Happy January! I hope you’ve all had a great start of the year and are looking forward to lots of fun things ahead.
You may have noticed that Silly Badger Designs ended up being quite quiet for the Christmas season. Since I started my business back in 2016 this is the first Christmas I’ve missed and it feels really odd.
Unfortunately I had no choice in the matter as I was taken to hospital at the beginning of November. I remember laying in the bed in A&E suddenly realising I’d need to close my shops! I knew I’d be staying in and there was no way I could pack orders from a hospital bed. It went against all of my instincts but I had to close the shops and they stayed closed until January.
It was a very weird feeling to not be selling during this time and to not be posting about festive goodies and happy things whilst I was sat in a hospital bed wondering what was going to be happening to me I had no idea how long I would be staying in there and I was missing my family like crazy and I just couldn’t draw no matter what I did. I had a sketchbook and pencil with me in the hospital but every time I tried, I just couldn’t create. It felt like a part of me was missing. The stress of my illness and wondering what was happening was just too much and my creative brain was just not engaging. I was in complete survival mode and creativity was the last thing I wanted to do even when I came home the first time waiting for surgery, I was mostly feeling okay but I still couldn’t create. I remember the first time I put pencil to paper during that week. Everything felt forced and my coordination just wasn’t there. It was such a strange experience. I just couldn’t draw it took quite a few attempts for me to finally manage to draw something. Thankfully watching some Safari videos with loads of elephants was a great inspiration and I managed to draw some fun elephant line sketches.
Its been a lot to deal with recently and even though my recovery has gone well I also have a long way to go. Mostly with my anxiety from it all. But slow and steady works for me.
My shops have now reopened and I’ve already started to post out some lovely happy mail! The love heart season has already begun which makes me so happy. In a world full of darkness ita so good to be part of the light. I’m also catching up on commissions that had to be paused whilst I was unwell and it’s so nice just getting back to some kind of normal and painting again!
And then we come to 2026! A fresh start! It sounds cheesy but it’s definitely what I need this year and one thing has been bothering me. I have no goals other than to make enough money to keep going and to have a good work/life balance. It’s been bothering me not having any goals to work towards but this evening I’m wondering if this is all okay. Maybe just taking things slow and having fun with it is all I need right now. It doesn’t sound bad does it? So I’m going to just take this year one step at a time and share the journey as I go.
Thank you for reading this far if you have! This is a bit longer than I’d planned and is a bit personal but it’s life.
I’m hoping this year is going to be a lot better and filled with lots of art, nature and adventures and I wish you a year of happiness too ❤️
Silly Badger Designs 