What a carry on !!!

I know it's been some time since I last posted. Things have been rather hectic here that's for sure. Although I guess that is nothing new at all is it. The worst thing that's happened is my embroidery machine isn't working at the moment. I am completely lost without it I've got a pile of things that need to be done, I even mended something by hand the other day!!! I'm taking it over to Sheffield on Saturday to my Brother Dealer and hopefully he'll be able to fix it. If not, it looks like I'm going to have to purchase a new one which I don't relish whatsoever. I've been advised by several agents that the current day equivalent of my machine will cost me £3,300!! I think that if it comes down to it, I'll have to purchase another from eBay as I can't justify spending so much money on a machine.

Jon decided over the weekend to sell his car. He's been contemplating this for quite some time. I think the fact that he's had to call the RAC out 3 times over the past couple of months was the deciding factor. Don't get the wrong idea, there's absolutely nothing wrong with his car at all. The problem is that now he's commuting to work on the train, he was only doing around 6 miles per week. Now with a 3l engine, it just wasn't enough to charge the battery, and it was constantly going flat.

I've been desperate for a new laptop and finally managed to get one yesterday. Jon kindly bought it for me with some of the money he got from the sale of his car. It's a wonderful machine, and I've finally come into the 21^st Century with both Office '07 and Microsoft Vista. I know I'm probably miles behind everyone else with that one, but it's a huge thing for me right now. I've been very anti-Vista since it was launched, but after spending a few hours on it with the kids at school and last night, I'm finding my way around it slowly but surely. I'm even typing this in Microsoft Word for publishing into Blogger … hopefully it will work first time. So far, I've managed to set up my email accounts in Microsoft Outlook. I thought it would take ages for me to work it out, but actually took only a couple of minutes …. Am | good or what! Lol. Isn't it typical though that I obtain Vista just prior to Microsoft launching their new 'Windows 7'. Oh well, I guess that one will be a few years down the line. My biggest challenge right now is how I'm going to get all of the information from my old machine onto the new one. When you consider the fact that I have around 250,000 embroidery designs on there, it's not going to be easy ….arrrrrrrrghhhhhhh.

My studying seems to be going well. I'm still waiting for a lot of information to come through from the college, but I'm really enjoying it. As part of my studies, I'm working in school all day on a Monday and Friday and then on Wednesday and Thursday mornings. Hopefully this leaves me the time to go to sewing club on a Tuesday, that's if the work doesn't overtake me and I end up writing essays on Tuesdays (on my nice new laptop of course!).

Talking of sewing club, Jo showed us how to make some Christmas Decorations this week. They are really cute, and a lovely size to place on a Christmas tree. I made a small star by folding material. I then covered a polystyrene ball with material and finished off with ribbon and a few beads. Finally, I made an adorable Christmas Tree using yo-yo's. These were extremely simple to make and look lovely. I made mine with the same material, but they looked just as nice using 2 or even 3 different fabrics which some of the other ladies did.

I guess my next task is to start thinking about Christmas presents. I haven't got a clue what to purchase for Genevieve, she has everything that she needs. I was going to buy her a new Nintendo DS as hers has a broken screen. However, she used the money that she had been given for her birthday and bought one herself which has been delivered today. She has absolutely no idea either what she would like. Maybe I should write to Santa and ask him what girls are asking for this year.