Whoa, I’m writing this after I finished the rest of the post. Get ready folks – this is a long one! But an exciting one too! And it is full of lists. You know how I feel about lists!

I turn 29 today. I can’t really believe it. I seems like just yesterday I was excited about hitting the “double digits”, then becoming a teenager, then getting my driver’s license, then being “legal”, then turning 25 (and being able to finally rent a car without additional fees). And today…. 29. Twenty-nine. A fully qualified lawyer. An on-my-way-to-being-successful wedding photographer. A wife.

My 20s have been pretty awesome. At 20, I captained the inaugural U of A UBG team, and met the man who would, 7 years later, become my husband. At 21, I lived in Hong Kong, where I fell in love with the future hubs, and then promptly asked him to wait, while I travelled around the world – on my own – for six months. At 22, I received my BComm, traveled through the backwaters of China and Laos with the future hubs, and started law school. At 23, I had the best summer job ever and I moved in to the best apartment ever with the future hubs. At 24, I had my first taste of life as a lawyer, I lived through a crazy windstorm and my father’s kicking prostate cancer in the ass. At 25, I graduated from law school and started a year long adventure around the world with the future hubs. At 26, I got engaged, continued to travel around the world, moved to Toronto, began articling to be a lawyer. At 27, I started moonlighting as a wedding photographer, married the man of my dreams and got called to the bar in Ontario, becoming a fully fledged tax lawyer. At 28, I visited Antigua, New York, San Francisco, La Quinta, Boston, Montreal, Edmonton, Paris, the South of France (on the funnest vacation of my life), Barcelona, and Canmore. I started this blog. I grew my photography business substantially. I did a lot of soul searching. And I can’t wait for 29. Big things are in store for me, and for you, dear blog reader! You’ll just have to wait a month or two for more details as we iron them out. I can’t wait to share!

29 is going to be a big year for me, a scary year, a great year, a stressful year, and hopefully the best year so far. And to celebrate this entire year of being 29, I’m going to do a 30-before-30 project! I’m introducing the list in this post, but will be updating it over on this “30-before-30” page! As you all know (all too well, I’m sure), real life doesn’t always fit squarely in boxes… so some of the things on the 30-before-30 list are fillers. You’ll just have to guess what they are!

So. Here goes. Check out my official 30-before-30 page (see that cute link in the menu, above) throughout the year for updates to see just how I’m doing on completing some of these lofty goals!

1. Start Project The Rest of My Life.
2. Go to Antarctica, the last continent.
3. Photograph my grandparents in a “Love” session celebrating their 60th anniversary.
4. Book and shoot at least 10 weddings as the primary photographer.
5. Make a wickedly awesome video application for a CreativeLive course and hope to get selected!
6. Learn to Tango.
7. Dance like no one is watching.
8. Convince my brother to let me plan his wedding. Dan … I know you’re reading … Sure, it is your wedding, but today is my birthday, after all!
9. Get back out to the mountains in the winter (i.e., more skiing). I’ve missed it!
10. Learn basic (or not so basic) web-development skills.
11. Improve my Spanish skills.
12. Become a better food photographer.
13. Become a better proofreader.
14. Cook something that takes more than one day.
15. Clean my oven.
16. Learn how to use stumble upon and spend at least 4-6 weeks trying it out.
17. Master the art (and the manual focus) of my new film camera.
18. Be less afraid.
19. Find a friend with a sail boat who will teach me how to sail, so one day I can disappear and sail around the world.
20. Figure out a workout regime (hopefully running) that works for me. Ankle, don’t fail me now! (Updated: I started drafting this list about a month ago – just yesterday I had to go into physio for my ankle… but at least I’m dealing with it!)
21. Do a 365 project – i.e., take and post a photo a day –  (For serious. Starting today. Follow on my tumblr).
22. Find (or create) a great community of photographers to be friends & colleagues.
23. Develop relationships with other wedding vendors.
24. Set up and shoot a styled shoot with awesome wedding vendors.
25. Start a series on my photography blog (or this blog?) where I interview influential wedding photographers (or other wedding vendors).
26. Get new business cards.
27. Come up with a sweet database of lunch ideas, both for home and brown bag style.
28. Better arrange my sweet database of dinner ideas so picking meals is easy (grocery lists are all ready easy thanks to mealboard)!
29. Post at least one new food post (recipe or otherwise) on the blog, every single week.
30. Spend more time in Alberta with my family and friends, including all the new (and not-so-new) babies and kids in my life.