1. renew my passport and use it
- the passport has been mailed in for renewal! I've been putting this off for like a full year now, so I figured putting it on the list would motivate me to get it done. That, and we have a trip planned to Vancouver in September! Once I got to looking at what was actually required, it wasn't even that much work. Now I just have to wait for it to come back!
3. study daily routines, develop one that works for me, and keep it for at least 6 months
- I read the book Daily Rituals: How Artists Work by Mason Currey and got all sorts of lovely ideas. There are many different ways of working, but it seems a consensus is you're only going to get about 3 hours of productive, concentrated creative work a day, so I've been trying to keep 3 hours of studio time daily. It's been good so far! I'm far from starting the official 6 month count, though. I want to do a little more research and fine tune things before I commit to "my" routine.
12. try 30 new teas (10/30)
- I am off to a running start on this one - I've tried 10 new teas! I have quite the backlog in my tea cabinet (so much that I had to devote a whole cabinet to tea in our new place), so it's been good to start working through them. I also got a chai tea flight when we visited Portland so I got to try 5 different teas right there (at Pip's Donuts and Chai - highly recommended - mini donuts!!).
18. try 20 new ice creams (local companies) (3/20)
- Yum! I tried a new Tillamook flavor - Monster Cookie, and we had Salt and Straw in Portland - olive oil and mint chocolate chip (separately, for 3 new flavors).
20. Read 30 new graphic novels (8/30)
- Oh heck, I'm gonna finish this one soon. I've got 8 read already and I'm working on number 9. I just love graphic novels. My favorites so far have been Soppy by Philippa Rice and Brazen by Penelope Bagieu.
21. read 30 new Newbery award or honor books (1/30)
- I read my first Newbery: The Hundred Dresses by Eleanor Estes, and I'm working on number 2: The War That Saved My Life by Kimberly Brubaker Bradley. Heck, I love kids' books.
23. see 30 new animated films (2/30)
- We saw Toy Story 4 opening weekend and thoroughly enjoyed it, then watched Mirai, Mamoru Hosoda's newest film, and were flummoxed by his choice to have an adult woman voice a 6-year-old child. Other than that, it was a cute story (the English dub sounds like it might bother me less - they actually got a kid).
30. see 30 new international films (1/30)
- I saw Restaurant of the Sky, a Japanese film, on a work flight. It was pretty okay.
46. keep a cleaning schedule throughout the list
- Okay, so I've already been not so great at this, but I've also cleaned more in the past month than I probably did over 6 months in our last place, hahaha, so I'm allowing it. I'm taking steps to make cleaning more convenient (like keeping cleaning cloths out on the counter so I wipe things instead of leaving them), and it's already helped. I think I also need to take the cleaning schedule I've been "using" and adapt it to more of my comfort level (AKA cleaning less often). I'm not a neat freak and I'm able to function with clutter, so cleaning is just less of a priority for me. I do know I need to do it a little more often, though.
47. go through the Coverville backlog
- Coverville is a great cover song podcast that my co-worker introduced me to a while ago. I super love cover songs, so I've been wanting to go back and find the gems I've missed in older episodes. So I've incorporated this into my studio time and it's been lovely. (If you want to, you can find me on Spotify and listen to my epic covers playlist where I'm adding my new finds, username: emmisary)
83. grow a backyard garden
- We have a little patio at our new place, and we're finally making use of the planter boxes we got from some moving friends. I planted cucumbers, heirloom tomatoes, mint, cilantro, and rosemary. So far they're thriving (I have three flowers on my tomato plant!), which is a bit opposite my history with plants, so fingers crossed they keep on!
87. cook all recipes from Spice Madam subscription (1/6)
- I was gifted a spice subscription box - each month is a different country. They send you the spices and recipes and you make the meals. This month I cooked everything from the Iran box and it was delicious!
88. support 20 local restaurants/businesses (1/20)
- There's not too much variety as far as restaurants go around here. There was a place that piqued our interest that ended up closing down before we could go, and we are still kicking ourselves about it, so I instituted this goal. We won't let that happen again! This month we tried one of the few Chinese restaurants in town and we are happy to report it is pretty normal Chinese food, haha.
89. get marimo and keep them alive
- G got me marimo for our anniversary!! So this one was completed much sooner than I thought it would be. Though, I technically said I had to keep them alive. Should I count it? They've been alive for 2 weeks now, haha. Let's set a time frame - if I can keep them alive for one year, we'll call it good. They're very low maintenance, but who knows? I thought I had a photo of them, but I don't and I'm not home. I'll post one for you guys soon. Rest assured they are very happy moss balls.
Dailies + Monthlies: I've been keeping a daily logbook (#6), I celebrated and posted my first French Fryday on instagram (#7), this is my first monthly update (#25)!
Whew! That was a lot!
Overall, I'm really pleased with how much reading I've been doing. I felt it was lacking in my life recently, so this was the perfect kick I needed to read more. It's a goal to hit 100 books in a year during the list, but I might just hit 100 books every year!
Hope you all had a good June! Here's to a just-as-productive July!
