New Toy!

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I'm solidly hooked on paper embroidery! Each of these cards is about 5-1/2" square. I'm selling each for $7.50.

I bought a new printer/scanner yesterday! I had been using a Brother Multi-Function unit that Steve gave me as a gift out of his company's anniversary gift catalog. It's been a workhorse for which I've been grateful.
But ever since I got this laptop last summer I have not been able to fully use the Brother with it. I know I've whined about this before. I could get it to print, but not scan. I downloaded drivers and software and such, bought software, reloaded software from my old desktop to my laptop. Steve said he'd take a look at it for me but never seemed to have the time. He was going to have a friend from work come over and troubleshoot it for me. I hated to impose on someone else.

Actually, I couldn't even get it to print consistently and got real sick of having to crawl under my desk to switch the printer cable from one to the other. I fiddled with it one last time yesterday and decided enough is enough.

I'm sure I was put over the edge by two other factors of things that don't work around here that feel out of my control. Simon installed my lovely new speakers in my car, last summer. A few months ago they shorted out (or something) so the only sound I hear is from my front left speaker. It's irritating as hell and I've asked Simon numerous times to fix it. The other thing is the TV in his room seems to crap out intermittently. Again, for at least a couple of months I've suggested he take it to this repair place I like nearby - even offered to pay for it. He hasn't done it which I've mostly not let it bother because I don't watch that TV.

It's all so annoying!

Where was I?

I bought an Epson RX700 - printer/scanner/copier. It's a thing of beauty and came with a nice rebate. Actually, the Epson I was set to buy turned out to not be in stock after all so I was going to have them order one for me. The Epson rep happened to mention the next model up has a greeting card feature. Whoa! Back the truck up! I hadn't told him specifically what I needed it for - my card business. I was skeptical because I don't make my cards on the computer. But I wanted to see how this feature worked. You scan in a photograph and it prints out a sheet where you check boxes as to where you want the picture positioned. You add text. He just scribbled Happy Demo Day on the sheet. The machine scans this sheet to read what you've told it to do - and prints out the finished product. This was just a quickie demo he did, but oh, the possibilities!

You can print directly on CDs (printable CDs). I didn't even know that existed. It accepts cardstock up to 110 lb weight. He told me a quilter was in the other day and showed me where they had printed on fabric for her.

Yep, hook, line and sinker.

All I wanted was a reasonable replacement for the Brother machine. The last printer I bought was a little $40 printer. I sort of forgot that technology has exploded lately with these photo printers. It's very cool. I'm incredibly happy I bought this Epson.

Now I'm totally motivated to move the last of the files off my desktop and onto CDs or my laptop so I can get rid of it for good. Right now my studio is a bigger mess than when I started because one this leads to another and I'm sort of deep cleaning at the same time.

I even added a little ambience.