Another year has come and gone, 2025

Here it is the start of a new year, and it is time to look back to see what happened in this last year. The good news is I was able to post a blog every week in 2025 which was good. Now what happened in the middle of September, I’m not quite sure, but I started posting 2 blogs a week, because I started writing even more. I didn’t think the two blogs a week was going to last, but I must admit that it has continued to happen and let’s see what 2026 has in store.

One of things that I did in 2025 was really focus on getting blogs written and it didn’t matter to me when they were going to be posted, it just matters to me that I had a blog that I wrote and it was going to be posted in the future. Sure, having lots of blogs scheduled into the future has meant some rescheduling of the blogs, but that doesn’t me as I just keep moving the different blogs forward and that means that I have things ready to post in the future. 

My writing has been very important to me this past year and I hope through 2026 I can continue to write lots of posts like I have in the past. I have some ideas for some other topics so we will see what happens with them. Until then I am going to say I hope everyone has had a good holiday season if you celebrate, and I look forward to continuing to get more blogs written in 2026.

When in a group on social media, provide some detail

There are so many times when I am looking up something on social media and people will say there’s an accident on X Street, but they don’t give any more information than that. Of course, there are going to be times when X Street is extremely long, so you aren’t providing any details that are good for people in the area.  It’s like saying to someone in Ontario that there is an accident or fire on Yonge Street. Yonge Street is a very long street, so no additional information isn’t going to help anyone. 

When you are posting about a store, accident, or any other information about something in a community, please make sure that you are providing some information. A store, that could be in many locations and even many cities, so details are needed to the one you are talking about. Even if you can only post the major intersection that is better than just saying a street and nothing else.  I have even had times when a person has posted “Major Event” and they didn’t give any details of where it was, it was just a major event to them, and they figured everyone would know where it was.

I have been trying my best to ensure that in groups that I am either a moderator or administrator that we try and provide as much information as possible, so that any post can be helpful to lots of people in the group. There have been challenges for people to continue to provide the information and there have been even people that have hated me for wanting the information posted.

It is hard to manage a group when the information isn’t provided and when you ask for that information people can get rather rude which makes it difficult to support a group in so many ways. There have been times when I have wanted to walk away from my role as a moderator/administrator in a few groups, but I always say that I am there for most of the people and if a few people don’t like the rules they can leave.

Please remember the more information you can provide in your post on social media the more people will see it and understand it. If a group asks for more information please understand that the group can cover a large area and not everyone knows the same spot or has access even to the same store/information.

Merry Christmas

Here it is Christmas Day 2025 and there isn't going to be a normal post today, because what I wish for you is to take time and spend it with your family, because that is what today is about.

I want to wish everyone a very Merry Christmas and all the best in 2026. 

Let's hope that next year I can continue to write all these different blogs, and you will be around to read all of them. 

Hope everyone takes a bit of time to themselves over these next few days, even if you don't celebrate Christmas. Hope you have a wonderful holiday season and until my next blog, be safe.

Update: Something that I haven't wanted to say until today is that I have written every day for the last 12 years without missing a day. I know everyone says it can just happen, but you need to prove to yourself and everyone around you that you have able to achieve it. For me Happy 12 years and I look forward to many more years of not missing a day.

When is enough yarn enough?

I am going to answer this question very easily; it depends on who you are and what you are trying to accomplish.

The amount of yarn that you have is going to depend on a lot of conditions that you have to accept that everyone is going to have different conditions are everyone is different. Here are some of the conditions that I have heard:

1. How quickly can you use the yarn that you have in your inventory?
2. What are you going to make with the yarn that you have already acquired?
3. What are you going to do with the yarn that you don’t want to use?

These are just three questions that I was quickly able to write down and I know the answer for each of them is, it depends. Yes, it is going to depend on the type of yarn that I have in my inventory as well as what I am currently focusing on working on. If I am currently working on using up Fingering weight yarn and you are asking me about the worsted weight yarn that I have in my inventory I wouldn’t be able to give you a quick answer.

It can be such a challenge to answer the questions about how I am going to use a specific type of yarn when you don’t ask me that question. Yes, I know that I have quite a bit of yarn and there are a lot of different things that I would like to do but I need you to answer me questions that are very specific and not general questions because you can’t go the answer that you except to get when I don’t now the real question you are asking.

Yes, I do have lots of yarn and yes, I have lots of ideas of how to use the different yarns that I have in my stash but if you would like an answer about a specific weight of yarn, please make sure that you have asked me that question and not just a general question. If you ask me a general question you are probably going to get the answer of “I have lots of ideas of what I would like to do, and I just need the time to work on all the projects.”

You might think I have enough yarn and that is going to depend on your definition of too much yarn and not my definition of enough yarn. I am extremely lucky that I have someone that will ask me questions like, so how long would it take you to use this specific yarn, and when I answer that they say, OK so there is no problem getting more of that yarn.

Food allergies and asking questions

We have recently experienced someone that wasn’t sure about my food allergies, and they wanted to ensure that no matter what I was going to be safe when they were around. It is so different when there is someone that is asking the right questions when there are so many people that make assumptions and figure that they know everything.

This experience came about as we were meeting up with someone that my husband met online, and they were coming to Toronto for a visit. Of course, after lots of conversations we said that we would like to meet for diner but there were going to be come challenges given my food allergies. For me, I am someone that has the word “others” on me medica alert bracelet because of all the food allergies that I have, and they cannot all fit on the bracelet. One of my major allergies is shellfish so eating out can be a major issue because of how much shellfish is available in restaurants. Yes, for me, calamari is one of my allergies, it’s a soft shell but I still react to it.

So, we knew that it was going to be a challenge to find a spot that I felt safe and it also met everyone’s likes. At first, we found one place that might have worked, but then after seeing that there was an event there earlier in the day and the menu was a little confusing, we decided it was time to figure out another location that might be a little safer for me. We decided to go to a chain that I haven’t had any issues so far so we figured that would probably be the best bet. The nice thing is this couple that were visiting understood that having dinner with me was going to be a bit of a challenge.

Something that meant so much to me was when this friend asked if there was any issue of bringing a souvenir with some salmon skin on it because he wanted to make sure that it wouldn’t cause any issues for me. Knowing that someone would ask that question meant so much to me because it showed they cared about me and my food allergies and they wanted the experience of us meeting to be a good one.

If you have a chance to meet someone else and they have a food allergy, please make sure that you do your checking to make sure that the entire experience is good for everyone.

WIPGO - is it right for every cross stitcher

The idea behind this challenge is you select either 24 or 25 projects that you want to work on during the year and place them on what looks like a bingo card. You can also set the goal that you want to achieve on each of these projects, so it is up to you how you really work on it. Just before the beginning of each month, two numbers are randomly chosen, and the idea is for you to work on the projects and goals that were chosen. Now for a lot of people they will choose 24 projects so that the number 13 is considered a free space. If you happen to have 25 projects, the month that number 13 is called, you are going to have three projects to work on. The basic idea behind this is to work on moving projects that you selected forward. 

I was someone that wasn’t sure that it was going to work for me in 2025 so I decided to pick four projects, and I was going to see if I could work on them whenever the number was called. I figured I would give it a try for the first couple of months and see what happened. Well, what happened for me was it started to work, and I started to see progress on my various projects. Sure, it was a bit of a challenge to pick up some of the projects, but I also had the ability to switch out a project if the project picked just didn’t work or I finished the project while it was still on the board.

In 2025, I gave myself a goal of 500 stitches on a piece and then a bonus of 500 stitches when it was called but I decided it was just better to work on a project for a week and see how many stitches I could accomplish. My new goal turned out to be at least 1,000-stitches or 7 days on a project. It meant that the projects started to get moved forward and even one of the projects on my WIPGO board got a finish.

Here it is the last month of 2025, and I am currently sitting and trying to figure out my WIPGO board for 2026 and I think I have figured it out or at least I hope that I have. Next year I am thinking that I will have five projects that will be on my list so that I can move things forward. The fifth project is going to be called my “challenge page” project and that will be any project that I started prior to 2026 or mini project. I have also changed my goal for each project to a minimum of 1,000 stitches or 7 days of stitching.

WIPGO has shown me a bit of discipline because I have been able to move projects forward and I haven’t felt the pressure to get lots done at any time and I also haven’t felt the burn out of working on a project for too long and not wanting to work on it again for too long a time. If you are someone that would like to find a bit of structure in your stitching maybe WIPGO is something that might work for you.              

For me, I have found that WIPGO gives me two or three weeks of discipline each month and that helps me move projects forward and hopefully before long I will see some of my projects finished. Let me know if you think WIPGO is something that would work for you. 

Customer service in restaurants

Check and make sure that the people that are seated first are served first because people do see that. We were sitting in a restaurant and a table that was seated after us got attention first. People do see that, and it can really impact how they feel about the restaurant. Of course, on a Friday at lunch time a restaurant can have some unusual spikes of people showing up and making sure that everyone gets served would be a good thing.

Something that we have come to realize that in some restaurants the servers are only working to get their tips and paycheque and aren't there for the customers. You can actually tell by how they interact with customers and how often they are checking their personal devices. There are other restaurants where the staff seem to stick around for ages, and they care about the customers.

One thing we noticed is that if you are nice to a server, you can make them change their attitude. In our case there was a spike at lunch time, and the restaurant seemed to be understaffed which meant people were sitting waiting longer than normal to get served. In our case we were not in a hurry because part of me wanted to spend some time writing. Sometimes there are times when I just want to hide and sit in a spot and write and enjoy watching people.

The nice thing that happened with our server is she thanked us for understanding that they were busy. Just acknowledging that a restaurant can be very busy makes a difference on how you are served. Sure, someone else in a different section might be served before you but if you server has just taken an order before you were seated and the other server is free it can make a big difference.

Our server made sure that we felt appreciated and did everything she could to make our visit a good experience. It does help a lot when you feel appreciated and valued as a customer because there are times you will either spend longer and purchase more, or you will make sure you return to the location.