New Embroidery Sewing Machine

I have wanted an emboidery sewing maching for awhile now. 

Of course, the good ones cost thousands of dollars and I just don't have that.  BUT, Brother makes a "beginners model" so to speak.  It's the SE-400 Embroidery and Sewing machine.  I got it off Amazon.com.  They had the best price.  Plus, there were over a hundred reviews and almost all of them were good.  The people just went on and on about how much they loved it.  I stared at it for months before actually working up the nerve to buy it.

It certainly is alot different from my Janome.  For one thing, it takes forever to wind a bobbin.  You have to do it really carefully and follow all these steps.  But once you get it all done and threaded and it startes embroidering something, it's awesome!  I'm still learning how to use it and what it's limits are.  But I'm having fun with it for now.

Do you have a machine that does embroidery?  What kind and how do you like it?

Bonus:  Here's a pic of my giant 6 foot son on his first day of 8th grade.  You can't see his mustache very well in the picture but apparently, it was dark enough for his science teacher to tell him he had to shave.  He had already shaved the scruffy whiskers on the rest of his face.  Sigh!  He's only 13 - why does he have to shave?  Why is he growing up so fast?  Sigh.