Happy 2026! I’m catching up from being away from the internet/computer over Christmas and then on vacation for the following week. However, before we fully move into the new year, I want to take a moment for one last look at the books I read in 2025.
After many years of not keeping track of my reading, I started adding my lists to my blog a few years ago. Here are the last six years of lists:
For 2025, I ended up reading a total of 90 books. You can see the entire list of books and my mini reviews on my 2025 Book List page. As always, I borrowed a bunch of the books from the library (both in-person and the online). I also used my Kindle Unlimited subscription to download lots of books from Amazon.
I plan to continue this book tracking for 2026 as well, and will stick with the same format of mini book reviews and links. Let me know if you end up loving any of my book recommendations!
Disclaimer: This post contains Amazon affiliate links. This means that clicking on a link may help me earn a small commission at no cost to you.
Before we dive into 2026, I like to take a moment to look back at the previous year. For this post, specifically, my favorite outfits.
Over the years, my style has certainly evolved (if you’re curious, check out the My Style Evolution posts — so far I have early years, 20’s and 30’s). Now that I’m in my *late* 40’s, I find that my style is still changing based on my mood, my body, and what each day brings.
2025 was a little different from a style perspective, as I now work a mostly remote job. Due to my clothing needs changing, I did some heavy purging of my closet (Closet Cleanout Update). With that big purge, I really narrowed it down to items that I fully LOVE in my closet.
I also had a little fun with my ‘grown up money’ and purchased a few things just simply because I could. Like a pair of 14-eye Dr Marten’s boots that 1995 Joules would have hyperventilated over (they just got here and I’ll share soon!). And some absolutely gorgeous hand tooled cowboy boots. Simply, because they make me happy.
So let’s take a look through my 2025 outfits that felt 100% me this year.
As always, the majority of the items in each outfit are all secondhand. I counted 27 items I purchased secondhand and 9 items I purchased new.
As the year winds down, I can’t help but look back at my thrifting adventures – both the wins and the ‘oops’ moments. While I still make a thrifting mistake here and there, thrifting is a pretty low-stakes (and low-cost) way to experiment and see what actually works for me, my closet, and my home. So, let’s dig into my thrifting winners and losers of 2025!
Oh, and before we get into it, I pulled out any secondhand items that were not thrifted, such as those from Poshmark or Consignment shops, so this is a purely THRIFTed wrap up…
My Favorite Thrifted Home Items for 2025:
Handmade “Trip Around the World” quilt, $15 – January 2025
Vintage Woolrich wool throw, $19 – October 2025
I didn’t do as much *home* thrifting this year, but these two items were welcome additions! The handmade quilt was just $15 for countless hours of the maker’s time. While these handmade quilts can go for quite a high price, I try not to be fussy about this kind of stuff and use things as they are intended. This one has migrated around the house and has been used in our den and even on the laundry room floor for our rescue dog to snuggle on while we are out.
Same goes with the wool throw – yes, it’s gorgeous and vintage. But it’s also a blanket. More specifically… my car blanket. I leave it in my car to cover the leather seat when Cooper comes for a ride and also have it as ‘just in case I break down somewhere and it’s cold outside’ insurance.
My Favorite Thrifted Clothing Items for 2025:
Everlane sweater, $7 – Arizona Spring Break thrifting, April 2025
Acme cowboy boots, $25 – Arizona Spring Break thrifting, April 2025
J.Crew Tulle skirt, $3.59 – June 2025
Gap flutter sleeve blouse, $4.87 – June 2025
Vintage Allison Smith skirt, $7 – June 2025
UGG Endell Boots, $24.79 – July 2025
Quite the ‘classics’ mix for this year’s clothing favorites! Looking at it as a gallery, each item mixes and matches well with each other and could totally be a capsule collection. Lots of natural fibers with the chunky cotton sweater, flutter sleeve blouse and vintage skirt. The tulle skirt was a great addition to my tulle collection and has been worn both styled for work and styled for the weekends. As for those cowboy boots – I mean DANG!? They were such a great vintage score and souvenir to bring home from Sedona, Arizona. Those UGG boots filled a hole in my closet, as I didn’t have any actual *winter, snow boots* and were perfect for the chilly, slushy, snowy days we had a couple weeks ago.
And here were some of my 2025 mistakes that I will learn from:
Merona Cardigan, $5.50 – January 2025
Sage Collective Joggers, $5.50 – March 2025
Cotton dress, $10.99 – July 2025
Ok, first of all… this cardigan is ugly and I don’t know what I was thinking when I bought it. This got re-donated. For the joggers, they were a size too big, but I bought them anyways because they were cheap and I figured they’d be comfortable. Instead, the crotch bagged down to my knees within a couple hours of wearing them and I felt like MC Hammer.
While I like the pattern of the cotton dress, the top/bust area just fits me kind of weird. This one has been sitting in my sewing pile for a couple months, so I need to decide if I’m going to turn it into a skirt… or just re-donate it. All in all, not too many losers this year. YAY!
I can’t wait to see what kind of treasures we find in 2026!
