Friday, May 28, 2010

Cajun Corner Vol. 2, No. 21

Cajun Corner – Vol. 2, No. 21 – May 28, 2010

Bon Jour! Welcome to Cajun Stitchery’s weekly email and welcome to our family.

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Don’t forget to visit http://www.cajunstitchery.etsy.com/ often.

The good news is that so far the oil has still not landed on the shores of Florida. Prayers continue that our shores be spared. The bad news is the oil is still flowing.

It has been a pretty busy week. We delivered the polo shirts to our new customer Flora-Bama Farms. If you live in this area, please visit Flora-Bama Farms are 6404 Mobile Hwy. It’s a fresh fruit and vegetable market and they have some pretty good deals. They carry a lot of the Amish foods, as well. The prices are very reasonable. You are buying local. It’s a win-win situation. Not to mention they love our embroidery and are thinking about ball caps and aprons.

The neighborhood gang has not gotten together since the going away party. I’m thinking that we need to remedy this situation soon.

The lettuce and other cold weather crops have pretty much been harvested and are gone. So, sad to see that gone but our tomatoes are growing. Each year we have success with the little cherry tomatoes but not the larger tomato. This year George purchased several Better Boy seedlings, instead of starting from seed, and they seem to be working. The tomatoes are still green but if they all turn red, we are going to have a bounty for sure. We also, of course, have the little cherry tomatoes planted. The bell peppers are just about ready to pick. They are green. We have a few that are a pickable size. If we leave them on the plant, they will turn yellow and then red. It looks like bell peppers are going to be a winner this year, too. We still have some carrots and onions in the garden. The parsley is going to seed. The stevia is back and lush. The lemon balm grows everywhere. That is one amazing plant. We had to pull it out of the herb garden (we never planted it there in the first place) and in the process, the mint came out, too. I’m hoping the mint comes back.

George planted some eggplant but just a few. The first year we planted eggplant we had so much I couldn’t give it all away. Of course, now maybe Flora-Bama Farms will take it. Green beans are still growing.

I made one blackberry cobbler this year. We had more blackberries in our little area but after the first harvest, there was never enough at one time to make another cobbler. We were both so impressed at the working with nature aspect of the blackberries that we are going to section off a larger plot that we will weed and allow the blackberries to grow.

The jasmine is just about finished blooming. That plant has such a wonderful smell. I hope it just covers the entire fence. Speaking of a wonderful smell, the gardenia bushes have been looking pretty sad for the past few years. We think it has to do with them being in a shaded area. George cut them down, almost to the ground. I noticed yesterday that one lone gardenia is blooming from a tiny branch almost on the ground. We have another small gardenia bush that George grew from a clipping that is also blossoming now. Another fabulous smell for our yard.

The lilies are spectacular this year. I took pictures of some of them and posted on Facebook and put more pictures earlier this week on the blog. Some of the lilies smell and others do not.

We planted a little flower garden outside of Mama’s room when she moved in. I wanted her to be able to see beautiful flowers when she awoke in the mornings. That room is now the Cajun Stitchery embroidery room. There is a beautiful blue hydrangea in bloom right now. She would be so pleased. She loved hydrangeas.

With the flowers and plants come the birds. The birds have also been spectacular this spring. The red tailed hawks are not nesting in their usual oak tree. We have had a plethora of cardinals, as well as an array of other species. It’s like they all decided to move into a bird paradise. They drink out of the solar waterfall. They bath in the sprinklers, they eat in the garden. That’s the life. My cats just sit in the window all day staring at the birds, with an occasional meow.

We had many baby grapes on the vine this year. We still have a lot but are noticing that as the grapes are getting bigger, the grapes on the clusters are thinning and we are thinking the birds are enjoying our grapes. Last year George and I were able to enjoy one little bunch of grapes from our vine. I hope the birds leave enough for us this year.

I haven’t made any more cell phone holders. It took days to put the ones I did make on Etsy because I didn’t want to “flood the market” with all of the cell phone holders in one day. We have had a lot of visitors to the store, looking and browsing. Etsy remains a classroom for me in retail. I’m learning a lot.

We had another order for a couple of tee shirts for my Aunt Philo’s bowling team. Seems a couple of gentlemen have decided to join and, of course, needed their own team shirt. You know my aunt is now 92 years old, deaf, has compromised vision and bowls. I am so proud of her.

The really big news this week has been ball caps. YES! The cap sash issue has been conquered. George can put that cap sash on easily. He hooped our first cap and stitched out our Cajun Stitchery logo without a problem. I’ve been wearing that cap all week. We ordered several “practice” ball caps and we are working on all of it. There will still be a learning curve until we get it down perfectly. Part of that curve is in the digitizing. We already have some orders. I digitized the requested design and it stitched out fine on flat fabric but messed up on the cap frame. Who knew? Digitizing for caps requires some special techniques. I’m learning.

I never knew there was a whole lingo for hats and caps. There are structured and unstructured, different size crowns, different size bills, different fabric requires different techniques. We have read instructions and watched videos until I think we are embroidering caps in our sleep.

Several months ago a friend gave us a “ponytail” cap and asked us to learn to embroider on ball caps. The ponytail cap has an opening in the back larger than usual to accommodate ponytails. I looked up the company on the tag and found a really good cap company. This week I send the required documentation to allow Cajun Stitchery to purchase wholesale from this company. To try them out, we ordered two dozen patriotic visors. The prices are good. We ordered the visors delivered UPS ground. The visors arrived yesterday – one day delivery. So far, I’m very impressed with this company. The patriotic visors are our sale of the week. See below.

Always remember that we are just a call or email away at cajunstitchery@yahoo.com or 850-261-2462 and place your order.

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The pretty young schoolteacher was concerned about one of her eleven year old students, "Tee" Boo. Taking him aside after class one day, she asked, " 'Tee', why has your schoolwork been so poor lately?" " Mais, I can't concentrate, Teacher !" replied :"Tee". "I done fell in love." "Oh, is that so?" said the teacher, holding back an urge to smile. "And with whom?" "Mais, wid you," he answered. "But 'Tee'," exclaimed the secretly pleased young lady, "don't you see how silly that is? It's true that I would like a husband of my own someday; but I don't want a child." "Oh, don't worry, Teacher" said "Tee" reassuringly, "I'll be careful."

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French phrase of the week: Mon père peut pas manger son gombo sans craquettes. (My father cannot eat gumbo without crackers.)

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From: http://www.dailyecotips.com/

Traveling:

Before You Leave

Make sure your water heater is on the lowest setting

Turn off air conditioner or put on reasonable temperature for animals and plants

Unplug energy hog appliances

Traveling Eco-Friendly

Use the bus or train instead of flying.

Travel with a group. These packages can be found with any travel agent.

Hotels

Find a eco-friendly hotel before leaving.

Reuse towels while in the hotel.

When leaving the hotel turn off air conditioner if no one will be in the room.

Tourism

Walk around the town or use public transportation. If on a group package, they will have a bus for you to travel on while site seeing.

Eat from the local menu.

Please let me know if there is something that you would like to see in the weekly email. You may always call me at (850) 261-2462 or email me at cajunstitchery@yahoo.com.

If you are not a subscriber and would like to receive Cajun Corner weekly, please email cajunstitchery@yahoo.com and let me know to put you on our email list.

C’est tout, mes amis

Peggy Henshall

Cajun Stitchery

(850) 261-2462

cajunstitchery@yahoo.com

P.S. You are always welcome to stop by and look at all of the catalogs and pass some time with me, cher.

SALE OF THE WEEK (Good through Thursday, June 3, 2010)

WE CAN EMBROIDER ON BALL CAPS SALE!!!!

We have one dozen of each of the patriotic visor styles in the photographs. This sale is for these 2 dozen visors. First come, first serve.

The visor with the red, white, blue, and yellow bill has a red band.

Sale: one patriotic visor without embroidery is $5.00 plus tax/shipping. We will be glad to embroider on the band, upon request.

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