This is the year!!! In just 203 days I will turn the big 3-0. Yep, August 1st is going to be fast approaching, and do we think i have progressed much with my challenge? Not so much. I will do my best, but if things roll over until the end of the year then so be it!

But here is an update...

1.Own a sewing machine, - I have dropped plenty of hints about this and will have to leave it to fate.

2.Learn to knit socks – I have the yarn, and the pattern. Just need to sit down and figure out dpn needles!

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 - This is likely to be the Serpentine one hot day in the summer...if the UK has a summer this year!

5.Own a home (the BIG challenge) – I can categorically say this will not happen in 2012 but I am working towards it. Perhaps in my 30th year.

6.Be debt free except from a mortgage if Num 5 happens – I am working well on this.

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 –We will be redecorating quite a bit at my parents house and yes, I will be roped into it!

10.Spend a night on the Norfolk Broads – Sort of DONE!! Just need to blog and am going again in June.

11.Learn to make pastry – Did not do this over Christmas as I had hoped but will soon.

12.Learn the succession of kings and queens from William the Conqueror in 1066 – I have been given a few hints and tips on this, just need to learn it!

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 – This will be hard but I have a space which I know is a mile so am building up walking it and then will jog/walk and then who knows...

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, but I still want to visit Antrim and that area in the future.

22.Have a dinner party - This was the plan for my birthday, but I think there will be a party instead so I will have to replan the dinner party! I have had a practice with doing lunch for my parents at my boyfriends over the holiday.

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, just need a mozzie net!

25.Live as much of a handmade/homemade/economical life as possible - I am aware of this every day and am going to try and make as many of the gifts I will need this year as possible.

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), Citizen Cane (done) and Ferris Beulers Day Off (done - crap film) so just Goodfellas and Schindler's List to go.

28.Go to a comedy club – Need to plan this very soon I think.

29.Finish my knitted patchwork blanket – I finally started to knit again over the holidays having had a break of about 8 months. I have 83 squares to go plus sewing in, joining them together and then edging. It will be a "30th year" project

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, Eadweard Muybridge at Tate Britain, Electroboutique at the Science Museum and a few others I've currently forgotten!