Category Archives: Bucket List

New Year’s Intentions 2012

I saw somebody write about New Year’s intentions rather than resolutions and I like this idea, especially as I have so many intentions in mind this year. My plan is to try to fulfil these things throughout the year and so in most cases they will start with an I will try to… and if I’ve got just a little way along the journey as we cross into 2013 then I should consider this a success.

Health and wellbeing (Physical and Mental)

Try not to let other people have a huge impact on how I feel about myself (Now, I don’t think I’ll never get upset by comments or things that happen but I need to learn to let go more and think more rationally about what that means about my worth as a person).
Try to keep up with crafting and being creative (writing, knitting, painting, card making etc. because I really have enjoyed these occupations).
Try to leave 2012 weighing less than I did at the start (No mention of how much because I find it difficult to set a realistic target in relation to this).
Try to go to the gym more in order to help the above intention and improve my strength and stamina in general (I’m going to start by aiming to attend at least 1 session of body combat for three weeks every month).
Try to remember to take my medication each day and to order my repeats in time so I don’t start another New Year sneezing!!!

Writing and Challenges

Over on my new Tumblr blog I am going to aim to take a photo a day (for every one of the 366 days in 2012) and post it on there. The snapseed photo app was very helpfully free on iTunes 12 Days of Christmas today so I’m going to use that and my exisiting photo based apps (like Instagram and Colour Splash) to have a little fun with the snaps I take. There’s an app called my365 which is also quite cool and I might use that too to summarise my months in photo calendar form.
In a second attempt to be more mindful on what is happening around me I am also going to extend the January River of Stones challenge and try to write a small stone each day of 2012. You can more about this over on Tumblr too.
I forgot to add my third daily challenge which is to reply to the Oh Life daily e-mail – this will just be a personal journal (an aide memoir) – I like that when you’ve been posting for a while it sends you random snippets from past posts).
Sally Quilford who last year set up the May You Write Your Novel challenge has again set up a writing challenge starting today. 100k in 100 days is a bit more of a flexible writing challenge (I think writing journal articles might count too so I may be able to squeeze some work writing in this too) that I am going to attempt. I have written 823 words today not counting the small stones which I will add on. I need to think about where and how I’m going to track my progress on this one but think I’ll do it weekly rather than daily.
I’m going to try and use this challenge and my own willpower to try and complete a full draft of my novel (with the middle laid out in more detail than a few sentences).
And I forgot to put in sending some stories and poems to publications.
Ooops I also forgot to add in keeping up with my blog more (I’m still hoping to use Silent Sunday and meme’s like Kate Takes 5’s Listography but also generally make sure there is some content on all of my tabs and write at least two non meme related posts a month).
I will try ScriptFrenzy again in April
I will try NaNoWriMo again in November (but importantly with all of these I will appreciate that I have a lot going on in my life so if I don’t complete the challenges I will simply be happy with adding whatever I have written that I wouldn’t have written before).
I will try my best to submit my research proposal to the ethics committee at work by the summer (hopefully by May though).
I will try to write at least 2 journal articles this year.
I will try to read at least 1 fiction book a month and to post the review on Goodreads and here.
I will try and cross 4 items off my Bucket List by the end of 2012 (1 is booked and I’m making good progress on a 2nd and maybe a 3rd so hopefully this is realistic).
Last addition (though the most important really) is to spend more time with friends and family.

So not a lot then on top of everything else that I have to do. Wish me luck and willpower.

Posted in Bucket List, Kirsty rambles on about life, the universe, tv, and everything!

2 Comments

Top 5 Photos of 2011 – Listography

Dec 31

Posted by kirstyes

Well I’ve seen an abundance of ‘My Review of 2011 posts’ but my memory is soooo terrible I can barely remember what I’ve done this year so Kate Takes 5’s Listography to list your top 5 photos of 2011 seems like a much better way to recall my year.

1. Like my friend Jay I have to pick a picture from our friend Stacey’s Wicked themed Hen Do in London. Jay has picked a great one of the group of us (complete with random lady) which you can see here. As the Bridesmaid I felt a certain amount of pressure to get the day right and I believe everyone had a fantastic day on our tour round London, Ice-cream at Harrods, Afternoon Tea at The Dorchester and trip to see Wicked. It was great to see my Musical Theatre loving friend collecting autographs from, and pictures with the cast at the end of the night. The rest of us snuck in on this picture with Elphaba herself, Rachel Tucker (thanks Rachel for being a) mind-blowingly amazing as Elphaba and b) so lovely to your fans outside).

2. Then of course there was the Wedding, complete with me making a tit of myself; blubbing whilst attempting to read the poem I’d written Stacey and her hubby, gorgeous dresses of green, a sweetie stand, button bouquets, cupcakes, karaoke. All in all a great day that would have scored very highly on Four Weddings. Here’s a photo of 6 schoolfriends that I believe have been bought even closer through the use of Social Media this year.

3. I’m going to cheat a tiny bit for this one and add two pictures, but forgive me as it was a mega special occasion. It was my Nainy and Taidy’s (welsh for Gran and Grandad) 60th (Yes 6-0) Wedding Anniversary. As well as arranging the telegram from the Queen that you can see here from one of my earlier Silent Sunday pictures, we travelled up to help them celebrate. The picture on the cake is them on their wedding day and then a picture of all of their family that we are putting on canvas for them to keep.

4. I’ve spent the last couple months of the year being creative, in November during NaNoWriMo I managed to add another 10,000 words to the 50,000 words of my novel that I started in last year’s challenge. A Facebook challenge at the start of the year was to give a handmade gift to the first 5 people to comment on your statement. I made a promise of the draft (no matter what state it was in). So it is in the hands of others as we speak and I’ve had two really helpful sets of constructive critique so far. I did debate making bookmarks to go with them but because I provided the draft in Kindle format this wouldn’t really be that helpful so instead I made a set of slightly unique paintings for each person that is representative of the book. Here is the version I made for myself in a mock up front cover.

5. Finally, I re-taught myself to knit using You Tube and, in my recent Bucket List I noted that I wanted to finish the scarf I was working on and then make one that I could actually wear in public. Well my mother suggested not to waste wool by continuing knitting a long scarf that wouldn’t be worn so I stopped at a mini scarf which I folded in half and tonight I’ve stitched together as a gift for my long serving cuddly Sultan. Here he is wearing it at my parents as we wait to see in the New Year (off to cross off half of a Bucket List item – I’ve already started the new one).

So creativity and weddings were the order of 2011, what will 2012 have in store? Hopefully more of the same.

If Kate repeats this challenge in 2012 I’m going to find it much harder to narrow it down to 5 pictures considering I’m hoping to take one every day of the year (see here).

Happy 2012 everyone, I hope it is a peaceful one for us all.

Kirsty