25. Finish the Cinderella cross-stitch I started in 1992

You may not have seen a blog about this for a while because I never really got anywhere. A busy lifestyle and no “me” time means that I never really get a chance to sit and do this. 

However, I just went away for the Bank Holiday weekend with Matheus and his family to Hay on the Wye Festival, which is a literary festival, and I thought that in the downtime when I wasn’t going to see speakers, I would sit and do some more of this. I detached it from it’s wooden frame, put it in its old WH Smith bag and went on my merry way. 

Remember this???

I didn’t get as much time as I wanted but I did manage to complete some more of a leg and the head. I really need to put some more time aside for this. I have enough train journeys for work where I could but I tend to use the time to work. 

Honestly, I have made progress 

It’s been out on my wooden frame for so long that I’m going to finish the thread I’m on and then give it a gentle hand wash to make it clean. I might feel better about it if it’s nice and fresh!

32. Watch 40 Tom Hanks movies (Part 2)

As mentioned in a previous blog (November 2017), I am a huge fan of Tom Hanks; he’s such a versatile actor. I’ve watched a number of his movies over the years. Some of my favourite movies have had him in the cast. Some of the movies below (in chronological order) I actually can’t believe I haven’t seen already e.g. Philadelphia, Cast Away.

I cannot recollect which of Joe Versus the Volcano or Bonfire of the Vanities I have seen so I will have to watch both. I know I’ve seen one of them or maybe I’ve seen parts of both.

When creating this list I was thinking how good it would be to see some of these movies again once I’ve completed the list, e.g. A League of their Own, Big, Turner & Hooch. There are a handful I have definitely seen more than once: Big, That Thing You Do, You’ve Got Mail, all the Toy Story movies, Forrest Gump, Sleepless in Seattle and A League of their Own (yes, I said I want to see Big and League again even though I’ve seen them before - they’re just too good not to).

I’ve read the Green Mile books but have still never got around to seeing the movie.

I can’t believe I haven’t made any progress since my last blog. This is very disappointing but I blame not having enough time at the weekend to actually sit down and watch a movie. I also need to make sure it’s something that Matheus will also want to see, which is always where the complication lies. Perhaps you can give me short reviews of the movies I haven’t seen to try to persuade my husband to watch a few with me. Please do comment below.

Movie	Seen it?
Splash	YES
Bachelor Party
Big	YES
Punchline
The ‘Burbs	YES
Turner & Hooch	YES
Joe Versus The Volcano
The Bonfire of the Vanities
A League of their Own	YES
Sleepless In Seattle	YES
Philadelphia
Forrest Gump	YES
Apollo 13	YES
Toy Story	YES
That Thing You Do	YES
Saving Private Ryan	YES
You’ve Got Mail	YES
Toy Story 2	YES
The Green Mile
Cast Away
Road To Perdition	YES
Catch Me If You Can	YES
The Ladykillers
The Terminal	YES
Elvis Has Left The Building
The Polar Express
The Da Vinci Code	YES
Charlie Wilson’s War
The Great Buck Howard
Angels & Demons
Toy Story 3	YES
Larry Crowne
Saving Mr Banks	YES
Bridge of Spies	YES
Ithaca
Sully: Miracle on the Hudson
Inferno
The Circle
The Post	YES
Toy Story 4

I can’t wait for Toy Story 4 to be released. Only a couple of months to go!

I shall now start adding the movies that I have yet to see to my Netflix and Amazon Prime lists and then find some time to watch them!

23. Lose 40lbs (Part 3)

Last year, you may recall I blogged about having issues losing weight, especially in the lead up to my wedding. I did manage to lose a fair amount but not enough to know that I looked amazing on my wedding day despite people telling me I did. I know I could have made more of an effort, deep down.

I don’t know what’s wrong with me. The more people tell me I need to lose weight, the more difficult I find it. I guess I’m using this blog post as therapy really. 

I’ve been in my current job two years and it involves a lot of travelling and often staying overnight a various cities around the UK. Trying to keep to a tight budget and trying to eat healthily on the hop is not an easy task. Now, don’t get me wrong, I could make more of an effort and I guess I’m just lazy, but it’s far easier to grab a sandwich for the train or where the meeting is and less so to grab a salad or a soup. 

I honestly don’t know how I am supposed to manage a diet, Crohn’s Disease and the constant travelling to maintain a healthy lifestyle. There is no time to join a gym. By the time I get home from whichever far-flung town or city I’ve visited, I just want to crash in front of the TV and not move. I just don’t feel motivated. Obviously, when I am at home I cook healthy meals for myself and Matheus. I’ve also recently been told I have type 2 Diabetes - come on Lauren (!!) - how much more can you really inflict on yourself??? This is an added pressure. The diet for Crohn’s Disease patients and type 2 Diabetes patients is completely the opposite. Less fibre for Crohn’s and more for Diabetes. Which am I supposed to prioritise???

I know I now have many more reasons to lose the weight but I’m still struggling. I’m sure counselling won’t help. I’ve tried ‘Paul McKenna’ and other hypnosis audio. I have no idea if they were beginning to work because I would fall asleep with my earphones in. I never know if I’m supposed to just fall asleep or whether I’m supposed to try to stay awake to listen but, I get so tired that I’m spark out as soon as I’m asked to think of a stream or lake or other body of water or birds chirping/tweeting in the background. 

If anyone knows the best way to manage this then please do dispense your wisdom. Help me Obi-Wan Kenobi - you’re my only hope!

30. Learn Dutch (Part 4)

Still going strong with my Dutch lessons. I keep coming across really interesting phrases and some are very apt. By August I will have hit 1,000 days.

Jiminy Cricket!

It's the best way

How did they know?

I'm very fond of turtles but not sure if this would happen often

The app seems to have increased the number of lessons within each subject which means it's taking longer to complete levels. There are five levels and I am on level three.

The lessons are getting more tricky. I just have to keep on practising with Matheus - not that many of the above phrases will help me in a conversation!

Tot ziens!

35. Buy and build the Tower Bridge Lego

So, I guess you're probably wondering why I am posting a blog about this considering I completed this years ago. Well, since buying and building Tower Bridge, I've got a little obsessed with Lego and have bought and built a number of other things. One project in particular has been a Lego street.

The Beatles' Yellow Submarine was a Lego Ideas set that I had actually voted for and it came into fruition. Matheus got it for me one Christmas as he knew I love Lego.

We all live in a Yellow Submarine...

The Fab Four

I saw the next set and thought it would be awesome - didn't realise how big it was going to be though. It's the Saturn V from the Apollo 11 mission.

The Saturn V Rocket

Apollo Lunar Module - with 2 astronauts for accuracy

The Command Module

This was another Lego Ideas set that I was drawn to - the Lego Ship in a Bottle. It was super clever to build and it has a pretend compass underneath. This sits atop my electric piano.

Message in a bottle...no, it's a ship

The tulip and the daisy below were a set but the other flower I got as a free gift when I spent over a certain amount.

A cute little set of flowers

I got both of the dogs below as free gifts. The dog on the right was supposed to represent the "Year of the Dog" in 2018. I wonder what the 2019 "Year of the Pig" will look like. I got the pug dog for me and managed to get a cheeky one for Lexie too. It was a 3-in-1 set but I thought the dog was the cutest. The other animals were a koala and a turkey.

Living a dog's life

Because Matheus and I met at a Back to the Future Secret Cinema event, I saw this Lego Dimensions set and couldn't resist. However, it only gave instructions on how to put Marty McFly together...come on...like I couldn't figure that out. From looking at the box I managed to figure out the hoverboard but the DeLorean I couldn't quite figure out. You needed to get a separate Lego Dimensions box and do some other stuff. I thought to myself, do I really need to do all of this just to put this small set together. Then I thought...YOUTUBE...I Googled for instructions and there they were the Lego Dimensions video step-by-step instructions.

Great Scott!!!

Lego released a number of Brickheadz over the last few years from Disney to Marvel to The Simpsons but when they released this DC Superhero, I knew I needed to add it to my collection of Lego - Wonder Woman - the title of a song I wrote.

I wish I was Wonder Woman so I could deflect the arrows from Cupid's bow

A year or so later Lego released Marty and Doc from Back to the Future as a whole set so naturally I had to purchase.

If my calculations are correct, when this baby hits 88 miles per hour, you're gonna see some serious shit

I bought the '365 Things To Do With Lego Bricks' book and came across a Lego Bride and Groom and thought it would be amazing to make them for the top of our wedding cake in July. I figured out the feet up to the neck but couldn't work how to do the heads. I tweeted and emailed Lego and I tweeted the builders listed in the book but had no response. I decided to email the publishers and they responded quickly AND managed to send me the instructions. I bought all the pieces online and built them. They looked amazing on our Lego-themed wedding cake but they also look super in our glass cabinet.

Me and Matheus in Lego

I found a site called MiniFigs.me and created minifigures of me and Matheus. These also found their way onto the wedding cake. They are now embedded in my Lego street.

Matheus and me - happy as can be

Our wedding cake - made by Skevi from The Bubble Bakers

Below are various Lego wedding sets. The middle set was a leaving gift from my old work friends to wind me up that Matheus (then my boyfriend) still hadn’t proposed to me! The left was a gift to myself after the proposal and the right was a wedding gift from another friend.

On my birthday in October last year I went out with my Mum and decided to spend my birthday money on the first part of my street - Assembly Square. In November, I decided to treat myself to the Diner.

The makings of a good street

My friend, David, got me the Women of NASA set, below. Pretty cool little set.

Girl power on a whole other level

For Christmas, Matheus managed to get hold of one of the buildings that was going to expire that he knew I wanted - The Detective's Office. However, as we were spending Christmas in The Netherlands, I wasn't going to be able to build this until I got back, which I did straight away. While I was in The Netherlands I was searching to see if there were any expired buildings I'd missed and I came across the Palace Cinema. I messaged the seller and said I lived locally and could collect when we got back from the wedding we were going to in the Cotswolds between Christmas and New Year. He accepted my offer and I collected it and built it right before New Year's Eve.

The Detective Office, above the pool hall, next door Al's Barbers

I'd love to get stickers for Lego Movie and Lego Batman Movie for the windows
Lego Movie 2 out next month

This is how the street looks as a whole street:

Great looking street

The sets below are also Christmassy ones. I bought the Nutcracker soldier because it was reduced and the other sets I got free.

The Nutcracker

It's a wrapped present which turns into a living room when you take off the lid

As I'm a Lego VIP, I got the item below when I bought one of my buildings. It's supposed to be a mini Lego Store. There is a slightly larger Lego Store I've had my eye on.

Just last week I was Googling Lego and I noticed a pizza van on Amazon so I ordered that and it's now sitting at the end of my street. There's a little space at the end - perhaps another building? Lego just need to release another!

So, it's safe to say I'm a little obsessed with Lego - don't even get me started on Minifigures. I've bought so many "'build your own' Minifigures for my street.

Let's see what Lego fun the rest of 2019 will bring.

Do you have any exciting Lego sets?

12. Obtain 40 albums in a single year (Year 6)

A great year for music. I've had a fun time listening. In particular, Kal Lavelle's debut album is amazing. There are some other amazing albums from this year.

Albums released in 2018

Band/Artist	Album
Arctic Monkeys	Tranquility Base Hotel & Casino
Ben Howard	Noonday Dream
Bradley Cooper & Lady Gaga	A Star Is Born (Soundtrack)
Brothers Osborne	Port Saint Joe
Carrie Underwood	Cry Pretty
Charlie Winston	Square 1
Decemberists, The	I'll Be Your Girl
Dierks Bentley	The Mountain
DodoBones	Four
Elle King	Shake The Spirit
Father John Misty	God's Favorite Customer
Fratellis, The	In Your Own Sweet Time
Hudson Taylor	Bear Creek To Dame Street
Jason Mraz	Know.
Jon Allen	Blue Flame
Josh Groban	Bridges
Kacey Musgraves	Golden Hour
Kal Lavelle	For The Loved And Lost
Keith Urban	Graffiti U
Kodaline	Politics Of Living
KT Tunstall	Wax
Lake Street Dive	Free Yourself Up
Lissie	Castles
Lucie Silvas	E.G.O.
Mamas Gun	Golden Days
Missy Higgins	Solastalgia
Nashville TV Show	Season 6 - Vol. 1
Overtones, The	The Overtones
Passenger	Runaway
Shinedown	Attention Attention
Take That	Odyssey
Tom Baxter	The Other Side Of Blue
Wandering Hearts	Wild Silence

One of my favourite albums from this year was Jason Mraz's Know. Seeing him perform live with his band at the Royal Albert Hall was amazing and it really brought his album to life.

Other albums I purchased in 2018

Band/Artist	Album
Alabama Shakes	Sound And Color
Charlotte Campbell	Endless Light
Chris Stapleton	From A Room, Vol. 2
Hattie Webb	To The Bone
John Paul White	Beulah
Luke Bryan	Crash My Party
Missy Higgins	Oz

In 2019, possible new releases from Rob Thomas and maybe Hozier. I'm looking forward to discovering new music.

37. Give blood (at least once)

When I found out I had Crohn's Disease and had to permanently take medication, I asked my IBD (Inflammatory Bowel Disease) nurse if I would be able to give blood. I'd had enough blood tests to curb my fear of needles and, as I'd found out my blood type was A+, I wanted to start to donate. Unfortunately, she said it would not be possible. Such a shame, all the years I wasted not doing it and then to be told I couldn't.

Due to the fact I cannot do this for the foreseeable future, I'm spreading the word to others to do this in my stead. If you can, please do give blood, especially if you have rare blood type.

Whilst on a similar subject, it is becoming increasingly difficult to find stem cell matches with the shortage of people not joining registers and the age restrictions of joining some of them.

I am already on the Anthony Nolan Trust register but so far I have not matched with anyone. You can join the register if you're aged between 16 and 30. They are looking for more men to join as men create more stem cells. You can find more information here.

The British Bone Marrow Registry is looking for donors aged between 17 and 40. More information is available here.

If you're older than 40 and want to become a donor then the organisation that needs your help is called DKMS and all they need is a swab from you. You can find out more information here.

Please, please do register somewhere - you might not be needed but, if you're on the register, then you can have peace of mind that you might be able to save someone's life someday.