of Kindness we all jumped on board. However, you can probably tell from my lack of posting about my “acts” that I didn’t quite make all 24–I admit it. Terry completely ran with this idea. And, as just ONE of many wonderful outcomes of this venture, she managed the purchasing, collection and delivery of gifts to 75 children in foster/social services care who otherwise wouldn’t have received anything. And that, right there, makes every moment we spend working on this blog so very worth it!

{And, can I just say a big “Woo-Hoo!” for her?}

Anyway, I don’t have a best of post that can compete with all that fabulousness! I can say that this blog and all the friends and supporters we have made this year from it have been significant to me as I made a challenging move to a new area. Its also been great fun, and an honor, to work with these 2 amazing girls who are seriously GOOD AT EVERYTHING–if you can’t tell?

So…what’s next for 2012? We’ll be working on our thoughts on that this week. We have some new ideas starting up, like a healthy recipe/meal planning series to motivate us all, some more home re-do’s to feature and we have some very fun giveaways coming up in January.

So, I hope you enjoyed our “Best Of”…Did I miss anything?

Thank you to everyone who has commented, subscribed, followed or dropped us a note this year. We read and appreciate each and every comment and thought.

XO,