Cajun Corner - Vol. 5, No. 58

Cajun Corner – Vol. 5, No. 58 – December 28, 2013

 

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

 

ΘΘΘΘΘ

Don’t forget to visit us at www.cajunstitchery.com, www.flickr.com/photos/cajunstitchery, 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.

This week’s Cajun Corner should be filled more with pictures than words.  It should, but you know that isn’t going to happen.

I sure hope every one of you and your families had a wonderful Christmas.  The week before Christmas, my son, Hank, called daily to see if his package arrived yet.  When it finally arrived we put the box under the tree.  Hank called, “You have to open the box.  I have to explain something.”  So, we opened the box expecting wrapped presents.  Oh no, there were two beautiful housecoats in the box.  What did he have to explain?  He just wanted us to know that the black one is for dad and the white one for mom.  That little dickens just couldn’t wait. But that’s not all.  He received our package and delivered presents to everyone on the spot – without waiting for Christmas.

I must admit that Hank takes after his mother.  For a long time I’ve said we need pre-Christmas presents.  Further, I think that is probably why advent calendars were started with gifts for the 12 days before Christmas.

Although this season, thank God, has been very busy with work, we did enjoy a pleasant dinner with friends early in the season, after the Christmas parade.  She had a bit of an accident early in November on her bicycle and we all teased that she should have training wheels.  Guess what we gave her for Christmas?  Yes, training wheels.

Early in the season was the SOB (Sisters of the Beach) brunch which, as usual, was a hoot. The Wednesday night Mental Health Night a/k/a MHN girls had a wonderful Christmas party.  The Nereids also had a fabulous Christmas slumber party.

Since the girls were all too busy to meet on the Wednesdays after the MHN Christmas party, George and I took one Wednesday night and went to Tippy’s Tavern for their prime rib dinner.  OMG!  It was fabulous.

Cajun Stitchery’s studio was decked out for Christmas.  Hopefully, it will be more decked out in years to come but I was very pleased this year.  Since the front door opens into the “living room,” we turned the living room into a show place for our wares, complete with Christmas tree.  Each day the Christmas lights were turned on for customers to enjoy.  As you walk through the front “show” room, through the kitchen and into our work room, we looked like Santa’s workshop.  Every stage of orders were hanging and stacked everywhere.  It was great! Thanks to our local radio station, Christmas music played constantly throughout the season.  I made a red Santa Sack with zebra print fur at the top.  That Santa Sack carried beads through the Christmas parade.  It carried presents and a change of clothes to the Nereid slumber party.  It was displayed in our workshop and finally was filled with George’s Christmas presents and placed under our tree for the big day.

During the season we had several repeat customers as well as new customers.  All are my friends now.  There were a lot of names embroidered on stockings; monograms on shirts; logos on jackets, and all sorts of wonderful gifts and embroidery.

On top of that, Etsy was booming. I got so tickled because I have an Etsy widget loaded on my android and every time we had a sale, I could hear “cha-ching” from my phone.  At first it kind of startled me.  Later I learned to love the cha-ching sound.  We sold Christmas items, mermaid stocking, laundry bags, placemats, and all sorts of thing.  The best seller, by far, were the handkerchiefs.  Some were for wedding showers and some for mothers and mother-in-laws.  Several of the handkerchiefs were monogrammed and several were not.  Oddly, none of the booger hankies were sold.  I guess that fad is over.  However, lace is certainly in.  This was by far the best Christmas season our little Etsy store has ever had.

We normally take down the Christmas decorations on George’s birthday, January 2^nd.  This year the decorations were put away the day after Christmas.  Insofar as Cajun Stitchery is concerned, we need to move onto the next season … MARDI GRAS.  I have begun decorating but more needs to be done.  I’m taking this week between Christmas and New Years to build up our Etsy stock and fill more orders that are still coming in.  Yes, we already have krewe jackets to embroider.

In building up the Etsy stock, the first line of business is mermaids.  There are some beautiful new mermaid items available already. 

I have created a new baby bib design made on the embroidery machine.  This design has scalloped edges and is much more girly and heirloom looking than the other rectangular design.  The new bibs have not been listed yet.  In fact, I haven’t even taken pictures of them.  That will come in a later issue.  But remember the problem I had figuring out what to suggest for baby showers.  We have that under control now.

This is the week for making resolutions and I’m working hard on that, 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. 

No time to read Cajun Corner?  Visit our blog at www.cajunstitchery.blogspot.com and click the Odiogo button to hear the computer read the blog.

Thank you Bob for the following:

Mr. Johnson was overweight, so his doctor put him on a diet. He said; "I want you to eat regularly for two days, then skip a day, and repeat this procedure for two weeks. The next time I see you, you should have lost at least five pounds." When Mr. Johnson returned, he shocked the doctor by having dropped almost twenty pounds. "Why, that's amazing!" the doctor told him. "You did this just by following my instructions?" The slimmed down Mr. Johnson nodded. "I'll tell you, though, I thought I was going to drop dead that third day." "From hunger, you mean?" "No," replied Mr. Johnson, "from skipping."

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. 5, No. 57

 

 

 

 

Cajun Corner – Vol. 5, No. 57 – December 16, 2013

 

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

 

ΘΘΘΘΘ

Don’t forget to visit us at www.cajunstitchery.com, www.flickr.com/photos/cajunstitchery, 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.

So sorry that I took last week off from Cajun Corner.  Between parties and working there was no time remaining.  We have embroidered some beautiful items and there are more to do this week.  Since I love to embroider, suffice it to say I am having a wonderful time.

A few years back we did tea towels with a beachy Santa.  Thought I would do another and as I was going through some designs, I ran across a whole series of beachy Santas.  These are smaller than the other one but so cute.  I loaded one of the beachy Santas into the embroidery machine and thought I would make one for a friend. After that was done, I decided to make one for the shop.  I made 3 in all and had to stop when a customer arrived.  As soon as she saw the beachy Santa, she asked how much and bought 2 right on the spot – still damp.  We now have one on Etsy and several more at the studio.  They really are adorable and we can, of course, add a monogram to make the towel extra special.  The customer who bought the 2 towels said that these were perfect for those last minute gifts to friends and hostess gifts.

Of course, the Christmas stockings have been arriving. Everyone has a stocking that needs a name.  Last Friday I was going to close the shop early because there was a party that evening.  A gentleman called and needed names on a couple of stockings.  Of course, he needed them done that day because the family was having the family portrait done on Saturday and the stockings needed to be hanging from the mantel.  We closed a bit later than anticipated but still in enough time to enjoy the party.

We’ve had several repeat customers, which always makes me smile because it means they like my work.  This week we are working on a few logos and names on shirts, as well as satin jackets.

I cannot forget my own family.  I stitched out a couple of really cute Disney designs for Kayla and a sham for my son.  Everything should be mailed later this week.

 

HAVE A wonderful week

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. 

No time to read Cajun Corner?  Visit our blog at www.cajunstitchery.blogspot.com and click the Odiogo button to hear the computer read the blog.

Thank you Bob for the following:

An elderly couple were sitting outdoors at a cafe when they noticed an old man who seemed to be having trouble crossing the street with an ungainly shuffle. The man said to his wife "He surely has bad arthritis to walk like that." His wife replied "No, that's definitely old time rheumatism." They couldn't agree so the man decided to ask the old man. He walked over to him and said "Excuse me, sir, but my wife and I saw you having difficulty crossing the street and I told her that you have arthritis but she insisted that you have rheumatism. Which one of us was wrong?" The old man said "The three of us were wrong." "Three of us were wrong? How so?" asked the man to which the old man replied "You were wrong when you said I had arthritis and your wife was wrong when she said I had rheumatism and I was wrong when I thought I had to pass gas."

This farmer had a wife who nagged him all the time. One day while he was outside plowing the field, she came out and started nagging him. While she was doing this, the mule kicked her and she died. At the funeral, the ladies came up and talked to the farmer. The farmer nodded his head "yes". The men came up and talked to him and the farmer nodded his head "no". Well this other man wondered why he nodded his head "yes" to the ladies and "no" to the men. Then, he went up to the farmer and asked him why. The farmer replied, "Well, when the ladies came up, they told me how pretty my wife's dress was and how pretty she looked. When the men came up, they asked, "That mule for sale?"

A pregnant woman gets into a car accident and falls into a deep coma. Asleep for nearly six months, she wakes up and sees that she is no longer pregnant. Frantically, she asks the doctor about her baby. The doctor replies, "Ma'am, you had twins! A boy and a girl. The babies are fine. Your brother came in and named them." The woman thinks to herself, "Oh no, not my brother - he's an idiot!" Expecting the worst, she asks the doctor, "Well, what's the girl's name?" "Denise," the doctor says. The new mother thinks, "Wow, that's not a bad name! Guess I was wrong about my brother. I like Denise!" Then she asks the doctor, "What's the boy's name?" The doctor replies, "DeNephew."

Two ladies were hanging out together and one was depressed. "What's wrong?" The depressed one replied, "I've been married four times and every one of my husbands has passed away." The other lady asked, "What did they used to do?" The depressed lady replied, "Well, my first husband was a millionaire, the second was a magician, the third was an evangelist, and the fourth was a mortician." And the other said, "Oh, one for the money, two for the show, three to get ready, and four to go."

Four high school boys afflicted with spring fever skipped morning classes. After lunch they reported to the teacher that they had a flat tire. Much to their relief she smiled and said: "Well, you missed a test today so take seats apart from one another and take out a piece of paper." Still smiling, she waited for them to sit down. Then she said: "First Question (100 points): Which tire was flat?"

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. 5, No. 56

 

Cajun Corner – Vol. 5, No. 56 – December 1, 2013

 

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

 

ΘΘΘΘΘ

Don’t forget to visit us at www.cajunstitchery.com, www.flickr.com/photos/cajunstitchery, 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.

The robe orders were completed last week.  They really turned out nice.

Remember the mystery of the gnomes?  One of our friends finally confessed that she is the gnominator.  Since I missed giving her a birthday present, a nice tee shirt with “I am the gnominator” was embroidered with a red and green gnome on the top.  She received her gift today and loved it.

I had received an adorable gnome but I didn’t tell anyone for a long time.  George and I decided that if I don’t say anything it might flush out the real gnominator.  After all was said and done, it turned out that a couple of other girls were trying to flush out the gnominator and they actually gave the Saints gnomes to another friend.  They told me that their next step was going to be stealing the gnomes from people’s homes.  Luckily, they didn’t have to go that far before we found out the true identity.  Today I found out that although the one was the ringleader, there were several devious accomplices to the gnome antics.  Oh what a fun summer we had trying to figure out the mystery.

Thanksgiving was quiet around here.  I did the usual turkey dinner cooking and we have eaten off of that for about 4 days now.  I don’t plan on cooking again until Christmas.  Well, there are the 2 parties where I promised to make cherries in the snow, again.  I think I’ll drink something containing alcohol while I’m cooking so I don’t get so stressed over it all.

The studio is decorated for Christmas.  At least the front room is decorated and looking good.  There are lots of tee shirts, towels and all sorts of stuff that we sell on display in the front room.  The working rooms are looking like Santa’s workshop.

We have sold a lot of fleur de lis items.  As soon as they are sold, I’m at the machine making more.  The handkerchiefs just floor me but I love making them and people love buying them.

This has got to be a banner year for the Etsy store.  Although people purchase a variety of items from the store, by far the biggest sellers are the handkerchiefs. 

Gosh, this season we have embroidered robes, kitchen towels, pot holders, aprons, towels, tee shirts, polo shirts and tomorrow a customer is coming in to have Christmas stockings monogrammed.  Oh yes, I’ve embroidered another chef’s hat.

In the meantime, another mask for glasses design, a turtle, has been created.  That makes three designs for the mask.  Now I need to make lots and lots of each design and sell them.

My new friend at The Mardi Gras Store in Pensacola has a very nifty way of selling her wares.  I’ll let her explain it:

“Krewe parties! We book krewes for a meeting or party at our facility. We provide light Hors d'Oeuvres and mixers, and they provide their own adult beverages. Then they have special pricing while they shop at our store! We'll hold for pickup or delivery, or you can cash and carry like anywhere else! We also offer layaway to krewe members.”

I would love for the Nereids to do this and see what is available locally.  It is time that Pensacola has its own Mardi Gras store.

Today was our annual SOB Brunch at Flounders on Pensacola Beach.  This is one of those gatherings that I look forward to all year long.  The SOB’s are a great group of wonderful, wacky women.

HAVE A wonderful week

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. 

No time to read Cajun Corner?  Visit our blog at www.cajunstitchery.blogspot.com and click the Odiogo button to hear the computer read the blog.

Thank you Bob for the following:

Four best friends met at the hospital since their wives were giving births to their babies. The nurse comes up to the first man and says, "Congratulations, you got twins." The man said "How strange, I'm the manager of Minnesota Twins." After awhile the nurse comes up to the second man and says, "Congratulations, you got triplets." Man was like "Hmmm, strange I worked as a director for the "3 Musketeers." Finally, the nurse comes up to the third man and says Congratulations, you got twins x2." Man is happy and says, "Ironic, I work for the hotel "4 Seasons." All three of them are happy until they see their last buddy jumping all over the place, cursing God and banging his head on the wall. They asked him what's wrong and he answered, "What's wrong? "I work for 7up!"

Also from Bob:

There were two guys working for the city. One would dig a hole - he would dig, dig, dig. The other would come behind him and fill the hole - fill, fill, fill. These two men worked furiously; one digging a hole, the other filling it up again. A man was watching from the sidewalk and couldn't believe how hard these men were working, but couldn't understand what they were doing. Finally he had to ask them. He said to the hole digger, "I appreciate how hard you work, but what are you doing? You dig a hole and your partner comes behind you and fills it up again!" The hole digger replied, "Oh yeah, must look funny, but the guy who plants the trees is sick today."

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. 5, No. 55 – November 24, 2013

 

Cajun Corner – Vol. 5, No. 55 – November 24, 2013

 

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

 

ΘΘΘΘΘ

Don’t forget to visit us at www.cajunstitchery.com, www.flickr.com/photos/cajunstitchery, 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.

The Christmas orders are arriving.  If you have any Christmas orders to place, do it soon.

We just finished embroidery on some nice big towels.   The names are 3” tall.  There are a few orders for robes which should be completed this week.  Then we have aprons and jackets.  In the meantime, we are working on a quote for some satin jackets.

The biggest news is receiving the first order for the Mardi Gras mask for glasses.   Mardi Gras is just around the corner.  The butterfly masks are $15.  If you want krewe masks, please let me know right away since they have to be designed before stitching can occur.

I did make a Santa Sack today.  It still needs to be embroidered.  The sack wasn’t too hard to make.  How hard could a sack be?  What took time was deciding to have a cuff around the top and designing that.  The designing is always the time consuming element.

Obviously, this is going to be a short week.  On top of that I am cooking for Thanksgiving, which translates into I will be cooking and not working on Wednesday.  However, on Black Friday I am not leaving the house to get into the craziness.  I will probably be working on Friday.  Sometime this week I have to get to the bank and sign some papers and that sort of stuff.

The red and green tea towels with the fringe arrived and are ready for orders.  We also have black, white, and purple tea towels.

More handkerchiefs were purchased from our Etsy store this week.  I use cloth handkerchiefs and I love them.  It still amazes me that people buy them.  That is a pleasant amazement, however.  Some of the hankies are priced pretty high but those entail a lot of work because the lace is actually made and attached on the embroidery machine.  Other hankies are simple to make and very reasonably priced, especially our all time best seller “You Have A Booger” hanky for merely $10.

HAVE A happy thanksgiving

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. 

No time to read Cajun Corner?  Visit our blog at www.cajunstitchery.blogspot.com and click the Odiogo button to hear the computer read the blog.

Thank you Bob for the following:

An Illinois man left the snow-filled streets of Chicago for a vacation in Florida. His wife was on a business trip and was planning to meet him there the next day.
When he reached his hotel, he decided to send his wife a quick email. Unable to find the scrap of paper on which he had written her email address, he did his best to type it in from memory.

Unfortunately, he missed one letter and his note was directed instead to an elderly preacher's wife, whose husband had passed away only the day before. When the grieving widow checked her email, she took one look at the monitor, let out a piercing scream and fell to the floor in a dead faint. At the sound, her family rushed into the room and saw this note on the screen:

DEAREST WIFE: "JUST GOT CHECKED IN. EVERYTHING PREPARED FOR YOUR ARRIVAL TOMORROW. P.S. SURE IS HOT DOWN HERE."

Another joke from Bob:

For a couple years I've been blaming it on lack of sleep and too much pressure from my job, but now I found out the real reason: I'm tired because I'm over worked. The population of this country is 237 million. 104 million are retired. That leaves 133 million to do the work. There are 85 million in school, which leaves 48 million to do the work. Of this there are 29 million employed by the federal government, leaving 19 million to do the work. 2.8 million are in the Armed Forces, which leaves 16.2 million to do the work. Take from the total the 14,800,000 people who work for State and City Governments and that leaves 1.4 million to do the work. At any given time there are 188,000 people in hospitals, leaving 1,212,000 to do the work. Now, there are 1,211,998 people in prisons. That leaves just two people to do the work. You and me. And you're sitting at your computer reading jokes.

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.