Saturday, May 19, 2012

Cajun Corner - Vol. 4, No. 19



Cajun Corner – Vol. 4, No. 19 – May 19, 2012



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.   We are also on Twitter and Facebook. 

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We’ve been working a bit on our Etsy Store this week and it has begun to pay off.  Two handkerchiefs were sold.  Each sale, of course, has a different story. 

The first one was a black and white handkerchief made from a cotton blend fabric with a white background and black spots.  One corner was embroidered separately and attached.  Two of this type of hanky was in our stock; each one had a different corner design.  When the order was placed, the handkerchief stock was searched; the black and white hanky was located and mailed out.  A day later the hanky that was ordered was in a stack of handkerchiefs in a box.  Uh-oh, the wrong hanky was mailed.  An email was immediately sent to the customer with our apologies and the correct hanky was then mailed.  The customer ended up with two handkerchiefs for the price of one, but it was our mistake.  The customer never responded to my emails.  We can only hope that they are okay with this.

The second handkerchief sale came as a real surprise.  It was the blue lace handkerchief that was made last week and listed.  This is the fastest turn around that Cajun Stitchery has ever experienced.  Apparently handkerchiefs are a popular item.

A tutorial of sorts was posted on our blog this week on the making of a handkerchief in the embroidery machine.  The handkerchief has been listed in our Etsy Store.  It used an animal print fabric with the heads of various African animals.  The head of a lion was framed with embroidery and turned into a handkerchief.  If you like animal prints and browns, this hanky is for you.

There is still a lot to do in our Etsy Store.  Many of the items have expired; some remain from Mother’s Day.  Since Memorial Day and July 4th are around the corner, more patriotic items need to be listed.  And on and on.

Last night the Mystic Krewe of Nereids celebrated another birthday.  Our gift, of course, was this year’s krewe beach towel.  Now that my Amaya technician is not here, I couldn’t figure out how to make the special background feature of the name repeating itself.  A few emails and telephone calls later and we were back on track.  Another beautiful mermaid has been presented.

A young lady contacted us last week about making a pillow for her anniversary.  She provided a picture of what she wanted.  The picture showed a pillow with “The” on one line, then “Johnsons” on the next line, then “Est.” and the anniversary date on a separate line at the bottom.  All of this was in a block type font.  In the background was a huge “J” in script.  The design was not a problem at all.  She approved it immediately.  But she asked if I could make the pillow.  I did suggest that she contact a seamstress because Cajun Stitchery does embroidery.  It just seemed so much trouble for such a simple item.  So, I did offer to make the pillow at my hourly rate.  She would be required to purchase the fabric and filling.  She purchased a dark brown fabric and we chose a light yellow and tan thread.  She was elated with the end result. 

This young lady, as well as several other people lately, said they found Cajun Stitchery via a Google search.  All of the internet work is finally paying off.

Tigger is still on his Prednisone and drooling profusely.  He is walking, eating and drinking, as usual.  However, when you look at him one eye has a slit for a pupil and the other pupil is wide open.  The Prednisone must be doing this.  His next veterinarian appointment is Monday.  There is a new lump and his purr sounds more like a dove cooing than a purr.

Sam the puppy has been spending a lot of time this week playing with Evie.  This is amazing because Evie is gentle but has always been fairly aggressive toward other dogs.  She is not aggressive towards Sam.  She plays until she is exhausted and lies down.  He is usually still running and jumping on and over here.  Sometimes she gets tired of playing and just runs for the back door while Sam is still following and playing.  The puppy has endless energy.

We are still harvesting broccoli, asparagus, lettuce and carrots.  Sadly, we don’t always eat them.  Tonight we are going to have salad with the vegetables from the garden.  Yum.  Rather than throwing up stalks of flowers, our garlic this year is growing and then the leaves turn brown.  We have garlic just no flowers.  The new beefsteak tomato plant is really growing.  I sure hope it produces big, sandwich sized tomatoes.  The little cherry tomatoes are fine and we love to grow them, but it would be nice to also have a nice, big tomato.

Friday was the WBL meeting.  I was so proud to announce to my friend, Dr. Roe that I’ve completely gotten off of the Sweet N Low at home and substituted our own, home grown, stevia.  The problem is that the stevia is sweet but has some bitterness.  After telling her that I still use the artificial sweetener when I go out to eat and I still drink Diet Coke, she said that plain processed sugar is better for me than those things because of all of the additives.  I was amazed.  I always thought sugar was about the worse thing you could eat.  She said it doesn’t have that many calories and no additives.  So, I have begun to use the stevia as normal, but adding less than a teaspoon full of sugar.  The bitterness is completely gone.  She also said that there are some studies that show that the artificial sweetener actually prevents some people from losing weight.  I wonder if that is why I can diet and diet and lose very little weight.  We will see how this goes.  Even though the stevia plant is a perennial, I’m going to propagate it and start giving it to friends.  This is a fabulous plant.

One of our granddaughters stopped by the other day on her way from Arkansas to Tampa.  She is the one who is carrying our great granddaughter, Makayla.  She could only stay for 30 minutes or so because she had to get home in time for work the next day.  It was so good to see her and her little belly.  She looks great and says she feels great, too.

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. 

I read an article the other day that I cannot find now.  So, I’ll summarize it.  
 
How to get rid of mosquitoes.
 
Mosquitoes (and ticks) are attracted to CO2.
We exhale CO2.  Hence, Mosquitoes and ticks are attracted to us.
Yeast also creates CO2.
 
Take 1 cup of sugar and 1 cup of water and boil until the sugar is completely dissolved.
 
Once the sugar is dissolved, take 2 cups of cool water to cool the sugar water down but still very warm.
 
Add a teaspoon of yeast to the mixture.
 
Take a plastic liter bottle and cut the top off where the plastic goes from straight up and down to beginning to curve inward for the spout.
 
Now you have the liter bottle in 2 pieces.
 
Put your sugar and yeast mixture into the bottom of the bottle.
 
Invert the top and tape or glue or somehow attach it to the other part of the bottle, creating a funnel.  Make sure there are no openings around the edges.
 
Put the bottle in a shady area.  The article mentioned that mosquitoes and ticks like dark and shade and suggested that you may even want to paint the bottle black, or cover with black construction paper.  
 
The mosquitoes and ticks are attracted by the CO2 and go into the funnel but cannot get out.
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Use a dustpan as a spout extender to fill up something that doesn't fit under the sink!

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C’est tout, mes amis



Peggy Henshall

Cajun Stitchery

(850) 261-2462




P.S.  You are always welcome to stop by and look at all of the catalogs and pass some time with me, cher.

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