30 things while 30

Today I turn 30! This is the first time I really felt that I was getting older. But it’ll totally pass because I still refuse to grow up!

Once again I’m doing a list! Last year’s not so great. It was the year before where I did a lot more stuff on my list. The key is to keep it to simple and fun things, things that make the every boring stuff a little more exciting. Of course I threw in some bigger goals like opening my Etsy store.  

So here it is! *drum roll*

Suzy’s 30 things while 30 list:

1. Complete a puzzle

2. Go camping

3. Make a fritatta

4. Design my own Blythe outfit

5. Sew a stuffed toy

6. Run a race

7. Make a blanket

8. Paint a picture

9. Have a picnic 

10. Make a time capsule

11. Do a wood burn art

12. Stay in PJs all day and watch movies/shows

13. Give Blood

14. Make something for house

15. Bake a black forest cake

16. Watch an old classic movie

17. Dye hair -completed 7.03.10

18. Play a board game

19. Travel to a new city

20. Make a traditional Japanese breakfast

21. Paint a room in the house

22. Redecorate a room in the house

23. Buy a fern

24. Finish all Style School projects

25. Open my Etsy store

26. Go to Discovery Place

27. Go to a botanical garden

28. Go out just with girls

29. Swing on a swing

30. Throw a party

Stay tuned!

Hello hair cut!

I woke up bright and early this morning and drove about an hour and a half to get my hair cut by Wendy, my boss’s wife. She did such a great job!! Will definitely be going back to her: ) It feels so fabulous and freeeeee! Now I can’t wait to try new styles, fun accessories and hair colors! I love getting hair cuts!

Before:

After:


And!! This is also one of my goals for my 10 Things Before 30 list. Check!! And a Style School goals.

Hello 2010!

Hello to another year and a new decade! I have a feeling it’s going to be a great year. To know that we are in a city we love and in our very own home feels good and stable.

I have some resolutions for the year and I’ve also decided to restart my “12 Months of 29” List. I got distracted with so many other things that the list got pushed aside…but I’m totally going to try again!!

2010 general goals:
-Take better care of my body
make more balanced meals
develop a well rounded exercise routine
-Be more eco-friendly (I was so passionate about it 3 years ago, such a shame I stopped)
-More arts and crafts
-More creativity and my true self into life, crafts and clothing (can’t let the boys suck me into the t-shirt and track pants look ahhhh!)

and…

10 Things Before 30 List: (formally known as 12 months of 29)*
1. Make a fancy dinner with appetizer, main course and dessert
2. Get a hair cut and donate it
3. Change all the light bulbs in the house to CFLs
4. Sign me and Ginny up for agility classes
5. Go camping
6. Start my garden
7. Sew pair of pants/shorts
8. Start my scrapbook
9. Go to a play/concert
10. 1 finished piece of art (digital, paper, paint) each month till June
*which be documented in the blog

See ya next time!

Happy Birthday!

I woke up this morning at exactly 6:28 am. How fitting for my birthday! I am now 29, but as always, I really don’t feel like it.

Tomorrow I’ll recap on my awesome day, but for now I’ll present the new list for 2009!
*drum roll*

12 months of 29: (to be done in any order)
1. Reopen my Etsy store
2. Volunteer
3. Read a classic book
4. Start my squarefoot garden
5. Make a croatian dinner and dessert
6. Start my scrapbook
7. Go fruit picking
8. Finish a project that I’ve started
9. Do a digital painting/piece of art
10. Go to a play
11. Take a class
12. Have someone pick something for me to do

I stuck with a small number this time so I can focus on each item more and nothing really requires too much money. I can’t wait to start it already. I’m not sure what I want to do first, but I’ll make sure I document it on this blog.

Well, I need to refill my sangria and watch Rob cook the burgers now. Hope everyone has a lovely Sunday!

The List…the end.

[caption id=”attachment_83” align=”aligncenter” width=”225” caption=”Suzy turning 28 and still needing a helmet.”][/caption]

Well, my birthday is just a little over a day away and with it brings the end of my year long quest to do 28 specific things while I was 28.

While I did do most of the things, I didn’t complete the whole thing. Most of it came down to a lot of money, time or both. I made this list when we still thought we were moving to Arizona, so moving to North Carolin shook up the timeline and expectations in my head. But I’m still proud of the many things I did accomplish!

Let’s recap!!

*1. buy a house (yay we actually did it!)

2. take a yoga class (nope, felt that the drive was not worth it)

*3. travel some place new (going to Asheville for the first time)

4. sell something I made (moving and living in the apartment gave me no space or inspiration)

5. send out artwork for freelancing (I bought a book…yeah, lazy)

*6. plant a tree (we planted a sapling that came from Rob’s childhood home)

*7. paint a picture (painted a cute lawn gnome portrait)

*8. pick a random book to read (ugh, awful ’80s medieval book)

*9. sew something to wear (I just love the dress I made! I even wear it a lot too!)

10. sew a quilt (I still want to do this, but just never had money I wanted to spend on it)

*11. donate to a charity (donated to Child’s Play)

*12. bake cupcakes from scratch (I did it! even though the frosting was runny)

13. throw a party (never really had a chance, a shame)

*14. eat at a new place (Cabo Fish Taco in NoDa! Yummmmm)

*15. go to a local fair (Bele Chere Festival in Asheville)

16. print wedding photos (just something that didn’t seem too important at the time to do)

*17. go out for breakfast (Einstein Bagels on a wonderful autumn day)

*18. buy a cactus (poor little airport cactus died, but I did get a new one who protects our front door)

*19. buy original art (Marmee had her mini portraits on sale just yesterday when I was going to buy a print for my birthday, so I just had to get it! So lucky!)

*20. crochet something to wear that’s not a hat or scarf (ugly shrug! but I won Pop Goes Crochet from Naughty Secretary, which has awesome things to make and wear!)

21. get a massage (just didn’t feel like spending the money, but boy do I need it!)

*22. go hiking (Rob and I hiked while camping on Mount Morrow, NC)

*23. go to a winery(went to RayLen winery in NC)

24. go to a bar just for drinks and appetizers (meh, having a meal just always seemed more appealing when we’d go out)

*25. have fondue (went to the Melting Pot)

*26. have a picnic (had lunch with Molly by Lake Norman)

*27. go camping (one of my fav. things we did when we first moved to North Carolina. can’t wait to go again)

*28. go to a farmers market (went to the big one in Asheville)

20 out of 28 is pretty dang good!

I’ve got a new list brewing for this birthday! I think they are a lot of fun and it’s just a way to push myself to do things.

Also, I’ve got a few things in the works for this blog too. I’ve been kind of absent with it and just doing the bare minimum and how am I supposed to get readers and people actually interested in it if I don’t do anything? I mean it’s not just getting readers, but it’s following through with something I started. I read so many awesome blogs and I feel that I need to share and contribute to with crazy internet world.

So, stay tuned and on June 28th, I’ll reveal the new LIST!!

9. Sew something to wear.

I’m finally posting the dress I sewed! I had been waiting to wear this on a special occasion, and what better day than closing on our house?!

I’m very happy with the way it came out. I will definitely be sewing this pattern again.

A Suzy tib-bit: I actually went to fashion design school in Vancouver about 7 years ago. Manly for illustration, but I had to learn to sew and design my own clothes. One reason why I want to start sewing again, so I don’t lose what I learned.

*sorry if the photo acts funky, WordPress is being weird with this picture.

7. Paint a picture

[caption id=”attachment_39” align=”alignnone” width=”225” caption=”Portrait of a Lawn Gnome”][/caption]

I painted this little guy in celebration of warm weather, blooming trees and of course the excitement of having our very own house and yard soon!

I can’t believe April is finally here! In just a few short weeks we’ll be in our house! I’m just itching to start painting walls, buying furniture, gardening and just enjoying being homeowners: )

List items: 12, 20 and 26

I’ve done a few more things on my 28 Things to do When I’m 28 list!

12. Bake cupcakes from scratch.

[caption id=”attachment_21” align=”alignnone” width=”300” caption=”Baking cupcakes!”][/caption]

Yesterday I saw the cutest apron on sale in Anthropologie and I told Rob if he let me buy it then I’ll bake cupcakes and what man can’t resist cupcakes? So, I got the apron (i’ll have to take a better picture of it) and I attempted to bake cupcakes.

Now I want to say it was super easy and I just can’t WAIT to do it again…..errr, but while the cake part turned out decent, the frosting turned out so runny! I couldn’t even “frost” it on there. I even tried adding more powdered sugar, but nope. Either way they turned out good and Rob already had 4, heh.

20. Crochet something to wear that’s not a hat or scarf.

[caption id=”attachment_22” align=”alignnone” width=”225” caption=”My crocheted shrug”][/caption]

FAIL! Ok, it doesn’t look so bad in the picture, but it is. It’s my own fault for using cheap yarn with no drape. I’m going to end up frogging it and use the yarn for something else. I still did it though and I’ll try crocheting another shrug…another day.

26. Have a picnic

[caption id=”attachment_23” align=”alignnone” width=”300” caption=”Picnic”][/caption]

The weather is finally warming up here in North Carolina and what better way to celebrate it than having lunch at the park overlooking Lake Norman? Picnics are something we’ll be doing lots more of, especially in our own backyard. I just can’t wait to be outside more: )

And that’s all I have right now! June is almost here again and I still have so much more to do!

8. pick a random book to read

Now I really wanted to read a random book in hopes of maybe discovering a new author or maybe just a great book. Rob and I were in Charlotte’s NoDa district and went into a used bookstore (back in like August) because what a perfect place to find a random book! For less than I dollar, I picked up An Unkindneess of Ravens by Dee Morrison Meaney written in the early 80’s. I mean look at the cover, it’s pure 80’s fantasy awesome! “An Eleventh-Century Romance of Magic and Love”?! Sweet!

It turned out to be a difficult book for me to read. It was like reading a book in school, pure struggle to finish and stay interested in. The book was about a girl named Brawnwen and she can talk to animals, bend wills, shape shift and use herbs like a mo-fo. She falls in love with a viking, but vikings are bad because she lives in old school England and they are helping the evil Danes. But at the same time, her dad was ok with him and his buddies coming over and drinking with their family/village. In the mean time, her brother joins this guy who is to be king one day if he can kick the Danes out of England and Branwen is ok with that too even though her viking boyfriend is fighting against them. Then there’s this douche bag that seduces Brawnen and she only likes him back at first because it’s so easy to give into desire when you’re boyfriend is gone all the time. There’s a bit about a unicorn who can talk to her and the unicorn brings her to this old lady who is supposed to be like God before man realized that they can rule over women and warring is ok and now their God is the man God we all know today. There’s lots of ale and wine drinking which was cool. But there’s like hardly any magic, the romance was dry and as exciting as dirt and all the war stuff is like reading a history book.

The only thing I liked about this book…is that I finally finished it and I can read something else! At least I did it!

I gotta get my butt into gear and start doing more things on my list. I don’t have that much to do, but time is running out. There are I few things I don’t think I’ll be able to do. I did do my sew something to wear, I’m just waiting for it not to rain on the weekends so I can take a picture. I definitely want to do another birthday list, but maybe keep it smaller. It’s a lot of fun though and totally recommend trying it!

1. Buy a House

I can’t believe it! The day we had been dreaming about finally came…

Rob and I bought our first house!!!

Ok ok…we made an offer and after a bit of negotiating, it got accepted, but that’s like totally getting it! ^_~

We got a lovely 4 bed, 2 1/2 bath, two story house with an awesome .30 acre backyard. We lucked out and found this house right away. We saw about 14 houses in all. We loved it, it had everything we wanted and it totally worked for us. The neighborhood is real nice and we have a walking trail that in the future will be connected to the greenway and in the far future all greenways will connect and we could travel practically to South Carolina. Sweet! If everything goes according to plan, we’ll be in our new house end or April/beginning of May.

I can’t wait to see what we do with it. Rob will have his own office/space and I’ll have my own craft room. We’ll grow yummy veggies and beautiful bee and butterfly friendly flowers. Spend warm days lounging in the back yard with the dog and cold days in front of the fireplace. And of course, we’ll start a family and have dogs, cats and kids running around the place: )

Can’t wait to start posting pictures and adventures of moving in! But in the mean time, here’s the outside of our house!