Never Stop Exploring..great words to live by.  I hope to instill the love of adventure in my kids.  So hence the Going Places theme  for this weeks class.

We have a wonderful selection of stamps geared toward the masculine population that receives our cards.  I was a little worried when designing these cards that I was being sexist as I was pulling out the "masculine" sets of Traveler, Guy Greetings, Going Places and The Wilderness Awaits.  And then I worried even more when I stayed in the general color scheme of the Neutrals..choosing Very Vanilla, Early Espresso,  Hello Honey, Lost Lagoon and Basic Black as my color palette to work with, your very stereotypical "masculine" palette and stamp choices.. 

Of course, my intent wasn't to offend anyone so I decided that you would know the guy in your life receiving the card better than I would and if you wanted to send him a bright Lime Green Card…go for it!  Or conversely, if you have a female that would like the Wilderness Await's elk on her card..again, have at it!  I was simply trying to coordinate with the Hello Honey 5/8" Striped cotton ribbon that was included in today's class fee, so by default, I picked "safe" masculine choices.  Maybe I should just say I was going "vintage".  So here's my first "vintage" Hello Honey Going Places Class sample.

I choose this theme for class this month as I have the Travel Bug.  I'm getting really excited to take our Stampin' Up! Mediterranean cruise.   This has been one of the trips I've secretly hoped the company would announce every year at our convention.  Our sail date is just a few short weeks away and I've loved planning our excursions for Cheryl, her daughter-in-law Christine, Adria and I.  It's just so fun to dream about each port and then pick an activity that we all will enjoy.  It's kind of hard to believe that all this travel is simply because I chose to sell a few stamps 17 years ago.  I have been truly blessed.

Adria and I have opted to "extend" our stay in Europe an extra week and we will be taking an equitour prior to the cruise.  An equitour is a week long horse back ride across the southern part of Spain.  It's been quite a few years since I've spent any considerable amount of time in the saddle and I've thoroughly enjoyed taking lessons with Adria at a stable near our home.  It's so good to get back in the saddle on a regular basis.  One of the very few forms of exercise that I enjoy and it's been really good for the body and mind.  In the past,  I've always taken my horse trips with my very dear aunt, Marcia but I will have  to say this is a lifelong dream come true.  I'm so excited to share two things I love with her..horses and stamping.  Here's a picture of dear little Adria when Marcia and I took an equitour to Ireland.  Adria's grown a little.  The only thing that would have been sweeter is if my dear aunt would have been able to join us this year.  I'm going to keep bugging her.  🙂