Cajun Corner - Vol. 4, No. 47

 

Cajun Corner – Vol. 4, No. 47 – December 10, 2012

 

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.

Once again, Cajun Corner is late.  Sorry. 

We have been very busy here at Santa’s Little Workshop.  George and I worked all weekend completing orders.  Heck, we even missed the beach parade.  It certainly was not a depressing weekend.  We had the Christmas music going and it really felt like Santa’s Little Workshop with Clothilde and Boudreaux stitching away.

George now has an embroidery program on his computer and is learning how to download designs.

Last week George decorated the house with a few Christmas things such as a small tree on a table.  We decided that we would go with a small tree this year because Boudreaux now resides in the living room.  Also, because we weren’t sure how Sam would handle a tree.  As it was, George put up our 5 foot Santa with the movement sensor.  Each time something moves in front of the Santa he animates and sings a song, moving back and forth, his head turning and arms swinging.  Sam was startled by Santa and wouldn’t stop barking at him.  We laughed so hard at him.  We turned Santa off.  A few days later, I noticed Sam approaching Santa and nudging his hands, as if to see if they would move.   That dog has kept a smile on our faces all year.

I did get a few minutes this weekend to tend the garden.  One of the tomato plants that we don’t recall planting is producing the largest tomatoes that we have had so far.  Sure wish they would turn red so we could eat them, but they are still green and growing.  We have a lot of cherry tomatoes.  The big beefsteak tomato plants have a few tomatoes on them.  They are still green and bigger than cherry tomatoes but not much. 

We are still harvesting bell peppers.

I know this week’s issue is short but we have to get to work.  Santa’s Workshop is never finished.

Have a Wonderful 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.

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Tip of the Day:

Found at http://roundisfunny.com/?cat=14

Next time you’re in an elevator alone, hit the button for your floor and the “Close Door” button at the same time. This varies by manufacturer, but the elevator may go straight to your floor (as opposed to stopping to pick others up on the way.)

 

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. 39

Cajun Corner – Vol. 3, No. 39 – September 30, 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.

This week was mostly spent getting ready for the festival this weekend, Pensacola Beach 4^th Annual Arts & Wine Festival.  We will be booth #8 at Artists’ Village in the parking lot of the Visitors Center on Pensacola Beach.  The festival is 11 a.m. to 5 p.m. on Saturday and Sunday.  It is free and worth the drive out.  Stop by and say “hi”.

I made so many can wraps this week that one evening I was tired, had a glass of wine and wrote a Can Wrap Rap.  This has been the source of a lot of laughter.  Who knew I could write rap? 

Woke up this morning - to sew and embroider

It keeps me off the streets - so I don't loiter

I wanted to make - something functional

So I - could - have lunch and munch you know

I made a can wrap

Yes I did, it's so cool

I made a can wrap

It's adjustable

Buy my can wrap

Only 7 bucks each

Have a can wrap

And take it to the beach.

Someone mentioned that I should dress like a rapper and have my pants hanging low and my underwear showing.  My response was that the visual image of old lady’s panties showing out the top of the pants is more than I can bear.  However, we were really tempted to dress me up like a rapper with my ball cap on sideways and the whole rap  costume, take a picture and post it on my teenage granddaughter’s Facebook page.  I called my son in Tampa and sang my rap song.  He thinks I’ve lost my mind.  As for the old lady’s panties hanging out the top of the pants, he said, “Mom.  Don’t go there.” 

One of my friends sent a humorous email about how to be a blues singer.  One of the items was how to choose a stage name for a blues singer.  Using that criteria and understanding that this is rap and not the blues, we did coin my rap name – Too Short Cajun Mama.  George is calling me “Too Short.”

We had friends sending in additional lyrics to the rap, as well. 

My neighbors have been writing rap lyrics for everything this week.  Some of you will remember that we named our neighborhood group the Possum Pack.  We took note this week that Heidi the cross-eyed possum passed away in a German zoo.  Yes, this was in the news.  One of our neighbors wrote his rap, Ode to Heidi.

As much fun as we have had with rap lyrics this week, it just goes to show what a great marketing tool jingles are.  Think about the great commercial jingles.  Who remembers:  I’m a pepper, you’re a pepper, he’s a pepper, she’s a pepper, wouldn’t you like to be a pepper, too.  Yep, after all of these years, I still know the Dr. Pepper song.  Or, I’d like to teach the world to sing in perfect harmony – Coca Cola.  Visually, people remember pictures; and, audibly, people remember music and rhyme.  I need to write a Cajun Stitchery jingle.  I’m open to ideas. 

Cajun Stitchery has made some beautiful and fun things this week.  We’ve worked until 11 p.m. almost every night and there is still so much left to do.

We received several Cajun jokes via email from various friends.  These jokes will be used over the next several weeks.  However, the joke for this week is George’s favorite and had us both laughing until we cried.  Keep those jokes coming.

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 Marshall Larrivere for the following:

Walking into the bar, Boudreaux said to Charlie

the bartender, “Pour me a stiff one - just had another fight with the

little wife.”

“Oh yeah?” said Charlie, “And how did this one end?”

“When it was over,” Boudreaux replied, “She came

to me on her hands and knees.”

“Really,” said Charles, “Now that's a switch!?

What did she say?”

She said, “Come out from under the bed, you little

coward.”

=================================================================

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.

Dead and Frozen

Winter has arrived.  I live in Florida for goodness sake.  It's not supposed to be this cold here.  Earlier this week it got down to 20 degrees, in the teens in some areas.  Today was truly a breath of sunshine.  It has started to warm up and the rest of the week should be warmer. 

Of course, that doesn't help my poor little frozen garden.  Those pepper plants produced peppers with a vengance this year.  They were still producing when the freeze hit.  I went out that day and harvested everything that was remaining.  We took in a pretty good haul.  After the freeze, the plants died and I found bunches of peppers that I hadn't even seen that were ready to harvest.  Gee, I hope we get the same kind of plants next year.  So, the garden looks sad right now.  All of those plants are shriveled and dead.  But we have some onions, garlic, carrots, cabbage and broccoli still growing.  Those are all just baby plants but love the cooler weather.  Once we clean up the garden, it will be pretty again, even in the winter.

This has been a glorious Christmas season for Cajun Stitchery.  The work has come in and I can hardly keep up with it.  Have I told you lately that I love to embroider.  I have enjoyed every minute of it.  All of the presents that we are embroidering makes me feel like Mrs. Santa or an elf.  It is just delightful.

Those tea towels have sold like hotcakes.  Especially the white ones.  I had an order for 24 of the white tea towels and another order for 12, of course, with embroidery on them.  We've gone through about 4 dozen of the white tea towels and I've ordered more.  A friend of mine from Louisiana ended a recent email with "Heaux, Heaux, Heaux".  Now isn't that cute.  I embroidered the last 2 white tea towels with "Heaux, Heaux, Heaux" and 2 Santas.  Hope the recent order of tea towels comes in real soon because I already have an order for those towels.

Speaking of towels, I ordered a dozen of the Martex towels from the same company where I get the tea towels.  That's the same company that has disappointed me so much on the bath towels.  I hope these are nice towels.  If not, that's the last bath towels I will order from them.  I just love their tea towels, though.

We have boxes of black satin jackets in the embroidery room.  I was holding off on those because those orders were not for Christmas, but rather for Mardi Gras.  I knew there was going to be some digitizing required and I wanted to incorporate the new mylar digitizing.  One jacket is needed this coming Friday and another lady asked me if I could get her's to her before Christmas.  I'm working on those 2 designs now and I think everyone will be pleased with the results.

I took one day to play on the embroidery machine.  I did a couple of things that I have wanted to do for a long time.  The first was puff embroidery, also called 3-D embroidery.  These designs are specially digitized for puff foam.  You know, craft foam.  Some of the design is stitched out as usual.  When you get to the satin stitches, you let the underlay stitch out and then place the foam on top.  The satin stitches will then stitch.  It's very high density for these satin stitches because you want them to cover the foam entirely.  I did a pair of lips.  There is no way that I can demonstrate with a photograph how this turned out.  The outline of the lips and the highlights of the lips are elevated by the foam.  Up close and personal, this towels is fabulous.  It is so cool.

The other thing that I did was stitch'n'turn Christmas ornaments.  Basically, it's an in-the-hoop (ITH) embroider design.  However, the instructions tell you to cut a slit in the back to turn it and stuff with cotton or whatever you like, then slip stitch the slit closed.  I did that on the first one, then I decided to make the back similar to a sham with 2 sides.  This created a little pouch for a gift card, jewelry, candy, or little trinkets.  And then they can be hung on the tree.  Really cute.  Then my eye caught a glimpse of my lame' fabric.  Wow!  Those ornaments created with lame' are bling, bling, bling.

I did take one of the bath towels and embroider the Heaux, Heaux, Heaux.  Later, I sewed a strip of Christmas plaid fabric at the bottom.  It really looks cool.  I'm thinking about embroidering the word "Christmas" on the plaid part.

I'm under pressure to get this jacket done by Friday.  Part of the pressure is me.  I want it done.  It's our Krewe mermaid in mylar.  One of the girls in the krewe told me a month or two ago that my embroidery just doesn't have enough bling to it.  I guess the truth is that I love heirloom embroidery and work on that premise all of the time.  Those girls have no idea the options available in techniques with good old Boudreaux.  We'll do mylar now.  Someday I want to get into the traupunto, embroidered fringe and other techniques.

Ah, back to work.  C'est tout, mes amis.

Cajun Corner - Vol. 2, No. 47

 Cajun Corner – Vol. 2, No. 47 – December 3, 2010

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.

I received the certified copy of my birth certificate and spent an hour and a half on Monday getting my renewed drivers license. I had to have my birth certificate, 1st marriage license, 2nd marriage license, social security card, 2 pieces of mail addressed to me at my home, and my old driver’s license. When I went to pay the clerk with a check, she said, “Do you have some form of identification?” Yes, she did. I just starred at her. Then we both started laughing.

Delightfully busy is what I would call this week. This house is looking more and more like Santa’s Workshop everyday. We have embroidered pillowcases, tea towels, napkins, wash cloths, towels, t-shirts, jackets, and I don’t even remember everything.

Wednesday evening was my girls’ night. We were all gathered around the counter when one of the girls handed out a Christmas present to each of us. It was a hair wrap that you use when your hair is wet. You twist it into a turban on top of your head. We were all trying to put our’s on and we had demonstrations on how to put it on and we were helping each other. Finally, all of the turbans were on and almost at that moment the front door opened and another group of girlfriends walked in. The comments were hysterical. What are the odds on that? Needless to say we had a lovely evening, as always.

George and I finished off all of the Thanksgiving food and started eating our peppers from the garden again. Yummy. There just isn’t anything like fresh produce, right out of the garden.

Now that I finally found a robe wholesaler that I like, seems to have a good quality products and reasonable prices. My robe order cancelled on me. That’s okay. I needed to find a robe wholesaler. If anyone is interested, I can get a 100% cotton, 3 lb, kimono terrycloth robe, 50” length, for about $30.

Mr. Mattson, our AC man, dropped off the proposal for the house next door. I nearly cried when I saw that it was about half the amount I thought it was going to be. I cried for joy! Well, of course, we agreed immediately and asked how soon he could have it done. I am pleased to announce that we have a brand new, fully functional heat pump next door. We don’t have plumbing, but it is nice and toasty over there.

I think the next item is putting some kind of shower pan in the shower. After that I think we are getting appliances. All I know is that I’m ready for it to be finished.

I received a phone call earlier this week from the Portofino Tennis Shop inquiring about our embroidery services. They saw our ad in the Island Times. We talked for awhile and the gentleman said he would get back with me after the first of the year. I sure hope he does. That would be a real coo for me. The very next day Lee Tracy called me. I met Lee at a Chamber meeting on the beach a few months back and gave her our card. I now have a project to do for Lee and I certainly hope she likes our work and service and hires us again in the future.

I placed our first order for satin jackets on Tuesday. The arrived yesterday and seem to be a nice quality; well sewn. I’m bringing a size M, L, and XL to the SOB brunch on Sunday so the people who are questioning the sizes can try them on. It’s a real good deal on these jackets. $23 for the light lined, adult jacket and $26 for the quilted lined, plus shipping and embroidery. The last shipment was only $7 for shipping. Since I ordered 7 jackets, that’s only $1 apiece for the shipping. Most of the Junkanoos seem to be getting the jacket and ordering the Junkanoo embroidery on the back and their names on the front. This year I am redesigning their logo a bit. I’m going to see if I can turn the red man into a Mylar design. That would be really cool and sparkly.

The Mystic Krewe of Nereids will have their ball tickets on sale beginning December 18th. The Black Tie Ball will be on February 12th at Castaways. Tickets are $35 each. Please contact me or any other Nereid for tickets.

Christmas is coming and customers are doing their Christmas shopping at Cajun Stitchery. Get this out of the way as soon as you can. For all who have businesses out there, remember that we also sell personalized gift baskets.

Always remember that we are just a call or email away at cajunstitchery@yahoo.com or 850-261-2462 and place your order.

ΘΘΘΘΘ

Boudreaux and Marie take a vacation to the Cajun Riviera, Holly Beach Louisiana. They had a great time. Boudreaux buried Marie in the sand on the beach. Then Marie buried Boudreaux in the sand. It was so much fun. Boudreaux buried Marie in the sand. They had so much fun. A year later Boudreaux sat back and was thinking of how much fun they had on the beach. He thought it was so much fun that maybe he would go back there and dig her up.

ΘΘΘΘΘ

French phrase of the week: la barbe du bon Dieu a very good and decent person.

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This week I want to make a plea to everyone to please stop using plastic bags. Go to the website listed below and learn the dangers of using plastic bags and how many other countries in the world have banned them. As an embroiderer, I know that we all have several totes. We just don’t use them. It is incredibly important that we do use them, beginning now.

• Shopping Bags: While shopping, if you only buy a few products skip the shopping bag. For larger purchases, bring your own. Learn about the dangers of plastic bags and what countries around world are doing about it ("The Dangers of Plastic Bags" slide show from Teacher Vishal Mody).

Please let me know if there is something that you would like to see in the weekly email. You may always call me at (850) 261-2462 or email me at cajunstitchery@yahoo.com.

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.

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.

SALE OF THE WEEK (Good through Thursday, December 9, 2010)

Set of 4 hemmed napkins 20” x 20” with single initial embroidered monogram for $16.00 plus tax.

Sale applies only to napkins in stock. Please call for color selection.

Christmas and Arts & Crafts in July

It's Monday morning.   Thank goodness, I think I'm back on a regular sleep schedule.  Monday, of course, is lawn and laundry day at our house.  No lawn today because it's raining.  This is one of the beauties of working out of our home.  I can work and do laundry at the same time.  Also, I don't have to get out in the rain to go to and from work.  Sweet.

This morning 3 of our 4 pots of lemon balm on the deck is dead.  We don't know what happened.  Maybe too much rain.  The lemon balm really does smell like lemons but better than that, it contains natural citronella.  I think we are going to empty the pots in a nice, sunny spot in the yard and try again.  I've never had problems with the lemon balm before, so this is puzzling.

The tomato plants are very lush but no tomatoes.  I looked it up on the internet yesterday and it said that if you have several consecutive days of temperatures over 90 degrees that the fruit will not form.  That must be the case.  So, I'll just continue to pamper my tomato plants and maybe when the temperature gets down in the fall, we will have tomatoes.  At least that's my plan.  Bell peppers and green beans, however, are doing extraordinarily well.

George had planted some hibiscus in the front yard that have blossumed this year.  Those dark pink flowers are gorgeous.

It was a pretty active weekend for us.  Friday night we attended a cocktail party on the beach.  Saturday we met for lunch with George's sister on Perdido Key, and yesterday we had a delightful afternoon with the neighbors celebrating the 4th of July.  I guess most people in the US have a holiday today, but not me.  I don't even mind because I love what I do.  It's part of my life.

I've been working on lace lately.  Today I actually think that I'm going to post some handkerchiefs with my lace on Etsy.  I'm still trying to combine the black and white, french and animal themes throughout.  That's not easy for a girl who loves color.

We have a few orders that need my attention this week.  Some pillowcases, scarves and bags.  I need to get to Cantonment to my favorite fabric store.  Maybe I can do that tomorrow.  They are probably closed today.  I think they are closed on Monday's anyway.  That'll take awhile because once in that store I touch everything and look at everything.  It's my playground.

Also this week, I'm hoping to build a light box.  I've read that a light box will help with the photography of my items.  We'll give it a shot.

Since it's now July, it's time to start thinking about Christmas and the upcoming Arts & Craft Festival on the beach.  Need to work on getting enough items in stock to fill our booth for the October Arts & Craft Festival.  I haven't heard a lot about it this year and I sure hope we are still doing it, in spite of the oil situation.

Also since it's July, I have to pay our quarterly sales tax.  Paying it is not as bad as figuring it out.  Poo yie.  Not my favorite thing to do.

Nevertheless, July is going to be busy.  Since George has the job with Deepwater Horizon now, I am not going to have my right hand man here to help with the embroidery. 

On our Mexico Beach trip we had some fabulous food.  My friend, Lynn, sent the recipes and my absolute favorite was the spinach balls.  I made them the other night.  My intent was to make them and take them to the 4th of July celebration.  However, George and I ate all of them.  I want to make some substitutions to the recipes that keeps the wonderful flavor but leaves out or substitutes some of the high coloric ingredients.  Spinach is so good for you.  It's really the butter and bread crumbs that are the only high caloric ingredients.  I'll see what I can do.  It's an easy recipe that even I can follow.

Back to work.  Stay posted.

Cajun Corner Vol. 2, No. 24

Cajun Corner – Vol. 2, No. 24 – June 18, 2010

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

ΘΘΘΘΘ

Don’t forget to visit  www.cajunstitchery.etsy.com often.

Father’s Day is Sunday. Make sure you treat your father special, at least for that one day. If you are near the Gulf Coast, take him out to dinner on the beach. Those businesses really need patrons since the tourist count is down. I think I’m going to take George to the beach this weekend to celebrate.

Speaking of the beach, last weekend we went to the beach and ate at Peg Leg Pete’s and then went down to Ft. Pickens. I wrote the story in the Monday blog but the lady at the gate asked George is he was 62. He got a life time pass to all federal parks for $10. There are a few perks with getting old. Ha-ha.

This week has been consumed with Etsy. I’m trying to put something new on Etsy everyday. There is so much competition on the internet. Suffice it to say that I joined Twitter, Kaboodle, Tumblr, Google Analytic and StumbleUpon in addition to Linkedin, Facebook, Blogger, Picassa, Feedjit, Etsy and some others that I already belong to. I post on the Blogger site every Monday, Wednesday and Friday, routinely. Tumblr is also a blog and I’ve gotten to like that one a bit because I can blog snippets during the day and post pictures of things I’m doing. I’m not sure I can handle all of these but I need to get customers. I need to continually evaluate what are my pros and what are my cons. I can read, write, sew, and embroider. And I have been reading everything I can get my hands on to market the Etsy shop. I’ve implemented most everything that I can. Then I found one forum on Etsy where the shop owner said they did all of the tweets, links, hits and found in the end, the thing that worked was just to do what they love doing – crafting and posting the items for sale.

Since I have been participating on the Etsy forums I was included in a “Treasury” this week. I was so excited. A treasury is where other shop owners at Etsy pick a theme and then chose 12 of their favorite items from other Etsiers’ stores to feature in the “Treasury.” That was real nice because it kind of meant to me that it was acceptance by my peers on Etsy.

Between Google Analytics and Feedjit (both are analytics showing the statistics of visitors and other technical stuff) my visitors to Etsy come either directly to our shop or via Kaboodle. A lot come from this blog and blogs that have listed us in their favorites. If you have a blog, please include Cajun Stitchery and we will be glad to reciprocate.

The patriotic visors with the stripes on the bill, blue headband and stars on the headband are now SOLD OUT. Yay!!! We still have the visors with the flag on the bill, red headband and the flag on the Velcro closure in the back. $5 for the visor plus $5 for most embroidered names or initials.

We also have a dozen burgundy ponytail caps and a dozen khaki with green bill ponytail caps. Passing on that sale is the same deal $5 per cap and $5 for most names or initials embroidered.

My friend, DJ, stopped by this week to visit and pick up her mermaid droid phone holders. We had such a lovely time. I only wish she could have stayed longer.

It’s getting hotter and hotter outside and the garden kind of weeps in the middle of the day but that garden just gets prettier and prettier. We have been harvesting tomatoes and bell peppers.

I’m still working on Etsy. I’ve rearranged our store on Etsy several times. I’m trying to get a new item on their everyday, although some days I don’t. Now I’m reading the forums and participating in that way. Etsy says that by participating in the forums you get your name out to other Etsiers and that’s a good thing.

One of my friends has ordered a set of 4 black napkins with red embroidery for a wedding gift. The engaged couple have registered for red and black plates. These napkins are going to be beautiful. Since my friend is working out of town right now, I’ve proposed that we do these napkins through Etsy and I can wrap the gift, include the card, and send onto the newlyweds, who are also out of town. Ha! Customers don’t even need to come to the house anymore, if they don’t want to. We can handle it all. Service with a smile:>)

I also have another set of pillowcases to design and embroider for someone special in my life.

I better get back to work. Have a wonderful week, everyone.

Always remember that we are just a call or email away at cajunstitchery@yahoo.com or 850-261-2462 and place your order.

ΘΘΘΘΘ

Years ago, when Boudreaux was a college freshman, being fresh off the farm, and a rather healthy young man, he figured he'd try out for the football team. "Can you tackle?" asked the coach. "Watch dis," Boudreaux told him, and proceeded to run smack into a telephone pole, shattering it to splinters. "Wow," said the coach. "I'm impressed. Can you run?" "Mais, sure I can run," said Boudreaux. He was off like a shot, and, in just over nine seconds, he had run a hundred yard dash. "Great!" exclaimed the excited coach. "But can you pass a football?" Boudreaux rolled his eyes, hesitated for a few seconds. "Mais, Coach," he said, "if I can swallow it, I can probably pass it."

ΘΘΘΘΘ

French phrase of the week: puits d'huile oil well

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From: http://www.dailyecotips.com/

When you live in a hot part of the country during the summer, you know how important your air conditioner is to your comfort. It is also important that it doesn’t drive up your energy costs and there are some simple things that you can do that can keep this from happening.

• Thermal Curtains- These are a great solution to keep heat sources, like sunlight, from entering your house. For those on a budget you can just put these in the rooms that get the most sunlight. If you don’t want to go and buy new curtains and have heavy curtains you put up in the winter, they will work just as well.

• Blinds- If you have blinds up closing them will help to keep most of the sunlight out of your house and keep the house cooler during the day.

• AC Itself- Turn it off when you are not in the house to enjoy it. This seems like a simple tip but letting it run while you are not in the house uses energy that you don’t enjoy. Also if you are home alone and have window units, only keep the one on in the room that you are in. This will save energy cost and keep you comfortable.

• Blankets- It doesn’t seem possible that I would be talking about blankets and heat but it does happen. Instead of turning the air conditioning down so much at night, use a lighter blanket and you can turn the temperature up and save on energy.

• Maintenance- Clean your air conditioner if you have central air. Upgrade to an Energy Star unit if you have window units. This will keep your wallet and the Earth happy.

• Shade- When considering where to put your air conditioning unit, make sure that they are in the shade. This will keep the air conditioner from having to work so hard and will not use as much energy.

Please let me know if there is something that you would like to see in the weekly email. You may always call me at (850) 261-2462 or email me at cajunstitchery@yahoo.com.

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.

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.

SALE OF THE WEEK (Good through Thursday, June 24, 2010)

PONYTAIL CAP SALE!!!

We have one dozen of each of the burgundy and green bill with khaki crown ponytail cap styles in the photographs. This sale is for these 2 dozen visors. First come, first serve.

The ponytail caps have a brass slide closure.

Sale: one ponytail cap without embroidery is $5.00 plus tax/shipping. We will be glad to embroider on the cap, upon request. Most embroidered names or initials are only $5.00.
(Note: We still have a few of the patriotic visors for $5 each, first come, first serve, until they are gone.)

Tomatoes, Bell Peppers, Bowties and Ball Caps

We had planned a Memorial Day neighborhood get together but Monday morning was raining cats and dogs.  So, we cancelled.  By afternoon the sun was out and it turned out to be a beautiful day.  We should never have cancelled the get together.  However, all was not lost because I either visited or was visited by all of our neighbors, one at a time, on Monday. 

The oil spill is getting closer and closer to Pensacola and we are just holding our breath.  I really try to think of something positive about everything.  This one has been hard.  I just hope that this spill opens the eyes about our environmental issues and how delicate our environment really is.  I hope this spill stops any more oil wells in the Gulf of Mexico -- forever.

I learned how to boil peanuts this past week.  I've never been a big fan of boiled peanuts.  However, George loves them.  But I must admit they were simple to boil and they did taste good.  Of course, since our Memorial Day get together was cancelled, we have a bunch of boiled peanuts in our frig. 

The other thing is that we grow the stevia.  You know, the plant from Paraguay that has 300 times the sweetness of processed sugar.  It is prolific at my house.  I was reading about how to actually use it.  My first attempt was in iced tea.  I boiled 3 sprigs of the stevia with the tea and it tasted really good.  It could have been sweeter.  The next batch was boiled with 4 sprigs of stevia -- perfect.  You strain out the leaves, along with the tea bags.  Who knows.  I may even include the lemon balm in the next batch.  Lemon balm is supposed to make a really good tea.

The garden is beautiful.  We picked our first tomatoes and bell peppers.  Yummy.  These are our first normal sized tomatoes.  We've only been able to grow the cherry tomatoes before.  There really isn't a lot to plant in the summer except for okra and eggplant.  We planted some eggplant seeds but the rest of the garden is now planted in flowers -- at least, until August when we plant the fall garden.

Those ball caps are something else.  George has the ball cap attachment down pat on the embroidery machine.  We embroidered my Cajun Stitchery cap and then we had to learn a few things.  Good hooping is going to take a lot of practice.  The designs are digitized differently than designs for flat goods.  Plus the designs are small, no more than 2 inches tall.  Wide is okay but height is no more than 2 inches.  As they say, practice makes perfect, and the credit really goes to George, who has worked with this thing.  There was a hooping dilemma.  I think George has figured that out.  We are working together on digitizing designs that work on the ball cap apparatus.  So far, so good.  George embroidered some really nice visors today. 

Funny story about the Junkanoo ball caps.  We knew we needed to get that design cap friendly.  We messed up on the first few and just kept tweaking.  We did a white ball cap with the Junkanoo design but the "Krewe of" at the very top was not as bold as it should be.  Then we fixed that and in the end we had several Junkanoo caps tossed to the side as experiments.  Several weren't really bad but we could see it and knew what the problem was.  Yesterday, one of the Junkanoo ladies dropped a jacket off and I had the white Junkanoo hat on.  She bought the hat right off of my head -- literally.  haha  Wish I had take a picture of the white Junkanoo ball cap. 

I'm still working with the Etsy store.  I've been reading a lot of articles and trying to do what they say.  I need to put something new in the Etsy store every day or so.  I don't want to make the same thing all of the time.  I decided to make a bow tie.  I have to make a bow tie for George to wear to the upcoming Fiesta Ball anyway.  I made one and it turned out so nice but I don't have the hardware for it.  All I have are hooks and eyes and snaps or velcro.  I looked all over the internet for the slide and hook for a bowtie.  I can't find them.  I noticed one lady on Etsy selling bowties and she had a clasp.  I went looking for the clasp.  In usual Peggy fashion, I found the clasp and bought a bunch of stuff that I'm sure I don't even need.  So, I'm at a standstill until the hardware arrives.  Last night I made a bowtie that doesn't use the hardware.  The problem is that so few men or women know how to tie a bowtie, hence the hardware.  I guess I could sell the bowtie and give instructions on how to tie it, but even George kind of frowns on that one.  Anyway, to my surprise browsing around Etsy, girls wear bowties, guys were bowties, little boys wear bowties, and even dogs wear bowties.  I might try one or two on Etsy and see how it goes.