Matin Lapin: life list

Sometimes I feel as though my childhood was just yesterday, while other days I feel much older than my years. There's no getting away from it: I am getting older, and I'm pretty sure I'm going to become a grown up one of these days. 2012 is the last year of my 20's. This time next year I'll be 30. Sheesh.

With that in mind, I thought I would share with you my life list. It would be a 30 before 30, but there are more than 30 things on it, and a lot of them I probably won't get to do before I'm 30. I've marked the ones I have already completed in green and the ones that I'm currently working towards are in orange...

start (and maintain) a blog
start (and maintain) a business
make macarons, preferably pistachio flavour
grow my hair really long then donate it to Locks of Love
read the books I have in my shelves that I have not yet read
have a solo exhibition of my art
get into the habit of exercising every day
stop stressing over little things
take part in a 365 project
be proud of myself and my achievements
learn to forgive people

travel to 30 countries

take my parents on a gondola ride in Venice

take part in a flash mob

fix my LCA and take it with me everywhere

learn a new language

feed lemurs at the zoo

successfully keep a journal

run 5k+ outside of the gym

illustrate a book

learn how to build a webpage

see the Northern Lights

stop biting my nails

see Eurovision live

hot air balloon ride

make 1000 origami cranes

partake in as many charity activities as possible

start a pension

knit a cardigan

start my Masters degree

sew at least one dress

learn to roller skate

plan a roadtrip

save enough money for a deposit on a house

take my first steps towards a proper career

take a course in silversmithing or cobbling

make my own jam

do an art stall at a fair

have a little vegetable garden

sing on stage in a choir

bake a wedding cake

reconnect with a long lost friend

live in another country

make a time capsule

host a craft party

send a message in a bottle

host Christmas

stay in an ice hotel or an igloo

walk up a waterfall

learn to tap dance

write thank you letters to my old teachers

fly a kite on Hampstead Heath

take afternoon tea at the Savoy

visit Antarctica

climb the Eiffel tower

visit the pyramids in Egypt

celebrate Day of the Dead in Mexico

spend Christmas in Lapland
build up an amazing studio

make a gallery wall in my home

go fossil-hunting

see a volcano erupt

have a family

...well, that's it so far - phew!

Any of these on your life list?

Not that you guys have seen it yet (ooh, what a secretive Vixie I am!) but one of the items on my life list is to visit a volcano and to see it erupt. I have not only been up a volcano and seen it erupt that very same evening - Mount Etna in Sicily on 4th September 2007, in case you were wondering - but have also been to the volcanically-and-geologically-active wonder that is Iceland, which is practically one big volcano (there are actually 130 volcanic mountains on the island - 130!!)

Despite fulfilling both of these objectives, I am still super in love with volcanoes, and I simply don't think it's enough to just see one of them erupt: I want to go and see all the volcanoes! Maybe not the extinct ones - of which there are at least 10 here in the UK - since they're probably pretty boring, maybe just the active ones... I'll add that to my life list too, but I'm not sure how close I'll get - will keep you updated. So far I have actually only really been to 1/1500 active volcanoes, so still a long way to go.

Oh, and did you know that at any given time, there's an average of about 20 volcanoes that are erupting! Imagine that! Imagine all the eruptions I have missed in my lifetime! It's mind blowing.

While thinking about all that awesomeness, why not look at these lovely volcanic beauties I found today...

Matin Lapin

my life list #1

my not-so-secret love of volcanoes

past ramblings