Cajun Stitchery: Cajun Corner – Vol. 6, No. 24

Cajun Corner – Vol. 6, No. 24 – December 27, 2014

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

ΘΘΘΘΘ

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Christmas has come and gone and we are headed toward New Years.

Technically, we are closed this coming week. The problem is that instead of a week of rest and relaxation, it is now filled with all sorts of things to do. Some things are pretty mundane, like catching up on our end of the year bookkeeping, getting our annual beach pass and giving the studio a good ceiling to floor cleaning. While others are a bit more fun, like redecorating for Mardi Gras. Ah, and then there are some left over orders that didn't need to be finished for Christmas but need to be completed nevertheless. And, the Etsy Store needs a new 2015 make over taking out the old and putting in the new.

Turning to my trusted Pinterest site, I was looking for ideas on decorating for Mardi Gras. The Christmas tree is already up, so I'm thinking of replacing the Christmas ornaments with Mardi Gras ornaments. Our cute Christmas door decor needs to be replaced with something purple, green and gold. You get the picture. Ideas are flooding my brain. Not to mention that I actually do not have any Mardi Gras ornaments and before I can make some, I need to create them. Basically, it is all just a color change. Changing the red to purple. The green and gold can stay from Christmas. Nativity and Santa/elf designs change to fleur de lis and jester designs. Throw in some shiny Mardi Gras beads and we should be done. Easier said that done.

A few months back I took a real good look at our Etsy store and realized there are items in there that have never sold and have sat on the shelves for several years. Most of the stuff is, well, adorable. I guess the person who really wants these items never got a chance to see them. The items in question have been in a "sale" category on Etsy for about a month. Whatever has not been purchased in the Sale category by January 1, 2015, comes off of Etsy permanently.

This brings me to the realization that I need more merchandise in the Etsy store to replace the removed items. You know how they say, "you've come a long way, baby"? Looking at those earlier items, yes, we have come a long way. There were some good ideas and some bad. Some items just look cheap and others look nice. The handkerchiefs stay but the older hankies are going. Bridal hankies will stay but most non-bridal will go. Of course, the "You have a booger" handkerchief will stay because we continue to get orders for it. The "Mom" handkerchiefs now in the shop will go but I think we will replace them with nicer "Mom" handkerchiefs.

Scarves are staying. I have a dilemma about the scarves. Some sold but not many. I'm not sure if it was the price or style. The scarves in the "Sale" category are going away. The scarves in the "Accessories" category are going to stay and more may be added. It seems people are more interested in monograms than other designs. So, we will keep the pretty chiffon scarves for the monograms. The lap scarves will stay, only because I do occasionally get inquiries about them.

I'm not sure why the ball caps weren't big sellers. They are all adorable and reasonably priced. Nevertheless, they are going away. Perhaps in the future the ball caps may re-appear for weddings with "Mr." and "Mrs." on them but right now I'm over the ball caps. There just doesn't seem to be any interest.

Enough about Etsy. I've had a set of fonts for quite some time but never stitched them out. I guess the reason is because I put them together for a sampler and the stitch count was so high, I just never had the time or inclination to stitch them out until this past week. The details in these letters are exquisite. Each letter is about two inches tall and perfect for hand towels and that sort of thing.

Every once in awhile we get a customer who wants a custom patch. Such is the case with this patch, "Man shall not live by bread alone". It turns out that our customer is a chef turned minister. I think he has a cooking ministry. He is performing a wedding today and wanted to wear his chef attire but the clothing had the logo from his past employer and he wanted patches to cover up the logo.