We had a big storm here today complete with tornado sirens blaring and all. So, that makes me think that I don't want to go outside. I'll just sit here and write on my blog. Goodness knows, I have lots to write about.
Mardi Gras is over. This was a long, wonderful Mardi Gras season. I think everyone is tired, or should I say, exhausted. Trying to keep up with my krewe and run Cajun Stitchery and my family is a lot to do.
Even before Mardi Gras, itself, arrived we had a special occasion that wasn't even celebrated. Cajun Stitchery celebrated its 2nd anniversary. I am certainly open to suggestion on how to celebrate this occasion.
One thing that I do want to talk about are baby bibs. I don't usually make baby items. My children and my grandchildren are all way past baby age. A customer did contact me for an emergency baby shower gift the other day. My only suggestion was to run to the store and get a receiving blanket and I could embroider on it. She wanted something real unique and that wasn't it. It did make me think that I need to have some baby items around here for occasions such as that. I am about ready to finish my third baby bib. The first two are in the Etsy store. They are very easy to make. The closure is Velcro. I have many baby and children stock embroidery designs and this also gives me a chance to use some of those designs. They are all adorable and I enjoy stitching them out. So, if you are in a pinch for a quick, handmade baby shower gift, I can offer baby bibs. Maybe I'll make more baby items as time goes by.
As any reader of my blog knows, I love cloth handkerchiefs. Sometime ago I read an article that said women's handkerchiefs are harder to find than men's these days because women no longer use cloth hankies and men have always used them, and never quit using them. Good for men. A customer approached me during the Christmas holidays to do some embroidery on a man's handkerchief and asked if I had any. Well, no, I didn't carry men's handkerchiefs and frankly, had never made a hanky for a man. She and I both searched high and low for men's hankies without any luck. Finally, George did find a pack of men's plain, white handkerchiefs are Wal-Mart. I have that pack in my supplies for the next request.
The next request was last week. A Facebook friend wanted silk-type men's hankies embroidered. The hankies that I have are cotton. She supplied the 2 hankies and I did the embroidery. Before I embroidered I did a bit of research and the difference in men and women handkerchiefs are the size, mostly. A woman's hanky is about 10 inches square or even smaller. A man's handkerchief is about 15 inches square or more. In further research it appeared that for a woman's handkerchief the embroidery faces the edge of the hanky because women will hold or drape the hanky with the edges out. For men the embroidery faces the middle of the handkerchief because if a man puts the hanky in his suit breast pocket, the hanky is folded so the edges are sticking out of the pocket and the motif needs to show right side up. Of course, that is if the man chooses to fold the handkerchief in that manner. There seem to be as many different ways to fold a man's handkerchief as there are to fold napkins. Every woman that I have approached about folding a man's handkerchief has the corner edges sticking out the top of the pocket -- no exceptions.
I was contacted by a lady via my Etsy store for a man's handkerchief yesterday. She wanted one like I had made but for a man. She wanted the embroidery flipped so the edges would stick out of the pocket and she wanted it man sized. She picked the pinstriped fabric with the red lips. I made the handkerchief for her and she is pleased. It is going to her brother. She told me there was no special occasion. Her brother wears suits all of the time and she felt he would enjoy something a big off the wall, such as the embroidered red lips.
I made one for her brother and another that is on sale at the Etsy Store. As George and I were discussing this turn of events, we decided that, along with the baby items, this is something else that we need to keep on hand because, frankly, I can never come up with something really cool to give a man as a gift. I always send George out to pick something. Finally, a gift that is kind of kitschy but acceptable for a man. I'll have to research men embroidery motifs now.
This all worked out well because I was going through some of our stock designs and ran across a couple of designs that I never noticed before. They both immediately made me laugh. One was a motif of a nose with running legs coming out of the nostrils -- the nose was running. lol The other one that got my attention was a character picking his nose. Both designs made me thing back to the "You Have a Booger" handkerchiefs and I knew I had to make a few more handkerchiefs with these designs. I think I'll make them men's hankies.
A new krewe, Mystic Krewe of Fruitcakes, has contacted me for an estimate on their logo. I'll be working on that the rest of the week. It's not that I foresee it taking me that long but we have out of state friends in town this week and one of my cousins is coming in later this week. We are busy with company but it's so enjoyable.
C'est tout, mes amis.
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