Why I Took a Break From My Business

Please note that this post has a *trigger warning - talk of illness* so if that's something you're not comfortable reading right now, please look after yourself and come back when you're ready.

Where have you been, Moll?

Hello again!

Some of you noticed that I spent most of 2022 away from my website, newsletter and Instagram. I just wanted to share an update as to where I've been.

At the start of 2022, shortly after my 27th Birthday, I was slapped in the face with a cancer diagnosis. Stage 2B Hodgkins Lymphoma, a type of blood cancer that effects the lymph-nodes. So far I've been lucky enough to not even question my health, but now I had a new priority. I dropped everything and focused on getting well again.

Digging out the positives

I have been lucky enough to be a patient at the Christie hospital in Manchester where my nana was looked after and where the team have been INCREDIBLE. I was offered a place on an immunotherapy trial drug for two months and then chemotherapy for 6 months (12 fortnightly rounds). The treatment wiped me out but the lymphoma team always managed to prop me up and get me laughing again (huge shout out to Leanne and Joanna).

It might sound a bit odd saying that there have been positives to this challenge, but trust me, I was actively hunting them out!

Asking for help

I'm usually a very independent person and like to do what I can by myself. Letting go of control (or what control I had left) was a huge lesson for me.

I had to really rely on family and friends like I never had to before. Although I found it really difficult at first, when I started to get used to it, it was lovely to connect with them in this new way and they were actually glad to feel useful too.

New hair cut

When the time was right, my twin sister shaved my hair off for me, it was very matter of fact and we actually had a laugh doing it. I've been embracing my kiwi fruit style fuzzy haircut since then and have started to see my hair start to grow back.

Ringing the 'end of treatment' bell

Take Care

I'm sorry to my friends that are just hearing this news for the first time, I've kept this journey very close and really wasn't a fan of sharing the bad news, I wanted to wait until I could be sharing the good news that I am now cancer free.

Please keep an eye on your body and any changes, it's so easy to overlook things when we're busy. My symptoms appeared as a lump in my neck just above my right collar bone and persistent night sweats.

It can be a scary experience getting a cancer diagnosis but believe me, you are not alone. Please do get in touch if you are worried about anything- I am absolutely not a medical expert but I am a listening ear and a hand to hold if you're worried.

molly@mollynewport.co.uk

Molly

x

Treats from my drawing journal x

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100 Days of Drawing

A desperate attempt to squeeze more drawing into my daily routine.

I came across a 100 day drawing project on artist Katie Chappell's page and decided to give it a go. The idea is that you create 1 drawing every day for 100 days... sounds simple enough.

I kept this project offline to avoid any pressures from social media (this also saved a LOT of editing time too). Although this did remove a bit of the accountability that sharing work can bring.

For the project I used a ring-bound Pink Pig square sketchbook* to make the work and then pulled the pages out of the book and popped them in a drawer as I went along. I kept all the work together in the drawer until the end of the 100 days and then dug them all out for one big living room critique session.

*(This is an affiliate link, see below for more information).

My living room critique session

I found it difficult to decide on what to draw, when there are no rules or structure, there is the whole world to choose from! That can be quite overwhelming and can even put a stop to the creative flow.

I started with drawing random objects around the house

Going back through the drawings was like flicking through a photo album of memories, a lot can change in 100 days. Seeing the work as one big collection at the end was interesting to see recurring themes and colours.

Sketchbook pages on the studio wall

As I was looking at the pile of drawings, I remembered the 2/10 rule that my uni tutor taught me.

On average for every 10 drawings created 2 will be 'good' or at least that you'd want to use moving forwards, the other 8 can be put away for another time. Keeping this quantity over quality idea in mind, I find it helps to take a lot of pressure off the work. This makes it a bit easier to just produce work by generating a volume of content to then work from later.

I created 55 drawings in the 100 day challenge. I was a bit disappointed that I hadn't managed to create 100 drawings but I have 55 more drawings than I did when I started and that's still a win in my eyes!

A few things that helped me:

- Set time goals.

Decide before you start drawing how long you want to spend on that particular piece of work. 2 minutes, 5 minutes, 20 minutes... sometimes it helps to set a timer too (I have a tendency to use the whole day if I'm left without time constraints).

- Set portfolio goals.

What do you want to achieve from the challenge? Do you want to produce more drawings of people / landscapes / buildings etc? Can you make a collection of inspirational photos before you start? (I have a Pinterest Board of Tiny Houses that I like to refer back to). Or an ongoing list in the front of your sketchbook.

- Choose your weapons.

What materials will you use? Just ink? coloured pencils? will you stick to a simple colour palette for the whole challenge? Will you use a sketchbook or loose sheets of paper?

A Little Treat Just For You

I'm a big supporter of sharing work online and I think it can be really beneficial in helping others to grow too. So, I'm not just going to share my best work with you, below is my least favourite from the 100 Day Challenge. I really suffered from Fear of The White Page when I was creating this one and I really hated the outcome. I've learnt a lot from the drawing in terms of shape, composition, materials etc and I know now what I can do to improve it if I were to draw it again.

My least favourite page

Have you tried anything like this yet? Do you have any tips for starting a drawing challenge?

More tasty bits:

-TED talk by illustrator David Litchfield about his 365 day drawing challenge.

-Receive a free list of 30 creative prompts when you sign up to my Monthly Round Up at the bottom of this webpage.

-Learn more about starting your own creative journal here

UPDATE: I uploaded my Spooktober 2020 and Inktober 2019 illustrations to Pinterest at the time that I created them, I then hid them as I hated looking back at the work. Today, as I look at the work as a starting point for ideas and those drawings were my best with the skills that I had at the time, I look at them as a body of work instead. So if you'd like to see what work I was creating a couple of years ago, here's some more.

*This post includes affiliate links. Whenever you buy something through one of these, I get a small commission without any extra cost to you. This helps to support my blog, thank you.

How Can Small Businesses Bring More Creativity To Your Life?

It might feel less than inspiring to follow a trolley around the supermarket on a Saturday afternoon, what if there were a more colourful option available.

As small businesses are generally more creative and quicker to respond to their audience and situations, they are also able to offer more value to their customers too.

Amongst the obvious advice of 'visit them' to get your dose of creativity, why not see what else they are offering:

Newsletters & mailing lists

Small businesses tend to pack their newsletters with information tailored specifically to their customers and can include local news and events too. Two of my Stockport favourites are The Good Life and Rare Mags.

Courses

Independent shops have much more control over their space, many host courses that give you a chance to learn and give you more insight into their industry and can help you to understand their products in a new way too. Pasta making workshop and the local Italian, photography course at a local studio, knitting lessons at the wool shop...

Events

Feeling like a special guest when the shop you love close the doors to an intimate event that you have a ticket for, book signings / 'conversations with...', live music or podcasts, community groups... the possibilities! Or like SK1 Records in Stockport, they throw the doors open and have a big ol' street party! Stockport also has a Foodie Friday event on the last Friday of the month where independent food traders, live music and people gather together.

Podcasts

Your favourite small business might have their own podcast where they chat about topics you love and want to learn more about - worth having a look.

Other things to get involved with

Things like Facebook groups or volunteering groups, exercise and wellness clubs where people like you are hiding out.

Investing a little bit of time into small businesses can pay off massively in terms of value. You could take any little thread of inspiration from them and follow it down a rabbit hole of culture and creativity. It's a great way to enjoy inspiration slowly and add to your own cabinet of curiosities.

Feel free to share any experiences (or links) that you have about small businesses in the comments.

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Thank you for reading this post, if you'd like to stay up to date with my latest blog posts, receive monthly stories, inspiration and recommendations, join my monthly round up community HERE.