23 before 23

I am finally getting round to posting about 23 things I'd like to do before i'm 23! I mentioned in this post a list of upcoming blog posts, and three weeks later I've finally written them all! But I had written other posts in between, so that's why it took me a bit longer. 

I turned 22 at the end of April and have made a list of things I'd like to do within the next year, and I've seen a few of these lists around for the past year or so. I like the age you'll be turning as the amount of things to do, and thought I'd do one too! As if I haven't made enough lists as it is already. But I'm going to take some of my goals from my day zero list and include them here too. Anyway onto the list of things I'd like to achieve this year! Some of them have to wait till certain things are done like dying my hair after I donate it, or get a tattoo after donating blood etc and some I have done already but I did them after my birthday so it still counts, like seeing a Musical, Blood Brothers. I know what I'm like with changing my mind over things and not wanting to do them anymore so I can swap some of these goals up until March 23rd so in the last month I have to cross them all off, rather than changing them to something easier. Most of these might seem a bit boring but they're things I've been meaning to do for awhile but just haven't got round to do them yet.

Before I'm 23 I would like to...

Get a new job (preferably in a school)

Volunteer (in a school or forest school)

Loose a stone

Donate my hair

Ombre my hair

Dye my hair blonde

Dye my hair red

Open an etsy shop

Host a giveaway on my blog (50 followers or blogiversary which would be July) 

Huge clean out of my room

Sell unwanted clothes on ebay

Sew/alter a dress

Go on Holiday

See a Musical   (12/05/12)

Donate blood

Get a tattoo

Go on a road trip

Get a DSLR camera

Develop a film camera (I have a Holga I haven't played with yet)

Send a secret to Postsecret

Go camping

Fill my photo album up

Create a family history photo album/scrap book

As I complete them I'll cross them off and put the date they've been done next to them.

I'm actually in the process of making things for a future shop, I'm just waiting for most of the things to arrive before I can start and want to build up some stock before I open, the only problem is I can't think of a good shop name! I'm not sure I want to go with lisamello for a shop name, so if anyone has any suggestions, please help me! I'll be selling summery things, including clothes, bracelets and headbands and more in the future so I want a general name that anything can fit, thanks!

Day Zero Project

Considering this is my second time doing the Day Zero Project, and the whole reason I started this particular blog as I said in my first post, I'm surprised I haven't really written about it more (apart from the occasional mention and tag). If you haven't clicked on any of the links I'll quickly explain what it is. It's a bit like a bucket list, but instead of adding loads of things you want to do in your lifetime (which you can also do) the aim is to make a list of a 101 things to do within 1001 days. You write this list online and share with whoever and mine is currently over on the side bar, but also here.

I keep changing it now and then because even when you try to think of goals or things to do for the (almost) three years, you obviously change your mind and might not want to do those things any more. The first time I did this was when I just turned 18 and I had SO many ideas, and kinda listed more than I should have within just one goal, I took on too much, way too much and also hated half of my goals. I only crossed a third of the goals off by the end which I am sad about, but to be honest I forgot about it after the first year. When I remembered towards the end I didn't have enough time to finish and they'd changed the system.

That was really important to me since it was easier to reorganize/add/delete/cross things off and say if you were half way through doing something, which makes you feel better that you're half way through a goal or a task rather than doing nothing. Plus you can add friends and "watch" other peoples lists. So far I'm just friends with my boyfriend lol, but every now and then he's really sweet and helps me cross things off. If you feel interested to do this add me! My username is lisamello.

Anyway! My birthday is next month, I'll be turning 22 and that means I've been doing this list for a year and I'd like to have more crossed off my list than I do now, where I'm only 21% of the way through the list with less than two years to go, if I proceed at this rate i'll never finish it!

My day zero list, or 101 Mission (I call it by lots of different things, sorry!) is a mix of fun, crafty, educational, financial, serious goals. A lot I took from other peoples lists which you can browse on the website and others are more personal. They may seem silly or stupid but I still want to do them, well for now at least. If you're like me and love making lists, then you'll love doing this project. It's like an epic new years resolution list (which I've forgotten all about until now, ooops!). If you do read this, I hope it inspires you to do one as well, and if not, I hope I haven't bored you with this post!

Bead Bracelet DIY

I've had this hobby for a few months now, but only do it every now and then. I'm not great at making bead bracelets, but its fun, they're cute, easy and addictive! I have to stop myself from buying beads, but buy them in unexpected places ( like H&M for the coloured square box below)I made a few for my friends this Christmas and thought I might try doing a tutorial on making a bead bracelet. I would have posted this earlier but my internets been down all day, but I was going to Winter Wonderland today anyway!

Beads and lots of them! When I first started I picked specific beads for specific bracelets and counted in some extra but now I just buy loads of whatever colour I fancy. I particularly like multi packs and silver packs, most of the beads aren't in their original bags, as I have a little system going on so the prices on the packs aren't accurate. You'll also need some elastic thread which you can buy in any bead shop, it was about £2 for a whole roll, which will last me for ages. Scissors are needed for cutting the thread, and clear nail varnish is handy as it keeps the elastic thread in place.

This is simple, just wrap some around your wrist and give yourself extra room for tying the knots, you cut the excess off later. Don't be stingy because tying knots with short elastic thread isn't easy later on! Make sure the knot is big enough so the beads you want to use won't fall off, triple knot it or more (or you could always put a small bead on the ends and then use normal sized beads after them). Then put clear nail varnish on the knot, as mentioned above, the clear nail varnish helps keep the knot in place. Go for clear since if you use a coloured one it looks weird.

Pick the beads you want and sort them into a pattern that you like. The amount of beads you need depend on how big the beads are and how big you want your bracelet to be. Roughly try to make seven one inch patterns, it should fit a wrist, but add in a few more just in case you drop and loose some or its a bit tight. I like to use those 'made with love' hearts on the end just because they look cute.

Make sure the first bead won't go over the knot since the weight of the other beads might make it slip over if its big enough and then you have beads all over the floor. Threading the smaller beads can be annoying but you just have to have patience. 

Once you've finished threading the beads on, hold the top end tightly and wrap around your wrist to get a general idea of it it'll fit, you can add or take away some beads if you need to, then tie a triple knot and put nail varnish over it. This knots just keeping your beads in place for the next step.

Tie both ends together, make sure its really tight and secure as this is holding the bracelet together and coat the nail varnish all over it. 

Then you cut of the excess elastic so it looks nice and neat. You will have a knot there though, but there are beads you can use to cover them up. I'm too lazy to do that though usually, and you don't tend to notice anyway.

And there you have it! A very easy way to make bracelets. I think they're fun little presents to give, among other presents and to make for yourself. Sorry for the flashy pictures, it was dark when I did this. I'm always more productive in the night and leave blogging till last minute so I have to manually change the time to fit into the "right" day haha!

All Hallows Eve

Hope everyone had a fun Halloween! I went over my boyfriends brother's house, it was fun! I went as a witch. I had a velvet dress, sparkly tights, a cloak, hat and a broom. I couldn't drink though since I was driving and working today, but I still felt hungover and tired, not fair. Anyway here are a few pictures.

There was pumpkin carving. It was my first time carving one ever! I can now cross that off my day zero list.

My boyfriends pumpkins on the left, and mines on the right.  Not too bad if I say so myself, but remember it was my first attempt! I'll try doing one each year :)

 There were vodka jelly shots, which were gross! We played a weird version of snap, and I was going to drink just one to try since I was driving, but couldn't even handle half of one!

There was even apple bobbing! And would you believe I've never done that before either? The water was icy cold, and the water was murky by the time it was my go (because of everyones face paints) but I got it damn it! A very proud moment haha! All in all, it was a very fun Halloween, and I can't wait for next year!

P.s! I'm going to try to blog every day for the month of November for Nablopomo (National Blog Posting Month) aswell as participate in Nanowrimo (National Writing Month). It'll be my fourth year Nanowrimoing, and my first year Nanoblomoing, should be fun! I have no clue what to do for either but will do a post on both sometime when I have more time, off to my staff awards party, so no time to write tonight, oops.

Polkadotty

It was my friends 22nd birthday today and this is what I gave her for her birthday. A cute little purse, her initial and I painted a card. Can you sense a polka dot theme? I tried the card a bit in the style of the outfit posts I draw, but changed the feet. I don't like how the legs and feet turned out but oh well. I really like how the hair turned out, and prefer it being simpler with less lines. The scene makes sense to us, a memory from the Summer, so it doesn't really look like a typical birthday card. She said she always looks forward to my cards on her birthday, so that makes me feel like people do enjoy my home made cards!

I was meant to be doing something small like ice cream if warm enough, or coffee if cold enough for her birthday, but I'm ill. Bleh! I have horrible cramps and the left side of my hip is hurting when I move, so I'm walking with a limp. Why yes I am an old woman it seems! I'm hoping I pulled something without realising and it'll be better soon if I rest, so yay to having a few days of work! Ideally I'd love to clean my room, like a huge spring clean, or rather Autumn clean but I am relying heavily on pain meds at the moment!

Anywho, my plans for today are to put my pajamas back on, and to snuggle in bed watching films, maybe reading and checking out teh interweb!

Another to do list

I always seem to make lists, and then forget about them, and then make more. I love making lists, but wish I crossed more off them. So I'm going to quickly make myself a new list, and see how much I can cross off before the deadline I set myself.

These are things I've been meaning to do for awhile, and I intend to cross them off by next week, so Wednesday the 5th of October.

• Finish my CV and make sure I get references.
• Tidy my room, it is a pigsty and I have too much stuff for my little room!
• Draw what I wear every day like Ellamasters for at least one week.
• Start the 30 day shred again.
• Cross off one thing from my day zero list.

Just five things, I could add loads more, but then nothing would ever get done!

Making bracelets

A few friends I used to work with make their own bracelets, and they told me about this cute little shop that sold loads of beads. Eventually I went to go find it and it had moved, so I gave up trying to find it, I'm not good with finding places, when I happened to walk past it with my boyfriend the other day! Well more like two weeks ago, and I forgot where it was again, still not sure but I get my boyfriend to tell me where it is.

When I was bored the other day, I dragged him round with me to to find it again, and spent quite a while picking out beads. I only picked out enough to make one bracelet but have been back there once more to get a whole load more of beads!

I know it's not much, but that's the first one I made. I liked the colours and I love the big white ones, they are so sparkly and magical. I picked the heart since its cute, and the other silvery things are animals. They won't show up clearly on my camera, plus lighting's not great since its night, but I have a lion, an owl, a turtle and a duck, random yes, but they were the only ones they had. If I'd had gold there would have been a cat too though... it was tough making decisions :P

A jumble of bracelets!

After making it, I wanted to make more bracelets! Since it's fun and I want to get better at it, like judging the length, and how many beads I need and finishing the end bits etc. I decided to make some for my two of my  friends from America and I asked them for three of their favourite colours without telling them why. When I was in the shop, I saw these cute little teapots and decided to use them too, like a mad hatters tea pot type thing and to tie in the friendship bracelets.

This is the first one I made for my friend, it turned out softer than I thought it would be when she said black, pink and purple.

I had more trouble making this one since I used smaller beads. I'd counted out how many I thought I would need with one or two spare, but that still wasn't enough to cover a wrist nicely, it would be too tight. I'd bought two mixed bag of beads and had to sort through them finding similar colours which worked out quite well if you don't look too closely. It looks a lot nicer in person, this one is my favourite of the tea pot bracelets, when I thought the colours would never go together.

With the mixed bags of beads, I decided to make myself one! Again. I don't really have a favourite colour, they keep changing so I mixed them up without really thinking about the colours, just getting rid of all the odd colours and two of other colours etc. I like it, it reminds me of Howls Moving Castle, the film, if that makes sense.

Anyway, that's my little foray into jewellery making. I bought little bags to put their bracelets in and should be sending them off soon, I hope they like them, I had fun making the bracelets.

Knitting update one!

I've wanted to knit a Harry Potter scarf for a long time now. I didn't just want to buy one, but I wanted to make one. It's on my day zero list of 101 things to do, and it's about time I started crossing things off it. My friend can knit, so when we went to visit her in Aberdeen recently (she goes to uni there), I thought that was the perfect time to get her to teach me how to knit!

I've always wanted to be in Gryffindor so I chose red and yellow wool, and bought some needles. She attempted to show me but I just couldn't get it at all. I hold pens and cutlery weirdly which frustrates her but she knew about it before teaching me! I don't think I'm holding them properly now anyway, but at least I can do it. I started learning the last night we were there, thinking I had plenty of time to ask her for help as we would be travelling all day the next day (seven hours on a train to London, and then five hours on a coach back home) she was coming back with us and I could ask for help.

The only problem was she was in first class, the rest of us were not and I was told off when I went to see her and ask for help. I started off okay, as you can see above, but got into a little bit of trouble. She had to redo a lot for me, and then I was off again! But not for long, I get travel sickness and knitting doesn't help! Eventually thought she showed me how to change the colours, which I'll probably forget when I have to change again and I was finally on the second strip of colour! The patches are a lot smaller than I wanted, but I was impatient to start the next colour, and I'd wanted the scarf to be really wide so that was a lot of work for a newbie like me.

This is where I currently am with the scarf, haven't touched it much since I came back, been busy working, but I really need to settle down and do a lot while watching films or something. The stitches I am doing are knit and purl stitch, which I kept calling purl snitch, I can't seem to help myself! Anyways, I'm hoping to finish this some time before winter if I do a bit here and there and I when she goes back to uni I can ask my boyfriends mum to help me as she knits too!

Plans

Wow, it's been awhile. I've only written two posts on this when I had hoped by this time I would have done a few. I've been on two holidays since, one in Kavos, Greece, and the other in Aberdeen, Scotland. Both very different and I'm glad to be back home. Well, I've been half down my boyfriends new house which is closer to work and he doesn't have internet yet, so I've not really been that active online anyways.

This isn't really much of a post, but something to get me going again. More of a creative to-do list, of things I would like to do. Some are on my day zero list, other's aren't. Summer's almost gone and I've not really done much except for working and holidaying, but then I'm not going back to Uni and I don't have a full time job yet so maybe summer won't be over for me yet/ Besides we haven't had summer weather. Anyways, here's the to do list.

• Paint canvasses (I have a few, including cute small ones on mini art easels)
• Create some characters I could maybe use as a brand
• Think up of a name for an etsy shop/brand/make
• Finish knitting a gryffindor scarff (started when I was in Aberdeen)
• Sew some dolls, teddies and cat dolls.
• Create a visual diary
• Bake cupcakes and decorate
• Decorate cards
• Write a short story
• Make some bunting (probably the paper kind first, since it's easier.

This isn't a defintie list there's lots more but I'm procrastinating getting ready for work!

The reason

Well the first post is usually the reason why you are starting a blog, so here I go.

I'm doing this project called 101 things to do in a 1001 days on DayZero. It's my second attempt at doing it since I didn't finish my first list. It takes almost three years and the idea is to write a list of things you'd really like to do, or places to visit, things to experience and so on, and finish them in 1001 days. Since I failed last time, I'm more determined now to cross everything off my list. I also know more about things I actually want to do within three years.

Anyhow, one of the things I want to do is start and keep a blog till the end. If I cross things off I can post pictures here and write about them, maybe it'll motivate me more. I like making lists and crossing things off them. I need a lot of motivation to do things, such as uni work, which I'm currently procrastinating from! Oh well, I've been itching to do this all day so I'll just get it out of the way!

This is the link to my 101 things to do in 1001 days list, I think I'll call it my 101 Mission for short. It's still a work in progress, I'll be adding more and maybe changing or taking away other things to do. Hopefully not every post will be about my 101 Mission, but other things too. I've been reading a lot of crafty, creative style blogs lately, to do with clothes, food, and mainly just plain making things. I figure this blog will help me become more creative again. I haven't really been that creative since I did Fine Art in college and I miss that.

I'd better finish it here before I get carried away, and hopefully my next post will be after I've finished all my uni work! Oh and the header above is just something I quickly did in paint but its cute for now even if it does look like a six year old drew it!