Cajun Corner – Vol. 1, No. 13 – AUGUST 21, 2009

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

ΘΘΘΘΘ

Where has this week gone? Last Friday evening our neighbors gave us a wonderful anniversary dinner. It was so good to have everyone together again.

My friend from Mobile visited with us on Sunday and picked up her cushions and valance. She left more material for another set of valances. She liked her items so much that she is now talking about having me make her roman shades, bedspreads, and bolsters. She fell in love with the roman shades that I’ve made for my home. They are so practical and much easier to clean than mini-blinds. I will be meeting with her later today and have to explain to her that these items are going to be very expensive. I do love to sew and these projects are simple, but I keep telling my friends that’s not my business. My business is embroidery. Specifically, Cajun Stitchery does embroidery on ready made items like the weekly sales that I have in this e-newsletter. When I have to actually construct an item, the time involved makes the cost of the item high.

I love to make blankets, especially baby blankets. My friends love my baby blankets. One day a friend of mine suggested that I sell the baby blankets. “You would make a fortune,” she said. I explained that no one in their right mind would purchase a baby blanket for the amount of money that I would have to charge for time and materials. She said, “Shoot, I wouldn’t mind paying $50.00 for one of those baby blankets.” As I explained to my friend, $50.00 for a baby blanket isn’t enough to make me turn on the machine. Those things are so time consuming that I would have to charge more like $500 or $1,000 for a baby blanket. She then realized that I was correct.

I looked online to find out what a nice, custom made roman shade would cost and found that it’s the same thing as the baby blanket. Custom made roman shades can cost hundreds of dollars for a single window. As I will have to explain to my friend later today, for one of her windows the shade will cost her $150, and that’s a small window. That cost is actually on the low end of what I saw on the internet. Plus there are extra charges for installation, if you can’t install the shade yourself.

All of that said, I will be more than glad to make baby blankets, roman shades and whatever you like, as long as you don’t go into “sticker shock” when I tell you the price. Of course, it’s hand made, and made in the USA .

There are items that I am constructing for the Arts & Wine Festival. I will be selling the placemat, for instance, for $7 apiece or $25 for a set of 4. The price is ridiculously low due to the construction, but also the embroidery. Embroidery charges are usually $1 per 1,000 stitches. To create the designs that I wanted for the placemats entailed many thousands of stitches each, usually between 10,000-20,000 stitches per placemat. As you can tell from reading my blog and this e-newsletter, the placemats have been coming along from cutting them out, to embroidery, and finally sewing the placemat together. They are high quality placemats for sure. So far, I have 7 sets done and many more cut out, but it is a time consuming job.

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

ΘΘΘΘΘ

Boudreaux and Pierre were walking through the woods one day, when Boudreaux grabbed Pierre by the arm pulling him back. Boudreaux says, "Whooee, Pierre , look at dat big hole you almost stepped in!"
Pierre looks down into the hole, and says, "Whooee, Boudreaux, dat sure looks like a deep hole. I wonder how deep dat hole goes ?"
They find a rock, and throw it into the hole, listening to see how long it will take to hit the bottom. They don't hear anything. They find a bigger rock and repeat the process, but still don't hear it hit.
Pierre notices a railroad tie lying in the bushes, picks it up and throws it into the hole. While they are listening for the railroad tie to hit the bottom, a little billy goat comes running out of the bushes, runs right between them and jumps into the hole.
A few minutes later, their friend, Thibodaux comes walking through the bushes. Boudreaux says, "Hey Thibodaux, what you doin' way out here in de woods?"
Thibodaux answers, "Well I'm out here looking for my little billy goat."
Pierre says, "You want to hear sometin funny, Thibodaux ? The strangest ting just happend. A little billy goat just came running out dem bushes, and jumped right in dat deep hole right dere."
Thibodaux says, "Oh dat couldn't have been my billy goat. My goat was tied to a railroad tie back in dose bushes!"
ΘΘΘΘΘ
French phrase of the week: chaboulure (n.f.) prickly heat. Variant: chouboulure. [Often used in the plural.] Proverb: Si c'est pas les maringouins, c'est les chaboulures. (There'salways something wrong. If it's not one thing, it's another.).
ΘΘΘΘΘ
ENVIRONMENTAL TIPS

1. Turn down the heat, wear sweaters.
2. Carpool, bus, bike, walk.
3. Install low-flow devices for toilet, shower, faucets, gardens.
4. Avoid creating waste, re-use, reduce, recycle.
5. Avoid disposables, use durable products, buy recycled products.
6. Don’t litter, cover pickup truck loads, pick up litter.
7. Avoid toxic & poisonous products.
8. Take household hazardous waste to collection days or sites.
9. Compost yard and food waste.
10. Get involved, join a local community group working on streams or sustainability.

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 new catalogs and pass some time with me, cher.

Christmas is right around the corner – have you done your shopping yet.