Meet Mandy O'Sullivan a really talented woman and a source of inspiration for all of us. She's one of the best DIY and craft bloggers and the founder of Craft As Therapy community.
She began her blog a few years ago, as a way to document the decorating progress of her guesthouse. It's impossible not to fall in love with every single thing she creates!  
Find out more about her...



Please tell us a bit about yourself. 

Hi I’m Mandy! I’m a mother of three, guesthouse owner, photographer and craft blogger. I am also the Founder of @craftastherapy on Instagram- a project that I am very proud of.

How did you learn to crochet/knit? 

My good friend taught me to crochet a couple of years ago and since then I’ve been slightly addicted. You can do so much with crochet – blankets, toys, pillows, clothes and accessories! And the yarn options these days are endless, which means it’s virtually impossible to get bored of crochet. I think this explains why I love it so much.




What has been your most challenging crochet/knitting piece? 

It’s funny, that one of my simplest projects was my most challenging. It was basically a granny square blanket, made with squares of three rounds. I found it the most challenging because I got bored with it really quickly and grew tired of stitching in all of the ends. It took me a good 10 months to complete it and it wasn’t even that big. In the end I really loved the result.



Where do you find your inspiration?

I find inspiration for my designs in the world around me, whether it’s the colours from a magazine cover or from things I see in nature. I believe you can find inspiration everywhere. I try not to look at other crochet blogs (which is hard!) because I don’t want to inadvertently copy another person’s design. I think it’s really important to have strong design integrity and not be too influenced by others.

What are your top three blogs or crochet artists? 

@littlecosythings, @crochetgirl99 and @carter_and_brown on Instagram are three of fave artists. I love following them because they have different style to me and make me think outside the box.





What is the Craft As Therapy community? How did it begin?

After going through a rather stressful period of my life, I turned to craft as a way to distract myself from the anxiety I was feeling. A self diagnosed 'instagram addict' I began to tag some of my projects with #craftastherapy. I was pretty stunned by the response I received and shortly afterwards many, many fellow crafters started using the tag. It became apparent to me how important craft is as a form of therapy, not just for me, but for many other crafters. Due to the larger number of Instagrammers using the tag, I created a handle called @craftastherapy and invited a group of moderators to jump on board and take turns choosing features from the #craftastherapy tag and posting inspirational messages. The hastag continues to grow, as does the number of followers, and a beautiful community has blossomed.

All the pictures belong to RedAgape Style and Design

Thank you Mandy!

Follow RedAgape on Facebook and Instagram . For more amazing projects, don't forget to visit her blog!