14 in 2014

I'm still working on my 30 before 30 list - I've got until June to finish! - but I'm kind of a list lover, so why not add another resolution list now that we've started a new year? I admit I'm maybe a bit less enamored of some of the remaining items on my 30 list, so I felt like picking a couple of new items. But also there are some things I'd love to get around to this year that I'll definitely be more motivated to do if I know I get to cross them off a list when I'm done.

So, inspired by Sarah and Allyssa's recent list posts, here are 14 things I aim to do in 2014:

And I've already actually checked one off... Sometimes after a spinning class, instructors who teach two in a row ask, "anyone want to stay and do a double?" Usually my spinning buddy and I think it's crazy, but we thought we should try it at least once just to see if we could do it. And we can! After two hours and the equivalent of 50 miles on Saturday, my legs were really tired and that brunch was extra large and extra delicious, but mentally and physically it wasn't quite so hard as we expected.

Anyone else have resolution lists for the year (or a 30 before 30 type deal)? I love reading other people's lists!

2013 resolutions

After I turned 28 in June I made a list of 30 things to do before I turn 30, thinking that the years pass quickly, and I want to be intentional about actually getting to the things I always thought I would get around to someday.

We all know intentions and resolutions have a way of going by the wayside, which is exactly why I made the list in the first place, so I don't just keep letting time pass by, getting wrapped up in daily life, and forgetting about some of these good intentions. When I made the list, I had 23 months for the 30 items, and in the 6 months since, I did about 5 of them. I think New Year's resolution time is a reminder that it's time to get back on track!

So instead of making any New Year's resolutions for 2013, I'm turning to my 30 before 30 list and picking a few that I'm going to make sure to work on in the next 6 months:

2. Learn to make (yummy) fish tacos: this might be better in the summer for fresher ingredients, but in the meantime I can start testing out different recipes and working on my fear of cooking fish...

5. Learn a new piano piece well: winter seems like a good time to work on this while I'm spending plenty of time indoors anyway.

15. Eat at another Cincinnati top 10 restaurant: I think our upcoming anniversary is the perfect occasion to try out one of the fancy restaurants on the list.

17. Install graduate-level navigation: in March it will be a year since I revamped the blog look, so that seems like the perfect time to make a few tweaks, including figuring out how to install fancier navigation for the menu.

24. Save up for a couple of investment pieces: I already saved most of December's clothes budget plus some Christmas money for this - originally I had been thinking of a quality blazer when I came up with this item, or maybe some boots, but a grown-up handbag or good quality gold flats (since I've worn though a couple of cheap pairs) are also investment piece contenders.

25. Donate blood for the first time: I think it's a good thing to do, so it's time to just get over any needled nervousness and just do it!

27. Clean out the basement: our basement has needed some purging, reorganizing, and scrubbing for a while, but then things really exploded after I dumped all kinds of things down there while the kitchen was torn up.


What things that you've been meaning to get around to are you going to make sure to do in 2013?

30 before 30

Reading The Happiness Project, I completely related to Gretchen Rubin's revelation that started her on the project - the days are long, but the years are short; time is flying by, but with it I'm not doing all the things I always thought I'd get around to, like learning Photoshop better or reading more of the classics. While (as a homebody from way back) I love lots of the little everyday things of life around the house, I know I need to push myself to get out there, to make time for my goals and interests, to really be invested in life and to grow. As Gretchen writes, "This is my life - but I never give any thought to it." It's so easy to get wrapped up in the daily routine.

The Happiness Project got me excited about tackling goals and resolutions as a way to make the most of life and grow in happiness, and then Anne's most recent update of all the great things she's crossed off her 25 before 25 list, along with a few 101 goals in 1001 days lists I've seen, got me to finally start making my own. So after thinking through it for a while (it takes some time to come up with this many items!), here is a list of 30 things to do in the two years before I turn 30.

These are not necessarily life goals or bucket list items, but more mid-range goals that are achievable in this timeframe, things I want to be intentional about actually getting around to, the kinds of things I always think/say I want to/should do but don't. Some of them are just fun activities I want to do, and some are accomplishments or tasks that will help me cultivate the attitudes about life I want to walk around with. I want to work toward some goals but still live in the now, to be more invested and intentional, fun loving and grateful, hospitable and gracious.

1. Run a 7-minute mile

2. Learn to make (yummy) fish tacos

3. Take a photography class

4. Attend a conference to develop my job skills

5. Learn a new piano piece well

6. Create/order a photo album of our married years

7. Have family photos taken

8. Visit all of our siblings and grandparents at their homes

9. Host a themed party

10. Find somewhere to regularly volunteer

11. See a Cirque du Soleil show

12. Take a Cincinnati walking tour

13. Clear my "to read" shelf

14. Get another stamp in my passport (preferably in Paris)

15. Eat at another Cincinnati top 10 restaurant

16. Host a sponsored giveaway

17. Install graduate-level navigation

18. Attend a blogger gathering

19. Get my own domain name

20. Invite guest bloggers to contribute

21. Get all our legal ducks in a row (home inventory, life insurance, etc.)

22. Make the bed every day

23. Find and wear with confidence my perfect shade of red lipstick

24. Save up for a couple of investment pieces

25. Donate blood for the first time

26. Replace the kitchen floor

27. Clean out the basement

28. Pick new siding/door colors for outside of house

29. Hang that gallery wall I've been talking about forever

30. Tame the backyard jungle

better blogging

After my redesign over the winter, I got so reinvigorated about the whole process of having a blog and excited about further developing it, along with my blogging knowledge and skills (as getting to write about it for Anne's blog reminded me recently). I still am enjoying coming up with posts more than ever, but as with many good intentions, like my several years' running New Year's resolution to take a Photoshop class, my plans for self and blog improvement have managed to fall by the wayside.

Now, though, I have absolutely no excuse not to take advantage of the great learning opportunities out there, because Alt Design Summit offers a range of great online classes related to blogging, and thanks to Bing, bloggers can try out a couple classes for free this summer. So finally I'm going to get around to that Photoshop class, plus hopefully learn more about developing content or perhaps growing readership. I can't wait!

And for some more informal learning about blog design specifically, I've really been enjoying Kayla's recent DIY Blog Design series - like me, she's learned mostly from figuring things out through online tutorials, but she's figured out how to do even more cool things than I have, and she's made a whole bunch of helpful tutorials of her own that are definitely worth checking out.

pin to present

Next up in the category of challenging myself to follow through:

The internet is a place of many wonderful things, and I could sit all day enjoying and admiring (or worse, wistfully viewing, making personal comparisons with) other people's blogs and pinning new inspirations - and sometimes in all of that I forget to do. So my challenge to myself, to stimulate creativity and pleasure and to live in the now, rather than in the "I'll pin that idea to do someday," is to post once per week an inspiration that I've made, cooked, worn.

For my first installment, I wore an outfit inspired by this one from Kendi Everyday that I pinned ages ago. It's such a simple, classic outfit and so easy to put together that I don't know why I didn't follow through on this one until now. I felt stylish and super comfortable all day and was quite pleased that the weather cooperated (67 degrees!) for showing a little ankle...

  inspiration photo: Kendi Everyday | pinned by me

my photo: shirt: Loft; button down: Crewcuts outlet; jeans and shoes: Target; necklace and watch: gifts

 

 

sharing at

what I did on summer vacation, part 2

At the beginning of the summer, I made a summer fun list to remember all the fun things I wanted to do over the summer and enjoy it as much as I could while it lasted. Even if I did get rather sick of the heat at times, I'm always sad to see summer go - fall is lovely, but you know what comes next...

jam (more about the labels)

summer deck setup

papel picado fiesta decorations

But now that it's officially fall, here's a little recap of the summer activities I checked off my list:

• visit Findlay Market - I made a new friend this summer, and this was on both of our to do lists, so we made a Saturday morning trip.
• make strawberry jam - I made my own jam for the first time this summer, and it was super easy (and delicious - we've already eaten through several of them).
• read Hunger Games series - made it through the rest of the series quite quickly - so suspenseful that I had to compulsively read to find out what was going to happen!
• eat at a restaurant on our wishlist - we went to Nectar for my birthday, and Nada for Peter's. Lots more restaurants around here we're excited about trying though.
• grow basil - I was more successful with growing basil this year - I think it was the larger pot - though it did try to shrivel and die several times in the heat. I made lots of pesto, pastas with lots of basil garnish, and also some chicken basil stir fry with it.
• get a pedicure - or several pedicures (in my favorite colors)... All the running I've been doing is hard on the feet! The savings from not getting haircuts while I grow my hair out was my other justification - ha.
• host a BBQ - I did a variation of this at least - I helped host a fiesta/wedding shower for 2 of Peter's co-residents who are both getting married this fall. It was a fun party - we did a taco bar and I had fun making invitations and decorations.
• see a play - at the beginning of the summer we used my Enjoy the Arts voucher to the Cincinnati Shakespeare Company to see the Complete Works of William Shakespeare (Abridged). Fun.
• play tennis - when it was cool enough, we actually got in a fair bit of tennis at the nearby park. I've been missing the cardio tennis classes at our old gym, but it was fun to hit around with Peter when we could find the time.
• make sangria - actually I didn't quite get around to this because I found a $4 pre-made version at Trader Joe's...
• watch the new season of The Closer - rather easy to achieve.
• go to a museum - I went to the Cincinnati Art Museum twice (love that it's free every day!) and also the Nagoya Art Museum.
• dine al fresco - there was a bunch of time it was too hot or buggy to eat outside, but we did get some nice use out of the deck (and chair cushions I updated), plus porch dining at the cottage and several patio breakfasts at Choo Choo's.
• eat some Graeter's ice cream - also rather easy to achieve. Several times.
• go to an art fair - I checked out the City Flea, where there were booths with lots of great artsy/crafty and vintage stuff (also good food)

City Flea

dining outdoors with visitors (photo from my mom)

 

with the Cincinnati Art Museum logo (photo also from my mom)

There are a few fun things left on the list that I can still look forward to doing in the fall, especially because it can really be pleasant weather around here until late in the fall: take a walking tour of the city, take Ginger on a hike, explore a new neighborhood. Also: sew a skirt - excellent for a rainy/chilly day when Peter's on call (bound to happen...). Here's to making the most out of every season in life!

summer fun list

If you haven't noticed yet, I kind of love goal setting and lists. Writing lists of things makes me feel wonderfully in control, and crossing things off them gives me a vastly greater feeling of accomplishment than just doing the thing. (Also, I get to use my colorful sharpies for these things, which doesn't hurt.) I thought a summer fun list would be a good way to keep track of all the things I've been meaning to do around town (now that we've been here a full year already!) and to take full advantage of the warm months.

That all sounds like fun stuff though, and my love of lists sounds more about my neuroses... so I admit this summer list actually has another purpose: calming me a bit about year two of residency. We've been hearing over and over that year two is so much harder than year one (which was no cake walk) - and with year two starting in less than a month, I'm starting to get a bit anxious about the whole thing. It's not my favorite to think about having a hubby who's overworked, worn out, on call practically every weekend (it'll be 3 weekend calls per month next year...), and still needs to find time to read medical-y stuff on top of that.

So: a list of some fun things to make the most of our time together, and some other things for me to look forward to when I need to occupy myself.

Thought I'd better whip up a summer reading list too, since I've got a super long plane ride coming up for my work conference in Japan, followed by some time at the beach:

flying pig 5k

One of my New Year's resolutions was to run my first 5k race, and I thought the Flying Pig would be the perfect one because it's a big downtown Cincinnati event (the main attraction being the marathon portion, which happened today along with the half marathon; the 5k and 10k were yesterday).

 Peter took my picture before my first race for posterity...

I've been doing quite a bit of running this year, so I knew I was definitely capable of running this race, but I still was kind of nervous. Peter tried to convince me it was just like going out for any other run, slightly shorter than my normal route even, but I couldn't help but get a bit worked up.

There was a huge mass of people - close to 3,000 - so the first half mile was all about dodging and weaving around slower runners and walkers (with strollers even)... that was a little frustrating. But after that I was able to kind of pace myself with a couple other people - this is what made a race totally different from a regular run for me. Having people to stay on pace with (and then pass at the end!) is a whole new source of motivation.

post-run, in front of ball park (where it started & ended)

I guess that motivation and the race day adrenaline I'd heard about worked for me - my goal time was 27 minutes, and I breezed right by that with a 25:29. A large cheering crowd at the end ("finish swine" as it's called in the Flying Pig) is also a most excellent motivator to finish strong. I think the girl I was trailing most of the race but passed with a couple minutes to go was probably in my age group... so I was excited to see that I ended up 8th out of 231 ladies in my division, which put me at 37th of 1887 females!  I have to say, it was all kind of exhilarating (except for a little while during mile 2 when I started feeling a bit wiped) - this all just might have gotten me hooked enough to sign up for another one.

Peter is on vacation this week, so he ran as well. He's had considerably less time for training than I did, but he still beat his goal time and finished in 22:11, sixth in his division. Very good for someone who doesn't have time to run more than about once a week, I would say. He had fun too, and I really liked having him there for a pre-race pep talk and a post-race hug at the finish line....

beaten down blahs, part 1

Winter was taking its toll on me, so a while ago I made a list of things to do in order to combat the winter blahs.I started with #1, the easiest to motivate myself on (i.e., the most fun). Perfect for all my evenings alone last month when combined with all my tv watching. (And I didn't watch P&P but instead S&S, equally as good.)

Then I moved on to #2, and though I'm happy with the end result, I can't say I really enjoyed doing it at all. I'm a horrible painter (thankfully pretty much everything I could drip on in the bathroom was tile, so no permanent damage done...).

(The before and the before-before photos are here; the change
is subtle, but looks so much nicer than the white walls against the crazy tiles.)

But this kept me occupied on a dreary Sunday while Peter was working, and it got something off my to do list - plus got me to finally remove all the potential paint chips that had been there for 6 months - so we'll call it a success.
And then I did #6 - the closet cleanout - which was handy to do in conjunction with the 30 for 30 challenge, since I was busy thinking about my favorite items and how my wardrobe remixes anyway. I brought a big bag of stuff that didn't fit me or my style well enough over to the consignment shop; whatever they didn't want is going to Goodwill.I kind of waited to bring over the pile of clothes until post-30-for-30 shopping ban... shopping at the consignment store while they evaluate my items kind of defeats the purpose of getting income there, but I can't help it if I have the best luck ever with crazy deals on jackets at this particular store (see my $8 beloved Gap army green jacket and my $6 herringbone blazer).

I was thinking I'd like a navy blazer to add to my wardrobe - and lo and behold, here's one from the Limited that fits perfectly, for $20... except that it's in the half off section. $10. Score.

self improvement

I'm starting a little bit of a self-improvement campaign around here. Every once in a while when I feel like I've been watching too much TV I do such a thing... And with Peter's nights schedule last month, I had ample time for television watching (and ample good stuff to watch: Top Chef, Glee, Real Policewomen of Cincinnati [yes, seriously], American Idol, Clean House, my new Sense & Sensibility dvd). I have nothing against TV, but sometimes it turns me into a lame couch potato.

Books:
No light reading around here - currently working on Wolf Hall for bookclub, and then I'll be reading Tender Is the Night for the other bookclub. Certifiably self-improving, as the former is a Booker Prize winner and the latter is on a list of classics I should have read.

Wolf Hall is really good, but hefty (contentwise and pagewise, all 604 of em). It took me rather a while to get into, partly because everyone in 16th century England either had two names (e.g. Thomas Howard and Duke of Norfolk = same guy) or was named Thomas. Confusing.

Music:
Until the other day, I hadn't sat down at the piano since before Christmas. Time to get back at it - half hour a day, at least. I have a couple of pieces I'm determined to be good at.

Culture:
This was one of my winter-blah fighting items - I seriously need to make use of my Enjoy the Arts subscription. I have passes for several museums, plus tickets to the symphony, chamber orchestra, Shakespeare theater, and some others. Unfortunately my date has been somewhat unreliable for the evenings (well, unless it's work - he's very reliable at that), so I've been sitting on these vouchers... No more! He has a good schedule this month, and warmer weather makes me want to go out and do stuff. (But if anybody wants to come be my plus one for on-call days, that'll be great.)

Skills:
I found Photoshop and sewing classes to sign up for, so I can work on my skills in those areas. Currently my skills are minimal and tend to lead to frustration...

winter blahs

So my case of the Mondays wasn't just about it being Monday. It was partly about it being winter...

By February, the winter blahs have taken hold: I'm sick of being cold, seasonal affective disorder is in full swing, and I don't feel like leaving the house but don't really feel like doing anything at home either - I can't even get myself motivated to do the stuff I normally enjoy, much less stuff like housework. And to top it off, this month Peter has a night rotation - working overnight 5 times a week plus all day every Sunday, so either he's sleeping or I'm home alone.

So today I made myself come up with a list of activities and outings and am resolved to get myself motivated for life again and ward off those blahs. Maybe if I force myself to do some fun stuff, I won't be bothered if it continues to be 20 degrees below average temperatures.


1. For when it snows again and I want to be cozy: now's a good time to pull out the Charley Harper puzzle I've been saving for when I have a lot of home-by-myself time, and it's been way too long since I put in P&P.

2. Seems like an excellent time to finally paint the bathroom (since the paint swatch has been taped up there for at least 5 months now).

3. The bedroom is just not finished to my satisfaction, and now that I have some extra income from a couple freelance projects, I think a trip to Ikea is in order - especially for that mirror I've been eyeing forever.

4. I've got a good list of lighter reading ideas (i.e. plot heavy!) going... mystery & young adult especially.

5. Treating myself to a new nail color would feel right nice.

6. I actually rather enjoy cleaning out my closet. Also, now's the time to bring the spring stuff I didn't wear last year to the consignment shop (making a little $ from that and getting to pick out a new spring item - I'm thinking maybe some Toms - will be fun too).

7. To force myself out of the house: I must use some more of my Enjoy the Arts vouchers. I think I'll start with the Contemporary Arts Center - they have an interesting exhibit opening soon.

2011: resolutions

Now that we've done recapped 2010, we can move on with a couple of resolutions for 2011....

This year I'm going with a couple specific things that I can check off a list (except #4, that's a more regular thing). I've been wanting to do all of these these for a while, so this is going to be the year to make it happen!

1. Run in my first 5k race.

2. Take a Photoshop class so I can get rid of my frustrations and actually learn how to use the thing!

3. Read 5 classics that I should have read.

4. Be a regular participator in Meatless Monday, for our health and especially for the planet.

2010 resolution recap

I'm proud to say that in 2010 I did better than ever with my New Year's resolutions. I wasn't always completely consistent with them (mostly in the May-July region; I blame the move), but I've ended the year with all three being a regular part of my life, which really was the purpose of setting these resolutions.

1. lift weights
2. categorize/track spending
3. try 3 new recipes per month

My favorite things about having incorporated these resolutions into daily life:

1. lifting weights
Having something to show when I flex my biceps. It's pretty awesome.

2. categorizing/tracking spending
Feeling much less stressed out/guilty about pleasure-related spending since I know I have money budgeted toward this - especially great is having a vacation saving fund, which we get to make use of next week. We'll be here - and I'm beyond excited for this, especially because ever since our February 2006 honeymoon to Jamaica, I've been asking Peter when we get to go on a warm anniversary celebration trip. I was always hoping for #5, but with medical school tuition, it never seemed like that would be a possibility - and now we're making it happen, a month shy of 5 years of marriage... Wahoo.
3. trying 3 new recipes per month
Learning to make risotto. It's not really that hard, but it always seemed intimidating, and now I can do it, and it's one of the most delicious meals in my new repertoire - about my first recipe here; I've also done this one a couple of times. Tackling risotto makes me feel like I can take on a few other new things, like cooking fish (another thing that might sound easy but is scary to me), so it's really mission accomplished with this one.