Whooo-ooooaahhh we’re half way there!

(post title to be sung in your best Jon Bon Jovi voice please :)  )

You might remember, way way back in time, at the start of 2011, I set a list of 101 family goals, with the aim of getting them all ticked off the list in 1001 days.  I called it Project Zero, because it was inspired by the Day Zero Project website (and I slightly mis-remembered its name :) )

Well, today is day 500 – so we are, give or take a fraction of a day, at the half way point.  A good time to take stock and see how far we have got.

I’m happy to say that we have already fully achieved 34 of the goals, and have made good progress on some of the others….here’s a roll call so far:

Goal Number / Description / Date Achieved

50 / Start a regular Art Journal / 01 Jan 2011 - I not only started it, but I kept going all through the year and ended up filling my Moleskine to the brim and it was featured on their website which made me happy :)

10 / Go to a Disney theme park / 15 Feb 2011 - Florida would have been nice, but definitely out of the budget - so we took a short trip to Euro Disney in Paris instead:

5 / Have a smooch by or on the Eiffel Tower / 17 Feb 2011 - done and commemorated in my journal :)

24 / Get a Geocaching FTF! / 19 Feb 2011 - FTF stands for "first to find" - ie you are the first person to discover a geocache after it is published.  These are very competitive!!  And we were very lucky to get this one as another team was literally breathing down our necks as we raced through the woods :)

31 / Be early for school every day for a fortnight / 21 Mar 2011 - not an easy task for a sleepy boy and an even sleepier mum - neither of us are morning people!  It took us a number of attempts to get the unbroken fortnight without a single late morning, but we managed it by the end of March

79 / Get lost in the maze at Blenheim Palace / 27 Mar 2011 - this was a great day out thanks to Mr Tesco - I don't think I would have parted with £60 real cash for a family ticket, but it was a steal with Clubcard tokens.  The maze was a lot of fun as was the rest of the house and grounds.

66 / Find a 5 star difficulty geocache / 09 Apr 2011 - 5 stars is at the top of the scale, reserved only for the most difficult hiding spots or puzzles to solve.  We thought we would struggle to manage one - we actually found two in the same month!  (none since then though, I think it was a fluke :) )

36 / Make a skull quilt block for the Skull A Day DV project / 18 Apr 2011 - here she is, I called her Skullita:

94 / Visit Clifton Observatory / 15 May 2011 - this place is extremely cool - what with the camera obscura and the cave in the cliff, and the rock slide.  And it's cheap too.  If you live anywhere near Bristol, and you haven't visited, go!

Observatory on the top, from which you go down a teeny tiny tunnel  to the cave opening highlighted.  Very cool.

6 / Bake (from scratch!) and decorate cupcakes / 18 Jun 2011 - it had to be from scratch, no kits allowed.  And I'm not a natural baker :)  But with the kids help we did it, and they were delish!

I can't find a photo of the cupcakes we made in June - but here are some others that we made at Halloween which are prettier anyway :)

58 / Connor to learn to ride his bike / 18 Jun 2011 - this bike had been sat in the shed unloved for a while after the last unsuccessful attempt at bike riding.... but this time he stuck at it and got the hang of it .... and nowadays we can't get him off the thing :)

15 / Visit 5 more National Trust properties before our membership runs out / 25 Jun 2011 - we *just* managed this before our membership expired at the end of June - our five extra properties were Great Coxwell Barn, Stourhead (gorgeous! photo below), Badbury Hill Fort, Winchester City Mill, Bath Assembly Rooms and Dyrham Park.  Yes I know that's six, but the last two were on the same day so that counts as one day out :)

33 / Go to a music festival / 08 Jul 2011 - Sonisphere baby!!! :)  We had an amazing time there last summer.  And we're heading to Download this year (albeit only for the Sunday)

27 / Have a Facebook-free week / 11 Jul 2011 - I thought this one would be difficult, it was imposed on the whole family but as I'm the only one who usually uses Facebook every day, I was the one expected to struggle the most.  but, you know what?  I ended up going a full fortnight and I didn't even miss it much.  I'm back to full addict levels again nowadays though :)

4 / A day out at Weston Super Mare / 03 Aug 2011 - believe it or not I'd never been to Weston Super Mud before, despite having lived in this part of the world for over ten years now.  We had a lot of fun.  In the mud :)  And mucking about on the pier:

71 / Find a geocache in a cave / 26 Aug 2011 - this was up on the Yorkshire Dales, and it is one of my favourite ever caches

57 / Holiday in Blackpool / 28 Aug 2011 - we had a really good fun week up in and around Blackpool.  We haven't been able to afford a big foreign holiday the past couple of years, but we honestly haven't missed out as we've been having just as much fun exploring the good old UK.  Cornwall next summer, looking forward to it!

83 / Visit Gormley's "Another Place" sculptures / 28 Aug 2011 - so, so, so, cool

48 / Sell something hand made on Etsy or Folksy / 05 Sep 2011 - I was chuffed to bits when this sold.  I just wanted to know if I could make something that a complete stranger would actually be prepared to part with money for.

63 / Make a wish at 11:11 on November 11 2011 / 11 Nov 2011 - I can't remember for the life of me what I wished for...but I know we did it :)

Pressies from Underground Santa

9 / A day out at Symonds Yat and Clearwell Caves / 11 Dec 2011 - this was a rainy rainy day, so we didn't see much at Symonds Yat, but thankfully the caves are "indoors" :)

62 / Follow along with the A Year In The Life of an Art Journal blog and join in at least once a month for a full year / 03 Jan 2012 - I'm usually GREAT at starting things, but rubbish at sticking with them, so this was a tricky one for me.  But I did it, yay.  You can see all my pages here, but this one was my favourite:

70 / Contribute a set of pages to the tallest handmade book in the world / 10 Jan 2012.  Done.  Can't wait to see the finished article.

43 / Find the Towers and Tors of Somerset multi cache / 22 Jan 2012 - this was an amazing geocache!  It took us over a year to complete and helped us discover some amazing places (and I expect we burnt up lots of calories too climbing up all those towers!).









28 / Climb Glastonbury Tor / 22 Jan 2012 - and we went up the steep side of the hill too - oof - that was hard work!

91 / Take part in the Sketchbook Project one year and actually finish & submit book / 24 Jan 2012 - the biggest single project I've ever undertaken I think.  I look forward to visiting my book when the tour comes to London in October.

8 / See a real duck billed platypus / 12 Feb 2012 -  we were *hoping* for a live one - but apparently there aren't any in captivity in the UK - so a stuffed one in an Oxford museum had to do....

.....and talking of museums....

56 / Visit 12 different museums / 20 Feb 2012 - we've actually been to way more than 12 - it has been fun finding unusual smaller museums to visit as well as the big London blockbusters.  Highlights have been the fashion museum in Bath, the naval museums in Portsmouth, all the wonderful individual museums at Ironbridge, and the rather eccentric Pitt Rivers museum in Oxford where all the lights are dimmed and you discover the exhibits by the light of your wind up torch

trying on corsets and crinolines at the Fashion Museum

the Pitt Rivers

2 / Find a Wherigo cache / 25 Feb 2012 - we have been meaning to try one of these for ages, but our closest was in Bristol and we had never had the time while we were there.  So when a new one was hidden in a Swindon park, we were right on it.  It was a lot of fun, like playing a real life computer game, the kids enjoyed it too.  We did try the one in Bristol too a few weeks later, but my phone ran out of battery before we got to the end.

95 / Take part in iHanna's mail art swap / 13 Mar 2012 - this was the best swap I have ever joined in with and I will definitely be playing again next year

41 / Go to the top of a lighthouse / 08 Apr 2012 - this is something I have always wanted to do since I was a little girl - and we got the opportunity this Easter when we visited Portland in Dorset and the lighthouse was open for visitors.  Lots and lots of steps to the top but well worth the legwork :)

49 / Set up an independent Circle/Collaborative Journal site/blog / 12 Apr 2012 - something I have been thinking about doing for years, and I finally got around to it last month:

85 / See three stand up comedians live / 20 Apr 2012 - we saw Tim Vine last April, Ed Byrne last summer, and Stewart Francis this April.  All very funny indeed.

64 / Postcrossing - get up to 250 postcards sent / 15 May 2012 - I'm not the most prolific postcrosser, it has taken me 805 days, according to the site, to hit this milestone. But I do enjoy sending and receiving postcards, so let's see how long it takes me to get to 500.

So that's our thirty four goals so far achieved.

We have others that are nearly there, and yet more that have been arranged (tickets booked etc) but haven't actually happened yet.

Will we manage all 101?  Doubtful.  But I reckon we'll get at least three quarters of them done.

And without setting the goals, we would definitely have managed far fewer.

So it has been, and continues to be, a great way of motivating us to discover new places and experiences.

I'll be back with another update someday....ttfn

4 goals down, 97 to go!

 

Just a quickie page to celebrate the completion of another one of our Project Zero goals - to take the kids (and us big kids!) to a Disney theme park.

In real life it's more terracotta/orange, and less pooey brown :)

AJED : 61 / 365

I really don't mind what you call it....

The other day, on an internet forum, someone took it upon themselves to tell me that what I do isn't "REAL art journalling", as I often use my own photos and the journalling on the page is usually just documenting the photo - hence I am "just a scrapbooker".

I think I was supposed to be upset by that, but to be perfectly honest, I'm not in the slightest bit fussed what you want to call it, I'm just having fun doing what I do :)   I certainly don't have any personal need to call what I make "art".  I've always considered myself more of a crafter than an artist anyway, although I often use artists' materials in my craft.

But anyway, here's another page in my journal / little scrapbook / book of fun :)

This page commemorates the ticking off of another one of our Project Zero goals - to have a smooch on or in front of the Eiffel Tower.

We're not the world's most romantic couple, but who could resist the opportunity for a little 'moment' in the cité d'amour? :)

Lots of sparkle on this one from copious applications of glimmer mist.  Shimmer shimmer.

And it's VERY purple.  It wasn't supposed to be, but it just turned out that way :)

My little Moleskine is getting really colourful and pretty at the edges now - and it's seriously fattening up  - it will be HUGE by the time it's all full!

AJED : 55 / 365

I was supposed to be having an early night tonight....

....but I thought, in the spirit of ten minutes art journalling every day, before heading up the stairs, I'd just spend a little time adding some more paint to the background I started in my book yesterday....

...and of course I got carried away and ended up finishing the whole page.  Ooops.

Never mind, it's still only 11pm, that's still an early-ISH night.

This is a fairly simple page just to celebrate the completion of one of our Project Zero goals - we finally got a First To Find!!!  (in Geocaching, if someone hides a brand new geocache, and you get to it first and are the first to sign the log book, you get FTF honours).

It has taken us three years to get our first FTF as it's a highly competitive side of the game - as soon as a new cache is published, the race is on, with local cachers legging it to the location.  And we have never been fast enough before.

(We were very nearly not fast enough this time either, with another team literally breathing down our necks racing across the field - it was fun!)

I like how the background turned out on this page, you can't really see on the photo but the dry-brushed paints over the washi tape stripes are semi metallic, and they catch the light really nicely as you tilt the book.

The compass was made with a Tim Holtz mask with the N, S, E, W letters drawn on with paint pens.

There will be another Project Zero page in the journal soon as we cracked another goal while we were in France...

AJED : 52/365

the mysterious Project Zero unveiled!

It wasn’t supposed to be so mysterious, by the way, it’s just that I knew this would be a long blog post, and I just haven’t had time to write it all up until now (plus I wanted to finish blogging the A-Z Year first as this effectively replaces A-Z as our family’s main motivational ‘thing’ this year).

So – a bit of background….

At some point last year, I saw on another blog, reference to a site called Day Zero. The point of this site, is that users would choose a start date (Day Zero), and a list of 101 goals that they would like to achieve – some big, some small. From their Day Zero, they get 1,001 days (just under 3 years) to tick everything off of that list. So that’s roughly one goal achieved every ten days, if things go to plan, and the nice long timescale gives you time to make arrangements / save up cash for any goals that are tricky/expensive (one of ours, for example, is to go to California, which we will need a year or two’s saving up for, for sure).

The Day Zero website was fab – you could browse through everyone else’s lists for inspiration, and there were various other ways to help you pick your goals – I liked the “would you rather” tool especially. And there was somewhere to store your own goals too. Which I did. And I didn’t back them up anywhere.

(you know what's coming next, don't you....)

And then the web site disappeared last December! Nooooo! (The owner is travelling in India and is unable to get it fixed until he gets home, so it’s still down)

Which is another reason why I am late blogging this, as I had to start all over again building the list of goals. Bummer :(

I also, for some reason, started calling the thing “Project 101” in my head, which then got kind of merged to “Project Zero”, which actually makes less sense than either “Day Zero” or “Project 101” when you think about it, but never mind, it has kind of stuck now.

So – now you know what it is, here is our list!

(you’ll notice we’re not quite up to 101 yet, this is because we wanted to leave some scope to add new goals in during the course of the project, there are about 20 spaces left to fill)

Day Zero – 1st January 2011
End Date – 28th September 2013

Goals are categorised depending on who they are for (just me, me and Jay, or the whole family), and what type of goal it is (travel, creative, geocaching, none of the above….)

They are in no particular order of importance:

All of Us

Places To Go

• A trip to the IoW including a game at the Ryde rink
• A day out at Symonds Yat and Clearwell Caves
• Climb Glastonbury Tor
• Get lost in the maze at Blenheim Palace – progress made on this one, have already bought tickets
• Go to a Roller Derby bout
• Visit Gormley's "Another Place" sculptures
• Visit 10 UNESCO World Heritage sites – 3 down, 7 to go
• Go to the seaside in the Winter
• Visit the European Drag Racing Championships at Santa Pod
• Holiday in Blackpool – booked for next August, this was the kids’ choice, I’m not sure if I’m looking forward to it or not!
• A day out at Weston Super Mare – this one’s for me, as I’ve never been despite living so close, and we want to see the new pier
• Go to a Disney theme park – booked! We are off to Disneyland Paris next month, woohoo!
• Visit Barbury Castle – right on our doorstep but we’ve never been
• Go camping – not looking forward to this one :( I’m too old for tents!
• Climb Solsbury Hill nr Bath
• Holiday to California & Oregon – this is our long shot goal, fingers crossed for a lottery win!
• Ride 5 roller coasters that none of us have ever been on before
• Visit all 9 of the surviving Wilts/Oxon white horses – 2 down, 7 to go
• Visit the Isle of Man
• Go to Alton Towers – Connor has never been, and it’s at least 15 years since I last did
• Clifton Observatory
• Visit 10 different museums
• Go to Drayton Manor
• Holiday in Cornwall
• Visit 5 more National Trust properties before our membership runs out – expires June 2011

Geocaching

• Get a FTF! – we only want one, we’re not greedy :)
• Between our two accounts, own a total of 10 active cache hides – we currently have 3
• Find a geocache in a tunnel
• Solve and find a total of 10 puzzle caches
• Visit at least two of the Geocaching Trifecta in Oregon & Seattle – this relies on the California / Oregon holiday
• Find a night cache (one that is designed only for night time access)
• Find a geocache in a cave / underground
• Find a Wherigo cache
• Find a CHIRP cache

Other

• Bake (from scratch!) and decorate cupcakes – we aren’t the most domesticated of families, usually only making cakes from the sort of cake mix where you just add water and hope for the best - so this routine task for most will be an interesting adventure for us!
• Go kite flying on a beach
• Witness a solar eclipse – let’s hope there is one scheduled at some point in the next 2 and ¾ years! :)
• Attempt surfing – emphasis on the word attempt
• Make a wish at 11:11 on November 11 2011
• take Connor and Reece to their first live gig – the tricky bit will be getting them to agree on a band they both like
• Tie a note to a helium filled balloon and let it go
• Have a Facebook-free week – eeeek!
• Start a new family tradition
• See a duck billed platypus in the flesh – the trouble with this one, is they don’t seem to be in any zoos outside Australia!!
• Go horseriding 
• Go up in a hot air balloon
• Snorkel with fishes all around
• Go go-karting or quad biking
• Go to a football match
• Milk a cow

Just Sarah & Jay

Places to Go

• Have a smooch by or on the Eiffel Tower – Paris trip booked for February, just have to persuade him to kiss me :)
• A long weekend in Prague

Geocaching

• Reach the milestone of 500 geocaches found
• Find a 5-star geocache (difficulty and/or terrain)

Hockey

• Visit MKL, Telford and Manchester EPL rinks – MKL down, 2 to go
• See at least two more NHL teams play live

Other

• See comedians Ed Byrne and David O Doherty live – progress made on this one, Ed Byrne tickets booked for March 2011
• Get both our showers fixed!
• Make a list of 10 movies that we both really want to watch, and watch them

Just the kiddies 

• Reach the milestone of 300 geocaches found
• Make a water rocket (as seen on Backyard Science)
• Have a go at fishing
• Learn to ice skate
• Be early for school every day for a fortnight
• Connor – learn to ride his bike

Just Sarah

• Frame some of my own work behind glass and hang it up in my home
• Set up a circle/collaborative journal site/blog – I’ve set the blog up, but it needs a lot more work before it goes live
• Do the Project365 photography thang – I’m going to do this next year I think, easing myself in with the UKScrappers A-Z photography challenge this year instead
• Make a big-enough-to-be-functional quilt
• Send a secret to Postsecret
• Start a daily Art Journal – ACHIEVED 1/1/11
• Get back into ATCs - take part in three ATC swaps
• Sell something hand made on Etsy or Folksy – just one thing will do
• Photograph Highgate Cemetery
• Finish Darby's coif
• Learn to play 3 songs on the guitar
• Teach Lauren how to make a charm bracelet
• Finish Pacman needlepoint – about 40% complete but has been shoved in a drawer for the last 3 years
• Make a "our year in pictures" scrapbook for 2011
• Learn how to use my jeweller's saw 

And that’s about it!

That little lot should keep us busy for the next couple of years, eh? :)

I’ll blog every goal as we achieve them, in the meantime, wish us luck with finding a live duck billed platypus and saving up enough money to go to California! Oh, and remember, if I suddenly disappear from Facebook, I’m not actually dead, I’m just having a week off :)