Changes

I started this blog a year ago when my old blog ran out of room.

But, I really have missed my original blog.

So, I decided to purchase additional space, and as of January 1st, 2024, I will return to posting there.

Please come visit me at: https://creativekokes.wordpress.com/

Thanks, and have a great day!

My 2023 Book Awards

Looking back at all of the books I read in 2023, 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 2023. Some are old, some are brand-new, but all were amazing, and I ended up buying several of these!

I picked three books for each category (there are a few honorable mentions where I just couldn’t narrow it down.)

Without further ado-my 2023 Book Awards!

Picture Books

The Knight Owl by Christopher Denise-the story is so sweet, and the illustrations are adorable! Fantastic book!

The Hole Story by Kelly Canby-I loved the thought behind this book-so clever! My favorite part is all of the great names she came up with for the shops!

Tops & Bottoms by Janet Stevens-this is an older book that I just read for the first time this year. So fun!

Children’s Novels

Chalice of the Gods (Percy Jackson #6) by Rick Riordan-I think this one might be my favorite from the series (although the first one is pretty good.) He did a great job re-booting this series, and I am looking forward to the next one!

The Secret Keepers by Trenton Lee Stewart-this was a really interesting and suspenseful novel I read aloud to the kids this year. We all enjoyed it!

Master Cornhill by Eloise Jarvis McGraw-absolutely fascinating look at England during the time of the great fire. I read this aloud to The Girlio, and highly recommend it!

Picture Books Based on a True Story

Write On, Irving Berlin by Leslie Kimmelman-I loved this look into Irving Berlin’s life-so fascinating!

Dolly! The Story of Dolly Parton and Her Big Dream by Robyn McGrath-well-written, and a great read!

Rocks in His Head by Carol Otis Hurst-so interesting! I really liked this one!

Illustrations

The Raft by Jim La Marche-OH. MY. GOODNESS. The story is good, but the illustrations in this are absolutely fabulous. Highly recommend!

Wherever You Go by Pat Zietlow Miller-I am such a big fan of Eliza Wheeler’s illustrations (she had a favorite on last year’s list too), and some of the illustrations in this one I would love to get prints of for my wall. So detailed, and wonderful.

Miss Maple’s Seeds by Eliza Wheeler-this is another Eliza Wheeler, because I love her stuff! Such a sweet story, and I love the pictures too.

Series

The Hannah Swensen Mysteries by Joanne Fluke-I liked the movies of these (the first five anyway) and decided to delve into the books this year. I have read 23 of them, so I get to continue this series into the new year, which is great! I have really enjoyed these books, and in fact now my daughter is listening to them too. 

A Cookie House Mystery series by Eve Calder-wow, I really enjoyed these! The setting is fabulous, the character relationships are great, and there are some really good mysteries. I read all three, and I really hope she comes out with more!

A Year-Round Christmas Mystery series by Vicki Delany-these are great! Fun characters, good mysteries, and I love that they are all Christmas themed! I hope there are more coming in this series as well as I read all six!

Novels

The Happy Life of Isadora Bentley by Courtney Walsh-this book was a perfect read for me. I really loved it.

What You Wish For by Katherine Center-this one hit the sweet spot in the light romance category for me. So good.

Pixels and Paint by Kristi Ann Hunter-another sweet romance. Can’t wait for the next one!

Honorable Mentions

The Thing About Home by Rhonda McKnight-this book was so different from my normal read, but I really enjoyed it because of the fabulous relationships in the story. Well done!

Rent Yourself an Elf by Savannah Scott-this is a short, sweet romance-perfect for an easy Christmas read!

Indigo Isle by T.I. Lowe-this one definitely covered some serious topics, but the relationships between the characters are just fantastic, and I loved how everything turns out in the end. I listened to this book, and I would probably recommend reading it instead as I didn’t care for the narrator, but the story is really good.

Memory Lane by Becky Wade-such a different premise, but so good! A nice romance, an interesting mystery, and very well-written. I can’t wait for the next one.

Non-Fiction

Change Your Brain Every Day by Dr. Daniel G. Amen-wow, did I learn a lot from this book! I have incorporated so many things from this book, and it led me down a major rabbit hole this year looking into how things affect your brain. Such an informative book!

The Shift by Gary Foster-I listened to this one twice this year. It is a great book that focuses on your thought process, and it’s a good one to use as a reset when you need to work on your thinking. This is one I will definitely listen to again in the future.

The Gratitude Diaries by Janice Kaplan-some really interesting thoughts in this book. Was a great one to read at the beginning of the year.

Biographies

George Muller by Janet Benge-so fascinating! We really love this whole series. I am working my way through reading these aloud to the kids, and this one was especially good!

Can’t Hurt Me by David Goggins-this was on my to-be-read list for a long time, and I finally got to it. Wow. I can’t say I agree with everything he says, but if you want to learn about tenacity and incorporating it into your life, this is a good one.

Corrie Ten Boom by Janet Benge-I knew a lot of this story beforehand, but I still learned so much, and it was great to introduce this time period in history to the kids.

And finally, I decided to add one more category to my list this year. This is my favorite read of the entire year. 

The winner is……

The Happy Life of Isadora Bentley by Courtney Walsh

This book made me laugh, made me cry, and has such a wonderful and heart-felt story. So good.

So there you have it-my favorite books of 2023! There were so many great books to pick from, but these are definitely my favorites.

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 2024!

My 2023 Top Fifteen Favorite Projects

It’s that time of year. 

Time to share my favorite projects from 2023!

These are listed in order from when they were posted on my blog.

Hello It’s Valentine’s Day

I love the soft background and large sentiment on this card. So cute!

Craft Room Clean Out Part Six

I spent a TON of time the beginning of the year organizing my craft room. This link takes you to the final post of before and afters, but I posted a series of six installments on how I completed my craft room clean out. I am SO glad I took on this project, and my craft room is so much easier to use now!

The Paper Funday Challenge #52

I am working on getting more comfortable with working with digital images, and being on the Paper Funday DT is perfect for stretching me in this area and helping me practice my coloring too. This adorable card was so much fun to put together, and I am really happy with the texture I was able to get on the mouse. Progress!

Goal Journal and Sticker Book

This paper by Echo Park is one of my favorites of all time. I absolutely love it! I really like this project too, because it was for something I needed. I used this goal journal up completely and am still using the sticker folder every week.

Card Monday-Father’s Day

I received this truck die set from Keep It Simple Paper Crafts in a prize package and decided to make my dad’s Father’s Day card with it. He said he likes red trucks, so this is what I made. I love how it turned out, and he really liked it too. Such a fun die set too!

Card Monday-Another Father’s Day Card

I love this card because it is just so different and creative. I took the truck dies (used in the project above) and decided to re-purpose them to make an old-school robot-kind of like from the classic movie The Day the Earth Stood Still. I love how it turned out, and it was the perfect card for my husband for Father’s Day.

Card Monday-Joyeux Narwhal

This card is definitely one of my favorites of the year. I love a good water scene, and I was so happy with the mermaid’s hair. I used colors that weren’t even in the same family, but it turned out so good anyway! I will admit this one did not leave my house and sits up on my windowsill with some of my other favorites from over the years. :)

Ally’s Angels July Challenge

This dress die was another I won from Keep It Simple Paper Crafts, and I absolutely love it. This patterned paper was so perfect for this die set, and the card turned out just the way I wanted.

Scrapbook BINGO and NSD #4

I managed to make quite a few layouts early in the year, and this was one of my favorites. The design is very different for me, and I love the color combination-perfect for a layout about Krispy Kreme donuts!

Layout-Oh These Views

This was my THIRD layout using this particular piece of patterned paper. I love it so much for the bright colors and the mixed media look. Made for some easy pages for sure. I was happy to finally scrap this photo from our honeymoon in Hawaii (19 years ago!) Most of those photos were already scrapped, but this one had an ugly sign in it, which I finally figured out how to cover up with some gold hearts. :)

The Paper Funday Challenge #57

This was another digital image challenge for me. I like how the coloring turned out, and I also radically altered the image from a gnome swinging in a tree, to one sitting in a tree, and I really like how it all came together.

The Paper Funday Challenge #58

This one was SUCH a tricky image for me to color. I don’t even know how many times I started over after I kept messing up her face. In the end, I am really happy with how it turned out (even though I never got a good picture and it looks a lot more orange than it is!) 

Aloha Friday October Challenge

I think I like this one so much because of the color combination. It is so very different-but it definitely works! I started with purple because I knew I wanted to make a flower card for my mom’s birthday, and she likes purple. Then, I just added fall colors from there, and I really like it! I had also really been wanting to try the truck dies again with some fall flowers sticking out, so I am really happy with how both of these cards turned out!

The Paper Funday Challenge #59

This was a new design for me, and I absolutely love it! The stencil combined with the dry embossing turned out so great, and I just really love these cards!

Merry Christmas Eve and Christmas Card #36

Scene cards are my favorite type of cards to make, and I just love the starry sky, the patterned paper snow, and non-traditional color scheme on this one-it is definitely me. :)

Well, I hope you have enjoyed this look back at my favorite 2023 projects as much as I did. 

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

Have a great day, and I will see you tomorrow for my Book Awards post, which showcases my favorite books of the year!

I am submitting this post to the following:

Ellibelle’s Year in Review 2023

Wednesday Words

pin found here

Merry Christmas!

pin found here

Merry Christmas Eve and Christmas Card Day 36

Merry Christmas Eve everyone!

Today I am sharing my final card from my Christmas card series, and it’s my favorite!

Supplies: Gold Card Stock: Simon Says Stamp; Patterned Paper: Vicki Boutin; Stamp: Lawn Fawn; Dies: Lawn Fawn (Stitched Rectangle, Stitched Hillsides), Trinity Stamps (merry); Glitter Enamel Dots: Trinity Stamps; Star Sticker: Elle’s Studio

I really love how this one turned out-it’s so me! :)

Well, that’s the final card!

I hope you enjoyed looking at all of my Christmas cards this year-I think this is the most I have ever made, and it sure was fun!

Merry Christmas!!!!

I am entering this card into the following challenges:

Simon Says Stamp Monday Challenge: Let It Snow

Cut It Up: Celebrate

Christmas Card Day 35

Welcome to Day 35 in my Christmas card series!

I have two cards for you today:

Supplies: Die Cuts: Simple Stories; Glitter Enamel Dots: Trinity Stamps; Other: Card Stock

Supplies: Patterned Paper: Echo Park; Dies: Lawn Fawn (Stitched Rectangle), Scrapbook.com (Snowflake), Elle’s Studio (Scallop); Sticker: Simple Stories; Other: Card Stock

Those are my cards for today, but I have one last card to show you tomorrow-and it’s my favorite! :) See you for Day 36!

Christmas Card Day 34

Welcome to Day 34 in my Christmas card series!

Today I am sharing the last two Christmas cards made with the Keep It Simple Paper Crafts haul I got a few weeks ago.

Here are my cards:

Supplies: Stamp: Avery Elle; Dies: Lawn Fawn; Die Cuts: Keep It Simple Paper Crafts; Sticker: Simple Stories; Inks: Tim Holtz Distress; Other: Misc. Card Stock, Star Sticker

That’s it for today, but I will be back with Day 35 tomorrow!

I am entering the top card into the following challenge:

Simon Says Stamp Monday Challenge: Let It Snow

Christmas Card Day 33

Welcome to Day 33 in my Christmas card series!

Today I am sharing another card made with Keep It Simple Paper Crafts’ Snow Day collection.

Supplies: Patterned Paper and Die Cuts: Keep It Simple Paper Crafts; Die and Star Sticker: Elle’s Studio; Other: Misc. Card Stock, Printed Sentiment

I always love a good Christmas tree for using up scraps, so this card came together pretty quickly!

It was also nice to use up some of that busier red plaid on a card.

I hope you are still enjoying my Christmas series-it’s already almost done! 

But do stay tuned-Day 34 is coming your way tomorrow. :)

Christmas Card Day 32

Welcome to Day 32 in my Christmas card series!

Today I am sharing another card made with Keep It Simple Paper Crafts’ Snow Day collection.

Supplies: Patterned Paper and Die Cuts: Keep It Simple Paper Crafts; Dies: Lawn Fawn (Stitched Rectangle), Scrapbook.com (Snowflake); Sticker: Sticko; Other: Misc. Card Stock

I sure do love this snowy sky, and I used every bit of it up from the paper pad! 🙂

That’s my card for today, but I will be back again tomorrow with Day 33!

I am entering this card into the following challenges:

Creatalicious Challenges: Anything Goes + Optional Christmas

The Creative Crafters: Challenge #71 Anything Goes

Simon Says Stamp Monday Challenge: Let It Snow