My 2025 Top Twenty Favorite Projects

Today I am showcasing my favorite twenty projects from 2025. I have listed them in order from when they were posted to my blog.

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Well, I hope you have enjoyed this look back at my favorite 2025 projects. 

I always enjoy looking over the past year and seeing what I made. It inspires me to create more in the new year, that’s for sure.

I can also see a pretty clear theme this year too-lots of die-cutting and dimension on my cards this year! 🙂

I am linking this post up to the following:
Ellibelle’s “Crafty Year in Review” linkup: Favorite Creations of the year

My 2025 Book Awards

Looking back at all of the books I read in 2025, I came up with some distinct favorites and thought I would share them with you in my own version of a book awards again this year. 🙂

I broke the books into several categories (because who can choose just a few books?)

These are all books I read for the first time in 2025. Some are old, some are brand-new (and there’s one that hasn’t even been released yet), but all were amazing, and I ended up buying several of these.

Without further ado-my 2025 Book Awards!

Picture Books

 Too Many Pumpkins by Linda White-great book! I really liked this one.

The Man Who Didn’t Like Animals by Deborah Underwood-this is wonderful! It’s basically a prequel to Old MacDonald. Very fun.

Emmie Builds Something New by Marjorie Crosby-Fairall-inventive with a great message.

Christmas Farm by Mary Lyn Ray-beautiful and heartwarming.

Illustrations

Time of Wonder by Robert McCloskey-beautiful book!

The Little Fir Tree by Margaret Wise Brown-I love Jim LaMarche’s illustrations so very much!

The Christmas Book Flood by Emily Kilgore-I love the bright colors and collage-style art!

The Bakery Dragon and the Fairy Cake by Devin Elle Kurtz-love the beautiful soft colors and all of the amazing detail.

Adult Books from a Series

 The Nature of Love (Love in the Spotlight #3) by Toni Shiloh-unusual premise, great writing, and a beautiful love story.

Uneasy Street (Sons of Scandal #3) by Becky Wade-loved this whole series so much-very good!

My Lucky Charm (Holidays with Hart #2) by Courtney Walsh-great writing, fun characters-very good!

Honorable Mention

Royally Rearranged (Sweet Royal Rom Com #1) by Emma St. Clair-very unique premise! Great book!

Chasing Secrets (Elite Guardians #4) by Lynette Eason-another with a unique plot!

O, Deadly Night (A Year-Round Christmas Mystery #8) by Vicki Delany-I do love this series and I am glad there was another book this year. This was another good one!

Fiction

So Into You by Kathleen Fuller-so different from anything I have read before. This one was really well done.

Definitely Maybe Not a Detective by Sarah Fox-I hated to see this one end, and really hope there is another one! Very, very good! **Please note: this book will be released on January 6, 2026.

Christmas Wishes and Accountant Kisses (Letters to Mrs. Claus #12) by Madeline Smith-the perfect Christmas novella. I enjoyed this one so much.

Non-Fiction

Rebel Without a Crew by Robert Rodriguez-this was absolutely fascinating. I would definitely recommend the audiobook of this one as it is read by the author and he adds side-notes throughout the book.

Lillian Trasher: The Greatest Wonder in Egypt by Janet and Geoff Benge-wow! What an amazing biography about a fascinating lady!

Roar Like a Lion: 90 Devotions for a Courageous Life by Levi Lusko-this was a great devotional to read to the kids!

And finally, I have one more category on my list for this year. This is my favorite read of the entire year. 

The winner is……

My Phony Valentine (Holidays with Hart #1) by Courtney Walsh

For anyone who has been keeping track, yes, this is my third year in a row picking a Courtney Walsh book as my favorite. She writes such great books.

There was close competition this year as I also really loved Definitely Maybe Not a Detective and Christmas Wishes and Accountant Kisses, but My Phony Valentine was my favorite.

You can’t go wrong with any of the books I have listed though. There were definitely some great reads this year.

So, there you have it-my favorite books of 2025!

I hope you found this interesting, and that you maybe even found a new book or two to read for next year.

Have a great day and stayed tuned for lots more reading posts in 2026!

Card Monday-Penguin Happy Birthday

Today I am sharing my project for the CutCardStock.com IG Influencer Team.

You can follow me on Instagram here.

Poppy Stamps recently came out with the cutest birthday release.

And….I bought a bunch of it. 🙂

I had a card idea right away, and I have to say it turned out almost exactly like what I had in my head.

Except for the first time I made it and dropped an inked stamp on the sky and had to tear off the sky and top set of mountains and re-do it.

Or the second time where I smudged the sentiment and once again had to tear off the sky and top set of mountains and re-do it.

SHEESH.

Here is my card:

Supplies: Stamp: Lawn Fawn; Dies: Poppy Stamps (penguin, car), Lawn Fawn (stitched rectangle, stitched hillside, stitched mountain border); Inks: Distress Chipped Sapphire (used to shade the car), Memento Tuxedo Black; Other: Diamond Stickles

I used the following from CutCardStock.com: Pop Tone Black Licorice, Pop Tone Sour Apple, Pop Tone Lemon Drop, Lessebo Sunset Orange, Lessebo Arctic Blue, Basis Blue, DCS Smoke Gray, Curious Translucent Clear, Stardream Metallic Neptune, Stardream Metallic Silver, Cougar White 100 lb., and Tombow Mono Multi-Purpose Liquid Glue.

I used mainly dies to create this card, but I did use my paper trimmer to cut the road and the dashes on the road. That Metallic Neptune is a great card stock for a road!

Well, that’s it for today.

Have a great one!

I am adding this card to the following challenge:

Simon Says Stamp Wednesday Challenge: Use a Sentiment

My 2025 Top Five Favorite Recipes

Today I am sharing my favorite new-to-me recipes from the year!

Here are five great recipes from 2025.

Clicking on the title of each recipe will take you to my original posts and pins with each of the recipes.

Wassail-this is a recipe I have wanted to try for years, and I really liked it! I don’t have a picture of the one I made, but here is a picture I pulled from the internet just for context. 🙂

Donut Holes-these are SO good. I liked them best with the melted frosting version, but both are delicious!

CREAMi Cinnamon Applesauce Sorbet-this is so tasty, and I love having another recipe I can make using my homemade applesauce! This is definitely one of my favorite CREAMi recipes. I like that it is a relatively healthy recipe as well.

Mashed Potato Puffs-these are so easy and tasty! I have made these many times, and the kids have made them as well. These are a great staple for the freezer too.

BBQ Pork Tenderloin-very tasty, and very easy!

So, there you go-my favorite recipes from 2025.

Have you tried any of these? If not, I encourage you to give one a try and make something delicious today!

Book Review-Rock Paper Incisors

Rock Paper Incisors is a children’s book written by Amy Timberlake and illustrated by Jon Klassen. It is book three in the Skunk and Badger series, and I do recommend reading the other two before reading this one.

Summary: Skunk and Badger are raising two orphaned rats. It’s a lot of work, but Skunk and Badger are a great team.

As the rats grow though, they start to get into EVERYTHING.

Skunk and Badger need a new plan-and it’s going to take everyone pitching in to make it happen!

My Thoughts: I liked this book. The whole series is written for younger kids who are reading but aren’t quite ready for novels yet. There are a few pictures, but not many. The pictures are quite delightful though as they are illustrated by Jon Klassen. Admittedly, that is why I picked up this series to begin with as I love his work!

While I really enjoyed the pictures though, the story is quite wonderful too.

The crazy antics keep the story moving (a bear in the entryway, a dinosaur in the hen house, and house full of chickens), but what I appreciated most was the theme of teamwork throughout this book.

Skunk and Badger look out for each other in such a sweet way, and the community really rallies around them to help raise the rats.

This book is very sweet, and I enjoyed it.

I would like to thank Little, Brown Books for Young Readers for providing me with a free digital copy of this book in exchange for my review. Thank you!