Cajun Corner - Vol. 3, No. 9

Cajun Corner – Vol. 3, No. 9 – March 4, 2011


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

ΘΘΘΘΘ

Don’t forget to visit our catalog at www.companycasuals.com/cajunstitchery and www.cajunstitchery.etsy.com often.

It’s here. It’s time. This is Mardi Gras weekend. Get your purple, green and gold on and go have a good time. Our parade is on Pensacola Beach this Sunday beginning at 2 p.m. Pensacola’s parades are tonight and tomorrow. Monday is Red Beans & Rice on the beach and Tuesday night is the Krewe of Coma. There is no excuse not to have a wonderful time.

I know I carry on about Facebook. My friends tease me about how many Facebook friends I have – about 1500 now. The truth is that I have made some really good friends, not to mention business contacts, via Facebook. Several months ago I became friends with JoAnne Hall. We didn’t know each other personally at all. Then one day probably in January of this year or maybe early February, I mentioned my garden on Facebook. She replied that she is from Maine and was surprised that we garden in the winter. I sent the UF Dept. of Agriculture website with the gardening calendar. Ever since then we have briefly talked on Facebook. Nothing big, just good morning and have a nice day and so forth. Well, this week I met JoAnne Hall face-to-face. She needed some embroidery done and I was lucky enough to be the person she chose. She is an adorable person. I am so glad she is my friend. She is a massage therapist and owns her own business, Wellness Inc. Without Facebook, we would never have met.

Last weekend I pretty much lived at Krewe Den. Krewe Den is a marvelous concept. Among many other things, we have a calendar and each person selects a day to cook. It may be a group of people cooking or a single person. The point is that everyone is at Krewe Den working on costumes and floats and we get hungry. Last Sunday was the day our King Pierce and I were going to cook. Pierce had a turkey that he was given over the holidays and remained in his freezer. So, Pierce fried the turkey. I made green bean casserole, sweet potatoes and French bread. Judy brought her delicious jalapeno and cheese appetizer. The meal was a hit – in spite of my cooking.

I was taken with Judy’s casserole carrier. I’ve made casserole carriers before. This one was for a rectangular casserole dish and had dowel handles. I came home and wanted to make a casserole carrier. Of course, I found the instructions on the internet. I won’t go into detail about how I made the carrier. If you want to know, I posted a blog this week on just that. The casserole carrier is beautiful.

Last Friday another lady that I met on Facebook messaged me that she was going to a baby shower on Sunday and needed something unique for her gift. I don’t usually make baby or children things. I told her that we could go to Wal-Mart or any store and pick up a receiving blanket or whatever and I could embroidery the child’s name on it. I didn’t hear back from her. This incident made me start thinking that perhaps I should have a few baby items in stock for this type of request. I really would love for people to feel that they can come to Cajun Stitchery for those really unique, quickie gifts. All of that is to say that after I made the really cool casserole carrier, I still wanted to do projects. So, sure enough, I looked online and got instructions for baby bibs. Then it dawned on me that this is another way that I can use up this mountain of fabric that is insulating our home.

The reason I have avoided baby and children items is because there are stringent laws about what you can sell for babies and children. I know its all safety precautions but I’m not sure what information I have to have. The only things that go into a baby bib are fabric, stabilizer, thread and Velcro or snap or whatever closure you are going to use. Hope I don’t end up in prison over a baby bib.

The instructions that I found for the baby bib were from someone who is so in tuned to me. The lady’s blog said to take a box of baby cereal and place it on fabric; take a pen and draw around the box onto the fabric. Then take a coffee cup with the handle pointed up and draw around the coffee cup in the center of the upper half of the drawn box. Draw a line where the coffee cup handle is. Voila! You have the baby bib pattern. Cut it out of 2 pieces of fabric. Sew all the way around with a 3/8” seam, starting at the bottom center and stopping about 2” before the seam meets. Clip and trim the seam as applicable. Turn the bib through the 2” opening. Press and cover stitch all the way around. The final step is to attach the snaps, hooks, Velcro or whatever you are using as a closure. I used pink fabric and included a 3rd layer of stabilizer to add stability but also because I planned on putting some embroidery on the bib. I chose a motif about 4” square of a princess and her coach. It turned out really cute. Now I’m working on another bib. My plan is to make a few. List them on Etsy and if I get a message like I did last week, I’ll just tell them to go to the Etsy store and purchase what they like.

On top of all of this, I finally finished my friends white satin jacket. We have been planning this jacket forever. She wanted the words “Pensacola Native” embroidered over a design of the Blue Angels flying over the Pensacola Beach Ball Tower. That seems simple enough except that all of the pictures that I could find were tiny jpg. I started out with the Blue Angels and digitized from a decent sized photo of the Blue Angels. The photo had 4 planes. Nope, she wanted 6 planes. So, I added the additional 2 planes. Then I searched and searched for a photo of the beach ball tower at an angle appropriate to the angle of the digitized planes. I never could find that but I found something that had a better angle than other photos. The jpg that I used was so tiny that, once enlarged, the lines were barely recognizable. Nevertheless, it has taken months to do this design. I stitched it out this week and it’s ready for delivery. When JoAnne Hall was here yesterday, she saw the jacket and absolutely loved it. In fact, she insisted that I post photographs of the jacket on Facebook, which I have done.

Anyone who has ordered from me knows that Cajun Stitchery always includes a lagniappe with your order. Sometimes it’s merely some candy; other times it a little more substantial. This week George went out and bought 100 packets of seeds which are going to be lagniappe items. Everyone should have a garden. If not a garden, just plant flowers in a pot.

Poor George has been suffering with a bad tooth since last Friday. Today was his second visit to the dentist and he goes again next week. He is on all kinds of antibiotics and has missed so much of our festivities. Hopefully, he will be able to join us this weekend.

My friends, Patrice and Will, should be arriving tomorrow from Pennsylvania to join with our krewe for the parade. They will be staying the week and I am just delighted.

Also, next week, my cousin Kim from California will be visiting. We have never met face-to-face and, again, I’m excited about her visit.

This weekend and until next Wednesday will be consumed with Mardi Gras, but the most exciting thing is that yesterday, March 3rd, was Cajun Stitchery’s 2nd Anniversary. Can you believe that Cajun Stitchery has been in business for 2 whole years? My precious friend and CPA, Dale Jones, did our taxes this week and Cajun Stitchery actually turned a profit in 2010. It was small but we’re in the black, which is better than the U.S. Government. I’m so pleased. I figured that it takes about 5 years to determine if you have a viable business. You don’t even expect to show a profit until the 5th year. This may be a fluke but I looking at it as though this is just the beginning of my new embroidery career. We won’t get to celebrate this anniversary until after next week because so much is going on. But we will celebrate – that’s for sure.

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.

Thanks to Paulette Provost for the following:

Louisiana Declares War on the USA . ONLY IN LOUISIANA !!!!!!!

>President Barack Obama was in the Oval Office when his telephone rang.

>

>"Hello, Mr.President Obama," in a heavily accented Cajun voice said.

>"Dis' is Boudreaux, down here at Slim's in Kinder, I am callin' to tell

>y'all that we declaring war on ya!"

>"Well Boudreaux," Barack replied, "This is indeed important news! How

>big is your army?"

>"Right now," said Boud, "dere's myself, my brother-in-law Thib, my

>next-door-neighbor Bubba, and a few other gator huntn' buddies. Dat

>makes eight!"

>Barack paused. "I must tell you Boudreaux that I have one million men

>in my army waiting to move on my command."

>"Wow," said Boudreaux. " call ya back!"

>Sure enough, the next day, Boud called again.

>"Mr Obama, de war is on! We got us some infantry equipment!"

>"And what equipment would that be Boudreaux?" Barack asked.

>"We got us two combines, couple of 4 wheelers, a piroque, and Thib's

>John Deere.

>

>President Obama sighed. "I must tell you Boudreaux, that I have 16,000

>tanks and 14,000 armored personnel carriers. Also I've increased my army

>to one and a half million since we last spoke." "Lord above", said Boud,

>"be getting back to ya." Sure enough, Boudreaux rang again the next day.

>"President Obama, de war is still on! We got ourselves airborne! Bubba fixed

>his ultra-lite wit couple of shotguns in de cockpit, and four vets from the

>VFW signed up!"

>

>Barack was silent for a minute then cleared his throat. "I must tell

>you Boudreaux that I have 10,000 bombers and 20,000 fighter planes. My

>military complex is surrounded by laser-guided, surface-to-air missile sites.

>And since we last spoke, I've increased my army to TWO MILLION!"

>"Oh Lord," said Boud, "Call you back."

>

>Sure enough, Boudreaux called again the next day. "President Obama!

>sorry to tell you dat we have called off de war." "I'm sorry to hear that"

>said Barack. "Why the sudden change of heart?"

>

>Well, sir," said Boudreaux, "we all sat down and had a long chat over a

>few beers, and come to think that there's just no way our wives can make

>enough gumbo to feed two million prisoners.."

>LOUISIANA CONFIDENCE CANNOT BE SHAKEN!!

>If you are a REALLY FROM LOUISIANA OR EVER LIVED HERE,

>you won't even need to be told to pass this on.

>GOD BLESS LOUISIANA...

French Phrase of the Week: Laissez les bons temps rouler (Let the good times roll)

===============================================

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.