newbie looking for machine suggestions

I am a complete newbie. To give you a little background, I had a baby 4 months ago and I'm obsessed with monogrammed items. We also just bought a house and I would love to sew some household items such as curtains, etc, as well as baby items such as blankets, hooded towels, etc. So I started off my quest looking for a basic beginner sewing machine. Then I found sewing/embroidery machines and thought "hey, then I could learn to sew and save some money by monogramming my own items". Long story short, I am now on the quest for a sewing/embroidery machine (possibly a Christmas gift from my hubby). As I said, I am a beginner so I don't want to spend a ton of money, but I want something that's easy to learn on. If I enjoy it enough, I might pursue a side business sewing/embroidering (hence, it would be on a very small scale), so I want something reputable that I won't have to upgrade (unless business really gets to booming, but that would be way down the line). Any suggestions for a machine to get?