Tag: design

Making Things

Jennifred Jones

I like making things and I like using things others have made.

How are things designed? How are things made?

Many good things are made with the user in mind…done with beauty, usability and ease of use and ease of repair. Therefore, what is designed and made should be made with the customer/user in mind, not just ease and profit in the making.

Good service, good product will always bring in good customers who will pay more for the better product.

Many times we’ve become accustomed to how things look at the expense of how they work or how long they’ll last. Do we want to spend our money on poor quality items based merely on how they look, that will soon need to be replaced, or pay more for well-designed good quality that will last?

I realize some items we won’t want to pay more for, but why not consider supporting makers of good quality rather than short term throwaways?

Let You Out!

Jennifred Jones

Once upon a time most of us were carefree little kids. Mom and Dad, or Grandma and Grandpa would let us out to play. We’d make cups and bowls out of river-bottom clay, build bridges with sticks and stones, clothes-pin baseball cards to our bike spokes and listen to the clatter. We’d mix our food together different ways and eat it. We’d sew dresses for our troll dolls…

We started to grow up and somebody told us our striped shirt didn’t look good with our plaid shorts. The frosting on our homemade cake was an ugly color. Our glasses looked dumb. Our feet were too long, our hair was too curly…self-conscious, self-conscious, self-consciousness began to set in.

It’s too painful fighting off the thoughtless comments from others… I’m not going to do anything different, not going to be made fun of again…gonna blend in so no one sees me AT ALL!

Years pass, nothing changes, it’s day in-day, day-out…same ole, same ole. “Oh how I wish I could be more than a cog-in-the-wheel.”

That is the voice of our true calling…asking us:

Who are you? Where are you going? What do you really want to do? Are you tired of the rat -race?

Get back to the childhood freedom of mind. Begin to think, play, design, dream, plan, imagine, tinker.

It’s time to let ourselves out!

We do not need to ask permission…

THOUGHTS

Jennifred Jones

This thought came to me on March 18, 2020….my father’s birthday.

He would have been 117, born in 1913. His father was born in 1863 during the Civil War. (Crazy to think my grandfather was born then. My parents married late and had us kids late. 95% of my relation marry late!)

We come from a long line of ‘thinkers’…always trying to simplify and solve things.

My daughter recently gave me a notepad with the phrase,

“What can I overthink today?”

So anyway the (my) thought was quite simple:

“Your best work is only a thought away. Think well today!”,

So with this thought in mind…what can we think about to improve…

…a relationship, a job, a task, a schedule, a project, a technique, a design?

What could we begin…

…a new adventure, a new hobby, a new product, a new connection, a new job, a new vocation, a new recipe, a new book?

Take your pick! It is only a thought away….your best work !!!

(keep thinking, keep improving, your work will only get better!)