Birthday Post and 30 before 30 Update

Well it's arrived., The dreaded 30th birthday, that I made this whole list about last year, sort of hoping it would never come or that I would at least cross most of these things off my list.

So far my birthday week has been a lovely few days of drinking wine and eating tasty things with friends, waking up to a lovely breakfast cooked for me by the boy, and spending some quality time not being at work for once, and knitting up a storm with my lovely knit night friends. It was also Jesse dog's 5th birthday (see adorably happy picture above) so we spoiled him with a new toy and a dinner of fancy dog food. My sister is also coming up for the weekend, and we have pedicures, high teas and other fancy things planned. She's also bring with her some preserves from my parents (woo rhubarb jam and zuchinni relish!) which I am pretty darn excited about and some fancy presents!

Looking at my 30 before 30 list now, I can see that a lot of these things were too hard to measure in terms of completion, and that is sort of detrimental to this kind of list. I definitely made some progress on things, largely that were related to my Etsy shop and business, because those goals were more tangible and realistic.

So if nothing else, I at least have a good perspective on the kinds of things to include in a future list and of prioritizing what my goals are for the coming year. I'm thinking that if I make another list, it will be more fun and project oriented like this one or be more of a general bucket list with more specific goals. I also love the idea of a 365 day project like this embroidery project or this hand lettering project.

Without further ado, here's how I did on my list over the past year:

30 Before 30 List

1. Retake G1 exam and get full G2 license Fail- although, eventually
2. Try to get at least 7.5 hours of sleep every night I tried but having a bedtime is seriously hard for me
3. Work on something crafty every day Some days I was all over this, others I failed totally
4. Go to studio at least 3 times a week - There were points where this happened, when I still had my studio
5. Tidy up the apartment a bit every day --goal: 20 minutes - Again, I tried, but overall cleanliness of the apartment was not overly effected 
6. Finish creating Craftzilla Facebook page (finished July 2011)
7. Get a passport and use it to travel somewhere fun that requires a passport - Financial probs this year really stood in the way of this 
8. Start practicing yoga again on a regular basis (try for 3 times a week) underway--see posts here! But overall, more progress to be made
9. Keep a clean inbox in all my emails --accomplished at one point, with this post
10. Participate in some kind of Photo project (i.e. 365 Day portrait, 30 Day photo challenge) - Photo an Hour  and February Photo a Day challenges here (I at least started a few, although wasn't overly successful in completing them)
11. Get new Etsy shop up and going -- and make a few sales! Shop opened in June 2011! Up to 9 sales so far (as of Feb 2012)
12. Organize some crafty events in town (i.e. Etsy Team for Guelph, another craft Party, perhaps an Etsy sellers show) - I am currently planning an Ignite Culture Event, although would still like to do more events, and some specifically with Etsy people in town
13. Take some photos every day Again, some days I was awesome at this, others it just didn't happen
14. Get at least an 80 in every course I take this year Fail on this one, close but no cigar
15. Try to be mindful of my temper and don't take stress out on loved ones - Some days it was easy, others it was extremely difficult
16. Limit TV watching --try for 1 hour a day max - Some days it was easy, others it was extremely difficult or I just needed to unwind with some mindless TV watching
17. Finish a knitted sweater - my sweater is so close to being done! 
18. Take a screen-printing class - I screen printed an awesome pillow case at my friend Cai's studiofor the Bring Q to Guelph campaign. I think that counts
19. Take a weekly yoga class  started a summer membership to yoga in July 2011-loving it so far!
20. Visit a city I’ve never been to before - at most, I went to Niagara Falls, but I have been there before. 
21. Go on a weekend getaway somewhere Completed with Niagara Falls Trip, Feb 2012
22. Read at least 10 more books from the BBC Big Read List (see my progress here) --apparently even my book reading suffered this year, I only read about 4 new books off this list :(
23. Go to a museum I've never been to before completed Feb 2012- post to follow
24. Have a tea party - I'm going for a birthday high tea on the weekend, so that's gonna count!
25. Pay off credit card debt and keep a $0 balance - Nope
26. Learn to use Photoshop proficiently - I think I've become overall better at editing photos, but not more complex Photoshop actions. 
27. Get to 100 blog posts  Completed August 7 2011 with this post
28. Host a blog giveaway  Completed September 2011 - I did a bunch over this year! one, two and three four five
29. Learn to use my serger - I tried, but managed to break the needle a bunch. More work needed.
30. Plan a fancy picnic with dishes I haven't made before - I'm going to count the fact that I planned a few regular picnics for this one:)


Any suggestions for a list for me for this coming year? 


♥ Craftzilla 

Letting Go of Expectations

Source: facebook.com via Nichole on Pinterest

It's hard to admit sometimes, but we all have bad habits, and I'm no exception. I have been trying to address some of them, but it's easy to slip back into those habits again and feel like a failure and even a bad person because of it. And some of them, like the crazy mess going on in my apartment right now,  I can write off as being due to the craziness of school or on starting a new job or blame it on my partner's messiness or the smallness of the apartment.

I can blame things like my mood, and being cranky to others on the same sort of things, but ultimately, blame doesn't accomplish anything and doesn't make me any happier. 

Many of these bad habits and things I want to change were even important enough to make it onto my 30 before 30 list, because I really did want this year to be one where I changed things, like getting enough sleep, having regular time for crafting, having a tidy and organized living space, stepping away from TV in favour of other activities and limiting the frequency of me taking out my temper and tiredness on the boy and the pup.

It's not that I haven't been trying, but the stresses of the past year made everything sort of fold into itself for me. There was only school work to do, and bills to figure out how to pay, and constant stress and not being sure if anything in my life was making me happy and having little time to connect with anyone, including Zen, as we were both caught up in school and just trying to get by.

But let's face it, I'm not perfect, and I'll never be able to accomplish everything I want to 100 percent of the time, and being unhappy that I haven't isn't helping anyone, especially myself.  My apartment will never be totally clean all the time, and sometimes I'll be cranky or overtired and the dog is probably going to pull while we're walking, and  I probably won't accomplish everything I set out to do on my 30 before 30 list before I actually turn 30. Perhaps some of that is that I set my expectations too high, and perhaps some of it is due to looking at things from too big of a picture. Or perhaps as the quote above points out, my expectations are just too high and unrealistic and need a bit of an adjustment.

So I will adjust.

I will do what I can.
I will let it go.
I will prioritize.
I will make room for what's important.
I will let things happen and not try to force them to my own timeline.
I will share what's on my mind.
I will take pride in what I have accomplished.
I will eliminate what's not necessary for my happiness.
I will take pleasure in the little things.
I will breathe.

♥ Craftzilla

                                 

Niagara Falls Trip

I have to admit, things have still been crazy, and today was the first time I even looked at any of my pictures from our Niagara Falls trip, but I am pleased that at least some of them turned out well! Likely it'll take a few posts to share them with you (especially once I get some of the photos from the boy)  so enjoy!

Walking in from the bus station--yay falls! Unfortunately a lot of my photos were overexposed, since it was a really bright day.

This building near the falls was pretty darn neat! I can picture a few art pieces in my future made using this sort of technique on a smaller scale





The Maid of the Mist is parked down there :P



We had a lot of time to kill before we could check into our hotel, so we wandered over to Clifton Hill, the super touristy part of town.



Boy ate an octostacker at this Burger King...it was pretty epic and the staff were pretty grossed out at his towering stack of burgers.



After that, we did lots of touristy things! We hit up the Movieland Wax Museum







We tired to get an ET picture, but Z. reaching his finger towards ET set off a VERY loud alarm. Whoops!



We sorta wanted to play Dino golf, but outdoor golf in the winter wouldn't have been as good. But the dinos were pretty darn awesome:)

Not a dino:

Later on, we had a fancy dinner at our hotel overlooking the falls, and headed back down for more walking and to play us some  glow in the dark mini putt! I got my butt kicked and apparently my freckles glow in the dark too :P

We also went on this scary Ferris wheel (I clutched Z's hand and was very sweaty and nervous the whole ride--heights are not really my thing, though I like roller coasters) --look how high up we were:



Stay tuned for more pics of our adventures later this week! And hey, going on this trip also knocked a few goals off of my 30 before 30 list --in this post, #21.  "Go on a weekend getaway somewhere" is now complete! 

♥ Craftzilla 

21 Day Yoga Challenge

I was browsing around the Twitters this morning, and noticed a post from @DanaDabek about a 21 Day Yoga challenge through the Yoga Journal. Given that I've been a little bummed recently that I can't rejoin my yoga class this term due to money issues, I figured this would be a great way to get some motivation to do yoga without being in a class, and to work towards my 30 before 30 goal of having a regular yoga practice.

 I just finished the first practice of the challenge, and I'm feeling pretty great! It's really open to everyone, as there's a beginner option, as well as an intermediate one. The first day's goals include doing the video practice, eating at least one vegetarian meal, and 15 minutes of meditation. Easy peasy, right? I'm assuming it will get a bit harder by the end of the challenge, so I may need you all to cheer me on a bi :)

Completed so far for Day 1:
Daily Practice
1 vegetarian meal --I'm eating a cheese and tomato sandwich on a fresh roll, with some yogurt for lunch. yum!

Still to do:
15 minutes of meditation (I find mediation is a more night-time kind of thing for me)

Click here to check out the intermediate challenge that I'm doing--and it's not too late to sign up if you want to get involved!


♥ Craftzilla

7 Day Push - Read a Book - Kobos and Book Clubs, oh my!

I used to read  A LOT. The fact that I read all the time as a kid and into highschool meant that choosing to do an English degree when I was first at university an easy thing. Read lots of books and get to critically discuss them with others? Yes please! But since getting out of university, I've found it harder to actually sit down with a book for some reason. I'm not sure when my greatest pasttime became something I had to schedule in, but between everything else going on, and moving to a smaller city where I no longer spent hours a day commuting, I just haven't read as much as I used to, and I was really missing it. Not to mention I was (am still am) really trying to work my way through reading a lot of books that I have in my home library that I've never read and not always succeeding without a goal in mind.  That was part of why I made my goal to read more books as a part of my 30 before 30 list (# )

What's changed lately has been that I rented a few of my textbooks from an online site, for WAY less than buying the hardcopies and decided that in order to read them (and because I'd saved so much money) that I'd TREAT MA SELF (reference - please watch the hilarity of this scene from Parks and Rec)and buy a touchscreen Kobo!

Yup, I'm in love! I'm reading until late at night again, and have read 5 or 6 books since getting it, as well as got an awesome deal on the new Jeffrey Eugenides book, the Marriage Plot. I'm even doing a fun bookclub on Goodreads with Liesi from Too Crewel, because I'm just that excited about reading again. The touch screen is awesome and responsive, it's easy to save your place and mark up the text if you want, and there are tongs of free classics and other books available on the Kobo site. Finally I've been making a bit of progress working my way through the BBC Big Reads list  and I'm feeling much happier for it! Books I'm currently reading include "The Return of Sherlock Holmes" and soon the Marriage Plot, once I find the darn cable for my Kobo to sync it  (downside, everything uses cables which are easily lost in my apartment) I am in fact a little bit sad that another awesome new Kobo, the Kobo Vox ereader is already coming out -colour, touch screen and apps, oh my!  This sounds awesome already.

But I'm just going to settle for the awesome Kobo I already have and go and read some more books.

Do you use an ereader or do you prefer reading a real book?

♥ Craftzilla



Note: This is not a sponsored post, I just love and use this product, a lot!

Yoga Pranayama : Nadi Shodhana

I was at yoga last week and we did this pranayama,  (i.e. breathing practice), Nadi Shodhana (or alternate nostril breathing) as part of our practice. Apparently the name nadi shodhana refers to the cleansing of vital channels of energy, in this case the nasal passages, hence "purification of nasal channels." (source) and has always been one of my favourites.

source

The image above shows the basic concept:

1) with your right hand, place your thumb loosely near your right nostril, and your ring finger loosely near your left nostril. 

2) Breathe in through both nostrils.

3) Place your thumb on your right nostril and exhale through your left nostril, and then inhale through your left nostril 

4) Release your thumb from your right nostril and place your ring finger on your left nostril. Exhale and then inhale through your left nostril. 

5) Repeat this sequence of holding the right nostril and exhaling/inhaling through the left nostril and holding the left nostril and exhaling/inhaling through the right nostril about 5-12 times 

(see my sources here and here for more clarification) 

Just a note that you shouldn't try to do this is your nose is stuffed up--the nostrils should be clear (though you may need to attack a box of Kleenex a bit after--my old yoga teacher used to run around while we were nostril breathing distributing us all kleenexes, which was sort of funny.)

What struck me as neat about this pranayama is that our teacher Jacqueline's mention that this pranayama could really be done anyplace, and was good for the following:

1) when you're feeling really high energy
2) when you're feeling really low energy
3) when you're feeling anxietal and scattered

Let's face it, outside of yoga, this are my three most common states of mind, so I think taking a few moments to do this when I'm feeling low energy might make all the difference!

♥ Craftzilla

30 before 30 Goals --#9 - Keep a Clean Email Inbox

 


I was reading this post by Kam yesterday, and I got it into my head to tackle one of my specific problems (and goals from my 30 before 30 List, specifically #9- Try to keep a clean email inbox. I find that I often forget about emails if I don't deal with them immediately, and that I just didn't have a lot of good strategies in place for keeping them good and organized.

It just took me a few hours last night to clean up one of my email inboxes, and I'm sitting here wondering how things got so out of control, how I have SO many email addresses (Seven? how is that even possible?) and how the sheer number of emails just gets to be difficult to manage.

So, here are a few things that I did, that will hopefully help me manage my email a bit better on an ongoing basis. As a note, I use Gmail as my main email, so some of the specific suggestions are only pertinent if you use Gmail as well.

1. Labels --Use them!
Gmail lets you apply labels to emails one by one, or to assign labels to one or more emails. This is definiely helpful when you need to find emails from a certain person, or if you get emails from people with multiple email addresses. I also didn't realize before that you can group labels beneath other labels in the left navigation folder structure. Like so:



I found it really helpful to group smaller categories, in this case specific friends, under general labels like Friends, Family, Business etc.

2. Old emails - Delete them
I found SO many crappy notifications and deal site emails cluttering up my inbox. Read and delete will now be my motto. I also unsubscribed from a bunch of email lists that I never read or that weren't useful to me anymore.

3. New emails - Action them immediately/put them in a specific place to action later
 Reply to them, delete them, move them to a folder,  or archive them. Just do whatever it is immediately so that things don't get out of control. I have troubles with this that I'm going to attempt to overcome by reading them and deciding whether a quick reply will suffice, or if they need a longer reply that might need to wait until later. I will likely star them or start an Action Later folder so that I can find them easily.


4. Archive, Archive, Archive!
It's nice that things are labelled, but unless they're archived, they're cluttering up my inbox. If I need to see all the emails, there's a handy "All Mail" view for that. 

5. Notifications for social networking sites - Turn them off or skip the inbox

I like getting these for when I'm not on Facebook or Twitter and absolutely need to check once in awhile if someone mentioned me or talked to me, because I'm clearly often bored/lonely/in need of friends. No judgments, OK? But once I read them, they're pretty much useless, and I'm not sure exactly why I found so many of them in my inbox, other than I just didn't get around to deleting them.

So, there are my tips so far for keeping the emails under control. I've tidied up two other email addresses apart from this one since yesterday now, and am taking steps to consolidate the number of emails I have down to a more manageable number.

I'm feeling more organized already!

♥ Craftzilla

Things I Made and Saw: Muffins, Picnics and Statues wearing clothes + 100th Post!

I mentioned the picnic we had on the Civic holiday, but never got around to sharing the pictures. There's only a few pictures anyways, as I forgot the memory card for my camera.





Tons of geese wandering about



Jesse was mad that he got tied up to a tree and was given very little chicken to eat



I was working on a friendship bracelet too



Zen got a wisdom tooth out on Friday, which necessitated him going on a journey to Waterloo. He came back bearing gifts of chocolate for me, which was super sweet:) Don't they look good?





He also brought back this tiny bottle of Duvel for a friend who has never tried it. This beer is like 12% alcohol, it gets you crunked after like 1 bottle! On one of our early dates, boy and I went on a beer drinking and crossword date and had this as one of our beers. He ended up sun-stricken after a bit of a walk post-beer drinking and having to lay on my couch with a cold compress on his head for hours!



I also made some tasty banana muffins last night, as well as a tiny banana bread loaf:)






And today I cleaned up the chaos I created when I made my 30 Days of Lists album yesterday




Someone punked the statue again, this time putting a thong, socks and a t-shirt onto the statue people--so amusing! Much more ingenious than just dumping a bottle of soap in there.



In other exciting news, this is my 100th post! I'm so pleased to have made it to my goal so soon after making this one of my goals in my 30 before 30 list! I will have to come up with something fancy to celebrate, so stay tuned!

♥ Craftzilla

30 Before 30 : Craftzila Conquers the World Facebook Page created

Item #6 on my 30 before 30 list was to finish creating a Facebook fan page for Craftzilla Conquers the World --and guess what--I finished! (*applause*)

 
Although I'll probably still be changing things around a bit, feel free to check it out at Craftzilla Conquers the World !


♥ Craftzilla

30 Before 30 - Yoga Updates

An update to#8 Start practicing yoga again on a regular basis (try for 3 times a week) and #19- Take a weekly yoga class from my 30 before 30 List. I'm combining both of these goals into one for the moment!

Source

There's a yoga place up the street from my apartment that has a summer membership on this summer for unlimited classes, so my friend Lo and I decided to each get one, as we work together and this place has lunch classes most days of the week. I ended up going three or four times last week, and I'm enjoying it a lot so far--my body is remembering all the years of yoga that I've done, and now I'm not quite sure why I ever stopped doing it, aside from just moving to Guelph and not having a teacher anymore. I also forgot how awesome yoga makes my back feel--boy has offered backrubs and I'm all "I do not need that, I went to the yoga today!"

However, I must admit to being sort of picky about how I do yoga, and given that we're going a lot of different days, I've tried 3 or 4 of the teachers at this place so far and their main flaw is just that they're not my yoga teacher from Toronto, plus a few nitpicky things. I find that one of them talks really loudly during the relaxation period (perhaps for the benefit of the old people?) which I find really distracting. Another seems to be all about the props --chairs to modify poses as an example--I really dislike using things to modify poses unless I have to. And really, let's face it, I do have to modify some weight-bearing postures right now due to the ongoing isuses iwht the repetitive strain in my wrists and forearms...but I'm stubborn about it still. Yet another teacher is a bit into her mmm's and ahhhh's while yoga-ing which I also found distracting. My friend and I decided it was due to the mmm's and ahhh's sounding a bit too intimate, for lack of a better word and both wished for "less Porno, more Prana please!" I feel this should be a slogan on a shirt someday :P

At any rate, enjoying the yoga lots, and hoping to get a space set up in my house for practicing at some point soon! A friend of mine who's taking the yoga teacher training at the moment may come over and assist me in this plus putting together a bit of a practice, so that should be fun! I'm also planning to dig out my old practice worksheets from my yoga teacher in Toronto and give some of those a go, as well as going to as much yogas as I can:)

The image above is a Sun salutation, Suraya Namaskar, which I enjoy a lot:) Click the source link for more info!

♥ Craftzilla

30 Before 30 : #22--Read at least 10 more Books from the BBC Big Read List

source

One of my goals from my 30 before 30 List is #22- Read at least 10 more Books from the BBC Big Read List . I figured I'd show which ones from the list I've read so far, which should get me thinking about which other books from the list I'd like to tackle first. I've always been a big reader and I majored in English in university, but lately I haven't had a lot of call to read, and have been feeling a bit unmotivated in choosing some new things to read (tending instead to re-read favourites, or just any random book that comes my way), so I think this will be good in terms of that motivation I'm needing.

If anyone has any suggestions on where to begin, I'm definetely open to any and all suggestions!

1. The Lord of the Rings, JRR Tolkien
2. Pride and Prejudice, Jane Austen
3. His Dark Materials, Philip Pullman
4. The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy, Douglas Adams
5. Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire, JK Rowling
6. To Kill a Mockingbird, Harper Lee
7. Winnie the Pooh, AA Milne
8. Nineteen Eighty-Four, George Orwell
9. The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe, CS Lewis
10. Jane Eyre, Charlotte Brontë
11. Catch-22, Joseph Heller
12. Wuthering Heights, Emily Brontë
13. Birdsong, Sebastian Faulks
14. Rebecca, Daphne du Maurier
15. The Catcher in the Rye, JD Salinger
16. The Wind in the Willows, Kenneth Grahame
17. Great Expectations, Charles Dickens
18. Little Women, Louisa May Alcott
19. Captain Corelli's Mandolin, Louis de Bernieres
20. War and Peace, Leo Tolstoy
21. Gone with the Wind, Margaret Mitchell
22. Harry Potter And The Philosopher's Stone, JK Rowling
23. Harry Potter And The Chamber Of Secrets, JK Rowling
24. Harry Potter And The Prisoner Of Azkaban, JK Rowling
25. The Hobbit, JRR Tolkien
26. Tess Of The D'Urbervilles, Thomas Hardy
27. Middlemarch, George Eliot
28. A Prayer For Owen Meany, John Irving
29. The Grapes Of Wrath, John Steinbeck
30. Alice's Adventures In Wonderland, Lewis Carroll
31. The Story Of Tracy Beaker, Jacqueline Wilson
32. One Hundred Years Of Solitude, Gabriel García Márquez
33. The Pillars Of The Earth, Ken Follett
34. David Copperfield, Charles Dickens
35. Charlie And The Chocolate Factory, Roald Dahl
36. Treasure Island, Robert Louis Stevenson
37. A Town Like Alice, Nevil Shute
38. Persuasion, Jane Austen
39. Dune, Frank Herbert
40. Emma, Jane Austen
41. Anne Of Green Gables, LM Montgomery
42. Watership Down, Richard Adams
43. The Great Gatsby, F Scott Fitzgerald
44. The Count Of Monte Cristo, Alexandre Dumas
45. Brideshead Revisited, Evelyn Waugh
46. Animal Farm, George Orwell
47. A Christmas Carol, Charles Dickens
48. Far From The Madding Crowd, Thomas Hardy
49. Goodnight Mister Tom, Michelle Magorian
50. The Shell Seekers, Rosamunde Pilcher
51. The Secret Garden, Frances Hodgson Burnett
52. Of Mice And Men, John Steinbeck
53. The Stand, Stephen King
54. Anna Karenina, Leo Tolstoy
55. A Suitable Boy, Vikram Seth
56. The BFG, Roald Dahl
57. Swallows And Amazons, Arthur Ransome
58. Black Beauty, Anna Sewell
59. Artemis Fowl, Eoin Colfer
60. Crime And Punishment, Fyodor Dostoyevsky
61. Noughts And Crosses, Malorie Blackman
62. Memoirs Of A Geisha, Arthur Golden
63. A Tale Of Two Cities, Charles Dickens
64. The Thorn Birds, Colleen McCollough
65. Mort, Terry Pratchett
66. The Magic Faraway Tree, Enid Blyton
67. The Magus, John Fowles
68. Good Omens, Terry Pratchett and Neil Gaiman
69. Guards! Guards!, Terry Pratchett
70. Lord Of The Flies, William Golding
71. Perfume, Patrick Süskind
72. The Ragged Trousered Philanthropists, Robert Tressell
73. Night Watch, Terry Pratchett
74. Matilda, Roald Dahl
75. Bridget Jones's Diary, Helen Fielding
76. The Secret History, Donna Tartt
77. The Woman In White, Wilkie Collins
78. Ulysses, James Joyce
79. Bleak House, Charles Dickens
80. Double Act, Jacqueline Wilson
81. The Twits, Roald Dahl
82. I Capture The Castle, Dodie Smith
83. Holes, Louis Sachar
84. Gormenghast, Mervyn Peake
85. The God Of Small Things, Arundhati Roy
86. Vicky Angel, Jacqueline Wilson
87. Brave New World, Aldous Huxley
88. Cold Comfort Farm, Stella Gibbons
89. Magician, Raymond E Feist
90. On The Road, Jack Kerouac
91. The Godfather, Mario Puzo
92. The Clan Of The Cave Bear, Jean M Auel
93. The Colour Of Magic, Terry Pratchett
94. The Alchemist, Paulo Coelho
95. Katherine, Anya Seton
96. Kane And Abel, Jeffrey Archer
97. Love In The Time Of Cholera, Gabriel García Márquez
98. Girls In Love, Jacqueline Wilson
99. The Princess Diaries, Meg Cabot
100. Midnight's Children, Salman Rushdie
 101. Three Men In A Boat, Jerome K. Jerome
102. Small Gods, Terry Pratchett
103. The Beach, Alex Garland
104. Dracula, Bram Stoker
105. Point Blanc, Anthony Horowitz
106. The Pickwick Papers, Charles Dickens
107. Stormbreaker, Anthony Horowitz
108. The Wasp Factory, Iain Banks
109. The Day Of The Jackal, Frederick Forsyth
110. The Illustrated Mum, Jacqueline Wilson
111. Jude The Obscure, Thomas Hardy
112. The Secret Diary Of Adrian Mole Aged 13¾, Sue Townsend
113. The Cruel Sea, Nicholas Monsarrat
114. Les Misérables, Victor Hugo
115. The Mayor Of Casterbridge, Thomas Hardy
116. The Dare Game, Jacqueline Wilson
117. Bad Girls, Jacqueline Wilson
118. The Picture Of Dorian Gray, Oscar Wilde
119. Shogun, James Clavell
120. The Day Of The Triffids, John Wyndham
121. Lola Rose, Jacqueline Wilson
122. Vanity Fair, William Makepeace Thackeray
123. The Forsyte Saga, John Galsworthy
124. House Of Leaves, Mark Z. Danielewski
125. The Poisonwood Bible, Barbara Kingsolver
126. Reaper Man, Terry Pratchett
127. Angus, Thongs And Full-Frontal Snogging, Louise Rennison
128. The Hound Of The Baskervilles, Arthur Conan Doyle
129. Possession, A. S. Byatt
130. The Master And Margarita, Mikhail Bulgakov
131. The Handmaid's Tale, Margaret Atwood
132. Danny The Champion Of The World, Roald Dahl
133. East Of Eden, John Steinbeck
134. George's Marvellous Medicine, Roald Dahl
135. Wyrd Sisters, Terry Pratchett
136. The Color Purple, Alice Walker
137. Hogfather, Terry Pratchett
138. The Thirty-Nine Steps, John Buchan
139. Girls In Tears, Jacqueline Wilson
140. Sleepovers, Jacqueline Wilson
141. All Quiet On The Western Front, Erich Maria Remarque
142. Behind The Scenes At The Museum, Kate Atkinson
143. High Fidelity, Nick Hornby
144. It, Stephen King
145. James And The Giant Peach, Roald Dahl
146. The Green Mile, Stephen King
147. Papillon, Henri Charriere
148. Men At Arms, Terry Pratchett
149. Master And Commander, Patrick O'Brian
150. Skeleton Key, Anthony Horowitz
151. Soul Music, Terry Pratchett
152. Thief Of Time, Terry Pratchett
153. The Fifth Elephant, Terry Pratchett
154. Atonement, Ian McEwan
155. Secrets, Jacqueline Wilson
156. The Silver Sword, Ian Serraillier
157. One Flew Over The Cuckoo's Nest, Ken Kesey
158. Heart Of Darkness, Joseph Conrad
159. Kim, Rudyard Kipling
160. Cross Stitch, Diana Gabaldon
161. Moby Dick, Herman Melville
162. River God, Wilbur Smith
163. Sunset Song, Lewis Grassic Gibbon
164. The Shipping News, Annie Proulx
165. The World According To Garp, John Irving
166. Lorna Doone, R. D. Blackmore
167. Girls Out Late, Jacqueline Wilson
168. The Far Pavilions, M. M. Kaye
169. The Witches, Roald Dahl
170. Charlotte's Web, E. B. White
171. Frankenstein, Mary Shelley
172. They Used To Play On Grass, Terry Venables and Gordon Williams
173. The Old Man And The Sea, Ernest Hemingway
174. The Name Of The Rose, Umberto Eco
175. Sophie's World, Jostein Gaarder
176. Dustbin Baby, Jacqueline Wilson
177. Fantastic Mr Fox, Roald Dahl
178. Lolita, Vladimir Nabokov
179. Jonathan Livingstone Seagull, Richard Bach
180. The Little Prince, Antoine De Saint-Exupery
181. The Suitcase Kid, Jacqueline Wilson
182. Oliver Twist, Charles Dickens
183. The Power Of One, Bryce Courtenay
184. Silas Marner, George Eliot
185. American Psycho, Bret Easton Ellis
186. The Diary Of A Nobody, George and Weedon Grossmith
187. Trainspotting, Irvine Welsh
188. Goosebumps, R. L. Stine
189. Heidi, Johanna Spyri
190. Sons And Lovers, D. H. LawrenceLife of Lawrence
191. The Unbearable Lightness of Being, Milan Kundera
192. Man And Boy, Tony Parsons
193. The Truth, Terry Pratchett
194. The War Of The Worlds, H. G. Wells
195. The Horse Whisperer, Nicholas Evans
196. A Fine Balance, Rohinton Mistry
197. Witches Abroad, Terry Pratchett
198. The Once And Future King, T. H. White
199. The Very Hungry Caterpillar, Eric Carle
200. Flowers In The Attic, Virginia Andrews 


Total so far:  68/200 read  

♥ Craftzilla
 

30 Before 30 - Goals for the Coming year

So Tuesday was my 29th birthday, and I decided that a list of the things I 'd like to accomplish in the coming year would likely help with actually accomplishing things :) I 've been thinking a lot about the whole "getting my shit together" since reading this post and have been trying to think of all the places where I often feel frazzled and lost, and of goals I have set that have been a long time in getting done. No one likes a tome of a to do list, and I am no exception but eventually, at some point, the things gotta get done! I figure some goals reaching over the next year, that encompass the most important of the things I want to get done, as well as things that would just make me happy, would be super useful in keeping myself motivated, and hopefully help bypass that feeling you tend to get each birthday, when you're not sure if you have anything to show for the last year or not.

So here is my list, in no particular order: 

1. Retake G1 exam and get full G2 license
2. Try to get at least 7.5 hours of sleep every night
3. Work on something crafty every day
4. Go to studio at least 3 times a week
5. Tidy up the apartment a bit every day --goal: 20 minutes
6. Finish creating Craftzilla Facebook page
7. Get a passport and use it to travel somewhere fun that requires a passport
8. Start practicing yoga again on a regular basis (try for 3 times a week)
9. Keep a clean inbox in all my emails
10. Participate in some kind of Photo project (i.e. 365 Day portrait,30 Day photo challenge)
11. Get new Etsy shop up and going -- and make a few sales!
12. Organize some crafty events in town (i.e. Etsy Team for Guelph, another craft Party, perhaps an Etsy sellers show)
13. Take some photos every day
14. Get at least an 80 in every course I take this year
15. Try to be mindful of my temper and don't take stress out on loved ones
16.  Limit TV watching --try for 1 hour a day max
17. Finish a knitted sweater
18. Take a screenprinting class 
19. Take a weekly yoga class
20. Visit a city I’ve never been to before
21. Go on a weekend getaway somewhere
22. Read at least 10 more from the BBC Big Read List
23. Go to a museum I've never been to before
24. Have a tea party
25. Pay off credit card debt and keep a $0 balance
26. Learn to use Photoshop proficiently
27. Get to 100 blog posts
28. Host a blog giveaway
29. Learn to use my serger
30. Plan a fancy picnic with dishes I haven't made before