In which there's sewing...

My birthday is in a couple of weeks. Over the 4th of July sale, the DH decided to purchase the nice, shiny new kitchen aid that I've been drooling over. And he got a really amazing price. So I've been baking like crazy recently. (and with the outside temperatures, that's not necessarily a good thing)

But apparently that wasn't enough. We went to a thrift store yesterday in search of exercise equipment. This particular store usually has a great selection of lightly used stair steppers and such. And with us both sitting at a desk all day, it was sounding like a good idea to have something in the house to increase our physical activity. Well, yesterday they only had a few very sad looking nordik tracks and some rather ancient exercise bikes. No love for us there. But, of course, I had to check out the crafty section before leaving. Every once and a while, they have some really nice wool or fabric there. No wool, no nice fabric (some very 80's hot pink sweat suite material, though...) but this little baby was peaking out from under one of the tables:
It's BRAND NEW. The sticky things that cover the LCD screen hadn't even been removed. Had everything except the manual with it, which was easily attainable through the Brother website.

I bought my first machine in college. I was sewing like crazy for our wedding favors and for my veil, and anything else that I found for the wedding that needed to be taken care of. So for about 3 months, my $60 Singer got a hard work out. And then, mysteriously, the bobbin started snagging. It wouldn't pull smoothly. Nothing had been touched with the tension, I wasn't doing anything different. It just stopped sewing smoothly. And got very loud. So I put it away for about a year, between finding knitting again and getting married, and moving, and all that jazz, I just didn't think about sewing. It stayed in the back of my closet, happily silent. When we moved last spring, we were faced with some very oddly sized windows. And I had to pull the sad little machine out and make it work for a living again. I messed with the tension, and got a semi-smooth straight stitch out of it. But it was still very loud. But I got 3 out of 5 curtains completed before I couldn't take it anymore. When I saw this little gem in the store, at about 25% of it's original purchase price, I couldn't pass it up. It may not be a top-of-the-line brand. But it sews well. Very well. And it's so very quiet.

And my front door finally has a curtain:
Now I just need to finish up the Last Curtain for our bedroom windows. And the quilt that I don't have nearly enough fabric to complete the top...