50 Things to do before I'm 60 - 1 to 10

Back in October, before my 50th birthday in November, I decided I'd like to put together a list of 50 things I would like to do before I am 60.

I easily managed to complete a list of about 35 things but then began to struggle with building it up to 50. 

Having thought about this somewhat I have now decided that I don't want to just make my list up to 50 with random meaningless stuff just for the sake of it. 

I am going to go with what I have so far and will continue to add to the list over the next few years as I am sure new things will continue to appear that I'd like to achieve. 

From a blogging point of view I thought it might be good to share my lists in groups of 10 and here are the first 10 that I'd like to share, some of which I have already ticked off or have made a start on.

Hand make Christmas and Birthday gifts

When I finished work a year ago, I knew I wanted to spend more time doing crafty and creative stuff. My first hand made Christmas and birthday gifts were beaded bracelets, which I made for all the ladies for Christmas 2015.

I really enjoyed making them and even managed to make a few to order, which was really quite exciting.  I now have a cupboard full of beads and charms so am sure that more of these will be made for birthday gifts this year.

Make bramble jelly jam 

Late Summer last year saw a massive foraging outing for blackberries, which resulted in both home made wine, from scratch, and bramble jelly jam, which is just delicious.  I know I will be making it again this year.

Have a posh afternoon tea

Back in the Autumn, my good friend Jo and I managed to find time to sneak in a posh afternoon tea at a local restaurant and it was just lovely, really chilled out with lots of time to chat.  We are already looking forward to doing it again in the Summer when we can do it 'Al Fresco'.

Photo by Aashish Rao Photography
This work is licensed under the
Creative Commons Attribution 3.0 License. 

Visit Balmoral Castle

A few years ago, Martin and I had an Autumn holiday in Banff, on the North coast of Aberdeenshire. On our way back we drove past Balmoral Castle. Since then I've always wanted to visit, as it just looked so pretty.  

The Castle is only open for a couple of months of the year so this year we have booked a cottage holiday near Ballater and have already booked our tickets to visit the Castle.

Make something in mosaic
Here's one that I seem to be dragging my heels on a bit.  I came back from our holiday on Dartmoor back in October, all fired up for having a real go at making something in mosaic.  I had lots of ideas and just needed to wait until I pulled together all of the equipment I needed to get started.
I've now got everything I need.  Tools, tiles, something to mosaic on, I just need to now get on and do it.  This is definitely one that I want to work on this year and am totally committed to actually producing something, as against just buying more bits and pieces.  Watch this space. 

Complete my online photography course
For my 50th birthday, my good friends Jackie & Phil, bought me an on line photography course, which I really want to work more on this year.

I have made a start with the basics, but need to try and put some real time aside to work through some of the projects that help me make more use of the features of our new DSLR camera.  At the moment I am only making use of a fraction of its functionality.

I am hoping that this will lead on to me doing more with my photography and perhaps publishing more photos on line, rather than just in my blog.

Holiday on the Suffolk Coast
Martin and I just love holidaying in this country, particularly exploring new parts of the coast. Neither of us have ever really visited the Suffolk coast and it is somewhere that we really fancy. It is definitely on the agenda for one of our holidays for this year.  We've just got to find the right cottage in the right location, which is proving tricky at the moment.

Christmas in a holiday cottage
For a few years now we've been talking about a family Christmas away from home in a nice holiday cottage. Well, we've already booked somewhere that looks very nice for this year's festivities.

Its called The West Wing and is on the Crow Hill Estate in Yorkshire

Holiday in all of the national parks of Great Britain 
Another thing that Martin and I love about Great Britain is the National Parks.  I would love us to have holidayed in all of them.  This may not be an objective that I fully achieve this year!

So far we have holidayed together on Dartmoor and Exmoor, in The Lake District, Northumberland, The Peak District, The North York Moors, The Pembrokeshire Coast, Snowdonia and The Yorkshire Dales, so we are not doing too bad.

That leaves us with The Brecon Beacons, The Norfolk Broads, The Cairngorms, Loch Lomond, The New Forest and The South Downs.

Our holiday this year to Scotland, near Ballater, will see us spending time in The Cairngorms, so that will be another we can tick off the list.

Upcycle my old placemats

Another crafty objective that I'd like to achieve this year is the upcycle of my old table mats and coasters.  I've made a start and hopefully it won't be too long before I will have completed this project.  So far it is looking pretty good and I think I am going to be happy with the end result.


So, that's the first 10 of the things that I'd like to achieve before I'm 60.  Some I've fully completed already, some are part way and some yet to be started.  You can be sure that I'll keep you posted with how I'm getting on.  Thanks for reading and letting me share.