Sorry I have been busy....

I won't go into all the details, but I wanted to explain why I have been M.I.A. on my blog of late. In fact I have not even been online in a while. You see we had a little wedding favor mishap. Our favors which my daughter wanted, are to be hankies, with their Monogram, along with a poem bookmark. Great idea. We knew someone who does embroidery and after pricing around, well when this person offered to do them as a gift, we jumped at the chance. I delivered the hankies the 5th of December, along with all the thread and the design. Well they were supposed to have been done by now. Only they are not, and what was done is unusable!

Which brings me to now, upset bride, angry and stressed mother and no usable favors for the wedding in March! What to do? Well I did what I really wanted to do in the first place. After calling numerous places, talking to a plethora of embroidery places and representatives, I bought a machine. I guess if you want a job done right you have to do it yourself. Not that there are not wonderful and reliable people and places out there, it is just to buy them done would have cost me almost as much as the machine.

So I went on the hunt for a good (inexpensive) machine. There are some that are down right cheap (about $350) but by the time you buy all the "add on's" to do what you need you are spending as much as the big name machines. Finally I lucked into finding a Viking dealer who had a "re-pack". A Used machine with a warranty and classes. The lady, Michelle, has received my nomination for sainthood. She has been working with me, setting up the machine, even loaning me a hoop and downloading letters to make this work for me.

I set up shop in the dining area for now, and yesterday on my first day I finished the first five dozen. My daughter was ironing and folding the finished hankies and it looks as though I will be busy for a while working on them each day.

My husband has been a champ, helping by making dinner, and coffee, not to mention being very supportive.

As for my daughter, she has been right there with me. She is determined to help out and is right there working with me. She felt bad about the whole thing, even though none of it is her fault. As for me well it is also a sewing machine so I am going to craigslist my older machine and learn to have some fun with this new one.

Here are some already pressed and packed to go! They are turning out lovely! If a do a few dozen each night I should polish them off quickly.

As for the ones that were ruined? Well the person in question is family, so I guess I will have to write them off to a very, very expensive lesson. I am actually more hurt that this person would do this to us on such an important occasion, but then I guess perhaps I just think and feel differently than her. I never really was interested in learning or having a machine that does this, but I am now thinking of all the possibilities. I know so many people having babies and grand-babies, and who knows perhaps it will be me soon? What wonderful things I could make for them.

So if you see that I haven't posted lately just know I am just focusing on this, and will be back in plenty of time for the giveaway!!!

P.S. Please stop by as Terri's blog. She just had surgery and is home recuperating. I am sure she would love to hear from all of you! http://terrisbloomingideas.blogspot.com/