For the third day of travel week I’m featuring a few new beads from True Beadz and a bracelet inspired by our accommodation in Beijing, China from a few years ago. We often stay in family rooms in hostels while traveling. Outside of North America it’s super hard to find hotel rooms with two double beds! At hostels, we can have a room with beds for all four of us and usually an attached bathroom all for a decent price. Also, I like the atmosphere of hostels where you are staying with like minded travelers from around the world. I just am careful to research it thoroughly so we’re not staying in a party hostel!

In Beijing we stayed at a lovely place in a hutong, which is a series of narrow alleys that form courtyard residences. This one was called Beijing Red Lantern House. 


Here is where we ate a lot of our meals. For about $8 we could get an array of freshly made, delicious noodle and rice dishes. Then, we could just take a short walk out of the hutong to the main road and take the boys to Dairy Queen for dessert. Plus it was a short walk to the subway-a perfect location!


Of course, no trip to China is complete without a trip to the Great Wall. 

After about a week in Beijing we took a high speed train to Shanghai. They were having a heat wave and it was over 40 degrees every day! This is the view from The Bund. 

We really liked the Yu Garden in Shanghai. 


So, even though it’s a bit cliché, I thought I’d use some red for today’s theme. This is the new True Beadz True Touch Strawberry bead in the middle of the bangle. The stoppers are the brass Star Redbalifrog ones. Then left to right are True Taste Siberia, Trollbeads Dot’n’Dot, the Strawberry bead, Trollbeads Sunbeam and True Beadz Summer Garden CZ. 

For a combo I added in some red and bronze X Links and the Redbalifrog bracelet with Heart Love Lock. I pretty much never put beads on this bracelet because it’s so pretty. 


I also tried the True Beadz Almost Rose Quartz as a focal point because it has a reddish/pinkish hue. Left to right below are True Air Baby Pink, Trollbeads Connected Love, Almost Rose Quartz, Trollbeads Sweet Berries and the True Air Baby Pink again. 


And here’s a bangle with some deep pinks. I seriously love the Almost Rose Quartz on the Trollbeads Copper Bangle. The bangle shines up really easily if you coat it with ketchup for about 15 minutes! The bead in the middle is by Trollbeads and called Pebbles. Top right is the gorgeous Pink Delight Facet. 

Coming up tomorrow for travel week is Canada, a vast country with some beautiful spots!

Disclosure: For this blog I may receive some items as promotional samples.