Cajun Corner - Vol. 2, No. 15

Cajun Corner – Vol. 2, No. 15 – APRIL 16, 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.

Hope everyone got their taxes done and filed. Take a deep breath and exhale. It’s over for another year.

We had several visitors this week and you know we enjoy company. Evie and her neighbor dropped by to pick up Evie’s napkins with the frog motif. She wants a set of 12 napkins for the holidays (Thanksgiving, Christmas) but she and her husband cannot agree on the motif. She wants frogs and he wants something more traditional. I’m working on a few designs that I hope please both of them.

The beautiful tablecloth and napkins with the poinsettia design were a big hit. Amy gave her gift to her aunt who was simply thrilled. Now they want five more matching napkins. Good going, Amy.

We have what’s known as Florida snow. Those little fuzzy things that fall off the oak trees this time of year are everywhere. They stick to my long haired dog like velcro. Our house, inside and out, are covered in them. The nice thing is that it’s only a couple of weeks out of the year that we have to deal with this. George got on the roof next door with the leaf blower yesterday and that roof was covered in the little fuzzies about 3” deep. The good thing is that the fuzzies cover the garden and look like a really nice, neat mulch. As I look up into the oak trees, I still see more of these fuzzies that will fall but I think the bulk has fallen.

I do have an announcement. I contacted the company selling the clamping system. This was a purchase in the making. However, it turned out that the system will not fit Boudreaux. The clamping company even contacted the SWF manufacturer (Boudreaux’s mama) and it just won’t fit. So, the decision was made for us. One of my friends in Central Florida who has her own embroidery company suggested that I make the mats myself and do the embroidery that way. It’s possible but as I’ve said so many times before, making things by hand takes a lot of time.

We put the idea of the welcome mats aside and proceeded with the handkerchiefs. We had ordered the pretty little handkerchiefs and using the tracking feature for UPS found that they should be delivered last Monday. Monday morning the UPS tracking site said they were in Pensacola, loaded on a truck for delivery. No package. We waited all day and into the night and no delivery. Back at the tracking site revealed that UPS needed a better address. Now we’ve lived here for 18 years. UPS has delivered many things to our house. I called UPS Tuesday morning to help them find me and was told that they figured it out and the package would be delivered that day. Late afternoon came and we saw the UPS truck. We started out the door when the UPS truck passed us and parked at the house next door. Yep, it was a new driver. He wasn’t familiar with the area. We finally received our package and I hurried inside to open my little treasures.

Go to the Cajun Stitchery page on Facebook. I took pictures of each style of handkerchief that we purchased. They are all so dainty and beautiful. Each is embellished in some way with lace. All are 100% cotton. We also purchased a few other things from this company. 100% cotton, waffle weave, white kitchen towels. Those are 21” x 28”. That’s a really nice size kitchen towel. I’ve already used 2 of them and may have to purchase more. I only bought 5 of them. We also purchased a really adorable wine bottle apron. It’s white, 100% cotton, plain to allow for embroidery, and comes with the cutest little chef’s hat to go on the cap of the wine bottle. Then, last but not least, we purchased what was labeled a favor for weddings. It’s the bodice of a wedding dress cut from cardboard. A lovely handkerchief is delicately folded into a sort of but not quite diamond shape, the point of which goes into the cardboard bodice and all hang from a tiny little coat hanger. Basically, you get a handkerchief folded in such a way that it looks like a miniature wedding dress on a coat hanger. It’s really cute.

Cajun Stitchery is selling the handkerchiefs for $5.00, plus cost of embroidery. The kitchen towels, wine bottle apron with cap, and wedding dress handkerchief favor are all $10 each, plus cost of embroidery.

I continued making the black polka dot on white fabric handkerchiefs with the intent of giving them to each of the ladies on Wednesday night. Each handkerchief had their first name initial embroidered in the Curlz font in black thread. They looked very nice. When I handed them out, everyone seemed to like them. A few of the black polka dot handkerchiefs are on Etsy for sale. I was getting tired of the black polka dots and went onto a goldish colored fabric that I have. In fact, I’m making handkerchiefs from this fabric now.

They are only handmade and are not as beautiful and delicate as the hankies that I purchased. Well, apparently I was wrong. My dear friend in Alabama who had received the gift certificate wants the black polka dot handkerchief. I told her that the handkerchiefs were in and to please go to the Cajun Stitchery page on Facebook and let me know which style she wanted. She wants the black polka dot handkerchiefs. Yes, I am extremely flattered, but that wasn’t at all what I had intended. However, the customer is always right and by gosh if she wants black polka dots, she will get black polka dots. Once I run out of the black polka dot fabric, there is no more. I should have bought the whole bolt of fabric but who would have thought!

This leads me to remember an article that I read this week. Etsy, and so many other sites, have some wonderful articles on how to sell on their site and marketing in general. The article that I’m referring to said that no matter how crazy it may seem, if you’ve wanted to try something special with your craft, or try a special craft, to do it and put it on Etsy for sale. Go out on a limb. The reasoning is that you never know if your item may become an internet sensation that everyone has to go see. Even if it doesn’t sell, you are bringing people to your site to see all of your items. There simply is no way of knowing what people will buy at any given time. The trick is to get them to see your wares. Since I do not have a store that you can walk into and browse, the internet is my store, either the dot com, the blog, Facebook, or Etsy. So, please visit my stores and let me know what you would like to see. What about the ambiance? Would you like a store with more warmth? With more variety? Just let me know.

Since Cajun Stitchery does custom embroidery, it’s hard to put all of our wares on the internet because if you need a polo shirt, a hoodie, a tote, handkerchief, tablecloth, napkins, whatever, we can get it for you and put whatever embroidery you like on it. We purchase from wholesale companies all over the US. So, it is difficult to put everything on a shelf for you to see. Most of our wares haven’t even been created yet. What you can see are samplings of what we can do and get for you.

There is so much to tell you and show you but this e-newsletter is getting rather long. Visit the various Cajun Stitchery websites and just look at all we are doing.

Don’t forget Earth Day is this month. Be kind to your environment.

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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Boudreaux and Thibodeaux had bought their own airline. On their first flight from Lafayette to Jamaica, they ran into motor trouble. Thibodeaux came on the speaker and said, "We are going to have to make an emergency crash landing. We are over the ocean so all of you that can swim please move to the left side of the plane, and all of you that can't swim, please move to the right side. As soon as the plane hits the water I want all of the people on the left to swim for shore. All of you on the right, well, Captain Boudreaux and I would like to thank you for flying Cajun Airlines.

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French phrase of the week: bougre (n.m.) [rhymes with first syllable of "sugar" or in some areas is pronounced BOH-G] 1. man; guy. 2. [in direct address] buddy; pal. Quoi ça dit, bougre? (What's happening, buddy?; What do you say, man?)

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Old Jean Pocket Holders- Cut out the pockets from the seat of the jeans. Add magnets on the back and use to stash craft supplies, a notepad and pencil for shopping lists, business cards, coupons or other items on your magnet board or fridge.

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.