…as we walk, as we walk… (quote from here)

Laly and I made this today, then went out into our back lane and collected nature’s treasures. I found the idea here. I used watercolour paints as I love the hues (except I need to work on the deep green, it’s not quite deep-leafy-green enough).

Then I made this one with purples, yellows, dark brown and grey as I found lots of those shades along our wander. The jacarandas are in bloom in Sydney right now and they are spectacular.

xx

Reality:

We’ve had a rough few weeks, Laly was very sick and we went to hospital a couple of times by ambulance (may I just say ambos are awesome – I have always been struck by their amazing strength of character, kindness and warmth). I won’t go into details about the illness but she’s made a full recovery, although sleeps  – day and night – have become a roller coaster ride again and we are so *$*%*#ing tired.  Last night was a good night! And I felt great after having 7 hours of sleep, so while she took her midday nap I felt like I had the energy to write this post instead of rest. She woke after only 50 minutes, I hadn’t even uploaded the images. I was so angry and frustrated, so tired of the crying. I tried to post this while she played a bit this afternoon but she wouldn’t have it, and I couldn’t make myself stick the the original post idea of just the photos, revealing only all the loveliness and ‘ease’ of the project, when in reality in trying to post about it took hours along with many tantrums (from both Laly and I) .

One thing that is frustrating me the most lately is seeing mum-bloggers post and post and post on an almost daily basis, with nothing but whimsy and love and everything rosy. Are their lives really like this? How do they find the time to blog about it?  If not, I want to know. I want to know the truth. I long to know  the truth. One of the things I love most about my friend Louise’s posts (52 suburbs) composed while travelling around the world is that at the end of each post she gave us a glimpse into the reality of her adventures taking her daughter Coco from country to country. What I love about artisan Eva from tinctory is that she tries to start making her beautiful silk pieces again but then has to stop because things change at home. She says so. And on the side of her blog she mentions that she looks after her daughter full time: thank you Eva for telling it like it is. I want more and more for people to tell it like it is. Since becoming a mum, I’ve never wanted for more than to find the truth, be the truth, remove the rosy layers built up over time. I don’t know if any of you feel the same, and perhaps hesitate to blog because there seems to be so many other women out there doing a better job at, well, everything. I’m going to be even more open here in the (blog)house than I have been in the past, if only for the people out there who are like me and need to know that life behind the scenes is far from rosy. x