Virtually a month ago I updated the general list of my progress with my thirty before thirty challenge and I am saddened to admit not much progression has happened. This is primarily due to the fact I have been so busy with craft fairs and christmassy things that my challenge has slipped. I promised that I would blog about each item as I completed it and I have a lot of blogs I need to write, I think I will resign myself to focusing on the challenge in the beginning of the new year!

But here is an update nevertheless...

1.Own a sewing machine, - not yet although I’ve dropped hints about it being a 30th birthday present or a moving in present if i am fortunate enough to be a home owner next year

2.Learn to knit socks – Once the Christmas period is over I will pick up my knitting needles again, I maay learn to knit child sizes socks then progress to adults later.

3.Visit Buckingham Palace – Done!!!! I need to blog about it though, but Mum and I had a great time in September.

4.Swim in a lake or stand under a waterfall - I'm thinking this will be the Serpentine in Hyde Park unless someone can come up with another idea?

5.Own a home (the BIG challenge) – there have been developments with this but that's all I'm saying for now.

6.Be debt free except from a mortgage if Num 5 happens – I work on this each and every day.

7.Visit Dickens House – DONE!!! But it was a real disappointment, I will blog about this too.

8.Go to a soap making workshop - DONE!!!! And I'm now selling natural soap through my shop.

9.Learn to hang wall paper –Mum and Dad are talking about redecorating our hall way and stairs at home in the new year.

10.Spend a night on the Norfolk Broads – Sort of DONE!! Just need to blog!

11.Learn to make pastry – Maybe in time for mince pies?

12.Learn the succession of kings and queens from William the Conqueror in 1066 – Um.....

13.Make and wear my own dress – I have an idea to make a dress to wear to dinner on my 30th birthday.

14.Read five books from my bookshelf - One down, four to go!

15.Have a make up lesson – DONE!!! Although I wasn’t all that impressed. I had a free session at Bobbi Brown which was educational and expensive.

16.Do something every day to make me smile – Now I have a new "friend" in my life I am smiling a whole lot more each day.

17.Learn to change a car tyre – I'm still laughing about why I included this!

18.Be able to jog a mile without stopping - with my leg issues this is a BIG thing – Ive been getting back to the gym with my trainer and she is really helping me. I can use the cross trainer for 2 miles but not sure how I would go on the actual road!

19.Go to Rome or Sorrento – DONE!!! and it was AMAZING!!! I need to blog with photos though.

20.Sleep for 6.5+ hours sleep a night consistently – Some nights are good, others are bad, and some are unmentionable.

21.Visit Giant's Causeway – This may not happen now as I potentially will go to NYC in August next year, but I still want to visit Antrim and that area in the future.

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

23.Have Butterfly-Crafts mentioned in a newspaper or magazine – DONE!!!! – coverage of the craft fairs I've organised in the local paper.

24.Sleep under the stars - I am an option in mind for this, watch this space.

25.Live as much of a handmade/homemade/economical life as possible - I am doing this as much as possible, even more so with Christmas approaching.

26.Begin to have the stamina, strength & body shape from pre-leg issues – the gym is definitely helping. I will never be a ‘gym bunny’ but I do feel much better to go after work and at the weekend for a little brain space. I really miss rowing but that’s off limits at the moment, one day though, one day.

27.Watch: Casablanca (done), Dr Zhivago (done - yawn), Gone With the Wind (done), The Philadephia Story (done), A Street Car Named Desire (done - yawn), The Godfather (done) and Citizen Cane (done) so just Goodfellas, Ferri Beulers Day Off and Schindler's List to go.

28.Go to a comedy club – I really want to get this one ticked off soon.

29.Finish my knitted patchwork blanket – Once the mega Christmas Fairs season is over I will pick my needles up again, I'm 8 squares down from a total of 91 plus edging.

30.Visit 15 exhibitions at museums and galleries – Well there was Handmade Tales at The Women’s Library, Afghanistan at The British Museum, Out of this world at the British Library, and Eadweard Muybridge at Tate Britain and a few others I've currently forgotten!