little black journal

I loved the idea behind this post I saw on Simple Lovely – a list of meaningful things, small and simple, that you want to accomplish before your next birthday.  And since I just had a birthday, that gives me nearly a year to get these 27 things done.  I will keep you updated on my progress…

1.  Go to Europe (I realize that this is hardly “small and simple”, but we really are determined to get back to Paris within the next year).  This item is intentionally at the very very top of the list.

2.  Make an apple pie.  Then eat it with vanilla bean ice cream.

3.  Put our favorite wedding photos and mementos together into an album (hopefully before our third anniversary!).

4.  Learn how to use the vintage Polaroid camera that Amanda bought me for Christmas last year.  Could turn out to be a very fun little toy.

5.  Make something out of the beautiful wool blend fabric that I picked up for super-cheap at the thrift store several months ago.  The sewing machine Shane bought me two years ago has been collecting dust for far too long.

6.  Eat a burger at Quinn’s on Capitol Hill.  I’ve got to taste the alleged goodness for myself.

7.  See a play.  Preferably something dramatic, and preferably at a small, intimate venue.  We don’t take advantage of the theater offerings in Seattle nearly often enough.

8.  Clean out the closet underneath the stairs to make room for the wine rack that Shane keeps talking about buying.

9.  Run a 10k race.  Or two 5k’s.  5+5=10, right?

10.  Play in the snow – hopefully we have the kind of winter this year that will allow us to do this in our backyard, but if not, I’m happy to head east for a snowball fight.

11.  Make mulled wine, and invite some of the neighbors over to drink it.

12.  Take a ceramics class.

13.  Read something that will advance me in becoming a more critical thinker in the area of theology.  Bonhoeffer?  Chesterton?  Not my typical “fun” reads, but important to take on, nonetheless.

14.  Branch out musically and expand my iPod playlist.  I’ve had Ryan Adams and Sufjan Stevens on repeat for too long now.

15.  Check out a Seattle coffee shop I’ve never been to before.  It’s good to have my favorites, but I’m in a bit of a cafe rut.

16.  Learn how to hit a tennis ball so that it consistently goes over the net, but not out of bounds.  I’ve discovered that this is harder than it looks (particularly for an athletically challenged person such as myself).

17.  Make my own butternut squash soup.  This is one of my favorite fall foods.

18.  Get my architectural license.  Once again, not “small and simple”, but I’m already over halfway there (and so ready to be done!!!).

19.  Plant something pretty in the flower box outside our living room window.

20.  Have a get-dressed-up, get-out-of-the-house, all-about-us “date night” with Shane at least once a month.  This might just be for dessert or a cocktail (we don’t have to spend money on an extravagant meal), but I think it’s important to have these special “kinda fancy” evenings together.

21.  Spend a day on Whidby Island, checking out the local scene there.

22.  Develop a list of 15 simple meals that we both enjoy and figure out what kind of basic ingredients we can keep on hand in order to prepare these meals with minimal planning.

23.  Buy a great pair of leather boots that I could wear with jeans or a skirt, dressed up or casual.

24.  Add some color or decor to the walls of our bathroom.  That’s the one room in our house that has been “decoratively neglected”.

25.  Finish the two incomplete paintings that have been sitting on my easel forever.

26.  Write a letter and send pictures to Marcel, the boy in Rwanda that we are sponsoring through World Vision.

27.  Keep blogging.  So far, I’ve kept up with my commitment to averaging 2 posts a week.  Reflect on what I’m doing well and what I could be doing better.

It’s go time.