An ending and a new beginning

Three months ago I set out hopefully on a new venture selling handmade gifts in a little shop in my local garden centre. I sold my own crafts and I also had some stock on sale-or-return from another local crafter. The shop did reasonably well in the run-up to Christmas, but I started suffering from pain in my stomach which became quite severe. In the last few days before Christmas, my loyal husband actually went and worked in the shop for me while I writhed at home.

My doctors simply thought I had IBS and it had to get really serious before they finally admitted me to hospital to find out what was wrong. Appendicitis was suspected so they did a CT scan, which didn't show appendicitis but DID show a lot of inflammation in my intestines. They explained to me that this was due to Crohn's Disease, which isn't life-threatening but means that life will be different for me from now on.

Due to the illness and then the extended stay in hospital, I couldn't keep paying the shop overheads without earning anything. Neither could I see a future for the shop when this problem could flare up again at any time and might leave me unable to walk for weeks or months at a time. So, I lost my little shop which I had, I confess, grown rather fond of.

Not to be deterred, I'm planning to re-open "Homespun Gifts" as an online shop and do occasional craft fairs. Now that I'm out of hospital and recovering well, I'm hard at work making new stock and building the new website.

That's the story so far.

Hollie