Summer Bucket List Update #1

Hello lovelies! Yay! It's September, and Autumn is now so close! I'm really excited!! In my mind it's already Halloween. Is anyone else the same? Summer isn't over just yet until the 22nd September though and so I have a few weeks to complete the goals I set myself on my summer bucket list. You can read the post here if you missed it. I promised in this post that I would share updates on how I'm getting along with my goals so here's the first update :) Enjoy! 

 Find A Geocache 

If you're a regular reader of my blog, you'll know what geocaching is by now. It's an awesome 'treasure' hunting hobby, where you search for caches that people have hidden all over the place! These caches can be any kind of container, some are big plastic tubs filled with brick-a-brack goodies, others might even be minute metal-resembling caches that you wouldn't even know wasn't an ordinary bolt or screw! I love that there's a hidden world of hobbyists all looking for caches and I am very happy to now be part of it :) This summer, I was determined to make my second geocaching find and I have succeeded! I went to a local park to search for a cache and I blogged all about it too (here). I didn't just stop at one either; On Thursday, I found my third geocache near my local town centre. I am super happy and plan on uncovering more caches before the summer is through. 

Go On More Walks

To be honest, I haven't gone on any walks yet where my sole purpose was just to get out and about in the fresh air. Nonetheless I have been going out a little more lately, trying to do more things out of the house because I've been feeling so cooped up there. I went for a lovely walk in the park in my search for a geocache hidden there, and had a lovely time watching all of the squirrels and ducks and birds, and taking lots of photographs of my surroundings. I wish that it wasn't so difficult for me to get out of the house, but unfortunately my mental illnesses make it tough. I am proud of myself for the little trips out I've made, which include finding my second geocache earlier this week and doing a little shopping. Oh, and I went to my hometown's Gala! I do plan on getting out more over the next couple of weeks though while we still have some nice weather :) 

Improve My German Speaking/Writing 

I've been doing pretty well with this goal actually and I'm feeling great that I'm managing to remember so much. I've been using a mixture of google translate, youtube videos, a language app on my phone and a German speaking course that one of my wonderful friends kindly sent to me. I'm a lot better at my German writing so far, which is probably because writing is my forte anyway and I've been revising my writing whilst typing German on my phone much more than I have been speaking it. It is tricky to remember all of the different pronunciations that are involved in the German language, especially the difference between  vowels with and without a diaeresis above them. You'll likely have seen these before, little dots above certain letters in foreign alphabets. Well, these things completely change the sound of a letter, and it is definitely tough to get the hang of them! As well as these, many letters in German are spoken in a different way than they are in English. For example, many 'S' are pronounced as 'Z' and the same goes for some 'W' which are said as 'V'. It can get confusing, but I am getting there! I'll be fluent in German eventually :) Watch this space, haha!  

 

 Make A Tie Dye T-Shirt

As you can see from the photo above, I have got myself a tie-dye kit in preparation for this goal. Since it will be my first ever time having a go at tie-dying (well other than tie-dying a piece of fabric at school when I was in Year 4 but I can barely remember that now!), I thought it best to start off with a kit that gives you instrutions and all of the equipment you'll need. The only items that I've had to purchase seperate are some big white t-shirts, and I am very much looking forward to getting creative with colourful dye! I'm actually going to do this either tomorrow or Monday so that's why I decided to include this goal on my post today. The kit is from The Works by the way, and it was only £5! I'll be sharing a blog post all about the process and showing you how my t-shirt(s) turn out. Pre-warning: they may turn out very crappy looking, oops. Wish me luck! 

Watch 20 New Movies 

I am pleased to announce that this goal is very nearly checked off! For most of 2017 (and last year too!), I've been struggling to motivate myself to watch movies because of how bad my depression has been, and it absolutely sucked as watching movies has always been one of my favourite pastimes. I love getting lost in the storyline for a few hours. Also being an empath means that I always get such strong emotions when watching movies/tv shows, and it can be so cathartic to have a good cry, whether they are happy tears or sad ones! I recently decided to bring back a monthly blog post series that I used to share back when I first started blogging, and this was been really motivating me to watch new films. If you're a fan of media or are just looking for new things to see, check out last month's 'What I've Been Watching' post. I'll have August's edition up by the end of the week. It's been a lot easier to watch stuff lately too, since we just got a new Amazon fire stick (our old one broke). Just 5 more movies to go and I'll have watched 20! 

I hope you've enjoyed reading about how I've been getting on with my Summer Bucket List. I haven't completed many off the list yet, but there's still time! With a mixture of spoonie problems, family drama and bad weather, it has made getting out pretty difficult. However things are back on track now so I can start planning ways to tick off more goals. This month is going to be a busy one indeed, and I am looking forward to it! 

Thankyou for reading! 

 ♥

Have you achieved any personal goals you've had over the last few months?

Is there anything that you want to do before Summer ends? 

Let me know in the comments!

 Looking for more to read? Check out these posts:

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Summer Bucketlist 2017

Hello lovelies! Today has been such a gorgeous day, and I've spent the majority of it in the garden, enjoying the sun but nonetheless complaining about the heat. I wish that hot weather didn't affect me the way it does; it drains me so quickly and makes my joints ache. I often get heat rashes and blisters, too. It sucks! However, it was still fun to spend some time outside, taking photos of birds and flowers and cute little beetles. Aurora, my sister's Shih Tzu puppy had her first ever haircut at the groomers this morning (check out my photo on instagram) and she came home looking adorable and so different! I played with her in the garden and ate ice lollies and it was just the best afternoon. It got me thinking about making the most of the summer and what I wanted to do to celebrate this awesome season.

I made a summer bucket list last year, but I was very enthusiastic and wrote down so many things! I didn't manage to do them all and I ended up beating myself up about it, so I've decided this time around to just focus on some main objectives. I've come up with ten goals that I want to achieve by the Autumnal Equinox. There are a few more things that I would love to do however as my regular readers will know, since February I've been going through a financial struggle. You can read more about it here, but basically I'm still waiting for my tribunal hearing date to appeal against the decision of the ESA benefits team, who decided I was fit to work despite the fact that I am struggling with severe mental health conditions and have doctors recommendations that working would put me at a significant risk. As a consequence of their decision, I have had no financial income at all for months and so can't afford to do some of the things I would like to :( I'm determined to achieve the ten goals I'm sharing with you all today though, and if I can tick off a few goals from last year's bucket list too. Wish me luck guys! 

(1) Go for more walks
Last month I took part in the Wildlife Trust's 30 Days Wild Challenge and although it was tough to get out all the time, I found it pretty therapeutic whenever I went on short walks with my camera. I thought I'd try to do this more often to see what impact it had on my mental health, and it would also be a great way to potentially improve my overall fitness. I love going on walks and observing all of the wildlife and flowers :)

(2) Read 5 new books
After recently watching the new series adaptation of The Handmaid's Tale by Margaret Atwood and absolutely loving it, I am compelled to read the book as well as some other dystopian novels, including Cormac McCarthy's 'The Road'. As well as this, I recently had to deal with a few days with no internet access whatsoever and this gave me the motivation to start re-reading my Song of Ice and Fire novels by George R.R. Martin. I realised just how much I missed being lost in the pages of a book and letting my imagination run wild, so I would love to get back into regular reading.

(3) Improve my German speaking/writing
I've been learning German for a couple of months now, after being inspired by one of my best friend's and how great he's gotten with his Swedish. He encouraged me to download the language app Duolingo and give it a go since I've always been interested in learning the German Language. At first, I was really determined and did my lessons everday but then stressful stuff got in the way and I seriously need to up my game. Over the summer, I'd like to learn the days of the week, the months, a selection of colours and numbers, too. I can do this! One of my lovely friends has also given me access to his Pimsleur 60-Day German language lessons, which is great! Yay!

(4) Find a geocache
I've blogged about the hobby geocaching before but I thought I'd give a little information to those of you who've never heard of it before. Geocaching is a treasure-hunting, orienteering outdoor hobby where people search for caches that have been hidden all over the world by other members. Caches are containers that include a log book (to keep a record of how many people have found the cache) and sometimes even little trinkets and bric-a-brac, which you can take so long as you put something back into the cache in return. I think it's amazing how there are caches hidden all over the place, some locations which are very public, but you wouldn't even know they was there! I love this almost secret hobby, and I want to find more caches! If you're interested, you can read about my first ever cache find here. Have you ever been geocaching?

(5) Go for a picnic
My friends & I keep planning to go for a picnic in a park, but then the weather betrays us or we have to cancel because of other important things. So, I am determined to plan another picnic and follow through this time! I have never been on a proper picnic before, with the whole blanket and lots of food thing, and I have always wanted to. This summer will be the one! 

(6) Bake more
There's so many things that I'd love to bake right now; I constantly keep seeing more ideas around on pinterest and such, and it's making me so eager to get creative and try some new recipes. Since the first half of this year has been tough, I've found that my depression has gotten so bad and my hobbies have been neglected. It's been far too long since I made something yummy.

(7) Visit to a new place 
I love exploring new places, taking in all of the interesting new sights and sounds. I like documentating it all on my camera and learning more about my new surroundings :) I would love nothing more than to be travelling to new places and experiencing exciting new things, although this is kind of impossible when you have no money. I want to try my best to visit at least one new place this summer, whether it be a town or village, a museum, a zoo or farm park or anywhere! There's so many lovely places in this country to discover and I need to see more of it.

(8) Try 5 new fruits and/or vegetables
Something that I love about summer is all of the different kinds of fruits available in the supermarkets. The fruit and vegetable sections are so colourful and I'm curious about what all of these foods I've never tried taste like. Last month, I tried a new vegetable; I made sweet potato mash and it was really nice. As a fussy eater, I find it difficult to have a variety of food in my meals but I've always enjoyed fruit and veggies, so I'd like to find more that I can eat. The next fruit on my list is starfruit and as for vegetables, I want to see what all the fuss is about when it comes to asparagus.

(9) Make a tie dye t-shirt
I recently found a tie dye kit that I bought from The Works last year and since this was one of the things on my 2016 Summer Bucket List, it's about time that I did it :) I've always thought tie dye clothing looked fabulous and it's the perfect season to wear it. I also have a few tie dye crafty/DIY projects in mind too. 

(10) Watch 20 new movies
As I said earlier, I've been struggling to do the things I love and one of those things is watch movies. I am really into horror movies and lots of other genres, and I'm constantly watching trailers and jotting down films that appeal to me. I was sorting through my phone to clear up some space and I found so many screenshots from youtube of movies I wanted to see, and it made me determined to get through my list before the summer is over. The hot weather means that all I want to do is lounge around and recover from the exhaustion it causes, so what better way to spend this time than watching movies :) I might even share some reviews on here; let me know if you'd be interested in reading those kind of posts.  

So, there's my Summer Bucket List for 2017! I have until the end of September when the arrival of Autumn is nigh to tick all of these objectives off. I'm feeling optimistic that I'm going to achieve them all :) I hope you enjoyed this post, and that I've given you all some inspiration on things you can do over the next few months. I might share some updates with how I'm getting on with my bucket list :)

Thankyou for reading!

♥

What's on your Summer Bucket List? 

Have you ticked off any of your own objectives/goals yet?

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Summer Bucket List

Hi everyone! It will soon be the summer solstice, which means the official start of summer time! It starts in 2 days time on the 20th June, yay! I was thinking about this today and decided to write a list of all of the things I want to do before autumn arrives. I thought it would be nice to share my summer bucket list with you all; I hope you enjoy reading! 

1. Have a picnic in a park

2. Go to a butterfly house 

3. Make my own slushies 

4. Go to the beach

5. Build a sandcastle

6. Make a crayon melt canvas (these look awesome! It's about time I made one)

7.  Have a BBQ with friends and/or family

8. Complete my Wreck this Journal

9. Complete my Antijournal 

10. Start Geocaching (I've been wanting to do this for ages now, find more information here).

11. Visit a museum

12.  Make tie-dye tees

13. Play 'Chubby Bunny' with my friends (if you don't know what that is, click here).  

14. Cook stuffed peppers for the first time

15. Go to a botanical garden 

16. Visit York, and at least two other places 

17. Learn how to make my own ice-cream from scratch 

18. Read 5 books 

19. Go out for cocktails with my friends

20. Have a day out at the Trafford Centre in Manchester

21. Wear a flower crown (the snapchat filter has definitely inspired me!)

22. Make a dream catcher

23. Go to a zoo or a farm park, or both would be great!

24. Go for walks in the countryside

25. Try to make some homemade playdoh

26. Actually start vlogging, because my youtube account is empty! Oops!

27. Try 5 new foods

28. Be a tourist in my own town (I saw this idea online and I think it's great. It would be fun to revisit some of my favourite places and appreciate my hometown a little more) 

29. Pick some wild fruit

30. Have a disney movie marathon with my best friend

Thankyou for reading!

 ♥

What's on your summer bucketlist? Has my post given you any inspiration? 

Also if you have a youtube account, link me. I'm really enjoying watching vlogs right now, thanks :)

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