Happy New Years Eve!!! This past year has been CRAZY, but it a wonderful way! I think EVERY year is a bit crazy and wonderful though. I’ve loved 2012, and can’t wait for 2013!
Not all of you will care about my top 10’s but I have had such a fun few days going through all my numbers! It’s always weird to me which posts do the “best”, and which ones don’t do well at all!!! I also love seeing how my logo and photography has changed since I started blogging almost 6 years ago. I couldn’t just do a top 10 of everything combined so I did one from each of my standard categories- Cakes, Crafts, Recipes and Parties!
Top 10+ Cakes of 2012 (based on pageviews)
I made 24 cakes this year! AMAZING! That’s so much more than I’ve ever made before. Quite a few of them were smash cakes, some for blogging events, and of course some for weddings and birthdays! I’m already filling up through June of 2013 with only a few openings available! So much fun for me.
#1 Lego Head cake Tutorial– I first shared this on Ucreate Parties, and it was a huge hit, would you like MORE tutorials for cakes next year?
#2 Baby Boy’s sprinkles first birthday cake– his entire cake batter and sprinkles party was a BALL!
#3 Ruffled Rose wedding cake #1 and ruffled rose wedding cake #2, I don’t usually like to do repeats, but both of these cakes were for family members so I couldn’t say no!
#4 Barbie Standing Guitar cake– I love challenging designs and this one was SO much fun to create and make!
#5 Lego Anakin Skywalker Sitting birthday cake– Lego Boy wants his next cake to be a sitting lego character as well, so you’ll be seeing more of these this year!
#6 Craft Trends inspired cake– This one was for Snap, the craft blogging conference here in Salt Lake! it was super fun to design and make. Did I meet any of you there?
#7 St. Patricks Pot of Gold cake– This has a cheesecake center, and was one of those last min cakes that just came together perfectly!
#8 Cinco De Mayo cake– I made this for the last party at the Breathing Space retreat in Daybreak
#9 Ballerina Birthday cake– this was for my own sweet Princess’s 5th birthday. If I was to do it again I’d make TWO! one of my favorites to make.
#10 White trash trailer cake– I made this for one of my dearest friends! Makeing a cake for a friend is always more fun than a regular client, this one was a big favorite!
okay, I couldn’t miss the next three, so a top 13…
#11 Gold Leaf wedding cake– This one was for my sweet cousin’s wedding, this edible gold leaf technique is so lovely, they have silver leaf too… I need someone to order a full cake in this! GORGEOUS!
#12 Bella Bash Cake– I love making a cake based on a companies product, like these purses!
#13 Craft Wars Party Cake– This was for my friends viewing party for her episode of Craft Wars! She didn’t win, but we had a totally fun party for the event.
Top 10 Crafts (tutorials and patterns- based on pageviews)
It’s been an off year for crafting, with the baby at home and getting bigger it doesn’t leave as much time for the big projects, but I have done a lot of crocheting apparently. My free crochet patterns are the top of all my posts, above the cakes even!
#1 Crochet Wrap button boy and girl boots pattern baby sized and infant sized– These might forever be on the top of my yearly top 10 posts…
#2 Crochet baby summer sandals pattern– while these aren’t the most practical, they sure are cute!!!
#3 Thread Crochet Queen Anne’s lace bracelet pattern– I love this bracelet, I made it in 5 colors for myself!
#4 Back lit Canvas art– i have a few changes I’m thinking about doing to this canvas this year to update it, I’ll let you know.
#5 Knit Reindeer beanie pattern– This fit Miss K, my sweet baby niece this year, I made Baby Boy a Santa this year, they were so cute sitting together this year.
#6 Free Chalkboard photo Christmas Cards– These were even more popular than my Lego Star Wars party food labels!!! What printable do you want to see next?
#7 Thread Crochet rose ring pattern– I made a bunch of other designs, then made my own, which is your favorite crochet ring?
#8 Knit cable scarf pattern– This was the first knit pattern I ever made up! I still love this scarf, but want to try to get it thinner and more flexible.
#9 Crochet mohawk hat pattern – baby to adult– ALL my kids love this one, only Baby Boy won’t keep his on!
#10 Crochet bobble beard pattern – size infant to adult– And the newest pattern on the blog, one everyone has been asking me for all year, the bearded beanie with kid sizes, I added bobbles to it and I LOVE how it turned out!
Top 10 Recipes (based on Pageviews)
The funny thing is I started out as a food blogger, it was almost all cakes and recipes. A few years ago I added crafts, and just last year started writing crochet and knitting patterns. This year I had VERY few recipes. Most of these top 10 are from years past!
#1 Cake batter sprinkles recipes (Truffles, Muddy Buddies, dip, Popcorn, No-bake Cheesecake, Fudge, Bark, Cookies, Pretzels, Marshmallows, Rice Krispies, Ice Cream) Cake batter has been very popular this year, so no surprise these recipes were all so popular!
#2 Homemade Andes Mints– these were from last year and still one of the most popular recipes to date. This year we added crushed candy canes to our and made them EVEN better!
#3 Dr Seuss Cat in the Hat cake pops tutorial– I made these cake pops the first time a few years ago, but kept getting questions about how I made them, so this year I made a tutorial for them!
#4 Lego Gummies (made from this homemade mold)- The Lego mold I made 3 years ago gets a ton of use at my house, and this gummy recipe is the most popular, do you ever use a mold for foods?
#5 Lemon Sour Cream Pie– a family favorite at our house, I make this a few times a year!
#6 German Pancakes– This is our go to breakfast and sometimes dinner, it’s fast and easy and everyone loves it.
#7 Chocolate mousse filling– I make a ton of different flavor variations of this mousse for my cake fillings. what’s your favorite cake filling flavor?
#8 Oreo Truffle Balls– easy fast and addictive!
#9 Ice Cream cone cake bites– just part of the ice cream party I threw myself last year. I think this will be my yearly theme every year!
#10 Red pork Tamale filling– Making tamales for Christmas is a tradition for a lot of people, my BIL makes the chicken and I make the pork! This year I went stronger with the pepers and it was PERFECT!
Top 10 Parties (based on pageviews)
#1 Lego Star Wars birthday party– Hopefully Lego boy’s birthday party this year (any guesses on WHICH lego game we’re doing this year) will be a huge hit as well.
#2 Dr. Seuss birthday party– This was one of my favorite parties to date, I just wish I had known more about staging and pictures when I did it, I might redo this party just to get better pictures!
#3 Lego Indiana Jones birthday party– This was a super fun party with a scavenger hunt, running from a huge ball down the hill, jumping over snakes, etc… it was a ton of fun!
#4 Airplane baby shower– This baby shower for my sweet cousin was so so SO much fun to plan!!!! Who else wants a shower? I’m dying to throw another one.
#5 Ice Cream Parlor birthday party– my big birthday bash before Baby boy was born, strange that it was already so long ago! I am already planning this years bash…
#6 Rainbow Garden birthday party– The reader still says her favorite color is the entire rainbow! I think she’d do this party ever year If I was willing!
#7 Lego birthday party– the FIRST of our lego parties, and way way WAY before I got into laying out a party well! these lego parties just keep coming and coming!
#8 Pink Ballerina birthday party– I was so tickled that my little girl wanted a ballet party! I was a ballerina growing up so planning it was a ball!
#9 Cake Batter & Sprinkles first birthday party– I went through about half a dozen themes before settling on this one.
#10 Totoro birthday party flashback– This was from almost 9 years ago, and we all still love totoro (and all things studio ghibli. This is another one that we’ll repeat at some point.
Top 10 Blog referrers
Thanks for the features gals!
#1 MooglyBlog
#2 Tip Junkie
#3 All about Ami
#4 Homestead survival
#5 Ucreate Crafts
#6 Obseussed
#7 Someday Crafts
#8 Tangled Happy
#9 Ucreate Parties
#10 Crochetlatte
So what was your favorite cake/craft/recipe or party from the past year? Or is your favorite from a previous year? Are you excited for 2013? Do you have any grand plans, I have some HUGE goals for this next year!
Here is the top 10 from 2011!
michelle@somedaycrafts
You are crazy talented. I WISH I had half of your talents. What a great mom and person you are!
Ashlee
Thanks Michelle! We have GOT to get together soon this year!
Jesseca @ One Sweet Appetite
Yay! The trailer cake made it onto the list!!
Ashlee
I actually took out any cake not made this year, and all the smash cakes so it would be MY favorite cakes, then in page view order 😉
Jesseca @ One Sweet Appetite
Let’s see if I can get the next cake you make me on the 2013 list!
Ashlee
sounds like a good plan!!!
Sara
So many pretty parties and cakes! The White Trash Trailer was my favorite. 🙂
Ashlee
Thanks! That’s def one of my favorites of all the cakes too! The themed ones always are!
Debra c
I love your stuff so so cute my daughter fell in love with the crocheted boots making her some today!! thanks for your site. Beautiful!!
Ashlee
thank you so much~! I have a lot of fun with it, and the crochet stuff is always fun to create.