Cajun Corner – Vol. 6, No. 3 – January20, 2014

 

Cajun Corner – Vol. 6, No. 3 – January20, 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.

My time is split between our krewe den and Cajun Stitchery.  Mardi Gras masks are a blast to make.  Then I discovered that several of the girls have thick arms on their glasses; much too thick for the little eyelets in my masks.  Back to the drawing board.  I think I have made the proper adjustments for the thicker holes for the glasses.  I cannot seem to figure out how to make one design fit all glasses without have masks for the smaller armed glasses and another for the larger armed glasses.  The masks with the smaller holes can still be worn by those who do not wear masks, either with an elastic cord or bobby pins.  The larger hole mask won’t work for the smaller hole glasses because the design requires the eyelets, openings for the eyes, and the nose cut out to be in specific places on the mask or it won’t work right.  For right now I guess I’ll make the larger holes special order. 

Gift giving hits a fever pitch during the Mardi Gras season.  Aside from the usual birthday presents, there are presents for royalty.  Not only for our own royalty but friends who become royalty in other krewes, as well.  Many of our embroidery projects right now are secret presents that cannot be divulged until the gift has actually been given.

Back when I first opened our Etsy store, I looked into selling international.  A lot of businesses on Etsy sell international.  Everyone I asked said it was really easy but then I started reading online about each item going through customs and a special form and potential cost for customs.  I then decided we would only sell in the USA.  This past week a lady contacted me from Canada wanting a special ordered handkerchief.  Rather than saying, “No”, I explained that I’ve never sold anything outside the United States but I would give it a shot.  It really was a piece of cake.  I went to the USPS website for international mailing, plugged in our addresses, and followed the instructions through the simple form, until I ran across a question about what custom form I wanted to use.  The site said to call an 800 number to get help.  I called the number and left a voice mail.  The number was to the Census Bureau. Yep, there is a department in the Census Bureau for Customs.  Go figure.  Anyway, a very nice gentleman returned my call the next day and said one of the forms is for items valued at more than $2,500 and the other form is for less than $2,500. I found out the form that I needed to use and was able to print out the form which turned out to be special labels for the package.  It only cost about $2.40 to mail the package.  Not bad.  I’m changing my Etsy store to include delivery to Canada.

We have been looking at our poor garden.  The raised bed fence that George built several years ago has deteriorated and is falling apart.  Only a few garlic plants remain in the garden.  Oh, so sad.  When it gets a bit warmer, George will rebuild the garden/fence.  In the meantime, we have been looking on Pinterest and elsewhere online for new ideas.  I just can’t wait for the weather to warm up so we can plant our spring garden.

It has been very cold here, and then it warms up.  Our poor plants don’t know if it is winter or spring.  The camellias have bloomed and then froze.  The temperature got down to 16 degrees and then in a few days we were enjoying weather in the 60s and 70s.  Today was absolutely beautiful and in the 60s.  Tomorrow our low will be 25 degrees.  Don’t get me wrong.  I am not complaining about the weather.  In fact, George and I felt that since winter 2013 was so mild that our fall garden continued growing into spring, this year we need a cold winter.

George has been busy taking inventory at the studio and online.  I do tend to be messy.  I always seem to interrupt him asking him to hang this picture or put a hook over there.  He does the deliveries and errands.  I am certainly lucky to have him helping.

HAVE A GREAT WEEK

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Thank you Bob for the following:

While getting a checkup, a man tells his doctor that he thinks his wife is losing her hearing. The doctor says, "You should do a simple test. Stand about 15 feet behind your wife and say "honey?" Move 3 feet closer and do it again. Keep moving 3 feet closer until she finally responds." Remember how close you were when she gives you an answer. That will help me know how bad her hearing loss is.

About a month later the same guy is at the doctor again complaining of his wife’s hearing problem and the doctor asks, "Well, did you do that experiment with your wife's hearing?" The man says "yes". "How close did you get before she answered?" "Well, by the time I got about 2 feet away she turned around and screamed "For the FIFTH TIME... WHAT???"

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.

Mardi Gras and Camellias

This weekend was spent at Krewe Den working with the Costume Committee.  I love working on costumes and the do-dads associated with costumes.  The float is looking great.  It's all coming together.  I'm having more fun this year during the Mardi Gras season than I've had for several years.  I think it's because all of the krewe is getting together at Krewe Den to work on the float and costumes and we are even having dance practice at Krewe Den.  We all have such a good time together.  It is a special time.

Our young krewe member, Monette, turned 40 last week.  We gave her a surprise party yesterday.  Several of the girls went in together and bought her a krewe jacket.  She loved it.  The cake was beautifully decorated with mermaids and under the sea motif.  Best of all, she really was surprised.

Our Queen Doris XX also got her krewe jacket this past week.  It's hard to believe this krewe has been together for 20 years.  I've been with them for about 7 years now.  It's a great krewe and a great season.

Of course, with the beautiful weather we have been having, both George and I have a serious case of spring fever.  We have been working in the yard and in our gardens everyday.  The cabbage is growing.  The onions are growing.  We are having more broccoli for dinner tonight.  The oregano is up.  The radishes and lettuce are growing but not ready to harvest.  The garlic is looking beautiful.  The chard is beautiful.  On top of that we have planted our seeds for the spring garden.  The camellias are blooming and are beautiful, both the pink and the red.  In fact, George is out in the yard now planting more seeds.  Sure hope they grow.

I need to get back to embroidery.  Have a good day:>)

Communing with Nature

It's Wednesday and I should be discussing embroidery but it is so beautiful outside that all I want to do is commune with nature.  A friend of mine told me to pick the green cherry tomatoes from my plants and make a salsa with them.  Sure enough, I looked it up and there are several things, other than fried green tomatoes, that you can do with green tomatoes.  Well, I've harvested and plan on making the salsa. 

We are still getting a bumper crop of bell pepper and hot peppers.  You have to understand that when I say "bumper crop" this is not like a farmer using that term.  We just have a small garden outside our kitchen.  But those plants have produced and produced all season.  I think I may harvest all of the peppers and freeze for later during the colder months.

The lettuce and radishes are coming into season and I've notice the onions, garlic, carrots, cabbage and brocolli all look healthy but not ready yet.

My hands smell very sweet because I've been cleaning out the stevia area and harvesting some stevia.  My dog loves to eat the leaves.  Dogs definitely have a sweet tooth and so, of course, they will like the stevia.  It's good for them and the stuff grows like weeds in my plantar. 

If I have time, I'm thinking about harvesting and drying the basil, as well.

A friend of mine came over the other day and brought a bottle of mixed seasoning with dried herbs that she garnered from my garden and other friend's gardens.  Oh those herbs smell delicious.

I've never tried to dry the lemon balm but it's supposed to be terrific for you.  Maybe I'll try that, along with other herbs in the garden.

One of our ginger plants has seeds in the pods.  We never noticed it before this year.  George is harvesting those seeds.  We have several different types of ginger in the yard.  Beautiful plants.  But I don't know which ones you can eat and which you cannot. 

It's been such a delightful morning in the garden.  I need to get back to the embroidery machine.  This Sunday will be the first Cajun Stitchery party at my friend's home.  I'm bringing everything from the Etsy shop, the left overs from the arts and craft festival, some new stuff, and samples of shirts, jackets, etc., that we can order for embroidery.  I hope this party is successful.  Even so, it will be a lot of fun visiting with old friends and meeting new friends.


Our sofa is being cleaned today because I won a sofa cleaning at a raffle last week.  The owner of the cleaning company is a friend of mine from the WBL group.  I warned her that we have all of these animals and that sofa has never been cleaned more than running a vacuum over it.  Yuk!

 Back to work.  C'est tout, mes amis.