There is no instruction manual for life...

There is no instruction manual for life! I think that's why when I cook or sew or generally do anything, I kinda make it up as I go along. There is a real sense of achievement if something turns out the way I planned and if it doesn't I just put it down to learning and because I haven't followed the instructions, guidelines or pattern - well I cant really beat myself up can I!?

I'm not saying I leap into things blindly, I do some research about whatever it is I am undertaking first, then have a crack. If I want to cook something I'm not familiar with, I look up five or six recipes online first then take the best bits from each one, and generally adapt which ever method sounds the quickest or easiest! If I want to crochet or sew something, I find a similar garment and 'eye it up' - basically using grade eight geometry, anyone can do this! Sometimes I will cut my own pattern based on the 'eye it up' principal, just to check its going to work first - I cut corners but I'm not a doofus.

Gardening has its share of guesswork too! I certainly don't measure how much blood'n'bone I am putting on my vegies, but I do know that one of my handfuls will cover a square meter - pity none of the gardens in my yard are actually square! So you see, even when you do have instructions on how to do stuff, it doesn't always suit your own situation anyway...