2023 so far…

Hello friends, thanks for checking in here. I hope you’re well and 2023 is going great for you. My year has been a very different one to what I expected, and I’m only getting a chance now to share the curveball life threw me this year.

At the start of January, I came home from my first Saturday market of 2023 (I had a lovely day getting back into the swing of things after the Christmas break) and felt like I was getting the flu. I became very ill very quickly and after several weeks of misdiagnosis, I was urgently admitted to hospital with encephalitis (brain infection/inflammation) which had also caused sight loss in one eye. Thankfully arriving at hospital when I did was just in time to save my sight. It was incredibly scary but I’ve been very lucky and every day I’m so grateful to my amazing doctors & nurses and thank my lucky stars.

Six months later, I’ve learned that recovery from encephalitis is slow and can’t be rushed, and certainly has some challenges. My eyesight is still recovering too, but overall my prognosis for recovery is good. It’ll just take time. I remember when I thought I had flu, I panicked over taking a few weeks away from the studio, but I’ll never worry about that again! So many people have said to me that ‘your health is your wealth’ and it’s so true.

All the plans I had for Watercolour Sky are on hold for now. I can’t wait to be back at my studio desk when I’m ready, creating new designs, turning my artwork into printed stationery, reopening my Etsy shop and finally getting my stall set up again at St George’s Market.

I’ll share more here when I can, or if you’re interested in keeping up to date with when I’ll be back in the studio or any news / progress, you can click here to join my email newsletter

Thanks so much for reading,

Rachel x