We're All Ears :: April Challenge :: Paradise Calling

I am leaving today on a jet plane for a very important trip!

I am headed down to Fort Lauderdale, FL today as the first leg on a once-in-a-lifetime journey. I am excited to be joining my best friend Heather Powers of Humblebeads on her BEAD CRUISE! This is the 13th sailing of that cruise and I have always, ALWAYS, wanted to go, but it was never the right time nor circumstance. Well, at the end of last year there was a cancellation, and I knew that this would be my year!

I can't wait to put my {freshly pedicured} toes in the sand, sip a tropical drink or two and gaze out at the bluest blue as we bob around in the Caribbean Sea for a week. We will have ports of call in Labadee, Haiti and Falmouth, Jamaica and Cozumel, Mexico including shore excursions ranging from a tropical paradise cove, the Dunn's River Falls and cooking with tequila and chocolate on the beach. In between those ports, we will be beading up a storm on the high seas! I am taking two metals classes with Tracy Stanley (whom I adore and is the most awesome teacher ever) and one polymer clay class with Heather. I am sure that I will have a marvelous time, make a ton of new friends, learn something new and come home with all sorts of inspiration!

To that end, you will have to excuse me if I indulge my tropical fever in selecting this month's challenge. And it makes me even happier to see these pictures since we just got dumped by about a foot of snow the last two days! So throw on some island music, whip up a frothy drink and pull out all your seashells, sand dollars, ocean and hothouse flowers for a little beading escapism! Even if you can't join me on this trip of a lifetime, you can still dream in tropical colors, right?

[Photo Credit :: via Unsplash :: clockwise from top left :: Gaddafi Rusli :: Ren Ran :: Pedro Lastra :: David Straight]

Here's to sunny days and sandy toes!
See you back here on April 20th for the reveal!