I am a huge fan of the television show, Friends. I can sit and watch episode after episode even though I have seen all of them probably a dozen times. So, if you are also a fan, you will be familiar with the phrase “We were on a break!” If you’re not, it refers to the break-up of Rachel and Ross and Ross’s one-night indiscretion with a woman he meets. When Rachel finds out, he defends his actions by saying “we were on a break!”

After having spent the week before busy almost every day with my quilting guild, book club hosted by me (cooking, baking, cleaning and all the fun stuff that comes with entertaining), the Muny Opera, and all different kinds of family affairs, I spent this last week on a break only leaving the house when I absolutely had to. I didn’t do much of anything. Occasionally, I have to do this. Recharge my batteries by doing much of nothing.

I finally got around to trying out the Brother SE1900 Embroidery machine yesterday that belongs to my daughter-in-law. Several months ago, I mentioned that I had looked at them and she volunteered to let me try hers. It actually sat in my sewing room for several weeks until I had the time to sit down and play with it. And, being the over-achiever that I am, I didn’t start with a simple project, I had to pick one with almost 8,000 stitches and ten different colors of thread.

But other than having to constantly rethread the machine with the different colors of thread, it’s not much harder than pushing a button and sitting back and watching the machine do the work.

It seems I have a little bit of everything in my crafting repertoire. I knit, crochet, counted cross-stitch, quilt, sew, beading, wire weaving, stencil making, macrame and everything Adobe. Before I started my embroidery project, I had my mind set on making a “Baseball Mom” shirt for my daughter-in-law using my Cameo Silhouette cutting machine. Then, since I made one, what the heck, let’s make a second one for my niece.

Now my eye is sort of set on a “no demo reno” of my basement. My house is over fifty years old and I’m pretty sure the basement decor is circa 1970ish; paneling, drop ceiling, peel n stick tile on the floor. My thoughts are–paint the paneling, replace the flooring (more peel n stick cuz I’m doing it myself) and fix the drop ceiling so that it’s not really dropping. Stay tuned for that!

Of course, nothing can be accomplished in my sewing room without the help of my floor supervisor.