Hello Creative QB’s,

Has 2018 been a good year for you? Are you ready to farewell this year with a good dose of Christmas cheer? At the start of the year I recall reading somewhere that 2018 would be a year of endings.  However 2018 rolled for you, there is no doubt we are all ready to sign off on 2018 and have a much needed break, time to rest and reassemble the creative pieces of our lives in preparation for 2019.

3 minute read

A few weeks ago as Christmas drew near, I began drawing on a commissioned illustration for the lovely people at Roaming Magazine, a monthly lifestyle magazine in Sydney’s Western Suburbs and the lower Blue Mountains. I worked with these guys a few years back and was super excited when they asked me to illustrate the front cover of the Christmas edition. As I drew each little illustration in pencil and watercolour, the Christmas feeling of both panic and joy settled in on me.

Copyright Amanda O’Bryan | Roaming Magazine Christmas Cover 2018

It’s now a few weeks later and as I finish writing our last blog of the year, I can hear the sound of an Aussie summer coming to life. To the backdrop of a cicada symphony, dinner is sizzling on the BBQ, the first cricket test match is streaming on bluetooth , a bunch of kids are playing cricket noisily over in the park. I can hear the waves crashing on the beach driven by a fresh northerly breeze and the sun is just tipping the trees before it dips behind the bay.

This is my annual pre-Christmas escape to the beach and life is good. Usually the whole family is here, the entire O’Bryan clan, Cate and her family, Belle and her kids and our other sister, Kristy, brother, Simon together with their families and our parents, all here together enjoying the lead up to our beach Christmas.

With the long school calendar year coming to an end so close to Christmas, family commitments and some of us having  our very own 2018 challenging times, this year is different. We couldn’t all get away at the same time, so I’m soaking up the beach vibes for them!

When I think back on how 2018 has rolled for us I think about when I re-launched Creative Queen Bees earlier this year with Cate and Belle. We spent the most part of the year still figuring out ‘our plans’. We knew the ‘why’ and ‘what’ of Creative Queen Bees, but still needed some clarity on our ‘how’.

Between the three of us, we have spent the last nine months figuring out how we fit together as a creative trio. More importantly we have been listening to `how creativity fits’ into your life. Through our workshops, blog and social media we have met many brave, inspiring and amazingly creative women finding their way to a happy, healthy, creative life and this has given us much inspiration. Your journey has given us clarity on our ‘how’ and our plans for 2019 and beyond.

What resonates loudly is that together, you and us are seeking to live our lives with meaning and purpose. By choosing to live a creative life, following our calling, by practicing our creativity whatever way we can, we live out our passions. By learning from other women, hearing your stories, your ‘why’, your ‘how’, it helps us all create, make, build and live a happy, healthy creative life, for ourselves, our families and others.

To all Creative Queen Bees, as Christmas draws close, from our family to yours we sign off 2018 with our very best wishes for a wonderful, creative Christmas, filled with merriment, memories and good times. We look forward to meeting you in 2019.

Much love Amanda. ♥