Cajun Corner – Vol. 6, No. 12 – May 4, 2014

Cajun Corner – Vol. 6, No. 12 – May 4, 2014

 

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

 

ΘΘΘΘΘ

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I guess I’m supposed to write about what happened this week at Cajun Stitchery and the antics of our family.  To sum it all up, it rained.

This rain storm should have a name, like when they name a hurricane.  This was definitely a rain-a-cane.  It was like a hurricane that did not come in from the Gulf.  Winds were 60-70 mph.  We could call it rain storm Lena.  Like my mother, it looked docile on the surface, but once enraged, all hell broke lose.  The rain came and with it came an unbelievable thunder and lightning demonstration that lasted most, if not all, of the night.  We slept downstairs Tuesday night.  The reports that we heard said in one hour we received more rainfall than Hurricane Ivan delivered.  We ended up with almost 27” of rain and 75,000 lightning strikes.

Once or twice during the night our lights flickered on and off but we never lost electricity.  Many homes did lose electricity and had to endure the storm in the dark.

Wednesday morning our yard looked like a lake but the water subsided by the end of the day.  No water got into either house.  We were very blessed.  Sadly, that was not the case for others.  All around us homes were flooded and roads torn up.  A multitude of vehicles were abandoned in streets.  Many vehicles were seen in the giant holes in the road where the water washed away the ground under the pavement and the pavement then collapsed.  Downtown Pensacola was flooded.  The photographs and videos on Facebook and the local news are incredible.

Then came the damage assessment.  The government is still doing their damage assessment, which means that FEMA is not here yet.  Many people have lost their homes or have to move out of their homes while the damage is repaired.  Just like when Ivan hit, all of this causes a home and apartment shortage.  All of these displaced people are looking for a place to live.  Many small businesses were damaged, even at the end of our street.  It is a mess.

A friend of mine on the beach said that it was just so weird to have this kind of storm and Pensacola is the first to have damage, rather than Pensacola Beach.  In fact, George and I went to a wedding on the beach yesterday and saw no damage on Pensacola Beach.  Maybe it just says something for the tenacity of Pensacolians, but in order to get to the wedding on the beach, we had to detour to another road because the Crawfish Festival was blocking Main Street downtown. 

Our precious Manna Food Bank suffered 100% damage.  We are just waiting to find out what we can do to help them.

My friend, Pandora de Balthazar’s store, Pandora de Balthazar European Luxury Bedding, made it through the storm okay but her 7 warehouses were not so lucky.  She has been pulling out antiques, family pictures, and collectibles that she has collected over her lifetime, all damaged.  She has been having a fabulous “damage sale” though.

In an effort to help support small damaged businesses, I went shopping at Pandora’s sale.  I walked away with a beautiful Euro King pillow.  This isn’t your normal Wal-Mart pillow.  First of all, the pillow is about as big as I am.  It is a Hungarian Down pillow and softer than anything you can imagine.  She even took a photo of me hugging one of the pillows at her store.  I’m going to use that pillow at the studio for display purposes.  Once I got home, we were so in love with the pillow that I contacted the store and bought two Euro Standard pillows for our bed.  These pillows are also huge and soft. 

The pillows are so special to me that I’ve decided to make special pillow cases for them.  To be honest, I’m making pillow cases for them partly because I don’t own pillow cases that big.  I’m making the pillow cases from 100% cotton fabric.  You know they are going to have embroidery on them.  The pillow case fabric was cut today and the embroidery has been designed.  I’ve begun the embroidery process.  Fingers are crossed that it turns out as special as I want them to be.

All joking and embroidery aside, being a small business owner myself, I think it is imperative that those of us who were blessed by having little or no damage should help those small businesses in need.  For a retail business the best help is to buy.  I encourage everyone to follow suit, even if all you can afford is a small trinket.  Forego Wal-Mart this one time.

I would be remiss if I didn’t mention the jail.  We have the great flood and the following day the jail explodes from faulty gas lines.  I don’t know if this was neglect or the flood.  Gas lines did burst in a few areas other than the jail.  However, the jail explosion ended in the death of 2 inmates.  I’d say, “when it rains it pours” but I guess I shouldn’t.

HAVE A GREAT WEEK

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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.

Smoking in Frigid Temperatures

It's Monday and chilly.  It seems like just yesterday that I was in short sleeves and the weather was warm.  Now I'm in long sleeves, fluffy socks, and won't go outside without an overcoat, scarf and something on my head.  I am wearing the fingerless arm warmers from last year.  Those things do the trick.  At times, I need my fingers covered and warm but if I'm going to pick up something or hold something, going fingerless is a real plus.  Not to mention that I love making those things.

I was looking at the scarves in the Etsy Shop and realized those are all warm weather, light weight scarves.  I need to make something a bit more substantial for the cooler months.  Ideas are flowing.

Remember my neighbor in the Air Force?  I saw him yesterday and chided him for not wearing his cell phone holder.  He forgot it at work.  He says he took it off because several of the guys were looking at it and he forgot to put it back on.  Now that's a compliment.  Wish I could get some of the military as customers.

This weekend I began embroidery on webbing in earnest.  I made a design of fleur de lis and began making wristlets to hold keys.  They are looking better and better each time I make them.  In fact, that's why my Air Force neighbor was over here yesterday.  I made him and his wife each a fleur de lis wristlet for their keys.  They are huge Saints fans.  They loved them.

About a week or two ago, a friend of mine mentioned that as beautiful as our work is, it tends to smell of cigarette smoke.  You know that is a good friend who can tell you those things.  Maybe a day or two later, another friend mentioned the same thing.  Poo yie!  That is not good.  We usually do spray everything with Febreze.  So, we decided that we would no longer be smoking in the house.  As of that day, this house has become smoke free.  Of course, that puts us outside in the inclimate weather with our cigarettes.  I know it's a nasty habit and with God's help, someday we will quit.  Of course, all of this happens when we have the first freeze of the year.  We are spending a lot of time outside and communing with nature.  We can see our neighbors coming and going.  It's always good to get outside, but late at night with the frigid wind blowing and we are all bundled up in overcoats by the fire, it gets past the romantic and all you want is warmth.

All of this led me to remember something that I dream about each winter.  Ever since I first read an article about a heat grabber back in the 1970's in Mother Earth News, I have wanted one.  We were in Orlando and it almost didn't seem worth the effort since winter in Orlando lasts maybe a month.  Now that we are in Pensacola we enjoy all four seasons and I sure could use a heat grabber now.  What is a heat grabber, you might ask?  It is a very old concept and apparently simple to do.  It follows the theory of heat rises.  You make a box out of scrap materials (no, not fabric), like wood.  It has a bottom and 3 sides.  The top is glass.  The box is about 6-8 inches tall.  The open end of the box fits into your window and the box should be as wide as your window.  In the middle of the box you place something that you paint black.  The idea is this: the cool air of the room flows into the lower opening of the box in the window.  The heat of the sun shines on the glass on top of the box and as the cool air goes into the box, and around the black painted object, it warms.  Since heat rises, the warm air goes out of the top slot in the window and into the room, thus replacing the cool air with the warm air.  No moveable parts.  You put it in a sunny southern window.  Everything can be made of scrap but the more efficient the materials, the better it warms your room.  For instance, if you insulate the box, it will not lose so much of the warmth and thus your room gets warmer, quicker.  Copper is a good conductor to use in the center by painting it black.

Of course, the heat grabber only works during the day on sunny days.  But just imagine the electricity you would save.  Frankly, I don't know why this isn't used in schools and other public buildings that are occupied only during the day.

Enough of my eco ranting and raving.  I have to get back to work.  Have a great day.
Bon jour, mes amis.