Today is November 30, 2015.  I’ve been off work a few days for the Thanksgiving holiday, and I guess I just haven’t paid much attention to the calendar.  Seems like it was just Halloween…..now tomorrow is December 1st!!  How will I ever get ready for Christmas ???

Oh well, I have more exciting news to share than worrying about Christmas right now.  Actually, I bought my own Christmas gift last week (or was it the week before?)  It was within the past two weeks!  I was scrolling through Facebook and saw a posting from a friend of mine and Hannah’s where she was selling two Brother embroidery machines.  Now, you remember from my last post that I told you about the Martha Pullen Sewing Licensing class I am taking.  One of the required projects is a placement or table runner which requires either a machine embroidery or special stitches.  I was wishing I had an embroidery machine, but realized that I just couldn’t afford it right now.  When I saw the Facebook post, I messaged the girl and we made a deal.  Within about two hours, I was the proud owner of a new-t0-me Brother PE770 embroidery machine.

I definitely did NOT need to spend any money this close to Christmas, but deals like this don’t come around very often.  A dealer here in town (where I went to buy bobbins) told me I got a good deal.  He had the same model machine he had taken in on a trade and was asking twice what I paid for mine!  Oh yes, that made me feel good!  Nevermind that I had to buy bobbins and an embroidery hoop.  Fortunately, I had a stash of embroidery thread and stabilizers from back years ago when I owned a POEM embroidery machine.

Have any clue what a POEM embroidery machine is?  It was also sold as a Huskygram or a Singer EU embroidery unit.  Basically, it was a printer which embroidered on fabric with thread.  It was very persnickety, however, and if you didn’t use the files from the manufacturer, you had to upload a pdf file and basically start from scratch digitizing the design.  Yeah, I had to have some help learning that, and after awhile, I just gave up on it.  I still have the machine (yeah, you know I’m a packrat!), but now that I have added the PE770, I would like to sell the old POEM.  Unfortunately, I’m afraid no one has any interest in that type machine any more.  I’ve done some initial searches online, but so far turned up no positive leads.

The other POSITIVE is that my Sweetie and my Dad helped move my sewing cabinets and desks into my living room last Friday.  I was very little help because my back is still out of sorts, but I cooked Thanksgiving dinner for 12 people in our family, so I think it was kinda payback from them.  Plus, I think they sorta like me a little bit and wanted me to be happy.  I had a plan in mind of how I wanted things to end up, and with a slight change, it worked perfectly!!

I’ve attached a picture of the cabinet layout — the center cabinet will hold my fabrics (at least the ones I will be using in the near future).  I also have two desks to the left of the picture that hold my sewing machine, serger and new embroidery machine.  I’ll update pictures later when I’m finished moving everything in.  I didn’t realize I had so much sewing stuff NOR craft stuff.  Now, I have to get the back bedroom back together, but I have a plan…..  Right now, I’m sorting and folding all the fabric to put in the cabinet, but I’ve got to get busy for my class AND Christmas gifts.  If any of my family is reading this, here’s a heads-up — You will probably get homemade gifts this Christmas.  I spent my Christmas money on the embroidery machine.  Sorry, but for once in my life I did something for ME!!!