It’s time! It’s past time to set our intentions for these long, sunny, sweaty, playful, days.
How do you want to craft your summer? How many sunsets do you want to savor and where do you want to do it? How many ice cream cones do you want to indulge in and who do you want to share them with? How many peanut butter candies do you want to eat late at night? Three, like me.
This was last year’s Summer Bucket List: a list of things that a person would like to accomplish and experience during the summer months. If done correctly, should involve water-guns, pool time, and roller-skates.
I didn’t accomplish exactly all of my Summer Bucket List items from last year. Truth be told, I still have the kombucha kit sitting in my guest room closet. The deal with a well-crafted Summer Bucket List is that they’re set with intention, care, and the carefree spirit of a pressure-free Summer that is lived well, with freedom and grace. In other words, make the list you want and try your best to accomplish (and more importantly) ENJOY it.
Here are my Summer intentions for these fine days:
1 • Take a road trip and visit a white sandy beach. Let it be Pensacola and let me eat my way through the Florida panhandle. BRB.
2 • Let there be a hotel pool day with wine. This involves playing hooky from work, putting on a bathing suit, and visiting a hotel pool like you own the joint, ordering wine, and just liiiiving. The slow sun life. It’s Summah!
3 • I was recently at the Aspen airport writing scenic mountain postcards in the airport. It’s sweet to send people mementos of your travels. A little ray of sunshine folded in with bills and bullshit in the mailbox. Protip: carry postage stamps in your wallet. Very grown adult move.
4 • Visit Seattle and go for a hike. Sister, I’m comin’ for ya. Let’s make some ice cream together!
5 • Make sliders and sangria, because aren’t those two summer treats you want in your fridge. Pretzel buns… it’s all happening.
6 • Find new friends to collaborate on photography with. It will feel your heart and soul and eyeballs.
7 • Polish the new house. Not literally… but hang pictures, decorate the shelves in the kitchen, set up the bar, pet the cat, mow the lawn… and just generally get + keep it together. Prepare for classes this Fall! (That means you. You’re totally coming over!)
8 • Last year one of my Summer Bucket List goals was to do a yoga headstand- something I thought was so so cool since I had just started taking my yoga practice more to heart. This Summer my goal is to extend my yoga practice with grace and patience. It’s a practice and progress comes in very exciting inches.
9 • Take daily art breaks, with watercolor paints or calligraphy pens because it’s good for the heart and soul, mind and work.
10 • Learn more Italian. It takes time, and patience, and persistence. Workbooks and online lessons help. It’s a practice. Sometimes in inches… until you just subconsciously start to remember swear words.
I hope this inspires you to set your intentions for these warm days. What’s on your Summer Bucket List? Please let it involve Summer Water… key and crucial. Let’s carry on with it.
xo Joy
This picture taken at Sweet Greens in Santa Monica during their lunch rush when people were rushing me away from my table and I wasn’t having it. Do you. I’ll do me.
37 Responses
I made a Summer Bucket List a couple of weeks ago as well! Good luck to us both at crossing off some fun things from our lists! :)
Come mai vuoi imparare l’italiano? :) I second Duolingo; Skype calls w/natives are great as well!
I’ve just written my summer bucket list, definitely feel the Sangria’s!
http://www.katygoodship.blogspot.com
Hey Joy – Have you read Jhumpa Lahiri’s latest book, In Other Words? It’s about her love of Italy and the language, and is written in both Italian and English… the pages are side by side. I love her books (The Namesake is a favorite of mine) and this was no exception. I think you’d like it! :)
art breaks are a beautiful idea. I need more of that in my life!
https://www.searedandshameless.com
Your blog makes me really happy. I love everything you post! Thanks for being so awesome.
Have you read Jhumpa Lahiri’s latest novel? It’s all about her trying to learn Italian. It’s still on my list to read, but I’ve heard great things.
Hello Joy ???? Could you recommend some websites with Italian lessons?
xoxo
Yes, I use Duolingo it’s an app. And I also use Verbling.
This is a wonderful list! I love to make summer bucket lists, too. Happy Summer!
Ohmygosh Joy! I’m coming over from Australia to the US in fall to eat and drink my way around and I will be in New Orleans in Oct! I will be keeping my finders and toes crossed!
Joy instead of Pensacola Beach which is nice you should come to Orange Beach/Gulf Shores!!! Were closer and the beaches in Orange Beach/Gulf Shores are fab! I promise you won’t be disappointed but make sure you have your hotel booked before you get here because in the Summer everything is usually booked to 100%.
The kombucha starter has an expiration date and it’s only good for a few months – I bought the same kit and waited a bit too long also! Just an FYI :)
I’m sure your sister has some ideas of hiking in Seattle if she lives there, but if not, I suggest Rattlesnake Ledge! 4 mile roundtrip with killer views. :) Have fun!
Your art is just beautiful!
Oh, I hope you’ll update us soon on the classes! I’ll be in NOLA and would LOVE to attend one!
ugh this sounds like such a wonderful summer bucket list! love it!
xx Chelsea
http://www.organizedmessblog.com
When I lived in NOLA we went to the beach in Mississippi to celebrate my birthday after a night out in the Quarter. In August. Bad idea. The water was too hot to swim in, the sand too hot to lay on, so we spent the whole day running from our towels to the showers! The upside? Raisin’ Canes on the way home. I hope your beach trip involves some of that fried gloriousness.
This makes me chuckle!! Those Mississippi beaches can be brutal! Water that’s too hot to swim in! Good grief!!
i am glad you stood your ground and hung onto your table. I hated being rushed out. Here, in France, it is the opposite. They love you to stay as long as you want and you sometimes have trouble getting the bill.
I would relish in this!
What beautiful watercolor and pen doodles! Inspires me to put “daily art break” on my summer bucket list too… It’s sad how easily we stop exercising those art muscles when work/life/etc get busy busy busy.
Classes?!! I’ll be in New Orleans for work this November. Will keep my fingers crossed that the stars (and dates!) align!! Happy summer Joy!
Pensacola!! My hometown. We affectionately call it L.A. – Lower Alabama….. It’s completely different from South FL… Southern vibe… southern accents, hey y’all… Love it and miss it… I’m in Birmingham, AL now. Kids just went to P’Cola for a week.
Literally all that comes to mind when you mention Italian swear words is Friends. Va fa Naploli!
I think I just want to steal your list. It’s perfect. Sounds like a beautiful summer :)
there is a big Italian community in New Orleans so it should not be difficult to find people (maybe a real teacher?) willing to help.
Pensacola is my hometown! I hope you’re able to make it there this summer. The beaches are beautiful and the people are friendly. I know seafood will be the highlight of your trip while you’re there, but I have to make quick recommendations for End of the Line Cafe (vegan) and Taco Rock (incredible Mexican food). They are well worth the seafood break – I promise. Man, now I’m a little homesick. :)
I affirm your decision to go to the Panhandle. We love 30-A (Santa Rosa Beach and Blue Mountain Beach are especially marvelous), which is about hour and a half to the east of Pensacola .The beaches are spectacular all in the Panhandle, but 30-A has such a great laid-back vibe. Lots of galleries, a state park in Grayton Beach with giant dunes, inland lakes, bike path all along the beach road, etc.
Things to eat: ice cream at Blue Mountain Creamery. Anything at Louis Louis in Santa Rosa Beach or Red Bar in Grayton. BBQ from 98 Barbecue (literally the best potato salad I have had in my life). Smoked tuna dip from Shrimpers in Santa Rosa Beach. I could go on and on.
The Emerald Coast is my very favorite place on earth– absolutely, 100% worth a trip. Plus, it’s a relatively easy drive from New Orleans. My mom’s family started vacationing there in the late sixties, so we are multiple-generation fans. (My parents moved there full-time 15 years ago, so they’re now locals!)
Miniature golf, tasting as many new ice cream flavors I can find, hitting the beach with the kids and putting up boat loads of pickles with produce from my mother’s garden. Cheers to Summer!
I’ll be making my own list right away. Beach time is a given, but I really like the daily art breaks idea. And classes? Yes!
Great list! Road trips are always great. Have you tried Duolingo yet for learning more Italian?
I hope you get to do all these things. Some on my list: I want to learn more French, redecorate my room, be more active, learn a new skill.. I hope I get to do it all too :)
Ron | Nearby Wanderer
very inspirational as usual! and if you need any help with your Italian, let me know, ciao manuela
Hey Joy. Whereabouts would you be holding your class ??? I’m most keen to learn. And do you have an approximate time line ?? Thanks. Appu
On my list is to see my town’s fireworks for the first time. Carcassonne has an incredible show on July 14, but I’ve always been in the U.S. at that moment.
I also want to apply myself to really nailing some classic French dishes.
Joy, love #10. That is on my list too, When I start to dream in the language I’m learning I know I am halfway there. Does that happen to you? At the moment I am learning German and Italian, and brushing up on Spanish and French….I think I just made myself tired thinking about it! Did I mention…I love learning new languages! Buona fortuna! Happy 4th of July!
Joy, love #10. That is on my list. too. When I start to dream in the language I’m learning I know I am halfway there. Does that happen to you? At the moment I am learning German and Italian, and brushing up on Spanish and French….I think I just made myself tired thinking about it! Did I mention…I love learning new languages? Buona fortuna! Happy 4th of July!