nearly done with thirty-one

Last September, I posted a wish list of to-do’s for my 31st year.  I am quickly, far too quickly, approaching my 32nd birthday, and I thought I would revisit my, all but forgotten, list to see how I have done…

1.    Participate in and attend Plush You 2008
I absolutely loved this.  Participating in this show gave me the affirmation and nudge I needed to create my rhino beetle, and the beastie I call my labor of love, the catfish, for which there will only ever be one. 
2.    See the Nightmare Before Xmas Haunted Mansion at Disneyland
I just might have loved this even more. 
3.    Be a vendor at You Bazaar in San Francisco
This was definitely an experience. 
4.    Spend Christmas in Paris with my sweetie
I loved this, if only to be able to use the phrase, "Christmas in Paris," and have it be true for me.
5.    Pattern one new beastie each month
The rhino beetle, catfish, and squirrel are my only new patterns since last fall.  
6.    Spend a weekend at the coast with the PDX kiddoes
Thank you to the kids that made it possible.  We hope to see you at the coast again next year.
7.    Host a swap on my blog
For this to be a possibility at all, would mean that I would have to have some semblance of an audience for my blog…which would first necessitate consistent and hopefully interesting blog posts…neither of which I think I managed in the past twelve months.
8.    Bake a sweet tart and a savory one too
I did bake a lemon tart for my best friend’s bridal shower, and the second crust is currently gathering ice crystals in my freezer.  So, there is potential for completing this task within the next three weeks.
9.    Spend more time with family and friends
I would be a terrible person indeed if I failed on this one.  Although I haven’t seen my parents nearly enough of late, I did travel up to see them every other, if not every, weekend last fall while my sweetie was in Paris.
10.  Go to Yosemite
We actually have this booked for the weekend of Halloween.  I am so excited to be able to go of my own free will, and not as the begrudging teenager I was the last time I went. 
11.  and Carmel and Big Sur
Why haven’t we gone?  Gas prices?  Tourists?  Perhaps when the weather is glum and the tourists have flown back home for the season, we will venture the hour south on highway one and have a cloudy picnic…Can I tell you a secret though?  Fall and winter are the most gorgeous times of year to see the coastal regions here. 
12.  Read Don Quixote
Sadly, although I have been inhaling books as if they were the air I needed for survival, I haven’t gotten around to reading this one.
13.  Practice embroidery and techniques from The Art of Manipulating Fabric
I truly should have done this.  Perhaps it is the intimidation factor that keeps me from exploring this book further, but I simply can’t get myself to flip through it for more than a few minutes at a time.   My mom said that when this book first came out, there were classes devoted to it.  I would have loved that.
14.  Go to the Maker Faire in San Mateo
To my own great dismay, this ended up not being for me.
15.  Send more snail mail
Failed.  But I have signed up for the Benevolent Postcard Society project.  I am hoping this will inspire me to begin writing letters again.
16.  Blog at least twice a week
My last year was not the kind of year that you blog about.  It seemed more of a diary entry year, and even my diary, had I one, would have been bereft of entries.
17.  Exercise with some consistency
I am currently walking 3-5 miles every, to every other, day.  Always at 7:00am, and always till my legs are numb and lungs are chilled from the still lingering marine layer.
18.  Spend more time in the evenings with the fuzzy bunny
I call her my “little old lady” now.  At nearly seven years old, she has slowed down a bit, but she still sits on my feet while I do my hand-sewing.
19.  Start a journal
I have.  Only very recently, and very cautiously, but I am writing again.  It shouldn’t surprise me how cathartic it is, but it does.  I am hoping that by writing in general again, that I might someday find a way back into writing short fictions as I once did.
20.  Silk screen
I have all the supplies, and none of the inspiration. 
21.  Read books on marketing and small businesses
Again, I have all of the supplies, and none of the inspiration.
22.  Start some new traditions with my sweetie, like date nights where we make a new recipe together
He has definitely kept this one…but I seem to have fallen off the wagon, as all I want to eat are salads full of nuts and berries.  Did I mention that I am a bunny person?
23.  Read a book a month
I think I have read enough books in the past two months to qualify as having satisfied this one. 
24.  Draw more
Nope.  I can’t draw.  I don't know what I was thinking.
25.  Repair my manual camera and take more pictures
This will definitely need to be carried over into next year.
26.  Catch up on photo albums
I am getting closer.  I did upload many of my pictures from 2007-09 to a flickr account. 
27.  Have "play" crafting each week without any intentions of a finished product
I can’t express how important I think this is, or to what extent I have failed at this.  Having spent a good portion of the last six months wondering and worrying about the existence of my job, my creativity was somewhat sapped.
28.  Always have at least 10 items for sale in my Etsy shop
Yes!  But I also have the economy to thank for this. 
29.  Be a better listener
Have I been?  I hope so. 
30.  Go to the newly renovated California Academy of Sciences in Golden Gate Park
We are going on my 32nd birthday. 
31. Have a new adventure or three
What an understatement this was.  The year of 31 seems to have been a year of mis-adventure for me.  It began that way, and continued that way.  But if seen in proper light, perhaps these mis-adventures have enhanced my ability to seek out true adventure and to hold more tightly to those and those things which I love most. 

Post Script:

What I find most interesting about this list, is that I really did forget about it until a few weeks ago.  I was surprised at how many of the items I actually had satisfied, if only very recently.  I do think I will create a list of 32 things for my 32nd year...but I have a few more weeks of being young and reckless, so that will have to wait.