50 Things to Do When I am 50: Try a new ice cream shop, #37!

The point of my list that I created back in January was to have some new experiences. To motivate myself to try something new. To get out of the safety and comfort of doing the same things and the same places.

To be frank, my marriage ended in 2023. It was a couple of years of ongoing emotional distress, dots connecting, facing realities and having to embrace being separated and a single mom. It took me a couple years of therapy to even identify myself as a ‘single mom’.

So what does any of this have to do with ice cream? Growth. Finding a new spot, a new experience that hadn’t been shared with that old version of me that was gone. The wild amazing freedom of ‘I can do what I like with MY time’. This is a mind blowing realization when it hits. I am the creator of my life and experiences. I can try out this new place and know that the memory of it is solely mine.

I mean come on…look at this ice cream. And yes, I am always a double scoop kind of gal. 2 reasons—you only live once and I cannot usually make a decision on flavour! I want to try them all.

This particular afternoon took me to Annie Rue’s ice cream. I place that had been referred to me by some friends. When I turned down the street in the Parkallen neighbourhood, I was like “What the…”. This cute little street also houses The Columbian (an awesome coffee shop), an adorable flower shop and some other cute stores—I was blown away. I have lived in Edmonton for 25 years and had never been on this street.

This was the power of my list. I discovered, not only an amazing new place to get ice cream but a whole part of my city that I had not discovered!

In case you are wondering my ice cream choices were—-a chocolate nib flavour known as Delavoye Death by Chocolate (this is actually a collab with a local chocolate maker on 124th street) and Lemon Cream Pie (absolutely delicious and worth every calorie!).

I also had some awesome company to enjoy ice cream with. Bailey got the Pina Colada and Wyatt had strawberry. We gave this place a solid 10 with Bailey even taking a few pints home.

We enjoyed the little patio out front and marvelled at the fact that we didn’t know this gem of a street was hiding right off 111th.

And we deciding to wash our ice cream down with a couple iced mocha’s (truly the best in the city) from The Columbia.

So what does ice cream have to do with starting life over in mid-life and turning 50? The experience. It’s all about the experience which has become my motivating force this year. And I can officially check # 37 off of my list.

Thanks for following along my journey!

50 Things to do When I am 50! Go to Mexico #5

Hi friends!
I will admit this was maybe a bit of a cheat adding it to my list as I did already know I was going to Mexico back in January when I created my list. But I figure it should count as I have never actually been to Mexico!

The reason for Mexico was actually a crafting cruise that I co-hosted with my friend Melanie. We started organizing last summer and had no idea how awesome things actually were going to be!

It was actually a bit of a small miracle that we were able to get everything we needed onto the ship to craft for a week! 4 very full suitcases, 2 carry on’s, 2 boxes shipped a head and oversized personal items!

Our stops included Cabo (love), Mazatalan (fun at my cooking class) and Puerto Vallarta (I didn’t actually get off the ship but I saw it from the deck!).

It was such a great week at sea with the best people you could want to spend a whole week with. The laughs were countless, people were always up to doing an activity with you or go grab a bite to eat and of course we had tons of fun in our craft room (check out the reel I shared on Instagram!).

Our first day on the ship was a crafty day as we were on our way to our first destination of Cabo! We had 3 stops in a row and then a couple crafty days at the end of the cruise as well. However, there were always stampers in the room working on things as had our crafty space available 24-7.

Out of the 3 spots, I think Cabo was my favourite. I would definitely love to go back again some time.

I just love the warm air and the ocean. We took a little water taxi from the ship over to a beach and a seal was waiting to greet us. He was even posing for photos, it was adorable!

What is better than having beach hair and getting baked in the sun? Sharing it with friends! We had such an awesome day together!

I also had a great time on the ship—I did find time to read every day, have a nap in the sun and spent lots of time in our craft space socializing and laughing. Even though I tried, I did not even out my tan lines! haha!

Overall, this Mexico trip surpassed my expectations! There was a Starbucks on board…say no more! I got to treat myself to a new mug for my collection too.

And I took advantage of fun things on the ship like the waterslide!

This was a really good experience to check off my 50 Things List with some of the best people and a vacation that will be a true highlight for me for a while. Plus, I have so many great photos to scrapbook to create my #paperlegacy!

50 Things to Do When I am 50: Ride a Horse # 40

I think I have mentioned this before but the BEST part of this list, is the engagement from the people in my life who are stepping up to help me accomplish my goals. It is the best bi-product of this list that I never quite imagined!

So when my friend Lauren said “I can help you ride a horse” I was so excited! Lauren owns a beautiful retired horse, Sierra, who she jumped with for years. Sierra is gentle soul and Lauren described her as ‘loving people more than other horses’ which I thought was the opposite of some people who love ‘animals more than other people’…hahaha!

Back in November I was in Vegas for a Stampin’ Up! convention and they had a cowboy hat bar hosted by the Feather Hat Bar (from Utah I believe). We got to pick and decorate our own cowboy hat! They added branding (the other side of my hat has a B and a star) and it was just such a fun event.

I have been looking for a reason to wear my cowboy hat ever since! Hahaha!

Lauren invited me out to the stables were Sierra lives for a little horseback riding! It was obvious how much love and care Lauren gives to Sierra and how passionate she is about her horse and riding. She shared all kinds of interesting things with me about the world of horses.

I have ridden horses before but only in a trail riding situation so this was fun to be up on one by myself. Although I didn’t have the confidence to let Lauren let go of the lead, it was fun and relaxing to walk around on Sierra. I trusted her to lead the way as I think she knew I was an accommodating passenger with no game plan on where to go. Maybe next time I will be more confident!

The view from up top! Look at those ears, they just look adorable with her little tuft of hair!

It was funny because when I showed up Lauren said “I should have told you not to wear white!” and I laughed and said “I always wear white, hahaha!”…which is true if you know me. I have a very healthy supply of white tank tops and tee shirts. I was like “how dirty can I get?”…which was not any because Sierra was so accommodating!

Sierra was such a good girl so she also deserved a little treat of some crunchy carrots. We also fed her and got her bug blanket on after our walk (the mosquito's were next level annoying).

It was a really gorgeous morning for a little horseback riding too. I loved petting and scratching Sierra’s neck and I did lead her back to her enclosure after many stops to eat some grass, which is her favourite snack.

Thank you Lauren and Sierra for letting me check #40 off of my 50 Things List! I need to find my horse stamp sets so I can properly record this memory in a scrapbook page!

50 Things to Do List--Attend a Cooking Class #48

My friend Donna gave me this idea to add to my 50 Things List and I had the opportunity to attend a class while in Mazatlan on the Fun in the Sun Crafting Cruise I was co-hosting!

Along with Sheryl, Tricia and Bonnie we attended a ‘Salsa, Salsa and Margarita’s’ cooking class. It was AMAZING! We learned how to make 5 different salsas, a guacamole and 2 different kinds of margaritas. It was so fun, well organized and delicious!

All of the ingredients were fresh and we did all the steps from start to finish and of course there was a lot of taste testing. I do love salsa so it was interesting to learn different styles, ingredients and methods to creating it. We had homemade taco chips, cheese taquitos and cheese quesadillas to try along with our salsas and guacamole.

I had never made a salsa verde before so I really enjoyed this!

The two gals leading the cooking and margarita making were awesome! They were funny and engaging and explained all of the steps really clearly. We definitely learned a few tricks for creating salsa at home.

The venue was a hotel in Mazatalan that had a nice pool just steps up from the ocean! We had a break mid-way through and after the class had a chance to take advantage of the pool and ocean.

We made a lime margarita and a strawberry margarita from scratch and learned about different tequilas (by taste testing of course!) and the drinks were bottomless!

Our final salsa was a dessert salsa that they served with vanilla ice cream.

Overall it was a really great excursion and I am so happy I had such a unique way to check ‘Take a Cooking Class’ off of my list of 50 Things!

Relaxing by the pool and taking a dip in the ocean was definitely worth its after all of the chopping and mushing we did, hahaha!

Thanks for following along! I am definitely up for another cooking class in Edmonton if anyone wants to join me!

50 Things to do When I am 50--#23 Go to at least ONE Target store!

I don’t know what I was thinking when I wrote this one…ONE Target store? Who am I? Hahaha!

Actually when I did make my list back in January, I was not sure if visiting the US was on my docket so one did seem reasonable. But I should have know better. If you have seen my Instagram account lately (if no, go give me a follow @stampwithbrenda) and you can see my full reel of my Target adventures Los Angeles and San Diego.

Fun Fact: There are 17 Target stores in Los Angeles!

I will say that a fun goal could be visiting all of the Target stores in a major city like that…maybe next year? hahaha!

So how did I end up here? I recently hosted a crafting cruise with Royal Caribbean to Mexico (yes! Another List item checked off that will get its own post) and my awesome friends Sheryl & Tricia and I decided we needed a little California adventure before boarding the ship. So we planned a Girls Trip (I have previously checked this one off already but I think it deserves another nod for being #19 on my list) to Disneyland and to hit up some Target stores while we also traveled the coast to San Diego. Sheryl was our chauffeur for the week and initially I do not think visiting 6 Target stores was on her list, hahaha! But she was a good sport as Tricia and I just needed to 'go to one more…it’s so close’! IYKYK

The first one is always the most thrilling—especially if it’s been a while! Tricia and I were together the last time I was at Target (in Vegas in Nov 2025) so it has been 8 months!

The next question I am frequently asked is—what do you get from Target? Well, Target tells me what I need! Haha! I do follow a few accounts on Instagram so I usually have an idea of some of the fun stuff, but honestly each one has similar but different things in the Dollar Spot Bins. And I also really like to just look at all the stuff that we do not have in Canada!

I always get a photo or two with Bullseye! And sometimes the Target balls!

My kids usually have a list of fun candy for me to bring home but honestly, I buy a lot of things for my Stampin’ Up! business. I like to give away things at events so often I will find things that fill that need. Which is why I usually end up visiting so many is because I need to buy a certain # of things so it requires visiting a few locations!

I have been in Target stores that are all different sizes like the teeny one on the Las Vegas Strip to this two story one on Sunset Boulevard! The two story ones even have an escalator for your shopping cart which is actually pretty cool.

What how my cart meets me at the top!

AND if you didn’t know…Target’s almost always have a Starbucks inside so it’s a mandatory stop! hahaha!

We were really excited that our last Target of this trip had a view of the Hollywood sign which we have just visited. We were all pretty excited about that!

I managed to add a couple more things into my suitcase at our last Target as the Halloween stuff was being put out and I will admit, I wished I had a whole (third, hahaha) suitcase with me that I could have filled with all the stuff. Occasionally, one does need to have self control! haha!

I did make a stop at the Starbucks in the airport to see if I could snag a Hollywood ‘Been There’ series mug for my growing collection as the one at our last Target Starbucks did not have one. While waiting in line I had a great conversation with another Brenda and she gave me her spare set of WINGS! Isn’t this amazing?

And yes, for the record, I did wear two hats onto the airplane! What is a girl gonna do? I needed to get my ears home safely!

Thank for you for following along as I document my 50 Things List journey. One day my kids will read this and will know that there mom was really making the most of this milestone year!