Cajun Corner - Vol. 5, No. 53

 

 

Cajun Corner – Vol. 5, No. 53 – November 10, 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.

Before we go any further, let us bow our heads and say a prayer for the people of the Philippine Islands.  The photos that I’ve seen are horrendous.  They remind me of Ivan and Katrina, only worse.

This past week was certainly a creative week at Cajun Stitchery.  I have a lace mask design that the girls absolutely love.  We had a survey on their likes and dislikes of the mask awhile back and since that time, I’ve tweaked the design as they suggested.  These girls are professional mask wearers.  As a business owner, the mask is pretty high in the stitch count and hence pretty pricey for a Mardi Gras mask.  However, it is gorgeous.  I looked only at Etsy and various searches to see what other embroiders were charging for the mask and if I decide to make and sell these masks, I’ll have to stay in the ball park of others who are selling this mask.  The ball park it turns out is $25.00.  Of course, the lace mask that I make has been tweaked and is a bit larger than the original design.

Personally, I do not like to wear masks.  They just are not comfortable to me.  The worst, of course, are the hard masks.  As we get older, glasses become an issue with masks.  We may be older but we still enjoy the masquerade.  I am not aware of a mask created for the visually impaired glass wearers.  I determined to create “the” mask.  In the process of doing so I was discussing this issue with the owner of our local Mardi Gras store.  She said that her krewe was having the same problem and if I do create Mardi Gras masks for glasses, she wants to see them and put them in her shop.

My first thought was that I need a really good basic mask design.  I took the lace mask design and used it more or less as an outline for an appliqué design.  It took a few tries and tweaks.  What I discovered was most masks have one tiny hole on either side for the ribbon or elastic that goes around the head.  I tried making the hole large enough for the arm of the glasses to go through.  The problem with that idea is that when you put the glasses with the mask on your face, the mask wiggles and just doesn’t fit snug.  I ended up with the idea of 2 holes on each side of the mask.  Each arm of the glasses goes in one hole and out the second hold; it weaves.  The second hole seems to stabilize the mask on the glasses.  The holes are created with the boring needle which creates an eyelet.

Something else that was an issue was keeping the mask sturdy enough.  The girls all mentioned that the lace mask was a bit flimsy.  From the beginning, rather than embroidering the lace mask as a freestanding lace mask, I used organza.  The sturdiness of the lace mask was rectified by using 4 layers of organza.  The sturdiness of the mask for glasses is fixed with the use of heavy stabilizer.

After several searches on Pinterest, Google, Bing, etc., I decided to make a butterfly mask.  There are some gorgeous masks out there.  My friend at the local Mardi Gras store absolutely loved the first butterfly mask and I have hopes of getting them in her shop.  Sure hope someone buys them.  By creating the mask as an appliqué, I am able to keep the stitch count down somewhat.  The butterfly mask should sell for about $15, depending on the detail work in the mask.  The first butterfly mask was made using purple velvet and purple thread.  Later butterfly masks incorporated metallic thread and other types of fabric.  Even though the mask is created to be used with glasses, they can also be used with ribbon or elastic connected in the holes.

Well, that’s as far as I’ve gotten on the masks.  I’d like to create several more designs, including a jester mask and fleur de lis mask.

Sometime around mid-week the glass panel in one of our bi-fold doors shattered.  George was a bit upset about it but I immediately decided that the broken bi-fold doors could be used in the Studio for display purposes.  George removed all of the glass in the one bi-fold door and painted it white.  It is perfect and now resides in the front room of the studio.  Some of our tee shirts are hanging on it.

Stores are all decorated for Christmas now.  Even the radio has begun playing non-stop Christmas music.  It is a bit early in my opinion but that’s what they are doing.  A friend of mine on Facebook owns a second hand store in Mobile and was decorating her store and taking photos.  I fell in love with some of her shabby chic Christmas designs and decided that I want to decorate the studio for Christmas and put out some of our stock in the front room.  The bi-fold door is already in there.  Our Christmas decorations need to come down from the attic and we need to separate out the decorations that we use at home and I’ll take the leftover decorations for the Studio.

One idea that I saw was “Believe.”  You’ve seen the signs and stuff with “Believe” on them.  I want to do shams with a single letter for the wall in the front room, spelling out “Believe.”  In my mind, it is beautiful.  I just need to figure out how to hang them.  It’s beginning to look a lot like Christmas.

Tomorrow Cajun Stitchery will be closed in honor of Veteran’s Day.  In fact, I’ll be in the beach parade all dressed in red, white and blue.

 

 

HAVE A NICE WEEK

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Thank you Bob for the following:

Late one night, a burglar broke into a house he thought was empty. He tiptoed through the living room but suddenly he froze in his tracks when he heard a loud voice say: "Jesus is watching you!" Silence returned to the house, so the burglar crept forward again. "Jesus is watching you," the voice boomed again. The burglar stopped dead again. He was frightened. Frantically, he looked all around. In a dark corner, he spotted a bird cage and in the cage was a parrot. He asked the parrot: "Was that you who said Jesus is watching me?" "Yes", said the parrot. The burglar breathed a sigh of relief, and asked the parrot: "What’s your name?" "Clarence," said the bird. "That’s a dumb name for a parrot," sneered the burglar. "What idiot named you Clarence?" The parrot said, "The same idiot who named the Rottweiller Jesus."

A blonde, wanting to earn some money, decided to hire herself out as a handyman-type and started canvassing a wealthy neighborhood. She went to the front door of the first house and asked the owner if he had any jobs for her to do. "Well, you can paint my porch. How much will you charge?" The blonde said "How about 50 dollars?" The man agreed and told her that the paint and other materials that she might need were in the garage. The mans wife, inside the house, heard the conversation and said to her husband, "Does she realize that the porch goes all the way around the house?" The man replied, "She should, she was standing on it." A short time later, the blonde came to the door to collect her money. "You're finished already?" he asked. "Yes," the blonde answered, "and I had paint left over, so I gave it two coats." Impressed, the man reached in his pocket for the $50."And by the way," the blonde added, "it's not a Porch, it’s a Ferrari."

One morning this blonde calls her friend and says, "Would you mind coming over and helping me out with this killer jigsaw puzzle I bought - I can't figure out how to get started." Her friend asks, "What's the puzzle of?" "From the picture on the box, I'd guess it's a tiger," replied the blonde. The friend obliges, and when he arrives the blonde greets him at the front door and then shows him the puzzle spread out all over the table. He studies the pieces for a moment, then studies the box. Then, he turns to her and says, "I’m afraid that no matter what I do, I'm not going to be able to show you how to assemble these to look like the picture of the tiger on the box." "Why not?" asks the disappointed blonde." Because, you didn't buy a jigsaw puzzle... what you have here is a box of Frosted Flakes."

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. 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. 

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.

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 4^th 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

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.