My Personal 2017 Bucket List ~ A Look Back
Happy day after Christmas. I hope you had a wonderful holiday. It seems that now we turn our thoughts toward reflections of the passing year. That’s what we all do this time of year. Did you reach your goals (If you had them.)? Fulfill your heart’s desire? I had professional goals for 2017 and I had a personal 2017 bucket list. The professional goals still have a few more days to reach the finish line, but I already know which items on my 2017 bucket list can be checked off and which will be moved over to the bucket list for 2018~ or maybe abandoned.
If you had a 2017 bucket list have you checked off what you completed? A travel destination? A book to be read? Days spent at the gym? Pounds lost? A relationship reconciliation? There’s a million things we want to accomplish, but we often don’t quite make it. It’s not always easy to cross the finish line ~ or empty our bucket.
My Personal 2017 Bucket List ~ A Look Back
Goals and bucket list items have a way of being cast to the wayside if we don’t stay really focused. I recently read a great article by Anthony Moore via Kirsten Thompson of Wit + Wisdom. I’ll include a link to the entire article in a future post. Here is one interesting observation.
Ouch! That’s either a discouraging statement or one that just might get you off your you~know~what and convince you to beat the odds and accomplish your goals. I’m right there with you. I’m ready to get off my you~know~what. Let’s double dare each other to set some goals and get them done in 2018. But first, let’s see what’s still in my bucket.
Here’s my Exact 2017 Bucket List ~ with the outcome, either yea or nay
1. Finish setting up my office by the end of this week. It’s coming together just as I envisioned, but there are still some tweaks and organization decisions to make. This is my favorite accomplishment of 2017. The completion of my office gave me a designated work and craft space ~ all my own.
2. Learn to use the Cricut machine that I bought a few months ago. It’s still in the box and I really, really want to utilize all the fabulous craft possibilities it offers. In March I took a class at Joann and learned the basics of Cricut. I’ve been slowly improving my understanding and use of this amazing machine and completed at least a dozen projects, most that I’ve shared here on the blog.
3. Work on my tennis game!!! Well, that’s debatable. Our team didn’t fare too well last spring, but had a better season this fall. But I made every drill I could and consciously keep telling myself to turn my shoulders, move my feet and come to the net. If you play a sport, you know that you can improve a particular skill and still lose the match. No matter what sport, there is always next week to do better.
4. Make it to Scott’s Antique Show in Atlanta. Yea, hit this in March while visiting my daughters in Atlanta. Amazing selection in 2 buildings and a big field. Not enough time to give everything the attention it deserved. If you have plans to visit Atlanta, plan it around the 3rd weekend of the month. I shared about what I bought at Scott’s in a post.
5. Read the decorating books that I bought last year: Patina Farm by Brooke Giannetti and Sarah Richardson’s At Home Sarah Style. Both books have beautiful photography and are full of tons of fabulous decorating ideas. Sarah’s book even has recipes! Well, let’s just say that I read a little of both. So #5 gets put in the bucket for 2018.
6. Paint, paint, paint: I have a half dozen large projects, including 2 desks, a secretary, my palette in a box, and repainting my living room bookcase. This is a 50/50. I used the palette in a box as the backsplash in our laundry room update (which wasn’t even on my bucket list for 2017) and repainted the living room bookcase. The other projects are dropped in the 2018 bucket.
7. Cook more Southern foods ~ a regional cuisine that I started focusing on in 2016. I think I can check this off the list. I definitely used some of my Southern cookbooks for recipes, but I didn’t keep a count of how many. I’m going to put this item in the keep going column.
So items 1, 2, 4 definitely get a check; items 3 and 7 are continuing tasks; 5 and 6 will stay in the bucket for 2018. So, I’ll give myself a 75% completion score for the 2017 bucket list.
Thank goodness there is tomorrow ~ or next year. Next week, I’ll share my favorite projects and posts of 2017. Walking down memory lane can be very enlightening and instructive. It gives you a place to start from for the new year. And speaking of New Year’s, at the end of the week, I share some wonderful cocktails to help you bring in 2018.
Enjoy the rest of your week. Sweet Shark and I will be in New Orleans, a long held tradition, but we will be back to celebrate New Year’s Eve at home.
