The challenges of parenting

Recently, I had to deal with a certain situation, that I was very unprepared for. My daughter is eight years of age. From what I can recollect as a child, adult conversation and topics were just not part of my world.
Whether I could master the cris cross, roller skating trick the neighbour taught me was. In saying that, my childhood was not all  fun and games.
My parents were struggling with their own journey of being in a foreign country and their marriage was a turbulent one, I guess that why being outside and at the neighbours, was so inviting.
And that saying, 'it takes a village to raise a family', well that was definitely true for myself and my sister, our extended family did a lot of caring for us.
I guess this doesn't really happen much anymore. I had very little support when our children were young, but that was very much my own doing. I was discovering the way I wanted our children to be raised, and well they were not exactly on par, with what other people's opinions of parenting.
At times, it was challenging, but I totally absorbed myself in my role as a mother. I wanted to enjoy every waking moment of my daughter,whether I was sleep deprived and my house looked like a bomb and gone off in it, all I wanted to do was, lay with my daughter  and watch her. I knew, these moments were going to be etched into my memory, I adored her, and I still do. When her little brother came along, I thought you could not feel anymore love, but your heart just swells even more. And watching how my then toddler, took her her baby brother as her own, just melted my heart.
I kept a diary of milestones, when my children were young, just to remember them and remember the emotion, at the time.
As a parent, I want my children to enjoy their childhood. I do not want the adult world to impose itself on my children, however this can be hard to maintain.
Commercialization of children is everywhere, and it is extremely difficult to monitor and. I am not trying to wrap my children in cotton wool, but I believe children, can not understand certain topics and comments with underlying definition. You can monitor what's seen in your home, but you can not control other environments or other people. My children are quite emotive little people and are slowly showing resilience.
They are growing at a rapid rate, but I am grateful they can talk to me and I have  a relationship with them that is open. And throughout very stage of their development, I have had to  to let them go, at times I do that with ease, other times I feel myself getting overwhelmed with emotion, but I am ok with that.

wet felting part 2

I was happy with the end result, the landscape did not move around too much.I decided to stitch over the top, to give it more definition and to keep the silk tops in place. This is the second stage, I stopped after being on the machine for a while. I hope the pictures are clear enough, so you can see.

wet felting

Ok so I have been collecting wool tops for a while now. With time i have gradually built up a pile(much to my husbands disgust, he thinks I'm a hoarder).

I have wet felted, with my children before, but I haven't had the inspiration to do anything. Recently we ventured bush, camping.That trip fueled my imagination, on many levels.
The photos below will document my wet felting process.Please share your crafting journey with me, I hope you get inspired to do that project, that's been sitting in the corner.

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                                     my supplies

                                              laying my design

Seldom seen country

With my little family in toe, tranquility and bush is our destination, with only ourselves as a source of entertainment and limited, only by our own imagination.
A environment, lush and tantalizing with a motley of greens and browns.
Red colored dirt.
And with a climb, your senses are challenged, dry baron land, white snowy mountain gum, protruding from the hill tops.
Gorges that carve up the landscape, they hold tales of a ancient land, once connected.
Living things, unique only to this land.
To breath the scent of eucalyptus, trees hundreds of years old. I am humbled to be amongst these giants.
Whilst surrounded by this  raw beauty, the affects humans have had on this landscape, emotionally provoking that brings a heaviness to my heart.
The city that sets in your pores, is washed away in a river pristine and pure.
And to see the wildflowers in full bloom, I am intoxicated by their obscure detail and beauty.
On my last night, as I lay on the banks of the Timbarra, I sink deeper and deeper into the ground and stare out onto a sky, with a abundance of dancing stars, I embrace the now, and etch this journey into my soul.