Do you know how every week on Monday morning you daydream about giving up your job and moving to somewhere warm where you won’t be woken up by an alarm every morning? With palm trees and beaches and sunshine? Well I kinda did that 🙈

It feels pretty crazy looking back (it felt pretty crazy at the time!), but I was stuck in a 9-to-5 that I *loathed* and it turns out that even the most tolerant of us have a breaking point, and I’d reached mine.

Working that 9-5 made me MISERABLE! I’d spend every lunchtime sat in my car with the day’s newspaper, looking at job ads and wondering how, despite having a university education, I still seemed unqualified for them all. I felt so cheated that I’d done everything right, jumped through all the hoops and passed all the exams…and yet here I was still, no happier than I would’ve been if I’d have left school at 16 and gone to work at the local supermarket. There was such an intense gnawing in my gut that there HAD to be more to life - wishing away every week day and praying for Friday, only for it to be Sunday evening again before I knew it. I even went out and bought books about making the most of weekends and evenings because I felt like I was stuck in on this hamster wheel of work, eat, sleep, repeat and life was just passing me by. I didn’t actually *do* anything. This couldn’t be it for the rest of my life? It felt crazy that I’d spent the first 21 years of my life learning and growing and having all these new experiences, only to finally land a full-time job after uni (just like I was supposed to!) and then BAM!

That’s it.

Living for the weekend and for the two weeks every year where you’re allowed to take off somewhere warm and try to decompress, ready for another 50 weeks of 9-to-5 hell. I *knew* that that’s what everyone else was doing, I knew that that was what was expected of me too… but this normally quiet and unadventurous,  go-with-the-flow girl just wasn’t having it. So I quit.

I packed my suitcase, said goodbye to nearly everyone I knew, and got on a plane to Tobago, in the Caribbean. I must have lost it 😅

Now don’t get me wrong, I *did* know some people over there (approximately five whole people I'll have you know 😅) so I hadn’t *entirely* lost my mind. And I finally had sun, and sand, and palm trees…but also a huge culture shock.

People in Tobago don’t actually DO much in comparison to English people. I don’t mean that offensively at ALL, it’s just the way of life…there's not a lot going on! It’s hot, really hot, and moving fast or doing anything with any speed is nigh on impossible - so the way of life is naturally slower. Not only that but there’s not a lot to actually *do* on a small island. You could drive around the whole island in less than one morning, so it’s not long before you feel like you’ve seen it all. To top it all off there is a very definite culture of ‘work to live’ not ‘live to work’ like I see so much here in England. So, for a lot of folk, once they have money for the week, they don’t work anymore, they just stay home or 'lime' (hang out!) with their friends. It sounds blissful written down here but in practice, for someone used to the hustle and bustle and having to be somewhere at a certain time multiple times a day with no time to think or actually choose what to do…it was a struggle. I know you think I’m crazy 😅 but trust me! Two weeks on a beach with nothing to do IS blissful, but months at a time? You go a little stir crazy! And so that’s where Jewellery By Jora came in.

Three months prior, my Mum had bought my younger sister a jewellery-making kit for Christmas, and my sister never used it (rude!). I took it with me to keep me occupied, not realising that that little box of beads, with the little black and white instruction leaflet, would teach me a brand-new skill and, in doing so, save me from going doo-lally on a beach in the Caribbean. More importantly, it would be the beginnings of a handmade business that would give me back my purpose and joy in life.

From small beginnings on a beach in the Caribbean to a brand here on Etsy with more than 7000 sales, it became a business that would allow me to never again have to set an alarm to wake me up in the morning, never have to ask for someone else’s permission to take a break, and never again feel like I was less than worthy as a human being because I didn’t have the seven different obscure qualifications and 15 years job experience that every employer seems to demand for jobs that take your all and give little in return. That little box of beads, along with the lovely tourists who saw what I was making and often asked about buying something from me...they gave me the tools, the self confidence and the motivation to open this online shop and *juuuuust see* if anybody else might be interested in what I was making. I'd already quit my job and moved 4500 miles across the Atlantic Ocean, I had nothing to lose!

Since those days on the beach back in 2010 and 2011, Jewellery By Jora has grown to be a brand that I’m incredibly proud of. Inspired by its roots back on a beach in Tobago, Jewellery By Jora hopes to bring a little Caribbean sunshine to your every day – to make you smile, even when it’s grey and raining. A little reminder to make every day fun and special, and to make YOU feel fun and special - because you are!  We all are, and we forget that sometimes.

Today I’m back in the UK so that my 5yr old daughter can grow up surrounded by the love of my family. Jewellery By Jora, paired with the support of so many wonderful customers, gives us the freedom to live life on OUR terms. We still visit Tobago for a month every summer to revisit that beach in Castara where it all began.

I feel truly blessed to be able to make an income doing something I genuinely love and, as a single Mama, to be able to set that example for my daughter means the absolute world! I’m so incredibly grateful to all the amazing women, such as yourself, who have chosen to shop here on Etsy - you might not realise it but you *genuinely* have a direct impact on the lives of the people you're buying from and I cannot thank you enough for that support.

I have big dreams for Jewellery By Jora and I wake up every day excited to see what the day brings! Inevitably I've had to become a jack-of-all-trades to grow this business to where it is today (when there's only one of you then you're not just the creator, you're also the photographer, marketer, packer, social media co-ordinator and the customer relations person all rolled into one!) so every day is a school day and I LOVE that! But I can't wait to keep growing and to get to the point where I have a team around me to help...my photography skills leave something to be desired no matter how hard I try!

Lastly I'd like to say thank you so much for letting me tell you a little of my story! If you’ve enjoyed reading my novella about the beginnings of Jewellery By Jora 😅 and you’d like to take a peek behind the scenes at what we (I’m including my daughter here because she often steals the show!) get up to day-to-day then please do come join us over on Instagram @jewellerybyjora - it’d be so great to see you over there!

Remember! Wear the earrings, book the flights, and make every day a little bit special 🤗 Life shouldn't be lived in shades of grey.

Rachael xx