Clean up Monday

Good Morning Blogworld!  It's quite the dreary day outside again here in South Carolina.  We sure have had our fair share of rain this year.  In fact it's been one of the most unusual winter weather situations that I have ever seen.  All the rain and warmer weather temperatures sure has invited quite a bit of mold and mildew to pop up everywhere.  I have been doing all I can to stay on top of it, but gosh, enough already!  

Let's move on to bigger and brighter things, shall we?  How was your Christmas?  I really hope it was nice, ours was wonderful!  We have had what has felt like two continuous weeks of celebrations at our home.  It's been so busy that it's been almost comical to see the dog go retreat to our room for her own self imposed timeouts away from it all.  I say almost comical because she also hasn't been feeling very well and has gotten sick to her stomach a few times.  I am watching closely to see if we need a visit to the vet or if she has just overindulged much like the rest of us.  

Ooops, I promised to move on brighter things now didn't I?  Sorry about that!

Sooo, moving on!  Here's what is left of Christmas in our kitchen. The decor is all down now and I gathered up all the candy and put them all in this clear jar.  I am hopeful that Mr. and youngest son home from college will see them now and get to them quickly.  They really need to go bye-bye, know what I mean? 

Have you started putting away any of your Christmas decor yet?  Yesterday, I worked on the kitchen.  I still have 3 more rooms to do but it sure feels good to have one step down. I don't know why but for some reason I was feeling like I was on a plaid candy land overload in here.  Maybe it has more to do with candy overload but whew the plaid was getting to me too! 

 I also have another reason why I took down Christmas decor from this room first.  I want to get started on a little switch a roo.   I am going to move this small table in our kitchen entry over near the kitchen table where my bakers rack currently is.  Then I want to add floating shelves on the wall above it.  I've seen so many of you sharing your shelves and I love the look.

I've had this bakers rack here for awhile now and while I do love it, I feel it's a bit large.  It was fine when I had the round table in here but now that I have the longer rectangular table it seems a bit tight.  I am hoping the smaller buffet style table I have will fit this space better without sticking out to far.  We shall see anyway.  So that's the plan for today on this dreary day.  To shift more things around and possibly scout out some shelves.  That's the plan unless I get distracted, again, because....

I've saved the brightest of all news for last.   Look what I got for Christmas!  Y'all I am just so excited about this.  It's an embroidery machine.  I have wanted one of these for soooo very long friends.  Some of you may recall that I have worked in not just one but two embroidery shops in my retail history.  I was always on the retail end of things, working in the storefront and taking the orders for custom work to be done but not actually doing the embroidery.  Don't get me wrong, I loved working in the store, yes mam!  I can honestly say I have never been interested in learning embroidery as a trade, but as a hobby I am all for it.  I am so excited about this because now I will be able to continue to enjoy the creative aspect of embroidery.  I am also excited because hopefully one day I will have grands that I can spoil with monogrammed items and I get to learn how to do it now, waaay before that happens.  

The embroidery machine I have is a Brother PE770.  I have been scoping this machine out for sometime  and doing all the comparisons.  Like for years!  I feel it is the best choice for me based on what all it has and can do.  I decided on this one because the machine I would prefer, the Babylock, starts in the thousands.  I was not opposed to spending more for a good machine but I wasn't keen on the idea of spending thousands on something that I don't even know if I'll be good at.  After working with excellent embroiders you tend to be a little picky on your embroidery.   This machine has everything I need for what I want to use if for.  I think that's important to know right off the bat.  I has a larger 5x7 hoop to start and you can buy a larger one to use beyond that.  I feel like most of what I need for me personally will fall in the 5x7 hoop size.   It also has a USB port for me to transfer designs or fonts that I want to use after downloading them from my computer.  I am currently checking into a few different softwares for editing and learning all about them as well as about my new machine.  As much as I want to jump right in and stitch something out, I am taking it slow. 

 One of the best things I have also found is the amount of support I have been able to find for this machine.  I first started finding youtube videos online that others had made.  Then I found a few very active support groups on Facebook all specifically centered around the Brother PE770.  Interestingly enough there are several Babylock owners in the group as well.   I think that's because they also use the same PES files and have similarities to the Brother machines.  I even read that someone said that Brother and Babylock are like Ford and Chevy.  I don't quite know if that's true or not but sure did make me happy to read.  I especially have been very pleased to read how so many people in the embroidery groups who are doing professional embroidery still have their Brother PE770 even after adding newer more industrial machines.  They refer to the PE770 as their little backup workhorse.  Yay!  I feel so good about this choice and really don't want to screw it up.  I want to read and learn as much as I can about this to get it right.  Now that the holidays are winding down I hope to be getting a jump here soon.  Woohoo!

I truly hope all of you also had a wonderful and blessed Christmas as well.  I would love to here if you did.  I would also love to hear your thoughts on the shelves above the table as well.  Thank you so much for visiting.  

Hope you have a wonderful Monday!