Christmas is over

I had many custom orders for aprons, and now embroidery, this holiday season. I also worked my butt off at work so I didn't get to sew as much as I would've liked. My DH (dear husband), also DH are his first two initials, got me a Brother SE 400. It's a combination sewing and embroidery machine! It rocks but dang machine embroidery is an expensive hobby. Designs are at least $5 and it takes about an hour to actually sew the things. I'm still working out the machines buttons and switches but it is my new best friend.
Finding designs that aren't boring was the next quest. I am a huge fan of  Sublime Stitching. Jenny Harts designs are right up my alley. Unfortunately they are only hand embroidery designs and I need digitized designs to transfer by USB to my machine.

 So I put a request on Etsy to see if I could pay someone to digitize my own art and its way too expensive, upwards of $20. Then, I just searched and searched and eventually found greatness in Urban Threads. Oh holy mecca of cool machine embroidery designs!! Skulls, tattoos, cute critters! I immediately blew a wad of cash on these designs and started an embroidery habit that just won't quit. Everything looks so plain now without an awesome design on it. I also found some koi on a disc at a special Brother store that cost a bundle but are very professional and super cute. So here's some pics of my holiday projects.

Sorry for the low quality cell pics. I promise to take better pictures soon. The other thing that makes this an expensive hobby is thread. Some designs need 5 different shades of blue. So I went back to Etsy and ordered 50 spools and I still need more! Well I'm happy Christmas is over but I'm dreading the work week until NYE. Then 4 days off to travel to California! Yay!