"What would life be if we had no courage to attempt anything?"
Vincent Van Gogh
I've been thinking about writing a blog for a while now. I've done a little bit of homework - listened to a couple of podcasts, read a few handy online guides (all of which tell you something different!); the usual stuff that I tend to do before I do anything to my website because, let's face it (& this is just between you & me): I'm a COMPLETE NOVICE!!!!
I'm not a writer. Don't get me wrong - I can write, in fact I do a great line in waffling, but to actually sit down & write something regularly that I hope & pray will interest someone else is a whole different ball game!!
So here goes... I thought I would begin at the beginning - who I am & how I came to be running my own small, creative business & loving life (mostly)!
Firstly, how do you do? I'm Jo! AKA Joanna, Sweetpea, Darling, Jo-Jo, Mum, Mumzie, Nana, or Aunty Jo. Hello & welcome to my blog!
I live in Kent, with my darling husband, two teenagers, Maya (our Romanian rescue fur baby) & a hamster. We also had chickens until recently, but sadly the foxes have had those. We have woodland & fields around us, but we're not isolated (I couldn't bear that, I'm not very brave!). I love music, detective fiction (especially Agatha Christie), cocktails, gardening & sewing. I’m a bit indecisive, & don’t like confrontation - that’s the Libran in me: all balance & harmony!! I've tried lots of crafts, including candle-making, felting and paper-crafting, but sewing is where my heart lies. So, how did I get here?!
I took an enormous leap of faith, that's how!!
(More of that later!!)
Rewind to August 1988 - I had just finished grammar school & was heading off to London to start training as a nurse (my dream job). It was my first time away from home, but I had wanted to be a children's nurse ever since I could remember - even before I knew that that was how my mum had started her nursing career. It turned out to be everything I hoped for, & more. I loved every placement, got stuck into the assignments & thoroughly enjoyed the perks of a student lifestyle in the big city.
In those days, student nurses were based at, & taught by, the hospital who employed them. For me, this was The Hospitals for Sick Children, more commonly known as Great Ormond Street Hospital, or GOSH, these days. We spent weeks on wards where we became an integral part of the team - doing everything from making beds & cleaning bed pans, to giving medication & post - op care. A big part of our role was playing with the children, to earn their trust, encourage their co-operation & generally help them to thrive in their unfamiliar surroundings.
At the time, G.O.S. was the care centre for thousands of seriously sick children, or those with rare conditions, from all over the world & one of the few hospitals where you could train as a children's nurse. During my years there I met some lovely families & children who were going through some awful times.
I also did an abridged adult nurse training (in Reading) as it was impossible to do children's nursing on its own back then. I thought I would hate this - after all, I knew I didn't want to work in general nursing - but actually, I really enjoyed it. I learned from a wonderful staff nurse about end of life care, “last offices” as it was then called. She was amazing, & I discovered I liked this area of nursing care - it was the last thing I could do for my patient, & I made it as dignified & full of compassion as I could.
I qualified in 1992, & then worked in a paediatric isolation unit in Hackney. I looked after children & babies with chronic or short-term conditions that meant they needed to be nursed in separate cubicles, rather than an open ward. Some had little immunity & so needed protecting from the world, & others had nasty infections & the world needed protecting from them!!
It took a couple of years, but fast forward to 1994, & I was back in Kent, working in my local Special Care Baby Unit.
My plan had always been to work in a neonatal unit after I qualified, where the patients are preterm or sick newborn babies. I loved my new role. The unit was small, the team were close, the work was varied & the babies were gorgeous! On the rare occasions that there was a heartbreaking end to a family's time with us, I learned from those around me with many years of compassionate experience, how to support grieving parents & siblings. A lot of training in nursing comes from seeing great examples of how to do things in practice, in the work place - watching colleagues. There is absolutely no substitute for experience!
Oops! I think I may have got into the realm of waffling - I told you I was good at it!!! You may also have noticed I love an exclamation mark (or several)!!! Let's get back on track, shall we?!
So, I found my niche - I loved neonatal care. More often than not, the outcomes were positive & the babies & their families could be with us for many weeks (sometimes even months), so relationships formed - it was great! I saw how each milestone that was achieved could be celebrated, & how important it was that each life, however brief, was commemorated.
The years ticked by - I met my husband, got married, had two children, moved house, moved jobs: all the usual stuff, but it's strange, isn't it, how things change over time that, being wrapped up in the middle of them, you don't see?!
That's what happened to me. I had been nursing for 35 years (29 of those in neonatal care), gradually taking on (as all nurses do) more roles - audits, working groups, extended skills, mentoring - when something made me stop & look at it from outside the "goldfish bowl". It was astonishing how much red tape, tick-boxing, covering-yourself & staff politics there was involved every day, before I even got anywhere near a baby!! It had crept into my day to day work so stealthily, that I just hadn't noticed it; but during an unplanned break from work, it became obvious that it was consuming me. I'd always thought of myself as pretty resilient & up beat, but I discovered that I wasn't as indestructible as I'd assumed.
Looking back, I can see it clearly- but couldn't at the time; partly, as I said, because all nurses are generally expected to extend their roles & take on additional ancillary work.
One of the things that helped me keep going for as long as I did, was a healthy work-life balance. I had always been able to switch work off when I left the hospital, & had hobbies that I could lose myself in; plus running "Mum's Taxi" all over the place & keeping a busy household on an even keel kept me occupied!
I had been running a very small side hustle called The Crafty Witch for a few years, which began with me making & selling cupcake candles, & then moved on to running various craft workshops.
Then, one day a friend asked me if I could make a memory bear from her daughter's baby clothes. "Of course I can!" I said, & the idea of Sew Special Memory Bears & Keepsakes was born!!
During the Covid 19 pandemic, I made so many bears - many for children who had left school without proms & leavers' services to mark their graduation. The first one was for my son, which I posted on Facebook - I couldn't believe that there was SO much interest!!
Word got around, people also asked for commemorative bears in memory of loved ones & I realised that this was what I really REALLY wanted to concentrate on. The look on each client's face when they see what I have made from their collection of treasured clothes is absolutely priceless, & one of the reasons I totally love what I'm doing now. A little bit of diversifying into other keepsakes - such as cushions & quilts - & expanding my range of Magical Memory Friends to include other animals as well as the ever popular bears, & here I am!!
Well actually, not quite!
At that point, I was still working permanently at my local hospital. I'd been asked a few times by friends, "couldn't you run your craft business full time Jo?" but I always thought it wouldn't work (I'm not a business woman, as my long-suffering hubby will tell you!). I assumed that either there wouldn't be enough business, or I couldn't make enough money at it to pay the bills. I simply saw it as a nice hobby that earned me a little extra pocket money!
Then, last December, a very shrewd (& absolutely lovely) lady asked me, in response to my usual protestations that it wouldn't work, "Why not? You can always go back to nursing if it doesn't!"
She completely changed my mindset with that comment - I owe her an awful lot!
It took several months of looking at lists of pros & cons, long discussions with family, trawling the internet & some sleepless nights, to realise that it would be hard work, but I COULD make a go of it. I didn’t want to be looking back in a few years & thinking “I wish I’d given it a try when I had the chance!!”, so after chewing it over a little longer for good measure, I took the plunge!
I probably wasn't the most prepared entrepreneur - I tend to be a little too reactive (my sister got all the "planning" genes in our family!) - & it wasn't the most organised launch, but I handed in my notice (partly to stop myself backing out) & just went for it!!
I have to admit, for all its negative points, social media has been a godsend! I've discovered Instagram, learned to link accounts, built my own website, reached out to other makers for advice & joined business workshops. Vistaprint has also been a useful tool for creating logos, flyers & other printed stuff. I certainly couldn't have got this far without the internet! I don't normally blow my own trumpet, but I'm pretty proud of myself for everything I've achieved to date, but most especially for actually making the whole “Sew Special” thing look quite professional!!
There, now you know me a little better! I’m a very small bear in a big world at the moment & right now, I like it that way - it allows me the time to give all my attention to each client & their keepsake, to really make each one with love & compassion. I don’t ever want Sew Special Memory Bears & Keepsakes to become a conveyor belt. So for now, I’m learning how to balance personal service with professional presentation. With hard work, I’m hoping to grow a little, but not so much that I lose that one-to-one relationship with my customers. Come with me & see how I get on.
And by the way, if you are in the same boat that I was, & you’re trying to decide whether or not to make a big change in your life (whether that’s to try a new hobby, move house or start a business), I have to tell you, it’s the best decision I’ve ever made!!
Until next time…
Originally published 14th Auguust 2023
