Cajun Corner - Vol. 3, No. 28

Cajun Corner – Vol. 3, No. 28 – July 15, 2011

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

ΘΘΘΘΘ

Don’t forget to visit our catalog at www.companycasuals.com/cajunstitchery and www.cajunstitchery.etsy.com often.   We are also on Twitter and Facebook.

There is a saying on the beach that you never know how many friends and relatives you have until you get a beach house.  That is so true for many of my friends on the beach.  Their homes have been packed all summer.  Of course, that means that they are entertaining and I don’t get to see them as often as during the fall and winter months.  I sure miss my girls.  Thank God for Wednesday nights.  Those of us who are not encumbered with visitors gather on Wednesday night and enjoy a good meal and stimulating conversation.  This past Wednesday there were only a handful of the normal group but it was really nice. 

I also look forward to meeting with my friends at WBL meetings.  Although it is a meeting and much more regimented than Wednesday night, I enjoy those women.  Just like Wednesday nights, when a lot of people come to the meeting, it’s fun and informative; but, it’s also so nice when there is a smaller, more intimate group. 

I received the most adorable email yesterday:

“Dear Aunt Peggy -

I was real pretty in my embroidered collar - much fancier than the other dogs at our hotel in Cedar Key. Next time my mom will put my collar on right side up!

Love,

Amber Lee Johnson

Chesapeake Bay Retriever and Super Model”

That email was accompanied by photographs of Amber Lee.

The new computer is working fine.  As each day goes by, I remember something, a website, a program, or whatever is on my favorites list of the old computer.  Nevertheless, none of those things have really hampered day-to-day business.  This is a nice machine.

As I mentioned last week, the most difficult thing about the new computer was loading my Quicken program.  By the end of that ordeal, I was flustered and frustrated.  So, Quicken a/k/a Intuit sent me an email asking me to let them know what I thought of their service.  Really?  They made straight F’s and my comment was that if I didn’t need the thing for my CPA, I wouldn’t have it at all.  You can imagine my surprise when, later, I received another email, same email, asking me what I thought of their service.  Rather than berating them once again, I just deleted the email.  You would think that would be the end of it.  If that is what you think, then you have not dealt with this company.  Later, I received another email with the subject line:  “Quick Books Pro POS.”  At this I even called George over to look at it.  Did a light bulb go off in their head and they realized how unhappy I am with them?  Could it be they don’t like their service, either?  Well, I had to open this email.  Much to my surprise, the Intuit Company says POS means “Point Of Service.”  In my book POS still means something totally different.

The most frequently asked question this week was:  “Do you REALLY belong to 58 groups on Facebook?  Yes, I do, but I don’t even know what they are.  I am only active in 2 groups.

I told you about our new customer, Mike Cotton, last week.  We had a meeting this week and at this point we have his logo digitized and stitched out a few time for testing.  This weekend I will be playing around with the embroidered logo on several items that he brought for us.  He is trying to put together a merchandising line of products for his TV show, Senior Xtremers, and I am the embroiderer.

Revamping old t-shirt crew collars was fun last week.  I did a few and have a few more to do.  It is absolutely amazing the change in the look of the shirt.

This week I ordered a dozen white beach towels.  I need them to fill an order for a friend who loved the towels I embroidered with the mermaid in Mylar.  She wants one for her daughter and one for her son-in-law.  For her son-in-law, of course, she wants a merman.  For this type of digitizing, I don’t send to a digitizer because I doubt seriously that the customer would want to pay the $30 digitizing fee.  The problem is that for me to do the digitizing takes a long time.  She ordered the towels a month ago.  So, I’m waiting on the towels to arrive so I can begin the embroidery.

We still have some of the $2 cloth napkins, $4 cloth napkins, market baskets, and fingertip towels.   

A few people sent in guesses last week for the contest but no one sent the correct answer.  The fashion designer who made jersey fashionable was Coco Chanel.  Before Chanel jersey was only used for underwear.  Coco Chanel created fashionable and comfortable clothing with jersey.  Had it not been for Coco Chanel, we would not have T-shirts, polo shirts, or the little black dress. 

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.ralphbrennancookbook.com/pdf/Crawfish_Etouffee.pdf:

 Cajun folklore is filled with stories and legends, and many of them involve crawfish.

One of the more inventive ones is this:

In the 1750s, when the Acadians first migrated from Nova Scotia to Louisiana,

hundreds of North-Atlantic lobsters, sympathetic to the exiles, decided to follow

them southward along the Atlantic Coast and through the Gulf of Mexico to

the bayous. Along the way, as they swam, the lobsters somehow acquired progressively

smaller shells. By the time they reached Louisiana, they had become

what we now know as crawfish.

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Cajun French Phrase of the Week: Grand Beede'-----------Big clumsy man

(Taken from http://louisianacajunslang.com/language.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.

Cajun Corner - Vol. 3, No. 22

Cajun Corner – Vol. 3, No. 22 – JUNE 4, 2011

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

ΘΘΘΘΘ

Don’t forget to visit our catalog at www.companycasuals.com/cajunstitchery and www.cajunstitchery.etsy.com often. We are also on Twitter and Facebook.

I know I’m a day late on this issue, but yesterday was very busy. I attended the WBL meeting. Then there was a lot of running around to do. Finally, I attended the Nereid meeting with two birthday celebrations. It was a fun day but very busy.

Memorial Day is over. The next holiday is Father’s Day on June 19th. June 17th is my oldest son’s birthday. It’s hard to imagine that my little baby is going to be 43 years old. On top of that, our krewe has two more birthdays to celebrate this month. It’s going to be busy.

Next Wednesday is the Fiesta Ball. The theme is red, white and krewe. We are celebrating the 100th anniversary of naval aviation. Last weekend was full of emails between the girls attending the Ball. We were trying to decide what to wear for the event. Although we won’t be dressed identical; we will coordinate with each other. Obviously, red, white and blue will be the colors. I am making a floor length blue skirt and a red vest. I have a white blouse to wear. This ensemble needs to be completed this weekend. Last Tuesday I went fabric shopping and purchased a couple of beautiful pieces of satin fabric for the skirt and vest. The skirt was the first item and on Wednesday I pinned the pattern and cut the fabric. The edges were serged, as well as the two side seams. The side seams do need to be reinforced but before I do that I must decide whether I want a waistband with a zipper or elastic in the waist. I think the waistband with a zipper looks much more professional but the elastic would be much more comfortable. At my age, I usually veer more toward the comfort side.

I also have an order of some shirts which need embroidery. These shirts must be ready to mail on Monday because there is a deadline.

There are a few more orders but those don’t have an immediate deadline.

This past Tuesday we took the dogs to the veterinarian for their annual check-up. The dogs are “the picture of health,” according to Dr. Armani. We take our dogs to Navy Boulevard Animal Hospital and have taken our animals there since we moved to Pensacola back in 1992. Sandy and Cliff used to own the hospital and, as far as I know, were the original owners. Sandy and Cliff were the vets for the Wildlife Sanctuary and our local K-9 units of the Sheriff’s Department. A few years back, Sandy and Cliff decided to retire and sold the hospital to some other vets. I do not recall their names. It turns out that those owners have sold the hospital to Dr. Armani and Dr. O’Connor, the present owners. Dr. Armani was the vet for Evie and Stinky this past Tuesday.

When Dr. Armani came into the examination room, he immediately looked at me and said, “Do we know each other? You look very familiar.” I couldn’t place him and we both let it go. That evening Dr. Armani called me. He recalled where he had seen me – on Facebook. Before Kim arrived, I had called the vet to see how much they would charge to board the animals if we decided to go to Louisiana. After a delightful discussion with Leigh Anne, I went to Facebook and “Liked” Navy Boulevard Animal Hospital and posted a picture of Evie. That’s where Dr. Armani saw me. We talked about Evie and Stinky and I told him that if they ever need embroidery work done to call me. When I told him the name, Cajun Stitchery, he asked why my business was called Cajun Stitchery. “Well,” I said, “because I am Cajun.” He asked where I was from and replied that I was from Lafayette. He was so excited because he went to school at LSU in Baton Rouge. We chit chatted a bit and I told him the story of Mama donating her body to science at LSU. I offered to drop off some business cards and suggested that he consider getting some dog collars with “Navy Boulevard Animal Hospital” embroidered on them for promotional purposes. He thought that was a great idea. He then decided to become my “friend” on Facebook, noting that “you have a lot more friends than I do.” I have since dropped off some business cards.

Speaking of the dog collars, I made a collar for Stinky that she wore to the vet’s on Tuesday. I have since posted pictures of the collar. The collar is an inch wide, white, webbing with “STINKY” embroidered in royal blue. The clasp is a white, plastic, snap-in kind of clasp. Very pretty. Since I made the collar, I have been looking online at other dog and cat collars for pricing and style. I noticed that the personalized collars have the dog’s name and then the telephone number. We can do that. I’m selling the collars for $9.45 for one or $6 each for 10 or more.

Also, I will be placing an order this weekend for market totes and other bags from a new vendor. Yes, they also have zebra print items, as well as polka dots and other designs. Feel free to browse their items at http://www.wholesaleboutique.com/category/Original-Market-Totes/ORIG/page1 Let me know if you want me to order something for you.

A lady stopped me at the WBL meeting and we discussed how cute the adjustable can wraps would be for wedding favors. The can wraps can be done in all white or whatever colors the bride chooses. They can come without embroidery or with embroidery. The names of the newlyweds, wedding date, hearts, bells, flowers, birds, butterflies, all are possible designs. So, if you need a wedding gift or favors, this is a fresh new idea.

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.

Thank you Sandy for sending the following joke:

Boudreaux and Thibodeaux, are sitting at their favorite bar, drinking Bud-lite.

Boudreaux turns to Thibodeaux and says, 'You know me, I'm tired of going tru life without dat education. Tomorrow I'm goin to dat Community College and sign me up for some classes.'

Thibodeaux thinks it's a good idea and the two have another Bud-lite.

The next day, Boudreaux goes down to the college and meets Dean of Admissions, who signs him up for the four basic classes: Math, English, History, and Logic.

'Logic?' Boudreaux says. 'What's dat Hun?'

The dean says, 'I'll give you an example. Do you own a weed eater?'

'Yeah.'

'Then logically speaking, because you own a weed eater, I think that you would have a yard.'

'Dat's right, I do have a yard.'

'I'm not done,' the dean says. 'Because you have a yard, I think logically that you would have a house.'

'Mais Yeh, I got me a house dare.'

'And because you have a house, I think that you might logically have a family.'

'Mais Yeh dats right too, I have a family.'I'm not done yet. Because you have a family, then logically you must have a wife. And because you have a wife, then logic tells me you must be a heterosexual.'

'I am a heterosexual. Dat's amazing, you were able to find all dat out because I got da weed eater.'

Excited to take the class now, Boudreaux shakes the Dean's hand and leaves to go meet Thibodeaux at the bar. He tells Thibodeaux about his classes, how he is signed up for Math, English, History, and Logic.

'Logic? ' Thibodeaux says, 'What's dat?' Boudreaux says, 'I'll give you an example. Do you have a weed eater?'

'No.'

'Den you is gay.'

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French Phrase of the Week: The following was taken from LSU.edu regarding Cajun french differing from other french:

Faire l'amour in the minds of the old folks in Louisiana still has the very genteel meaning of "to court," though most people today also use it in the contemporary sense most French speakers are familiar with.

Though the the term is very pejorative in France, une catin is simply and literally a doll in Louisiana. The word poupée is also used here, and both words are often used as terms of endearment.

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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.