Cajun Corner – Vol. 6, No. 2 – January12, 2014

 

Cajun Corner – Vol. 6, No. 2 – January12, 2014

 

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.

Yesterday was our Krewe’s King Kake Party and it was fabulous.  Laissez les bon temps rouler!  And it starts.

Last week when I could get some free time Boudreaux was busy embroidering Mardi gras masks and everything purple, green and gold.  We have turtle masks done.  Now I’m working on the butterfly masks.  I still need to get the mermaids and fleur de lis masks made.  There are so many more ideas in my head.

I took several pictures of how to put the new mask onto a pair of glasses.  The photos were posted on FaceBook and a few other places on the internet but I’m still trying to figure out how to post in our Etsy Store.  I will figure it out and see if we can get some mask sales.

The new pouch that I made to replace my older denim pouch that I use to carry my cell phone and items has worked out beautifully.  I carry it with me everywhere in place of a bulky purse.  Of course, if I have a lot of stuff to haul, I put the pouch in my big purse.  There are just a few items that I need to have on me at all times and they all fit in the 4.5” x 6.5” pouch.  It is just such a hassle to carry a big purse to a restaurant or bar or wherever because you have to watch it when you are in public and you usually have to put your purse under a table or next to a chair.  The little pouch doesn’t take up much room and can be placed on a table.  A tab is built into the side of the pouch to carry my keys and to hold the pouch.  A friend of mine said she would prefer a shoulder strap and says that would be even more convenient.  I would be interested in everyone’s opinion on whether or not a shoulder strap would be a needed addition to the pouch.  A cord could certainly be attached and when you aren’t using the shoulder strap, it could be tucked into the pouch.  Let me know what you think.

 

HAVE A GREAT WEEK

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Thank you Bob for the following:

A senior couple decided to go shopping one day, and split their efforts by going separate ways. Near the end of the shopping event they decided to get together for lunch. As the woman was on her way to the rendezvous point, she heard a traffic warning on the radio that a car was driving in the wrong direction up ahead. Knowing that her husband was near the point of the warning, she decided to call him on the cell phone. When he answered, she explained, "I just heard on the news, someone is driving in the wrong direction on the highway!" And the husband replied, "One? There are hundreds of folks going the wrong way where I am!"

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.

4th of July Party - Food Tent - Creating a Design

Several years back I found the cutest food tent at Dollar Tree.  I have kicked myself for years for not buying several of these food tents.  It opens like an umbrella without the handle.  You open it and put it over your food to keep the flies and bugs off of the dish.  When you need to store it, it closes just like an umbrella.  Not to mention it is red, white and blue. 

Since our 4th of July Party "Under the Live Oak" is outside, we need a means of keeping the flies and bugs off of the food.  As mentioned in the earlier post on this party, we do have the canopy tent, tables and tablecloth.  Now we need something to cover the food.  I began doing searches on the internet for ideas and tutorials on food tents.  The searches revealed a lot of big, regular tents with food inside.  That's not what I wanted.  Finally, there were some food tents like I want when you begin searching for camping and supplies.  Still there weren't a lot.  Pinterest has become my source for so many things these day.  A search in Pinterest for food tents brought up a wealth of food tent ideas.  Of course, I plan on making our's.  Even Pinterest didn't help much with tutorials.  One tutorial that I found was cute.  It was simply a square of tulle or netting with 6" binding on all four sides and weighted with metal washers.  The food tent is flat like a napkin to go over the dish.  I really don't want something that touches the food.  I do want something where you can see the food, so, any kind of solid fabric was out.  I did like the idea of the binding and the washers, though.  It actually reminded me that when Mama used to make curtains, she would tape a bunch of bb's in masking tape and sew into the corner of the hems to weight the curtain down to keep them from curling.  The food tent would need something to hold it down and this is a great idea -- blast from the past.


Netting or tulle would be good, but George felt that it was not sturdy enough.  Men!  Everything has to be tough and durable.  However, since we are outside and there will be several "men" there, it probably is a good idea to find something more durable.  A trip to Lowe's and George came home with a roll of fiberglass screen, 84" by 48".  It is durable.  I can sew and embroider on it.  It is see through.  Perfect!

A trip to Wal-Mart took me to their fabric department.  Yep!  Our Wal-Mart still has a fabric department.  To my surprise, our fabric department has been revamped and enlarged.  The fabric prices have gone up, too.  Nevertheless, I began looking for red, cotton fabric for the trim on the food tent.  They had solid red in silks and satins, even netting, but not in plain broadcloth.  While browsing through a wonderland of fabric, it dawned on me that I've been saving old ripped blue jeans for a long time.  I'll make the binding out of blue jean fabric.  Denim is very durable and it is blue.


Next is to design a pattern.  George and I have talked and talked about what we think the food tent should be.  Should I copy the umbrella food tent that we have?  Should it cover one dish or the whole table?  If we were to use the umbrella food tent, then people would have a plate and utensils in their hands and have to pick up the food tent and put it somewhere so they could dish up their food and replace the food tent.  You would need more than 2 hands for this, plus someplace to put the tent until it is returned over the dish.  We decided that the food tent will need a door that opens and closes.  Not unlike an Indian tent.  We also need a frame.  It needs to be something that can collapse when not in use.  We finally decided on a full table food tent.  The framing will be PVC pipe, shaped kind of like the frame for a swing set.  The fabric will be fiberglass screen with blue denim trim weighted down.  The tent will require some kind of opening for easy accessibility to the food.  Velcro seems to be the obvious choice but we have decided against Velcro because it could be hard to open with one hand.  Right now I'm thinking about an opening more like the Roman shades that I make.  Just pull the cord and wrap around a cleat to keep it up; unwrap the cleat to close.

Another trip to Lowes and George has all of the screening that we will need.  He purchased some small PVC pipe and will play around with the pipe and various couplings this evening.  Once he has the frame made, then I will be able to take measurements and design the pattern for the screen.  In the meantime, I'm cutting up old blue jeans and preparing for the denim trim.

One week until the 4th of July and time is running out.  I feel the pressure:>)

To be continued ...

Cajun Corner Vol 2 No 6

Cajun Corner – Vol. 2, No. 6 – February 5, 2010


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

ΘΘΘΘΘ

Don’t forget to visit our blog at http://www.cajunstitchery.etsy.com/ often.

My first ball of the season was the Mystic Krewe of Nereids’ Masquerade Ball. In the best Nereid fashion, we stunned everyone. Our Queen was not able to make the ball due to a prior engagement that had been set for nearly a year and could not be changed. So, our Queen joined us via a prerecorded video. In addition, we had taken a mannequin, dressed it up in our Queen’s attire, enlarged a photo of our Queen’s face, put a wig on it, and all of the queenly trappings and voila our Queen joined in the festivities. It was truly hilarious. She was on the dance floor with everyone and only lost her head a couple of times. I heard that in the buffet line, her clothes fell off and several Nereid subjects immediately re-dressed her. Needless to say it was a fun and special evening.

Upon her return, our Queen met her twin. It was appropriate that she said “off with her head” since this year’s parade is on Valentine’s Day and she was merely acting as the Queen of Hearts. Yep, the mannequin had to be returned from whence it came and the queen’s head has sat on the television at krewe den all week. I believe the head was head has now been returned as well.

The next ball that I will attend is this Saturday night, the Krewe of Wrecks Ball. The Krewe of Wrecks is our mother krewe. In New Orleans they have the Krewe of Rex, but on our beach we have the Krewe of Wrecks. This is a very special year for the Krewe of Wrecks. It is the 30th Anniversary. Of course, I have another gorgeous gown to wear – thanks Judy.

In the meantime, the float is coming along just fine. Everything that we can do on the float in the garage will be finished this weekend and next Wednesday we are rolling her out to the street for the decorations too high for the garage.

In fact, Cajun Stitchery will be closed next Wednesday through the following Monday. We will re-open on Mardi Gras Day since our parade is on Sunday. We will be in and out that week because we have to clean up Krewe Den, put our stuff back into storage and say goodbye to Mardi Gras. I’ll have my cell phone with me.

We have done some beautiful embroidery this Mardi Gras season and I believe I have captured it all in photographs, albeit not the best photographs in the world. There are still more to come.

Most of you know that George used to work in animal care at our local zoo and later at the Wildlife Sanctuary. They used to have the most fabulous group of animal care people at the zoo when George worked there. That group of people were very tight friends and truly loved those animals. Not to mention they loved to party, too. As time has gone by, we lost touch with these wonderful people. I am not joking when I say that animal care people are a breed apart. Animal care is not a high paying job and there is only one reason that anyone would stay in that field – they truly care about the animals. This week on Facebook, George found one of his zoo buddies, then another and by now I think we have most of the animal people connected on Facebook. It was like a family reunion. Most are far away now, but a few are still local and Facebook brought them all together again. We have already started embroidering animals.

More Junkanoo jackets are coming in today. If I wasn’t a Nereid, I’d be a Junkanoo. These people are fabulous and have such a wonderful camaraderie. Keep those jackets coming.

The Saints are headed for the Super Bowl on Sunday. The other day on the news they said that there had been some controversy about using the phrase “Who Dat.” I know I was concerned about legal consequences and wouldn’t embroider the phrase. The Saints legal staff has said as long as the printers/embroiders don’t connect the Who Dat with New Orleans or the Saints, there is nothing prohibiting the embroidery and printing of the phrase. Cajun Stitchery can embroider WHO DAT on everything. Just give me a call.
Always remember that we are just a call or email away at cajunstitchery@yahoo.com or 850-261-2462 and place your order.

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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.

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French phrase of the week: Il y a du vent. (There is a wind.)

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When George was a little boy his dad and uncles used take him along when they went to golf. As time went by, he even caddied for golfers at the local range in Atlanta. He used to tell me that he could go out on the golf course and retrieve numerous golf balls that the golfers had lost and then sell them to golfers. That became a rather lucrative pastime for him in those early years.

George’s stories of selling the golf balls were revisited after I found a website http://www.greenecoservices.com/re-use-recycle-make-money-golf-balls. Here are some excerpts:

I Just Gotta Tell Ya

• Over 1 Billion Golf Balls are sold every year

• 1 Palm Tree cut down at the Olympic Club in San Francisco in 1999 and disgorged 200 golf balls

• In an average year, all but the scuzziest of ranges will replace 100 percent of their golf ball stock. Gartner figures that 40 percent or so are lost in the mire or over the fence; 40 percent are “retired” to the garbage bin and the rest are stolen.

• An estimated 518 Million Rounds of Golf are played every year

• The average golfer loses 4.5 balls per round of golf.

How To Make Money Selling Used Golf Balls

1.) Buy a golf ball retriever that you can use to fish golf balls out of lakes and ponds. It needs to be one that is attached to a string or rope that you can pull along the bottom of a golf course lake to collect the lost balls.

2.) Visit as many Golf Courses as you can

3.) Clean and separate golf balls by type and condition

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 new catalogs and pass some time with me, cher.