This post is a little later than I planned but, well, we made it. It was touch and go for a moment back there but we made it through 2020. What an absolutely bonkers year it was. Those of you who know me will know I had my own battle with Miss Rona at the beginning of the year and unfortunately she’s like sand at a picnic! I’m still finding grains of her embedded in things nearly a year later. And she’s still here. She’s still circling the dancefloor. It’s a shadow that none of us can avoid and until the vaccine has been fully rolled out to all those who want it, we’ll never fully close the chapter on 2020. She’ll still stain our dance cards.

To everybody who follows and supports my creative endeavors, I sincerely hope that you are safe and well.

For me, 2021 brings a new adventure. After three years of dangling the carrot of redundancy just inches away from my nose, the all-important end date is now confirmed and the official papers drawn up. As from March 31st I will no longer be employed. It’s not the first time I have been without employment but it is the most positive time I’ve been without employment.

My positivity is not giddiness. I am well aware that losing a job I have relied upon for the past nine years will have significant financial impact. I am in no way flippant when I say this is a learning curve because the route I have chosen is one of self-employment and self-discovery. I’m fully aware that their will be significant redundancies in the UK this year and as a result my potential safety net of gaining alternative employment is incredibly weakened by the number of people also finding themselves out of work (the number of people made redundant in the UK has jumped to over 370,000 since October – the highest increase on record)

I’m aware that as much as I want to sit back and draw pretty pictures all day, there is an incredible amount of hard work ahead of me to ensure that I am a success.
Before I begin to measure what success looks like for me, I need to map out the route through the next three months of my redundancy period and ensure that when I wake up on 1st April 2021 (the irony of this date is not lost on me), I have done all I can to tip out the crayons onto the kitchen table and colour my way into my new career as a self-employed creative adventurer.

Do you fancy coming along for the ride?