How to Make Your Own Bucket List {PLUS} Our Tips for Keeping Date Nights Interesting!

Lately we've been working on a bit of a different project. It doesn't involve paint or wood or tools or anything DIY like the projects we usually work on - we're actually working on putting together a bucket list!

I mentioned in our Recent Things post on Friday that we were heading out to see a comedy show on Saturday as it was something on our bucket list and I've been getting lots of emails and messages from you guys wanting to know the kinds of things we have on our bucket list and I'm always getting emails with requests for date night ideas, so I thought I'd combine the two and share how we created our own bucket list plus our tips for keeping date nights interesting!

Travel & Adventures

I have always loved to travel and Jesse was bitten by the travel bug from his very first trip to Australia. So far, we haven't been on too many trips together, however, our bucket list contains lots of different adventures we hope to have in the future. 

The video above gets my brain swimming with ideas for all the different types of places I'd like to explore - rainforests, castles, mountains, rivers - you name it!

This year the big plan is to head over to New Zealand, however, we're also hoping to squeeze in lots of little weekends away to places across Australia as there's so much of this beautiful country we've yet to see. I love websites like Airbnb which give you the opportunity to stay in unique places in parts of the country you never would have thought of visiting before - and often Airbnb accomodation is far nicer than hotels (and you can often get a place with a full kitchen - perfect for this allergic to everything girl who would rather eat in!).

Some of the adventures on our bucket list include; 

• Have a holiday in New Zealand (This year's overseas vacation!)
• Going to Disneyland together (I am a Disney nut and have been to both Disneyland and Disneyworld multiple times so I cannot wait to share my favourite place with my favourite person!)
• Take a vacation in a rainforest destination (This is pretty vague, but I love nature and have this dream of a rainforest vacation I'm longing to fulfill)
• Stay somewhere in the Blue Mountains for a weekend
• Have a "farm stay" experience
• Head to the "outback" on vacation 
• Take a relaxing beach vacation (Think hammocks, a good book, peace and quiet - a completely relaxing vacation is definitely what we need!)
• See the Northern Lights
• Go on a cruise 
• Visit an outdoor church/chapel/cathedral
• Experience a gospel church service (I'm talking a full choir gospel church!)
• Visit Niagra Falls
• Walk on the Great Wall of China
• Stay in an overwater bungalow
• Visit the Waitomo Glowworm Caves (seriously look at this and tell me you don't want to go RIGHT now!)DONE! See the post here

source

New Experiences & Unique Date Nights
I'm one of those people who wants to try everything at least once - so many of the things on our bucket list are things we've yet to experience. 

We also like to keep date nights interesting so a lot of these experiences are plans for future date nights. We can't go out to eat at a restaurant (due to my allergies & coeliac disease) so we make the most of the world around us and experience new things together!

Some of the new experiences on our bucket list include;

• Go apple picking (As an obsessive apple eater this is something I've always wanted to do but always forget to do as Autumn rolls around - this year we've put reminders in our calendars so we don't forget!) - DONE! See the post here
• Go strawberry picking
• See a Gold Class movie (I don't know why but we've never done this before so it's on the list!)DONE! See the post here
• See a stand up comedy show DONE! See the post here
• Do the tree top walk at Illawarra Fly (We're currently debating on whether or not to also go ziplining - even though I'm terrified of heights I think the experience would be awesome!) 
• Go to the drive in (This is something that's slowly becoming extinct so we're planning on heading to a drive in movie while we still can!)
• Go to Putt Putt golf (I've never been putt putt golfing in my life and I've always wanted to - we're actually planning on doing this early next month with our lovely wedding photographer Lucie and her husband Alban!) DONE!
• Go canoeing/kayaking together (This is something I did when I was younger and loved it so I really want to try it with Jesse!)
• Go horseriding
• Go 4 wheeling/quad biking on a beach (This girl who was terrified of four wheelers became obsessed with them in Louisiana :P) 
• Go rock climbing
• Go on a helicopter ride 

source

Projects To Do

One of our favourite things to do on the weekend is work on a project. We love DIY things so naturally there's quite a few DIY projects on our bucket list.

The projects on our bucket list include; 

• Build a piece of furniture together from scratch (We've restored plenty of furniture pieces but we've never made something from scratch - I really want to build a cute side table from scratch so that may be our first project!)
• Build a cubby house for our kids (This is obviously a long way off but it's been a dream of Jesse's for a long time so he requested it went on the bucket list so he never forgets)
• Create a decor piece for our room (A canvas, a custom made frame - the options are endless!)

But once you have your bucket list - how do you actually make sure you tick things off?! For us, the biggest motivator is having everything written down - that way, we don't forget the things we want to do and we can record when we tick each item off. 

We have a Bucket List Notebook from Mi Goals ($19.95) where I've written down each and every one of our bucket list items. As we complete each one, I use the inspiration section to stick in photos/ticket stubs etc so that we can remember what we've done!

You can see on the right how we filled out of Live Comedy Show page this weekend - I just added the ticket receipt (because they take your actual ticket upon entry - wah!) as well as some photos from the night!

But now, let's talk date nights! As I said above, a lot of these bucket list items will be used as future date nights/days. We've always had to be creative with our dates as we can't do the usual dinner and a movie (unless it's dinners at home followed by a movie) so we love keeping things interesting by doing different things together.

Our top tips for keeping date nights interesting are;

• Think outside of the box
  Don't think a "date night" has to be your standard dinner and a movie or whatever you think a date night is supposed to be - get creative and use date nights/days simply as a chance to spend time together
• Experience new things together
  I think there's nothing better than experiencing something new with Jesse so we love trying new things together and the times where we do something completely new and unexpected tend to be some of our favourite times together
• Remember that you can have fun on a budget!
  I always hear people say "well, we can't go out on date nights because we can't afford it" - and that's totally not true! You can make a date out of anything - we've even had nights where we simply have a picnic in our backyard or at a local park or have an at-home movie night with snuggly blankets, microwave popcorn and an old movie from our DVD collection. Even a game night with your favourite board games is a cheap way to have fun together. 
• Make date nights a regular thing
  It's easy to get caught up in the hustle and bustle of life and forget to take time out together. We tend to "schedule in" one date night a month, however, we're usually doing something each weekend if we don't have other plans - even if it's just something simple like making a delicious dessert together or having a movie night at home.
  
  For us, scheduling these date nights in is a must as our schedule is so busy. By making "us time" a priority we can organise things around our date nights to ensure we still get that time to spend together and not keeping pushing it back "next week". 

But I would love to know? 

What's on your bucket list - and how do you keep date nights interesting?

Share your ideas in the comments below so that we can come up with a big list of ideas to inspire one another!