More sequins please

I think just about everyone had a grade school teacher that handed out a "test" and said "be sure to read all of the directions before beginning". There was a strange restlessness from half the class and the other half began working the test problems. I was, predictably, one of the kids that failed to read the directions that said not to answer any of the questions for an A or something like that. I was and am still indignant that no one graded the work that I did. No matter how many times I take a test like that I am going to fail. I have no idea how many essay exams I messed up by answering all three questions instead of answering one of the three thereby running out of time to complete the final essay question worth 50 percent of the points on the test. It seems like a simple enough solution to read the directions, but I've lived long enough to know that if the problem seems obvious to me, I won't read the directions.

This weekend I started a felt ornament kit project where I'm making little felt ornaments in the shapes of stockings and wreaths and other holiday icons. The kit was given to me out of one of my grandmother's stash of craft kits. I have to refer to the directions at various times in order to get through the tougher portions. One of the directions in the kit is not to deviate from any of the instructions. I have deviated. I've deviated a good deal. The ornaments have less sequins and are filled with cut up pieces of a plastic bag from the grocery store. The deviations let me come up with prettier ways to make things and make them look more like objects I would have made.

I wonder sometimes if all of my best work isn't the work that wasn't supposed to be. Maybe my best essays were the ones I wouldn't have written had I read the instructions or my best days are the ones not set aside in my calendar for fun or good. Some days it feels like I took a wrong turn somewhere, but I wonder if I had taken the right turn if my life would have too many sequins and look less like something that I had made.

P.S. If you haven't seen pictures from Thanksgiving yet, go and visit JEO.