This is the manifestation of a seed that was planted in my ten-year-old soul on a mundane Thursday in fourth grade. We were trudging up the steps in single file from the playground to the classroom when the line stopped for just a moment. I was flush with the afterglow of an epic jungle-gym campaign, but when I looked around, all I saw was the dim light of quiet resignation in my classmates’ eyes. Movement, sunshine, nature, friendships, adventure, creativity, and imagination were reduced to a one-hour block of time and it was over for today. I suddenly felt suffocated by the forced consumption of prescribed programming. School didn’t teach happiness, how to be a better person, or how to live life to the fullest potential. As Sir Ken Robinson says in his iconic 2006 Ted Talk: Do Schools Kill Creativity “[our education system] is a factory for cogs left over from the industrial revolution.” I balked at the ethos that work and play were mutually exclusive and vowed to my adult self that I would never stop exploring, creating, or dreaming.

This is an experiment, an iteration, of that theme. Part lifestyle brand and part travel blog, it’s about living fabulously outside the lines and chasing the sun on the amber horizon.

Amber Monson

Amber graduated from Georgia Tech in 2005 with a degree in Industrial Design. While working as a designer in her adult job, she became obsessed with aerial dance and soon capitulated to the siren’s lure of performing arts, leaving her stable day job for the life of a touring circus artist. A few years later she opened Sky Gym in Atlanta, GA where she and her merry band of monkeys led classes, creative workshops, teacher trainings and retreats around the world. Sadly, after a decade-long run, the studio finally closed due to the pandemic. As an elite aerialist, certified personal trainer, classily trained Pilates instructor, and ERYT-200 yoga teacher Amber believes that conscious movement, in any form, is a gateway to a deeper connection with oneself and our divinity.

Her next chapter weaves together 15 years of entrepreneurial drive, passion for adventure, product design, and a playfully empowering wellness lifestyle. Life is too short not to chase sunrises, let’s go!