50 Things To Do When I am 50: #43 Karaoke Night!

Hi friends—I have had a lot of you ask me lately how many things I have checked off my list. Some things are on going but I have been consistently doing them so I am going to include those in this tally along with the ones that have been checked off. So right now I am currently at 24 things—so almost half way! I have some plans to get a few more completed this fall so make sure you are following along on my journey!

Karaoke night was so much fun and it was also Alysha’s bday and I would definitely say we brought the energy—not the talent! hahaha! Alysha has some friends that can actually sing and I am not that gifted but I do really embrace my song choice! Thanks Tanis for suggesting that I add this to my list! Surprisingly, I had not ever Karaoke’d out in public before, only at friend’s houses.

We kicked the night off by singing Anaconda by Nicki Minaj, hahaha!

We also sang some Kelly Clarkson ‘Since You’ve Been Gone’ and my personal fav song to sing (I always crank it up in the car when I hear it) ‘What’s Going On?’ by Four Non Blonds. And I think most karaoke night need to include a little Whitney Houston.

Disclaimer—do not listen to this for quality instead enthusiam!

I have always been a fan of a microphone—one of my first jobs was at Fuddruckers and I loved being on the mic calling out people’s names when their food was ready. I have also had the pleasure of MC’ing a wedding and bringing out my karaoke microphone at home to host bingo nights. Even if I didn’t have a microphone at Alysha’s karaoke bday party, I was still singing!

Reese was my personal Uber driver for the night and we even convinced him to some inside and sing a few songs with us. We ended the night with a little Bohemian Rhapsody by Queen. It definitely a song for any generation. And arguably one of the best songs ever written.

I also love having adult kids who are willing to do things with you! Honestly, give this gal a shot and a microphone and she will bring the fun!

I am definitely up for another night of karaoke—let me know if you want to join me!

50 Things to Do List: #45 Try a NEW to ME restaurant!

Don’t you find that you go to the same places to eat a lot? It’s easy, you know the menu and all that? Well in my quest to have NEW to ME experiences (you know, knowing that you never went to a certain place with anyone before) I wanted to try a new restaurant in Edmonton and I recruited a couple of my favourite people to join me.

In fact, none of us had been there to eat before which was fun for us to experience it together!

We decided to check out Yianni’s Taverna on Whyte Ave. I have seen this place for years and have always wanted to check it out as I have heard it has really excellent Greek food. Greek food is one of my favourite cuisines.

The menu had a lot of options and the atmosphere was great. We went on a weeknight and I have heard on the weekends they have entertainment. I love the open to the street atmosphere but we chose a cozy corner inside.

Marian and I enjoyed a glass of Prosecco and the 3 of us shared the most amazing calamari, tzatziki, hummus and pita to start. I would say that the calamari some of the best in the city that I have had. And yes, I know what you are thinking—-I eat calamari but I had never had a peanut butter & jam sandwich until earlier this year. Judge as you must, hahaha!

I have been to Greece a couple of times (when can I go back? Who wants to come?) and I have to say this food felt pretty authentic to me. I would definitely recommend Yiannis if you are looking for good food and a fun atmosphere.

This portion was huge! It made a great lunch the next day too which is always a win.

Thanks to all of my friends that have been helping me check off things from my list. We are now 8 months in and pretty much everyone I know is familiar with ‘my list’! Now I can say this experience is checked off too!

The best of the best from my lululemon life!

p.s we also got ice cream from Made by Marcus after this and I got chocolate on my yellow pants! I can’t get the stain out—message me if you have a secret!

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!

50 Things to Do List--#41 White Water Rafting!

While we were in Banff National Park—having experiences and checking what we can off my 50 Things List we added on White Water Rafting on the Kananaskis River with Canadian Rockies Rafting on our way home.

But before that we did another little hike around the town of Banff down from Main Street to Bow Falls. The town had an awesome market set up that morning so we did a little shopping (I added a wooden spoon to my collection —its official I know collect wooden spoons from my travels along with Starbucks mugs) and some new jewelry! So far I have wooden spoons from Norway, Windsor Castle, Neuschwanstein Castle, Munich and now Banff!

Support local—you are literally making someone’s hopes and dreams happen when you buy from a local artisan!

Banff National Park is truly amazing and I know why people travel the world to visit. Sarah had the fun idea to book us into a Hostel! Which I HAVE NEVER EXPERIENCED—seriously, you think I didn’t have any fun in my 20’s! Well here we are the 50 year old crowd, staying at a hostel!

Don’t ask why there is wrapping paper in my hands…ok ask. It was a good deal. Enough said, hahahahaha!

But we did enjoy the hostel, we booked the room to ourselves so it was just us and I showered across the hall. It was another experience I can now say I have done!

Seriously, look at how gorgeous! Notice the Canada Goose in the corner, they were all over this path!

I will have so many great photos to scrapbook! We had the most amazing weather for this trip. It is like the universe wanted me to have this experience.

On our way along the path to Bow Falls we stopped so many times for photo opportunities and to just look at the beautiful world.

I don’t know why, but isn’t the sound of rushing water to a waterfall so amazing? It reminds us of how powerful this force of nature is and every drop that falls is different and creates its own ripple effect. Maybe that is like people?

After our hike back to our car it was destination WHITE WATER RAFTING. I think it was along this drive that Sarah casually mentioned we needed to wear wetsuits. WTF. Let me tell you….

Getting that wetsuit on was an EXPERIENCE (this deserved capital letters). We basically needed to help each other wiggle, pull, push body parts around to get into these things. And the booties…I was momentarily concerned they were going to be a permanent part of my body. And these are the only photo evidence you have that we did this! The rapids were class 3 so despite my desire to document things, we didn’t. We lived in the moment and locked the experience into our hearts.

Peeling off the wetsuit was also not for the faint of heart. But I am happy we had them on because the water was still pretty cold and we were able to get out of our raft at one point and swim around!

Overall, these 3 days with these 2 girl friends, doing all the things was amazing. Coming home with windswept hair and a sunburn and a heart full of memories was just what I needed.