Rather than have the usual Friday find today, I wanted to give an update on my thirty before thirty challenge as it is April 1st and I have exactly sixteen months to go. I wish I could say this update was a joke in the spirit of April Fools Day but no, I really am that far behind!

The original blog post explains a little more about the challenge but here is the list with updates:

1. Own a sewing machine, - Possibility this may be my birthday present next year or a moving in present for when i have a house, in the meantime I have two at my parents to use.

2. Learn to knit socks - Not yet, it's too easy to buy them from my friends Linda at CalicoCat.

3. Visit Buckingham Palace - hoping this will happen in the Summer open season this year

4. Swim in a lake or stand under a waterfall - Not sure when or where this will happen in the UK.

5. Own a home (the BIG challenge) - working HARD towards increasing my deposit on a daily basis and the wheels have been set in motion

6. Be debt free except from a mortgage if Num 5 happens - working hard towards this every day

7. Visit Dickens House - likely to be a summer thing as I often visit places like this with my mum

8. Go to a soap making workshop - I did this in January and still need to blog about it, but have taken it a stage further and am doing an at home study course to get a certificate as a soap maker

9. Learn to hang wall paper - I've observed how to do it, but wont be able to do it until either I have a house, or we decorate at my parents house.

10. Spend a night on the Norfolk Broads - We're going to Norfolk later this month, although we wont be sleeping on the Broads, we will be exploring.

11. Learn to make pastry - still need to do this

12. Learn the succession of kings and queens from William the Conqueror in 1066 - I have a book and a rhyme

13. Make and wear my own dress - I have the pattern and want to buy fabric but have fabric to make some skirts first in practice

14. Read 5 books from my bookshelf - I read Knit the Season and need to blog about it, the next one to read will be The Memory Keeper's Daughter

15. Have a make up lesson - hoping to plan this soon

16. Do something every day to make me smile - I have been doing this and lasted three months writing it in a journal, but got bored of the journal even though I am still smiling

17. Learn to change a car tyre - hmmm - why did I include this?

18. Be able to jog a mile with out stopping - Unfortunately I have had my gym membership suspended since January due to my DVT so this is actually very hard

19. Go to Rome or Sorrento - potentially happening in October

20. Sleep for 6.5+ hours sleep a night consistently - If anything this is what I am progressing with the most as I have a new job to start on Monday and am consciously aware of the time i need to get up in the mornings so am trying to get my 6.5hrs sleep

21. Visit Giant's Causeway - Im hoping this will happen next year for a short driving holiday

22. Have a dinner party - This is the plan for my 30th birthday

23. Have Butterfly-Crafts mentioned in a newspaper or magazine - Well as I am organising a craft fair in May (14th) I have had an article published in our local village news but am still aiming for the local newspaper

24. Sleep under the stars - I havent slept under them but I have been out late at night in a Texan field looking at them and I saw the Milky Way and Saturn.

25. Live as much of a handmade/homemade/economical life as possible - Well so far this year i have given only handmade cards and am making a hard effort to give handmade presents where possible and I am always trying to be economical

26. Begin to have the stamina, strength & body shape from pre-leg issues - this was going well as I was enjoying the gym and feeling much fitter, that was until the ticking bomb in my leg went off and I got DVT again

27. Watch: Goodfellas, Casablanca, Dr Zhivago, Gone With the Wind, The Philadephia Story, A Street Car Named Desire, Ferri Beulers Day Off, Schindler's List, The Godfather and Citizen Cane - I think later this year I am going to do a LoveFilm membership to get access to some of these films.

28. Go to a comedy club - After a friend cancelling on me at Christmas, I have not done this yet

29. Finish my knitted patchwork blanket - I finished another square! But have had to put the blanket aside to work on a mini blanket to sit in the park with at lunchtimes.

30. Visit 15 exhibitions at museums and galleries - I've been to one 'Handmade Tales' and written a blog on it and been to 3 more that I need to write blogs about if i can remember details about them, if not then I need to see some more!

I must make more of an effort really or Im not going to get all of this done and I need to blog more.