Cajun Corner - Vol. 4, No. 6 Mardi Gras Edition

Cajun Corner – Vol. 4, No. 6 – February 17, 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.

The Krewe of Bananimals’ jackets have been done.  They are beautiful.  Some had their names embroidered on the front, others had musical notes embroidered in metallic thread on the sleeves, there were a couple who had their Queen year embroidered on the back, and one had large music notes embroidered in metallic thread down the tail.  Most of the tux jackets are white but there was a red and a black one, as well.  We even embroidered the krewe logo onto some hand towels. This was definitely a fun project and I do hope more of these jackets come my way for embroidery.

Our parade is this Sunday.  Since we are in the parade, we won’t get to see the Bananimals.  Prior to the parade is the krewe parties at line up.  George and I will try to find the Bananimals’ float so we can see all of the embroidery.  Plus I have a few extra goodies for them.

Our float and costumes are pretty much ready for the parade.  This is going to be a wild and crazy weekend.  This afternoon is dance practice, followed by our own Cowboy Carl cooking up his famous chili for dinner.  Tomorrow we will pack up all of our Mardi Gras stuff and head out to the beach around 4:00 or 5:00.  The rest of the krewe goes to the Krewe of Wrecks’ breakfast and a street dance afterwards.  By the time we get there, the party will be well on its way and the girls should be coming home to our Krewe Den to party the night away.  Sunday morning one of our sweet little MerMaidens will cook breakfast and we should be in line-up by 10:30.  The parade begins at 2:00.  After the parade we end up at the Pavilion where trophies are awarded and our krewe dances.  We will party Sunday night and we dance again on Monday at Red Beans & Rice in Casino Beach Parking Lot.  Finally, George and I will drag ourselves home late Monday afternoon full of wonderful memories and anticipation of next year’s parade and festivities.

Last week was the Kids and Kritter Crawl.  It is a mini Mardi Gras parade for the beach children and everyone brings their pets to parade.  A friend of mine borrowed Stinky’s Mermutt costume from when Stinky was in the parade.  It fit Daisy perfectly.  In fact, we got tickled because my friend doesn’t have a dog but wanted to take one of her friend’s dog.  When all was said and done, it turned out that the dog was Daisy.  Daisy is the first dog, other than my own, who I had made a collar.  Her owner asked me, at that time, if he could say that I was Daisy’s seamstress.  I assured him that would be fine.  That made the Kritter Crawl even more precious because, again, Daisy was wearing a Cajun Stitchery original.

Once Mardi Gras is over, it is back to my WBL group.  I love and miss those girls, too.  They have become such a wonderful support group.  In fact, the Saturday after Mardi Gras we are cooking dinner for our CPA.  I think we will have boiled shrimp. 

Speaking of cooking, I saw a recipe on Pinterest for roasted chick peas.  It is a healthy snack food.  I made it yesterday.  It was okay.  It’s one of those things that you can’t eat just one.  It did make a good snack and you cannot go wrong with chick peas instead of potato chips or nachos.  The nice thing is that it’s easy to make.

The girls had a wonderful time at the Krewe of Wrecks Ball last week.  One of the girls even won first place for her costume.  The theme was red, white and blue and she dressed up like Rosie the Riveter.  The evening became a slumber party at our krewe den.  Many of the girls that were not attending the ball decided to have a slumber party.  Some of the girls who did attend the ball came by krewe den afterwards and spent the night.  I was not able to attend but I understand they had a wonderful, hilarious evening.

My favorite fabric store is closed.  I had not been there for over a year.  You will recall that I’m trying to use up all the fabric that I have.  Now that I know it is true that my fabric store has closed, I’m panicking.  I have looked and looked online but have found nothing impressive.  Right now the best deal that I can get on fabric is at Wal-Mart.  We do have a Jo-Ann’s on the other side of town but I’ve never been very impressed with Jo-Ann’s.  There are a few designer type fabric stores around, but that’s not what I want.  Then there is A&E.  It is close to me and they do carry a huge selection.  I like A&E but find them a bit pricey for my blood.  I do go to A&E when I need something right away, but otherwise I’m stuck with Wal-Mart.   I wish I could find a place where the fabric and notions are made in the USA and is easily accessible to me.

The weather this winter has been odd.  We have had a few really cold days but not many.  The garden thinks it is spring and then goes into shock when it does get cold.  It seems that each week we have a day or two of very nice weather, then we get rain, and then it gets cold.

Because of our big Bananimals order, we finally broke down and bought a clothes rack.  The clothes rack takes up a lot of room in the little studio but it is something we’ve needed for awhile and I’m glad we got it.  It is on rollers, has 2 racks to hang clothes, and a bottom shelf for other things.  It is also adjustable but not totally collapsible.  It will come in very handy for craft fairs but also when customers come to the house, our stock shirts and jackets can now be displayed.  In fact, we still have some stock items that we need to clear out.

Rhinestones have been the hit this season.  Our Costume Committee is so addicted to rhinestoning that they are blinging just about everything in sight.  One of the girls and I already had our rhinestone heating wands.  The committee purchased two more.  Once the girls begin applying the rhinestones, they just cannot seem to stop.  Even some of the girls who stay away from the costuming have found themselves addicted.  We’d look for a 12 step program, but we really don’t want to stop.

This year I made a couple of pennants for our float.  I was so excited because I got to use my new grommet machine.  I still want to get the snap machine but cannot seem to find one.  It happened that one of the Krewe of Bananimals owns a local tool company and I was asking him about it.  He said to call the company on the side of the grommet machine and see if they have the snap machine and if not, call one of our local canvas and sail makers and see if they can tell me where they get their snap machines.  Great ideas.  I’ll do that next week. 

Have a wonderful Mardi Gras week and don’t forget to SMILE:>)

HAPPY MARDI GRAS

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. 

Found at:  http://www.ehow.com/way_5206164_ideas-recycled-crafts.html

Recycle, reduce and reuse. Using things destined for the recycle bin in craft projects is not limited to children's egg carton and paper tube crafts. There are plenty of adult ways to turn trash into treasure. Recycled crafts serve a dual purpose; they keep items from entering the landfill by giving them a second life and they are economical because new supplies don't need to be purchased.

Found at:  http://www.ehow.com/slideshow_12217564_easy-start-indoor-herb-garden.html

Starting an indoor herb garden is a great introduction to growing your own edibles. It may take some light research, a little elbow grease and some patience, but you'll be rewarded with tasty herbs, plants that add ambiance and style, and a hobby that will last a lifetime.

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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. 30

Cajun Corner – Vol. 3, No. 30 – July 29, 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.

Another week without my girls.  Wednesday night I got in my car to go and the Power Pup died.  No fear.  George went out the following morning and installed a new battery and the car is fine now.  But I did miss my girls for the second week in a row.  Tonight is our monthly Nereid meeting and I cannot wait.  In fact, I may be taking some homemade hummus with me.

George and I love beans.  Beans don’t always love us.  Nevertheless, I was looking in the cupboard the other day and I saw a bag of chick peas.  I began cooking them as I would any other dried bean.  Hours and hours went by and they still were not soft.  That is when I decided to look up how to prepare chick peas a/k/a garbanzo beans.  I always thought they were a Mexican bean but apparently chick peas originally come from the Mediterranean area.  Hummus, that wonderful dip, is made from chick peas.  Then I looked up recipes for hummus, just to make sure.  Sure enough, chick peas and some spices and you have hummus.

Another discovery was that chick peas have a nutty taste.  They are delicious and George mentioned that they taste similar to boiled peanuts.  So, we began eating them like boiled peanuts.  We have a new snack food at our house now.  They are wonderful.

The idea of hummus remained in the back of my mind.  After we had our fill of chick peas, I decided to try making hummus to share with the girls tonight.  I located a recipe called “Quick and Easy Hummus.”  Oh, that is for me.  The only thing better would be “Hummus for Dummies.”  The recipe seemed straight forward enough.  Get a can of chick peas.  I had leftovers and they didn’t come in a can but that shouldn’t be a problem.  Put the chick peas, 2 tablespoons of lemon juice, ½ teaspoon of cumin, 3 cloves of garlic, and 2 oz of fresh sliced jalapeno pepper in a food processor or blender.  I have two food processors.  One is a little baby one and the other is the big one.  I thought I would use the little baby one.  I put about half of the chick peas in the baby food processor and started processing.  That worked very well.  I added the lemon juice, cumin, and used garlic powder instead of cloves of garlic.  That worked well.  It just so happens that we are growing jalapenos in the garden.  The recipe did say “fresh.”  I picked a fresh jalapeno right off the plant, took the seeds out and sliced the jalapeno.  I don’t know what 2 oz of jalapeno looks like, so I added the whole jalapeno to the chick pea mixture and cranked up the food processor.  I guess I should have processed the peppers first because they weren’t really getting chopped up well.  I poured everything into a bowl and began fishing out the pieces of pepper and some of the chick peas that hadn’t been processed completely.  All of that went back into the food processor.  It looked pretty dry.  The recipe did say to add 2 tablespoons full of the juice in the can.  I didn’t have a lot of juice; so, I just poured what I had into the mixture and processed some more.  Still had a dickens of a time chopping those jalapenos, but they were getting smaller and smaller.  Now was the time to taste.  It tasted wonderful, like a spicy hummus.  Then my mouth began to catch fire.  Apparently our fresh jalapenos are super hot.  My girls will never stand for something that spicy.  So, I added the rest of the chick peas and began processing those to reduce the heat of the pepper.  Now I had too much hummus to fit into the little food processor.  I ended up taking out the big, supersonic blender.  I bought this blender for George when I was working and he was cooking dinner and taking care of Mama.  This was his dream blender.  We have only used that blender once or twice since I bought it.  Here was our chance to use it again.  The blender did the trick.  I did add a tablespoon of water because the hummus was kind of dry.  Adding the extra chick peas did the trick.  It is still spicy but oooo la la is it good, cher.  It is chilling in the fridge right now.  I sure hope I don’t forget to take it tonight.

I mentioned the supersonic blender.  I have learned that men, specifically George, like power everything.  Several years back, George bought a shop vac.  I loved that vacuum cleaner.  It did wet/dry vacuuming.  The filter was a sponge, so I didn’t have to constantly pick up filters at the store.  It was easy to just dump the canister when it was full.  There was enough power to do the job fast and clean.  I was happy. Then one day my shop vac died.  George bought me a new one.  When he brought it in, I could see the pride in his eyes.  He knew he purchased the most perfect vacuum cleaner in the world for me.  However, his joy was not necessarily reciprocated by me.  The canister had to be capable of holding every piece of dirt in my house for 50 years.  The thing was huge and much too big for me to maneuver through my little house.  Who would want to disappoint George?  More than the size, he was proud of the powerful suction.  I turned it on and I could have sucked everything from my utility shed into the thing without leaving my kitchen.  The hose was much too big for my little hands to hold and when turned on, I was at the mercy of where the hose wanted to go, rather than vice versa.  That was the most powerful vacuum cleaner I have ever seen.  He returned it to the store and bought me something much more manageable.  So, when I say I bought George a supersonic blender.  It was the most powerful blender on the market at the time.

This week I embroidered and appliquéd a design onto one of the white beach towels.  I am so pleased with these towels.  The mermaid design turned out beautifully.  The customer plans to give this as a gift to her daughter.

I realized that the Pensacola Beach Arts and Wine Festival is just a couple of months away.  I began creating pot holders.  In my cache of embroidery designs, there are some in-the-hoop pot holders.  Once these were stitched out I realized they were too small.  Yes, they could be used as pot holders but I like a bigger pot holder.  So, I measured my favorite pot holder and began digitizing my own in-the-hoop pot holder.  We had several tries that failed, but in the end the pot holder was created.

Have I ever told the story of the pot holders?  Pot holders were the first thing that Mama taught me to sew.  She would take a bottom piece of fabric and a top piece of fabric.  In the middle she would put scrap fabric until she got the thickness she desired.  Then she would take the entire sandwich of fabric and quilt it by sewing straight lines at even intervals and then turning the fabric and more lines, forming squares.  The edges would be trimmed and bias tape applied to the edges, leaving a loop at one corner for hanging the pot holder on a hook.  That’s simple enough.  To do that on an embroidery machine is not so simple.  Scrap fabric can be used but only if the layer of fabric covers the area of the pot holder.  Rather than bias tape, our pot holder has a satin stitched edge.  Some of our pot holders have a ribbon or fabric loop, some do not.  Of course, with the embroidery machine, we can do plain quilting, but also add some beautiful embroidered designs, as well as personalize the pot holder.   Some of the designs have some intense embroidery on them with lots of stitching.  Right now, though, I am thinking about selling for $8 each.  They would make great gifts, especially when personalized to say (Name)’s Kitchen or something like that.

SALE:  One of my wholesalers is having a closeout sale on this shirt.  The sale is good until they are out of stock.  They are completely out of the colors but do have white remaining.  I can sell these for $12, plus shipping.  It is a good deal and would make a nice present for any guy.  These are going fast.  If you want one let me know ASAP and I’ll check the wholesaler’s stock for you.  See attached photo.

JC514 Jonathan Corey Birdseye Herringbone Golf

• 6.4 oz. 100% combed, ring-spun cotton
• Tipped birdseye collar & welt cuffs
• Three woodtone buttons
• Extended tail with side vents

Color:  White/burgundy

Sizes:  S, M, L, XL, 2X, 3X

Color:  White/khaki

Sizes:  S, M, 3X

Color:  White/Royal

Sizes:  S, M, L, XL, 2X, 3X

Color:  White/Spruce

Sizes:  S, M, L, XL, 2X, 3X

CHRISTMAS is around the corner.  Unbelievable, I know.  But it is July.  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. 

The following is taken from http://www.terriau.org/bayou/bayu27.htm#TOP

ON THE BAYOU

Barefoot, I walked along the edge of the bayou
Where the child I had been, ran and laughed and played.
The cushiony emerald green grass I trod on
Tickled my feet and made my heart smile.

The old hickory tree was still there, brave and tall,
And small clouds floated above it, standing out
Like swatches of cotton against the denim sky,
The golden sun completed the heavenly picture.

A passing boat disturbed the water and its wake
Sent ripples of gold-brown water to the shore,
With little fingers reaching out to bathe and tickle
My tired and aching naked toes.

I saw again the other shore where long ago,
I gathered berries and climbed trees to pick muscadines.
I saw the heavy vines we used to swing out over the bayou
And let go just at the right moment to drop into the water.

The little rustic house I lived in when I was young,
No longer stands. Someone built a car-wash right where Grandpa's garden was,
And the State put in a new road and built a new bridge
Right where I used to tie up my little pirogue.

There is one thing no one can ever change, though.
No matter where I go or where I've been
No matter what I've done, no matter the places I've seen,
The bayou will always be the home I hold in my heart.

~MizMo

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Cajun French Phrase of the Week:

Avoir= To have
Cajun says
J'ai=I have
T'as= You have
Il a= He has
Elle a=She has
On a =We have
Vous autres a= you have plural
Ils ont=They have
Eux autres a= they have
Eusse a=They have

Taken from:  http://www.acadian-roots.com/cajun-names.html

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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.