XxJo

As we go into another week of lockdown and more news of people dying of Covid-19, it seems strange that people seem to think that its time to flaunt the lockdown measures. I feel guilty, while brides that I know and some of my brides fiancé's have to go fight the war against coronavirus, my minds racing on ideas.

Its weird but arty people can't switch their brain off, no matter what moves them  they feel complied to use it like energy. I always find I have too many ideas and never know which one to start, I have been like that since Art College. It's one of the things that means it's brilliant for me to work for clients as they keep me to their brief. There are never enough hours to my days, and my mind flits from one thing to the next. Normally I can turn that to my advantage as normally I am working on more than one bride's dress. Monday mornings I like to have a plan for the week. This week I want to try and get a project I'm working on to a more complete stage. Since the start of this lockdown I have been dependant and in awe of the NHS. So I decided to cross-stitch a piece of work to say Thank You.

 My idea is to raffle the piece online to raise money for the NHS & or Key Workers. You, my social media friends and your friends can nominate someone you know to have the piece personalised with their name as a keepsake of this historic time when we want to thank them for what they did for us. By coincidence Facebook said for my birthday I could choose a charity to give to free of fees. I need you All to HELP me with this.
I sign off text messages and emails with XxJo! Makes me stop and think of All the XX stitches on my piece of work.

Bee Happy

When I woke this morning and opened my phone I noticed a wee bee!!

Do you ever stop to think of their importance to humanity. They may bee tiny but they pollinate two-thirds of the world's crops and 85% of the worlds flowering plants, sooo I'm very fond of the tiny Bee!

Google are celebrating Earth Day 22nd April 2020with the Bee pollinating flowers, give it a go!

This is a time when we should be making promises to be Happier, Healthier, and Kinder to our Green Plant.

No earth, no life!

No earth, no birth!

If you want a happy life, save the earth.

Earth is the only planet to have life, save the earth.

Google's Game

Without earth, no one will take birth.

If you destroy the earth, you destroy the chance of life.

Save earth to continue living here.

Save earth to save many lives.

Save earth saves natural resources.

Save the earth, save a ray of life.

This time last year I was embroidering this veil for a bride.

Save the earth, save a hope of life.

There is no place to live other than earth, save the earth!

Our planet has no alternate, please save it.

Save earth to get saved your lives back.

Saving of earth is the first and foremost responsibility of everyone, just do it!

Stop polluting the earth and making it a heap of garbage!

Let us plant more trees and make our earth green and clean.

Slow the flow…..save H2O.

This year I am working on a cross-stitch embroidery to say Thank You

Keep our forests green, keep our oceans blue, our planet needs you!

Forests are green, oceans are blue, keep the earth clean for me and you.

Don’t blow it. Good planets are hard to find.

Join the race to make the world a better place.

Think globally, act locally.

Care for the earth, care for the coming birth.

Save to protect every inch of earth.

Keep our earth green and clean.

Raise your voice against every act of harming the earth.

Love the earth and be happy.

A few weeks ago I read this quote on my local hospital's accident and emergency  notice board!

What's our purpose.

Sometimes we don't get time to stop and think, but question these.
What truly matters, deep in your heart?

What do we want to stand for, while on this planet?
What sort of human being do I want to be?

How do I want to behave towards myself and others in the world around me?
What personal qualities do I want to cultivate?

A Very personal 'About me"

A lot has happened since my last post, if you ever read my "About me" probably there will have been mention of my Dad!

"I grew up on a stud farm on the Ards Peninsula in Northern Ireland. My father had a hardware store providing essentials for locals and as a young girl I was taught the importance of making customers happy. "

The closing down sale of my Dad's shop.

You may be wondering why the name "McKee's" well that was my grandmother's name on my Dad's side. Some of you may remember it in High Street, Bangor. From a young age he had to work hard and care for his Mum & Dad. His Dad had Parkinson's disease and died before I was born. His Mum I associate with Jaffa cake biscuits and she sadly also died before I really got to know her. However we were brought up on a farm on my Dad's side. 

When Mum and him meet he raced motor bikes, he even did the Isle of Man TT. All around our house were trophies that he won. But as the family grew Mum made him give up the motorbikes and they turned their attention to ponies. 

I was born into this crazy family, I'm probably best known for hating having my photograph taken so this is one of very few. It was taken on the day of my Aunt's wedding in the Crawsfordsburn Inn while I'm sitting on the piano! One of four girls my Dad brought us up to be self reliant, a trait we all need in these times. Being  inventive and creative were also characteristics he pasted on. He built us our very own horse box and invented a hoover to clean the horses!

Ponies were our life line as kids, we went everywhere with them and meet loads of people the places we went with them. From Cork to Coleraine we travelled the country, from Ireland to Poland my Dad took us by then with the horses.

Do you ever stop to think about the influence your circumstances and environment make on your life?

"My Great Aunts were keen patchwork quilters and my Grand Mother had seen a lot of the world and had brought back many inspiring pieces of everything from jewellery to clothes."

This sampler was worked by a relative on my Mum's side. Note the date, it was the time of the Irish Famine when a million people died!! Makes us realise that weird things have happened in our country and our relatives survived. Let's hope this corvid-19 makes us stop and rethink how best to live our lives.

I want to inspire other's to sew. I thought that this time would let me do so but then my father fell and went into hospital and somehow time has just elapsed. 

I made this patchwork quilt maybe  twenty years ago or more and still use it on my bed today, hopefully this will inspire you to have a go as it's like a family heirloom and has last years.

With the present circumstances I have found it weird to think of my wedding dresses, we don't have a clue when people will be allowed to gather to celebrate wedding days. My shop is so strange and quiet these days. When I first moved here my dad had a heart attack!  I remember going to the man that owned it and apologising for not having turned up the day we were meant to because of my Dad's illness. Then much as today the NHS came to our rescue and did a triple bypass on him which meant that he was well enough to watch my progress over the years.

Weird Times

Pyjamas seem to have been the “reaccuring “theme this week. At the start of the week I was sewing my Dad’s name of his pyjamas as he’s in hospital at the moment snd we hope that he might get to a nursing home and well that means naming things like your pyjamas.
These days I’m up early, can’t sleep much, so I sit quietly in my kitchen listening to the birds waking and sipping a mug of warm lemon juice with ginger and honey. Well on Monday morning I looked out and saw a man in his pyjamas. I looked again, yes there was definitely someone trying to get into our outhouse with his pyjamas, dressing gown & slippers. During the night my husband and I nearly always have a time that we both waken & discuss weird things. We had mentioned our neighbours along the road and that I must call & check on the couple as sadly one of them has issues remembering things. Poor man there he was at my back door. Good news was we got him back home before anything weird happened. His poor wife had been out in the washroom and she hadn’t noticed his escape.
Reminds me my Dad has been planning his great escape from hospital, but with a broken hip & being unable to walk, sadly he’s dreaming. But the power of positive thinking, can be what keeps us all going.
Back to the pyjamas, yesterday I was using my husband’s pyjamas to copy the pattern so that I could have a go at making some scrubs for the Ulster Hospital as my way of thanking them for all they have done for me and mine over the years.

You never know when you might need those sewing skills!
So join me to learn something new, learn to sew with Jo  

Life Experience

I’m wide awake, can’t sleep, it’s the usual time 3am and my mind is racing with things to do. I tell my brides if they wake in the night with things to do write them down so you can get back to sleep ( we all need our beauty sleep!) & the mind is a powerful thing!!

“We think we have a problem until a bigger one comes along.” Well a few weeks ago we were all working towards a plan and then “bang” everything changes and we have to learn to quickly adapt and alter our course to work out how to cope with that problem. 

Life experience is a powerful thing, you can learn from things that have happened you and people you meet if you are bothered to be interested in their life experience. 

My job is fascinating and my life experience especially over the last three years but maybe way longer gives me heart to keep going. Always be thoughtful, as quite often people are coping with far more than you know. Always be positive,negativity is a wasted energy. Don’t stress, listen to your heart, quite often guidance our strength comes from within. However over the past three years it was my brides and clients that got me through the most difficult time of my life. Over the years we have had the troubles in this wee country, we have had the banking crisis, & we have had brexit ( it’s not getting a capital letter from me!) but our health Our HEALTH that if we don’t have it we can’t go to our work, go to our weddings, go on holiday , do what we want nor be with our loved ones. 

Be wise, be healthy and be grateful. 

Thanks as always to All my customers for being there for me. XxJo 

Latest Update

Firstly I want to give you my mobile telephone number as my shop landline is no longer fit for purpose!!

   07736069692

Normally we are excited about Spring weddings, the hedgerows are bursting into life and its all go! A lot has happened since I wrote my last blog and life has changed in the world dramatically! Im fortunate that I can shut myself away and sew to my hearts content with the music on but that doesn't work without my customers. It seems that fittings will be jeopardised for the foreseeable future. I present I just take one day at a time and try to be organised and ready when any of my brides tell me they want a fitting.




 As time goes by and I have no one to talk to I keep thinking best thing I could do is teach those of you how to sew and make things. We presume your weddings will go ahead one day so maybe you will start searching online for products so I must try and become more tech friendly. ( maybe some of you can help me with that) I do have an Etsy shop so I must put more things online! Look up Jo's Collection and see if you can find it, let me know. I might do a shoplift store with my Facebook page. All of these ideas will keep me occupied!!



So keep yourselves creative, get drawing, sewing , making whatever you can to give you a purpose a fulfilment  to your day. Time is not to be wasted, we only get one go at this life. Anytime I can Im going to post videos on my Instagram page @joanne_ferguson_bridal or @embroidery_inspo please follow me to keep me going.