Cajun Corner – Vol. 2, No. 29 – July 31, 2010

Cajun Corner – Vol. 2, No. 29 – July 31, 2010


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

ΘΘΘΘΘ

Don’t forget to visit our blog at www.cajunstitchery.blogspot.com and www.cajunstitchery.etsy.com often.

The next shipment of caps and visors is scheduled to arrive on Monday and Tuesday. George will be back at embroidering caps and visors for the upcoming Mystic Krewe of Nereids Splash Party on August 21st at Paradise Bar & Grill, beginning at 3 p.m. Hope Boudreaux likes these visors.

I worked with a young lady in Illinois this week creating handkerchiefs for her upcoming wedding. There was a lot of writing that she wanted embroidered on the handkerchiefs. Everything worked out well. There was a lot of adjusting to get the lettering and handkerchiefs to fit in the hoop. All is well that ends up well, and it did. Her lagniappe was a little hand towel that I embroidered with her name on it.

Now I’m working on the duffle bags. The customer ordered two of the duffle bags that were on sale a week or two ago. Both bags are black and they are for her two sons who are both in band in high school. Normally the embroidery would go on the zippered pocket but we decided that there is more room on the opposite side of the bags and the designs that we want are a bit bigger than will fit on the zippered pocket. I plan on working some more on the designs today but hopefully will have the bags completed by Monday.

With all of this wonderful work that we are getting, I haven’t had time to put anything new on Etsy. As George always tells me, do the paying stuff first. And so we are.

Today is the last day of July and the Christmas in July sale. Tomorrow I will change the prices on the sale items on Etsy back to the normal prices. If anyone is interested in these items, you better purchase them today.

George just reminded me that next weekend is our Mystic Lagoon spend-the-night party. That means I have several birthday presents to prepare. In fact, August is a big gift month. We just sent off birthday cards, plus a little something, for our two granddaughters. Their birthdays are a week apart in August. Nancy and I were that way, too. I was November 1st and Nancy was November 7th.

Don’t forget to visit our catalog website at www.companycasuals.com/cajunstitchery. It is very new and I’m sure there are glitches to it, but try it out and browse around and see if you like it. Let me know what does not work, what you like, what you do not like, and I’ll try to tweak the site. You are welcome to order from the catalog site. In fact, please do.

We are still getting bell peppers, green beans and I noticed some ornamental peppers are starting to form. Sassy has several small green fruit that will turn into luscious satsumas in a few months. We have a sunflower that bloomed this morning. The hibiscuses are beautiful this year. It is much too hot to do a lot outside at this time of the year. We do what we have to outside before 10 a.m. or after 3 p.m. There are some things that can be planted in August and we intend to do just that. We need to add a lot of dirt and compost to the tiers in the garden, as they have sunk down. The rest of the plants will need to be fertilized soon. The parsley is turning brown and we need to re-work that bed.

The article on ammonia that was included a few issues ago mentioned that ammonia mixed with water is one of the best fertilizers. You know I have to try that out.

Because it is so hot, George puts the sprinklers out each day. Thank goodness for well water or this would cost a fortune. I love to watch the sprinklers going because the birds all gather to take a bath and just cool off. We have a lot of cardinals this year and right now the females all seem to be gravid. The other day one little mama landed on a branch of our tomato vine and was so heavy, she broke the branch. She looked like she was about to pop. Today lots of little birds have gathered to play in the water. I love watching them but that pales to how much my cats love to watch them. Earlier today we heard a bang on a window and went to see what happened. I don’t know if the cat ran into the window trying to get the cardinal or if the cardinal slammed into the window.

We have also had a lot of lizards/geckos this year. The cats love to watch them through the windows. My cats have no front claws and are strictly house cats. Lately we’ve had a lizard that gets right up to the kitchen window and seems to taunt the cats. Oh, he is lucky the cats can’t get outside. They get in their pounce position, swish their rear ends, and there’s a lot of gurgling and deep sounds coming from those cats.

Yesterday Cajun Stitchery was closed. I attended a photo shoot for the Krewe of Nereids’ Splash party. Our Queen was in her beautiful Ariel costume, standing on a ladder in 7 feet of water. The rest of us were attired, shall we say, in various fashions, and seated around the pool, behind our Queen. Don’t miss this photo. It will be in the next issue of the Island Times. I’m the one in the yellow rain hat.

After the photo shoot we retired to the bar, where we entertained the morning customers with song and conversation. We toasted many people and had a thoroughly enjoyable time. George had to come get me and take me home. We retrieved my car this morning. Apparently several of the girls continued to party throughout the day. I know that I had some unusual voice mails on my cell phone this morning.

Christmas is coming and customers are starting to do their Christmas shopping at Cajun Stitchery. Get this out of the way as soon as you can.

All of our projects can be seen on our blog at www.cajunstitchery.blogspot.com. We post periodically throughout the week. Become a “friend” on the blog and never miss a post.

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 spotted Thibodeaux walking down the levee the other day, carrying a sack over his shoulder. Well, of course, curiosity got the best of Boudreaux, and he asked Thibodeaux, "Hey, Mon Homme, what you got in dat sack ?"

Thibodeaux said, "Mais, I got me some chickens in dat sack."

Boudreaux asked, "If I can guess how many chickens you got in dat sack, can I have one of dem?"

Thibodeaux replied, "Mais, my fren, if you can guess how many I got, you can have both of dem!"

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French phrase of the week: Tu vas pas te marier avec lui! C'est de la crasse pure! (You're not going to marry him! He's pure trash!)

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From: http://mind-mart.com/herbs-for-health-articles/herbal-poultices-and-compresses

Onion all by itself is excellent to use as a poultice for soreness, swelling and bruises. In the case of an ear ache, cut an onion in half and make hash marks across the top to release the juice. Put it in the oven for a few minutes to heat up. Place the onion on the affected ear for as long as possible or until the pain subsides.

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, August 5, 2010)

Sale: Ladies Scoop Neck Tee with name or initials = $15.00 plus tax/shipping

Anvil - #641

Ladies Scoop Neck Tee

Colors: azalea, black, Caribbean blue, chocolate, charity pink, frost pink, heather grey, hot pink, key lime, mountain rose, navy, violet, white, yellow haze

5.4 oz. 100% cotton, (heather grey is 90% cotton/10% polyester) pre-shrunk, bound-on self trim around neck, double-needle sleeve & bottom hem.

Wedding Handkerchiefs and Benefits of Ammonia

We have an order via Etsy for three of the polka dot handkerchiefs with embroidered lace.  They are for a wedding later in August.  The bride wants poems and writings on each of them.  One for the bride's mother; one for the groom's mother; and one for the godmother.  The bride likes the modern feel of these hankies.  She also chose a font that I've never had anyone choose before, Bickley Script.  I don't think I would have chosen that font, but, as it turns out, it really looks nice.  The writing is teeny tiny, which is difficult for embroidery.  We have gone through all of the steps and today should be the final stitch out on the handkerchiefs. 

One of the pleasantries of this business is all of the nice people you meet.  This little bride has been so sweet.  She originally convo'ed me on Etsy asking if I could embroider a poem on a hanky.  We worked together throughout the process to assure that she gets exactly what she wants.  There have been many practice stitch-outs.  We chose the color of thread, placement of the embroidery, choice of font, which hanky should go to whom, and even delivery choices.  She lives in Illinois.  I know embroidery is not something that will bring about world peace but in a small way, it does put a smile on the recipient's face when they get a creation that they had a hand in creating and it turned out beautiful.  Okay, it puts a smile on my face, too.

We tried an experiment the other day.  You are supposed to use vinegar in your laundry.  I thought it helped clean and whiten.  We had a stack of old, dingy, white shop rags and washed some as usual.  Then we soaked the others in vinegar for about 15 to 30 minutes and washed them.  Neither was any whiter, but the vinegar rags sure came out soft.

Well, we love experiments over here and I recently read about ammonia.  Ever since I started keeping my own house, I always knew to make sure we had plenty of vinegar, peroxide, baking soda, and ammonia.  The vinegar, peroxide and baking soda is used around here for a multitude of tasks.  The lonely ammonia bottle would sit for years unopened.  I knew that if someone fainted, I could always bring out the ammonia but no one faints around this house.  When I read the ammonia article a week or so ago and posted about it, I went looking for my bottle of ammonia.  Apparetly, through the years we got rid of it.  We bought a new bottle and last night put it to the test.  The article, and indeed, the ammonia bottle instructions, said to put a cup of ammonia in a container, put it in the oven, and let it sit overnight.  The ammonia is supposed to loosen all of the grime and you just wipe it clean.  My oven is one of those with a lock.  You lock it and turn it on clean and the temperature rises to an astronomical degree and then turns off and the oven is clean.  I did that a few times when the oven was new.  Somehow over the years it got really dirty and I went to clean it one time and I was afraid that the house would burn down.  So, I turned it off and haven't used it since.   That oven  was filthy.  We put the cup of ammonia in the oven last night and when we opened it this morning, nothing looked any different.  Oh well, another experiment that didn't work.  But, I took a damp rag and started wiping the oven and that gunk started coming off.  I think it's going to take a few ammonia evenings to get everything in there clean, but I was amazed at how much a simple wipe with a damp rag removed.

The next experiment is going to be fertilizer.  The article said that ammonia combined with water makes the best fertilizer.  We'll see.  That will be a hard one to determine.  It's not an overnight experiment and our garden looks beautiful but it is time to fertilize.

Stay tuned....

Monday, Monday, So Good To Me

The lyrics to the song "Monday, Monday" by the Mamas and the Papas many years ago.  It's a real good song.  Welcome to Monday everyone; the start of a fresh new week.  The laundry is done.  The lawn is too wet to mow.  Monday is planning day to plan for the week ahead.

This weekend was intended to be time off from work.  Since embroidery is work and play over here, it's hard to determine what is and isn't work. 

Several years ago a dear friend was lost to breast cancer.  With the recent news of another precious friend  diagnosed with breast cancer, emotions have sunk.  Luckily the cancer was caught very early and the literature seems to believe that early detection can be cured.  How to deal with the sinking heart?  Embroidery.  Boudreaux has been stitching out pink ribbons all weekend.  The ribbons will be included in each purchase from Cajun Stitchery.

Pensacola Beach was going to be the destination for the weekend but then the rain came.  It's supposed to rain today and tomorrow but there is a cheeseburger at Paradise that is beckoning. 

The Mystic Krewe of Nereids SPLASH party visors, ponytail caps, and ball caps are done with the exception of 6 visors.  New, more Boudreaux friendly visors must be purchased but that will wait until we know how many pink visors to purchase.  Don't miss this party at Paradise Bar & Grill on August 21st beginning at 3 p.m, Pensacola Beach, FL.

Cajun Stitchery had a staff meeting over the weekend to discuss the upcoming Arts & Wine Festival in October.  Learning from last year, this year there will be a banner so festival goers will be able to distinguish which booth is Cajun Stitchery.  Additionally, there will be a better marquis for the prices and items.  Cajun Stitchery's offerings will be different this year from the ones last year.  There are lots of ideas floating around.  More on the festival later. 

Right now is Christmas in July at the Cajun Stitchery Etsy Store.  There are sales but you need to click the item to see which is on sale.  All of the prices are so reasonable that they could all be considered a sale.

It is also time to be thinking about back-to-school items.  A couple of duffle bags are expected today that will be personalized.  Cajun Stitchery offers personalized name tags and personalized patches, most are around $5 but it depends on how many stitches are in the design.  Get in touch with Cajun Stitchery and you can get a quote.

C'est toute, mes amis.

Cajun Corner - Vol. 2, No. 28

Cajun Corner – Vol. 2, No. 28 – July 23, 2010


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

ΘΘΘΘΘ

Don’t forget to visit our blog at www.cajunstitchery.blogspot.com and www.cajunstitchery.etsy.com often.

This week George has been embroidering caps, visors, and more caps for the upcoming Mystic Krewe of Nereids Splash Party on August 21st at Paradise Bar & Grill, beginning at 3 p.m. We have found one type of visor that our machine simply does not want to embroider on and will, therefore, have to replace those visors. When we first started learning about cap embroidery, one of the articles that we read said that different machines had different quirks and to find the caps that your machine handles well and avoid the ones that your machine just doesn’t want to embroider. The only way you know is to try. These visors are anti-Boudreaux.

Aside from caps, caps and more caps, we did an Etsy blitz this week. One day we listed several items, one right after another. Then two days later we listed a couple more items. We got visitors. We got hearts. This morning I found that 3 of our items were used in 3 different treasuries on Etsy. Those are all good things. Two of the treasuries listed red lips smiley hankies in the pin stripe which was very encouraging to me. I’ve been noticing that I’m seeing more pin striped, ticking type designs lately. Maybe that is coming into vogue.

A surprise with the red lips design is that the zipper lips don’t get as many visitors as the smiles. And I think that’s exactly the reason. The zipper lips are not smiling. Just goes to prove that smiles attract people and frowns repel people.

Last night I changed the prices on several of our Etsy items. It’s our Christmas in July sale. Maybe this is the wrong way to go about doing it but I didn’t specify which items are for sale. Once you click on the item, it says it’s on sale but you have to click on the item first. I was thinking about having some sort of contest but I haven’t quite figured that one out yet.

After our last Cajun Corner, I received an order for 2 of the duffle bags. The customer said she was giving them to her children for back to school. Oh my! Is it that time already? Yes, it is. Start thinking about everything you need to purchase for your children for school. Do your children lose things? Mine sure did. Have their names embroidered on the items. You know that Cajun Stitchery can do patches. Get several patches with your child’s name embroidered and glue the patches onto their items.

Mama used to make us book covers for all of our books. They were not only handy because we could stick papers and pens in the slot the book cover created but there was no mistaking whose book that was. If Mama had had an embroidery machine, I’m sure our names would have been on each of those book covers. The problem with this is that each book is a different size, so there is no OSFA (one size fits all) and therefore, each book cover would have to be customized. But a name patch would work just fine.

We are getting geared up for the Arts & Wine Festival this year. The Cajun Stitchery staff has had meetings lately on what we plan to bring to the Festival. Ooooh, I’m excited.

The camellia napkins were a great hit. My friend is bringing them to her friends tomorrow. We did order the fingertip towels but haven’t received them yet.

I contacted a new wholesaler this week. During my telephone conversation with the nice lady at the company, she mentioned that she didn’t understand why customers didn’t use their free website option more. What they do is Cajun Stitchery gets a free website with the company’s catalog. This allows the customer to browse the catalog and see what is in stock and the prices. The customer can actually purchase items right there. It’s connected to PayPal. Our website is www.companycasuals.com/cajunstitchery. It is very new and I’m sure there are glitches to it, but try it out and browse around and see if you like it. Let me know what does not work, what you like, what you do not like, and I’ll try to tweak the site.

Christmas is coming and customers are starting to do their Christmas shopping at Cajun Stitchery. Get this out of the way as soon as you can.

We are still getting the bell peppers and green beans from the garden. Yummy. It’s time to start planning the fall garden.

This week was not all fun and games. One of the original krewe members passed away. I had only met her once or twice but liked her immediately. She had battled brain cancer for ten years and it finally won. It is sad that she is gone but good that she no longer has to endure a painful battle.

On another sad note, one of my most precious friends has found that she has breast cancer. The good thing is that it was detected very early and although she requires treatment, she should come through without any problems.

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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From Marshall Larrivere:

One day, Boudreaux was walking down Main Street when he saw his buddy Thibodeaux driving a brand new pickup.

Boudreaux pulled up to him with a wide grin.

"Thibodeaux", where'd you git that truck?'

'Tammie give it to me.' Thibodeaux replied.

'She give it to ya?

I know'd she wuz kinda sweet on ya, but a new truck?'

'Well, Boudreaux, let me tell you what happened.

We wuz drivin' out on County Road 6, in the middle of nowheres.

Tammie pulled off the road, put the truck in 4-wheel drive, and headed into the woods.

She parked the truck, got out, threw off all her clothes and said,

"Thibodeaux", take whatever you want.'

So I took the truck!'

"Thibodeaux", you a smart man! Them clothes woulda never fit you!'

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French phrase of the week: Je crois qu'ils vont se fiancer pour Noël. (I think they're going to get engaged at Christmas.)

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From: http://www.all4naturalhealth.com/herbs-for-cancer.html

Often underestimated because it is common, garlic is the number one anti-bacterial, anti-viral, anti-fungal, and anti-parasitical herb. If something in the body needs killing, garlic is the herb for the job. Garlic is so powerful that people have killed their cancer from eating garlic alone.

If you have cancer, you need to be eating a minimum of 3-5 cloves of raw garlic per day. Eight cloves per day is a minimum if you are deathly ill.

Garlic is an herb that you cannot take too much of. Dr Richard Schulze, the master herbalist and successful natural healer, strongly advocates the liberal use of garlic to aid and strengthen the body. He has even gone as far as to say that if he is to use only one program or food for healing, it would be garlic. That’s how powerful garlic can be as an herbal remedy for cancer.

Garlic is truly one of the most powerful herbs for cancer fighting, as well as battling other diseases. When you are seriously ill, then the more garlic you are eating, the better. If you have cancer, you are best off eating 8, 12, 16, 20, or even more cloves per day. Having reeking garlic breath is a small price to pay for beating cancer.

It is critical you use high quality organic garlic which is potent and raw. Organically grown garlic usually has stronger health properties.

Quality garlic is hard, and its cloves are white. A good quality bulb of garlic will have around 12, large cloves, with each clove being around an inch long and as thick as an adult’s thumb. Garlic which has many small cloves (as many as 30 to 50) as well as being yellowish in color is usually of inferior quality.

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, July 29, 2010)

Sale: Multi Color Tie Dye Adult Tee + name or initials = $21.00 + tax/shipping

Hanes - #T1001

Multi Color Tie Dye Adult Tee

Colors: blue jerry, blue ocean, eclipse, eternity, evening sky, flag, fluorescent swirl, galaxy, moondance, neon rainbow, rasta blue, reactive rainbow, Saturn, spiral blue/lavender, spiral pink/lt pink, spiral royal/red, spiral purple/lt purple, spiral yellow/blue, spiral yellow/orange, wild spider, Woodstock,

5.2 oz. 100% ComfortSoft� cotton. Double-needle coverseamed neck. Taped shoulder-to-shoulder. Double-needle sleeve & bottom hem.

Yes, Another Website

This has been an interesting week.  I made some more handkerchiefs and began making the scarves that I promised.  Yesterday, after not listing anything on Etsy for about 10 days, we listed several items in a blitz.  No sales so far but a lot of fun.  I put the red lips on several items.  Surprisingly, yet maybe not so surprising, the zipper lips on a hanky received very few visitors compared to the other items.  Why?  I think it is because the zipper lips were not smiling and the others were.  I'm telling you that smiles are contagious.  Most of the hankies that were posted were made using the new pin striped fabric with the red lip designs.  Wouldn't you know it, as soon as I listed the hanky with the black polka dots, it seemed like everyone went there.  And I have so little of that fabric remaining.  Ouch!  I looked for that fabric when we went on the fabric binge  recently and didn't find it.  Something else sort of surprised me, pleasantly.  I listed a long scarf, black with white polka dots, and the lace embroidered doves and butterflies, and received lots of visitors on that.  I'm not sure if that's because it's a new item for us or because of the scarf, itself. 

You never know what people like at any given time.  The polka dots, for instance, is retro and has been in vogue for a few years now.  You'd think that it would be coming to an end but, I don't believe that is the case.  Just like the red lips embroidery design, I have a set of designs for eyes that I have wanted to embroider.  Eyes are the window to your soul.  I wonder if they would be as big a hit as the red lips?  The red pops out on the black and white, where the eyes would not be such a contrasting color, unless the fabric was the bright color.  Hmmm, I'll have to think on that.

As much fun as I have, and will continue to have, playing the Etsy game, something else occurred this week.  There is a wholesaler in the U.S. that I keep hearing about.  I use a lot of different wholesalers for different things.  One main wholesaler that I use is Virginia T's.  VAT for short.  They are a wonderful company and I've been with them from the beginning.  As their name suggests this is where I usually get our t-shirts and polo shirts, etc.  They carry the apparel, but also some caps, towels, aprons, bags, etc.  I read a lot of forums and professional magazines and one name keeps surfacing -- Sanmar.  They sell the same type things as VAT but when someone is looking for something specific, the response is usually to call Sanmar, they have everything.  So, I thought it would probably be a good thing for me to sign up with Sanmar.  I tried last fall but every time I gave them information they requested, they wanted more.  It finally became a hassel and since I'm so pleased with VAT, I dropped the issue.  Sometimes VAT doesn't have the colors that I need, or they are out of stock of an item, and I do want another place where I can go that does the same thing and may have different colors.   So, I started the ball rolling again with Sanmar.  I was jumping through hoop after hoop until finally the last hoop was that I needed to call them on the phone to register.  I did this yesterday and must say that these are very nice people.  After I registered, the lady and I were talking and she said she didn't understand why more customers didn't use their free catelog web site. 

Well, one thing turned into another thing.  She put me through to the tech department and voila, Cajun Stitchery has another website but this one has the Sanmar catelog.  I'm still trying to figure this thing out but you are welcome to go look.  The website is www.companycasuals.com/cajunstitchery.  This website allows our customers to look through the catelog and purchase whatever they like.

I still have to figure out the flow.  If you go to the website and, let's say, you want to buy an apron.  You can chose the apron and put it in your cart.  I think once you decide to purchase, the cart comes to me.  This is where I need to learn more.  Some of their stuff is pricey; others not.  Of course, purchasing this way has an added cost for shipping.  I usually recover the shipping costs in the cost of the item.  So, this would be a little bit different.  Somehow you pay through Paypal, something else I have to work out.  Of course, this is only one company and if you don't see what you want there, or you want to find out if we can get an item cheaper elsewhere, you can always contact me and I'll look around at VAT or wherever.

C'est toute, mes amis:>)

All People Smile In The Same Language

Happy Monday, everyone.  As you know, Cajun Stitchery offers service with a smile.  I love smiles and I know the power of a smile.  This morning I ran across a quote, "All people smile in the same language," Proverb.  I love that quote.  So, I digitized it and put it in stitches -- the medium that I understad:>)

It was kind of an odd weekend.  The sleep schedule remains an issue and I've slept on and off all weekend but this morning I awoke at 6 a.m. and feel very rested.  I certainly hope that's  a good sign.

A couple of our customers purchased several items in the last couple of weeks and I happened to mention to each of them that it's as though they are trying to win the customer of the year award.  Both of them liked that and have re-ordered.  Hmmmm.  Maybe we should have a customer of the year award, but then I'd feel bad for all of our good customers who didn't win.

This weekend I began working on the scarves that I've been talking about for awhile.  None of the scarves are finished but when they are, they will be listed on Etsy.

Also, this weekend the camellia napkins, all 12 of them, were completed.  They really turned out nice and will be delivered on Wednesday.

The Hookers napkins were so much fun, especially creating the design.  They are completed and should be mailed today.

In our stash of stock designs a leopard print font jumped out at me.  I played around with it and did some stitching and there are some very interested people out there.  I need to do more with the leopard font.

The new tricot fabric, black with the white dots, has perplexed me.  I like the fabric a lot.  The problem is that when I embroider the lace designs on it, it just doesn't look right to me.  After staring at it for quite awhile I realized the problem.  Differing from the white fabric with the black dots, the tricot fabric has tiny dots fairly close together, compared to the white fabric with the black dots.  The lace has tiny stitches.  There is too much tiny going on.  Not to mention that black makes things look smaller.  That fabric is going to require something solid.  That poses another problem because the fabric is so lightweight that it won't hold heavy designs well.  I'm working on it and have a few ideas.

A lady friend of mine told me sometime ago that she doesn't like the generic t-shirts.  It doesn't look feminine and she doesn't like the neckline.  It's so tight.  I agree.  The problem is that women's t-shirts are so much more expensive than men's or generic.  That's a pet peeve.  The polo shirts, for instance, can be exactly the same for men and women with the one difference of the direction of the buttons, but women's polo shirts are more expensive than men's.  Why is that?  There isn't any more difficulty in making one than the other.  Anyway, I took a design that I've looked at for awhile and embroidered onto an old t-shirt and my vision was correct.  The design was a beautiful feminine neckline.  How do I explain this?  It's the neckline of a blouse.  Anyway, once embroidered onto the old t-shirt, I cut away the excess and voila, the shirt has a new, very feminine neckline.  It won't ravel because of the embroidery.  I need to play with this idea some more.  Pictures will be later.  This isn't the type of thing that you would hire Cajun Stitchery to do.  The embroidery and re-doing the shirt would be more expensive than the shirt is worth.  But if you like to sew or embroider, this would definitely be a really cool way of changing the look of your old generic t-shirts.  And it's so easy.  Even if you don't have an embroidery machine, this can be done by creating your own necklines on your shirt, cutting and hemming.  Always add some bling, if not embroidery, then beads, rhinestones or sequins.  Feel free to email me questions and we can work through the problems together.

C'est toute, mes amis

Cajun Corner - Vol. 2, No.27

Cajun Corner – Vol. 2, No. 27 – July 17, 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.

I almost made it on time this week. I hope my lack of consistency caused everyone to go to the blog and look at the new photographs that we posted this week.

Did you hear that the Deepwater Horizon well may be capped? Say a prayer that it truly is capped and the flow of oil into the Gulf has completely stopped.

I haven’t listed anything on Etsy in over a week. Unbelievable! You know why? Because we’ve had so much work that I haven’t had time for those little creative items. That’s a good thing but I still need to tend to the Etsy store. My latest idea is that I need to list several items in one day. I am pleased that even though I haven’t listed anything new, there are still visitors each day – although those numbers are dwindling now.

After our last Cajun Corner, I did get an email from our friendly Island Times lady who told me that the Arts & Wine Festival is on for this year. Yippee!!! Cajun Stitchery better get going on creating enough stock to satisfy the hoards of people that we know will be dropping by our booth.

The bags that we ordered came in and we filled an order for a wonderful friend and customer. She ordered two bags and two sets of pillowcases. One set of pillowcases was for her elderly mother who loves the color pink. We put her name, Sally, and pink butterflies all over the ends of the pillowcases. They turned out beautiful. In fact, the entire order turned out lovely and we’ve enjoyed the praises from our customer – keep it up Lynn. I tease her and tell her she’s trying to win the best customer of the year award. You know, I probably should create such an award but oh those poor losers. (Snicker, snicker)

The 4 dozen caps also arrived and George, the cap man, has been working on those. Those caps are going on sale for the August 21st Mystic Krewe of Nereids SPLASH party at Paradise Bar & Grill on Pensacola Beach. If you are in the area, please make a point of joining us. Support our local businesses, please.

Another fun order was for the red lips designs. The customer ordered a hanky with regular red lips. Then she ordered another hanky with red lips and a zipper closing the lips. Those red lip designs are a hoot. To fill the order, we have to do a stitch out. A stitch out is using some fabric and stitching out the design to make sure nothing goes askew before we do the final stitch out on the end product for the customer. The practice stitch outs for the red lips went on a piece of white, sheer fabric that ended up kind of cute. I took it to my Wednesday girl’s night and one of my friends snatched that up in a hurry. Ha! It was only scrap, but she loves it.

For our red lips customer, we also embroidered a golf towel. I’ve seen golf towels for sale but since I don’t know anything about golf or what is needed for golf, I never paid much attention. This customer wanted one of our hand towels, with a grommet in one corner, and a name in the opposing corner. When she said it was a golf towel, I told her that I have lots of golf designs, in fact, I have a golf font. Once she saw the golf font, she was sold.

Another bag that came with last week’s order was for a diaper bag a customer wants to give for a baby shower present. The customer copied the picture that her friend had of the baby’s logo off of Facebook. It certainly was not a clear picture because there was a glare that just about covered the picture, but that’s what we had. I digitized a few designs and one was chosen. She has also ordered a baby sling to be shipped to Cajun Stitchery for the same logo to be embroidered. The diaper bag was finished last night but I haven’t had a chance to show the picture to the customer. I’ll post the picture once I let the customer see it.

This same customer, who I think is also trying to win the best customer of the year award, ordered some more napkins. She told me that the couple to be wed has maroon and forest green colors in their kitchen and they are the Hookers. My instructions were to use those colors and come up with a design. Of course, there’s the obvious. One night I went through literally thousands of designs looking for simple designs of anything that hooks. My first thought was fishing, a lure. I finally gave her three designs: one was The Hookers and a fishing lure; one was The Hookers and several hooking devices; and the last was The Hookers and a very fancy lady. She chose the one with the hooking devices. I tweaked that design a bit to make it more symmetrical and voila, we had our design. Those napkins were embroidered today. The customer has not seen them yet but the pictures will be posted after they are sent to the customer.

Another customer wanted three sets of four white napkins with a pink camellia and one set with a P, another with a K, and the last with a C. This customer also inquired about finger towels. You know, the little hand towels with the fringe on the end. We didn’t have any in stock so we began looking for them. Wal-Mart didn’t have them, nor did Dollar Tree, Target, Beall’s, or Big Lots. A wholesaler had them and we ordered the minimum shipment, which means that we are going to have lots of finger towels for sale at Cajun Stitchery. I couldn’t believe that we couldn’t find finger towels anywhere. If you need finger towels and can’t find them, when this shipment arrives, we’ll have them. It’s a new wholesaler for us and we’ll see how punctual they are.

Christmas is coming and customers are starting to do their Christmas shopping at Cajun Stitchery. It is a very good idea to get this out of the way early.

Our sleep schedule remains messed up. This is partly the reason Cajun Corner is so late this week.

We are still getting the bell peppers and green beans from the garden. Yummy.

Today I stitched out something that I’ve wanted to do for awhile – our leopard font. It is really cool. It still needs a bit of tweaking before I want to offer it for sale but, I took my stitch outs to my girls last night and did get a lot of ooooohs and awwwwws. There is also the zebra font that I’ve never tested.

Speaking of the girls, we had a wonderful Nereid meeting last night. Those girls are so supportive but we can fight like cats and dogs, too. The bottom line is that we are all like sisters and it’s wonderful. Everyone should have a group of friends that stick together through thick and thin. I adore all of these women but shhhhhh; please don’t tell them because it will go straight to their already inflated heads.

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 were walking through the woods the other day, when a flying saucer landed near them. A door opened, and two little green aliens climbed down out of the spacecraft.

Thibodeaux turned to Boudreaux, "Mais, look at dat. What you tink dat is?"

Boudreaux, aiming his shotgun at the little space critters, replied, "Thibodeaux, I don' know, but you hurry back to de camp, put on de rice pot, and start makin' a roux!

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French phrase of the week: Quand tu vois des bourgeons sus les pacaniers, c'est un signe qu'on aura p'us de gelées. (When you see buds on the pecan trees, it's a sign that there will be no more freezes.)

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Ammonia: You learn something new all of the time. I did not know this. Notice the dates.

From Wikipedia

Ammonia was used during World War II to power buses in Belgium, and in engine and solar energy applications prior to 1900. Liquid ammonia was used as the fuel of the rocket airplane, the X-15. Although not as powerful as other fuels, it left no soot in the reusable rocket engine and its density approximately matches the density of the oxidizer, liquid oxygen, which simplified the aircraft's design.

Ammonia has been proposed as a practical alternative to fossil fuel for internal combustion engines.[35] The calorific value of ammonia is 22.5 MJ/kg (9690 BTU/lb) which is about half that of diesel. In a normal engine, in which the water vapour is not condensed, the calorific value of ammonia will be about 21% less than this figure. It can be used in existing engines with only minor modifications to carburetors/injectors.

To meet these demands, significant capital would be required to increase present production levels. Although the second most produced chemical, the scale of ammonia production is a small fraction of world petroleum usage. It could be manufactured from renewable energy sources, as well as coal or nuclear power. It is however significantly less efficient than batteries. The 60 MW Rjukan dam in Telemark, Norway produced ammonia via electrolysis of water for many years from 1913 producing fertilizer for much of Europe. If produced from coal, the CO2 can be readily sequestrated [35][36] (the combustion products are nitrogen and water). In 1981 a Canadian company converted a 1981 Chevrolet Impala to operate using ammonia as fuel.[37][38]

Ammonia engines or ammonia motors, using ammonia as a working fluid, have been proposed and occasionally used [39]. The principle is similar to that used in a fireless locomotive, but with ammonia as the working fluid, instead of steam or compressed air. Ammonia engines were used experimentally in the 19th century by Goldsworthy Gurney in the UK and in streetcars in New Orleans in the USA.

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, July 22, 2010)

Sale:

Recycled Large Round Barrel Duffle with initials embroidered = $20.00

Liberty Bags - #8806

Recycled Large Round Barrel Duffle

Colors: black, forest, navy, red, royal blue

50% recycled 600 denier. 23 1/2"W x 11 1/2"H x 11"D. Adjustable/detachable shoulder strap and attached diagonal web handles. Zippered main compartment with rain cover and front zipper pocket. Color matched hardware.

Trying to Sleep

This entry will probably be short and sweet.  I'm late getting to my Wednesday post and here it is after midnight and that makes my Wednesday post on Thursday.

We are simply having a horrible time getting into regular sleeping habits.  So, I need to get to bed and at least try to sleep.

We have had some really fun and interesting orders lately and I have a few ideas on some new items.  So, stay tuned. 

I have a request to come up with some napkin designs for a couple about to be married.  They will be the Hookers.  Oh my goodness.  I don't like to give just one design, but rather several for the customer to choose.  This will be fun.  I already have a few ideas and designs set aside.  I hope to start putting the designs together tomorrow.  You won't want to miss this.

George has been working hard on our new Mystic Krewe of Nereids caps for our upcoming Splash party.  He needs to do 48 in all.  They are really pretty.

Sorry for such a short post, but I'm going to try and sleep now.

C'est tout, mes amis.