"Tidiness"

Do we ever stop learning about ourselves?  Does discovery somehow disappear when we turn a certain age?  I am of an age where I'd better 'figure' myself out, if I'm ever going to do so.  And so the subject of 'tidiness' has entered my thoughts.

Moving from mice (who were quite tidy in their pattern and design) back to punchneedle, my first thought was that I would like to  be a little 'looser' with some new-to-me designs. Perhaps more mixed media.

My second thought was: 'where will I put whatever I make after its finished'? And that meant that it 'had' to stand since I have little to no wall space. Without much thought at all I gave myself a framed 5"x7" space for each piece.

 My original idea was to use both regular punchneedle and reverse punchneedle.  As mentioned before I wanted to incorporate some trinket that I already had on hand.  Of course the colors I used had to be appropriate to the trinket(s).  Can you see my limitations growing?

 Now that it is finished, and sitting neatly on the shelf, I feel as if I have trapped myself in 'tidiness'. While I had an 'earth' story in mind, my finished piece told me no story. I ended up with something boxed in, very tidy in design and pretty boring, even to me.  I think its time to let go of limitations and rules.

"Creativity can be described as letting go of certainties." - Gail Sheehy