mandy collins australia mixed media tutorials

Getting outdoors and making the new year memorable

Happy New Year  !
This new year marked the start of an exciting adventure after being introduced the first time to the native Australian stingless bees.  In the photos they are the tiny little black spots, how nice to not have to be afraid of a bug bite or find a bee without a stinger.

This year’s summer holiday reading list included The Life of The Bee by Maurice Maeterlinck. Lots of interesting things the average person would  not know, like a Queen Bee could die of loneliness without all her busy little buddies, shows how tight knit their communities are.  We forget the world is all interconnected in some way.  If we all do our little bit to look out for little creatures or our patch of the environment it can impact the collective community.

My other fun start to the year is participating in One Little Word. Instead making a whole list of resolutions, some folks think about one guiding word that frames everything in their year.  Last year I had zen, that beautiful blissed out feeling would be nice, I was hoping to settle on balancing in the middle ground of what we would like to be and where things are. Click the link if you are interested in reading more about the One Little Word program.
 http://aliedwards.com/shop/one-little-word-2014
This year my word is joy, as in looking for the joy in ordinary little moments, finding the joy in chores because that is the fuel that gets them done and appreciating all that is good in our world.
Looking forward to hearing about your plans and figuring out how to make 2014 meaningful or memorable.
Am busy developing new workshops for 2014 featuring mail art themes. This is one of the Crate Paper projects from last season
And wait till you see what we got up to with this collection.


Joining Linky Parties:
Sky Watch Friday
Chrisy’s Reconnecting With Nature party