A Mid-Year Pause: Looking Back, Looking Forward

July has arrived, sneaking in between cursed UK heatwaves, and as we’re now halfway through the year, I’m pausing to take stock before looking forward and making fresh plans.

So far, 2026 has been a mixed bag.

It began gently, with a long-awaited break in January. Phil and I visited Edinburgh and caught up with friends we’d not seen for a couple of years. This felt like exactly the right way to step into a new year: time away in a new (to me) city, familiar faces, and a bit of breathing room after the rush of Christmas.

Back home in Lincoln, we even had a little seasonal snow. Not enough to cause chaos, but enough to make everything look quiet and pretty for a few days. Creatively, I started the year with my first coloured pencil piece of 2026: a moody bear called January Blues. It felt like an appropriate beginning somehow — soft, atmospheric, and a little bit wintry.

February was gentle and fun. I added new miniature art to my collection, which always brings me a lot of joy, and we also made time to sneak away to the coast one Sunday afternoon. There is something very restorative about a nearly deserted beach, sea air, and proper seaside chips. It was simple, but it was lovely.

March was more of a mixed bag. We had a lovely weekend break away, and I drew my second coloured pencil piece of the year: March Hare. That felt like a bright spot. While visiting home for Mothering Sunday, a young driver drove into the side of my car. Thankfully nobody was hurt, which is the important thing, but the cosmetic damage was expensive, and deeply frustrating.

April, thankfully, was great. I was full of creative energy and had fun making new art. We had our most successful event to date at the NightFair Spring Market in Norwich, where my March Hare artwork sold - the very first time I took him out - which was a great boost for my confidence.

May brought another downturn in fortune. I did enjoy creating new art during the month, but we lost our DTG printer, and possibly my T-shirt range along with it. That has been a difficult one to absorb and I’m still working out how to deal with the consequences. It’s one of those behind-the-scenes setbacks that might not look very dramatic from the outside but has a real impact when you are running a small creative business.

And then came June. Honestly, June was horrible. I was ill all month (I’d never been this sick in my life). It ruined my birthday, and I missed visiting home as well as a gig I’d been looking forward to all year. I couldn’t work, which is hard emotionally as well as practically. It was a month of enforced stopping, and not in the gentle, restorative way I would have chosen.

So here I am at the start of July, pausing at the halfway point of the year. The first six months of 2026 saw the creation of new artwork, a successful event, business setbacks, illness, and a lot of reminders that plans are useful, but they are never entirely in charge.

I don’t want to rush straight into the second half of the year without noticing what the first half has taught me. I need to make space to recover properly, to review what is still working, and to think carefully about what I want July to December to look like. I imagine that will mean adjusting my expectations. It will probably mean rebuilding my momentum slowly. I think I will have to let go of a few things that no longer fit and make room for new ideas.

My hope for the rest of 2026 is that it returns to its earlier form: more gentle days, more creative momentum, more good events, more tiny adventures, and far fewer disasters!

I am making plans for the months ahead, but I am trying to hold them lightly. This mid-year reset is not about pretending everything has gone perfectly, it’s about taking an honest breath, gathering up the good bits, learning from the difficult ones, and choosing how I want to continue.

Here’s to July: to recovery, to fresh plans, and to whatever small spooky joys the second half of the year may bring.

That’s it for this journal instalment. As always, the best way to keep updated with all things Hannah Kate Makes is to sign up to The Spooky List and receive emails straight into your inbox. You’ll find the form below.

Take care and stay spooky.

HK x