105 before 25

I'm completely a list person. They make me happy. I love that feeling checking something off gives me. My dear friend, Tanya, has a bucket list full of things she wants to accomplish, some huge feats, others involve something as small as watching a movie. I love the idea. And since graduating from college, I keep thinking of things I want to accomplish, but I soon forget since I don't write them down. So in this post, I'm writing them. I know that I have to give myself a time limit to get anything done. Otherwise I'd be 85 with half the things left on the list, thinking I still have time. So with my 23rd birthday coming up in October, I've decided to give myself about 2 years to accomplish 105 things, thus the name of this post.

1. Design a wedding album for our wedding (seriously...I design everyone else's albums, so if I don't put this here it won't get done)
2. Publish an article in Relevant
3. Pay off student loans
4. Make butternut squash soup
5. Design my own cookbook of family recipes
6. Take a drawing class
7. See a Shakespeare play in Blackfriar's Playhouse in Staunton, Va.
8. Design & implement a personal portfolio/resume Web site
9. Actively build and keep up with my social networks (blog, fb, twitter and linkedin) every week day for one month
10. Buy a pretty couch
11. Clean out and organize my bookmarks
12. Join a professional organization
13. Learn how to file my taxes
14. Take a painting class
15. Learn how to use my sewing machine
16. Do something active every day for 1 month
17. Create a photo wall with framed individual photos of each of our family members
18. Organize files on computer and external hard drives
19. Go on a cruise
20. Write in my personal journal daily for a month
21. Read a novel, just for fun
22. Stay at a bed & breakfast in a small town
23. Adopt a Great Dane and name him something British-esque
24. Sell stock photos
25. Do a walk/run to benefit a cancer society
26. Grow my own vegetables
27. Routinely freelance in graphic design, writing and photography
28. Decorate (and furnish) at least one room in the house
29. Do volunteer work with kids
30. Buy a f 1.8 lens
41. Make pretty labels for my glass kitchen jars
42. See the sun rise or set over the ocean
43. Visit my family at least once a month (as long as we're in driving distance)
44. Win a contest
45. Write down all the childhood memories I can think of
46. Go to all of the Smithsonian museums in D.C. (since I live so close)
47. Bake and decorate really cute cupcakes
48. Go horseback riding on the beach
49. Swim with a dolphin
50. Buy a kitchen item from Anthropologie
51. Send flowers to a friend on a random day
52. Get a massage (I have insurance that covers it, right, so why not?)
53. Write a letter to my husband once a week (because can't you see our children sifting through our love emails one day?)
54. Write a letter to a company, complimenting an employee or product
55. Read a business book
56. Try a new recipe for one meal a day for one week
54. Design Christmas cards for us
55. Go to the little photography museum in Staunton
56. Take a drive on Skyline
57. Visit a Virginia battlefield
58. Buy a very warm winter coat (since I'm living in Virginia and all)
59. Go camping with Desmond
60. Save money in an emergency fund
61. Paint pottery at a shop
62. Design yearly albums for personal year-in-review photos
63. Go on a vacation with Desmond
64. Go to a local art gallery
65. Finish a book that I've started within the past year
66. Second shoot a wedding
67. Clean clothes out of my closet that I never wear and refresh the supply with more work clothes
68. Get my wedding and engagement rings professionally cleaned so they stay shiny
69. Carry an idea book with me in my purse so I never forget my random ponderings
70. Keep my email box cleaned out for a month
71. Make a candlelit dinner
72. Go to a church event (because we're new and that's how you meet people)
73. Refinish my desk, complete with cute knobs
74. Publish all six articles I wrote for magazine and feature article writing class (I'm already half way there!)
75. Get an apron (because we all know I need one)
76. Frame and hang my college diploma
77. Organize all of my non-computer files
78. Take photos for a cause
79. Go to IKEA (I've never been, but I hear it's awesome)
80. Upgrade to a new computer
81. Organize photos in archival boxes
82. Go to a downtown Staunton restaurant
83. Go through my magazines and save only the good articles
84. Paint something fun on a canvas
85. Drink 8 cups of water a day for a week
86. Plant flowers
87. Find a good concealer (because I often don't sleep enough)
88. Get 7-8 hours of sleep a night for a week
89. Take portraits for someone who doesn't know me
90. Do a DIY project from a blog or magazine
91. Go to a drive-in movie
92. Decorate my house for Christmas
93. Start our own holiday tradition
94. Map out a summer small-town tour
95. Use the china just because
96. Read the six C.S. Lewis books I own
97. Try expensive tea
98. Pitch stationery I've created to a store
99. Write a review of a book I've read
100. Organize addresses in an address book
101. Paint a room in the house
102. Learn 10 phrases in Tagalog
103. Reupholster a chair
104. Organize pots and pans
105. Learn to cook a Filipino dish