My crazy business ideas in my 100th blog post.

Of my crazy business ideas over the recent years here is a selection:

"Hungry City"
A late-night humous, Rizla and snacks delivery service for impromptu 3am parties when even the kebab place is shut (for Greater London, inner London has 24 hour shops)

"Pop Craft"
A big van full of beads and craft materials that unpacks into a big tent full of beads and craft materials to tour festivals and offer a pop-up Make Space for parties etc. Pay as you go crafts or one-off charge for parties.

"Felt Money"
A help-to-do-fundraising non-profit website that sells rock-bottom priced packs of complete ready to use ideas for things to make and sell at craft fairs, school fetes etc- complete with instructions. Would also sell tablecloths and have a blog of display suggestions that are easy to make from recycled items, pictures of school fetes etc

"Bead Box"
A monthly subscription where each month for £6.99 including postage one is sent a jewellery project to make, complete with beads, parts and instructions, and some samples from various companies who would like your trade. Also available would be a starter pack, gift pack, optional Vintage Bead upgrade and Xuron pliers. (I hate those cheap pliers)

"Made By Real People"
A print on demand T-shirt/laser cut jewellery service using existing local businesses that do print-on-demand, that helps disadvantaged talented artists make a living from home by doing the exhausting part (promoting, picking, packing, selling, describing, posting and customer service).

"Austerity Handbag"
An online (or print?) magazine for those affected by cuts. A bit like MoneySavingExpert but less dry and less focused on financial products. Focused on the fun parts of life: not a scrimping make do and mend magazine but full of useful things like reader's stories of overcoming adversity and cleverly making the best of a nightmare situation, where to find your local food bank, opportunities to help people, I Found My Husband on Freecycle type stories, how to make luxury bath salts for 55p and generally uplifting stuff.

These last two ideas came from a Facebook group I've joined called "5 Years of Kindness"
The next 5 years are going to be pretty tough, but especially tough on those who can't work through illness and disability.

Anyway.... one day maybe, one of these crazy ideas will be the one to help me to help the most people in these cruel times and do the most I can in society. With beads/feathers/glue gun in hand. Colouring in the world, one bead at a time.

A post about tea

Proper tea. Loose leaf. I'm inspired to begin blogging again by Art and Tea who writes so eloquently about tea, beads and other things.

I'm trying out BRUU, a company that send loose tea monthly. So far it has been very good: I was blown away by their First Flush Darjeeling and excited to find big lumps of edible pineapple and coconut in their Tropical Green tea at the end. Yummy! Nice to know that the tea is made with real fruit and not just flavoured.

I don't have any fancy equipment: I just sprinkle a little into a cup and pour on hot water. The leaves sink and when I've drunk the tea I can usually make a second cup by re-using the leaves. Once the leaves are unrolled and have gone cold, they are easy to scoop into the bin (sorry- no compost where we are) with a teaspoon. Job done, teabags be gone. Refreshing and (I'm told) good for the "health" whatever that is taken to mean.

I've had a huge period of personal growth over the last few years (mainly through therapy and being married) and recently I've been working with Clara Francis the brilliant jewellery designer and with I-Beads the Europe-wide bead website. I've had my designs for Creative Beadcraft  published in magazines, I've gained weight, lost weight, tried to become a Peer Support Worker in mental health (still trying) and I've touched a BAFTA. That was Jason Watkin's BAFTA for his role as Christopher in the Lost Honour of Christopher Jefferies, he was brilliant, watch it.

Happy tea drinking and bead hoarding everyone.

Mini Diamond in London - now in Park Royal

Hello everyone
Today I am finding vintage clasps in Mini Diamond
What a lovely shop - they've now moved to Park Royal
http://www.minidiamond.com




Posted using BlogPress from my iPhone

Beading in a new way

Welcome back to me! Blog posts are like buses, you wait ages for one, then.... never mind. I love using tiny beads. Recently I've been exploring the technique of beading around a stone in order to set it. I specially like the potential of beading around unfoiled Swarovski crystals becasue of the way that the crystal reflects the light and the way that the beaded edge can be seen inside the stone like a kaleidoscope.




Posted using BlogPress from my iPhone

Rocks n shells

Foot better, now fully self employed making delightful things and I have finally turned to the wonderful box of rocks and shells sent to me by my good friend Clym. Wow. I can't wait to work with them. I think some of the shells will become part of a mirror, along with some glitter, and the rocks have holes! Natural beach beads how exciting. They will go really well with my enormo collection of pebbley semi precious beads. Ooh *claps


hands*


From my mobile ;)

Post-op Bunion operation picture (look away if squeamish!)

I thought I'd put this up because I completely failed to find any pictures on the internet of the exact operation I had. So- here is before, and of 3 days after and a picture of my cyber-boot. Its a lapidus bunion surgery operation, or base procedure, more "serious" than the scarf osteotomy (when you can walk a week later) and involving screws and a plate and 6 weeks on crutches. I thought it would be clever to take a picture of my foot with the dressings off in hospital, and promptly almost faintedl. Feeling faint on crutches is NOT wise. I felt most embarrassed! Anyway, here are the gruesome pics in case you are about to have surgery and wondering what it will be like. The answer is- you won't feel very much because modern nerve blocker injections and pain pills are excellent. But not being able to go anywhere without crutches and stonking great cyber-boot is frustrating in the extreme. So there you are. Today I am mainly missing the codeine, it was ever so floaty and nice!!

Happy Feet

I've just had a bunion on my right foot straightened- indeed, removed. General anaesthetic was fun and I'm now zonked on codeine and writing this in a bit of a haze. It hurts but not much. See pic. I'm very excited to to see the foot itself when the bandages come off briefly tomorrow. Meanwhile its a somewhat epic journey up and down the stairs to the bathroom. Everything seems to be an effort......can't wait to wear normal shoes though....zzzzzzz

It must be May

It's pouring with rain today but yesterday it was perfect Mayday Garland weather


From my mobile ;)

New hair!

New dreads and cyberlox for Hastings!


From my mobile ;)

Blue skies without aeroplane trails. Suddenly it's peaceful.


From my mobile ;)

Clocks from my earlier years

I used to go down to Covent Garden with my grandmother to see the water clock and I had forgotten it was there. I looked upwards and it's still there, but alas not working. This picture of it was taken with my phone and treated to a "Lolo" effect using an app called Camera Bag. Why is it not working? One of the metal characters used to randomly water passers-by. Surely it's a public work of art and therefore worth maintaining? It looks sad, still and quiet, even in the sunshine.

From my mobile ;)

Spring! The grass is riz.

Wow the sunshine is really cheering me up today. Tree blossom and warmth- East London seems unusually inviting. I have even got a new whizzy blog thing for my (ahem) iPhone. I have lost 10lb of blubber and I am looking forward to summer without a wedding to plan! In other blog news I really ought to update Grilla Styling. Thing is, I got so fat I didn't like my pictures, oops! Perhaps summer will lend all my projects a new lease of life. Ah, that must mean I need a new notebook ....


-- Post From My iPhone

telephonic joy and sadness in rice

Last week I returned a phone that I had found on the ground to its grateful owner. She is from Taiwan and she gave me these gorgeous little biscuits with my name in Kanji on them. She told me I was a wonderful person. I always think that any person would try to return a 'phone that they found, but obviously the real world doesn't work like that. It was a charming little ivory and gold Sony Ericsson phone and I searched her texts to find numbers of friends who may know her, tracked down her lecturer and found out her email address. I felt very nosey! Yesterday I put my (purple) mobile through the washing machine by mistake. Its sad little wet oblong face is blank and black. Placing it in a bowl of raw rice (thanks Google) for 12 hours at first appeared to partially revive it but it is now once more defunct. I'm lucky to have isync and a memory card so I've lost no data but it feels, in a small way, as if I've lost a friend, and found one. To have been able to give the gift of someone's phone back with all its precious pictures, numbers and messages from family is of far more value than losing my own phone which is just a lump of purple plastic/metal without its data. The biscuits are probably made of rice, too. Isn't it strange how the funniest things are linked. As luck would have it I'm due an upgrade so It'll be hello HTC Hero. I wonder if I can write applications for it in Python? hmmmmm

New year (again)

Well here is another year, and more importantly another decade. I feel like I've left the last ten years behind...officially! I find all the conversations about when the date "actually" is, whether there is a Year Zero, etc, tedious. I find this particular date handy to hang a feeling of closure on, and it feels good to me. The picture is from Udevalla in Sweden where I finally went to visit Paul.... at minus 15! Snow boots minimised the#uksnow disruption for me and worked perfectly in Sweden too. Thank goodness.

The best thing that has happened to me lately is getting a brilliant new job. 2009 was a whirlwind- moving house (of course- I do it every year don't I? did I? hmm can't remember) purple wedding, my job at BAC ending, and I'm now working and training at the same time in Flash animation and various bits of code. This is probably the first job I've ever had thats a perfect fit for my capabilities- I'd always thought I'd left it too late when I stopped programming in Basic in 1980-whatever at primary school to catch up- it appears not. I've always somehow regretted not going down the Computer Studies route... thought as my friend Paul pointed out, he likes to think of me as his friend the jeweller...not his friend the computer programmer! I suppose I'll always be a metalworking girl and aspiring gemmologist at heart, but the pure detail and predictability of code, plus of course its visual manifestation in Flash, is right up my street and I've never been happier...in fact I actually look forward to Mondays! I bet there are not many people who can say that.

The art of washing

Look at this. Isn't it beautiful? that's the art of hanging out the washing, that is. The art of placing damp clothing, expertly flicked and shaken to remove creases to dispense with tedious ironing, onto hangers. The art of placing clothes pegs where their little bite-marks won't show. The art of re-shaping bras for a smooth breast line in the sun, a bit sexual. The art of placing much loved clothes straight into the wardrobe once dry and warm and slightly crisp is satisfyingly stress-free. Chore-like effort is reduced by choosing to take pleasure and by giving a little thought. Clothing thus treated glows when worn. One of the many things my mother taught me is how to do the washing and I am most grateful every time I step out of the house in my lovely clothes. I do so love clothes. And I DO hate ironing.....!

being married

So.... this is what its like being married. Oddly, the dynamic has changed. There is now an "Us" and a "We" in a more official way. I have my own family that I chose. The wedding was widely commented on as the most relaxed, best food, best music wedding ever. I thought so! Such a fabulous day, followed by a week of total shock and Jazz. AAAAAAAA I AM MARRIED! OMFG MY HUSBAND IS PLAYING RONNIE SCOTTS WITH THE LJC!!!Back to work tomorrow......under a different name...and paperwork paperwork paperwork. Today- houmous on toast and relative normality.

Shopping trolleys and Hoovers

Another vaguely lonely photo. Wouldn't it be fun to do a 1950s style photo shoot with an old Hoover? Hoovering the grass in a headscarf and bright red lipstick. I'm in the wrong job. I want to somehow combine my people skills and creativity. I want to help people using art! Hmmm. Also I need to get.... kicked up the bum regularly to actually DO SOME ART. I wonder if the portfolio course at CSM is the right thing to do? I did get in there once. Onto their Jewellery BA. Or how about the creativity courses at IATE. Or how about this course about work? Surely if artists like Paul Alexander Thornton, who doodle like that, and object-maker Bwana Spoons! exist then so can I? Exist? I mean, as myself- messy, colourful, creative- can I?

Wow!!! cute things!!!!

Not this photo. This photo is sad. Sad as in melancholy. look at it. I don't need to explain it. THIS is cute.

My family and other Edward Hopper portraits

I took this photo (when I upload it- have lost the wirething and the boxthing isn't playing) at a family reunion barbeque. Subjects- my Mother and Brother. I don't think ether of them in actual fact were having that dreadful a time- I just think they both look completely isolated from the scene and from each other. Thats what gives the picture such an Edward Hopper look.

Starting a new blog on a different tack

Like my friend crazymum with her Charlotisms, I do sometimes feel like no one understands the way I think. I have created a new game to stimuate me creatively- not sure where I got the idea from- though I believe it was after a double espresso and a grappa which shows that alcohol has had at least one positive effect on me for all the negative ones......anyway its all about rushing round clothes shops with a friend and 2 cameras, picking out stuff I would NEVER wear, screeching to a halt in the changing roms and pretending to be models- taking crazy pictures Austin Powers style then retiring to a dark arty coffee bar to giggle over the results. And then blog the pictures.

see Grilla Styling for more..... its VERY blank at the moment but watch that space!