60 Before 30

It is no secret that I love goal setting. From setting monthly goals, to my overall yearly goals/guideposts, to longer-term goal setting like 101 in 1001, I absolutely love the way goal setting helps me prioritize both long- and short-term, and especially in this season of wedding planning, I don’t know how I’d get it all done without the structure of intentional goal setting.

While my monthly goals are usually very practical, I love setting long-term goals that are essentially more like bucket list items than to-do lists. Since 2015, I have been working on a 101 in 1001 goals list, where you attempt to complete 101 goals in 1001 days. I blogged my list here. My 1001st day was June 1, 2018, and so even though I didn’t accomplish everything on my list, it’s time to turn the page and start a new long-term goal setting chapter!

Partway through my 1001 days, I noticed on a few blogs I read a trend of doing a number of goals based on a specific age. One common one was 60 Before 30. This could work with any age, i.e., 100 before 50, 80 before 80, etc. To me, this isn’t about being scared of turning a certain age—I have no qualms at all about turning 30, when I do—but instead it’s about defining a set of ages in your life and dreaming about all they could hold. I have almost exactly three years until I turn 30 (minus a couple of weeks), and so this set is just a little longer than my 1001 days, which seems perfect to accomplish and experience some big things, and make some little-but-important things happen too. In my list you will see a mix of mundane and over-the-top, but that’s real life. A lot of my list is relationship, family, health, and travel-related. I have a few items that I prefer not to put on the Internet, either because they involve a surprise I’d love to pull off, a personal health-related topic, or the “story” of the goal isn’t fully mine to tell. For those, I just wrote “personal” and the general topic it is.

My way of keeping my list organized is I have each goal written on a page of a journal (pictured at the top of this post). As I go through the list (not necessarily in order), I write a short journal entry about it, and I can also tape tickets or other mementos of goals I’ve completed right in the journal. I did this for my 101 in 1001 list, and I love that it’s a tangible thing I can keep forever, even though that list is now over. I will also plan on blogging various 60 before 30 goals as I complete them!

With that introduction out of the way, here’s my 60 Before 30 list:

1.     Marry Grace Baldridge

2.     Go on a honeymoon

3.     Legally change my last name to Baldridge

4.     Build an emergency fund of 6 months’ living expenses with Grace

5.     Start a collection of Christmas decorations

6.     Increase planned/intentional charitable giving

7.     Host a baby shower or a bridal shower

8.     Switch to all natural beauty, cleaning, and laundry products

9.     Personal (career)

10.  Get first Christmas tree of my own (for my first married Christmas)

11.  Personal (spiritual)

12.  Go somewhere wild/exotic/remote (some initial ideas are Bora Bora, Antarctica, or Kenya)

13.   Personal (family)

14.  Personal (spiritual)

15.  Make a beautiful heirloom-quality wedding album

16.  Make a beautiful heirloom-quality album of pictures from our Alaska road trip

17.  Make a beautiful heirloom-quality album of pictures from our honeymoon

18.  Make the outdoor spaces of our house special

19.  Make an awesome and welcoming guest room

20.  Combine all finances with Grace and have both our names on all bank and credit accounts

21.  Personal (surprising someone)

22.  Celebrate my mom’s graduation from divinity school

23.  Celebrate my sister’s graduation from college

24.  Go back to Elon with Grace (maybe for her cousin’s graduation, or for homecoming?)

25.  Visit D.C. to see two of my best friends and my grandmother, who all live there

26.  Do a month-long contentment/spending freeze challenge

27.  Celebrate our first and second wedding anniversaries

28.  Find a dentist in LA

29.  Personal (health)

30.  Send out our first ever Christmas cards (as the Baldridges!)

31.  Personal (career)

32.  Personal (career)

33.  Go a week without social media

34.  Be able to say, at least at some point, that I’m in great physical shape

35.  Go back to Grace’s hometown in Belgium

36.  Fix our closet and hallway lights

37.  Give a speech at a wedding or rehearsal dinner

38.  Have my blog featured somewhere

39.  Personal (surprising someone)

40.  Personal (health)

41.  Blog every detail of wedding planning and the day itself

42.  Personal (surprising someone)

43.  Upgrade/change up my car when my lease expires in 2019

44.  Replace our foundation mattress (we just got it, but it’s from IKEA and not good…)

45.  Offer to help a friend with some aspect of their wedding: hand-addressing invitations like I did mine, serving as an informal day-of coordinator, passing down my collected wedding décor items, etc.

46.  Personal (misc.)

47.  Personal (gift/surprising someone)

48.  Start a tradition with Grace of having tea in the evenings

49.  Take a trip with both dogs (instead of boarding Bean like we’ve been doing while he’s a puppy)

50.  Take Grace to my parents’ place on the Chesapeake Bay

51.  Hang art or photos over our bed

52.  Introduce Grace to my grandmother (finally!)

53.  Have 10+ baby books in my collection (Grace and I started a tradition after we got engaged of collecting baby books on special trips we take . . . it might sound crazy, but I love the idea of having an amazing collection of books from special places for our babies if we’re lucky enough to have them one day)

54.  Swim (actually swim) in the ocean 10+ times

55.  Visit Ojai at least once a year

56.  Have a dinner party using our beautiful new kitchen wares we’ve gotten as wedding gifts

57.  Get orthotics/generally get my flat feet assessed by a professional (I truly have the flattest feet on earth—like the palm of a hand—and I need to be more proactive about the health problems my lack of arches will cause me as I get older)

58.  Go skiing with Grace (and stick to the bunny slopes because of the knee issues we both have!)

59.  See Carly Rae Jepson live with Grace

60.  Have professional photos taken of Grace and me each year of our marriage

Have you ever set monthly or long-term goals? I would love to hear about them!

Thanks for reading. Xoxo

June Goals + May Recap

Rabbit rabbit! June is here. I'm hoping this month will be very sweet, expectant, and celebratory. There are SO many things going on: Pride. My birthday. Also, marking a year since Casper died. Taking a trip to the East Coast to celebrate with some of my bridesmaids before the wedding. And in a way, June feels like the last *full* month before the wedding, because our wedding is at the very beginning of August, so the first half of our wedding week is actually in July. 

Though there are still things to do, I have to say, we feel ready for our wedding day. During these months of planning, I have really really wanted to avoid feeling stressed in the few weeks leading up to the wedding. I don't want to be DIY-ing late into the night right before, or being nervous if shipments will come in time. I think some online vendors have thought I'm a little over the top with placing orders in February for things for our August wedding, but now that I have everything in-hand, it just puts me at so much peace. There are a few little things we're still waiting on (an engraved cake cutting set, a special vintage of champagne for our toast with cake cutting, and other tiny details like that), but nothing that our wedding would be incomplete without at this point. I have outfits planned out for my bridesmaids luncheon, rehearsal dinner, wedding morning, and day-after-the-wedding, and if you know me, you know that this makes my heart SO full. I'm a planner through and through, so this wedding has been like my Olympics!

My goals for June are still mostly focused on getting ready for the wedding, but I also want to slow down and celebrate all the good things happening this month. Lord willing, Grace and I will be celebrating our fifth West Hollywood Pride together, then the next weekend we'll go away for my birthday, then the next weekend I'll fly to my favorite place on earth to be with some of my favorite people on earth. So one of my overarching, big goals is just to celebrate and truly soak it all in.

So how did I do on my May goals? I had an incredibly busy month work-wise and was lagging on many of my May goals, but in the last few days I turned it out and made several happen! That's one of the things I love about monthly goals--having that "deadline" of the end of the month helps me knock things out even though there isn't really any consequence to not completing them on time. Mainly, I like to get it all done to make way for the next month's goals, so I don't have to roll things over (though there are a couple of roll-overs this month).

To recap May:

• Meet with Rev. Ed (our officiant and dear friend) to plan our ceremony--yes. I think our ceremony is going to be so, so good. It's a very traditional Episcopal ceremony, which I think might be a surprise to some, but we've written it in a way where people don't need to have familiarity with Episcopalianism to follow along.
• Order and design ceremony programs--somewhat; I figured out what I want the programs to say and where I'm going to order them, but I need to confirm all the details of the ceremony are correct with Rev. Ed before sending it to print (so this is a roll-over goal)
• Send out our wedding invitations--yes! It's been SO fun getting response cards every day in the mail!
• Decide on all music and give notes to our band about what types of music we want played at our reception--yes, I'm suuuuper excited about the music. We have a 9-piece band for our reception that I think is going to be so energetic and fun.
• Decide on and purchase all details for reception (little things like cake toppers, decorative ribbon, etc.)--yep! Our guest room is filled with them right now, haha! Our custom cake toppers might be one of my favorite details of our wedding.
• Shop for and purchase our wedding rings (!!)--yes and omg, I am SO EXCITED for us to wear our wedding rings. Grace knows, I look at photos of my wedding ring every.single.day. (I don't have it currently because it's getting sized, and Grace's is getting custom made). My engagement ring is a 4+ generations-old family heirloom from Grace's family, and my wedding ring goes so perfectly with it, it's like they're long-lost twins.
• Catch up on thank-you cards I need to write--woefully behind on this. Working on it today, though!
• Blog a home tour--yes! This is one of those goals I wasn't sure would get done this month, but in the last few days of May I pulled it off. You can find that post here.
• Decide on some additional honeymoon details and gather recommendations--booked a couple things, but need to make a list of recommendations for each island.
• Shop for and purchase my wedding shoes--yes, I'm obsessed. I had a VERY specific vision in mind and I found exactly what I wanted. They also couldn't be more comfortable!
• Really soak in being engaged. Only 3 months left!--yeah, feeling very sweet on each other :) Now it's technically June, but we are going on a cute date night tonight continuing the theme of soaking in being engaged.

And now, my June goals:

• Get our marriage license (in California, you can get one starting 90 days out from your wedding, and we're well within that now)
• Make all wedding-related playlists (as I said above, we have a live band, but we need playlists for getting-ready music in the morning, and also for times when the band takes breaks throughout the reception)
• Touch base with all vendors and schedule meetings as necessary
• Decide on our alcohol order for our reception
• Check in with our wedding party to make sure everyone has their attire and give wedding weekend details
• Order ceremony programs
• Put together some final DIY projects (that I'm keeping a surprise for now)
• Update our wedding website with a couple of details
• Make a payments schedule for remaining vendor payments
• Finalize honeymoon details + recommendations
• Enjoy my weekend in Virginia with half of my bridesmaids! (I'm spending a special weekend with the other half in July)
• Close the chapter on my 101 in 1001 goal list and create a new one: 60 Before 30

I hope you have a super sweet June! Thanks for reading.

May Goals + April Recap

Happy May, friends! I am so happy to be right in the thick of spring, with summer starting NEXT MONTH! Spring is my favorite season closely followed by summer, and springtime colors in LA have not disappointed so far (the pic above is from my backyard, which has blossomed so much lately). 

April was a good month. It could have easily felt hectic and overwhelming, but it really didn't because we (especially Grace) were intentional about boundaries and balance. We had houseguests (each of our moms) for two weeks straight and then immediately after that I was in Boston for the better part of a week, so the majority of the month was different than "normal" life for us, which made it go by super fast. That said, I made a ton of wedding progress and at this point there is nothing stressful hanging over my head with wedding planning, which is an amazing feeling! Planning keeps getting more and more fun, because at this point I'm getting to pick out the little details and extra, special, over-the-top stuff, which I have been waiting my whole life for.

There were a few things left undone/pushed to May from my April goals, but overall I feel accomplished from the past month. Here's how I did:

• Have a successful Boston trip--yes! It was really good and important for me for a lot of reasons
• Take my wedding dress in for some minor alterations--made an appointment with a seamstress, taking my dress in next week
• Book all wedding-related transportation--yes! This one was stressing me out, but what I ended up booking seems perfect and affordable so I'm really happy
• Book hair and makeup and schedule a trial so I can see what it will look like for the wedding--yes! I have my trial this coming weekend :)
• Get thank-you cards and start writing them for gifts we've gotten so far--ordered custom thank-you cards, haven't started writing yet (because I haven't received the cards yet) . . . Definitely changing that this coming month
• Finalize vintage furniture rentals and lighting setup at the venue--yes! Deposits paid and plans laid
• Order signage and details for our reception--yep, what did people do before Etsy?!
• Finish booking accommodations for every night of our honeymoon--yes and omg, I am SO EXCITED for our honeymoon. Pinch me
• Finalize all gifts I'm giving at/around my wedding (for my bridesmaids, for my family, etc.)--just a couple of small gifts left to get, but I have gifts for everyone in my family and my wedding party and I can't wait to give them!
• Meet with our officiant to start mapping out how our ceremony will go--not yet, doing that this month. We saw our officiant a few times this month but haven't been able to figure out a time to meet about our ceremony yet
• Do a cake tasting--booked, but haven't gone yet. We are doing our tasting in two weeks

And now my May goals:

• Meet with Rev. Ed (our officiant and dear friend) to plan our ceremony
• Order and design ceremony programs
• Send out our wedding invitations
• Decide on all music and give notes to our band about what types of music we want played at our reception
• Decide on and purchase all details for reception (little things like cake toppers, decorative ribbon, etc.)
• Shop for and purchase our wedding rings (!!)
• Catch up on thank-you cards I need to write
• Blog a home tour (have been wanting to do this for so long and feeling like our house is finally ready!)
• Decide on some additional honeymoon details and gather recommendations (if you have favorite things in Maui and/or Kauai, I'd love to hear them!)
• Shop for and purchase my wedding shoes
• Really soak in being engaged. Only 3 months left!

Wishing you a sweet month!

April Goals + March Recap

I don't normally like to pat myself on the back too much on my own blog--but I am pretty proud of myself this month! I completed (or substantially completed) every goal on my list, which I haven't done in a long time. There's a old saying: "If you want something done, ask a busy person." I feel like that couldn't be more true in my life lately. I'm busier than ever, but I'm also knocking out goals more than ever. It's a good feeling (though I also know I will be very excited for it to all stop on our honeymoon--check out two posts back if you haven't yet, to see where we're going!).

Because I'm feeling like I'm on a roll, I'm trying to pack even more into April. This month, both Grace's and my mom will be visiting us, I'll be spending a week in Boston, we have several venue and vendor visits for wedding stuff, and my goals are kind of bananas to go along with all of it. Later this month will mark only 100 days left until our wedding, so I'm also making a huge push this month to check a ton off my wedding planning list. It's starting to feel so real and I just can't wait for that sweet day.

To recap, here were my March goals:

• Do my taxes by myself for the first time ever--yes! Done & done. Excited for my refund to arrive.
• Decide on our wedding cake--yes. Decided where to get it and our general vision; need to schedule tasting (one of my goals for April, as you'll see)
• Book our honeymoon (!!!)--booked our flights and some accommodations. Our dates are officially set and we know everywhere we want to stay, I'm just waiting to book some things until later this month because $$$. For the most part I'm paying for everything in advance because you often save a ton when you do that! (rather than booking now and not paying until you check in)
• Make a plan for our premarital counseling with our officiant--yes. In case you're curious, here's how it works, at least for us (I had no idea how any of this worked until this past month): we plan out our ceremony with our officiant, i.e., readings, music, what he'll say, etc. Then separately, we meet with an actual therapist (our officiant is a priest, not a therapist) for premarital couples counseling. It's a requirement of the Episcopal Church, just to make sure you're in good shape and on track for a forever marriage! I couldn't agree more that it's super important and worthwhile. We had our consultation with our counselor and like her a lot. We're going to go through several sessions every other week for the next few weeks.
• Design and order our invitations--yes! They are being printed now and I can't wait to see them in person!
• Plan my mom's visit and prepare the house--yep! She gets here in two days and I can't wait
• Make an appointment with a dog behaviorist --yes, we are starting to learn a lot more about what makes our dogs tick and how to make sure we are maintaining harmony in the home. If you can't tell, we are big believers in seeking out help--whether counseling, dog training, etc.--to me it will never be wasted money (as long as you're working with someone you trust).

And now for my April goals:

• Have a successful Boston trip
• Take my wedding dress in for some minor alterations
• Book all wedding-related transportation
• Book hair and makeup and schedule a trial so I can see what it will look like for the wedding
• Get thank-you cards and start writing them for gifts we've gotten so far
• Finalize vintage furniture rentals and lighting setup at the venue
• Order signage and details for our reception
• Finish booking accommodations for every night of our honeymoon
• Finalize all gifts I'm giving at/around my wedding (for my bridesmaids, for my family, etc.)
• Meet with our officiant to start mapping out how our ceremony will go
• Do a cake tasting

I hope you have a wonderful first full month of Spring! xoxo

March Goals + February Recap

Hello March! Ahh, the start of spring (in a couple more weeks). I'm a spring and summer girl through and through . . . the way the Internet seems to feel about pumpkin spice lattes, fall foliage, and chunky knit sweaters is how I feel about tulips, Easter, springtime weather, and being able to wear summer clothes (just kidding I live in LA so I can wear them all the time). Spring just lifts my spirits and makes me feel so HAPPY! I've always had a touch (and sometimes, more than a touch) of SAD, and so when it's springtime I get a burst of euphoria along with the longer days and more pleasant temperatures.

March also marks only 5 months until our wedding. I cannot believe it! I'm really proud of all that we've accomplished so far with planning, and I am so excited for everything that will come together this month!

I got a lot done in February, but honestly, it was a rough month for our little home! Grace and I have been sick for over two weeks. I keep thinking I'm better, but I'm STILL sniffling and coughing. It was really a brutal illness--I missed almost a week of work, something I've never done in my life for being sick. Even one of our dogs is sick (unrelatedly). I felt like I was really good about blogging during the first half of the month, but I kind of fell off the map once we were both under the weather. 

I'm very excited for what I hope will be a healthier month. I'm also excited about the fact that we have zero travel planned this month! That will not be the case in April, which is exciting, but a month at home sounds sooo nice.

Here's how I did on my February goals:

• Book our florist--yes! She's so cool. Check her out.
• Plan and book my bachelorette weekend--so I decided to have two, one on the East Coast and one on the West Coast, because my life is very bi-coastal.  I booked the East Coast one and am still figuring out the West Coast one (less worried about that because it's going to be relatively local)
• Decide on having a hometown bridal shower in Raleigh--yes. To keep things simple, I decided not to do a hometown bridal shower before the wedding. Grace and I might do some kind of hometown party in North Carolina in the fall, after we're married, so that we can celebrate with our grandparents who can't travel to California
• Book shuttle/wedding transportation--tabled until my mom can visit the venue and get a sense for our needs on this front
• Paint my nails or get a mani-pedi if I have time--didn't have time to treat myself to an actual mani pedi (sniffling and blowing my nose mid-manicure probably wouldn't be the best look), but I did paint them myself :)
• Make an appointment with a dog behaviorist to get on a good path with Willie and Bean (as rescues often do, both of them have a few quirks that we want to assess with a professional)--no, but I still really want to do this. We've had a really good month with the dogs and they've both been so sweet and great, so I kind of forgot about this goal, but it's still important and I hope it will happen in March

And here are my goals for March:

• Do my taxes for the first time ever (yep, I've always had my dad do these. But I figure I should probably do them myself at least once as a single filer before I start jointly filing with Grace)
• Decide on our wedding cake
• Book our honeymoon (!!!)
• Make a plan for our premarital counseling with our officiant
• Design and order our invitations
• Plan my mom's visit (in April) and prepare the house
• Make an appointment with a dog behaviorist (carried over from last month)

And there are a few other little goals in my journal that I'm keeping private because they involve surprises :) My favorite!

I hope your month is off to a great start!

101 in 1001

Hi friends! Let me start by saying that Grace and I are ALMOST finally over our terrible cold/flu virus that knocked us off our feet. I was juggling work while feeling dazed, achey, and in a fog, and sadly found no time for HDWD. I'm excited to be back!

If you've been reading Have Dog, Will Drive for any length of time, you've probably noticed that posting my monthly goals is one thing I always do without fail, even if it ends up being a couple of days after the 1st of the month. Going back a few years ago, I didn't set monthly goals at all! I'm not sure exactly when the switch was flipped, but now I'd feel totally lost without those guideposts each month. These days I don't have a ton of free time, so knowing how to prioritize the gaps in my schedule to make progress about what matters is crucial.

A few months after I started setting monthly goals, I started seeing this concept called 101 in 1001 on blogs. It's a concept where you set 101 goals (some big, some small, some serious, some not-so-serious) to be completed over a period of 1001 days. 1001 days works out to be just about 2.75 years. It's a nice length because you can set goals that mean a lot to you and that you need more than just a year to accomplish, but it's not too long to keep up with. You can find a few other blogs that define the concept and share their lists here, here, here, here, and here.  

I started my 101 in 1001 list on September 4, 2015, and my completion date is June 1, 2018. I keep all of my 101 goals written down in the notebook pictured above, and I write a little description once I check off each one! Now that I'm just a few months from the end, I can see that there are some I won't complete, but that's kind of the beauty of 101 in 1001. It's a snapshot of what mattered to me in summer 2015, and I can see everything that's changed since then. Some things have become more important, and others have become less. 

If you are considering doing 101 in 1001, I have absolutely loved it as a personal goal setting tool. Now that my timeline is almost up, I'm thinking about doing a "90 before 30" as my next one. It's basically the same concept, but it's slightly fewer goals and it's focused on a time period before a certain age.  This could totally be adapted to any age (i.e., 50 before 50, etc.), but my 101 in 1001 ending coincides almost perfectly with my 27th birthday, so 90 before 30 seemed like a good fit. I'll update here if/when I make a new list. Without further ado, here's my list and the progress I've made so far (some goals that are private or aren't fully "my story" to tell, I just labeled "private"):

1. Make an "art teacher" necklace (here's the inspiration for that)--completed 2/19/16. I actually ended up having a craft night at my apartment with my law school friends and we all made them! So fun.

2. Paint or wallpaper a wall--not yet

3. Try hair extensions--nope. I don't think this one is going to happen. My hair is already long enough! (But it wasn't when I set this goal. I just ended up going au naturale on this one, I guess)

4. Personal

5. Take a big family trip with my immediately family--not really, but we've had plenty of good times all together :)

6. Visit Yosemite--yes. You can read my post on visiting Yosemite with a dog here.

7. Take a calligraphy glass--not yet. This is one I could totally do before June, though!

8. Surprise Grace with a weekend getaway--yes! You can read about our surprise Pismo Beach getaway here.

9. Personal

10. Keep a recipe journal/book separate from my other journals--yes! Need to update more frequently though.

11. Send a handwritten note to a friend at least once a month--this is one that has changed my whole outlook on life! There was a period of time where I sent a card at least once a week. I've trailed off lately, but I'm a snail mail person for life now. It's one of my favorite things ever.

12. Join my first gym by myself (separate from parents'/school membership)--no, and my priorities have shifted. Not interested in gyms right now!

13. Surprise my family on the East Coast--no, but I have gotten to see them a ton!

14. Print an Artifact Uprising at least every six months for significant life events--not that often, but I've made several!

15. Perfect some kind of seemingly-complicated hairstyle--sort of . . . I have experimented with braid crowns and overnight curls and it's gone decently well. Not a huge priority anymore!

16. Decorate an office with a bulletin/inspiration board and plants--not yet; I should totally do that in my office now

17. Plant something edible and watch it grow--sadly no, not yet!

18. Call or write a letter to my grandmother at least once a month--I've been pretty good at this!

19. Turn this 101 in 1001 list into something printed that I can write in and keep forever--yep! The journal pictured at the top of this post

20. Take a fun bar trip--YES! I went to Barcelona, Ibiza, Sardinia, Santorini, and Athens with some of my closest friends from law school in the summer of 2016 after I took the California Bar Exam

21. Pass the California Bar Exam--yes, November 18, 2018. Biggest relief ever

22. Graduate from Berkeley Law--yep! May 13, 2016

23. Reach out to someone I admire but don't know personally--yes. I reached out to some bloggers I admire when I first started thinking about blogging, and I got the sweetest and most helpful responses.

24. Go to N/Naka with Grace--not yet! Maybe this spring!

25. Spend time with Grace's parents and have Grace spend time with my parents at least once a year--yes :) Last year, Grace even spent time with my family WITHOUT me there when she went to North Carolina to ask their blessing to ask me to marry her

26. Register to vote in California--yes

27. Vote in the 2016 presidential election and in state elections--yes

28. Personal

29. Take a cooking class with Grace--no. I've done this without her, whoops!

30. Take a flower arranging class--not yet

31. Buy a car--decided to lease instead (and so happy I did)

32. Find a good multivitamin and take it every day for a month+--not consistently. It's hard for me to care about this for some reason :(

33. Be a bridesmaid--still no! Get married, friends!

34. Get a massage--yes, many times, including last weekend. So needed

35. Take a trip by train--yes, Grace and I took a train from Brussels to London and back in spring 2016

36. Start wearing my retainer regularly--I don't even know where mine is anymore, if that tells you anything. Sorry teeth

37. Come up with monthly goals on the first day of each month and write them down--yes, obviously!

38. Buy a tent with Grace--we keep getting gifted/loaned tents very sweetly! So we have not technically bought one together

39. Print and frame photos for family & Grace--yes, I have so many printed photos and love it. I'm such a believer in printing your photos and not letting them just live on your phone/Instagram

40. Personal

41. Make pickles, including something other than cucumber--I've made cucumber pickles, but not something else. Need to do that!

42. Visit 5 new US States--done! 6 actually so far. Washington, Arizona, Nevada, Idaho, Montana, and Alaska

43. Get into a habit of taking two rest days a week from social media--I haven't been as good about this lately, but I used to be. Need to get back into it. I think it's good and refreshing to do this

44. Read 10 books (not for school/work)--yes, more than 10 actually (looking back that was a pretty low number)

45. Get my first Christmas tree of my own--not yet. I decided I want my first Christmas tree to be my first married Christmas :)

46. See a movie at a drive-in with Grace--not yet

47. Go skiing--yes, in Tahoe with law school friends!

48. Personal

49. Purge closet once every six months--I've done this a couple of times, but I haven't nearly as much as I should

50. Try a capsule wardrobe for 3 months--I've done capsule wardrobes for trips, including for our Alaska trip. But I don't think it's a priority anymore for me to do it for 3 months.

51. Organize photos on my laptop and back them up--I use an external hard drive now but could still be wayyy more organized with photos!

52. Through a surprise party--yes!! See my how-to here

53. Leave a 100% tip for a server who you want to feel appreciated--yes, just the other night actually! We ate at Jones and one of our best friends Sara was our server :)

54. Send flowers to a friend or family member--I sent flowers to a friend recently for her birthday, but I don't think this counts--I want to just send some out of the blue, just because!

55. Attend a conference for personal interests--not yet but want to

56. Find a classic, signature, grown-up perfume--not yet

57. Visit Elon--not yet but Grace's cousin is now a student there, so we need to go see him!

58. Visit Antarctica--nope!! Haha. To be fair I still really want to do this, but this was a bold one.  

59. Put stacks of printed photos around the house--yes, love it. My favorite is when people thumb through them and ask if they can keep ones of people they know. I always say yes!

60. Get my own credit card--yes, finally (I feel like this may be shocking to some but I operated on cash for years, and it really helped me save a TON and never go into debt in my whole life. Now I have one, just for purposes of points to use on our honeymoon flights)

61. See all of my mom's siblings and their families together in one place--yes, Thanksgiving 2017. And it was the sweetest.

62. Personal (this one is about pulling off a surprise that I still haven't done, so I can't share it!)

63. Take a vacation with my best friend Anna--not really, though we've visited each other a bunch. Needs to happen!

64. Spend a weekend with Sarah Rose and Allie (my oldest friends from growing up)--not yet! Not all three together, at least.

65. Personal

66. Bring baked goods to someone who needs a pick me up--yes, pumpkin bread :)

67. Make a list of 101 positive things about myself--yes, in May 2017. It took a couple of weeks to think of 101 different things, but really good for the soul!

68. Buy flowers for myself just because--yes, several times!

69. Get a cute filing cabinet to have at home and organize important personal papers--no, and could really use it

70. Make a home office wherever I live after law school--yes and no; we have an office in our house (which is a huge luxury and we love it!), but it's really Grace's office and not mine. Haha! She works from home whereas I have my own office downtown, so it makes sense. I'm typing this from our kitchen table right now.

71. Go apple picking, strawberry picking, or to a pumpkin patch with Grace--yes, plus going to Christmas Tree farms! Though only for wreaths and mistletoe, see #45 above

72. Make or buy earthquake kits to keep in my house and car--no, and obviously should

73. Make personal calling cards/business cards--no, and I probably won't do this one. I have business cards for my job and probably wouldn't use personal ones

74. Personal

75. Make creme brulee from scratch with Grace--not yet. Funny story, "creme brulee" was our code word for years when we were just dating and didn't talk openly about marriage because we weren't in the right season yet. One time we were on a date to a creme brulee shop in San Francisco, and somehow "the future" came up, and Grace just said, "I LOVE creme brulee and I feel the same about a potential next step, in a couple years . . ." and ever since we would say "creme brulee" instead of the M word. Haha! So long story short, we really need to try making it ourselves so this can come full circle!

76. Send "survival packages" to my friends taking the bar exam alongside me in summer 2016--yep! I think they liked them a lot. I included fun scented highlighters, gum, encouraging cards, relaxing tea, and airplane bottles of vodka.

77. Personal 

78. Cook lobster or crab myself--no, and honestly I'm scared and don't really want to!

79. Bake muffins from scratch on a lazy morning--nope, need to get a muffin tin

80. Invest in a new pair of sunglasses in a shape other than aviators (my longtime shape of choice)--yes, I treated myself to some cat-eye sunnies but that was a couple of years ago now and they broke recently! 

81. Buy a bar cart--no, but our house has a built-in bar area which is even better :)

82. Stock a bar car--stocked our built-in bar

83. Host a slumber party--not yet. Maybe for my bachelorette!

84. Come up with an organizational system for my card collection, washi tape, gifts, small ribbons, etc.--sort of-it could definitely be tamed, but my ridiculously large collection is somewhat organized at the moment

85. Make a coffee cart as a gift for Grace--yes, as a surprise for her 26th bday! I got a eucalyptus wood rolling cart and stocked it with a coffee maker, tons of beans, syrups, a grinder, and other items. Probably my best gift to her ever.

86. Find and move into an LA apartment--moved in, and moved out! I loved my first little place in West Hollywood--looking back, my last "bachelorette pad"!

87. Put away $__ [personal] for a honeymoon fund--yes

88. Do some kind of public speaking--not really

89. Drive across the US--not yet, but drove across Canada to Alaska in September 2017!

90. Try making butter, jam, and biscuits from scratch--not yet. Grace recently saw this when she was thumbing through my 101 in 1001 notebook and said this is the one I need to do next, ha!

91. Come up with my own pimiento cheese recipe similar to Mrs. McNair's (my neighbor growing up who had the BEST pimento cheese recipe)--yes, slowly but surely I have developed my own recipe (or rather, method) and it's seriously good. If you don't know what this one is about at all, it's a Southern thing.

92. Take a Northern California road trip with Grace--we drove through on our way back from Alaska, but I'd love to do a dedicated NorCal road trip

93. Spend a day getting lost in a new city without any particular plan and take it in--a few times actually! NYC (not new to me, but I was in a new area), Seattle, and Barcelona

94. Make my own fruit infused waters--no, but sounds great; I still should!

95. Write the story of Casper--yes, many times over.  For Christmas, Grace and I usually do gifts of no monetary value for each other to focus on the meaning of the holiday. One year, I wrote out in a journal the whole story of how we got Casper, plus a little made-up story about his life before us (reimagined to not be so horrible). I've also written about Casper's life and passing on this blog.

96. Get scuba certified with Grace and go scuba diving--no, not sure if it's still a priority

97. Buy a set of signature, personalized stationary--was gifted two beautiful sets by my parents for Christmas one year! It's about time to do this one again, since I'll be changing my name after I get married!

98. Find some way to better organize jewelry, especially necklaces, and display it beautifully--not really

99. Invest in a quality foundation that is the perfect skin color for me--would love to switch to more a more natural foundation, I'm sure mine is filled with parabens and other toxins

100. Find a great one-piece bathing suit--no. Investing in one for our honeymoon for sure!

101. Watch the sunrise and sunset intentionally in a single day--not in the way that I'd like. We saw the sun rise and set almost every day on our Alaska trip, but it was often from the car. I want to sit and reflect and give thanks while watching the sunrise and sunset in the same day very intentionally, so I haven't crossed this one off yet!

I also keep some space in the back of my 101 in 1001 notebook to write down things that I'm very proud of and in retrospect could have been a 101 in 1001 goal, but weren't. Here are some of the ones I have written down:

• Baked fresh pumpkin bread and brought it to school (law school), still warm, and passed slices up and down the rows of desks
• Ran the Nike Women's Half Marathon (on San Francisco hills!!)
• Hosted a brunch to celebrate Casper, so my law school friends could meet him. I cherish this even more now that he's gone
• Traveled with Grace to her hometown of Waterloo, Belgium
• Took 10 full days away from email while traveling
• Took the California bar exam (I only made passing it a goal, but as anyone who's been through it knows, even taking it is a big accomplishment!)
• Started this blog!
• Got engaged to the love of my life on September 14, 2017

If you've done a 101 in 1001 list, I'd LOVE to hear about it! These are some of my favorite goals to read about. Hope you enjoyed mine.

February Goals + January Recap

I'm a few days late, but I wanted to jump on here and share my February goals! I always love February. Valentine's Day has been one of my favorite holidays since I was a little kid, and to me February is the first hint of Spring (my favorite season). First, here's how I did on my January goals:

• Book our wedding caterer -- done! And I'm SO excited for our wedding food
• Book our wedding band -- yes! I think they will be really fun
• Send out our save-the-date cards -- yep!
• Register for gifts -- yes
• Secure group rates for our wedding at hotels near the venue -- need to send in one more form, but yes
• Get organized with finances and start tracking spending again -- not really. This took the back burner
• Brainstorm for a getaway to celebrate the first quarter of 2018 in about three months -- brainstormed and booked :)
• Blog 2x a week on Have Dog, Will Drive -- Not consistently
• Finish unpacking our house, buy an entryway chair, and hang up some more frames -- Nope. This always gets pushed to the bottom of the to-do list, sadly!
• Try running with Bean (he has that puppy energy and I could use the exercise, too!) -- no, but I did some home workouts with the dogs

And my goals for February:

• Book our florist
• Plan and book my bachelorette weekend
• Decide on having a hometown bridal shower in Raleigh 
• Book shuttle/wedding transportation
• Paint my nails or get a mani-pedi if I have time
• Make an appointment with a dog behaviorologist to get on a good path with Willie and Bean (as rescues often do, both of them have a few quirks that we want to assess with a professional)

Wishing you a sweet, short month of love!

January 2018 Goals + December 2017 Recap

I am so excited and fired up about my 2018 + January-specific goals!! My goals list hasn't been this full in a LONG time. I know that January 1 is just a made up day on the calendar (or the significance is made up, I should say), and in general I try not to buy into the "new year, new me" mentality. I also am so not into the "ugh, 2016/2017/whatever was the worst, I can't wait for 2018" griping that I see so much on social media. But all of that said, this year's start has coincided with me finally having time to rest and reflect on the direction I want to go in, and so I'm finding myself really invigorated by all of the white space the year's calendar holds. 

I didn't post my January goals on the first of the month (instead I wrote this post about how we spent our New Year's Eve), because I wanted to take my time on honing my focus for the year and for January specifically. I think I really dug deep and I'm proud and excited about what I'm aiming for this year and this month. One thing that's crystalized for me in the past few weeks is the value in partially-completed goals. I think in the last year I got stuck when I set a goal for a particular month and then realized I wasn't going to reach it. I would just scrap it entirely, because I couldn't fully cross it off my list, so what's the point? I've now realized how much this mentality was holding me back. For example, one of my December goals was to finish unpacking the whole house and have everything organized and perfect. By about December 18th, I had made zero progress on this goal. I was ready to give up and just push it off til later--but then I realized I COULD still make meaningful progress. I spent 1 hour doing a "power unpack" and it made such a huge difference! No, I didn't 100% complete my goal (I still have a couple of suitcases to unpack), but I did make real progress that I'm reaping the benefits of.

One of my overall goals for 2018 is to create a life-giving home. To me that means having a clean, organized, beautiful, and useful space, and it also means filling it with light and life and good times with the people we love. I want to be better hosts and to be a refuge for people in our lives who might need to vent, have a good meal, or a place to stay. I love our little house so much, and I'm really excited to share more about it on HDWD. It's not totally ready for a full house tour yet, so in this post I'm sharing some detail shots I took around the house last weekend! More to come soon.

To recap my December goals progress, here's that list:

• Blog five times! Yes!
• Finish unpacking from our move (yes, we moved in October. And yet this is still one of the heaviest things on my to-do list, and one of the things I will be proudest about if I actually get it done!) Not totally, but I made progress!
• Successfully split the Christmas holiday between Grace's family and mine. This will be our fifth Christmas we've been dating (or engaged), but our FIRST Christmas we'll see each other on the actual holiday! We've always spent it separately with our respective families in years past. This year, both of our families will be in North Carolina, and we'll be spending time with both. I can't wait to go to my hometown church's Christmas Eve service together, go to our family friends' Christmas Eve dinner, hang out under the Christmas tree on Christmas morning, and start to make our own little family's traditions. Yes, and it was really sweet! Too short.
• Take our photos for our save the date invitations Yes, our good friend Molly took them for us and I'm so happy with how they turned out!
• Design and order a photobook of our Alaska trip Not yet.

And my January goals:

• Book our wedding caterer
• Book our wedding band
• Send out our save-the-date cards
• Register for gifts
• Secure group rates for our wedding at hotels near the venue
• Get organized with finances and start tracking spending again
• Brainstorm for a getaway to celebrate the first quarter of 2018 in about three months
• Blog 2x a week on Have Dog, Will Drive
• Finish unpacking our house, buy an entryway chair, and hang up some more frames
• Try running with Bean (he has that puppy energy and I could use the exercise, too!)

This is a big goals list, but I've actually already made progress on the majority of these! I am really trying to use this motivation and energy I've had lately to knock out some goals. If you set goals for January or 2018, I'd love to read them! 

Hope you enjoyed these pics of our house! I can't wait to share more.

Happy New Year!

Happy New Year from Have Dog, Will Drive! I hope you had a safe and meaningful NYE last night (if you're reading this on January 1) and a great start to 2018!

Yesterday, Grace and I went to our favorite beach in Malibu to watch the last sunset of 2017, and then we went over to some friends' house to ring in the new year. It was also our first time taking Bean to the beach! He LOVED it and it was so much fun seeing the beach and ocean through a puppy's eyes.

I want to share a few photos from last night and also some thoughts on 2018 goals generally.  I'll probably write a January goals post in the next few days, but for now I'm still working through them.

Bean's first time touching the ocean! So funny

Rather than strict goals for 2018, I'm setting guideposts and then making those overarching ideas happen through monthly, daily, and weekly goals. Some of my "guideposts" for 2018 are:

• Dream and pray about big, "impossible" ideas
• Celebrate each quarter (4 times a year do something really special to celebrate what I've accomplished in that period)
• Marry Grace in a way that points to what matters most
• Take better care of myself physically, using small steps to start
• Get back to careful budgeting and financial stewardship (I used to be really good about this but have gotten lazy!)

And, a big area of goal setting and achieving for me is in growing this blog! Having only been blogging for 8 months, I'm really inspired and encouraged by the process and I've learned so much. I also have been LOVING reading the responses I've gotten to my Reader Survey! (You can still take it if you haven't already). Thank you so much if you've already taken it. My next post is going to share some of the results I've gotten, which are really interesting and insightful. I can't wait to make 2018 HDWD's best year yet :)

I'd love to hear about your 2018 goals, guideposts, or dreams! And now, back to pictures of doggos and sunsets:

Wishing you a sweet new year with the people and animals you love!

December Goals + November Recap

After a couple of weeks of silence while traveling home over Thanksgiving, being swamped with work, and other happenings, I'm back! I really miss blogging when I get out of the habit. So, as you'll see below, one of my December goals is to be better about that!

Grace and I started off our December with a really fun trip to Palm Springs to celebrate our dear friend Sara's birthday. It was such a short, simple trip, so I've debated writing a separate post about it, but I think I will write one as a companion post to my First Impressions of Palm Springs post I wrote back in May.

Now that I'm back in LA and starting a new week, I figured I would belatedly post my December goals and a recap of my November progress. Without further ado:

November Goals:

• Slowly start being active and incorporating exercise after work on days I'm not working late--honestly, no! Whoops. That's real life.
• Enjoy a sweet time at home with my family in North Carolina later in the month--yes! It was the best, and I even found my wedding dress!
• Celebrate Grace's and my mom's birthdays (2 days apart)--yes.
• Take photos with my real camera--no :( I meant to bring my camera on our Pismo Beach road trip, but I forgot it in the whirlwind of getting out the door. That said, I'm still pretty happy with the (phone) photos I did manage to snap! Check them out in my recap post here.

December Goals:

• Blog five times!
• Finish unpacking from our move (yes, we moved in October. And yet this is still one of the heaviest things on my to-do list, and one of the things I will be proudest about if I actually get it done!)
• Successfully split the Christmas holiday between Grace's family and mine. This will be our fifth Christmas we've been dating (or engaged), but our FIRST Christmas we'll see each other on the actual holiday! We've always spent it separately with our respective families in years past. This year, both of our families will be in North Carolina, and we'll be spending time with both. I can't wait to go to my hometown church's Christmas Eve service together, go to our family friends' Christmas Eve dinner, hang out under the Christmas tree on Christmas morning, and start to make our own little family's traditions.
• Take our photos for our save the date invitations
• Design and order a photobook of our Alaska trip

If you're reading, thanks for sticking with me despite my brief hiatus! I got a few messages over the past couple of weeks asking when I'd blog again, and even though I felt badly that I'd let this little space go dormant, it was so encouraging and flattering that a few people actually wanted me to write more. Thank you! xoxo