It's the final countdown!

Cue music.

Lots to do and just 22 days left to do it in! Good thing I finished some goals this month!

Completed:

2. digitally transcribe my journals [modified to all journals B.G]

• Finally!! This one has really probably taken the most time, haha. I'm glad to have them done, but I still have my recent ones to do (probably on the next list). But man, it has been a trip. Lots of present embarrassment for past Sara, but all that means is present Sara has grown! I don't know what past Sara would think of her, but present Sara is definitely proud of where she is.

8. pick me up list/Sara canon

• I aimed to do more with this one, too, to make it "official," but I can't hold myself to too high of standards. I'll get back to the fancy bullet journal spreads later maybe. :)  It's absolutely enough that I have made the lists of my faves! I wrapped it up by making some playlists to help when I'm feeling down: youtube and spotify. 

10. create a personal cookbook

• This transformed over the list. I was aiming to make a cute illustrated cookbook with my favorite recipes, but that just became too daunting. So what I have done is collect my favorite recipes from my pinterest boards and other places, and I've saved them in a Google Drive folder. And it's a good thing I did, because the recipe for my favorite cookies in the world disappeared! That is the danger of internet recipes, I guess, but I will combat it with my own collection!

35. watch 10 anime series

• I was aiming to finish NANA, but someone will not return the DVDs to the library!! Luckily I chose to watch Gankutusou this month after finally reading The Count of Monte Cristo. It was beautifully animated, but they took quite a few liberties with the plot. It only solidified my disgust for the Count, hahahaha.

72. complete 12 30-day projects

• Motivated by an upcoming dentist visit, I chose to floss everyday in January, hahaha. It was good! I'm always resistant toward flossing because I feel like it takes forever, and I feel like this month helped me make it feel like less of a big deal. It was also a nice easy project to wrap up with. I hope I can keep it feeling easy - my teeth have never been this clean.

Updates:

11. study 12 famous chefs and cook 5 of their recipes each (11/12)

• This month I cooked with 2 chefs: Christina Tosi and Susan Feniger. Tosi was great, but like, all baked goods (I shouldn't have expected anything different, haha). Feniger was good, too! A lot of work, but good food. That's been my biggest complaint so far with these recipes - they are usually a little more involved. Worth the effort in the end, but it's just so much...effort, haha.

30. see 30 new international films (25/30)

• 3 movies this month: Rafiki (Kenya), Tanna (Vanuatu), and Woman At War (Iceland). I enjoyed all of them, but Woman at War was probably my favorite. It features great music - presented by on-screen musicians who are kind of characters in the film? It's delightful.

34. curate saved links

• I have realized this may be impossible. I've spent probably 10-20 hours working on this goal this month, and I feel nowhere close to finishing. I may change it to something smaller and more achievable to wrap up in the next three weeks.

73 items complete! We've crossed into passing grade territory, so I'm happy no matter what happens now. (Although I'm delighted to know I'm on track to complete quite a few more!) See you guys on Tuesday, 2/22/22!

Happy New Year! (T-minus 2 months!!)

 Alright, y'all. The end of year update you've been waiting for. I have so many things completing themselves this month!

Completed:

15. Wilkes Weekly newsletter

• The Wilkes Weekly (delivered monthly) has been sent for a full year, so I'm calling this good. It's fun to put together, but I'm not sure it's entirely appreciated, haha. I haven't heard from a lot of my family that I send it to, but I guess it doesn't hurt to add their email on. I guess if they really didn't want to read it, they would let me know. But it also makes me think maybe email isn't the best venue for it? I don't even know. I want to have better relationships with them, so maybe I need to try to do it more on their terms? I'm not sure what those are. This is me complaining. I'll stop now. In conclusion, I completed this goal.

32. go to Japan with Garrett visit Michigan not in winter   

• So Japan is obviously not happening, but we did make a trip to Michigan! I have been wanting to go when there's not snow on the ground, so I'll change to that. We visited in August for Garrett's high school friend's wedding, and we were able to spend time with family, as well. It was a big enough trip that it needs to count for something! We visited Frankenmuth, a delightful Bavarian town, and saw lots of Michigan on the way there and back. I got Steak N Shake and we saw lightning bugs! A successful visit. :) I'd still like to visit in the fall sometime, but that can wait for another list! 

33. attend ECCC or another major con with Garrett

• We finally made it to ECCC! We just went one day, but it was good enough! Highlights include so many good artists and cute things to buy, finding all the other Kikis, and the Avatar: The Last Airbender panel with voice actors Dante Basco (Zuko), Janet Varney (Korra), and Dee Bradley Baker (basically every animal, including Appa and Momo [and Waddles from Gravity Falls!!]). We had a lot of fun!

40. knit a year-long line-a-day scarf

• The scarves are done! I need to finish them off technically - I need to take care of all these loose ends and maybe add some tassels, but I'm gonna call it already! This has been a lot of work, but I'm really pleased with the results and they are just such a neat record of the past year. 

Fries on the left, distance from home on the right

(it's opposite for this collage)

42. complete 10 unfinished series (reading, watching, etc.)

• All done! I realized I was holding myself to impossible standards on this one, making myself go past what I intended, so I have retconned a few series - Thursday Next (but I just finished the first series and didn't make myself do the second) and The Adventure Zone: Amnesty and Graduation (I was trying to make myself do Ethersea, as well, but it was enough work to push through Grad, haha). And then I finished catching up on Welcome to Night Vale! So I am all done now. It's nice to finish things I've started already. But also it's nice to call it good when I feel I'm done with them.

59. publish a yearly best of list

• The third best of of the list is complete and has been delivered! I'mma post it on my Facebook page, too, if you didn't get one in the mail. :) I really love doing these. It's so fun to look back over the year and come up with our favorite things and remember all the fun things we did. 

70. attend IAMPETH or other large calligraphy convention

• I wasn't able to attend IAMPETH this year, but I did a lot of other big calligraphy things (including a whole freaking public art piece!). I've joined new guilds and taken many online classes, so I'm going to call this one good. I did as much as I was comfortable with during a COVID time.

74. copy a book by hand #sarareadsandletters

• I have created 95 lettering pieces, one for every book over 50 pages I read this year (so I didn't have to letter all those Caldecott picture books, haha). I fell way behind on this so I've had to do 2 pieces a day for the past 11 days to catch them all up. It served its purpose, though! I wanted material so I could take the decision of what to write out of the equation when it was time to make something or practice a skill. It will be a cool record of everything I've read this year, too! You can see them all on instagram.

77. create an etsy shop

• Here it is! https://www.etsy.com/shop/brightlexicon
  Gosh, I drug my feet on this. I'm glad it's finally done. But now it's full of Christmas items because that's what I had on hand already, so it'll need updating soon, haha. But having the initial work done is helpful! I hope it'll be motivating and easier to keep it updated now that I have launched.

84. make hotpot

• Staying home for Christmas was making us sad, so we cheered ourselves up with some festive hotpot! A bonus of our move is we have so many types of food available to us, so we were able to easily get all the needed ingredients and we've had hotpot for 3 meals already, hahaha. I just love to get the really thinly sliced beef and swish it in the boiling water until it's just cooked and delicious. So great! (Don't worry we had veg, too) It was all pretty easy once we had everything set up, so we'll probably have it again soon!

86. develop a budget and stick to it for a year

• All done! We decided to budget for fun money, and gave ourselves a set amount per month. I think it helped! It made me feel less guilty about buying treats, and it kept our fun spending at a limit. The other categories of spending haven't been too much of an issue for us, so I feel like this was good enough for this goal.

96. wikipedia cooking challenge

• I have made every dumpling! It feels like I've made every dumpling in the world, hahahhaa. I wrapped it up this month with Yomari (Nepal) and Zilltertaler Krapfen (Austria). Woooooo! Now I'm going to not make dumplings for a while. This has been a delicious challenge, but also super labor-intensive.

Updates:

11. study 12 famous chefs and cook 5 of their recipes each (9/12)

• This month we cooked along with Antonia Lofaso and Antoni Porowski. Yum! Highlights include oven roasted broccoli from Antonia, and prosciutto chips and lemon brussels sprouts, pulled chicken with cilantro and lime, and masala nuts from Antoni. I expected to like Antonia's food more and Antoni's food less - he always seems to have high expectations for the Queer Eye participants - but it ended up being opposite for me. I hope to cook more of Antoni's recipes now!

13. volunteer for 100+ hours (2/100)

• I should probably just change this one. We were able to go wrap gifts for a family in need through The Forgotten Children's Fund, but it was only 2 hours of work, haha. I know there have been options during COVID, but I haven't made any efforts to do anything. It still felt very difficult. I only did this service because a friend was setting it up and invited us along. Maybe I should call this good after just the 2, but that seems really underwhelming and cheaty, haha.

30. see 30 new international films (22/30)

• I got 4 films in this month! Honeyland (Macedonia), Shoplifters (Japan), Sing Street (Ireland), and The Mole Agent (Chile). The Mole Agent was def my favorite - a senior citizen spy investigating a nursing home undercover, hahaha. 

So, woof! There you go! With these, I now have 68 items finished which is a much more respectable number than 56, haha. We're almost to a passing grade! It also happens to be the number I hit on my first list, so I'm bound to surpass that, at least, so I'll be happy. :) I love the end of the year wrap up, but all of these came so close to the final deadline that it's a been a bit concerning up until now. But I can deal with 68!

Three months to go!

 Yikes, y'all, it's been a month.

Completed:

44. see a touring Broadway show

• We were able to score cheap tickets to Mean Girls at the Paramount and they require proof of vaccination or a negative COVID test to go, so we did it! It was very weird to be packed in like normal, but we felt better knowing there was a lower risk of transmission. The show was a lot of fun - they did a good job of translating the film, I thought. Though Damian and Janice stole the show, hahaha. It was very well done! We're excited to live so close to real theater again, and we're looking forward to many more shows!

Updates:

11. study 12 famous chefs and cook 5 of their recipes each (7/12)

• I wrapped up recipes from Sheldon Simeon's Cook Real Hawaii this month. Oh my goodness were these good recipes. We made his SPAM musubi like 3 times alone. Besides that we had Loco Moco rice, garlic shrimp, salt pickled cabbage, and Local-style beef stew. I'm gonna def go back to this cookbook (I actually purchased this one - it's that good). Sheldon was on Top Chef and I loved him there. I'm glad his food is a great as his personality!

30. see 30 new international films (18/30)

• 3 films this month! I can totally swing 12 more before Februrary ends my list. This month I watched Mostly Martha (Germany), Sami Blood (Sweden), and Minari (US, but majority Korean language, so I'm counting it). I liked them!

72. complete 12 30-day projects (10/12)

• This month I was in the midst of completing a public art project for the City of Redmond: Dear New Year. It took up so much time. When I was done working on it for the day, I didn't really have energy for much more, so it became this month's 30-day project. Woof. But it's done and it's installed at the park and it's really lovely! If you haven't already, you can check out photos on my instagram.

74. copy a book by hand

• Officially updating this goal to be my Sara Reads and Letters Project (lettering a quote from each book I read in 2021) instead. I was doing it without any credit for my 101 List and that's dumb. It's the same principle - having a stock of words to letter for practice and (in theory) not being precious about lettering them. I still have about 20 books to letter before the end of the year, so we'll see how it goes!

96. wikipedia cooking challenge

• This month was varenyky (farmer's cheese pierogi), wontons, and xiao long bao (soup dumplings). I will admit we purchased the XLBs. But we got a new variety from a new restaurant! I've made them before and they were the only X option. I needed a break this time after finishing up Dear New Year, so I happily took a pass. Just 2 dumplings left!

Dear New Year has honestly taken up the majority of my time this month, so here's hoping I can get back into the swing of things to finish this list with a bang! I have a lot of year-long goals finishing up this month, so there's that at least! Woooooo getting things done!

Four Months Left!

 Yikes, we are getting to the end of this one very quickly, it feels like! And it's actually just under 4 months, as my list ends on 2/22/22 (which happens to be a Tuesday). Things have gotten busy for me professionally (which feels so weird to say, but I will say it, for it is true), so I will just do what I can do and be happy with it. (slash maybe change things to what I'm doing since they are big, too!) All this rambling to say, I got 3 items done this month!

Completed:

28. visit Stonerose

• So Stonerose is a fossil site in north central Washington that lets you dig for fossils! We were honestly closer to it when we lived in Moses Lake, but we didn't make it up while we were living there. Luckily we have friends halfway to make the trip shorter and they were able to join us to make it more fun. They had a lot more luck with fossils than we did, but we managed to find a few small ones. I think overall, it was fun, but also a lot of work, haha. I'm not sure what I was expecting, but I think I thought it would be easier to find them. It was a good trip anyway, though!

75. get business cards

• They have arrived! I'm so pleased. They are super cute and just in time to make me legit at a holiday market! Woooooo!

91. play 20 games from Board Game Geek's top 100 200

• We played the last 2 games this month! Santorini and Terraforming Mars. Both enjoyable, but I liked Terraforming Mars better. I'm not great at spacial games like Santorini, but I guess I'm good at space games like Terraforming Mars, hahaha. We had a ton of fun with this one overall, though we have to give a really big shoutout to Zulu's Board Game Cafe for helping me make this more attainable.

Updates:

41. make a 24 hour comic each year

• I took advantage of 24 Hour Comic Day this year to make another zine, this time of a really powerful tumblr post about making bad art just for the sake of making. I really enjoyed doing it, and it definitely went with the theme of the post to do it quick and dirty.

96. wikipedia cooking challenge

• This month I made tang yuan with pandan and black sesame in a ginger broth, and uszka with porcini mushrooms in Christmas Eve borscht. Yum! 

Alright! Lots to do still and not much time to do it in. Did I say I would be okay with getting less done at the top of this post? I will try to feel that way, but no guarantees. I'm sure I'll be scrambling trying to beat last list's numbers like usual. Dang my completionist tendencies. :)

Happy Fall!

Hello friends! It's been a very busy month in 101 terms and regular life terms! Though I guess 101 should really be counted as regular life for me, haha. 

Completed:

27. visit a new Shakespeare festival

• Okay, so this one is hecka modified, but I'm not traveling to a Shakespeare festival anytime soon (if there were one I could travel to). Earlier in the pandemic, we did 30 days of Shakespeare for G's 30 before 30 List, and since then I've watched a few others online. I saw 6 new versions, a few collections/non-fiction specials, and re-watched a few favorites that G hadn't seen (She's the Man!!). We were also able to see an outdoor performance of The Comedy of Errors by the Seattle Shakespeare Company, and while it wasn't a festival, it was a new company, at least. So I'm calling this one good! Yeah substitutes! 

53. get all the Stardew Valley achievements

• I did it! This month I wrapped it up with Full Shipment - shipping every possible item, and Craft Master - crafting every possible item. Heck. I kind of can't believe I got it done with so much time to spare. There are technically 2 achievements still in Steam, but they are tied to the in-game video game that's nearly impossible for me, so I'm not going to do them. I think the game views them as extra credit, as well, as I already got the ultimate hat from the the hat mouse, which you literally earn by achieving all achievements. So if the game says good enough, I'm gonna take it! WOooooooo! 

Look at that elegant turban. Bask in the glory of our 17,000,000 monies.

65. modify a thrift store painting

• This one took so long because I needed just the right thing to repaint, haha. I think I'm pretty happy with results, though! I added some good ol' makkuros to this cat print using Posca paint markers. I love the idea that maybe these cute lil' soot sprites are what cats are seeing when they do their crazy cat things.

80. enter art into the county fair a local art show

• I've modified this one due to moving and not knowing about the fair situation here. I  also discovered https://www.6x6nw.org/ and felt like I should count it, so here we are! I submitted a 10-piece series of digitally calligraphed quotes from the Anne of Green Gables series by L.M. Montgomery. All pieces for this art show are 6x6 inches and they sell for $36 (6x6!). It goes on sale tomorrow (October 1st), actually, so if you want to purchase some Sara art, you've got a great opportunity!

Updates:

8. pick me up list/Sara canon

• I've got my lists figured out, but I'm working on collating and cataloging them. Here's a sneak peek:

72. complete 12 30-day projects (9/12)

• This month I focused on my Sara Reads and Letters challenge over on my instagram. I got 15 posted for the 30 days, and I think that's pretty good. I just tried to spend a little bit each day working on it. Gotta keep it up, though! I'm lettering a quote from every book I've read this year, and even with this focus, I'm only on book 60 of over 100, hahahahhahahahha.

75. get business cards

• So I've taken some really big business steps this month! You can check me out on instagram @brightlexicon, or at brightlexicon.com. Heck. This month I designed a logo and now I'm working with Friend of the Blog and All-Around Amazing Person Emily to get business cards printed!! What the what. Along with this, expect movement on #77, etsy shop around the corner. (And deciding if this counts for a personal website or if I should get my name .com, tooo??) 

78. keep a visual journal/artistic bullet journal for 3 months

• I started it! I'm not very good at it! But it's in progress, haha.

96. wikipedia cooking challenge

• This month I made rissoles and samosas - yum! (also definitely feeling dumpling fatigue and so glad this year is almost over, hahahah - why did I pick something so involved??)

4 items done! 52 items now complete! Many items in the works! I'm over halfway, with just under 6 months left, and I'm feeling confident! Woooooooo!

Where the heck did August go?

 It feels like I was just blogging here last week. What the what.

Completed:

5. digitize my lifebox

• I'm calling this one good! I did most of the work before our move earlier this year, and I do still have some things, but they're things I'm intentionally choosing to keep, not just things that were passed on to me because they're relevant to me. And I have digital copies of all those relevant things. :) It feels good to pare down in an area where it felt wrong to get rid of things. Now I decide what's important to me and how to preserve those things. I hope I can continue in this vein and not let things build up again. 

22. read 30 new Caldecott award or honor books

• I read 9 Caldecott books this month to finish out my 30. I've really enjoyed this one. Children's books are so fun and the Caldecotts especially just have amazing art. My favorites this month were Frog and Toad are Friends by Arnold Lobel, A Different Pond by Bao Phi and Thi Bui, and The Noisy Paint Box - illustrated by HP illustrator Mary Grandpre!

29. join a choir

• In the spirit of making things easier on myself and also making things possible, I'm calling this one done. I joined a choir back in Moses Lake but it was just prior to COVID and we never got to perform or anything. But I DID join. I definitely want to look into a music activity of some sort to be involved in here once, you know, airborne transmission possibility goes down.

Updates:

2. digitally transcribe my journals

• I finished another one of these finally. I grossly underestimated how long it would take me to do this one. I think I'm going to modify this one to just complete up to my marriage to G (we commonly refer to the time before I knew him as B.G., so we'll just complete the B.G. journals and I'll work on the others for another list, I think. This was really ambitious. Consider it modified!

11. study 12 famous chefs and cook 5 of their recipes each (6/12)

• This month I cooked from Gregory Gourdet's new cookbook: Everyone's Table. We had amazing green smoothies, but ended up only having green smoothies for a meal because I forgot to halve the recipe. Whoops! Also very good was an asparagus salad with sunflower seed furikake. Yum!

33. attend ECCC or another major con with Garrett

• ECCC has been rescheduled for this December and it's a vaccinations required event, so we feel comfortable going (but still being super cautious). We only got tickets for one day since G is a new kid with few days off, haha, but one day counts!

91. play 20 games from Board Game Geek's top 200 (17/20)

• This month I played The Crew: Quest for Planet Nine, an interesting cooperative trick taking game, and Century: Golem Edition, a super cute golem collecting game (it's probably more about collecting and trading resources, but those golems are just too cute!). I think Century has actually since been bumped from the top 200, but it was there when we played it, so it totally counts.

96. wikipedia cooking challenge

Pop Tarts are totally dumplings - think about it. Plus Quenelles.

And with that, we're at the official 6 months left mark. Just 25 weeks. 175 days. 

This month will be busy as I'm getting back to a 30-day project and my starting my 3 months of art journaling/fancy bujo-ing. And with such a short amount of time left, I really need to crack down on the items left. A lot of them are less "work a little every day" and more "special project to devote some hours to and finish" so I need to plan for a project every week, at least - maybe 2. 

I'm currently at 48 items done, but I'm on track to do improve my numbers from last list. On 101 3.0 I got 81, so I just need to hit 82, haha. Even one more goal is improvement, and that leaves the door open for further improvement on 101 #5. Can't set that bar too high, haha.

July, July, Julyyyy! (I think I always use this title, but it's so good!)

Guys, I'm doing things!!

Completed:

3. study daily routines, develop one that works for me, and keep it for at least 6 months

• I'm calling this one good - I've already given it an extra month to make up for our moving mayhem. I still haven't quite worked out how to work all day when there are fun things outside my door, but I have definitely learned that ultimately, for me, at least, routines can be flexible and accommodate for those things. I definitely have established a daily practice, and I have lots of tools in my box that I can use when I need to get back/stay on track. Novelty is actually a really great thing for me, too. Oh, and gamification. I've accepted how much I need to turn things into a reward/challenge based situation for me to actually care about it. And I'm really good at productive procrastination - AKA getting things done finally when I'm supposed to be doing something else. I'm gonna lean into it and harness all that last-minute energy. If there is a way I can create more deadlines for myself I might get a lot more done, hahaha.

38. recover last.fm songs

• Woof, this has taken a while, but it is done! I have yearly playlists of the top played/discoveries for each year, so let me know if you want me to send you the links (It's a lot of work to post them all here). I even went the extra mile and transferred some playlists from my old computer to Spotify. I am now fully committed to Spotify, so it better not get suddenly shut down some day! But if it does...

39. export playlists

• My playlists will be safe! Spotify doesn't let you export directly, but I was able to use a web app (for a fee) to download all of my playlists. I feel much better having that data elsewhere. Grooveshark, I hope you are happy I have trust issues! I'll probably do this on a yearly basis now.

Updates:

11. study 12 famous chefs and cook 5 of their recipes each (5/12)

• This month I cooked along with Carla Hall, who is just the most delightful person. It was great to see her origins on Top Chef and read one of her cookbooks. We especially enjoyed her johnnycakes (though we learned from her that they are Native American in origin!) and bacon and bean stew. Yum!

22. read 30 new Caldecott award or honor books (21/30)

• Hooray for the library being open again!! I read 12 books this month, hahaha, and I have a stack sitting here so I'm positive I'll finish it next month. These are just so delightful to read. My favorites this month were They All Saw a Cat by Brendan Wenzel, and Thank You, Omu! by Oge Mora. Also Bear Came Along, but more for the art (LeUyen Pham) than the story.

40. knit a year-long line-a-day scarf

• A mid-year update! I'm going out of the house a lot more, so that's great. And eating more fries! Also great!

51. study artistic family tree

• I've done a good chunk of work on this one now (in my official notebook, haha), but I'd like to do a bit more before I call it. Dang past Sara for not making this goal something quantifiable! I've only gone 2 generations back at most, so I should go at least one more, I think, for a few artists, to be able to count it.

53. get all the Stardew Valley achievements (31/33)

• This month I got A Big Help (40 help wanted fetch quests) and Full House (married with two kids - Sara + Harvey with our children named after my business partner and true love of my Stardew life: Emilio and Emilia)! The last two are going to be a bit more tedious: Full Shipment and Craftmaster. We'll get there, hopefully!

72. complete 12 30-day projects (8/12)

• Making my way back to 30-days! This month I decided to commence my day with a commencement speech and it's been delightful. My favorites have probably been Jim Carrey, Neil Gaiman, John Green, Amy Poehler, and Dolly Parton. It's a great way to start your day!

91. play 20 games from Board Game Geek's top 200 (15/20)

• I honestly thought I would have to abandon or shorten this goal when the pandemic happened. I expanded it to the top 200, but we just didn't have people to play with or an easy way to get games without spending tons of money (until we discovered Tabletopia!). But then we moved to Bothell! Now we have some friends/board game acquaintances and Zulu's Board Game Cafe! Just this month we've played FIVE new games!! We played Castles of Mad King Ludwig,  Root, Dune Imperium, Everdell, and Just One. Heck. I almost can't believe how exponentially this one is getting done. I'm now super confident I can finish it before the end of the list. And if I have to buy a few games to try them out, no problem because now we have people to play them with again!

96. wikipedia cooking challenge

• THREE dumplings this month because of how things worked out: Matzo ball soup, Nagasari (steamed banana coconut packets), and Orama (sort of the cinnamon roll of dumplings, but only in the way it's rolled - it's filled with meat and squash).

Look at that! I'm up to 45 goals completed! Heck heck heck. I've got some momentum going and I love it.