My daughter gave me many of her reels of cotton as they kept breaking. I use them on my bobbins, but today the colour I needed was one of those reels. After much frustration and many breaks of the cotton, in desparation I sprayed the reel with my water sprayer and lo and behold sewed for another hour and a half without a single break.
I also use clear plastic cutting boards from the $2 store for cutting my templates. I get 2 boards for $2. They are great as you can see through them when fussy cutting.