A Lovely Life List

This isn’t a bucket list. These aren’t things I need to cross off before I die. Will I ever accomplish everything here? Probably not, but that’s not the goal. This list exists simply as a collection of things I would like to do in my lifetime. If writing them down helps me focus, and in turn helps me achieve some of them, the list has served its purpose.

A life list should never make you feel guilty for not accomplishing something! It should serve as a compass, opening you up to experiences that you may have discounted otherwise. I started this list in 2010, inspired by Maggie. My hope is that by sharing this publicly, I will hold myself accountable and achieve more than I would otherwise. I tend to do well with public lists.

I come back and edit this post as I cross things off, and I fully expect this list to change as time goes on.

Experiences

• Live in another city for a year (San Francisco?)
• Take an extended vacation
• Host a traditional Thanksgiving dinner
• Shake the President’s hand
• Go sightseeing on a Vespa/scooter
• Teach a craft project to a group
• Karaoke in front of a crowd
• Attend a costume party in a costume I’ve made myself
• Organize a big event
• Surprise someone in a big way
• Keep a house plant alive for at least a year
• Grow tomatoes from seed
• Try fencing, complete with the proper gear
• Run in a 5K
• Be completely debt-free (mortgage included)
• Help build a home for charity
• Take belly dancing lessons

Sights

• Look out over Paris
• Cross the Brooklyn Bridge
• Cross the Golden Gate Bridge
• Visit The Farnsworth House (Mies van der Rohe)
• Visit the Robie House, Taliesin East, Fallingwater, and revisit Frank Lloyd Wright’s home and studio here in Oak Park
• Take the Chicago Architecture Foundation’s River Cruise
• Take the kids to The House on the Rock (it’s bizarre)
• Step out on the ledge of the Willis Tower Skydeck
• Cross the Canadian border, eh
• Visit Brunelleschi’s dome
• Visit Japan when it’s pink with cherry blossoms
• Have a cheesy photo taken of me holding up the Leaning Tower of Pisa

Just Plain Fun

• Make a dollhouse for Eleanor
• Finish a paint-by-numbers painting
• Wear a ridiculous hat to an event
• Dress up with friends for a showing of The Rocky Horror Picture Show
• Experience weightlessness
• Beat the classic Super Mario Bros. game
• Learn how to solve a Rubik’s cube
• Wear a sequined dress to a party
• Have the Thriller dance in my repertoire

Family

• Have another baby
• And another
• Have a completely natural labor and childbirth
• Cart the kids around town in a cargo bike
• Go roller skating with Eleanor and August
• Have an adorable family photo taken
• Have a new adorable family photo taken (the family has expanded since the last one)
• Celebrate my 50th wedding anniversary
• Read Charlotte’s Web with Eleanor and August

Home

• Paint every room in my house
• Paint all of the trim in our house
• Live in a house with a lovely entryway
• Gut an old fixer-upper house and completely remodel it
• Make a fairy garden for the kids
• Have a library with a rolling ladder

Style

• Only wear lovely undergarments
• Ruthlessly edit my closet down to only my favorite things
• Find my perfect shade of lipstick
• Sew a dress for myself that I would actually wear
• Wear perfume regularly again

Skills

• Identify twenty constellations
• Learn how to use my camera in manual mode
• Earn a belt in a martial art
• Perfect my turn stop on skates
• Play the ukulele
• Learn to swim
• Read 100 classics

Professional / Career

• Publish a book
• Be a keynote speaker
• Have a monthly column in a magazine
• Start a charitable creative movement (like a chain letter but more fulfilling)
• Do/create something worthy of being nominated as a MacArthur Fellow
• Meet Martha Stewart
• Meet Jonathan Adler
• Redesign Making it Lovely
• Sell my designs through a nationwide store
• Art direct a photo shoot
• Name paint colors
• Design wallpaper
• Judge a design competition
• Create a proper portfolio for myself
• Decorate someone else’s home from top to bottom
• Make enough money to support my family
• Make an appearance in five forms of media (book, magazine, television, radio, internet)
• Have my home featured in a Domino-like magazine or book

Projects

• Take a photo every day for a year
• Start a family tradition
• Choose a good cookbook and cook every recipe in it
• Give only handmade gifts for a year