Where Art & Life Meet

I’m not very good at following instructions. There. I said it. And here’s the kicker. Even when they’re my instructions, I still find it difficult. You see, there’s a playful, fun loving, always curious voice inside my head saying to me, “yeah, but wouldn’t it be more fun if we did it this other way?” Or “Let’s mix things up and start over here, just to see what happens!” And every now and then I’ll discover this other way actually IS more fun or better or leads me to discover something else and on it goes, giving me reason to believe that following instructions is highly over rated, until it isn’t, that is. Because the down side is I can spend a lot of time redoing things because I went off in some other direction that didn’t work.

Typical conversation with my husband during dinner –

Husband: (Beyond excited) Wow! This is amazing!! This is the best _______________ I’ve ever had. (pause) Was this a recipe?

Me: Oh! I’m so glad you like it.

Husband: (hopeful) You can make it again, right?

Me: Ummm… well, maybe…

Husband: (dejected) You didn’t follow a recipe, did you?

Me: (trying to sound positive) Sort of. It’s inspired by a couple different recipes I found!

And here’s my other recent discovery – I didn’t realize I had a hard time following instructions until I started video taping myself following my own instructions. In fact, had you asked, I would have told you that I’m very good at following instructions, even excellent at it! But now I’ve been confronted with the truth because I am seeing it play out in real time with my latest project – The Otter Needle Roll, which I rolled out a couple days ago.

I decided it would be helpful if I made my needle roll all over again (which is also something I don’t usually do) but this time by following my own instructions, and I am video taping this process so that those who have purchased this project can come along and stitch with me on my YouTube Channel. The good news is, my instructions are detailed, include lots of photographs, and are logically, and well laid out. Following them is much simpler and quicker than when I was designing it. But my designing brain is constantly looking for ways to do things just a little differently. It’s just the way my mind works. SO I’m going to keep following the directions as I wrote them, despite how hard it is for me, but every now and again I may have to sneak in a tiny addition here and there. Tiny, tiny I promise!

By the way – did you know that Sea Otters entwine their limbs with one another so that while napping they do not drift away from each other? How fabulous is that?

Oh and one other random fact… did you know that cats have a body temperature of 102 degrees, which helps explain why our Merlin is always seeking heat from other sources, including from me!