Best of 17 Apart in 2014

We've always been open about this blog serving as an incredible archive of the adventures, accomplishments and life changes that take place in our little corner of the world (and are continually thrilled you care to stop in!). While we remember the bigger milestones or a few projects we may have tackled, it's always eye-opening to take a look back through the different posts, realizing just how much we did do over the course of a year, see and share.

So! In keeping with our end of year tradition, we've been looking forward to looking back at the more notable posts we published over the past year. Between the 230 entries here on the blog and 37 project posts we shared over on eHow this year, the following 13 posts were the most popular in terms of top viewed projects, gardening tricks and the other tips you all liked the most!


1. DIY Magnetic Knife Rack: After installing the exposed wood shelf above our locker console in the kitchen, we had fun filling in the wall underneath with creative storage. I made this magnetic knife rack from a reclaimed piece of pallet wood and we both love how it turned out:

2. DIY Wedding Sparklers & Free Sleeve Printable: We kicked off "Wedding Week" back in February as a way to wrap up all the final details and memories from our big day in one complete series. The most popular project from the week of wedding posts turned out to be the tutorial and free downloadable sleeve for the send-off sparklers we made. We're so glad they were a hit and hope they've been a helpful resource for other couples planning out wedding details:

Image by Tori Watson

3. DIY Magnetic Spice Tin Organizers: Repurposing a few of our favorite spice tins into these magnetic kitchen helpers has been a fun way to stay organized and display bold graphics from my favorite cooking ingredients:

4. Natural Yogurt & Peanut Butter Frozen Dog Treats: Homemade dog treats have always been a big hit here on the blog. This year, these heart-shaped frozen greek yogurt and peanut butter ice mold treats stole the show:

5. How to Regrow Succulents: If you know us, you know we love trying out different kinds of gardening projects. This year we weren't the only ones who found how to regrow succulents an interesting and amazing success:

6. How to Regrow a Pineapple from the Top: After a failed attempt at regrowing a pineapple plant from the leafy top on a store-bought fruit, we gave it another try and are the proud owners of our very own indoor thriving pineapple plant. We hope this little plant will continue to flourish over the winter and perhaps generate a fruit of its own in the coming years:

7. DIY Plastic Animal Planters: While talking plants, we can't forget about the planters! Recycling these plastic animal toys into animated succulent planters has proven to be one of our favorite projects to date — and they're always such a fun conversation starter:

8. Recycled Milk Carton Bunny Planters: If the plastic animal planters weren't enough, making these little bunny planters from recycled milk cartons with our niece, Sophia was another big hit. This project in particular was a great one to take on with kids:

9. DIY Leather Keychains: We learned and shared how to make quick and simple little leather key rings from the scrap leather pieces we had leftover from this DIY valet project. They're a great small gift idea, perfect for stocking stuffers or favors.

10. Hanging Mason Jar Lights: This past spring and summer were all about outdoor living. We worked to continue cultivating our outdoor garden space and the addition of these little illuminated votive jars helped to brighten things up:

11. DIY Jeweled Crystal Wine Stoppers: We kicked off our eHow project series with these little DIY wine stoppers. They feel pretty fancy, make a great hostess gift idea and are so simple to make:

12. Geometric Concrete Bookends: With a little concrete mix and an evening of Mary folding cardboard into geometric shapes, we were able to make these faceted and heavy bookends to help keep the cookbooks in place (and look good while doing it):

13. DIY Rustic Reclaimed Wood Bath Caddy: You might recognize this last project as one of our final undertakings this past year. We were able to make this simple and rust bath caddy from single piece of reclaimed wood we'd sourced from our local ReStore:

And that's what's called a 2014 wrap! Thanks for taking the time to stroll down memory lane with us today, or perhaps discover a few projects you might have missed. To see even more projects, recipes and gardening ventures we tackled over the past year, have a look through our growing archive of DIY content. We're looking forward to all the projects, surprises and new memories to come in the year ahead!

Want to see more? 

In case you missed them or just want to look back through with us, here's a look at the top posts from years' past: Best of ----> 2013 | 2012 | 2011