It’s exactly 6 months to the day since I launched Caradise and the website went live. Before I start to work on my posts for the year ahead, I thought I’d take a look back at Caradise’s creations so far, with a 2017 blog review.
I published my very first post on 04/07/17, sharing with you how I upcycled my retro cocktail cabinet. Everyone seems to have bar carts at the moment (which I love btw) but I plumped for a cocktail cabinet instead (maybe I have too much booze for a cart 😳 ). This was my second most popular post of 2017.
I was also still getting to grips with my DSLR camera at the time. I hope my photography skills have improved a bit since then!
Andy and I seemed to be permanently in the garden over the summer of 2017, landscaping and designing it. So much so, that we never got around to going out on our bikes at all (our usual weekend pastime).
The squirrels have since adopted the new lawn as a nut burial ground, but these things are sent to try us 🙄 .
I also styled a corner of our patio with an instant garden bar area, which was my most popular post of the year.
This picture makes me long for the summer again, as storm Eleanor rages outside – eeek!
I posted some cake decorating tutorials on the blog last year, as my initial intention for it, was to cover all things creative. I’ve since decided that going forward, Caradise will be an interiors blog and focus mainly on interior design, however, I’ll still slip in the odd bit of variety like these cocktail cupcakes I had such fun making (there seems to be a recurring theme of cocktails here 😆 ).
Once the weather drew in, I concentrated on sprucing up the house interior with a refresh of the hallway.
This is something I will be continuing through other parts of the house next year 🙂 .
I also got crafty with my DIY outdoor sign and copper planter.
I can’t wait to get creating again in 2018. Keep an eye out for my next post on how to embellish belly baskets. Add your e-mail address here to get this, and all my future posts straight to your inbox.
I became an Instagram newbie and set up an account for Caradise which I try to dedicate as much time as possible to, but as the blog is still a baby, I’m still at the spinning plates stage at the moment, so need to try to concentrate on one thing at a time. I now have nearly 400 followers (I know that’s nothing compared to some) If you’re not already following me, you can do so here. I hope to schedule in some dedicated time to spend on Instagram in the near future.
Even though I’d had a Pinterest account for a few years, I’d literally done NOTHING with it, so I switched to a business account and have put quite a bit of time into it (and still am). If you’ve got a Pinterest account, then please follow me here 🙂 .
In between the blogging, I went on a couple of holidays last year. The first was to Bourgas in Bulgaria. We have a house there, so it wasn’t my first time. If you’ve not been before, it’s a lovely holiday destination (if you avoid the very touristy areas 😉 – unless that’s your bag of course) and the people are very welcoming and friendly.
Whilst over there, we discovered a fabulous family run restaurant called ‘Crystal’ in the small village of Medovo. I may do a post on it next year when we go back over, as the authentic styling inside and out is adorable, with a great attention to detail.
Our second trip was to Southern Ireland in October (our first visit), where we toured The Ring of Kerry and the Dingle Peninsula, amongst other things (like drinking Guinness).
Luckily we got back home just as storm Ophelia hit!
I rounded off the year with a couple of Christmassy posts, and we were pleasantly surprised with the first proper snow since I don’t know when (at least until the novelty wore off and it started to disrupt everything!).
Interior design nut, self confessed neat freak, and budding yogi. On a mission to banish all of the white ceilings in my home.
