Your Whims Wednesday #164 {And Features}

Time for another Your Whims Wednesday Party!

Your Whims Wednesday

Here are some of my favorite from last week:

Vintage Bike Pallet by The Life of a Craft Crazed Mom
 
Chipotle Honey Lime Shrimp Tostadas by The Scent of Oranges
DSC_0278
DIY Suede Tassel by Hello Little Home
DIY Suede Tassels | Hello Little Home #craft #blue #gold
 
Garlic Parmesan Grilled Potato Wedges by This Silly Girl's Life
 
Thanks to all who linked up! Grab a button if you were featured :)
 
Featured on My Girlish Whims
 
Now... onto this weeks party!

I show off my girlish whims weekly on my blog, and now I want to see yours with 
Your Whims Wednesday!

Guidlines:
1. Link up as many projects as you would like: as long as it is one of your girly ways, you can link it! I'd love to see crafts, recipes, style posts, etc. Anything and everything feminine :)
2.Please add my button (code at the top of this post) to either your blog post or somewhere on your blog. 
3. Take a quick moment to comment on at least one other entry. We we all love comments!! 
4.I'd love if you would follow me as well :)


Jamaica Trip 2014

So I said I would get this up last week but that didn't happen! Whoops! It's now been a little over a week that we've been back from our Jamaican vacation. I'd say I've rested up enough and now I'm ready to go back!!!!

Here are some of the more memorable moments from our trip:

These were our first drinks in Jamaica on our bus ride from the airport to our resort. We stopped at a little rest stop and I ordered the "fruit wine" listed on the menu...then the Jamaican lady said "OH you mean the run punch!" and proceed to pour it for me.   Then Shawn got offered weed by our bus driver (the first of many offerings haha)

We got to our resort (sans any weed in case you were wondering) and enjoyed lots of time relaxing on the beach! The beach was BEAUTIFUL. The water was soooo clear and the sand was so soft and white.  The grounds crew at the resort raked it every morning! They also had wait staff that would deliver you drinks on the beach.  I enjoyed many of these Caribbean Oranges every day!!

I also enjoyed taking a break from reading Game of Thrones (love the series but not exactly a beach read) and managed to read THREE books while we were away (it took me freaking FOREVER to read three Game of Thrones books!!!)

It was so nice to be able to dress up and go out each night with hubby. Drink and relax all day... then get cleaned up and go out to dinner and drink more at night.  I could get used to that kind of life :)

There's nothing like paradise...is there???

We went on two different excursions on our trip; the first was a day tour that started at the YS Falls! We hired a driver from Rocky's Taxi and Tour service for the day which was a great day to experience the falls and other place we visited. On our honeymoon in Jamaica we got to climb up Dunn's River Falls, but these falls were more scenic and calm than that excursion for sure.

 There still were fun things to do though: Shawn swung off a Tarzan rope really high off the water!

I was way to scared to do that :) But I enjoyed taking pictures in the beautiful scenery!!!

We got a "water massage" at one of the fall spots, that was fun!!!

And I sucked up my fears and jumped off one of the smaller water falls.  It really was fun!!!

After the YS falls our driver for the day drove us to the place to catch a boat to the Pelican Bar! It's a bar in the middle of the ocean that you can only get to by boat...here we are on our way out!

The Pelican Bar is a wooden shack built up on a sandbar in the middle of the ocean. No joke! No running water or bathrooms or anything.  Just the big old ocean!

The inside was so cool.  Lots of memoribilean left behind from other visitors.  And not very touristy either.  We were the first "tourists" to get there for the day and the Jamaicans didn't really greet us or anything haha.  They were just enjoying their game of dominoes and relaxing.

Eventually some more tourists showed up and we all ordered drinks and started to have a good time.  Nothing quite like drinking a rum and ting in the middle of the ocean!
 
 Shawn and I also ordered lunch while we were there.  There was only one option (remember no running water!!!) but we ordered it and it was GOOOD!!!!!  Some kind of fish (I think Snapper??) with a spicy flavor rub and rice.  I'm not one for spicy foods but it was soooo good I ate it anyway and washed it all down with some more rum and ting :)


The next day we went out on our second excursion: a Jamaican Pub Crawl on the One Love Bus!!!!

This bus is driven by a Jamaican named Lenbert who comes and picks vacationers up at theirs resorts and takes them to 7 authentic Jamaican Bars.  He doesn't even charge you anything....but he does such a good job everyone tips him very well at the end of the night!!


The thing about the bus is that it had seats for about 16 people...and then  a big open space in the middle.  We picked up over 40 people and crammed them into the bus!!!! No such thing as a personal space that night!!!

We had fun visiting some authentic Jamaican bars (and drinking more rum and ting...I think I'm addicted....)

The second bar we went to was in one lady's living room!!! Doesn't get more authentic than that!

Our "last bar' was located along the cliffs in Negril.  There was a mini light house constructed down a bit from the bar that two little Jamaican boys would jump off of for tips all night.

It was such a fun experience.  I said "last bar" because on our way back to our resorts we all started chanting "one last bar, one last bar" and then Lenbert took us to one more place haha.  Then all 40+ of us crammed back into the bus and danced to the reggae music he had blasting until we were all dropped off.

After our two excursions we gave ourselves one last full day to just lay on the beach and relax at our resort.  We took this picture on our last full day in Jamaica: I'd give anything to be back on that beach right now!!!!!

This trip was worth every last penny. It was so relaxing and fun and beautiful! I think I could go to Jamaica over and over again and never get tired of it :) Until next time Jamaica....one love!!!

Your Whims Wednesday #163 {And Features}

Time for another Your Whims Wednesday Party!

Your Whims Wednesday

Here are some of my favorite from last week:

DIY Rhinestone Drop Earrings by The Crafty Blog Stalker
DIY Rhinestone Drop Earrings
 
Personalized Embroidery Hoop by Maddie Moes
 photo 6544391c-033b-45f9-bb24-f91ec789f2ae_zps232dce8f.jpg
 
Refurbished Window Frame by Joyful Daisy

Ruffled Flower Rag Quilt by A Vision to Remember
ruffled large flower rag quilt pattern
 
Thanks to all who linked up! Grab a button if you were featured :)
 
Featured on My Girlish Whims
 
Now... onto this weeks party!

I show off my girlish whims weekly on my blog, and now I want to see yours with 
Your Whims Wednesday!

Guidlines:
1. Link up as many projects as you would like: as long as it is one of your girly ways, you can link it! I'd love to see crafts, recipes, style posts, etc. Anything and everything feminine :)
2.Please add my button (code at the top of this post) to either your blog post or somewhere on your blog. 
3. Take a quick moment to comment on at least one other entry. We we all love comments!! 
4.I'd love if you would follow me as well :)

DIY Iridescent Green Earrings with Fusion Beads

Well I'm back from Jamaica! Coming home from vacation is always so bitter sweet.  It is nice to be back home but come on, can we REALLY say there's no place like home when Jamaica exists??? I'll have a recap post up later this week, but for now let's all get back into the swing of things with a new jewelry tutorial!

Today's post features beads from Fusion Beads - a great online resource for quality beads and findings! They have an AMAZING selection to chose from. Fusion Beads sent me a few beads to play around with and I really liked the selection from the Iridescent Green color family.

  I decided to use the 6mm pearls, 4mm pearls, 6mm crystals, and 4mm crystals to make a cute pair of earrings!

Here's how to make your own pair!

Cut four pieces of 20 gauge wire about 3 inches long using wire cutters

String on five beads each of the 6mm & 4mm pearls and crystals.  Use your fingers to bend the wire slightly into a curve

Use needle nose pliers to bend the ends of the wire up in a 90 degree angle

Use wire cutters to trim off the ends into just a short tail

Next use round nose pliers to bend the wire back down into a circle 

Repeat for the other beads as well

Grab a short piece of small gold chain and cut off 6 sets of 3 links and 2 sets of 5 links 

You're now going to connect the four wire bead links with the 3-link chain pieces using needle nose pliers.  Connect the 5-link chain piece to the very top link.

Here's how it should look connected on both sides:

Grab a small jump ring and use needle nose pliers to connect the two pieces of 5-link chain at the top of the earring together, and add on an earring wire as well.

Here's how the finished earring should look!

Repeat the same steps for another matching earring.

 That's all there is to it! This design almost reminds me of a ladder.  But a cute and sparkly ladder :)

 This type of earring would also look really nice in an ombre pattern. Or instead of using regular beads for the whole earring you could swap out pendant/dangle beads for the last row! Or you can just make it as is.  I don't normally pick out green beads for myself but I really like the iridescent finish on these beads and think they make a great pair of earrings!

For lots of more FREE project ideas check out Fusion Beads' inspiration gallery. You can also connect with them on facebook, instagram, and their blog!

Happy beading!