Cajun Corner - Vol. 3, No. 41

Cajun Corner – Vol. 3, No. 41 – October 14, 2011

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.

The screen embroidery is finished.  George is going to make a frame for the screen to fit in my studio window.  Each design fits in the middle of a glass pane on the window.  The screen embroidery was very easy to do and I’m pleased with the end product.  There are so many things that can be done with the fiberglass screen.  I’ve seen beach bags made from it.  From the articles that I’ve read, sewing on the screen is not difficult.  In fact, we could embroider logos on screens.  That would be pretty cool to have your logo on a window screen or screen door for your store front.  Imagine the comments that would bring.

I know there are people who do not like Facebook, but I am certainly not one of them.  I have met so many people via Facebook that I would never have met otherwise.  My Facebook friends have actually become good friends and I have met face-to-face with many of them.  Mama would have loved Facebook.  Lately, friends have been posting some really cute pictures and sayings.  In the evenings, George and I go through the posts and have some really good laugh time together.  Last night a friend posted a button that said, “Don’t make me go all CAJUN on your ass.”  I loved it.  This morning I digitized it in a variety of designs.  That embroidery design is going to go on my clothing someplace.  At the arts and wine festival there were a few people who came over and asked where our Cajun stuff was.  Guess I better get some Cajun embroidery done.  Of course, with Christmas approaching, we have our Heaux, Heaux, Heaux design.  Last year we put that design on tea towels.  Let me know if you need some.

Our friend from Orlando departed this past Sunday.  We had a wonderful time together.  She even got to meet some of our wonderful neighbors.  She is engaged and the wedding will be next fall.  After catching up with all of the embroidery that I’ve done this year, she loved the can wrap and spent the weekend digitizing her wedding design for the can wrap.  Before she left, she made two of them.  They turned out nice.  While she was doing that, we began talking about boring needles.  Oh my gosh, I want a boring needle.  With a boring needle Boudreaux will be able to cut holes.  You may not think that an embroiderer would want holes but for items like the can wraps that have eyelets, rather than punching the holes after the eyelet is embroidered, the boring needle will cut the hole and then embroider the eyelet.  It makes the hole much neater and it is one less thing that I would have to do after the embroidery is done.  A boring needle is mostly used for cutwork and eyelets are a type of cutwork.  When we looked online for boring needles we found that they are about $28 each.  That’s a lot for a needle.  The thing we could not find is a place that sells them.  So, we are still looking for boring needles.

Remember my friend at Toucansave.com?  I hope everyone registered on their site.  If you had problems registering, try again.  There was a glitch that has now been fixed.  Anyway, the current coupon is for the Coffee House.  A few years ago a place called The Coffee House opened on Navy Boulevard, just a couple of blocks away from me.  One of my neighbors told me about it and he really liked it.  Although I wanted to go to The Coffee House, I never made it over there.  A few months ago I heard that it had closed.  It is so sad when a small business closes.  It turned out that they did not close but the rumor mill had run rampant.  So, Toucansave got with The Coffee House and are offering coupons this month.  I bought mine yesterday and George and I intend to go there today or tomorrow.  I think we paid about $4 for a $10 coupon.  So, for about $4 we can go to The Coffee House and get $10 worth of coffee, pastries, wraps, etc.  Not a bad deal at all.  I may end up getting more coupons.  A coupon is good for one visit.  But, heck, if George and I go there without the coupon, we would walk away with a tab of at least $10, anyway.  If you are local, especially if you live near NAS, go to Toucansave.com and take advantage of this fabulous deal.  We all need to support local businesses.

Wednesday I met a Facebook friend at Bonelli’s for lunch.  Bonelli’s is my Pensacola favorite dining establishment.  My friend owns Flamingo A Friend.  For those of you who do not live in the Pensacola area, Flamingo A Friend is a local business where for birthdays, anniversaries or whatever the occasion, they will put plastic flamingos all over your yard for a day.  I’ve also seen black crows and a variety of other things.  It is just a really cool and different thing to do for these occasions.  We met for lunch and bonded immediately.  She also has a business called Mr. Margarita that furnishes margaritas for parties.  Now she is also doing some arts and crafts but our meeting was getting to know each other.  I love to brainstorm and she does, too. 

We have partnered with Uptown Park Records, Hines Cleaning Service, Success & Friends, and The Cell Phone Place for Rebuilding The City of Pensacola Food Drive. Each of these businesses, including Cajun Stitchery, has a box displayed for the purpose of collecting non-perishable food for the Bay Area Food Bank to distribute to homeless shelters. The food is collected once per week. Folks, times are tough for everyone. But for the grace of God, there goes I. Let's make these boxes overflow with non-perishable food.  What I didn’t know before is that Bay Area Food Bank, located in Milton, is the only food bank that supplies food to the homeless shelters for 7 counties, including Escambia and Santa Rosa.  I do not want to make light of the other food banks.  They do a good and useful job.  They supply directly to people in need of food.  Bay Area supplies to the shelters.  All are in need of food.

All cell phone holders in our Etsy store are half price ($5.00), so stop by www.cajunstitchery.etsy.com and get some cute cell phone holders as gifts for Christmas.

CHRISTMAS is around the corner.  Get that Christmas shopping done now and enjoy the holidays.

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. 

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Thank you Sandy Goodman for the following:

A new priest, born and raised in Texas, comes to
Lafayette, LA to serve and is nervous about
hearing confessions, so he asks the older priest
to sit in on his sessions.

The new priest hears a couple of confessions, then
the old priest asks him to step out of the
confessional for a few suggestions.

The old priest suggests, "Cross your arms over
your chest, and rub your chin with one hand and
try saying things like 'yes, I see,' and 'yes, go
on,' and 'I understand.'

The new priest crosses his arms, rubs his chin
with one hand and repeats all the suggested
remarks to the old priest.

The old priest says, "Now, don't you think that's
a little better than slapping your knee and
saying, "No shit... what happened next?"

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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.

Cajun Corner - Vol. 3, No. 38

Cajun Corner – Vol. 3, No. 38 – September 23, 2011

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, catalog at www.companycasuals.com/cajunstitchery and www.cajunstitchery.etsy.com often.   We are also on Twitter and Facebook. 

Visit our new on-line catalog at:

http://www.imprintit.biz/cgi-bin/cobrand/site.w?location=olc/catalog-home.w&top=catalog&frames=no&target=main&sponsor=000699

Another busy week at Cajun Stitchery.  The Pensacola Beach 4^th Annual Arts & Wine Festival is next weekend and we are in a flurry around here.  I’m so excited because my dear friend has offered to come over and help out on Monday.  George is taking the week off from house remodeling to help, too.  Today I received the rules and regulations from the Pensacola Beach Chamber of Commerce.  I was impressed that the rules weren’t too stringent or outrageous.  I can abide by these – I think.  They want me to link my website to their website.  I don’t know how to do that.  If anyone out there has a clue, let me know.

I met with lots of people this week.  My friend at ToucanSave.com came by to pick up her embroidery and we had a wonderful conversation and I learned all about ToucanSave.com.  There is a coupon site on the internet called Groupon.  They are international.  ToucanSave is similar but they are local to the Pensacola/Panhandle area.  They offer great deals for local businesses.  All you have to do is register on their website.  They have a referral program where if someone purchases the deal from your referral, then you get Toucan Bucks.  As you accumulate Toucan Bucks, you can get additional discounts.  I asked her how I could help her business and she said that what they need right now is for more people to register.  That doesn’t sound difficult.  If you are in the Pensacola/Panhandle area, please go to www.toucansave.com and register.  That’s it.  No strings.  It’s free.  If you would like to engage in the referral program, that’s great, too.  We all talk about supporting local businesses.  This is a local business that needs our help and to support them is so simple and free.  Let’s help this local business out.  Hey, maybe if lots of people register she’ll buy more embroidery. LOL.  I would like that.

After she left, I decided that I would get on Facebook and let everyone know how simple it is to help this local business.  I posted this message in almost every group and page that I could.  I emailed many of you and asked you to register.  You know, it felt wonderful to help someone else.  There is an old poem that is one of my favorites.  Without reciting the entire poem the gist is when you are down or feeling low, do something for someone else, quick.  There is a lot of wisdom in that. 

My ToucanSave friend was so grateful for my help, that she is helping me make some connections that I need in my business.  I know a lot of people on the beach, in Gulf Breeze, and Pensacola but I have no connections to Perdido.  I live half way between Pensacola Beach and Perdido Key.  It would be just as easy for me to embroider for people in Perdido Key as it is for me to do embroidery for my Pensacola Beach friends.  These connections are valuable to me.  The whole thing just worked out so sweet.

Remember the Senior Xtremers guy that approached me sometime ago about starting a merchandising line for Senior Xtremers television program?  It turned out that I knew one of his daughters from my WBL group.  This week she contacted me for an embroidery quote.  She works at a place called Officepointe.  They are an office supply company but do so much more.  Part of their business is photocopiers.  They do printing.  They also take in screen printing and embroidery jobs and sub them out.  I happened to be the lucky embroiderer for this particular job.  As it turned out, a friend of mine on Facebook recently resigned his job as a photocopier salesman.  So, I was able to impart that information and ask her to keep him in mind if Officepointe or anyone else that she knows might need someone with those qualifications.  If any of you know of an opening for a photocopier salesman, please email me and I’ll give you my friend’s contact information.

Yesterday I met my new artsy girlfriend for lunch at Bonelli’s Italian Restaurant.  I like to go to Bonelli’s because, well, the food and service is just wonderful.  More than that, I know the owners because my friend and CPA brought the owner’s daughter to a, what else, WBL meeting.   So, when my artsy girlfriend wanted me to suggest a place for lunch, I, of course, suggested Bonelli’s.  Another small business that needs all the help they can get.  As it turned out, our cayenne peppers are abundant and beautiful this year.  My CPA and friend, who I also met at WBL, had dinner with us last weekend and said that Bonelli’s would probably appreciate me giving them some of the peppers.  When I went to meet my artsy girlfriend for lunch, I brought along a bag of peppers.  They did seem grateful.  Sure hope they were able to use the peppers for some scrumptious dish.

My new artsy girlfriend and I bonded almost immediately.  She does beautiful glass art, as well as soap art.  She works full time at MADD and never seems to have the time she would like for her art.  We talked about so many things and found many common likes.  One of the most amazing things is that it turned out that she lives in the same building where the daughter of one of my krewe members lives.  In fact, they know each other.  She brought a box of her soap petals and the fragrance was fabulous.  I cannot even imagine how she gets that soap shaped into those delicate petals.  Her soap company is called “Redhead Soap Works.”  I love that name.  We talked a lot about making soap.  I am definitely going to try my hand at making soap but mine will be functional and not artistic.  We were also partly celebrating that she was approached by an art gallery in New Orleans to show her glass art.   Woohoo!  You go girl!

My artsy friend is Irish American.  She is 1^st generation in the United States.  She doesn’t have an accent, though.  She was able to give me a lot of pointers about potential designs with an Irish flare.  I’m trying to connect her with my dear friend who is also of Irish descent.  Now I’m starting to understand the importance of my friend telling me that she could speak the Irish language.  My artsy friend said it’s because the language is outlawed in Ireland and Scotland.  Amazingly, she was very knowledgeable about the Cajun plight, as well.  Her family came from Ireland to the U.S. via Nova Scotia.  Well, I guess you could say that my family came from Nova Scotia (before it was Nova Scotia and called Acadie).

A gentleman friend on Facebook messaged me about embroidering his company name and his name on a shirt.  His company is Uptown Park Records Incorp.  He turned out to be such a nice young man.  He is only 29.  He said he has owned his own businesses since he was 18 years old.  When he came by today to pick up his shirt, his daughter came with him.  She is an adorable 8 year old.  He is such a nice guy.

Remember the guy from Memphis who bought some tea towels from me at the festival last year?  He placed an order for tee shirts and I shipped them to him earlier this week.  He emailed me today and said he just loves those shirts better in person than he did via photographs (and he loved the photographs).  He did mention that one design didn’t look exactly centered but he just glanced at it and will have to look closer later.  Of course, I told him that I thought it was centered but if he has an issue with it, we will make it right.  I only want happy customers.  So, he emailed me back and told me not to worry about it.  He said that if it looks like it’s not centered when it is worn; he will just keep drinking until it does look centered.  Nice, nice guy.

As I mentioned last week, I had to unfriend 4 people on Facebook because they were hackers.  This week a lady messaged me on Facebook, asking to be my friend and asked if it would be okay if she posted about coffee.  How weird is that?  I friended her and asked her what she meant.  She sells an herbal coffee substitute.  If that floats her boat, that is fine with me.  Personally, I have coffee pumping through my veins and genes.  So, she and I started messaging back and forth and becoming friends.  I explained that I was hesitant because of my recent hacker experiences.  She understood and said that one of her friends had to get the sheriff’s department involved because a hacker was using his name.  When she told me his name I was astounded.  I messaged her back and said that was one of the hackers that I had to de-friend.  Turns out a hacker was using his Facebook page and causing all kinds of havoc.  The guy is a Navy Chaplain and my new friend says he is as kind and nice as can be.

It has been busy here at Cajun Stitchery this week and I love it.  I love people.  They are so interesting and entertaining. 

I’m going to continue the same sale I had last week.  “Does your dog have a job? Is he/she unemployed? Hire your pet to advertise for you. Have your logo embroidered on your dog's jacket. People are drawn to babies and animals. Let Fido earn her keep:>)”  In my endeavor to keep your dogs employed, please read our sale of the week, below:

SALE (good through 9/29/11):  3900 Doggie Skins Doggie Ringer T-Shirt

• 5.8 oz. 100% combed ring-spun cotton baby rib
• Contrast double needle ribbed binding on neck, sleeves & bottom

Colors:  black/raspberry, brown/lt blue, lt blue/navy, pink/raspberry

Sizes:  XS, S, M, L

$9.54 (normal retail price is $10.54) (price is without embroidery)

Even if you don’t want a logo embroidered on the tee shirt, your dog’s name is always a good idea.

CHRISTMAS is around the corner.  Get that Christmas shopping done now and enjoy the holidays.

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. 

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Taken from:  http://www.gumbopages.com/acadiana/

Acadiana is the home of the Cajun people, the descendents of the Acadians, who settled along the bayous and prairies of southwest Louisiana after their expulsion from Acadie (Nova Scotia) in 1755. It is a place of the incredibly rich musical, cultural and culinary traditions of the Cajuns and Creoles, and is a place like no other. Warm and wonderfully hospitable people, many living simple but rich lives, great food, dancehalls ringing with rollicking music and trembling with the combined foot-stomping of hundreds of dancers, and the quiet, singular beauty of the bayous and swamps of the Atchafalaya Basin ...

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.