Be bold, make up your own version, whatever it is

Good morning. I often wake up with something on my mind, it could be something I heard the day before, or something I saw, or something someone said to me. For a few minutes I mull over the previous days happenings, it's part of the preparations for the new day ahead, is there anything I need to follow up or can I start again with a new clean slate. Most occurrences are filed away as I filter out a lot of inconsequential stuff. No need to remember that, I don't believe in hanging on to stuff that doesn't matter, whether in solid form or fleeting random thoughts.

This morning I thought about something that someone said to me yesterday, it's playing on my mind a bit so I thought I would get it out into the open with a blog post, then it can be filed into the archives of my mind.

It was at Crafty Club, I was showing what I was working on, trying to explain what I was going to do with it. I am making flower petals out of red silk. These....

Each petal has two layers, sewn together and turned inside out, the fabric is the same both sides, then a little bit of stuffing put inside to plump them up a bit, and the opening sewn up. The plan is to use them as embellishments and hand sew them onto something in applique fashion.

Now I believe everyone has their own way of doing things, we can all choose the different paths we wish to take. One of the ladies said, you don't put stuffing into applique. My answer was rather brief because she took me by surprise, I am not a quick thinker. So here I am mulling over her statement, and now it is turning into a blog post.

I read a lot of crafting books and watch a lot of crafting videos, for ideas. I take bits of them, then make up my own version. My first thoughts were that this could be a sort of applique with a hint of stumpwork. I would play around with it and see what happens. I don't see any rules that say you can't put stuffing into applique. In my mind there are no rules when it comes to arts and crafts, anything goes.

I can see that for years I have been taking the creative concept further and applying it to other parts of my life. It didn't dawn on me that I could do anything I wanted to do, until I challenged the unwritten rule that said women couldn't become lorry drivers. Who says so, I thought, I can, I will, and I did.

Who says a woman has to get married and have a family, boy was I questioned about my singleness for years. There are no rules that say you have to have wedding ring on your finger. Years ago people expected to be married for a long time, not so much now, there are no rules. You can marry whoever you like, or not get married at all. You can choose whether to have multiple partners, or none at all. The rules are a lot more relaxed these days.

I once got myself into a relationship which was becoming destructive and mentally abusive, it was threatening to turn my whole life into one big negative mess. I was in danger of losing my identity. Luckily I saw the light in time and got out. I couldn't change his behaviour so I had to change mine. There are no rules which say you have to put up with being treated badly. There is a door to walk through to a better life. I owed it to myself to take it.

I find myself challenging rules all the time. Unimportant rules which say you have to buy all the ingredients to make up a recipe. No you don't, you adapt what you already have, make up a new recipe. Who says you have to go shopping every Thursday afternoon? No you don't. Who says wash days are on a Monday, that went out with the ark. Who says you go to the pub every Saturday night, you can go any night, that's unless you want to go every Saturday night of course. Who says you have to get the vacuum cleaner out every day, or dust the mantlepiece, or clean the windows. It's ok to do these jobs when you feel like it, there are no rules.

Ok, so here's the challenge, get rid of any rules that you don't need or don't want to keep to. Dump the silly rules and make up some better rules which work for you. Constantly re assess your rules and change them when they are not working for you. Always always look for new ways of doing things, don't get stuck in a rut because that's how you've always done it. I know it's an old cliche, think outside the box, but I would go one step further and say, get out of the chuffin box and chuck it away.

Let me know what your new rules are? What rules have you changed in the past, and what rules will you change in the future? Are your rules already working for you and you don't need to change any? I'd be interested to know what your rules are.
Thanks for popping in. Toodle pip