4th of July Party - Food Tent - Creating a Design

Several years back I found the cutest food tent at Dollar Tree.  I have kicked myself for years for not buying several of these food tents.  It opens like an umbrella without the handle.  You open it and put it over your food to keep the flies and bugs off of the dish.  When you need to store it, it closes just like an umbrella.  Not to mention it is red, white and blue. 

Since our 4th of July Party "Under the Live Oak" is outside, we need a means of keeping the flies and bugs off of the food.  As mentioned in the earlier post on this party, we do have the canopy tent, tables and tablecloth.  Now we need something to cover the food.  I began doing searches on the internet for ideas and tutorials on food tents.  The searches revealed a lot of big, regular tents with food inside.  That's not what I wanted.  Finally, there were some food tents like I want when you begin searching for camping and supplies.  Still there weren't a lot.  Pinterest has become my source for so many things these day.  A search in Pinterest for food tents brought up a wealth of food tent ideas.  Of course, I plan on making our's.  Even Pinterest didn't help much with tutorials.  One tutorial that I found was cute.  It was simply a square of tulle or netting with 6" binding on all four sides and weighted with metal washers.  The food tent is flat like a napkin to go over the dish.  I really don't want something that touches the food.  I do want something where you can see the food, so, any kind of solid fabric was out.  I did like the idea of the binding and the washers, though.  It actually reminded me that when Mama used to make curtains, she would tape a bunch of bb's in masking tape and sew into the corner of the hems to weight the curtain down to keep them from curling.  The food tent would need something to hold it down and this is a great idea -- blast from the past.


Netting or tulle would be good, but George felt that it was not sturdy enough.  Men!  Everything has to be tough and durable.  However, since we are outside and there will be several "men" there, it probably is a good idea to find something more durable.  A trip to Lowe's and George came home with a roll of fiberglass screen, 84" by 48".  It is durable.  I can sew and embroider on it.  It is see through.  Perfect!

A trip to Wal-Mart took me to their fabric department.  Yep!  Our Wal-Mart still has a fabric department.  To my surprise, our fabric department has been revamped and enlarged.  The fabric prices have gone up, too.  Nevertheless, I began looking for red, cotton fabric for the trim on the food tent.  They had solid red in silks and satins, even netting, but not in plain broadcloth.  While browsing through a wonderland of fabric, it dawned on me that I've been saving old ripped blue jeans for a long time.  I'll make the binding out of blue jean fabric.  Denim is very durable and it is blue.


Next is to design a pattern.  George and I have talked and talked about what we think the food tent should be.  Should I copy the umbrella food tent that we have?  Should it cover one dish or the whole table?  If we were to use the umbrella food tent, then people would have a plate and utensils in their hands and have to pick up the food tent and put it somewhere so they could dish up their food and replace the food tent.  You would need more than 2 hands for this, plus someplace to put the tent until it is returned over the dish.  We decided that the food tent will need a door that opens and closes.  Not unlike an Indian tent.  We also need a frame.  It needs to be something that can collapse when not in use.  We finally decided on a full table food tent.  The framing will be PVC pipe, shaped kind of like the frame for a swing set.  The fabric will be fiberglass screen with blue denim trim weighted down.  The tent will require some kind of opening for easy accessibility to the food.  Velcro seems to be the obvious choice but we have decided against Velcro because it could be hard to open with one hand.  Right now I'm thinking about an opening more like the Roman shades that I make.  Just pull the cord and wrap around a cleat to keep it up; unwrap the cleat to close.

Another trip to Lowes and George has all of the screening that we will need.  He purchased some small PVC pipe and will play around with the pipe and various couplings this evening.  Once he has the frame made, then I will be able to take measurements and design the pattern for the screen.  In the meantime, I'm cutting up old blue jeans and preparing for the denim trim.

One week until the 4th of July and time is running out.  I feel the pressure:>)

To be continued ...

4th of July Party - Under the Live Oak

George and I decided to have a 4th of July gathering at our house.  It all began at a Memorial Day party at a friend's home.  One of the guests said that she had never seen our Live Oak.  The hostess was talking about how beautiful and large our Live Oak is.  I said, "Let's have a 4th of July party underneath our Live Oak."  Thus, plans for this occasion began. 


We have never been big on grilling outdoors.  We have nothing against grilling; we just never got into it.  We do own a grill but use it only when we have hurricanes or are without electricity for an extensive length of time.  Heck, I hardly cook at all.  Whatever food we plan on serving will have to be prepared and cooked in my kitchen. 

The first thing to do for the party is planning the menu, right?  It is the 4th of July, so, I want an Americana/Patriotic theme.  What is more American than BBQ, hot dogs, potato salad, and apple pie?  I headed for Allrecipes.com and found a recipe for BBQ beef sandwiches, apple pie, and pastry shells.  Pinterest was helpful, too.  They had a watermelon that was made to sit flat on a table.  You scoop out the innerds and pour in ginger ale and the watermelon not only flavors the ginger ale but acts as the container, as well.  I love that idea.  There was also another watermelon idea where you cut the watermelon to look like a basket and scoop out the pulp and fill with the balled pulp from the watermelon and a cantaloupe, and add some blue berries.  It is really cute.  Maybe not exactly red, white and blue, but close.  Throw in some hot dog and hamburger buns and condements.  That should do it.


Next are the invitations.  How many people can we accommodate?  Who do we want to invite?  Of course, everyone at the Memorial Day party, since they were originally invited.  There were 8 of us at the Memorial Day party.  I have to invite our neighborhood group because, well, we have a terrific neighborhood.  Add 8 more.  I have two very dear friends who are single women and I wanted to invite them because I like them and they may not have anything to do on that day.  Also, they would fit in well with this group.  The invitation list grew to 18.  The invitations were sent, either orally or via email.  Nothing formal here.  Actually the original list was for 14.  As time went by it grew to 18.  All except for one responded that they will be here for the party.  The one is a maybe.


A quick trip to Dollar Tree early on got a lot of decorations, sparklers, plates, bowls.  Since the group has grown to 18, we will probably have to visit Dollar Tree once again for additional items.

Since the party will begin around noon to 1 p.m., this is going to be in the heat of the day.  The nice thing is that it is under the Live Oak which makes the temp drop about 10 degrees from the blazing sun.  George and I decided that bubbles will be a fun and cool thing and we want to get party favors of bubbles for the group.  I'm also thinking that cardboard fans may be in line, as well.

Cajun Stitchery has its own canopy tent, which just happens to be blue, as well as, 2 tables with matching blue tablecloths. 

We have about 9 chairs.  We will need to get more chairs but can also ask our guests to bring their folding lawn/beach chairs.  We all have them.

Several of the guests are insisting on bringing something.  With these additions, the menu has grown to include baked beans, coleslaw, 3 bean salad, and chips.  Maybe I'll make a bean dip, too.

To Be Continued...

Cajun Corner – Vol. 4, No. 24 – June 24, 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. 

Visit our on-line catalogs at:

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and www.companycasuals.com/cajunstitchery.

My poor cat, Tigger, went to meet his maker this past Monday.  This one really hit me hard and I cried all day.  He had the loudest purr of any cat that I’ve ever heard.  He was very cuddly and would curl up on the sofa with me while I watched TV or in bed at night.  I do miss my Tigger.

Hurricane season is June through November.  Tropical Storm Debbie is passing by Pensacola as I type.  We don’t have rain yet but it looks like any minute I’ll be able to use the phrase -- Merde! Il Pleut.  George is outside doing some rush lawn work right now.  My friends and family in and about Tampa have informed me that they have had about 20 hours of rain.  My son says they really need the rain, so it is not necessarily a bad thing.

Yesterday, I hosted a delightful lunch for two of my friends.  I cleaned house all morning and I’m feeling really good right now because I don’t have that on my punch list today. 

During our luncheon, the girls asked me to take them on a tour of our gardens.  Oh, how I love our gardens.  George and I are in the garden doing something everyday and we notice things like “shouldn’t this plant have fruited by now” or “we need to fertilize”, etc.  My friends made me step back and say, “Wow!  This is really cool.”

Everyone should have a garden.  It takes nothing but effort because it sure doesn’t have to cost anything.  Seeds are easy to find.  Lots of our seeds come from the grocery store.  A bag of dried beans are simply bean seeds.  Yes, you can plant them.  Beans are wonderful to grow because they add nitrogen to the soil and nitrogen is very important.  I like to plant beans in all of my beds.  Pepper seeds are easy to find.  If you buy a bell pepper, for instance, or any fresh pepper for that matter, just scrape out the seeds when you open the pepper and plant those seeds.  You would scrape out the seeds anyway.  Plant the root end of onions.  You cut them off anyway.  Just plant them rather than throwing them away.  The same is true for the root of celery and tops of carrots.  Sometimes the seeds take and sometimes they do not, but what the heck, it is free.  It is usually something that you would simply throw away.  Squash, cucumbers, watermelon, cantaloupe, any fruit or vegetable that has seeds or roots can be used.  Sweet potatoes and white potatoes will grow from the eyes on the potato.  We used to use toothpicks to suspend the sweet potato in a jar of water and let the roots grow.  The sweet potato vine is beautiful and very big.  Just remember that some things turn into trees and some into smaller plants.  Plant accordingly.

Insofar as containers are concerned, the sky is the limit.  Open a can of food and poke a few holes in the bottom of the can.  Fill the can with dirt and plant a seed.  It isn’t even necessary to clean the can because whatever remains in the can will be used as fertilizer for the plant.  One of my gardening periodicals is selling burlap bags as containers for gardening.  Yes, you can use fabric or even plastic bags as containers.  I’ve seen people use old shoes, pots, pails, PVC pipe, anything with a depression where you can fill with soil.  Recently, I saw a photo on Pinterest where the trunk of a VW was used as a planter.  As with the seeds, know how big your plant is going to be and plant in a container large enough to contain the fully grown plant comfortably.

Soil for the plants is everywhere.  I love planting in sand because it is so easy to till.  Of course, you have to realize that sand has absolutely no nutrients and you must fertilize frequently.  I remember an experiment from when I was a little girl learning about plants.  Take a piece of paper towel.  Wet it.  Put a seed on it. Fold the wet paper towel over and put it in a jar, plate, whatever.  Just make sure the paper towel remains moist.  The seed will germinate in a few days.  Beans are the most fun for this experiment because they are large enough to see what is happening.  Wet the paper towel and put it in a glass jar with the seed against the glass on one side and the wet paper towel on the other.  You will be able to watch that seed germinate because the seed actually carries the nutrients required to germinate.  Of course, once it does germinate, you need to carefully plant it in a growing medium.  It won’t last long on just a wet paper towel because there are no nutrients.  You can plant the paper towel with the germinated seed.  The paper towel will decompose.  Since plants grow in any organic material, your soil can be sand, water, dirt, clippings, newspaper, coffee grounds, etc.  Some of the best tomatoes that we have ever grown came from the sewage treatment plant in Orlando.  Humans cannot digest tomato seed and the sewage treatment plants grow tomatoes all the time.  I have often wondered why the government doesn’t use the tomato plants for the hungry or even to make some cash to defray expenses.

Fertilizer is easily accessible.  From humans to plants, we all need to be fed to maintain life.  Eat unhealthy and you are unhealthy.  Eat healthy and you are healthy.   As I said before, planting beans adds nitrogen to your soil.  If you compost, which is really easy, (your yard clippings, your garden debris, and your kitchen scraps) you will have a very nice compost pile full of all of the nutrients and minerals required by your plants.  Use your compost as your planting soil and your plants have a head start in life.  Even ashes from your chiminea or grill would be good additions to the compost.  Please don’t forget your coffee grounds because plants love coffee grounds.

Space should not be too much of an issue.  Perhaps your space availability does not allow for a large garden, but as long as you have a window with sun, you can grow plants.  Most plants like ample sunshine but there are some plants that thrive in the shade.  Even if you do not have sun, there are grow lights used for growing plants indoors.  Patio and balcony gardens add beautiful ambiance.  Even roof top gardening works well.

If all of that isn’t enough, plants expel oxygen (which we need) and take in carbon dioxide (which is poison to us).

That is more than enough about gardens and plants.

 The shabby chic, ruffled purse with flowers and rhinestones has been listed in our Etsy Store for $10.  Geez, a lot of work went into that purse.

This week food tents have been on my mind.  We are having company for the 4^th of July and plan to entertain under our Live Oak tree.  Years ago I purchased a food tent from Dollar Tree.  It opens like an umbrella but doesn’t have the rod down the middle.  The purpose is to keep insects off of food outdoors.  Since I plan on entertaining, and Dollar Tree no longer has food tents, I began an online search of food tents and patterns.  There were a few patterns.  Pinterest has a wealth of photographs of all kinds of food tents.  Now the decision is how to design the food tent(s).  We have our Cajun Stitchery canopy tent and the tables.  Do I want to design a large food tent for each table?  Or, do I want smaller food tents for each dish?  It would be nice for our guests to see the food in each tent.  Therefore, the tent needs to be transparent enough to see the food.  If clear plastic is used, the dish could be seen but moisture may accumulate.  Depending on the dish, that could be good or bad.  However, plastic may off gas.  Plastic is not an option.  Netting and/or tulle would work but could be too light and flimsy.  Fiberglass screen appears to be our best bet.  It should hold up fine outdoors and it is see through.  One pattern had a 6 inch bias tape edging the sides which looks really nice.  The tent and table clothes are royal blue, so a bright red edging would be nice.  The problem with the red edge is that I could not locate solid, bright red cotton fabric at Wal-Mart.  They had a red fabric that I almost bought but when I saw it in the light, it had more of pink look than bright red.  Now I’m considering blue jean fabric.  My scraps contain bunches of old blue jeans and denim is very sturdy.  I’m seriously thinking about the blue denim for the edge.  I am still pondering on the design.

Have a wonderful week.

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You know you are from Louisiana when you see something cute and say, “Aw sha.

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The Atakapa were the Native Americans living in what is now Southwest Louisiana:

Atakapa oral history says that they originated from the sea. An ancestral prophet laid out the rules of conduct.^[11]

The first European contact with the Atakapa may have been in 1528 by survivors of the Spanish Pánfilo de Narváez expedition. Two barges were blown ashore. One met the Karankawa, while the other probably landed on Galveston Island. The latter recorded meeting a group who called themselves the Han, who may have been the Akokisa.^[1]

In 1703, Jean-Baptiste Le Moyne, the French governor of La Louisiane, sent three men to explore the coast west of the Mississippi River. The seventh nation they encountered were the Atakapa, who captured and cannibalized one member of their party.^[1] In 1714 this tribe was one of 14 who came to Jean-Michel de Lepinay, who was acting French Governor of Louisiana between 1717 and 1718,^[12] while he was fortifying Dauphin Island, Alabama.^[13]

The Choctaw told the French settlers about the "People of the West," who represented numerous subdivisions or tribes. The French referred to them as le sauvage. The name Atakapa is a Choctaw name meaning "people eater" (hattak 'person', apa 'to eat'),^[11] a reference to the practice of ritual cannibalism. The Gulf coast peoples practiced this on their enemies.

A French explorer, Francois Simars de Bellisle, lived among the Atakapa from 1719 to 1721.^[1] He described Atakapa cannibalistic feasts which he observed firsthand.^[14] The practice of cannibalism likely had a religious, ritualistic basis.

Found at:  http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Atakapa_people

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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.

Cajun Corner - Vol. 4, No. 23

Cajun Corner – Vol. 4, No. 23 – June 16, 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. 

Visit our on-line catalogs at:

http://www.imprintit.biz/cgi-bin/cobrand/site.w?location=olc/catalog-home.w&top=catalog&frasmes=no&target=main&sponsor=000699

and www.companycasuals.com/cajunstitchery.

I saw a photo on Pinterest this week that says it all for last weekend.  Merde! Il Pleut.  I have to add that one to my French repertoire.  I’m surprised that Mama didn’t teach me that one.

What can I say about U-verse?  Well, like my Daddy Johnny used to say, “say bell, like you are ringing a bell.  Then say mad, like you are angry.  Bell Mad (Belle merde).  That’s how you say ‘shit’ in French.”  We have been online and offline all week.  As soon as it seems the thing is working, it goes down, again.  Luckily, there are other things to do on the computer where being online doesn’t matter.  I can do my bookkeeping without being online.  I can play games without being online.  I can write Cajun Corner, although there is a possibility that I won’t be able to actually send it to anyone.

This week I looked at my ever growing collection of scrap fabric and got into a ruffle mood.  I love the ruffle attachment on my sewing machine.  I’ve been ruffling up a storm.  Right now I’m making a little purse that I will never use that is all ruffles.  Cute as it can be.  It is kind of shabby chic.  The sad thing is that I have more purses and bags than some stores.  This one is coral and teal.  It is very pretty but it is also not finished.  Maybe I’ll put it on Etsy and see if anyone wants to buy it. 

While I was in ruffle mode, I ran across directions for a really cool fabric flower.  No, not a ruffled flower.   I want to incorporate the flowers into the ruffled purse, so, I made the flowers out of the same coral and teal fabric.  You know, I’ll probably end up selling this purse for $5 or $10 when I have put days of work into the project.  It doesn’t seem right but buyers are always looking for a bargain.

The roof next door leaked during our rain storms last weekend. We have a 15 year warranty and have had the roofer back 6 or 7 times to fix leaks in the last few years.  They finally made it here late Friday afternoon.  Now they are telling us that the shingles are defective and they took a couple of the shingles and are sending to the manufacturer, who also has a 15 year warranty, for replacements.  They said the whole roof has defective shingles.  Belle merde!  You would think that after returning 6 or 7 times to fix leaks, they would have figured this out years ago.  Oh well, all we can do is wait and see.

After a weekend of CSI Miami, I was totally over it.  Then we saw that CSI Miami is being cancelled on TV.  We didn’t even know it was still on.  It really was a good show and George continues to watch his 3 years worth of DVDs.

My poor cat, Tigger, is not looking well.  I’m afraid the end is near.  He quit eating, so, we got canned tuna in oil.  This has always been his favorite food.  Even as George was opening the can, Tigger came into the kitchen.  We gave him the tuna and he ate and ate, lapping up the liquid.  He probably got some solids in there, too, but left most of the solids.  He sat in front of the tuna just staring at it, as though he really wanted that tuna, but just wouldn’t eat it.  We tried again, today.  Again, Tigger came.  He put his head to the food but never even licked it.  All he did was drink some water.  He is now as light as a feather and even his backbone is showing.  He was Mama’s favorite cat.  He has the most personality of any of our animals.  People who have visited know Tigger because he would tap people on the shoulder for a nice pet or acknowledgement.  It just breaks my heart to know what must be done.

This afternoon George and I attended the Woolly Boogar Bawl at Paradise Bar & Grill on the beach.  The band was great.  The attendance was fabulous.  We probably had more fun at this party than any of the previous ones.  Looking through the crowd, even my accountant showed up.  Of course, she had no idea we would be there.  I saw friends that I hadn’t seen in a long time.  It was just a wonderful party. The Woolly Boogar Bawl in June is our attempt to blow away any hurricanes for the season.  We have another Woolly Boogar Bawl in November where we say goodbye to Hurricane Season for the year.  Any excuse for a party.

Tomorrow is Father’s Day, and, my son, Hank’s, 44^th birthday. 

HAPPY FATHER’S DAY

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. 

Found at http://www.cajunfrenchblog.com/2009/02/got-a-cajun-story-to-tell/

I can remember my Cajun Grandmother’s remedy for taking warts off my father’s hands. As a little girl, I watched one day as we (MaMere, Daddy and me) were walking in the wooded area behind her house looking for wild blackberries to pick so she could make us a cobbler. She was only 4’10″ and my Dad towered above her a good two feet. She looked over as my Dad reached out for a wild blackberry bush and said, “Chinni, you got a wart on your hand, son, come ere”. She scowered the ground and I wondered “what in the world is she looking for?” She walked close to a huge pine tree and picked up a piece of wood, bowed her head and closed her eyes. I was completely perplexed! Then she walked over to my Daddy and took his big hand in her tiny one, she rubbed the wood over the wart and handed the wood to my Dad and without skipping a beat, picked up her bucket and starting picking berries again! I watched my Dad as if he had done this a hundred times before; closed his eyes too, then he threw that piece of wood over his right shoulder, picked up his bucket and went back to pickin those berries like nothing had happened!

Treatment for Acne, Blemishes, and Unwanted Freckles:

Mash up 1 cup of strawberries, and then add 2 cups of white vinegar, allowing it to steep on a very low heat for three hours. Strain the pulp and seeds. Massage the remaining liquid on the face and leave overnight. Don't worry, the mixture dries quickly. Wash off in the morning with slightly warm water.

If that remedy did not work: Wet the leaves, mash them thoroughly, into a green paste, and apply them to the blemish.

Another facial recipe for blemishes: Was to mash the strawberries into a juice,

Found at http://jerileewei.hubpages.com/hub/Confessions-of-a-Cajun-Traiteuse---Faith-Healer

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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.

Cajun Corner - Vol. 4, No.22

Cajun Corner – Vol. 4, No. 22 – June 10, 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. 

Visit our on-line catalogs at:

http://www.imprintit.biz/cgi-bin/cobrand/site.w?location=olc/catalog-home.w&top=catalog&frasmes=no&target=main&sponsor=000699

and www.companycasuals.com/cajunstitchery.

Wow!  If it rains much more in Pensacola, perhaps we should start building an ark.  Yesterday the airport reported over 11 inches of rain and our local television station, WEAR, on the other end of town, reported over 13 inches of rain.  That is in one day and it is supposed to rain everyday through Wednesday of this week.  The good thing is that we are not in a drought.  We don’t have to worry about watering the plants.  No need to wash the cars or mow the lawn.

Since there really was no reason to get out of the house, I made muffins, butter beans, pina colada pie and sausage and rice for dinner.  George liked the muffins so much he wanted more this morning. 

The pictures of the flood were being posted on Facebook all day yesterday.  A lot of roads were closed and homes and businesses were flooded.  Apparently all of the beach roads were closed and Gulf Breeze was without electricity for a few hours.  In fact, one friend said that Highway 98 in Gulf Breeze was down to one lane of traffic.  I sure hope the worst is over.  It did occur to me that most of the roofs in this area are the same age.  We all had to have new roofs after Hurricane Ivan in 2004.

Several years ago I gave George DVDs of the first 3 years of Miami CSI.  This weekend we have been watching all of these shows and relaxing.  This is kind of nice.

Insofar as Cajun Stitchery is concerned, I’ve been working on digitizing cutwork designs for the boring needle.  I have digitized an extensive design but must tweak it because it has nearly 300 trims and as many color changes. 

Our Theaux Family Facebook group doesn’t have as much discussion as we did last week.  The discussion still continues, mostly about our genealogy.   My cousin that moved to Pensacola and I planned to meet today but due to the rain and hazardous weather conditions, we have postponed our meeting.

Due to the rain, I have had problems using my email this weekend.  Hence the short Cajun Corner.

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. 

This is a repeat but still quite funny:

Dear Jean Pierre:

I am writing this letter slow because I know that you can't read fast. We don't live where we did when you left. Your Dad read in the paper that most accidents happen within 20 miles from the house, so he moved. I won't be able to send you the address cause the family that lived here took the numbers for their next house so they wouldn't have to change their address.

This place has a washing machine. The first day I put 4 shirts in it, pulled the chain and have not seen them since. It only rained twice this week, three days the first time and four days the second time. The coat you wanted me to send you, well your Aunt said it would be a little too heavy to send in the mail with the heavy buttons, so we cut them off and placed them in the coat pocket.

About your father, he has a lovely new job. He has over 500 men under him, he is cutting the grass at the cemetery. About your sister, she had a baby this morning. I don't know if it is a boy or girl. So I don't know if you are a uncle or an aunt.

All three of your friends went off the bridge in a pickup truck. One was the driver and the other two were in the back. The driver got out, he rolled down the window and he swim to the bank. Your other two friends drowned because they couldn't get the tailgate down.

Your uncle John fell in the whiskey vat. Some men tried to get him out but he fought them off so he drowned. We cremated his body and it burned for three days.

Not much more news than this, nothing much happened. Write more often or more times than you do.

LOVE MOM

P.S. I was going to send you some money but the envelope was already sealed.

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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.

Cajun Corner - Vol. 4, No. 21

Cajun Corner – Vol. 4, No. 21 – June 1, 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. 

Visit our on-line catalogs at:

http://www.imprintit.biz/cgi-bin/cobrand/site.w?location=olc/catalog-home.w&top=catalog&frasmes=no&target=main&sponsor=000699

and www.companycasuals.com/cajunstitchery.

Our cat, Tigger, is still hanging in there.  He is losing weight and drooling but otherwise seems to be acting normal.  I’m brewing him some more thyme as I type.  I’m just not ready to let go.

This week two of my first cousins on the Theaux side called.  They were helping one of Loretta’s daughters move to Pensacola.  Yes, that means I have family living in town.  Sadly, I haven’t had the opportunity to meet her yet.  Nevertheless, Loretta and Liz came to the house for a visit and, as with all of the Theaux’s, we had a ball.  Our parents, Mama and her 7 siblings all lived in Lafayette and knew all of their cousins and relatives well.  However, when that generation got married and began their families, it seems many of them left to the four corners of the United States.  Thus, their children did not get the opportunity to meet their cousins and extended relatives, or at least, get to know them well.  All of Audrey’s girls look alike.  George had met Loretta before and kept calling Liz, Loretta.  However, George seems to think we all look similar and have definite inherited traits.

The following day I decided that we all need to get to know each other.  I created a “Group” on Facebook called “Family of Laurent and Flavie Theaux” and that group has been buzzing ever since.  The whole family has not joined us yet but the ones that are on there can’t stop talking – that, indeed, is a family trait.  Family photos are popping up all of the time.  We’ve only been up for a day or two, but so far the family is having a great time.  So, if you are part of this family and not involved in the group, let me know and I’ll get you there.

Last night I attended a baby shower for the daughter of a dear friend.  I love making baby blankets for these occasions.  The exact spelling of the baby’s name has not been decided.  In fact, I’m not sure the parents are sure what the baby’s name is going to be.  So, I felt it was best not to personalize the blanket.  This blanket was made a bit different from most of my blankets.  I used a lot of appliqué, a lot of quilting/stippling, and continuous hooping.  The baby is a girl but the mama did not want pink.  I used a sea foam green cotton fabric for the back and front of the blanket.  Then I located the center and appliquéd “Beach Babe”.  From there I used chalk to mark off five inch squares throughout the blanket.  Every third square had a letter of the alphabet appliquéd.  The square was appliquéd.  Then the letter was appliquéd over the square.  The thread color was a bright coral.  The various appliquéd fabrics were animal print, white, coral, and a teal.  I used a very soft cutaway stabilizer.  Since the family lives in Sarasota, I didn’t want to make a heavy blanket.  The soft stabilizer was the only batting used.  After the appliqués were done, I pinned the back to the front and starting in the middle embroidered a beautiful quilting design with white thread in each of the squares without appliqué.  This gave that wonderful quilt/trapunto feel and look.  Then I digitized an edge design of two rows of satin stitching and in between the rows the word “BABY”.  The row of satin stitching directly on the edge was the coral thread.  The inner row of satin stitching was a sea foam green thread; and the word “BABY” was in white thread.  Following the chalk lines, I embroidered this design all the way around the blanket.  When that was finished, I cut the edges along the outside of the coral satin stitches making them the edge of the blanket.  After that there were a few trims and clean up and voila, the blanket was finished.  It took a couple of weeks, working every day on it, but it was finished in time for the baby shower last night.  I think everyone liked it.

Aspartame!!  If you have received an email about Aspartame, the sweet poison, it is probably false.  I did receive such an email and checked it out via Snopes.  http://www.snopes.com/medical/toxins/aspartame.asp.   Whether or not this is true or false, I do agree that artificial sweeteners are probably not good for you.  Having spent many years researching class action lawsuits, I am personally very hesitant about believing anything the FDA says.  When it comes to “all natural”, please remember that there are “all natural” poisons out there, too.  Let us not forget that arsenic and strychnine  are natural occurring substances, as is nightshade, poison ivy, poison oak, etc.

We did the names on the robes for Confetti Couture this week, as well.  Five of the children robes came in last week, and five more this week, plus two adult robes.  They were for a birthday party for a 9 year old girl.  I had the pleasure of meeting and working with the owner of Confetti Couture, Megan, and she is a very delightful young lady.  In addition to all of the events that Confetti Couture coordinates, she also sews children clothing.  She is quite the little multi-talented entrepreneur.  If you need help with any special events like birthday parties, weddings, anniversary parties, etc., you will do yourself a favor by contacting Megan at Confetti Coutures.  www.confetticoutureevents.com.

I haven’t begun practicing on the cutwork with the boring needle yet.  This week I did learn how to use the boring needle on our new Amaya machine.  Now I just need to do some cutwork digitizing.  Right now I need more practice on the continuous hooping and getting those stitches where they belong.

Something that I did this week was to embroider a 12.5 inch monogram.  The monogram was 12.5 inches tall but 15 inches wide.  I found that the largest monogram that I can do with the new, fancy, large hoop that I have is about 15 inches by 15 inches.   Of course, once I get really good at multi-hooping and lining up those stitches perfectly, then the sky is the limit on size.

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Did you know?

Kidney bean or common bean (Phaseolus vulgaris). The toxic compound phytohaemagglutinin, a lectin, is present in many varieties of common bean but is especially concentrated in red kidney beans. The lectin has a number of effects on cell metabolism; it induces mitosis, and affects the cell membrane in regard to transport and permeability to proteins. It agglutinates most mammalian red blood cell types. The primary symptoms of phytohaemagglutinin poisoning are nausea, vomiting, and diarrhea. Onset is from 1 to 3 hours after consumption of improperly prepared beans, and symptoms typically resolve within a few hours.^[8] Consumption of as few as four or five raw kidney beans may be sufficient to trigger symptoms. Phytohaemagglutinin can be deactivated by cooking beans at 100 °C (212 °F) for ten minutes. However, for dry beans the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) also recommends an initial soak of at least 5 hours in water; the soaking water should be discarded.^[8] The ten minutes at 100 °C (212 °F) is required to degrade the toxin, and is much shorter than the hours required to fully cook the beans themselves. However, lower cooking temperatures may have the paradoxical effect of potentiating the toxic effect of haemagglutinin. Beans cooked at 80 °C (176 °F) are reported to be up five times as toxic as raw beans.^[8] Outbreaks of poisoning have been associated with the use of slow cookers, the low cooking temperatures of which may be unable to degrade the toxin.

Found at:  http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_poisonous_plants

When I die, I want to go peacefully like my Grandfather did, in his sleep -- not screaming, like the passengers in his car.

Found at:  http://www.coolfunnyquotes.com/

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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.