Hello Dollies!
Happy first day of fall. And what better way to kick off the best season than to share my 2019 Autumn Bucket List reveal post. I know the suspense is killing you but before we get to the main event, let’s wind things up for summer.
2019 SUMMER BUCKET LIST, Final UPDATE
If you missed the earlier summer bucket list posts, you can catch up here and here, and here. Now let’s see where I am at the end of the season.
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Final Tally
- Paint rocks to give away or take a painting class. Moved to autumn.
- Take a pottery class through Falcon Pottery & Art Studio. Moved to autumn.
- Attend an outdoor music event. ✔️
- Watch fireworks. ✔️
- Go on a nature scavenger hunt. Moved to autumn.
- Finally plan that blessed backward date. ✔️
- Play Pictionary. Didn’t happen but not forwarding onto my autumn list. Just hoping I can rope Lauren, Francisco and PC into playing with me soon.
- Snap a photo of all us girls. ✔️
- Water fun in Ft. Worth. ✔️
- Check out routes for bike ride & run for the Mighty Mujer Triathlon. ❌ Not going to happen. Just working on being as fit as I can be by running, lifting weights, swimming and biking.
- Swim at night or skinny dip. Well, we were going to get in the hot tub tonight but has postponed until tomorrow. Not going to move this onto autumn’s list but just have confidence in me that this is going to happen. 😜
- Take donations to the animal shelter. Moved to autumn.
- Make food donations at church or pay it forward. ✔️
- Get a custom temporary tattoo. ✔️ Well, I have the tattoo. Finally. But haven’t applied it. My plans got all messed up when the tattoo took so long to arrive. Thinking I will postpone this until Christmas when I have my daughters with me again.
- Shop a new store. ✔️ Going to call this a done deal. Went to a store where I’ve only shopped once. That counts, right?
- Investigate going natural. ✔️
- Bake a cobbler – hopefully peach. ✔️ Have all of the ingredients. Going to bake this tomorrow. I promise.
- Try a new recipe for the grill. ✔️
Bonus items:
These were items I was going to start on when we knew PC had a job lined up. But that hasn’t happened yet. So, for now, I am doing a whole lot of pinning!
- *Begin changing kitchen theme.
- *Begin freshening up the patio furniture and backyard.
By my count, I had a total of 18 activities (not counting the bonus items) and completed 11. Not my best effort. But I have high hopes for my 2019 autumn bucket list. Here’s what I am planning.
2019 Autumn Bucket List
Hoping to have a number of gals join me for this season’s list. One of new bloggers I invited to join me, Anne and Troy from The Cajun Couple, posted their bucket list today. Hope you will run by to check out their plans. I suggested that Anne come up with some activities and Troy, her husband, add some things he was interested in doing. And PC and I did the same thing. I challenged my Prince Charming to come up with 3 activities and then I filled in our list with 12 more, making it a nice round number of 15 items.
Have a look:
Arts and Crafts
- Participate in a Dia de los Muertos craft or activity: Something like a parade, altar building, visiting altars and displays around town.
- Register for a Photography class at UTEP: Have registered for Basics of Digital Photography, starts on 10.22.2019 and meets on Tuesdays from 1:30 PM to 3:00 pm for 6 sessions. Anxious to learn more about my DSL.
- Sign Up for a Pottery class at Falcon Pottery & Art Studio: Forwarded from summer. This is a pottery studio in my neighborhood. Just hoping to try my hand at 3-dimensional art again. Haven’t done pottery since college.
Date Night
- Attend a UTEP football game: This is an activity chosen by PC. Poor UTEP (University of Texas, El Paso) simply cannot play football. Hoping at least the tickets are cheap, the weather is beautiful and the beer is cold if we can’t hope for a win.
- Enjoy a progressive date: We have done this a couple of times. Lots of fun and a great way to try new-to-us establishments.
- Get a couple’s massage: My Prince strikes again. Hope we return to Woodhouse Day Spa. It was a bit of heaven on earth when we visited it for the first time this summer.
- See a good movie: Another PC activity. With emphasis on good. “Midway” is coming out on Veteran’s Day. We both enjoy war movies, so we are hopeful about it.
Family Fun
- Halloween adventures: Hope to wander the corn maze, visit the pumpkin patch, or dress up for Halloween with Lucia.
- Peruse AnnieMo’s Holiday Shop: Have always visited this fabulous store alone in the past but hoping this fall I can persuade Lauren to go with me.
Fitness
- Hike and complete nature scavenger hunt: Carried forward from summer. Have the scavenger hunt sheets printed and a hike picked out. Now to ‘just do it.’
- Run…okay, jog a 5K: Haven’t decided on one yet. Hoping there will be a turkey trot around Thanksgiving. Trotting is a really good verb for what I do. How is it we are already thinking about Thanksgiving???
Food for the Soul
- Donate items for animals at the shelter and food at church: Brought forward from summer, at least the supplies for the animal shelter; we did donate hygiene supplies for the elderly this summer. My friend Abigail, recently tired school counselor, just shared the work of Sir Darius at Beaux and Paws. This 12 year-old entrepreneur creates bow ties to help shelter pups get adopted. Christened this 2019 Autumn Bucket List by making a small donation to his Go Fund Me fundraiser.
- Paint rocks in Halloween/Dia de los Muertos theme and leave them around the community: Another summer activity kicked forward into fall. This should be fun if I don’t get all wrapped around the hub about painting the rocks perfectly.
Stepping Outside My Comfort Zone
- Share at least 6 outfits from GYPO fall challenge for My Fashion Haus posts: Try a couple of new trends. You can still register for both the fall capsule wardrobe, click here, and the fall work wear capsule wardrobe, click here. Mommies and Mimis/Gabbas/Grandmas can be fashionistas, too!!
- Try new chili recipes – at least one in my Instapot, share for Tasty Tuesday posts: Become more comfortable with my Instapot, and try new kinds of chili with a variety of sides. Suggestions welcome!! Are we Pinterest pals, by the way? You can follow me here and leave your Pinterest URL in a comment below.
Had to pull off my socks to calculate that I have 15 activities planned for the season. Feel free to double check my math. I struggle in that area, you know.
Wish us luck! I say US because poor PC gets dragged into the majority of my bucket list experiences. Whether he likes it or doesn’t. But he is almost always a good sport.
Your Turn
Whatcha got planned on your 2019 Autumn Bucket List? Even if it isn’t an official blog post or pen and paper list, I know you have some activities you hope to enjoy this season. Won’t you share with me? Link-up your fall bucket list posts below or inspire us with your ideas in a comment!
I am linking up this post with Denyse at Denyse Whelan Blogs and hoping to link up with Sue and Leanne for their #MidLifeShareTheLoveParty.
We awoke to the nicest gentle rain shower this morning. Such a treat. And a great way to step into autumn. Hope it is a beautiful day where you are. Be safe and hurry back to see me! Thanks for being my bud.
Hugs and kisses,

Here we go again, Leslie! I’m so impressed with your list. A lot of great experiences and growth opportunities. I love the idea of having your PC contribute some items. I may borrow that for my winter list. My husband hates winter, so maybe if he has some items on the bucket list, at least he’ll have something to look forward to. It was fun to see a couple of new people linking up and get a peek at their lists. Thanks again for overseeing our bucket list link-up. Happy fall!
PC hates winter, too. So let’s do ask our fellas to contribute to our winter lists. Was sad that so few of the old friends joined us for this post. Maybe they have tired of the bucket lists. They just help me to stretch beyond our ‘normal’ activities and date nights. So glad you have joined me again. You always inspire me with your posts. Would love to hike and visit with you one day.
I enjoy the bucket lists as well for the same reason, Leslie. It looks like a few more have linked up since I checked last, so I’ll go take a look. I’d love it if we met IRL. If you ever plan a trip to Utah, let me know, or perhaps I’ll be in your neck of the woods some time. Enjoy your fall!
Maybe someday we will meet up, Christie. I have yet to meet another blogger. Boo! I see all of these gals meeting their fav blogging buddies and get a little jealous. No one lives near me! And it seems few folks blog in El Paso!
Thank you so much for joining me with your great fall activities. Anxious to follow your progress.
Your list is fantastic! We have attended a progressive date party and really enjoyed it. Hope to hear more about your fall fun soon. 🙂
Thank you for joining me!! We have done a progressive date once before and enjoyed it. Hope this time we can try 3 or 4 new places…appetizers, drinks, dinner and dessert. Wish we had at least one couple we could do things with. Like playing Pictionary!!! And progressive dates.
Well done on those you completed and good luck with the new bucket list!
My chilli recipe is this one https://www.nigella.com/recipes/cornbread-topped-chilli-con-carne
let me know if you try it. It’s great even if you don’t do the cornbread topping (I usually miss that bit out) we normally have ours either with a jacket potato or rice but always have guacamole, sour cream and grated cheese.
Ok, I already love this recipe at the mention of a cornbread topping. I am going to absolutely try it. Thank you for sharing the recipe with me. Sounds scrumptious.
Me again! Forgot to mention that you should note from that recipe it serves up to 20 (I don’t believe that it would serve so many for a main meal!) so you need to scale it right down! I find that a normal size pack of minced beef (1lb) will serve 4 people generously and I just do half of everything else.
I should make such a list because a lot of things I wanted to do this Summer I forgot about. And when I remembered them it was to late! Haha, oh well. Have good Sunday!
Nancy, come do a quick bucket list with me!! It can be as short and sweet or elaborate as you like. Write it up now and link up with us. Then do an update post on your progress on 10.21 and 11.21.
Wow, you’ve been busy and you have so many great ideas for fall.
Julie, come make an autumn bucket list with me!! So much fun. And they help me to try new things, to push myself beyond my comfort zone. Would love to have you create a quick list and link up. Then update your progress with us on 10.21 and 11.21. Thank you for finding me!!
Hi Leslie, I am very impressed with your accomplishments for summer and your fall bucket list. I must work waaaaay too much! My list would be really short, I’m sure of it. I think it’s great that your hubby joined in and included to list items. I’ll check back and see how you’re doing. 🙂
Candi, come make a mini-fall bucket list and join me. You will be surprised how inspired you will be to try something new, to squeeze in a little time here and there for some more fun!! The link up will be open for awhile. Baby steps, just a little bitty list!!
Leslie I’m always so impressed with people who make bucket lists and live so intentionally. I’m still in recovery mode from living an orderly life for the last 40 years and am tending to live week to week with my plans (and loving it). I’ll look forward to reading your adventures as they take place and I’m so glad you’re linking up with us at MLSTL so I don’t forget to pop over!
I think I like to plan and live intentionally because so often my plans are swept away with a phone call from my mom or my daughter, needing me to drop everything and run to care for them. At those times, my life feels so out of control, like it isn’t even MY life. So, having plans and activities ready for the in between times, when I am able to enjoy them, helps me. Right now my husband’s job is moving to the east coast and we don’t want to move at this point in our lives. Another thing that has our lives upside down. We have to remind ourselves to try to relax and have fun. But it is hard.
Hope you will come by to cheer me on as I make progress on my list. Thanks for visiting.
What a great list and you’ve ticked so many things off! I don’t do a seasonal list but I do create a list of 101 Things in 1001 Days! My current list is about to “expire” and I need to write a new one, I might have to “borrow” some of your ideas!
Hello, new friend!! Thank you for coming by. I have heard of those 101 lists but didn’t know what they were. Thank you for explaining. I am certain I would enjoy making one, too. Feel free to link up a 101 list update with us as we share our posts on the progress we make on this season’s bucket list.
I’m impressed with so many things you checked off your summer bucket list. Mine was a huge fail but I’m going to move on and focus on fall! I’ve been wanting to take a photography class and need to check out the local community college! I love the idea of painting rocks! Have a great week!
Jill – Doused in Pink
Thank you so much for coming by and for joining me with your own autumn bucket list. I was tickled pink to see and read your post. And inspired to add a few of your activities to a P.S. at the bottom of my own list. Our community college has photography classes so I am sure you can probably find one at yours. The one I have registered for is for ‘seniors’ – not to be confused with 12th graders! And is free!! Age does have its benefits.
I always love the ideas you come up with on your lists! I look forward to seeing how well you do!
Thank you, Dara. I want to add a few of your ideas on my list, too!! So glad to have you join me.
Hi Leslie! I can completely see why you would enjoy Pat Doyle’s book about Retirement Transitions. She too is a planner and definitely into lists of things to do and complete in the coming season. And it sounds like you have a very nice well-rounded selections of things to not only keep you having fun, learning and helping be of service to others. Good for you. I don’t have to wish you a happy autumn because it looks like you are well on your way. `Kathy
Thank you, Kathy!! Pat and I must be cut out of the same bolt of cloth. I like and ‘need’ my schedule, my plans. Partially because I am so forgetful that if I don’t plan and write down what I’ve planned it goes out the window!!
Those sound like fun activities! I don’t have an insta pot but I do love trying new chili recipes in my crock pot.
Joanne, if you have any great chili recipes to share, please do!! I am not nearly as enamored with my Instapot as I am with my Crock pot. But I keep thinking if I use it more, I will get that way.
Great list, Leslie! Congratulations on your accomplishments. Good luck with your new endeavours!
Thank you, Donna!! Looking forward to fall…just wishing for its arrival weatherwise!
What a fun list, and I’m glad PC was able to add a few items of his own. I haven’t been to the movies much this summer, but there are lot of upcoming ones I want to see so hopefully I can get back to it!!
-Lauren
Are you as frustrated with your Instapot as I am? My head was spinning just reading the directions. This is cooking people. Not outer space exploration. UGH.
I brought mine back. Seems like a lot of women are having the same revelation.
Give me my slow cooker any time of the week. Now THAT I can understand! LOL.
You have a great list compiled here. I may just join in!
I think you did a great job with your summer list! It’s hard sometimes to fit everything in. I know there are a few goals this month that just aren’t happening. You have a great fall list too! I think the scavenger hunt will be more fun in the fall anyway. And fall is a great time to run a 5K! I’m signed up for a Christmas one in December and the run club at my local YMCA is now trying to convince me to do a half marathon in November. Yikes!
A half marathon!! Wow!! I would just like to work up to a 10K. Ha!! Baby steps. I like running a Thanksgiving 5K so will start looking into one to register for. Love your new work out clothes. I need some cutesy long sleeve tops for fall and winter workouts. Thanks for stopping by.
Hello Leslie and it was great to have a mention at the end of your story. I don’t normally like a bucket list but yours was based on life’s reality kicking in. Some things you get to do and others you did not. Good on you.
I know you are in a different season to us right now, but:
Thank you for linking up for #lifethisweek. Next week, 30/9/19 the optional prompt is Spring Stories. Hope you can join in too. Denyse.
I got stuck at the skinny dipping! How did I miss that???? OK. That would so go on my bucket list as well. It always looks like so much fun in the movies. Ohmyword, I don’t think I’ve ever said, much less typed, that out loud. I don’t think I’ve even told The Hubs that I’d do that. LOL
Anyway, let me know how your photography class goes. I’d loooove to take one.
Ha!! I have skinny dipped in the past. This time I just sat in the hot tub au naturale. It is so liberating. Much more comfortable than wearing a snug bathing suit decided to hold everything in. So much more comfortable to let it all hang out!! You need to make that happen for you, my friend!!
Excited about the photography class. It’s FREE!! So if I learn anything at all or just start using my camera more, it will be definitely worth my time!!
The hike and nature scavenger hunt sound lovely!! I would love to do that with the entire family or even just Brian. Especially once the leaves start to turn, which it looks like they’re starting to here.
Carrie
curlycraftymom.com
Oh, you and your fam should do the scavenger hunt together. I would like to grab Lucia and take her with us. Thinking we might do part of it on a hike in the near future and part of the hunt with lil bit in tow.
I wish you well with getting your list done but oh gosh, the summer one was a bit much for me and although I did participate then, I can’t now. I am falling into depression and trying my best to not let it get the best of me. Fall and winter always seems to affect me this way.
I can sense that you are falling into depression. Which might be exactly why you need to make a bucket list, sweet Dee. To give you direction, activities to look forward to, encouragement to not give up and hibernate. My mother is always terribly depressed from mid-October until mid-May. It is a very long season for her and for us. Please, Dee, please draw up the teensiest list and come play with us! You can add to your list that you want to write 3 short stories, have 5 people link up for your themed link parties, read 2 books, bake a cake!! But I think, truly, it will help you! I am feeling pretty depressed right now, too. With Paul’s job going away, my mother’s health in limbo, my daughter requiring more and more assistance with her daughter, but having activities I can look forward to doing, keeps me going. Hope you will reconsider!! Thinking of you, sweet friend.
Thanks Leslie, I appreciate your kind words. I seem to fall into the same place as your mother. It lasts from the end of summer until the beginning of spring. Lots has to do with the temps. My body does not cooperate with cool, chilly, or cold weather. I’m trying to write more short stories, work on my book, and have been looking at some crafts I’d like to do…we’ll see.
Thinking of you, Dee. Heading over to check out the new short story prompt. Try to stay busy and bundle up. Will be thinking of you.
Oh my! So many fun things to do this fall. I hope I can get my list done. This is my first “bucket List”, so I am interested to see just how much of it I can get done. Thanks for hosting and inviting me to this Leslie!
OMG, Leslie! I was afraid I was too late to link up this season! When I checked after completing my list, it said the link party was still open for 20 more hours. So I squeaked my way in! Ha!
I love your list! I would love to take a photography class (and need to), but don’t think I have time right now. I’ll live vicariously through you on that one. And I swear, I did not allow myself to look at anyone else’s list until I had completed mine. Yours was the first one I did look at though, since I was linking up, and we have the football game in common. Although ours is not as specific as yours. The only time Big Eagle and I have had a couple’s massage was when we were in Aruba. Talk about Heaven on earth! I KNOW you will enjoy THAT! I have not succumbed to the instapot craze…yet. One thing I would like to do also this fall that I did not put on my bucket list is make at least one recipe a week from my pinterest board. I will have to give you the link to my pinterest. Also have to tell you, I LOVE the idea of letting your PC have input on your list! I might have to steal that idea! Lastly…that rain? Could you please send some this way?
I am so glad we found each other’s blogs!! I keep the link up open for days and days in hopes of inspiring more participation. And I often forget to link up myself!!
We have had several couple’s massages and so enjoy them. The last time was at Woodhouse Spa, which I think is a chain. They had a relaxation room with snacks, coffee, tea, wine where you could relax before and after your massage. The ambiance was perfect, soft lighting, snuggle robes, aromatherapy. Oh, how I enjoyed myself.
If you decide to write a post about a recipe you try from Pinterest, let me know. Maybe we could post our recipes on the same day. I am going to try a chili recipe tomorrow with corn fritters. Hope it will be a hearty meal for the rainy Thursday forecast.
I usually do a mini-Christmas bucket list between 11.21-12.21, maybe you and Big Eagle can participate in that one and come up with some ideas together. PC doesn’t like the holidays so I try to think of activities that will help him enjoy the season a bit more.
So glad to have you doing this with me. Thank you for the thoughtful comments! And for linking up!
Here’s the link to my Pinterest page: https://www.pinterest.com/ABCDEFGHIJKLMP/
I did purchase the ingredients to make one of the recipes I haven’t tried yet. I’ll let you know when I make it. Probably either today or tomorrow.
Thanks for the link to your Pinterest page. Will follow you. Let me know which recipe you tried and how it went. We had our first chili. Was pretty good. Made the corn fritters which were not so fabulous!! You win some, you don’t.
Wow, you have been busy this fall! I have enjoyed reading all that you have been up to. Looking forward to reading about what’s next…