THE BEST OF 2020

Think we are all ready to bid a farewell to 2020! A challenging year no doubt. BUT as challenging, weird and stressful as it was I know it’ll be a year we will never forget. Some years fly by while others stay etched in our minds. 2020 was most certainly one of them. As I do every year, I am bringing you HOLB’s best of 2020. The top 10 blog posts, top 10 fashion and shoe buys, top 10 retailers and of course sharing my personal best moments as well as my low moments. So HOLB friends — let’s do this. Let’s reflect back together on all that went down on this blog of mine this past year!

TOP 10 BLOG POSTS OF 2020

#1 | MASTER BEDROOM REFRESH WITH RAYMOUR & FLANIGAN – In all my years of running HOLB I never had a single blog post that was responsible for drawing traffic to my blog on a daily basis. This post alone drives in a ton of views daily to HOLB. I’m talking 5 times higher views than any other post I wrote. Clearly I need to start diving into some more home content! We are still renovating around here so more to come. But in the meantime you can see this post for when I recently painted the entire interior back in October.

HOW TO SHOP AT SHEIN – BUT there is actually one other post that still drives a ton of traffic to HOLB on a regular basis. This one made top 10 last year too! Code houseofleo315 for 15% off your SheIn purchases. You can see my last SheIn haul here.

3 | THE GROVE RESORT ORLANDO REVIEW – I wrote this one after our December 2019 trip to Disney. This was such an honor campaign to be a part of and a reminder of how much I miss travel!

4 | AMAZON HAULS – And of course the best of 2020 included lots of love still for my monthly Amazon hauls. Can you believe January will mark 2 full years of me doing these hauls?! Top ones you all loved for 2020 were January, February and October. And good news. I have January’s coming this Sunday! You can also see December’s blog post here.

5 | SUMMER’S DIAGNOIS WITH MULTIPLE EPIPHYSEAL DYSPLASIA – I will talk more on this later in the post but the love my family felt after I shared this post will never ever be forgotten. I think this post alone is the one responsible for allowing me to connect with so many long time HOLB followers as well as connecting with new ones. So many of you reached out to me and it was touching. Truly. To know how much you’ve not only connected with my blog but with my family. Just so touched.

6 | A TRIBUTE TO MY NEPHEW – This was another emotional post I wrote this year when my dear nephew passed away at 29 years old. Forever our angel.

7 | EVERYTHING YOU NEED TO KNOW ABOUT MERMAID HAIR EXTENSIONS – This was the year I went for a little change and ZERO REGRETS! Coming up on a year with them in and am 99% sure I’m going for round 2!

8 | CELEBRATE FRIENDSGIVING WITH SHOPRITE – I was so happy this post made the best of 2020 because if there was one thing I loved so much this year was the opportunity to partner with ShopRite several times. I was so proud of all the campaigns I did with them.

PALMER’S COCOA BUTTER FACTS – This was also a great partnership I had in 2020 and one that came in close to #8.

9 | HOW TO TRAIN A HOUSE RABBIT – Snowball! You made the best of 2020 buddy! Never knew this little rabbit would have such an impact. To this date if I put him in my stories I get bombarded with messages and questions about him. Pretty sure we are up to 5 friends who have now added house rabbits to their homes because of him!

10 | 40 THINGS I LEARNED IN MY 30’S – And 2020 was the year I turned 40! Still can’t grasp how I am now almost 41! But this was a fun post to write!

THE TOP 10 FASHION BUYS

THE #1 MOST PURCHASED ITEM ON HOLB: THE TARGET JUMPSUIT! Personally I was shocked but this was the one single item that beat out the rest! Can’t blame you. I still love that comfy jumpsuit. And good news. It’s still in stock!

The above shows the remaining top 9 out of 10 items you all scooped up this year. One of the biggest trends you all loved? Nope not tie dye or leopard but PUFF SLEEVES!

TOP ROW: SHORT OVERALLS | TOPSHOP DENIM SHORTS | OLD NAVY DENIM JACKET

MIDDLE ROW: TARGET CHAMBRAY SHIRT | FAUX LEATHER MOTO JACKET | AE LEGGINGS | CHENILLE SWEATER

BOTTOM ROW: EXPRESS PUFF SLEEVE TOP | OLD NAVY BLAZER | PUFF SLEEVE BODYSUIT

THE TOP SHOE BUYS

Shoes were such a big buy this year that I had to give them their own collage. Target shoes were definitely a HUGE hit with you and me!

TOP ROW: TARGET MULES | TARGET HIKING BOOTS | TARGET BOOTS

MIDDLE ROW: DSW BOOTS | DOLCE VITA HIGH TOPS (also here) | VINTAGE HAVANA STAR SNEAKERS

BOTTOM ROW: MADEWELL MULES | TORY BURCH FLIP FLOPS | TARGET SLIDES

THE TOP 10 BEST OF 2020 FAVORITE RETAILERS

By now I have been able to figure out which retailers you love to see most and I know for a fact you LOVE to see hauls over me just styling 1 or 2 pieces in a blog post. Hauls take so much time, planning and work but they are here to stay. Your top fav retailers this year to shop on HOLB are as follows:

1 AMAZON – See my December haul here.

2 TARGET – This was the year I started bringing in monthly Target hauls and wow did you all love them. These are actually more popular in views lately than Amazon! See December’s here.

3 NORDSTROM – Who doesn’t love Nordy?! NSALE was another great event I enjoyed covering this past year.

4 EXPRESS – I have been working with Express well over a year now but this year I started to make monthly Express hauls and they have been so much fun. I always aim to show at least 4 new pieces and to style them a few different ways. See my December haul here and my November haul here.

5 AMERICAN EAGLE – Think we will keep this as a monthly feature going into 2020. See my last haul here.

6 SHEIN – You can see my latest SheIn haul here. Use code houseofleo315 for 15% off.

7 OLD NAVY | 8 DSW | 9 EVEREVE | 10 ABERCROMBIE

MOST POPULAR INSTAGRAM POST OF 2020

THE BEST OF 2020 PERSONAL MOMENTS

Coming out of 2019 I was at the top of my game business wise. I had such tremendous growth especially in December 2019. I was honestly so excited for 2020. But then Covid happened and like many my business suffered greatly. I pressed on though and never stopped not even for a day.

I hired my fist virtual assistant this year and together we worked to strengthen where I felt I wanted improvement and strategized to increase revenue because due to Covid so many campaigns came to a halt. Together we created the Trending 5 that you see in my stories daily and I’m so proud of how far that has come. It’s super time consuming and most evenings I’m in my office working late to pull items for the next day but it’s something I know you have all come to love.

While campaigns were far less this year due to Covid I still had some great ones I was so so proud of. I partnered with Old Navy this year on a back to school mask campaign you can see here. Career high with that one!

The best of 2020 also included a campaign with Vince Camuto.

I had several great campaigns with ShopRite and truly to date they are one of my most favorite brands to work with. Even my Mom and Erik both say that they look at ShopRite so differently now since I started working for them. That right there. That’s the power of influencer marketing. To show you all what a brand is all about and if it’s a brand you already know to show you items or products or a storyline about that brand that you may not have known.

And being featured on the landing page for Express’ website was a HUGE moment for me! Totally a pinch me moment.

As for tough moments in 2020 clearly Summer’s diagnosis with MED was one of the hardest things I’ve ever gone through as a mother. We are just about 6 weeks post surgery now and honestly? You would never know what she went through. She is so strong and just amazes me with her positive attitude. I have no idea what the years ahead will look like for her but right now she’s in a great place. Friends, family and followers who love her and the prayers are what got her here. I whole heartedly believe that. So thank you. Thank you from the bottom of my heart.

THANK YOU

Closing out the best of 2020 with a thank you to each one of you that read my blog. I wouldn’t be here almost 4 years later doing what I love without you. Sounds so cheesy but it’s true. Without followers who come back day in and day out a blog is just photos and words. But when you have followers who come back to it — it becomes a reason for existence. From day 1 I’ve poured countless hours into making HOLB into what it is today. My views are the highest they’ve been and that tells me something. You enjoy what I put out here for you to read. Without you loving this space I have created it means nothing. Personally I don’t know many people who work as much as me but want to know something? I have no regrets. I am right where I want to be.

So thank you. For reading, buying through my links, sharing and supporting. Thank you for letting me be one of those few people in the world who gets to make a living doing what they love. 2020 still had a lot of great moments and growth for me but I’m ready to go into 2021 and make it an even better year. Are you with me? Let’s not dwell on how hard 2020 was. Let’s just link arms and say 2021 will be our year! Happy New Year sweet friends.