July 2013 Goals
1 Jul 2013
I realized when I was putting this post together that I’ve been doing these monthly goals for a year–I started in June 2012. My life now is so different now than it was then, but I’m so happy I made goals for myself at both ends of the spectrum. I’m proud of all the fun stuff I’ve done in these past twelve months. Maybe sometime I’ll post all of my goal pictures together, just for fun, and I’ll circle all the stuff I’ve done, if I can figure out how to do that in Picasa. Hope springs eternal!
I am pumped for the stuff I plan to do in July. It is already plenty hot here, but Eric and I have special excursions planned for days like that. In a word, we go to museums and enjoy the sweet blasts of air conditioning. But this year we’re also planning to head to the beach a few times. We’re thirty minutes (in no traffic!) away from the closest beach, but it’s worth it in weather like this. And it’ll remind us of all the lazy days we spent reading books and having picnics in the sand on our honeymoon.
One of the greatest places in Pasadena is the Athenaeum, and every summer they serve dinner al fresco, out on the pretty lawn next to the tangerine trees. The food is fabulous, and it’s so lovely to be out in the cool evening air. I’m definitely making it a goal to get over there.
Pasadena also does an outdoor movie series in the summer, and we’re hoping to get to one or more of the screenings. Annie Hall, anyone?
On the home front, my triumph with quilting (I am only being mildly sarcastic) has led me to tackle other sewing feats: namely, putting in a zipper. I have plenty of them (thank you, Depot), and enough fabric to make a little purse, so I’m making it my goal to conquer it, with the aid of my sewing books and a few online tutorials.
I’m also going to make simits! These are the Turkish bagel-like breads that are sold everywhere in Istanbul. The kind that I want to make is actually called açma, and it was our favorite. Yeasty and lightly sweet, it’s covered with nigella seeds, also called caraway seeds, which have an amazingly curry-like flavor. I can’t wait! I had great success with another Turkish bread this weekend, so I am hopeful that I can make a decent recreation of this one too.
Project Life is going strong over here. I’ve got my photos, so now I just have to clear some space (read: move the sewing machine) and get to it!
And, of course, there will be lots and lots of pictures. I’ll be back in August with a full report (June is here, updated). Hope you have a fantastic month!
Update, August 2013: I love having these monthly goals. Sometimes I just leave the tab with my goals post open for weeks on end, and then I check in every now and again. It’s amazing how much stuff you can forget and then be gleefully reminded of in a week-long span. Anyway, the goals went really well this month! I made simits! I am in a good Project Life/Istanbul scrapbook rotation. We had dinner at the Rath al Fresco. We definitely did some warm weather exploring, locally and in San Diego, and we took advantage of the cool weather when it came our way too. We saw an outdoor movie too: fun! The beach trip and the zipper have been moved to August for reasons that are explained in that post, but that puts me at 6 out of 7 for this month. Awesome!

Jul 01, 2013 @ 07:42:33
This professor is definitely impressed! If only I could sew in zippers…
Jul 01, 2013 @ 21:06:07
If only I could too! Time will tell if I shall succeed. if not, my foibles might make for a funny Punchy story!
Jul 02, 2013 @ 07:57:31
They definitely might! So keep me posted!
Jul 07, 2013 @ 19:32:49
Will do! Still finishing my laptop case, but after that, zipper time!
Jul 08, 2013 @ 04:24:35
🙂
Jul 01, 2013 @ 16:08:01
I have ALWAYS wanted to see an outdoor movie, since Danny and Sandy went to the drive in when I was around ten. That really dates me, huh?
The beach sounds good too, that’s on my list of summer adventures. Oh and if we were round the corner, I would definitely come round for some of that bread, it sounds wonderful!
Jul 01, 2013 @ 21:07:19
Oh, I love that your outdoor movie love goes all the way back to Grease! When I was a kid, there was one drive-in movie theater left in our town, and we used to go there on special occasions. It felt like camping at the movies! Hope you have a great time at the beach and lots of good bread coming your way!
Jul 02, 2013 @ 08:19:59
glad I now know what skimits are 🙂 I kept squinting at the monitor thinking ???skirts?? what?? Have fun with that zipper installation. I was not very good at it in my youth but then I did not have the internet at my finger tips so I believe you will be quite successful!!
Jul 07, 2013 @ 19:33:55
Thank you! It’s amazing how much videos help. I remember trying to teach myself to knit as a child from a book. I kept looking at the pictures and thinking, “What?!” Thank goodness for live demonstrations:)
The Rath al Fresco | Krug the Thinker
Jul 26, 2013 @ 20:25:00
[…] dinner is served in the winters), and it’s so awesome that I actually made hitting it up a monthly goal for July. We were out of groceries by Thursday, so it wasn’t hard to convince Eric that this was the […]
August 2013 Goals
Sep 02, 2013 @ 20:35:05
[…] One million pictures will be taken, I am quite sure. What are you up to this month? If you have monthly goals, I would love to see them! Feel free to leave a link in the comments. Also, if all this goal-setting stuff seems weird, I totally recommend Elise Blaha’s “I Choose” online course. So much awesome, so few dollars. Happy August! (July goals updated here). […]