101 Things I Want To Do Before I Die

I'm not planning on kicking the bucket any time soon, but I have a bucket list that could stretch all the way to Scotland and back. 

I've been feeling quite aspirational recently, and have added so many life goals to the list that it's now over five hundred strong! What can I say? There are just so many things I hope to achieve and experience one day. I'm a dreamer.

I thought it would be fun to share some of my goals with you guys, so here we are. Don't worry, I'm not going to list all 500+, I've chosen a selection and will stop at 101.

FYI, the Listography Travel and My Future books are both brilliant books for recording your travels, and listing some of the things you hope to experience one day.

1. Work in animal care again. Preferably with zoo animals, or in a rescue centre for pets or wildlife.

2. Live by the sea.

3. See the Northern Lights.

4. Own my own home.

5. Take a road trip across America.

6. See all the weird and wonderful Australian marsupials in person.

7. Read the entire works of Stephen King.

8. Achieve complete body confidence.

9. Take a hot air balloon ride.

10. Learn how to make a crochet granny square blanket.

11. Go whale watching. I'd love to see a pod of them breaching the water someday.

12. Take creative writing, art, and photography classes.

13. Get a short story published.

14. Own my first pet dog. Currently in the works.

15. Find that special someone.

16. Learn how to drive.

17. Visit Italy.

18. See Evanescence perform live.

19. Do a parachute jump.

20. Learn how to surf.

21. See New York at Christmas time.

22. Make a patchwork quilt.

23. Visit Paris properly, and do the whole touristy thing. (I've only driven through it by car).

24. Learn how to make jewellery.

25. Go on safari in Africa.

26. Take a road trip around Australia.

27. Get loads more tattoos, including a sleeve, and something Alice in Wonderland themed.

28. Find a way to reduce my pain so I can manage it better, and live a more normal, full life.

29. Own a DSLR and know how to use it properly.

30. Get an African pygmy hedgehog.

31. Take a holiday in Greece. (Read: Wherever Mamma Mia was filmed)!

32. Own a Pin Up Girl Clothing dress. Or sixty.

33. Make a bunch of embroidery hoop art pictures for the wall. I want to have a crack at this soon.

34. Go to a festival.

35. Visit Highgate Cemetery.

36. Sight see around Edinburgh.

37. Work in a zoo.

38. Experience New Year's Eve in New York.

39. Go to the elephant orphanage in Sri Lanka.

40. Learn how to make my own dresses and skirts.

41. Do a bungee jump.

42. See Niagara Falls.

43. Dive the Great Barrier Reef.

44. Learn how to play the piano.

45. See the Grand Canyon.

46. See Wicked at the theatre.

47. Spend a day at a spa.

48. Learn how to ski.

49. Master the art of cake decorating.

50. See the pyramids.

51. See dolphins in the wild.

52. Learn how to make the perfect roast turkey with all the trimmings for Christmas.

53. Do The Sound of Music tour in Austria.

54. Learn how to walk in heels.

55. See a narwhal in real life.

56. Travel on a motorbike.

57. Go out for high tea somewhere fancy.

58. Own a Lulu Guinness lip clutch.

59. Have a house full of animals.

60. Get something resembling a social life.

61. Get toucan tattoos on either side of my collar bones / shoulders.

62. See Panic! at the Disco live.

63. Donate blood.

64. Get more piercings.

65. Learn how to curl my hair so that the curls hold all day or night.

66. Own a pretty, pretty petticoat.

67. Take a road trip around Europe.

68. Learn to bare my legs and arms with complete confidence.

69. Swim with sharks, sea turtles, and tropical fish.

70. Do a 365 photo challenge.

71. Go on the London Eye.

72. Visit Amsterdam.

73. Sleep under the stars during a meteor shower.

74. Learn how to paint properly with water colour, oil, and acrylic paints.

75. Read all of the books I own.

76. Go kayaking and sea kayaking.

77. Visit Land's End.

78. Travel around the beautiful scenery of northern Scotland.

79. Step foot on all 7 continents.

80. Try sushi.

81. Work with giraffes and tapirs.

82. Go to a concert of a band I like outside of the UK and Ireland.

83. Sight see around a city by helicopter.

84. Visit Chicago.

85. See Peter Kay live.

86. Travel first class by plane.

87. See an active volcano.

88. Go white water rafting.

89. Ride a camel in the desert.

90. See a beluga whale in real life.

91. Visit Germany at Christmas time.

92. Spend a day at Harry Potter world.

93. Go horse riding.

94. Visit the village where The Vicar of Dibley was set.

95. Buy house plants and keep them alive.

96. Own my own car.

97. Visit every country in Europe.

98. Take pictures with an underwater camera.

99. Holiday on a tropical island with white sandy beaches and palm trees.

100. Make a rainbow cake.

101. Visit Tokyo.

What's at the top of your bucket list? 

Do we share any of the same goals?

Wednesday Wish List

Hi guys,

I hope you're all having a great week so far. 

Somehow it's already Wednesday again, so I'm back with another one of those Wednesday Wish List things I sometimes do around these parts.

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I'm keeping the words short and sweet today as every bone in my body is causing me a lot of pain and it's making it difficult to type. (I'll be writing a health update soon). 

This week I've been drawn to a mixture of bright pops of colour, pretty pastels, fun prints, quirky accessories, and some truly gorgeous dresses. So, no change there, then! Ha ha! I'm so predictable!

What's on your wish list this week? Which of these do you like best?

Sunday Favourites #144

Time for another very colourful Sunday Faves. Enjoy!

I'm loving the pink and purple hair in these colourful ads.

These photos by Clare Nicolson are so beautifully styled.

A sprinkle cone DIY.

How cute are these foodie friendship necklaces?!

I love this print.

These images are amazing.

Always.

I'm in love with Natalie's new sunset-coloured hair! Best coloured hair ever. Fact!

Kaylah's latest beach trash photos are so fun and eye-catching.

Ally's novelty button collection is amazing. I love all the GIFs she made to show them off, too. So creative!

Amanda and Katie look beautiful in their latest outfit post for Hello Holiday.

Another stunning fox tattoo from Sasha Unisex.

Leah blogged about her visit to Perranporth beach, which is literally my favourite place on the planet! It's the best beach in England. Fact. All of her photos are gorgeous, and I'm not jealous at all... ha ha!

I love this GIF of cats having fun in a 3D maze. There's a video at the source, too.

Louise's Lovely Links

♥ What my mom's self-loathing taught me about self-love.

♥ It's cool Instagram, I'm not "curvy", anyway- I'm just fat.

♥ I find these photos of amputee war veterans posing naked to proudly display their injuries so powerful and inspiring.

♥ 9 things I have learned through 20 years of chronic illness. No, not me, but the post is brilliant and well worth a read!

♥ Beauty behind bars and prison's underground beauty culture. This was a really interesting read. I've never stopped to think about what beauty products are and are not available to women in prison, or how the lack of certain essentials and luxuries affects their mental health. Something interesting to think about.

♥ I love these 19 tribal inspired nail art designs.

♥ A drone captured a humpback whale spouting rainbows from it's blow-hole! So cool!

♥ I can relate to Rebecca's post: when you don't have a ton of friends. I don't have a huge circle of friends, either, and most have stopped calling since I became house bound with chronic pain four years ago. Though I'm lucky to have a great best friend, and two sisters around me, so it's not all bad.

♥ A homeless man was given $100, and secretly filmed to see how he spent it. The footage is so heart warming.

♥ It happened to me: I was abused by an internet stranger from over 3000 miles away. I'd recommend you all give this one a read. You can meet some awesome people on the net, but there are plenty of psychos out there, too, so always be careful!

If you'd like to see more stuff like this, why not check out my Pinterest and Tumblr pages?

Thanks for reading!

Book Review | 642 Tiny Things To Write About

Creative writing has been one of my favourite hobbies for as long as I can remember. From an early age, I could often be found scribbling down stories on to paper, and just letting my imagination run wild, and, well, not much has changed in the last twenty-five years. I write something almost every day. Sure, I'm not the best writer in the world and I never will be, but I enjoy it anyway, and that's all that really matters at the end of the day, right?

I usually have a bunch of ideas orbiting around my head, but there are days when I'm stuck for inspiration, so I love turning to creative journal books filled with prompts for a little help. My latest source of influence is a brilliant little book called 642 Tiny Things To Write About. 

642 Tiny Things To Write About is a follow up to two other Things To Write About books, 642 Things To Write About and 712 More Things To Write About, both of which I love and write from regularly. 

Unlike the first two books in the series, 642 Tiny Things is pocket-sized. It's still packed full of fantastic prompts, but the difference is, each task is designed to be completed in a couple of paragraphs or less, with some requiring just a few words. This means every challenge can be completed in minutes, which is ideal if you don't have much time to spare, or if you just like writing in small doses. You can pop it in your bag, and write whenever you get a burst of inspiration or you have some time to kill- say, on the commute to work. There is space beneath each prompt to write, so you don't need a separate notebook; all you need is a pen and your imagination, and you're good to go!

Some pages are plain, some pages are lined, and each features one to four prompts to write about. There's a great variety of prompts and writing styles to try, which keep things fresh and interesting, and I think they will inspire and challenge both amateurs and advanced writers alike.

Some of my favourite prompts in the book include:

♥ You're going to die next week, and you need to destroy a few things before you family find them. What?

♥ Write a headline for the day after the world ends.

♥ Write a thank you note to your feet for some of the places they've taken you.

♥ What piece of advice do you most often give and least often follow?

♥ It's 2045. Describe a road side attraction on the moon.

♥ A postcard arrives. It was mailed 11 years ago. It reads...

♥ Regardless of where you were born, where do you feel like you're from?

♥ You live in a world in which everyone gets one word tattooed on their forehead. What's the word you pick?

♥ If you could kill off one relative, who would it be?
♥ You come home from a cousin's wedding, where something went tragically wrong. But you're secretly happy that at least something interesting happened. What was it?

And of course, there are more than six hundred other tasks to play with, too.

I'm personally inspired by the majority of them, and there aren't any I dislike. I think I'll eventually make my way through every last one. I've only had the book a week, but I'm having so much fun with it already, and have completed a bunch of tasks in the last few days.

I'd say the book is best aimed at adults, as there are a few prompts about sex, nudity, relationships, and violence. None are particularly graphic. but I'd recommend checking the content over before you give the book to your kids, teenagers, or anybody particularly sensitive.

The book is currently available from Waterstones, although Amazon have the release date as mid September, which is confusing. I'm not sure how easy it is to find UK bookshops right now. but I bought my copy from Wordery on eBay here, where it is currently £6.77. I received my order in five days, and had no problems with them at all.

I'd recommend 642 Tiny Things To Write About to any adult who enjoys creative writing, particularly those who have limited time to spare for the hobby, but still want to write.

Are you a creative writer? Where do you turn for writing inspiration?

You Might Also Like

642 Things To Write About

712 More Things To Write About

642 Things To Draw

Q&A A Day 5 Year Journal

Listography books

Travel Listography

Literary Listography

The Fuck It List: 1000 Things I'll Never Do Before I Die

Wednesday Wish List

Here are some of the things that have caught my eye this week.

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1. I'm in love with the colouful succulent print on this floral City Chic skater dress. So pretty.

2, Sass and Belle's wooden blue tit brooch is adorable, and it's only £1.50!

3, This floral City Chic dress is so bright and cheerful; perfect for a Summer wedding.

4, River Island's novelty cat purse is so cute. I have a feeling some of you will think so, too.

5, This bright orange floral maxi dress from Dorothy Perkins needs to get in my wardrobe.

6, I love City Chic's purple Gemma bra...

7,... and the matching Gemma short knickers. City Chic, you are killing me with all the prettiness.

8, Modcloth's Gnome It All skirt reminds me of the old Enid Blyton books I loved growing up.

9, I would love to add Lady Vintage's lip print Isabella dress to my collection. The lip print is amazing.

10. I'm a little bit smitten with Emily and Fin's beautiful fuchsia, feather print frock.

11. If I was a rich girl, I'd buy this beaded heart-shaped clutch by Moyna for ASOS in a heart beat.

12. Sass and Belle's wooden robin brooch is so cute; it would be perfect for AW.

13. I need Lady V's rose print Isabella dress in my life. I don't think I own anything with a red rose print at all.

14. Speaking of roses, this oversize rose print midi dress by Chi Chi London is absolutely stunning.

15. And last but not least, City Chic's navy blue lace dress is a beauty.

What's on your wish list this week? Which of these do you like best?

Sunday Favourites #143

Here are a few of my favourite images of the week...

Kate Gabrielle's pastel hand-painted jewellery is complete perfection.

This doughnut pinata is adorable.

Such a beautifully arranged display. I particularly love the colour scheme.

I love these arrangements from stylist Claire Nicolson.

This wallpaper!

This manicure is so funky. I wish I had steady hands so I could try it without making a big fat mess.

Pretty embroidery hoop art! I'd love to make something similar to hang on my walls.

How cute are these confetti dipped balloons?

This is gorgeous.

This is too cute for words.

These ice cream cone macarons are so sweet.

I love how unique this little office space is; the use of ladders is such a brilliant idea!

Beautiful bear tattoo.

Isn't this fruity manicure amazing?

People are painting snails' shells to stop people from stepping on them! I kid you not!

Louise's Lovely Links

♥ Sian looks stunning in her floral Lady Voluptuous frock

♥ Nancy looks beautiful in all of her Scarlett & Jo dresses.

♥ I'm blown away by how beautiful Bianca's mail art is.

♥ Vicky wrote a brilliant post about school uniform policies that are in place because of the over-sexualisation of the female body.

♥ 20 pictures of miniature pigs you need to see before you die.

♥ 25 stylish plus size bloggers to follow on Instagram in 2015.

Thanks for reading!