Sun in Virgo, Moon in Leo, Waning Moon
I have signed up to the Everyday Hero program to support beyondblue.
In October the world celebrates Mental Health day on the 10th and Australia celebrates Mental Health Week that week - A time to raise awareness about mental health. On October 25th 2014 Handmade Wonderland will be apart of the Groat Street Community festival in North Beach organised by the amazible Faerie Cara of the Eco-Faeries. I will be holding an ‘Art for Your Heart – Felting Gumnut’ workshop to encourage the community to come and learn a new skill, create a felted treasure and donate to beyondblue. I'm so excited to be able to hold this workshop in honour of a friend who made the first felted gumnut and who is the inspiration behind this event.
I have been running ‘Art for Your Heart classes’ for a couple of years now - Art classes with a focus on mindfulness and wellbeing. And I have been fortunate to meet some very lovely people whilst doing what I love. I taught one beautiful girl to weave and felt and as usual in the creative process she inspired me as much I inspired her. I held an exhibition in a local laneway last year and had an arty closing party to celebrate in my garden, this beautiful girl, my new friend came along and brought a ‘congratulations gumnut’ - felted with the skills she had learnt in our class. I loved it.
https://give.everydayhero.com/au/handmadewonderland
I have signed up to the Everyday Hero program to support beyondblue.
In October the world celebrates Mental Health day on the 10th and Australia celebrates Mental Health Week that week - A time to raise awareness about mental health. On October 25th 2014 Handmade Wonderland will be apart of the Groat Street Community festival in North Beach organised by the amazible Faerie Cara of the Eco-Faeries. I will be holding an ‘Art for Your Heart – Felting Gumnut’ workshop to encourage the community to come and learn a new skill, create a felted treasure and donate to beyondblue. I'm so excited to be able to hold this workshop in honour of a friend who made the first felted gumnut and who is the inspiration behind this event.
I have been running ‘Art for Your Heart classes’ for a couple of years now - Art classes with a focus on mindfulness and wellbeing. And I have been fortunate to meet some very lovely people whilst doing what I love. I taught one beautiful girl to weave and felt and as usual in the creative process she inspired me as much I inspired her. I held an exhibition in a local laneway last year and had an arty closing party to celebrate in my garden, this beautiful girl, my new friend came along and brought a ‘congratulations gumnut’ - felted with the skills she had learnt in our class. I loved it.
A few months later she took her own life.
It was a shocking, tragic loss that really affected me.
I have had depression and anxiety since I was a kid.
I have worked in mental health in arts therapy and I have a
lots of friends and family members with a variety of mental illness. In fact I
have come to learn that we all have mental health, like physical health and
sometimes we have issues with our mental health that we need to reach out and
get help for.
The shame and silence of not speaking out about our feelings
leads to tragedies like the loss of my friend. I may have had anxiety and
depression for most of my life but it is the shame and silence that makes those
times worse.
It is my hope that by being brave and sharing my story
others will be able to be brave and share theirs, to not feel alone, to reach
out and to connect to organisations like beyondblue
to help.
I look forward to sharing felted gumnuts with you on Saturday 25th October at the Groat Street Festival - stay tuned for more information coming soon - in the mean time head along to my everyday hero campaign to donate share the love!
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