One for Reflecting and Looking Ahead

Blast off.

Hiya! If you're new to my stack. I'm Fran, I'm an illustrator and picture book maker living in Edinburgh, Scotland.

Gee's Storees originally started as a quarterly newsletter and has slowly evolved into this Substack publication. Here, I share news and updates on my work, behind-the-scenes content as well as insight into my journey in the magical world of children’s publishing and illustration ✨ Hope you'll join our lovely community, I am looking forward to getting to know you!

---

“Learn from your mistakes”, they say, “it’ll make you wiser and will help to improve yourself”. 2023 has been nothing but, learn-from-your-mistakes-moments. Ever since moving to Edinburgh, and out of the safety of my parent’s house, it’s been a never-ending learning experience and this year has been the ultimate lesson of all. It feels like I’ve glided through life with blinkers on so far: ignoring details going on around me, being too anxious to focus on anything outside my to-do lists and doing what’s expected, ie. working, paying my dues, dedicating time to family, friends, chores.

What this equation was missing was myself. What are my opinions, my ideas, my thoughts, my time? Why was I worrying about asking for permission and approval before taking ANY decision? I mean any decision (including which cheese, or crisp packet to get). I’m an adult, a fully grown, tax-paying, adult. Why was I still worrying about approval and permission? I wasn’t a 12-year-old at school anymore, asking people for permission to go to the bathroom or to take a sip of water (most of which I didn’t even ask for because I was too anxious a child to even contemplate carrying out such a task).

This year I’ve taken steps to remedy this mindset, even though I still need to constantly remind myself to buy IT if I want IT, not always because I need IT, but because I can, and yes, I do mean the Dreamtopia Mermaid Barbie Doll that I impulsively purchased last week, a doll that has brightened up my week. Seriously, her rainbow colour-changing hair is extraordinary.

To make things brief, I feel like I’m jumping into 2024 with a new attitude, towards myself, life and my work, creating things I enjoy, with a clear and realistic goal (and trying really hard not to beat myself up for not achieving everything on my list while doing so). Above all, I think my goal is to appreciate and make the most of what I have available to me - cafes with views, parks to walk in, aesthetically pleasing graveyards to walk through…No task needs to be too much - sometimes you just gotta do it.

*cheese ahead* I want to thank everyone and anyone who has in any way supported, invested, and been of any help to me during this past year. I’ve had lovely conversations with individuals, and gotten support on so many levels, and it’s all helped push me through this year, both personally and work-wise. So from the bottom of my heart - THANK YOU and I’m so excited to see what new creative endeavours await next year!