Vent: I had to pick between linen or cotton thread for a big repair job

I was fixing a 1920s family bible and had to choose between linen thread for its strength or cotton for its flexibility. I went with linen and it held up great, but it was way harder to work with on the curved spine. Anyone have a go-to thread for old book repairs?

I thought paying for a business coach was dumb until last month

I spent $500 for a one month package to help me figure out my pricing, and she showed me how to bundle my services so I could charge more without scaring clients off. I just landed a project for $3k that I would have quoted at $1.5k before. Has anyone else tried something like this and had it actually work out?

Finally tried a full dry age on a rib section versus my usual wet age

I set up a small dry age fridge for a 28 day rib section from a local farm. The other side I wet aged in cryovac like I always do. The dry aged side lost about 15% weight, but the flavor was way deeper and the fat tasted almost nutty. Cutting it was a bit more work, but the customer feedback was amazing. Has anyone else made the switch and found a good way to price the trim loss?

Spent three days trying to make a pocket that didn't look like a sad envelope

I was working on a simple linen jacket and decided to add a welt pocket. Watched a 10 minute tutorial that made it look easy. My first attempt looked like a crumpled receipt holder, and the next five weren't much better. I finally got it right after using a glue stick to hold the fabric pieces before sewing, which the video never mentioned. Has anyone else found a trick that saved a basic design step from total failure?

Went to a friend's new house in Portland and their bathroom tile job is driving me nuts

Honestly, I was over there for a BBQ last weekend and had to use the downstairs bathroom. The tile work on the shower surround is just... bad. The grout lines are all different widths, some tiles are clearly not level, and in one corner there's a cut piece that's maybe a quarter inch too short, leaving this weird sliver of grout. I know they did it themselves to save money, and I get that, but it's all I could look at. Tbh, it's the kind of thing that once you see it, you can't unsee it. It makes the whole otherwise nice bathroom look cheap. I didn't say anything because I'm not a jerk, but it's been bugging me. Has anyone else had to quietly judge a friend's DIY project that they were clearly proud of?

Got stuck on a 1970s basement floor patch that took three days to match the old broom finish.

The week I had to redo a $4,000 kitchen island because of a client's 'vision'

They approved the drawings, then showed up on install day and said they'd changed their mind about the waterfall edge after seeing one on TV. I ate the cost of the granite and three days of labor to rebuild the cabinet box. Anyone ever had a client try to pull this after the fact?