Friday 6 April 2012

Spring resolutions and life lists

Despite my somewhat derisive post back in January about New year's resolutions, the fact remains that I am a girl who loves a list. I always have a notebook with me, and in addition to ideas for the blog, and random lyrics I've scribbled down so I can google them later and find out the name of the song, there'll invariably be a page that looks something like this:

 milk, bread, tomatoes, flour
pay in cheque
Easter bonnets - chicks - Poundland?
library books back
use up squishy bananas - cake?
PTA meeting - 7.30
New baby present
photographs for blog post
buy travel insurance
clean fish tank

Thrilling, eh? However, for ages now I've been meaning to write a list of things that wouldn't just keep day to day life ticking over, but would actually enhance it - things I want to do in this year, and the years beyond. It's easy enough to think 'oh yes, I'd love to do that', but I find unless things get written down they don't get acted on. The beginning of Spring is always a far better time to make decisions than the depths of Winter, and I've had 3 months since new year to give the matter some proper thought! I want the beautiful Frankie magazine journal I won in Kylie's giveaway to have some exciting plans and amazing memories written in it - not just shopping lists and reminders that the boys need new shoes.




Isn't it gorgeous? All the pages are beautifully designed, and I love the little touches like the perforated  calling cards, the ribbon bookmark and the pocket at the back for tickets and receipts and so on.



Anyway, here's my 12 things to attempt in 2012 (or the next twelve months if need be) - there's nothing too earth shattering here, just things I'd like to do which it should be realistic for a mother of slender means to achieve. And there's no New Year style deprivation either - I've had quite enough of that now I'm done with Lent.

1. Read 100 books this year - you can see how I'm doing with this on Goodreads
2. Go to a city/country I haven't been to before.
3.Date night once a month with husband. As espoused by every magazine ever. Hard to achieve in reality.
4. Learn to make proper jewellery ie. not sticking stuff to myself with glue
5. Actually attempt fancy biscuit decorating from 'Biscuiteers' book I got for Christmas
(if nothing else it may make a humorous blog post)
6. Keep in touch with friends better
7. Crochet something larger than a granny square
8. Get published somewhere other than my blog
9. Buy MORE clothes!
10. Try to make it to more boot-sales.
11.Start drawing again
12. Keep going with the blog and try to improve it - better photos for a start.

Some of these are from my 40 before 40 list,* which is in danger of becoming merely a list of hotels and travel destinations. We're actually all off to Scotland shortly for four nights in Edinburgh - when Sandy posted that she was going it reminded me that it's been on my mental 'go-to' list for years. So I can tick off number 2 - Edinburgh and Scotland itself will both be firsts! Any tips?

Do you have any plans for the year? Any new year's resolutions fallen by the wayside or worked out brilliantly?

Lakota x


*I'd just like to make it clear that it'll be before 36, 37, 38, and 39 too. It's just that the others aren't nearly so catchy.

24 comments:

  1. Have a good trip to Scotland! In Edinburgh I would recommend the recently revamped National Museum of Scotland which has a cool animals section with a big model hippo suspended from the celing. You might also enjoy pottering in the Grassmarket - Armstrong & Sons is a cool vintage shop.

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  2. Lovely diary, you'll want to keep using it! I'm going to stalk you on goodreads.

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  3. I tend to tempt fate and jump right in with New Years resolutions in January, yet they never do quite work out for me. I think Spring is the perfect time to sit down and really set upon making some that will make a difference, I really admire you doing so! I'm taking this as inspiration

    p.s Frankie is gorgeous xxx

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  4. I avoid list writing like the plague. I go through phases of trying to be more organised, but they never last very long.
    Unfortunately, I no longer posses the.memory skills that used to get me through life. I love a journal, a pen and the whole idea, but in reality lists stress me out and leave me frustrated by what I haven't achieved.
    Your resolutions sound manageable - buy more clothes? Good one! That journal is adorable, I'm glad it's being used, and by someone with lovely handwriting. Nothing worse than a scruffy mix of upper and lower case letters in a childish scrawl.
    Maybe it is time for me to start writing lists? I'd love a pretty journal.

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  5. I love this Lakota, your right it's easy to lose track of all the cool things you want to do and this is a perfectly manageable list( omg 100 books) that one scares me. I have always wanted to go to the UK and thanks to blogging and making friends that dream will come true this year:) every year I try and eat better and excerise more, so far so good. The biggest goal this year is to love and take people as they are, judge less and buy more guns for the zombie apocalypse :) good luck with yours dear and I look forward to hearing about Scotland because we are headed there too.
    Xoxo-
    Krista

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  6. What a pretty journal, your writting is beautiful.
    I love making lists too.
    I do something similar for New Year's, i write out my goals and hide the list.
    Then in six months i start crossing out what i have accomplished.
    Have fun amor!
    Besos

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  7. Thank wee journal is so pretty and your writing is fancy! Mine looks like a 5 year old wrote it:P

    Glad to see you have a 40 before 40 list - I love making lists too. They is just something so satisfying about crossing things off lists.

    Also, its good to make lists of things you want to do to make your life interesting and exciting, sometimes we all just get dragged into the routine of day to day life and need a reminder of the bigger picture.

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  8. I love lists, i couldn't live without lists, big picture ones and everyday ones too. Let us know how you get on with the more clothes shopping, i need that one on my list too (same pair of jeans everyday for a week here, freaking out cause the knees about to go!!!)

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  9. I love the idea of making lists but I never get around to making one. I need lists to make lists. Me disorganised never..... It does help when you have cute diary. xx

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  10. ooo good list! if i was going to make a list mine would be pretty similar (other than the biscuits).and am with you on the read 100 books... tho i find the goodreads 'on track' thing a little stressful....

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  11. Hope you get through your list - its a good reminder! Enjoy Edinburgh - some great shops and bars on George Street. Like Kestrel, I would also recommend the Grassmarket - great atmosphere and some unusual shops.
    Liz @ Shortbread & Ginger

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  12. Gorgeous journal - some great things to do on your list! Have a wonderful time in Edinburgh. By the way I've moved to a new blog, you can find me at http://bornagainboho.blogspot.com

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  13. That truly is a beautiful diary and you write so neatly too. Fab list. Loving the date night one, so so hard when you work full time an shave a family to look after to.

    Good luck with them all and enjoy Scotland.

    X x

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  14. An attractive journal would inspire me to make a list too, but I don’t have one like yours. I can’t live without list-making, but next to me on the desk is a cheapo spiral bound jotter that does just as well for my daily lists - no resolutions here -these are just things that if I didn’t write them down and tick them off, wouldn’t get done because I’d forget!

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  15. Ooh I love a good diary! And list actually... Love your resolutions, my new year ones are pretty much forgotten, oops... ;)

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  16. I make lists too... but I always forget wherw I left them... and never can find them when I need them. *LOL*
    I surely should invest in a pretty book that woun't be so easy to lose.

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  17. Ooo I love Edinburgh I was there this time last year. *happy sigh* I didn't do anything as serious as 40 things to do before 40, I just decided I wanted to try and do things I had never done before, which I did and on the whole had a bloody brilliant time! Highlight was going to an auction with my best friends where we got very over excited and squeeled alot lol.

    On a serious note you have given me some food for thought, I really ought to sit down and come up with a bit of a list myself for 2012....

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  18. Have you ever been to Venice? After 10 years promising we would go, we finally made it for a weekend on our 10th anniversary and I could recommend it over and over and over again. xx

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  19. Ooh, what's Goodreads, like Facebook for bookworms? Going to investigate that, my reading has slowed down something rotten recently and I need something to spur me on!

    Best of luck with the 40 by 40 list, I'm currently 1/3 of the way through the Day Zero project, with only 16% completed - eep!

    Would recommend The Real Mary King's Close in Edinburgh, v interesting! xx

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  20. Hi,
    Just catching up on your blog a bit - thanks for the sacry bunnies, I laughed till I had to cross my legs.
    I lived in Edinburgh for 10 years, and then my Dad lived there for another 5 after that, so I've been pretty familiar with it until quite recently. I have to say that I would avoid the Grassmarket as being a bit down at heel and stag party filled (unless the jazz festival is on in which case it's great) but would definitely go to the Grain Store on nearby Victoria Street for great food in a romantic setting. But you really should go to Stockbridge - a high class of charity shops there, near the botanic gardens. I think I heard a stat along the lines of the Oxfam there is the most profitable per sqm than any other charity shop in the country. And there's a bit of a hidden gem of a charity shop on Queensferry Street next to Randolph Crescent. Run by old ladies with pearls and posh Edinburgh accents. I don't think there's many presents from my Dad that haven't come from there! Clerk Street and South Clerk Street has another good row of charity shops near the university that cater for the student market so have a bit more 'vintage' styling than some others. And the Mary King's Close or underground history tours are actually a tourist tour worth doing. Oh, I wish I was going back there now...have fun!

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  21. Glad buy more clothes made the list. Very important. I loved Scotland. I visited Edinburgh castle. Is that too touristy? I liked it. I also drank a shit ton of iron bru but I guess that can be done in England. What do I know? Nothing apparently.

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  22. I am definitely a list maker. I didn't make any new years resolutions this year for fear of drowning under all the lists I have already made and never completed. I even have whiteboards and blackboards on the walls for lists but nothing beats a notebook or scrap of paper.

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  23. I love making lists too (especially if it means using pretty journals and notebooks like yours). Sadly I am rubbish at fulfilling them. Well I'm not bad but as the mister says, I'm not a 'completer-finisher' which annoys me because it's true but it makes me dtermined to be better. Good luck with your list!

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  24. ooh yes I love list making too but acting on it is another matter, lots of them didnt get ticked! especially the first one which was LOSING WEIGHT hehehe but you can tick off making proper jewellery coz u've done it! but ohhh the journal is gorgeous!!

    xx susan

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