I have a Janome 350E which I use almost daily mainly to make cat toys for local animal rescues. I have a really long list of my favourite embroidery web sites but my recommendation of one of the best and very active helpful sites would be www.sewforum.com. There are two boards here that you should look at. One has patterns (free) that many digitizers generously put up and the other is a help board for those of us have difficulty with. One of the most common frustrations that a beginner has is not making sure the presser foot is in the up position when threading. Sometimes you get "nesting" issues (collection of thread) that require you to clean out the bobbin area and re-thread. (I ended up taking my machine back to have it "repaired" before the shop owner showed me shaking his head laughing!) I don't know how many times I've given this advice to on the sew forum. One of my favourite computer programs to go along with my machine is SewIconz which displays the icon on my computer embroidery folder so that it just isn't a name - a picture which tells me the size of the image and type of file. Janome uses .JEF files. PES are the most common but there are a number of programs (some free) that allow you to convert PES to JEF for the Janome. I've also learned to sit by my machine while stitching. Tempting to multi-task but I follow Murphy's Law - Walk away and something will happen! Hope you have as much fun as I have had with mine. If I can help - leave a message and I'll e-mail you.

Wow floral-uk the way you describe plant-life really shows your profound appreciation for them. I love what you touched on as a plant's character. You're so right about that. ken_adrian much like a plant yourself! fair enough! macranthos oh that's so cool your friend (and orchids) had such a positive influence on you. It's impressive to know people in completely unrelated fields have still discovered an appreciation for plants. Initially I took an introductory botany course and really enjoyed it. It taught me the basics of how to ID plant characteristics, and their physiology. Then one day last year I was walking down the street and realized I didn't know what any of the common everyday plants I was walking by were. I thought it was bizarre to not to know. So I started to ID the usual lawn weeds, since they were the most prolific. Right now I have an affinity for Yarrow, Crack Willow, Cottonwoods and Windflower bc it's been so mysteriously elusive to me. I'm just really enamoured with plants and their history and their potential medicinal properties. Whenever I'm outside I'm always looking for any I haven't seen before. Just yesterday I saw spotted knapweed for the first time in person, and it was really satisfying haha.

Chromebook is perfect for me. I use mine for looking up recipes, watching shows, surf the internet, emails, text messaging and can play apps (but not all). The first Chromebook I had didn't have any internal memory so I could do all above but download apps. The one I have now is the Acer CB5-132T. It can be used like a tablet but it also has Chrome OS so it is the best of both worlds for me. The main reasons I bought a second Chromebook and not a Laptop is because LPs take FOREVER to boot up while the CB takes seconds. CBs are much cheaper (or can be) and what I use it for I don't need a LT. CBs are also smaller which I like because mine follows me around the house, I was also the Queen of getting malware other garbage on my LT that my husband would have to delete and I haven't had that problem since getting a CB. I poked around pogo.com and could play every game I selected. If you don't need any programs beyond Microsoft Office type stuff (Google has all those) then a Chromebook may be a good fit for you.

Some home insurers are beginning to decline coverage for oil systems, or setting restrictions (mostly related to the tank). If you'd be getting a new system, that's less likely to be an issue, but expect your insurer to ask a lot of questions if you're going oil. From what I've heard, buried tanks are an absolute no-no these days, and in-basement tanks have to have catch basins and fibreglass cladding. All because even a small leak can be a significant expense. Seriously look at geothermal or air-to-air heat pumps as mentioned above. Higher up-front cost, but you're not hostage to fossil fuel prices. For our new build, we went geothermal for heat/AC (and pre-heated water), but had propane put in anyway for the cooktop, a whole-house generator, fireplace and BBQ hookup.