Cajun Corner – Vol.
4, No. 11 – March 23, 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:
As I sit here typing, there is a small hawk
perched on our fence. George and I were
just outside and noticed him sitting in the garden. At first we thought he was injured. His head was moving. He walked and fluttered his wings. He was just sitting there. It could be a youngster that mom pushed out
of the nest. Oh, well, it will be
interesting to see what he or she does.
We aren’t going to catch him. He
seems stressed already and trying to catch him would only cause more stress.
The hawk sure picked the perfect place because
the garden is doing great. It is spring
and all of the seeds are germinating.
Peppers and tomatoes look identical when they first emerge from their
seeds. Once they get their second set of
leaves you can tell the difference. The
onion bottoms from the onions that I chopped for dinner earlier are
growing. In fact, this week I cut off
the bottom of some celery we had in the refrigerator and planted that. The beans that took over the garden last year
are now sprouting. We have plans of
using wire or PVC pipe and creating an archway with the bean vines this
year. That would be so unique. No sign of potatoes yet. Half a bag of whole potatoes were planted in
our back compost. They are planted
pretty deep but hopefully they will grow.
We even noticed some pepper seedlings growing in our foot path. They must have been dropped last season. This time we planted a lot of bell pepper
seeds. The cayenne peppers were
wonderful last season but we love bell peppers, too. Even a broccoli root stump that was
accidentally left in the garden has begun to sprout. Oh yes, and the asparagus is growing and a
few sprigs are ready to cut. The mint,
rosemary, parsley and thyme are abundant.
Some little purple leaves are beginning to push up from the ground which
tells me our purple basil is back. The
stevia is getting leaves, too. Of
course, we have onions, garlic, carrots, lettuce, broccoli, and sweet peas
growing vigorously.
Flowers are a favorite of mine. The orange daisies are blooming and the rose
bush has several buds. The wisteria is
beautiful and fragrant. The lilies and
gladiolas are sprouting and those wild purple irises are plentiful. The African Irises bloomed this week and
those flowers are simply stunning. The
red camellias are pretty much spent but our pink camellia bush is covered in
beautiful double flowers. Those little
white flowers on the ground that I love so much are turning into
blackberries. Yummy. Last fall I planted some seeds for small blue
flowers. The flowers are blooming but I
don’t remember what they are called.
Snapdragons are very familiar and right now we have red, yellow and pink
snapdragons blooming. The muscadine
grape is growing but our usual green seedless is not doing much of
anything. We pruned it way back last
year. Sure hope we didn’t kill it.
So much is going on in our yard that it is hard
to come inside. Sure would be nice if we
had Easter Lilies bloom on Easter, but they usually don’t bloom that
early. When they do bloom, they are
gorgeous.
The bamboo that we planted a few years ago has
grown and achieved our goal of creating a natural fence. Now it is creating a natural fence in the
back of the house next door. The sprouts
have found their way into our yard and even in the garden but they are cut off
right below ground level. This usually
lasts for a week or two and then no more sprouts until the following year. Finding the sprouts has become a fun and
unusual activity lately. If there is any
interest in cane fishing poles, I believe we can help you.
Our regular coffee pot bit the dust today. We go through one or two each year. Yes, you heard me right. George and I are big coffee drinkers and
there is coffee perking at our house 24/7.
It doesn’t even disturb us when the coffee maker dies. We just go to the store and get another. What I do not like is the waste. Someday I’ll have to figure out how to
recycle my coffee makers. I’d brew the
coffee on the stove but then the stove would have to be on 24/7. After Hurricane Ivan hit in 2004, we were
without electricity for weeks. The one
thing we did have was coffee perking on the grill. No. We
did not grill food. Remember, I don’t
cook. We used the grill for coffee
making, only. The first thing we did
when we got our chiminea was to figure how to perk coffee on it. I suppose we could have worse habits.
So, what exciting has happened this week? I’m not a real fro fro kind of person. I do like fur, feathers, anything soft, and
anything shiny. When it comes to my
hair, well, I end up letting it grow to the point of aggravation and then go to
the nearest stylist and have them cut it short.
No styling involved. In fact, when
asked how I want my hair cut, I usually respond that I want it short so that I
can get up and go in the morning without any fuss. Wednesday was one of those days when my hair
aggravated me. I called my neighbor who
owns the local beauty salon and he said to come on in. It was a slow day. When I got there (2 blocks away from my
house) we sat outside for awhile and I said, “Let’s have fun with my hair
today.” This is really unusual for
me. I was tired of the gray and wanted
my hair dyed. He took out his color
charts and I was immediately drawn to the reds and auburns. After some discussion and viewing color
options, I chose a dark kind of red. It
almost looks black. It is actually a
very dark cherry with bright red cherry streaks at the part. Then I perused some magazines and showed him
several hairstyles that I liked. He put
it all together and for about an hour after I got home George just stared at
me. This is about as far away from gray
as you can get, short of shaving initials in my head. It really does look adorable and I’m very
happy with it. I think it conveys my
personality. It is bright, colorful, and
full of spunk.
Have you noticed that there is no talk of embroidery? It seems that everything that I have
embroidered this week is a secret of some sort.
I can tell you there were towels, market baskets, and monograms. There are no pictures to show because I
cannot divulge the secrets. Not only
that, but next week is going to be filled with secret embroidery, too.
I can, however, tell you that Clothilde is well
worth the money spent on her. This week
I wanted to use Boudreaux for some embroidery because he needs a workout. He didn’t work. He must be jealous of Clothilde getting all
of my attention. He blew a fuse. We have to get a fuse from Radio Shack and
make sure he’s in working order again.
Boudreaux has a lot of hoops in a wide variety of sizes. Clothilde has three sizes. That is not all that will fit on
Clothilde. That is just all that came
with her. This week I ordered a new hoop
for Clothilde that should be in any day now.
The hoop is 16.92” wide by 19.52” deep.
That means there is a 15”x18” area to embroider. That is one big hoop and bigger than
Boudreaux’s jacket back hoop. There is
an even larger hoop for Clothilde but it is only a couple of inches larger and
costs about five time as much as the one that I ordered. Hoops are not cheap. I also
ordered an extra large table for Clothilde.
The table is specifically for flat goods, like fabric or towels. The table fits on the arm of the embroidery
machine and not only holds the weight off of the arm, but helps manage large,
flat items easier. Boudreaux has a table
that sure came in handy when I was embroidering all of those tuxedo jackets
earlier this year. The tables fit on the
machine, not under or beside the machine.
Next I would love to get some small frames for
Clothilde. Boudreaux has a set of fast
frames which come in very handy when embroidering on pockets or cap backs. Fast frames use adhesive paper, instead of
stabilizer. I’m thinking about getting
Clothilde a slim line set. Slim line
uses a clamp method, rather than sticky backing. A year or so ago I wanted to get a slim line
for Boudreaux that was large enough to embroider rugs. The company refused to sell it to me because
it would not fit Boudreaux, because Boudreaux is a compact. Clothilde, however, is a full size embroidery
machine and someday I would like to get her the slim line for rugs, welcome
mats, bathroom rugs, car mats, yacht mats, etc.
There are so many hoops and attachments available. Then there is the sequin attachment. Cajun Stitchery will have to make a whole lot
of money to be in a position to purchase the sequin attachment. It is tempting, though.
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.
========================================================
DO
YOU REMEMBER: not letting the balloon
touch the floor? That was a real game.
Did
You Know? Parmesan Lids Fit On Canning Jars!
Use a curling iron to seal cellophane bags.
Vinegar
kills weeds. Don’t use chemicals. Just spray vinegar on your weeds.
=================================================================
C’est tout, mes amis
Cajun Stitchery
(850) 261-2462
P.S. You are always
welcome to stop by and look at all of the catalogs and pass some time with me,
cher.
