Cajun Corner – Vol. 6, No. 11 – April 27, 2014

 

Cajun Corner – Vol. 6, No. 11 – April 27, 2014

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.

As mentioned last week, I did embroider our tee shirts with the Pledge of Allegiance.  They turned out so good that I took pictures and posted on our Cajun Stitchery Facebook page.  Not long after posting one lady commented and purchased a tee shirt with the embroidery. Another friend has purchased one, too.  However, as the first lady and I were commenting back and forth, another person decided to comment. That comment was not very nice and basically said I was wrong to use the Pledge of Allegiance for monetary gain.  I didn’t feel the post deserved a comment.  Not long after that someone else posted a very lengthy post regarding the controversy of the Pledge of Allegiance.  I deleted both comments.  A little while later, another person commented that she was pleasantly surprised that no one had posted controversial comments.  Nevertheless, that post received over 1,000 hits.  More than I have ever had for a post on Facebook.

We went to a friend’s home for Easter.  Since George and I ALWAYS color Easter eggs and hide them at her house, she asked that we please refrain from doing this.  Instead, one of her guests was bringing her two little boys and would we please hide the eggs for the children.  We were delighted to do so, of course.  Well, not without a little bit of good ole Cajun fun.  We did color the Easter Eggs.  We did hide them for the little boys.  We did tell our friend that there were 22 eggs – 2 dozen shy 2 eggs that broke.  We did actually only have 20 eggs.  Hahahahahaha!!!!  I wonder if she is still searching for those other 2 eggs.

George has been very busy in the garden and caring for the lawn and plants.  The place is looking very nice right now.  One of our front yard plants is a papyrus.  The papyrus decided to take over the yard.  George dug all of the papyrus up but put one in a half whiskey barrel.  The papyrus looks very nice and we feel good because it won’t take over the yard and yet we still have a specimen to admire.  Funny thing is that as the papyrus has recovered from transplanting and winter, the soil is producing a few surprises of its own.  Johnny Jump Ups are jumping up in the pot along with a few other plants from our yard, including a tomato plant.  Our yard is always entertaining.

Even though the handkerchiefs have been a success in our Etsy store, one of the most popular handkerchiefs has been taken off.  It is the scallop edged hanky that has the thick scallop.  It just never looked right to me.  Oh yes, it is beautiful but as the designer there is something wrong with it.  One thing was that on each scallop there was a stitch or two in the middle that looked bad.  My wonderful embroidery tech taught me how to get rid of those stitches.  The issue is now resolved.  The next issue is unevenness of the threads when detached from the hoop.  I’ve been working on that today.  The outcome is that there will be a few more handkerchief designs available in our Etsy store in the near future.

With all of that said about handkerchiefs, we completed an order this week for three white with lavender stitching handkerchiefs that say, “No Ugly Crying.”  Yes, it is for a wedding.  Our customer is in Canada.  They turned out beautiful.

A gentleman called me this week wanting some patches.  “Do you make patches?” he asked.  Yes, we make patches.  It turned out that he is a truck driver who changed companies or opened his own company and needed some patches to put over the embroidered logos on his pants and shirts. His lovely wife came to the studio and showed me his shirt and approved the patch design.  They are done.  Before she left, I asked her how they found me.  She said that they live in Ensley (a small area just north of Pensacola) and they called every embroiderer they could find but no one made patches.  I suspect no one made small order patches.  Apparently embroiderers have a minimum number of patches required before they will take the order.  Luckily for this couple, they found Cajun Stitchery who will accept small order patches.  It is a shame that more embroiderers don’t take small orders.  There is a demand for “In Memory of” type patches.  As in this case, rather than tossing out good clothes, a nice patch can cover the older emblem.  In fact, any design can be made into a patch.  It is only a matter of putting the square, circle, or geometric shape outside the design. 

Since I was already working on patches, I designed a patch for a friend of mine who works protecting the sea turtles.  The patch has not been stitched out yet, but she loves the design.

HAVE A GREAT 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.

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. 6, No. 3 – January20, 2014

 

Cajun Corner – Vol. 6, No. 3 – January20, 2014

 

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.

My time is split between our krewe den and Cajun Stitchery.  Mardi Gras masks are a blast to make.  Then I discovered that several of the girls have thick arms on their glasses; much too thick for the little eyelets in my masks.  Back to the drawing board.  I think I have made the proper adjustments for the thicker holes for the glasses.  I cannot seem to figure out how to make one design fit all glasses without have masks for the smaller armed glasses and another for the larger armed glasses.  The masks with the smaller holes can still be worn by those who do not wear masks, either with an elastic cord or bobby pins.  The larger hole mask won’t work for the smaller hole glasses because the design requires the eyelets, openings for the eyes, and the nose cut out to be in specific places on the mask or it won’t work right.  For right now I guess I’ll make the larger holes special order. 

Gift giving hits a fever pitch during the Mardi Gras season.  Aside from the usual birthday presents, there are presents for royalty.  Not only for our own royalty but friends who become royalty in other krewes, as well.  Many of our embroidery projects right now are secret presents that cannot be divulged until the gift has actually been given.

Back when I first opened our Etsy store, I looked into selling international.  A lot of businesses on Etsy sell international.  Everyone I asked said it was really easy but then I started reading online about each item going through customs and a special form and potential cost for customs.  I then decided we would only sell in the USA.  This past week a lady contacted me from Canada wanting a special ordered handkerchief.  Rather than saying, “No”, I explained that I’ve never sold anything outside the United States but I would give it a shot.  It really was a piece of cake.  I went to the USPS website for international mailing, plugged in our addresses, and followed the instructions through the simple form, until I ran across a question about what custom form I wanted to use.  The site said to call an 800 number to get help.  I called the number and left a voice mail.  The number was to the Census Bureau. Yep, there is a department in the Census Bureau for Customs.  Go figure.  Anyway, a very nice gentleman returned my call the next day and said one of the forms is for items valued at more than $2,500 and the other form is for less than $2,500. I found out the form that I needed to use and was able to print out the form which turned out to be special labels for the package.  It only cost about $2.40 to mail the package.  Not bad.  I’m changing my Etsy store to include delivery to Canada.

We have been looking at our poor garden.  The raised bed fence that George built several years ago has deteriorated and is falling apart.  Only a few garlic plants remain in the garden.  Oh, so sad.  When it gets a bit warmer, George will rebuild the garden/fence.  In the meantime, we have been looking on Pinterest and elsewhere online for new ideas.  I just can’t wait for the weather to warm up so we can plant our spring garden.

It has been very cold here, and then it warms up.  Our poor plants don’t know if it is winter or spring.  The camellias have bloomed and then froze.  The temperature got down to 16 degrees and then in a few days we were enjoying weather in the 60s and 70s.  Today was absolutely beautiful and in the 60s.  Tomorrow our low will be 25 degrees.  Don’t get me wrong.  I am not complaining about the weather.  In fact, George and I felt that since winter 2013 was so mild that our fall garden continued growing into spring, this year we need a cold winter.

George has been busy taking inventory at the studio and online.  I do tend to be messy.  I always seem to interrupt him asking him to hang this picture or put a hook over there.  He does the deliveries and errands.  I am certainly lucky to have him helping.

HAVE A GREAT 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:

While getting a checkup, a man tells his doctor that he thinks his wife is losing her hearing. The doctor says, "You should do a simple test. Stand about 15 feet behind your wife and say "honey?" Move 3 feet closer and do it again. Keep moving 3 feet closer until she finally responds." Remember how close you were when she gives you an answer. That will help me know how bad her hearing loss is.

About a month later the same guy is at the doctor again complaining of his wife’s hearing problem and the doctor asks, "Well, did you do that experiment with your wife's hearing?" The man says "yes". "How close did you get before she answered?" "Well, by the time I got about 2 feet away she turned around and screamed "For the FIFTH TIME... WHAT???"

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.