Stretching

These are some ballet cookies that I made for a customer. Rather than buy an expensive cookie cutter, I designed my own pattern, cut each one by hand and decorated them in pink and white. I am really pleased with how they turned out, because I didn't know how to do them before I did them. 

One of the things I love about my job as a caterer is that I routinely tell people I can do things that I've never done before. I am constantly learning, researching and trying new things (like leave lots of time for cookie decorating because your hand is going to cramp up about every five cookies!) It's the ultimate on the job training and while there have been some very stressful trips to the store at one in the morning because the lesson didn't go so well, but most of the time with proper planning and enough time to work, things turn out better than I expected.

In some ways I think I've gotten more adventurous as I age. When I was younger my motivation was usually external. I did things to please or shock those around me but now I'm driven more by the desire to experience and learn. Less WOOOOOO HOOOOO and more, oh wow. I think I'm quicker to say, "Sure I can do that," because I'm not as afraid to make mistakes. I finally recognize mistakes as a necessary part of the learning process. It's not a failure to learn what doesn't work.

One of the things that has been an inspiration to me is my blogging heroine. Her blog is beautiful. She makes gorgeous art. She has this amazing house. She takes breathtaking photos of her family strolling down the beach near her home (well of course she lives on the beach!) and I've followed her posts for years now. Recently I took the time to go all the way back to the beginning of her blog and guess what? It wasn't that great. Don't get me wrong, it was good, but it wasn't great. Her art, her home, her writing and her photos got much better with time and experience. This shouldn't surprise me, but it did. One of the ways the critic in my head keeps me from trying things is that Little Miss Thinks She Knows It All tells me that the people whose talent I admire are naturals. They roll out of bed beautiful and tinkle perfection. It's just not true. The people whose talent I admire have been willing to stretch and are committed to practice and those are things I can do too. Actually, there are lots of things I can do, I just haven't done them yet.

Enjoy the weekend, and try stretch your wings a little, venture two steps out of your comfort zone and try something new! You can do it, I know you can.