...'s 30 before 30 (and some birthday photos)

The satchel of beauty. And my trusty, unbreakable camera.

Fair warning fellow bloggers and friends, this is a LOOOOONG post. Probably not a lunch break read. Tea and nibbles required. Maybe a blanket.

Birthday breakfast - boiled eggs and toast with anchovy butter. mmmm.

 So, I'm 29. So far being 29 has included a shiny new red Oxford satchel (thanks Dave!), being given a party at work by the children (I was still 28 technically), birthday lunch out, walking around in the sun and playing with my camera, and Dave's dad and step-mum travelling 100 or so miles to bring us a homemade lunch today, so I'm ok with it. I have been sent cards and given gifts and had lots of messages and things, and even a wee blog post from a very lovely friend, and I feel very lucky. And I'll have some birthday fun next weekend too.

We went to Tonic, a nice coffee place in Dundee for lunch

Nachos and lattice fries. I had nachos on our anniversary too. I LOVE THEM.

 I don't have the fear people seem to exhibit over being 30. It's my next 'big birthday' but I'm happy enough in my life and have had so many good experiences in my twenties that turning 30 an starting another decade of cool stuff doesn't seem bad. Ask me again in 9 months though! After a chat with the other one about her 30 before 30 list, I thought it might be a good idea for me to do one too. Some of these are things in my intentions for this year, since I only have 4 months left to try to make a dent in them and have done little about them! Some are big things and some are small,  some are close to impossible in the next year, but all are important to me. My plan is to update on here as and when things happen, and do quarterly reports.

My satchel again. I LOVE IT SO.

1. Learn to crochet - this is from my intentions list. It's August and I haven't started. But, my present from the paternal parents-in-law (along with a nice bottle of fizz) was a crochet set, and I am bloody determined to do it.

2.  Learn a language - this is also from my intentions list. I'm going to learn German. Theoretically, I know some French, but my accent is coarse and I can't make French sound like French. I reckon German will suit more, and it's an excuse to go there when I've learned a bit.

3. Go to a gig outside the UK - it's be interesting to see how audiences in different places respond to bands. 

4. Learn to take good, interesting photos with a anologue camera - spools are expensive, so I want to get to the stage where almost every shot is a good one. If anyone has any tips about books for this then I'd love to know, I've been searching the internet and it is very confusing.

5. By then end of the year, be buying most of  my clothes second-hand and altering things to fit properly (I'm excluding jeans from this, it's hard enough to find new ones that fit, and a top from New Look I am coveting).

6. Following from that, get myself back into a size 14 -16. The biggest problem I have buying second hand is that I am too chubby and tall. I figure if I remove one of those, I'll have a better chance. Also, it's the best size and the most in shape I have been as an adult. Time to get back there.

7. Volunteer for a charity. I'm giving myself Christmas as a deadline for this, so hope to have volunteered for at least 8 months by my next birthday.

8. Get the Paisley flat in order - the stairs look exactly as the did in my last post about them. Summer has been busy, and everything else has taken precedent. I need to spend less time Pinning things for the flat and more actually doing stuff to it. we have to - finish the stairs, strip and paint the hall floor, repaint the walls, hang pictures, redo the bathroom, re-floor and shuffle about the kitchen and mend the plumbing, paint the livingroom and cover the sofa, paint the bedroom and make me a craft area in it, and paint and sort out the spare room/office. I also have to make the fabric items for all rooms. We might paint some furniture too. Even if we don't end up living there, it's ours for the foreseeable future. It might as well be ours and be nice. 

9. Be more solvent and more in control of money. Dave and I are collectively bad at money. We always muddle through, but it would be pleasant not to spend half the month worrying about paying our rent -  we must make and stick to a budget.

10. Make every gift I give for the whole year (or buy second hand/handmade where the person will appreciate it) - this is always my aim but I never quite get there. This begins with making Christmas presents.

11. Re-learn to screenprint - When I studied graphic design, I gained so many skills that I don't use, and screen printing is one that would be handy for band merch and things, so I'm going to re-learn. First i'm going to do the DIY embroidery hoop and glue method, and then I'm going to properly learn to build screens.

12. As of Monday 22nd of August, have a small drawing for every day. I tried to do this last year and failed miserably. Time to try again. The small sketchbook Dave gave me for our anniversary is easy to carry around and I spend a lot of time sitting about waiting for buses, so I have plenty of time. I'm going to get my skills back.

13. Cook one new thing per week. I own 24 cookbooks. Just in those, there are enough things for me to cook a new thing a week for most of my life probably. Time to use them.

14. Paint or draw and accurate portrait. I've been 'doing' art, in a learning sense since I was eight. I still can't draw people. At least not ones that look like the person I'm trying to draw. On my 30th birthday I want to have at least one picture of a person that looks like the person. *grits teeth*

15. Hoard less - Have a clear out 3 times is the year. the first between Christmas and new year, one in April, and one in August, before the next birthday year starts. Get rid of things that can't be re-used, clothes I don't wear, and sort through and file bills. I know we should do this as and when I get them, but I'm being realistic.

16. Make curtains for the Dundee flat before winter. It's already getting colder, and we freezed our arses of last year. I can sew, and I can buy cheap fabric and make curtains. And yet I haven't. If we end up back in Paisley, this with change to 'Make better curtains for the Paisley flat'. The ones there are unlined and unhemmed. I essentially hand-sewed a channel on the top of them and stuck them on a pole.

17. Have a regular weekly feature on the blog. I think it's probably be the 'Recipes I've Pinned' one I started this week. I really want to be a better writer, and the practice and routine should help.

18. Find and procure a pair of well made, properly fitted knee high boots. I am a size 8 shoe and have fat calves. It makes buying boots a nightmare. I would quite like to go through winter with warm, dry feet. Even if it's next winter.

19. Make a dress in it's entirety. Then keep making my own dresses. I can already do this, but I'm rusty. And bad at zips.

20. Do crockery painting. Even if it's just a paint a mug day or something. I've always wanted to do it.

21. Start an art collection. This sounds grandiose,  but really I just want to add to and hang the few prints/embroideries/paintings we have.

22. Organise my books. They got all jumbled when we moved, and have been so since. I keep putting it off because we might move back, but we might not. The ones in Paisley are all alphabetical now, and I need to do the ones here. It's about a day's work. That day should be soon.

23. Go to another continent.  This is one of the long shot items on the list. I'd like to at least be aiming for it though.

24. Learn to drive (and conquer the fear I have of it). Again, long shot.

25. Tidy and maintain our garden. It is a mature garden and was hard work when we were there all the time, and now we avoid it. It has the potential to be a really nice space again. Even mowing the grass every couple of weeks and weeding would do a lot of good.  This year, autumn and early winter will be used to get it under control. Along with this goes collecting all the fruit it produces and using it.

26. Find a trilby style hat that fits my big head (really, it's too big even for men's ones) and obtain it. I tried one on in a shop in France four years ago - grey cord, beautiful - and didn't buy it. I've been kicking myself ever since.

27. Have my hair cut by a hairdresser. This sounds so basic, but the last time I had a proper haircut was before I went to uni. So at least 7 years. I've cut my own since then, and it always looks fine, but a professional haircut seems like a big luxury. I'm letting my hair grow long again, so when it gets longish, I want to have it cut into choppy layers and have a thick fringe cut in (like Anne Hathaway's hair in The Devil Wears Prada). My hair was like that (self-cut) when I met Dave, and it has been my favourite hairstyle.

28. Another long shot, but I'd like to have laser eye surgery. At the moment, having an astigmatism in each eye means it wouldn't be wholly effective, but if at any point the can work around that, I'd do it. I'm happy enough wearing glasses, but to see without help would be lovely.

29. Do a first aid course. I last did one nine years ago, I can only remember the basics, and as I work with children I'd like to be qualified again.

30.Write something, not a book exactly, but something about my mum and my memories of her (and those of the family). If I do have children, I'd like to have stuff written down so that when I can't remember, the stories are still there. I might occasionally add things in the blog, as I intend it to be a record of my life generally. I don't know. Ideas?

So, these 30 things are things I aim to do. I'd better start soon!