Cajun Corner – Vol. 3, No. 49 – December 9, 2011
Bon Jour! Welcome to Cajun Stitchery’s weekly email and welcome to our family.
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Last night we entertained friends with dinner and a fire in the chininea. I made enough gumbo for an army. The evening was a delight. In fact, George and I worked all day preparing for the evening. I cooked and George cleaned the house and put out the Christmas decorations. We were laughing and saying that if we entertained each week, we would be sure to give the house a good cleaning at least once a week. A couple of friends of mine gave me lovely trays and bake ware for my birthday because they knew that I had begun entertaining at the house. All of that came in very handy yesterday. I even made dessert from scratch. We had an éclair cake. It was actually a no bake recipe that I happened upon and turned out wonderful. You take a 9x13 dish and put a layer of graham crackers down; then you make 2 little boxes of instant vanilla pudding and put a layer of pudding on top of the crackers; then a layer of whipped cream; then another layer of graham crackers, pudding, whipped cream, and top it off with a layer of graham crackers. Then you take 1/3 cup of cocoa and 1 cup of sugar and put that in a saucepan. Add a little vanilla, a stick of butter, and ¼ cup of milk. Bring that to a boil and boil for one minute. Let it cool. Then cover the cake with the chocolate and put in the refrigerator. You want to leave it in the refrigerator long enough for the moisture to soften the graham crackers, about 2 hours.
I think I’ve mentioned before that the word éclair is a French word that means lightning.
Tomorrow is the beach Christmas parade. I will be an elf, as usual. I sure hope it is not too cold. Last year George and I froze. If you are nearby, please come to our parade tomorrow at 2 p.m.
The waffle weave robes came in and to my delight were very high quality. For those readers who have received Cajun Corner for the past 3 years, you know how I have tried to figure out how to purchase quality towels and such on-line. Throughout the existence of Cajun Stitchery, I really have only had one order for towels that was disappointing and that was the first order. Apparently the key is to look at the weight. Since this was my first attempt at purchasing robes, I had my fingers crossed. I had looked at several wholesalers. These particular robes come in white and beige, weight is 3 lbs, and they are exquisite. I washed and dried them upon arrival and decided that if anyone else buys one, I’m getting one for myself. You know when you go to a hotel and use one of their robes how it is so warm and comfortable? This is that type of robe. The difference is that this is waffle weave and not terrycloth. When I first heard of waffle weave robes, I thought they were little, light, summertime robes. They are not. They are equally as snuggly and warm as a terrycloth robe. These particular robes are 48” long, one size fits most. They are a cotton/poly blend which I, personally, like because it doesn’t shrink as much. I can always order these robes and sell them for $50 each. It takes about 2 weeks to arrive. Of course, we can always request a rush shipment for an extra fee.
A friend of mine contacted me recently saying she was getting a teenage girl, who she is helping out, a winter jacket and was wondering if we could embroider on it. The girl loves dolphins. I immediately began thinking about the dolphin design that we did on the placemats earlier this year. We wanted to add some bling to it but not too much. I’ve noticed in the professional magazines some over-the-shoulder designs. Yes, the embroidery begins in the normal, left chest area and continues over the shoulder. On the back the design can be seen just at the shoulder. It is a really cool technique. The jacket came in and all I can say is Wow, what a cool jacket. It is a blue car coat. She got the jacket from LL Bean. The lining is a fleece jacket that comes out and can be worn when the weather is not freezing or the fleece jacket can snap and zip inside the car coat for a soft lining. We decided to embroider the fleece jacket as well. I used the Mylar underneath the embroidery to hold the stitching up on the fleece and give a bit of sparkle. Then I used the same design on the car coat with the Mylar only in the splash area. Then we applied rhinestones to the car coat. The pictures don’t do it justice. It was difficult to photograph because it went over the shoulder onto the back.
Another fun project that we’ve done this season is the Christmas aprons. One is listed in our Etsy store. They are red aprons with an embroidered Christmas tree and above the tree is “Merry Christmas” done in a candy cane font using green and white thread. Then red rhinestones were applied to the tree. They are really cute and I have an order for another one. They are $20 each, complete with embroidery and rhinestones.
The Christmas stockings have been big this year. I’ve made bunches of them.
The can wraps have turned out to be a good stocking stuffer or hostess gift. Since LSU and the Saints are having such a good year, the fleur de lis items are going. I can always make more. They are selling for $10 each on Etsy. I will sell them to newsletter recipients for $7 each. Just tell me you saw it in the newsletter.
This year’s lagniappe has been seeds. We bought a whole lot of seed packets in the spring to use as lagniappes. We are out of seeds until next spring. I have to be pretty creative coming up with lagniappes right now.
Next week is my daughter-in-law’s birthday. I took the last market basket and embroidered it for her. She should receive it today. I sure hope she likes it. I think it turned out really nice. That was the last we had in stock, but I can always get more. The solid colored baskets are $22 each + $5 for name or monogram.
We still have all sorts of ready made items in stock, such as napkins, pillowcases, towels, shirts, jackets, totes, etc., plus handmade items that have not been listed in our Etsy Store. Please feel free to come by and look at all of the items for a unique Christmas shopping experience. Call first to make sure I’m at home, though. The coffee is always ready at Cajun Stitchery.
CHRISTMAS is around the corner. Get that Christmas shopping done now and enjoy the holidays. Shop local and buy made in the USA.
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Thank you Sandy Goodman for the following:
A man and his wife were awakened at 3:00 am by a loud pounding on the door. The man gets up and goes to the door where a drunken stranger, standing in the pouring rain, is asking for a push.
"Not a chance," says the husband, "it is 3:00 in the morning!"
He slams the door and returns to bed.
"Who was that?" asked his wife.
"Just some drunk guy asking for a push," he answers.
"Did you help him?" she asks.
"No, I did not, it is 3:00 in the morning and it is pouring rain out there!"
"Well, you have a short memory," says his wife. "Can't you remember about three months ago when we broke down, and those two guys helped us? I think you should help him, and you should be ashamed of yourself! God loves drunk people too."
The man does as he is told, gets dressed, and goes out into the pounding rain.
He calls out into the dark, "Hello, are you still there?"
"Yes," comes back the answer.
"Do you still need a push?" calls out the husband.
"Yes, please!" comes the reply from the dark.
"Where are you?" asks the husband.
"Over here on the swing set," replies the drunk.
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C’est tout, mes amis
Peggy Henshall
Cajun Stitchery
(850) 261-2462
P.S. You are always welcome to stop by and look at all of the catalogs and pass some time with me, cher.
