Embroidery Engineer!

Many of you knew me once as Embroidery Engineer. Yes, you heard me. Back before stamping took over my life, my dear husband gave me an embroidery sewing machine for Christmas. That following May, I decided to start a small business by word-of-mouth (mainly friends and family) that I would do for one year to see if I could recoup the price of the machine. Well, long story short... by Christmas that year, I fulfilled my goal. And then on Christmas Eve, I stayed up until 4am, sewing our presents for our families. I only worked on the business during nap time or at night and I had orders until Christmas Eve! I got completely BURNT OUT and decided to take some time off from it. Uh, well, four years later, I'm still burnt out on it (and stamping took over!). I do occasionally still make gifts that I give to people but I don't take any more orders (and I still get asked too!).

Well, here I am seeing all of these beautiful things people are doing with their sewing machines and PAPER. I can't hardly stand it. I mean I still don't want to sew but the sewing on paper looks so cool. So, I tried to appease myself with faux stitching for a year or so. And that worked... until Cami came a long. Have you seen her stuff? She claims that she wasn't a good sewer but I don't know about that.

Recently, she posted how she got this cheap, small machine and how wonderful it is. One of my problems with breaking out my machine, is that it's a really expensive computerized thing and if I screw it up, then it'll cost a lot to fix, etc. And I know that paper sewing dulls your needles, etc. So, I just can't do it. But then... she posted last week that this machine was on sale (AND free shipping, too!). How can I pass that up? My b'day is coming up and my mom always asks me what she should get.... :)

The Janome Sew Mini came in on Friday. I hooked it up last night and just tested for a sec. Didn't have much time to play with it but here is my test sample. I tried 4 things. I'm so excited. I love it when things work right out of the box! (well, after I filled the bobbin and threaded, etc!). Now, just to figure out what to sew!

And the embroidery engineer became the crafty engineer that stamps ... and sews. :P