Crafting - don't tell me what I need to do

There are so many times when I have been watching either YouTube or looking at Instagram or Facebook and I read “you should/must do it this way”. Well, I am going to let you know that your way might only be one of multiple ways of doing something, so it isn’t the only way. 

I have taken multiple cross stitch classes and the first thing the instructor says is if my way doesn’t work for you, please figure out a way that will work. I love when the instructor’s say that because I am a lefty so that means some of the instructions don’t work for me, so I need to figure out a method that is going to work for me. I have also run into instructions that have said their way was the only way and everyone must follow that method. Well, I didn’t and my piece turned out just like what the instructor wanted but I did it my way.

I know that when it comes to some crafts there are right and wrong ways to do something but the right and wrong also need to allow if you are a right-handed or left-handed individual. I might turn my piece clockwise while everyone else turned it counterclockwise, but what is the issue. There are so many things that it doesn’t matter what way something is turned as long as it is turned consistently in the same direction.

When it comes to scissors, I see way too many people pick up their scissors in their right hand and just start cutting. Well for someone like me I will be picking up my scissors (which are lefty-scissors) and I will be cutting things out probably in the opposite direction, but the overall outcome will be the same. Don’t tell me I must cut the right side first because for me that doesn’t work so you need your instructions to accommodate people that are both left and right-handed.

For someone that wants to craft, those around you need to understand that you might be different. In my family we have three females that are left-handed, so we all do things a little different, but we are still lefties, so we need to be accepted and accommodated for.

Time and Cost of Fabric

I have recently joined a couple of English Paper Piecing (EPP) groups on Facebook and what I have found is, so many people think saving a little bit of fabric is worth so much of the cost of the production. I know that for me I am the happiest when I can cut a 2.5-inch strip of fabric and then make it into 2.5-inch squares. 

I have seen too many people show that how they cut their fabric is laying out and tracing each template, including seam allowance and they put each of them up again the next one and trace around each of them. I know that might save a little bit of fabric but now much time are you spending tracing the motifs and cutting out the motifs versus maybe waiting a little bit of fabric.

When I do English Paper Piecing, I cut 2.5-inch stripes of fabric and then I cut each of them into 2.5-inch squares and that works for me. I am not going to waste the time to make sure that each side only have the 1/4 -inch seam allowance because then I need to ensure that I have placed the template in the exact right spot. For me I have my squares and I can quickly fold the fabric around the templates, and I am ready to do. 

For me I might have to buy a little bit more fabric to accommodate what I want to achieve but the cost of the fabric is a lot less than my time and that is what is important. If I wanted to spend hours tracing templates, sure I would do that but that isn’t what makes me happy. For me making sure that I can get the squares cut out and then start making the motifs is what makes me happy. I know that there are going to be some people that want to spend the hours cutting out each piece of fabric separately but that is me. If you tell that is how EPP must be done, I will tell you that isn’t how it works for me.

For me making my motifs using 2.5-inch squares is what makes me happy and I haven’t found an issue so far, so why should I spend all the extra time making sure that I only have fabric a specific size. I thought EPP was something that was to be relaxing and fun to do, but making me ensure that every piece of fabric that I use is a specific size, doesn’t work for me and I have a major problem with that.

For me, EPP is about enjoying the time making my motifs and attaching them to a project that I want to make, so maybe for some people it won’t be perfect but perfect isn’t what I want. My entire EPP journey, is good is good enough, and that is what makes me the happiest.

When tapping to pay when you get on a vehicle doesn't work

There are quite a few times when we have been on transit and see how see people that just simply just get on a vehicle especially on the back door and don’t pay. People wonder why they have transit security around and I totally agree with it. People get on especially transit with multiple doors (more than at least 2) and think they will never get caught 

Recently we were on a streetcar here in Toronto and there was someone that got on one of the other doors and clearly didn’t pay for him and his bike to ride on the transit. Once he got on, he was taking a wheelchair area, and his elbow hit the call for getting off the streetcar. He never realized that he had hit this button and of course that meant that the driver had to get off the streetcar and open the door and tell this guy he had hit the button. Of course, he had no idea that he had hit the button and of course didn’t understand what he had done. So, this is a clear example of something being able to get onto the transit without paying and in a lot of cases never being asked to show proof of payment.

What really bothers me is that these people are the ones that mean that transit costs are going to go up for the individuals that are honest and tap every time they either board a vehicle or transfer between vehicles. It is hard to accept that the individuals that are honest have to deal with the individuals that are cutting the costs.

I do know that one of the ways the people are cutting the costs are when drivers open the back door and they trust that the passengers will tap and pay the fairs. I have watched so many people just simply get on and never tap their car therefore they are riding for free. It doesn’t matter f you are at a transfer point you need to ensure that you have tapped your card to ensure your route has been tracked.

The overall enforcement doesn’t seem to be working and all we keep hearing is that there are more enforcement officers, but I have yet to see one of them. We travel the lines during some of the busy times, and you think we would at least seem them sometimes. So here we are paying our fare each time we use the transit but watching too many others that don’t. I think there is a problem, but the other problem is that they cannot or don’t want to confront something as the issue doesn’t turn out well.

Being someone that is honest that the taps everything they are transferring between vehicles can be a bit of a challenge, but we also have know that we are doing what is right and what is expected of us and only hope the ones that are trying to cheap the system get caught.tr

Hotels and their service

Something that I have started to notice and maybe this is the hotel chain that I have been staying at is there are times when customer service and just service in general seems to be going downhill while the price of staying at the hotel is going up. Maybe we are just getting the hotel when they are having a bad weekend but that seems to be happening more and more.

• Breakfast area – not keeping items stocked so that the guests can grab their food and coffee and be on their way. This time at the hotel the coffee was running very low when we got ours and then I think it ran out not long after but it took a while for it to be restocked. The sausages were low (only 2 left when we got our food), so none left after we got food and the plate area was empty in one section for empty. It took quite a while to get any of these items restocked and some people did without sausages and probably coffee as they were in a hurry.
• Cleaning staff – they were very impatient with the elevator. One of the elevators was out of order so it meant only one was working. One of the cleaning stuff was constantly pressing the button to call the elevator as if that would make it come faster. This is just after 8am and lots of people would be leaving at that time. When the elevator finally arrived it was full of guests leaving with their luggage so that is why it took a while. One of the cleaning staff walked by us and I thought she was going to try and get on the elevator before us but she waited otherwise she would have heard me.
• Cleanliness of the room – when putting our shoes in one of the closets discovered a part of a cracker on the floor. Have no idea how long it has been there but it shows that the floors of the closets are not cleaned on a regular basis. We didn't have crackers so it was there before we arrived.
• 
  Recognition of being a member of the chain – this is something that has happened a few times. Yes, we are recognized as a returning guest to the hotel but not as a gold member of the hotel chain. When you get the survey that is one of the questions that you are asked and again this time I will be stating not recognized as a gold member. Sure, when I get into the room it welcomes me by name and as a gold member.
• Caution pylon - this pylon was in the one elevator that was working the entire time we were in the hotel. The floor wasn't wet as it wasn't raining out and we didn't see anyone washing the floor at any time we were around the elevator.

These are some of the issues that we saw on our latest stay and something that chains need to understand that can impact of a guest continues to start with a specific chain of hotels or is it time for them to try a different chain and see if that chain has better service.

Something that we are going to be doing is trying a different hotel chain to see what they are like. Being able to have the flexibility to try and different chains and not just stay with one does help quite a bit. We will see how that stay goes as we have already booked a trip and I will make sure that I write up about that experience.

40 years

Here I am sitting and writing about a date that was 40 years ago, and the date was September 8, 1986. This is the day when I started my first full-time job and it was for a company that I continued to work for until October 31, 2001. Yes, that seems like a lifetime ago and in some ways, it has been a lifetime ago and it’s been for me most of my working life. When I sit back and think about how things have changed since that date, I know that both the world and I have changed. 

In 1986 after just finishing college, I had no idea what working full time was really going to be like and how your free time is limited because of the basic things that you need to do everyday. Sure, I had gone to college but there were long breaks between classes and if you didn’t want to attend a class on a specific day you didn’t have to. Now, working meant showing up at a specific time each day of the week and then leaving at a specific time. Things sure did change but it was something that I enjoyed, and I know that I learned a lot working at that first company.

Things are so different now compared to when I started working and the use of laptops and cell phones are just a couple of the things that have changed. Overall, the way that we work on is so different, but the job still needs to get done and demands of your time are still here. Now, the means of communicating has really changed and now when you haven’t answered a text message or a voice mail, someone will call you and ask why.

Our free time now is so different, because now we can order online our groceries and meals and they will be delivered to our house without in a lot of cases talking to anyone. For some people their free time is spend scrolling on their mobile device and losing hours watching different things that are posts on social media. Growing up we could only watch a program on the television at a scheduled time and now it’s whenever we want to watch it.

I know that I have changed from being that scared individual that walked into an office to start her first job to someone that now is a partner of a business. Sure, there are times when I wish I could go back to the easier ways of life, but I am enjoying my life as it is and if I hadn’t started working for the company that I did, things might have been very different for me. Forty years really isn’t that long ago when you think about things and sure things that changed and life is different, but I can still look in the mirror and see that person that I was.

Fast Food Establishments

This blog is being written after we were trying to enjoy lunch at a fast-food location and things just didn’t go as well as it could have. The food was fine so that wasn’t the issue, it was the other customers that weren’t considerate while they were in the location. Here are some examples of what happened:

1. Two high school students were sitting at the table next to us and they are picked up 99% of their lunch at Metro (one of our local grocery stores) and then came into this location so that they could sit down and eat. One of the girls had purchased a pop from the fast-food location but that was it. So, they were sitting at a table for four and had only purchased a pop during a time when the location was busy. Also, they had purchased some potatoes at the grocery store but needed salt so they walked up to the counter and asked for it as well.  If you are going to sit in a location when it is busy, make sure that you have purchased move than 50% of what is on the table from that location.

2. A group of four girls come in, and they placed their orders and then they are trying to figure out where they want to sit. One girl goes down to the back of location and gets a table and then one of the girls waiting for her food starts chatting with this girl sitting at the back of the location. It was pretty busy and that type of chatting isn’t something that should happen when there are lots of other people in the store. This group did seem to get organized and had their lunch without much of an issue other than they didn’t clean up their table when they left. Everyone else made sure their tables were cleared off.

I understand that when a fast-food location isn’t busy you might have a little bit of something from another store but not most of your meal and make it clear that it was from somewhere else. This fast-food location didn’t serve pizza in bags or broiled potatoes in a plastic container or pop in bottles. So this was one of the issues that really bothered me.

Something else that maybe the location would improve is how close to the end of the counter the first table is. When people leave the counter, they go past a wall, and the first table is right there and if you are sitting there isn’t like people are almost coming into your space when there is a lot of open space around that table. If we sit at this table again, I will be making sure that I sit at the other two seats so that we are a little further away from where people and their trays seem to be.

So, when you are visiting a fast-food establishment when it’s busy please be considerate of the other customers as they want to enjoy their meal. I understand that students want to have lunch outside of school some days but if you are purchasing your food from a grocery store, you need to figure out a space outside to have your food. I understand it is difficult for fast-food locations to monitor the customers sitting in their store and in a lot of cases they don’t want to approach a customer as they don’t know how that customer is going to react.

When communities work and when they don't work

A lot of us are part of some online communities be it for work or pleasure and there are times when things run smoothly and then there are times when things just don’t work. I think we have all seen that happen to at least one of the communities that we are involved in. 

One of the key factors for a community working well is have leaders/administrators/moderators that are part of the community. If the key people are not posting and seeing part of the community that is when things start to fall apart. Those individuals don’t have to be posting all the time, but they at least have to be making comments to posts and at least being visible within the community. If these people either never post or hardly post it makes it difficult for some communities to continue to be effective.

Another factor that can determine if a community to going to work or not is having community members that post and what to be involved. I have seen too many communities where only a few members do the majority of the posting and everyone else just sits back and just lurk. It is important for a community to work well there needs to be conversations. It’s important to have members that want to engage and be part of the community because if everyone just lurks that isn’t a community at all.

Online communities be it for work or pleasure can help you figure out issues or provide you with information about things that you are interested in. I know that I have been involved with communities for both work and pleasure and some have been really good, and others haven’t helped at all. Communities do have a life span and some of them with last for years while others may only last for a few months, as it depends on the purpose of the community and the type of members that are involved in it. What is really sad is when you find that a community that was a wonderful place to participate is slowly fading away. It can be hard to realize that this community may not last much longer but if you enjoyed it when it was in it’s peak, remember to enjoy it and know that you were part of it during it’s good times.