Late last month, I sat down at my desk to create a list of ideas for what I want to do over the course of spring with a view to writing a bucket list for the season. When I’d finalised things, I set to work on a two page spread in my bullet journal which contains all of my planned activities, a sticker image or two to represent each one and some general springtime flowers. Today, I’m sharing the pages I created in the hope of inspiring you to make your own Spring bucket list. I’ll also discuss how I went about choosing what to include.
My finished Spring bucket list BuJo spread
Photo credit: Laura Jones for Keeping It Creative
How I went about choosing my bucket list items
I started the process of choosing my items by looking at my vision board for 2025. This helped me to focus in on things I want for the year and I picked out using my Cricut Easypress to create some projects and using the principles of Kaizen to discover why I haven’t made much progress with tidying and organising my craft room. You can see above how I added these to my bucket list.
I also thought about things that I wanted to achieve last year, but, for whatever reason, didn’t get around to or didn’t have much success with. In 2024, we bought a wide shallow pot to grow rainbow chard in. We planted seeds and grew some leaves but we didn’t really maintain them and also never used them in any recipes. For this reason, I’ve added homegrown chard to the bucket list and a picture of some nice colourful leaves to remind me of my intention.
Next, I considered creative pursuits that I want to do more of and remembered that I loved exploring with my watercolour paints. I hope to do more painting so I added ‘Do another watercolour exploration or two’ to my list. I’ve tried to keep it realistic and doable by only stating one or two activities this spring as I tend to add too many items and then struggle to get them all ticked off in the given time.
There are also a few activities on my list which I like to do every year or each season such as decorating our home, doing a seasonal jigsaw and collecting photos, ephemera, caption ideas and tip ins for my creative journalling. This year, I’ve bought a gorgeous Garden Allotment jigsaw puzzle which I couldn’t wait to get started on and have already made good progress with. I’ve also started to change our home decor to add spring related accents, including a few new ornaments which I purchased over the weekend. Towards the end of the season, we will be going on holiday to Portugal and, whilst there, I will be planning which aspects of the trip I wish to document in my journal so this has become part of my bucket list too.
Finally, I turned to Google and Pinterest to provide inspiration for other items to add to my list. I searched ‘Spring bucket list ideas for adults’ and selected some activities which appealed. I included some which I think would be fun to do such as baking bread and playing an outdoor game. I’ve already seen a frisbee in a National Trust shop which reminded me of my intention to do something I enjoyed as a child but I’m keeping my options open until the sunnier and warmer weather comes.
Final words…
I hope you’ve enjoyed seeing my spring bucket list as a creative double page spread in my bullet journal. If you haven’t yet had a go at writing a seasonal list, I thoroughly recommend it as a way of making sure you get the most out of the coming months. It’s also great fun creating decorative pages and looking at a colourful layout (especially with doodles or stickers) can help keep you motivated to try new things and revisit favourite activities.
Let me know in the comments if the idea of creating a bucket list appeals and feel free to add your Instagram or other details if you share yours on social media.
For the last five months, I have been setting a number of monthly goals which I aim to have met by the end of the month. Today, I thought I’d share my process using my actual list for this month as an example. I also want to explain how I make sure that each of them are SMART, even if the original goal is rather loose and unspecific.
Before I share my goals for February, here’s a quick reminder of what the letters of the acronym SMART stand for.
S – Specific
M – Measurable
A – Achievable
R – Relevant
T – Time bound
Now, obviously, all of my goals are time bound as I aim to have achieved them by the end of the month, but how do I make sure my goals meet the rest of the criteria? Well, here’s an image showing my simple goals laid out in my bullet journal and I’ll pick out two of them to consider in detail so you can see my thought process and actions I take to prepare.
My actual goals for February 2025
Image credit: Laura Jones for Keeping It Creative
Let’s take the first one:
Learn how to use my diffuser to create perfect nice curls.
I’ve made this goal specific by explaining exactly what I hope to achieve by learning to use my diffuser. I haven’t just said ‘learn how to use my diffuser attachment’, I’ve also stated what I want to use it for.
My goal can be measurable as I’m currently clueless on how to use the diffuser correctly, whereas when I’ve achieved my goal I should be able to use it to create nice looking curls. I’ll deem them to be nice enough if I would be happy to leave the house for the day with them looking like they do!
The goal is achievable as I have the resources required to work towards it, i.e. I own a diffuser attachment for my hairdryer and I can select video tutorials on YouTube to watch to learn the techniques involved. And, you’ll notice I’ve crossed out the word ‘perfect’ – this was intentional as I’m saying that the curls don’t need to look as perfect as they would when I step out of the hairdressers, but need to look nice enough to show them off with confidence.
The goal is a particularly relevant one for me as my hairdresser has been curling my hair with with a wand or straighteners and, although they look beautiful at first, I’m always frustrated with the way they drop out in less than an hour so, I’ve armed myself with curling gel which should help to hold the curl better. Also, I’ve always wanted to be able to create bouncy curls so this is a good objective.
Now, I know I said earlier that the goal is time bound, but, for me, saying I’m going to get all of the above goals ticked off by the end of February leaves too much opportunity for failure, so, I like to get super specific and dedicate a block of time to each project, activity or task involved in my monthly plan. For example, I might decide that on Wednesday 12th February in the morning, I’ll watch a couple of tutorials on YouTube that have been liked by lots of viewers (more likely to be good quality) and then have a go at curling my hair in the afternoon. I’ll also dedicate another 2 or 3 hours to perfecting my new skill until the curls look nice enough to go out with.
I also want to talk about the very last goal in my list:
‘Do two watercolour exploration exercises’.
I’ve picked this one to explain about, because I had something similar for one of my January goals, but I didn’t achieve it. In fact, I didn’t achieve a single part of it because I wrote ‘Do some watercolour exploration each week, using ideas from Painting Calm’ and, although I did a small amount of watercolouring just before the end of January, it wasn’t using ideas from my new book (which I have barely looked at yet) and it certainly didn’t happen every week!
To be completely honest, my goal was far too ambitious as it demanded a lot of time, something that I didn’t have enough of, especially with all of the other goals I’d set for that month. Therefore, it didn’t fit the achievable element of a SMART goal. So, this time, I’ve reduced what is expected of me, and I’m going to write into my monthly BuJo calendar, exactly when my watercolouring sessions will take place. I’ll also pre-pick the ‘watercolour explorations’ I’ll be doing so I can get prepared before I start. They can also be activities from my new book or ones I see in social media if I fancy trying them instead (they’re specific but not too ridged).
So, for my final goal (i.e. the one at the bottom of my list), although ‘Do 2 watercolour explorations’ might seem a bit vague, it can easily be developed as a SMART goal. It is specific as it states the kind of art I want to do and explains that they’re explorations so basically just me trying out a couple of techniques. It’s measurable as I’ll be able to see the evidence of two exploration style activities on watercolour paper or in a sketch book. It seems to be much more achievable – as long as I don’t get COVID again! It’s relevant, as exploring with watercolour is on my vision board for 2025 and it’s time bound as I plan to do both activities before the end of the month with my sessions identified on specific days (recorded in my BuJo) and time blocks drawn up on the actual day, based on how long I would like to spend doing them.
Final words…
I hope today’s post has been helpful for you and will assist you in turning your simple goals into SMART goals to increase your chance of achieving them. I see so many examples of incredibly unspecific goals when people share their monthly spreads and then, when they come to review their progress, they talk about how they only achieved a small number of them or, more often than not, had forgotten what they had said they wanted to do! As well as making your goals SMART, you should also remember to check back in with them on a regular basis. This way, you can pick out two or three for each week of the month and then outline your plans, first in your monthly set up, and then in your weekly.
I would wish you the best of luck with your goals, but really, what’s required is hard work and paying attention to what matters to you so I’ll just say I hope you’re ready for action and are focused on what you want! Go get em!
Last year, for some unknown reason, I think I must have decided against making a 2024 vision board. I’m not sure why, but maybe I didn’t feel up to it or perhaps I had a variety of commitments at the beginning of January and decided it was too late in the month to work on one.
For 2025, I decided that, for me personally, it’s not really important to have the board finished in super quick time and it doesn’t matter if I’m still working on it towards the end of January. I wanted to have a slow start to the first month, really pondering over what I would like the year to look like. I found it helpful to revisit a couple of old blog posts of mine in which I’d talked about key questions you could ask yourself to prepare your mind and what to actually do to improve your chances of manifesting everything you’ve visualised for the year.
I decided to create a larger display, rather than using two pages in my bullet journal as then I can have it on my craft room / office wall to look at all year round. I also chose to combine images, motivational sayings, affirmations and a few cute decorative elements to make it visually appealing. I’ve spend days thinking about what I truly want this year, flicking through a huge stash of Psychologies magazines, answering deep questions from my previous vision board posts, journalling my thoughts and closing my eyes to visualise things. I’m so glad I put lots into the preparation as my 2025 vision board is now complete and turned out exactly how I wanted it. I can’t wait to share a photograph of the finished product!
And here it is…
Photo credit: Laura Jones for Keeping It Creative
My main categories
Diet – The plan this year is to eat more plant-based goodies than ever before. We’ve made so many healthy and delicious vegan dishes this Veganuary and we’ve also found a cafe that has a range of vegan friendly cake options. It’s getting easier and easier to eat a plant based diet and my husband and I have already made a number of changes over the years such as soya milk on our cereal and oat milk in our hot drinks, vegan spread on our bread, lots of plant based alternatives to meat such as soya mince, veggie sausages, VLTs etc.
Creativity – I want to develop my watercolour skills even further this year, whilst also engaging in mindful and calming activity after busy days. I got a gorgeous book for Christmas which provides exploratory activities and projects with a nature theme. I want to incorporate a weekly slot of time to experiment and develop a range of techniques.
Blogging – I want to spend more time promoting my blog posts so that I develop a wider readership. I used to consistently post pins on Pinterest but I’ve let this slide over the last few years. I get plenty of readers but I want to reach individuals who do not have their own blog as well as those who are keen bloggers.
PCPI work – I thoroughly enjoy my work at the university but it’s really important to me that I’m making as much of a difference as I can to the students. I particularly want to develop my feedback skills for medicine sessions, particularly with young adults who are in the initial stages of their uni course.
Kaizen – I recently started a short book called The Little Book of Kaizen – The Japanese art of transformation, one small step at a time. I’m enjoying reading it and doing the exercises at the beginning. The idea really appeals to me, so, to make sure it’s a focus for me this year, I’ve added a photograph of the mini book on my vision board with a view to working through all of the chapters. I’ve even pick out a cute notebook to use to jot things down and I’m using my fountain pen to write beautifully inside.
Cricut – As you probably already know, I’m obsessed with making stickers and cutting them using my Joy Xtra. However, I also have the smaller Joy machine and also invested in the EasyPress 2 when it was on offer at a discount. I have lots of vinyl and HTV as well as some iron on papers so I want to spend time this year getting creative and using them all up. I have so many ideas but I now need to schedule time to actually get making things. I added a Cricut bug sticker to watch over me and remind me to have more fun playing with my machines.
Getting organised – We have a lot of stuff in our house and some of it needs purging. As well as trying to use up craft materials before buying any more, I also want to re-organise our home so it’s easy to clean and keep tidy.
Final words…
That’s everything on my vision board for this year and to ensure that everything on the display comes into fruition, I will be checking in with it at the beginning of each month and using the different aspects to set mini monthly goals. I’ve developed pages in my bullet journal to list my goals and I’ll make sure at least some of them relate to things I want to manifest throughout the year.
I hope you enjoyed seeing my board and that it’s inspired you to have a go at creating your own. It doesn’t matter if you don’t get around to it for a few weeks – there’s still plenty of days left in the year to take action.
I started creating seasonal bucket lists in autumn 2023 and earlier this year I shared a short guide to them in a blog post, where I discussed exactly what a bucket list is, the benefits of making one and some tips for deciding what to include so it is tailor made to you. Over the last week, I’ve been working on my winter 2024/5 bucket list and it’s quite different to my previous winter season one which I’m really pleased about because I want to make sure I plan new opportunities for myself and my husband.
Today, I’m sharing the two page spread I created in my bullet journal where I add the bucket list items, small illustrative stickers to go with each and a few snowflakes and sparkles to fill the gaps. Although it was quite time consuming, I had so much fun making most of the stickers using Cricut Design Space, my Cricut Joy Xtra and a couple of sheets of matte sticker paper and then planning their positions over thew two pages with an icy blue background. I also found a few extra tiny stickers in my mini Carpe Diem ‘Season’s sticker book.
My finished bucket list pages
Photo credit: Laura Jones for Keeping It Creative
I think the result is so aesthetically pleasing that I’ll be sure to keep checking in with pages, selecting goals for each of the winter months (obviously doing the Christmas ones in December), then deciding on one or two to complete or start to work on for each week across the season. As I finish them, I’ll be adding little tick stickers that I also made with my Cricut Joy Xtra.
Final words…
Creating a seasonal bucket list is a great way to maximize the potential of the coming months and it’s so much fun too. As you can see, I love getting creative with mine in my bullet journal but you could simply make a list and tape it to your fridge or add your own cute little doodles to show what you want to achieve.
And, if you don’t achieve it all, it doesn’t matter. You may find that your priorities change or that other opportunities present themselves that you want to do instead. You might run out of time or decide that you simply don’t want to do one or more of the items. For example, I had on my list for this season to create an autumnal quote page in my bullet journal with hand drawn elements, but, by the third week of November, I’ve still not done it and it seems pointless to spend the time drafting one out and decorating it when my focus in now on winter and what I want to do over the next three months.
I hope that seeing my bucket list for this winter has inspired you to have a go at creating your own. You’re quite welcome to use some of my ideas if you have similar interests to me and Pinterest has a good number of lists too, but I recommend taking your time and really thinking about what you love about the season, activities you’ve done before and want to make time for again, or things you’ve always wanted to try, either on your own or with loved ones. Let me know in the comments what your top three are!
Over the past week, the weather in Sunderland has cooled down and it’s been quite breezy with a few warmish rain showers. It feels like the end of summer is fast approaching and that we’re quickly heading into the autumn time. My husband reckons there are still some bright and sunny days to come and I shouldn’t pack away my shorts, vest tops and cropped trousers just yet but, although I love a nice bit of sunshine, I certainly won’t miss applying greasy sunscreen to my exposed skin before spending time outdoors and feeling hot and sweaty in bed at night despite only having a thin cotton sheet as a covering. In fact, I’m looking forward to autumn this year and will be planning lots of lovely activities for the season. Today, I thought I’d share how I’m getting ready for autumn 2024 with the intention of giving you some simple ways to prepare for what’s to come and hopefully helping you to look forward to the coming months too.
Home decor
A few months ago, I was looking at the autumnal home decor in Next and saw some really cute pieces. I was very tempted to make a purchase of yet another pumpkin but I resisted as I already have over ten in my collection. However, when I got home, I decided to look at everything on their website, as often, many of the products are not available in store. With 205 items including bedding, kitchenware and tableware, vases, fragrances, lighting, pictures and more, I found it difficult to restrict myself to just one item but I was very restrained and, for click and collect, ordered a sweet little three-dimensional autumn picture with battery operated tiny light up sections.
Cute little light up 3D Hello Autumn sign
Other ways I’ll be getting my home ready in terms of decor include:
putting away a couple of my current mugs and replacing them with my oversized autumn leaves design one (from TKMaxx)
adding our autumn wreath to our front door (I got ours from Lights4Fun)
getting out my various pumpkins to display – I have different sizes and different textures including some ceramic ones, some plush ones in velvet (including a fantastic orange doorstop with sequins on along the grooves) and a lovely handmade crocheted one which I got last year
bring my throws and blankets out of storage to place on the arms our settee and the chair in our living room
airing our thicker quilt to put on the bed as the nights get cooler
choosing a few new candles to scent our home to go with the ‘baked apple pie’ one I purchased late last year (unfortunately, Aggie, our hamster doesn’t react well to stronger smells so I’m having to place them well away from her cage in the hallway)
collecting and using pine cones, dried leaves, stems and branches to create natural centrepieces and arrangements
making my own autumn inspired decor using my collection of watercolours (for this, I will experiment with mixing different earthy and autumnal colours in my palette such as browns, yellows, oranges and deep reds)
Planning some fun activities for the season
Over the past year, starting in autumn 2023, I’ve been creating a seasonal bucket list and then working on a journal to record my experiences. I’ve thoroughly enjoyed creating these but making and finishing the journals has been time consuming and involved quite a lot of expense – I must have gotten through over 50 roller tape glues over the course of the year. So, now that project is almost over, I’ve decided to continue making a bucket list for each season but only record a few of our favourite and completely new experiences in journal pages. I’m yet to create my Autumn 2024 bucket list but here’s last years in case you haven’t seen it already.
Photo credit: Laura Jones for Keeping It Creative
Wardrobe changes
Although I have my shorts and crops out at the moment, as the season gets going, I’ll be laundering and putting them all away and getting all of my thin and more cosy knits out. I picked out a few new jumpers and cardigans last year and have already bought a gorgeous pale khaki green batwing jumper with metallic fibres from Love & Roses at Next so I’m pretty much set for the season already!
We’ll also be washing and vacuum packing our thinner summer weight duvet in favour of a higher tog but we won’t put the thickest one on until the really cold nights! And finally, my sandals will be heading into the loft and my walking shoes and ankle boots will be taking their place. I keep my trainers out for my gym sessions but rarely wear them out and about unless I know I’m only going to be walking on solid, open paths where they won’t get soggy or muddy.
Recipes and drinks
As I write this section, I’m enjoying an icy cold J2O Summer Shine to help me hydrate after an intense Clubbercise class. However, in the autumn time, I will crave warming coffees, creamy hot chocolates and tasty mochas. I’m also hoping that I will still be enjoying my new, very low calorie option, mint tea, which I believe only has about 2 calories per cup. I’ve long wished to develop a liking for herbal teas (to ensure I don’t drink too much coffee in the colder months) but it has taken me a long time to find something I can tolerate let alone grow to love!
As well as transitioning mainly to hot drinks, my husband and I will also be swapping light salads for heavier and warming soups, stews, pasta and risottos. Before the autumn season arrives, I like to pick out some online recipes to try using my favourite ingredients. I also like to fill our store cupboard with wholegrain rice and pasta, packets of other healthy grains such as quinoa, freekeh, bulgur wheat and oats, plus tins of pulses such as chickpeas, kidney beans, butterbeans, black beans and lentils. We also tend not to have ice cream when the temperatures drop, opting for warming desserts with lashings of custard such as treacle tart or syrup sponge. I’m also planning on having a go at making a pineapple upside down cake (complete with cherries in each pineapple ring) this year as I remember enjoying the ones my mum used to make when I was a kid. I just need to add it to my bucket list so I don’t forget!
Pumpkin everything?
Personally, I love cooking with the various squashes that are around at this time of year and love trying different varieties (interesting known as winter squashes not autumn!). However, I’m not a fan of the popular PSL (AKA pumpkin spiced latte) or other sweet pumpkin flavoured treats that become available. Also, I don’t want any of the sickly sweet pumpkin scented candles that can be found in abundance at TKMaxx already. I don’t mind the spice element, but I’d rather go for a nice warming cinnamon. What about you? Do you fully embrace pumpkin in sweet stuff or are you glad when they run out of pumpkin spiced stuff at your local Starbucks? Luckily, cinnamon flavoured items can be purchased alongside the popular gingerbread bits and pieces which come out closer to Christmas time so their warmth can be enjoyed in winter too.
Digital screens
Each season, I change the wallpaper on my laptop and my mobile phone. Last year, I remember having a photograph of a squirrel collecting nuts, surrounded by autumn leaves which I’m sure was digitally created but used to make me smile each time I logged into my computer. I’ve seen lots of background images on Canva Pro which I must choose from before my free trial ends. For the phone wallpaper, I usually just Google ‘autumn aesthetic phone screens for android’.
Enjoying the outdoors
As the weather becomes slightly chillier, there’s no need to stay inside with the heating on and complain about how cold it’s becoming. Going for walks in the autumn is, in my opinion, an absolute must, especially when the leaves begin to change to beautiful shades of red, orange, yellow and brown and then start to lace the ground. As long as you remember to layer up so you stay warm and cosy whilst enjoying the stunning scenes, there’s so much that nature has to offer. And if you struggle with cold and pain in your hands when the temperature steadily drops, my husband can recommend the rechargeable hand warmers that you can pick up on Amazon for a small (and very worth it) charge.
As you enjoy the outdoors, why not collect some nature elements to display at home or make art with such as pine cones, jewel-coloured leaves, branches and stems. Google autumn nature crafts and don’t be put off from doing something arty just because it says it for kids!
Final words…
The more preparation you put in prior to the autumn commencing, the more joy you’ll feel and the more exciting opportunities you’ll create. Each season has so much to offer us and rather than engaging in that popular British pastime of complaining about the weather, why not spend your time fully embracing autumn doing activities that you love or have always wanted to try?
Keeping it creative 