Taking Into Account

It's just business, I keep telling myself, but I really hate to keep my business record books. I'm the one who keeps track of things at home and, of course, for my business, too. It seems I have a bit of a quirk when it comes to keeping up with these accounts: when money is tight I'm right on it but when money is flush I'm way too lax. Take tax time as one example: I have until February 6 to pay sales tax on all I have sold. I have known this for months but I wait until almost the last possible minute by paying this tax on the first day of February. Why? I have kept all of my receipts but have stopped entering them on a spreadsheet months and months ago. Augh! Now I have the deadline looming for Federal taxes and I will have to present all of my bookkeeping to our tax person (who is an awesome lady) and I'm dragging my heels. I do put some of the blame on losing my Microsoft Office programs when I got a new-to-me laptop and refused to pay for new software. A friend thought I might like Open Office since it's free and has a good following. It's not bad but I have to learn all of the idiosyncrasies as it seems to be a combination of Google Drive and MS Office. We'll see how long it lasts before I break down and purchase MS Office. But you are not reading this blog to hear about keeping accounts.

There is a fun story about a Bernina adventure I had last week. Out of the blue I get a call from Mary who reminded me that she sold her Bernina 1001 serger to me last year. My heart sank just a bit thinking she wanted it back but that hasn't happened yet so I'm not sure why my heart went in that direction. She talked about how she was continuing to get rid of things she was no longer using so would I be interested in her Bernina 730 Record? Was I ever! She named a price I could afford and I beat it over to her house the next day.  Here is her lovely Bernina 730 Record:

Bernina Record 730

She is pristine with original manual, cute storage drawer compartment that is full of original feet. She did bemoan not being able to find the keys to the suitcase it comes in but I found them with other attachments in one of the drawers.

Storage that fits onto the back of the machine (check out all of those feet!)

Of course, even though she hadn't used it in some time it ran beautifully, only needed lint removal and a drop of oil in each of the spots marked in red. As an added bonus it came with a walking foot!

This foot was made for walkin'

A friend had borrowed the 730 and bought the walking foot but Mary didn't know if it even worked but I know it does and was glad to get it. Now, Mary knows I buy and sell sewing machines and sergers so she is under no illusion that I'm going to keep this one for myself yet she wanted me to have it. To sell. I'm okay with that and will find a good home for it.

Now we get to the story of an Elna Jubilee. I met MarySue from St. Louis when she read in my blog about an Elna and was looking for one. Through a series of events, she did come up to the Twin Cities and bought a lovely Elna SU68 but confessed she really had her heart on an Elna Jubilee. The difference is the cams for decorative stitches or having everything built in: the Jubilee has no cams, just built in stitch variety. I had never seen this model until yesterday when one came up on my local Craigslist in a table. I responded within an hour of the ad and picked it up on my way home. Mary Sue, if you are reading this and still would like this model, she's yours (in trade for the SU68):

Elna Jubilee

Don't have a photo of the table since it's still in my car but it's pretty neat, too, with a large work space. Patience is the key while we wait for our favorite sewing machine to appear locally and at a good price. So that leads me to the Pfaff 297 I just got but, wait, I'm out of time and that will have to be the next story.

In the meantime, keep sewing, keep reading, and keep an active mind so you will age gracefully. Yup, that's one of my goals.