31 Things to do Before 31

1. 100 Pushups
2. Do another 28 or 30 day challenge
3. Log my food and exercise every single day for a minimum of 3 months
4. Go ice skating
5. Run a 10K
6. Go to sleep early
7. Improve my posture
8. Buy a house
9. Knit a sweater
10. Schedule "me" time at least once a week. Strive for at least two hours of solitude
11. Meditate
12. Visit a new state
13. Visit a new museum
14. Go to at least one lecture or creative performance
15. Read Four Classics:
    The Brothers Karamazov (Fyodor Dostoyevsky)
    The Age of Innocence (Edith Wharton)
    The Stranger (Albert Camus)
    The Handmaid's Tale (Margaret Atwood)
16. 52 Weeks listing Things for which I am Grateful
17. 52 Weeks to an Organized Home
18. 90 minutes of Yoga at minimum once a week
19. Learn about my family tree
20. Make cheese souffle
21. Buy a watch
22. Make hot buttered rum
23. Take a stunning photograph
24. Write a haiku
25. Make a pair of earrings
26. Get my eyebrows shaped professionally
27. See a Penn State Game at Beaver Stadium
28. Letterpress
29. Buy number or letter balloons for an occasion
30. Find a new shade of lipstick
31. Buy It's a Wonderful Life on DVD

30 Before 30 List Update

Up until 30, for some reason it made sense to me that I wanted to to x-1 things before I turned x. But 29 before 30 seemed kind of...silly. 30 is big. 30 is...thirty. So without further adieu, my list of thirty things I wanted to do before 30:

1. Visit Fallingwater
   Frank Lloyd Wright's PA treasure was beautiful, and definitely worth the wait. We got tickets for the in-depth tour, and we learned some really interesting facts about the house, plus I was allowed to take some really great pictures with a wide angle lens that I rented from borrowlenses.com.
   
2. Visit a new state
   I was not able to do this this year. We made it up to Maine, out to California (twice), Nevada, and back to PA, but we've been to all of those places before.
3. Visit a new museum
   I visited the Andy Warhol museum while I was in Pittsburgh over the 4th of July weekend. It was pretty awesome, and although they didn't allow photos, I was too mesmirized by the David Bowie interview to really pay attention to anything else (well, besides the silver clouds)
4. Make my own flavored vodka
   I made cherry flavored vodka with a mini-bottle of Bully Boy and some in-season black cherries. Sonic ain't got nothing on my homemade cherry limeade slushes!
5. Make ice cream
6. Find a piece of good furniture
   I feel like I did one better and got a very beautiful rug by Austin artist Alyson Fox (from West Elm). It is gorgeous and I love it. We even bought a vacuum cleaner JUST BECAUSE I love this rug so much, and want to take care of it properly forever. We also finally got around to getting a cube Expedit for our vinyl collection.
   
   
7. Grow tomatoes
   Yeah, baby
   
8. Add a lens to my camera collection
   After some deliberation, I decided to rent the lens I wanted whenever I needed it. This worked out for the best, financially. Although I'd still like to add it to my collection eventually, the cost for this one was prohibitive.
9. Take bird pictures
   Done! Got a photo of a hawk a week after I posted this, which was more than I ever could have dreamed! Now I need to use the good old telephoto lens and get some "real" bird pictures as the telephoto intended.
10. Make a lightbox
11. Finish knitting a blanket
12. Sew a skirt
    I will update with this project soon!
13. Make a travel book for guests/Scrapbook about Boston
    I collected some maps from the airport, and gathered all of those plus soaps, shampoos, and a list of suggestions for things to do.
14. Take a haunted trolley tour
15. Ride the Swan Boats
16. Learn to play guitar
    Ha. Yeah, I don't know what I was thinking.
17. Take spanish lessons
    I didn't really follow through on this, even after I looked it up and asked around.
18. Read Three classics: War and Peace, Persuasion, and Crime and Punishment
19. Start waking up early
    I had to start waking up before 6:30 for my new job. So...done!
20. Visit a national monument
    Turns out that Symphony Hall is a National Monument, so check!
21. Run another 5K
22. Repaint/refinish our kitchen chairs
23. Overhaul the sh*t out of my closet
    My intentions were good, but I did not have time for this.
24. Overhaul the sh*t out of my online portfolio
    I kind of did this, but not to the depth or extent I wanted.
25. Serve on a Jury
    Okay, this wasn't strictly on my list, but I did finally get to serve jury duty. It felt great to do my civic duty, even though the trial was pretty abysmal and left me with little sense of justice. Innocent until proven guilty, though, right?
26. Get my first tattoo
    I decided I'd rather have a house. We'll see what happens after we save all our extra $$$ and buy property.
27. Do 30 days of yoga
    I did this challenge
28. Keep a Therapy Journal
    I never got around to this, but I do jot down some of the more important things when I think of them or when they help me more than usual.
29. Set a measurable goal in therapy
30. Eat a cleaner diet
    J and I started doing Paleo in July. We hoped to make it a lifestyle change instead of something we did for a few weeks. I think it made us more aware of where our food was coming from, and how lazy we had become since I started working full time. We're still making adjustments, but it was good for us, and we both lost some weight and learned some things.

Total: 20/30

28 before 29

30 Things to do Before I Turn 30

Up until 30, for some reason it made sense to me that I wanted to to x-1 things before I turned x. But 29 before 30 seemed kind of...silly. 30 is big. 30 is...thirty. So without further adieu, my list of thirty things I want to do before 30:

1. Visit Fallingwater
2. Visit a new state
3. Visit a new museum
4. Make my own flavored vodka
5. Make ice cream
6. Find a piece of good furniture
7. Grow tomatoes
8. Add a lens to my camera collection
9. Take bird pictures
10. Make a lightbox
11. Finish knitting a blanket
12. Sew a skirt
13. Make a travel book for guests/Scrapbook about Boston
14. Take a haunted trolley tour
15. Ride the Swan Boats
16. Learn to play guitar
17. Take spanish lessons
18. Read Three classics: War and Peace, Persuasion, and Crime and Punishment
19. Start waking up early
20. Visit a national park
21. Run another 5K
22. Repaint/refinish our kitchen chairs
23. Overhaul the sh*t out of my closet
24. Overhaul the sh*t out of my online portfolio
25. Serve on a Jury
26. Get my first tattoo
27. Do 30 days of yoga
28. Start knitting a sweater
29. Set a measurable goal in therapy
30. Eat a cleaner diet

28 before 29

Things I Love Thursday

My Husband (and his birthdays)

I love celebrating his birthday almost more than celebrating my own. I surprised him with a vinyl copy of Radiohead's The Bends, and we went out to dinner with a bunch of friends to one of the most awesome restaurants in Somerville, Highland Kitchen—I ate about twelve thousand buffalo brussels sprouts. I also made red white and blue (freedom) cupcakes that were decorated with robots. Geeky fact no.157 (that people at the table did notice): the candles were J's age in binary: 11101.

Things that made me smile
I recently went to a guided meditation for the first time and we used energy as a concentration tool. This is going to sound so strange like hippie nonsense, but I actually "held" a ball of energy in my hands this week. It felt awesome and powerful and so calming  ♥ Long weekends are great—I feel refreshed and recharged, and so much brighter—for my short work week! ♥ 

28 Things to do Before I Turn 29

1. Overhaul my office area
2. Restyle my closet to fit my new fashion needs
   I have started buying only "sensible shoes," and more clothes with appropriate fabrics, lengths, etc. I occasionally stop into H&M and Forever 21, but I try to stock up on more quality products—like my jeans and my shoes, so that I can pick up endless tops at Target, since they don't last as long. Lots of lessons learned.
3. Sew and tailor all of my old clothes that need mending
   I didn't get to all of them, but I have mended a lot.
4. Pimp out our balcony
5. Donate our old towels to the MSPCA
6. Go sledding
7. Try a juice fast
8. Cook one new food or recipe every month
   We ended up participating in a farm share starting in June, and J bought a new propane grill. Between those two things, we were learning more about food this year than any year before. I ended up learning ways to cook millet, quinoa, beets, turnips, brussels sprouts, kohlrabi, kale, butternut squash, and way more other foods that I never thought I'd be able to make by myself, much less enjoy in the first place (I was skeptical about brussels sprouts, but they are my new favorite food. Especially when they're buffalo flavored). I know that's only 8 foods that I've listed, but at least 12 different recipes came out of them—so I think it counts.
9. Participate in group meditationI went to the Cambridge Insight Meditation Center, and it was incredibly relaxing and freeing. One of the founders, Sharon Salzberg, has written two books that I highly recommend: Real Happiness—The Power of Meditation—A 28 Day Program, and Lovingkindness: The Revolutionary Art of Happiness.
10. Run a 5K
    This goal was originally to ride my bike more than 50 miles (in one ride). I stopped doing long rides long ago, and this didn't even become a possibility. However, I did start running, and I finished my first 5K in December!
11. Visit a new country
    We visited Italy and Croatia in August. It made me want to travel even more!
12. Take more photosI was more earnest about participating in Project 364, to take a picture every day of the year. I was wildly unsuccessful in taking a picture every day, but it definitely led to more photos, and more importantly, better photos—especially in Europe.
13. Go back to school
    I took Graphic Design I at MassArt in the spring, and Graphic Design II in the summer.
14. Complete at least three apartment projectsThe following improvements have made our apartment much better:
    
    • Hanging glass racks in our kitchen to hold our wine glasses, in addition to buying an Ikea kitchen shelf to get some of our bigger kitchen appliances out of the kitchen.
    • Hanging grundtal rails in the office—rails allow me to hang art supplies at an arms reach, and I also hung up a hanging file so that I could keep my Groupons at hand.
    • Patching up a hole in the wall. Yeah, sure I put the hole in the wall myself, but now I know I have the necessary skills to fix that sort of damage!
15. Find a new job
    I had a contracting position in July-September at MIT, and it was part of a thrilling and prestigious grant proposal. I am excited to add it to my resume.
16. Adopt a greyhound
    Feh. This one is happening. D-day (dog day) is January 26th. I missed this one by a few weeks.
17. Swim in the ocean
    Not only did I swim in the ocean, but I went swimming in the Adriatic Sea! The water was so beautiful—crystal clear and the perfect temperature.
18. Discover new music once a week
    Not once a week, but frequently. I posted a video a week for a while, and that helped me try to reach this goal.
19. Start knitting again
    I made an honest effort starting with a small afghan.
20. Learn to embroider
21. Redesign my online portfolio
22. Change my name
    I legally changed my name shortly after my birthday, way before 29 ;)
23. Visit a new museum
    We visited the Peabody Essex Musem in Salem, MA this past March.
24. Make the spare bedroom guest-ready (i.e. not my dumping ground)
    In all fairness, it is still a dumping/hiding ground, but we've streamlined the dumping/hiding process such that it takes a day to get it to guest-ready shape, plus we've made sure to include toiletries, internet password, and fancy guest towels.
25. Keep sparkling wine in the house for impromptu champagne moments
    I found mini bottles of champagne, and it has been simple to keep champagne in the house for impromptu celebrations or, you know, Tuesday nights.
26. Tour a chocolate factory
    This one was actually a bit of a cheat since we did it for my 28th birthday.
27. Plant an herb garden
    In May, I had mint, and lime mint growing on my balcony, and basil growing in my kitchen.
28. Compost
    I talk about our adventures composting here.

27 Things To Do Before I Turn 28

1. Get married!
   We were married on Nov 19th at the MIT Chapel
2. Take a real vacation
   I went to New Orleans for my bachelorette weekend, and J and I went to Vermont for our honeymoon over Thanksgiving, and were forced by the closure of every business and restaurant to just relax in our hotel.
3. Sew a dress
4. Take more pictures
   This is a goal of mine every year, and I somehow fail even more every year. I got a new 50mm lens, which made me pretty excited to take photos for a while, but it wasn't enough. I still wanted to take a picture every day for a year. I was going strong this year, and I think I succeeded at the goal of "take more pictures." Did I take a picture every. day? No, but keeping that goal through the year made me more likely to take a picture most days.
5. Wear lipstick more regularly
   After learning to do my makeup for the wedding, I made sure that I did myself up more often. Sometimes all I did was put on a little lipstick, and it's amazing how put together you can look with lipstick and nothing else.
6. Find a new hairstyle
   I learned how to do a dancer's bun and it saved me when I was growing my hair out for the updo I'd have on Nov 19th.
7. Host a board game night
   We had people over for Scrabble one night. It was brutal.
8. Use my kitchen every day
9. Do more yoga
   A friend of mine teaches a class on Wednesdays. I feel more accountable since I know the teacher. It's also helped me do more yoga at home.
10. Compost
    I did end up calling the city of Somerville to look into this, but they didn't have any bins available until after the New Year. After learning this, J and I went to Home Depot, picked up a 5 Gallon plastic pail, and we drop our compost off at Whole Foods weekly. I don't need it to garden (a wish/goal of mine when I embarked on this process that I have since abandoned), so this solution works for us.
11. Make a scrapbook
    I ordered a wedding photo book from pinhole press, and because I am feeling unambitious, but also like it was still an achievement, I will call this one a win, since I had to spend a lot of time with that layout.
12. Letterpress I letterpresesd and assembled our wedding invitations.
13. Make my office inspiring
    I did a lot of cleaning and purging, and it did help tremendously. I then bought a new (larger) desk and office chair and it's looking very professional and the addition of workspace makes me more efficient
14. Unveil a new website/blog
    Not that this is what I meant, but I did update the layout around here...
15. New business cards
16. Write more thank you notes
    After the wedding, I feel like I've done nothing but write thank you notes.
17. Drink more water
    I go back and forth on this one. In general, I feel like I've drunk more water this past year than I used to...but it wasn't measured.
18. Pimp our our bathroom
    Courtesy of our wedding registry, we now have matching towels. Matching. Towels. Also a spa-like bath mat, and a re-organized very spiffy basket to hold all of our bathroom needs.
19. Dog-sit a corgi
20. Organize my files
21. Clean out our bedroom
22. Start drinking tea
23. Participate in the Apartment Therapy Spring Cure
24. Thrift/restyle in my own closet
25. Eliminate chemicals from our home
    We are down to some Mrs. Meyers cleaning solution for the bathroom (since it's so gross in there), but everything else is all natural (vinegar, baking soda and lemon if I can help it, Seventh Generation, Mrs. Meyers, or Method products if I cant).
26. Tour a brewery
    We went to the Magic Hat Brewery in VT on our honeymoon, and toured the Anheuser-Busch brewery with friends.
27. Hang more artwork/photos

Birthday Cupcakes

I have crossed one off my list of things to do before I turn 27! I made some rainbow cupcakes for a very special occasion:


I think they were very much appreciated:

26 Things To Do Before My 27th Birthday

{Old Greyhound by Daniel Greene}

Here's a scary thought. I turned 26 today. Twenty-six. Somehow, it feels different from 25. I was a little nervous, but mostly excited about 25, but 26 seems so much...more. I'm excited, but I'm starting to feel a little bit older. I'm starting to slow down in some ways, ramp up in others. That being said, I thought it was time to make a new list! Here are 26 things I hope to do before my 27th birthday:

1. Make a Quilt
2. Procure some David Bowie on vinyl in February 2011...shortly after age 27
3. Take dance classes
4. Take some yoga classes
   in 2011...I finally got off my butt and did this
5. Find a new apartment
6. Bake rainbow cupcakes
   For J's 28th birthday! Which is...oh, one month after I turned 27. Whoops.
7. Sew a dress
8. Apply to grad school
9. Make fortune cookies
10. Make a scrapbook
11. Brand myself
12. Plant some lavender
13. Design some jewelry
14. Go to waterfire
15. Start photographing stunning fashion moments
16. Visit the JFK museum
17. Travel
18. Finish the frost flowers shawl
19. Finish my first project 365
20. Use some of the polaroid film in my freezer
21. Make 100 paper cranes
22. Make a 2010 portfolio
23. Make garlands
24. Hang twinkle lights in the apartment
25. Do a project involving polaroids+letters
26. Go out on a rowboat

25 things to do before I turn 26

1. Reshape and rebuild my website so that it's something I want to share with everyone I meet
2. Take up yoga, again!
3. Use a letterpress
4. Blockprint
5. Lose ten pounds
6. Ride my bike more places that we would normally take the car
7. Cook at least five times a week
8. Create a new budget, reflecting my new life changes and future goals
9. Read at least one book a month
10. Ride our bikes in Rhode Island, or Maine, or up the coast. Something scenic, and long
11. Have one screen-free night a week
12. Master at least four new recipes
13. Sew a dress
14. Put some entries in my etsy shop!
15. Dress up for Halloween, make our costumes
16. Finish Dan and Lydia's wedding present (afghan)
17. Make my Christmas presents this year
18. Walk across the Brooklyn Bridge (I've ridden across on my bike before, but didn't have time to take pictures, or absorb)
19. Make 25 pieces of art
20. Take a dance class
21. Go sledding
22. Plant an herb garden
23. Find some photo booths and take pictures
24. See Bishop Allen live
25. Deep clean my home and make it a peaceful, inspiring and beautiful place to live

25 Things I did and didn't do

Last year I was inspired by hulagirl to make a list of things to do before my next birthday. I only managed a few of them, but it was helpful to make the list, and this year's list will be better! Live and learn, I guess.

Things I did do: Built my own website. Screen printed (although it was one t-shirt, one art piece, and many Christmas cards). Started a new list. Began the process of sewing as a means of keeping my clothing nicer longer. Took more photos, and paid closer attention to settings. Made my Christmas cards from scratch. Knit entrelac, although it was just a swatch. Rode my bike four times a week, at least - this slowly dragged as I lost my job and then it got cold, but I was more than successful for a few months. Rode in the New York Five Borough ride. Visited Napa Valley. I'm down to one remaining bulb that isn't a CFL. Got a library card - used it. Built a light box. Used it.

For the most part, things I did not do ended up being things I could live without. As I said, this will only improve the quality of this year's list.

24 Things To Do Before My 25th Birthday

Inspired by hula seventy, I have decided to make a list of things to do before I hit my quarter of a century mark.

1. Build my own website 
2. Take a photography class 
3. Build a piece of furniture 
4. Screen print my own t-shirts 
5. Make sure this list is a yearly thing
6. Put another stamp on my passport 
7. Learn how to sew
8. Host a board game night 
9. Try to be more rigorous about taking photos
10. See a play 
11. Go camping 
12. Go to a free film night in Davis Square 
13. Make my Christmas cards
14. Make my own stitch markers
15. Knit entrelac
16. Aim to ride my bike to work four times a week** 
17. Participate in another bike ride (for charity or otherwise)
18. Take a weekend trip to Maine 
19. Bike up the coast in Rhode Island 
20. Visit a winery in Napa Valley 
21. Switch to energy efficient bulbs 
22. Get a library card
23. Build a light box (for photographing yarn)
24. See snow on the beach 

**This year I aimed for three. I was not successful many weeks out of the riding season. I figure if I aim for four, I might succeed at three more often?

You mean you wanted a Real present???

Seventeen years ago today, my baby sister came into this world, and it really hasn't been the same since.

In her seventeen years, she has been an author (she penned many short stories ripe with teenage angst when she was in middle school, and she still writes a mean blog entry), an explorer (she got lost six blocks from our home once when she tried to run away. I hope the Army teaches her how to use a compass), a counselor (from the time she was a small child and would put her tiny little hands on your face and ask you to stop crying with her big brown eyes, to when she became older and "more worldly" and offered to bust some kneecaps when people hurt the ones she loved), and a teacher (my sister has so much spirit and fortitude, it's hard not to be inspired, much less completely in awe of her).

She wrestles, she's in charge of the entire city's JROTC program, and she knows how to shoot a gun. Even though fashion-wise I sometimes have to help her a little bit (like suggesting that perhaps she wax her eyebrows instead of shaving them), she's still the only person I'd ever want in my dressing room (sometimes holding my latte).

As she gets older, she's stopped being my pesky little sister, and has started being my ally and confidante. I can't believe that the tiny little thing with curls who used to crawl around with socks in her mouth has become the young woman I saw this past Christmas, with an acceptance letter to West Point (but she still can't drive...).

Even though she can't eat any cake today (she's cutting weight), I hope it's still a good birthday.

I ♥ you, Awbs! Even though I had to leave a birthday party the day you were brought home from the hospital! (Don't worry, I made you pay)

Birthday Peekshurss!

Rachel was all kinds of awesome and took pictures on my birthday (sadly, she, Karrissa, and Barrett were on her side of the table, so they're not there, but you'll get the gist).

They can be found Here, at my flickr site, in case you don't obsessively check my sidebar :)