Enterprise Nation - Fund 101

Last month an amazing project came to my attention.  It's called Fund 101 and is run by Enterprise Nation, an organisation dedicated to helping start up businesses.  I found out about Enterprise Nation through the founder, Emma Jones, and her book "Working 5-9: How to Start a Successful Business in Your Spare Time", which is, as you will know if you're a regular reader, what I've been doing with my jewellery for the past few years. 

Fund 101 was set up to help small businesses start up, or grow their business, by applying for a grant of up to £500.  This is kind of amazing, as it's so difficult for businesses, especially small ones, to get any kind of funding.

I was sadly too late to apply for last month's funding, as once their monthly total available has been reached, the application process and voting is temporarily closed.  But when it opened again today, I was ready with my application!  I'm applying for funding to buy proper sealed containers to store and heat my acids and chemicals, as they're pretty expensive and I've never been quite able to afford them.  This is what I'm after:

At the moment, I'm using ancient slow cookers to heat chemicals.  They're not sealed and all the lids are rusty, so they let all of the fumes out into my workshop and into my poor little lungs!  Also, the acid condensation gets all overy my hands when I need to use the chemicals, which definitely does my eczema no good at all!

Anyway, I've made my application and it's now live on the site.  Exciting!!!  I dithered for ages which picture to use between this one:

And this one:

...but went with my little winged skate in the end, as it's so "me"!

So, here is my application:  http://www.enterprisenation.com/funding-applications/lauren-grace-jewellery/

Please, please go and vote for me!  You do need to register on the Enterprise Nation site, but it only takes a minute and they promise not to spam you with loads of emails, it's just so they can make sure each person only votes once. 

To say thanks, if you leave a comment when you vote, you'll be entered into a prize draw (drawn by random number generator), the winner of which will get their choice of either a silver winged skate necklace or a silver bumblebee necklace.  That's got to be worth a couple of minutes of your time, right? 

Thank you so much for all your help!

Sunday Soup: Roasted Parsnip and Parmesan

This week I had a whole pack of parsnips left over (boy was Queen of the Fridge again), some parmesan and an onion.

I used this recipe here as it contained everything I had in the fridge. My finished product didn't look quite like theirs (okay, it looked NOTHING like theirs!) and I suspect I over-caramelised my parsnips.

Tasted good though.  If a little smokey...

New Tools!

I had a rubbish week at work, so in a fit of pique on Thursday lunchtime I ordered a proper polising motor. 

This one, in fact:

Now, it's off to Ikea to get a small desk to bolt it to!

An Experiment

Around a month ago, I decided to begin an experiment whereby I attempted to live on a 3 day week salary, just to see if I could.  I think I spend rather a lot of money on just, well, stuff really.  I'm never quite sure where it's gone at the end of the month! 

So, the beginning of the month, I removed two fifths of my earnings and put them in my savings account. 

It's actually been very difficult and very eye opening living on a very small budget.  When did biscuits get so expensive?!  But I got to the end of this month on budget, yay!

On the recommendation of some friends, I've dowloaded a free trial of some software called You Need a Budget.  It's amazing and I will definitely be buying it at the end of the trial.  I'm a complete dunce at both maths and spreadsheets, but it's SO easy to use! 

And the best thing about pretending I only work three days a week is that I have the other bit of my salary left at the end of the month to buy power tools and camera equipment, hurrah!   

Sunday Soup: Roasted vegetable, tomato and bean

Okay, so the Sunday Soup thing hasn’t turned into a every week kind of thing - more of an occasional series!

This week I had rather a lot of sad looking peppers left over and a random bunch of rosemary. A quick potter through the cupboards also turned up a tin of tomatoes and a tin of cannellini beans – rustic tomato/veg/bean it is then!

Recipe (I entirely made this one up, so add/omit things at will)

1 red pepper (and a spare bit)

1 green pepper

1 yellow pepper

1 ½ courgettes

1 red onion, chopped
1 clove of garlic

500ml vegetable stock

1 tin of chopped tomatoes

1 tablespoon of tomato puree

Small dash of balsamic vinegar

1 tablespoon(ish) of fresh rosemary

1 teaspoon herbs de provence

1 tin cannelini beans

Chop peppers and courgettes into largish chunks and roast in the oven at 180 degrees (if you have a mental fan oven) or 200 degrees.

While they’re roasting, gently fry the onion and garlic in a large saucepan for 5 minutes or so. Add the tinned tomatoes, tomato puree and stock and let it bubble away gently whilst the vegetables are roasting. When the vegetables have softened and started to char, tip them into the saucepan and blitz the whole lot with a blender. Add a bit more water if you think it’s too thick.

Add the tinned cannelini beans, heat gently for another 5 minutes or so and you’re done!

I rather liked this one, it had a lovely rich flavour AND tasted super-healthy!

More Shiny Moustaches!

I've been wittering on about shiny moustaches for a long time now, and finally I've got them all finished, hurrah!

Some of them I designed and made a long time ago, like this moustache charm:

And this rather fab chunky moustache ring:

And others are brand new designs, like my mini moustache necklace...

...my little mini moustache post earrings:


Also, a little moustache charm ring:


And some dangly moustache earrings with gemstones. The boy thinks these are a bit too mental, but I rather like them!


So, there you are then. Cute and shiny silver moustaches.


Now available here on my website...

Sparkly Crystal Bug Jewellery

I've been toying with the idea of putting some costume jewellery on my website for a while now, as I ordered some really gorgeous and great quality crystal pieces at a trade fair last year just for me, but I always get so many compliments when I wear them.

Finally got around to photographing them this weekend - I've not had a lot of experience photographing coloured gemstones, but I was really happy with how they turned out.

Sparkly crystal ladybugs!

And more sparkly bugs and beetles - love the blue and turquoise colours of these.

Big, scary crystal spider! This would be perfect for Halloween, although I think the boy is actually a bit frightened of it...

Gorgeous bright green crystal gecko:
And some little sparkly crystal ladybug brooches:
These are all my personal pieces, but am definitely going to order some more soon and put them up on the website. Everyone needs sparkly bugs in their life, right?