#NaBloPoMo – Happy
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I used to spend a lot of my time trying to make other people happy. Then I discovered something- you can’t make everyone happy. Especially if you want to be happy too. So now I just do my crafting projects for me. No special orders or requests and if you’re lucky enough to get one, good for you. Is that awful of me? I’m not sure, but it’s certainly a lot less stress.
Have you ever tried to price your products when someone wants you to make them something custom? It’s hard. I can figure up materials in a heartbeat, but to set a price for my time- that’s something else entirely.
How do you handle projects for other people? Do you even do it? Or are your projects specifically for you?
Oh Andrea, I so hear you!! Those of us with religious beliefs sometimes internalise the idea that we must live for others, to the place that we forget to live for ourselves too. Doormatism is not a good basis for a happy life. I was almost 40 before I learned to stand up for myself and say, “No, I can’t do that for you” when I knew the person was just giving me a job they didn’t want, or had left it to the last minute. And boy, they didn’t like it!! But it hit me like a truck–hey, people say “no” to me all the time, and I survive. And they aren’t even necessarily nice about it, just “No!” It took me even longer to say, “I am going to have this for myself, or do this for myself, just because I want it!”
As for crafts, at first I gave away most of my projects, because I enjoy giving gifts. But I realised that a) often I never hear from the person again and b) sometimes they really don’t value what you’ve done–not that I expect blue ribbons or applause, but they really sometimes don’t notice, and some seem they would have preferred some boughten brand-name thing.
As for selling a custom-made quilt, no. Because a) no one here wants to pay for the time it takes and b) they think it can be done yesterday. Maybe it can if you don’t have anything to do! I used to knit when I lived in the US and I learned, even with stuff I made for family members, not to even tell them it was being made till it was almost done, because if I did I got hokked about it every five minutes.
When I started that poor old forlorn crazy quilt (still languishing untouched since December) DH’s first remark was: “This one’s for us!!”
It is.
I totally feel you on that! And don’t feel bad about not getting things done with your crazy quilt. I haven’t worked on mine in a couple of months either. I’ve been working on smaller quilts for project quilting instead, and it’s been really nice to have those finishes.