High School Girlfriends

The winner of last week's contest won this beautiful pink, canvas purse with her initial monogrammed in green.  Just in the nick of time, too.  She is leaving this week for New Orleans where she will be spending a few days in the french quarter with her high school girlfriends.  They get together once a year in a different location each year.  They have been doing this since the 1960's.  Earlier we embroidered market baskets for each of her girlfriends.  I sure hope they like them.

C'est tout, mes amis

Evie is Alive and Well

George told me last night that it looks like the next time we will see the sun will be Thursday.  Man, it is rained a lot.  I do love a rainy day and I'm grateful that the temperatures are cooler with the rain, but that's a lot of water.  We certainly are not suffering from a drought here.  Thinking on the bright side, the garden looks lush.  The cherry tomato plants has little tomatoes on it and I am hoping they ripen.

This past weekend my dog, Evie, was sick as a dog.  It started on Friday when she up-chucked until there was nothing left in her little body, and then she kept vomiting up bile.  By Saturday she was exhausted.  I was mainly concerned about keeping her hydrated.  When she would get to the water bowl, she would down the whole thing. By Saturday afternoon, she stopped throwing up the water.  Then she slept.  Her nose and paw pads were very warm.  I tried feeding her boiled rice and chicken without salt or spices, but she would refuse all food.  George and I took shifts sleeping this weekend so that one of us would be with her at all times.  Yesterday, her tail perked up a few times at first.  Then she began eating a bit -- not the rice, though.  Then a bit more.  By dinner, she was begging at the table and she was almost back to normal.  She's fine this morning.  Still isn't eating a lot, but she is coming around.  The weekend before she got sick, too; but not to this extent.  All I can think of is that she got into the mushrooms that have grown all over the yard since the rains began.

There is humor in everything, if you look for it.  I'm always teasing about how I can't/don't cook well.  Even when Evie started eating again, she still refused the rice and chicken that I made for her.  George and I were laughing that even the dog won't eat my food.

A beautiful new scarf was listed on Etsy last night.  In my endeavor to use all of my fabric and notions, I found a pack of pink sequin and pearl butterfly patches.  The ends of the long scarf are embroidered in a design that resembles a ribbon.  Above the ribbon, on each end, are 3 of the butterflies.  It really turned out pretty and blingy.  I listed it late, around 10 p.m., but still had several visitors by this morning.  That's a good sign.  Maybe I'll actually sell one of the scarves.

I've been working hard on those new cell phone pouches, kind of working like an assembly line.  There are 20+ pouches.  I did the handwork while I was sitting with Evie this weekend.  Last night I did the embroidery.  Hopefully, today I'll do the assembly.  It was cute because I brought up a box of scraps from the embroidery room, downstairs.  I put the box on the floor and when I turned around, voila, we had kitty in the box.  The little black manx, Polly, loves to get in that box and even as I'm going through the scraps, she will remain sleeping.  At one point, I covered her up in scraps.  She didn't mind.  So, I took a picture.  Too cute.  When Polly gets out of the box, the yellow and white cat, Tigger, jumps in.  He's much bigger but manages to curl himself up on the scrap fabric.  Now I need to use all of those scraps in projects.  Hmmmm.

I need to get back to work on the pouches.  Have a great day.

C'est tout, mes amis.

Cajun Corner Vol. 2, No. 33

Cajun Corner – Vol. 2, No. 33 – August 27, 2010


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

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Don’t forget to visit our catalog at www.companycasuals.com/cajunstitchery and www.cajunstitchery.etsy.com often.

Splash Party was a huge success!! Did it rain? Oh, yes, it rained. The place was packed and we all had a wonderful time. Grown men and women were acting like children. Can you even imagine what it would have been like if the sun was shining and there was no rain? We still have some caps available for sale. We sold out of the pink visors. If the sun had been shining, I’m sure we would have sold out of all the caps and visors.

I just cannot get over how fast this week has flown by. I totally missed posting on the blog for Wednesday.

The next big event for Cajun Stitchery is the Pensacola Beach Arts & Wine Festival the first weekend in October. Yes, we have registered and will be in the Paddy O’Leary’s parking lot next to the SOB’s booth. Just like last year. I’ve been spending a lot of time upstairs in my Crafting Department this week. If a messy desk is a sign of genius, I’m there. What a mess! I’m sitting at the big computer, the desktop with my trusty Doris the Singer. An L is formed with my regular sewing machine and serger. Then a U is formed with the portable cutting table that George made me. Then an O is formed with my bookcase. Yep, I sure did seal myself up in this thing.

The Crafting Department, which used to be known as our study, has a great view of the park across the street through our sliding glass doors. I love to open the blinds and just watch the people walking and kids playing. Someday I would love to see a craft festival in that park. Every one of our neighbors seems to have such special gifts to offer. This is a quaint neighborhood, very eclectic with wonderful neighbors. We have gardeners, chefs, hairdressers, teachers, caregivers, military and civilian, and a whole array of gifted people. We have young people, as well as older people.

On the ceiling above Doris is a sign that my dear friend, Courtney, gave me a few years ago. The sign simply says “Create.” This is the creation part of Cajun Stitchery. I cut out paper and play with patterns and designs. There have been some truly weird things created up here, as well as a lot of beautiful things.

While I’m in the Crafting Department, George decided to clean the embroidery room downstairs. Uh oh. Don’t throw out my stuff, dear. He brought up a box of fabric scraps to the Crafting Department. Not having much room left in here, I had him put the box on the floor. Before long, I looked in the box and what do you know, little Polly, the Manx is curled up inside the box, fast asleep. What a precious sight that was! After awhile, I looked over and Tigger, the orange and white Tom cat, had squeezed himself into the box.

While looking at some templates for the bottle apron, I got the idea of, what would that look like if I sewed the sides and bottom? We now have a new style cell phone pouch. In fact, I listed one last night on Etsy. These are simple pouches. They are not as detailed or ornate as the mermaid pouches, but I like them. These will definitely be an item at the Art & Wine Festival.

My goal, and I suppose the goal of all crafters and seamstresses, is to use all the stuff that I have, down to the mere scraps. Then, envisioning that this could ever happen, I would be out of everything and have to go shopping to replenish with new stuff. That’s what I’m trying to do. This is probably not possible. I’ve been trying to do this all of my life. I just get more and more and more stuff.

One day I was contemplating the birthday of one of my Nereid sisters and an idea popped in my head for a design. This year my Nereids all get pillowcases for their birthdays. Anyway, I digitized the design and earlier this week stitched it out. It is the most beautiful design. Alas, I cannot post pictures on the internet because it’s a surprise and we have not yet celebrated her birthday this year. When we do, I will post these pictures everywhere. It’s just gorgeous.

The Nereids have several birthdays coming up and I need to get busy with designs and ideas. George told me the other day that my Nereids all have beautiful embroidered pillowcases. Customers order and we embroider beautiful embroidered pillowcases. But our pillowcases are threadbare. We need to come up with a Henshall design and embroider something for ourselves. You know the old saying that a mechanic’s car never works and a carpenter’s home is always in disrepair. This embroiderer needs to do something for us.

I found a sign language font. Seriously, I did. We were embroidering some pillowcases for a friend of my Aunt Philo’s and I sent a hand towel with the signs for L and U as the lagniappe. OMG! She was surprised. Now I think she is coming up with a million ideas for sign language embroidery. It’s amazing the things you can find on the internet. I put the photograph of her towel on the Cajun Stitchery Facebook page. I need to post it on the blog.

Last night George and I were outside in the garden, harvesting and tending to the garden. It was just turning dusk and we realized how comfortable it was outside. I think it was the first day this summer that we weren’t seriously attacked by mosquitoes and heat. We sat outside for awhile and realized that fall is approaching and we will be able to sit outside more and more. We love doing that; sitting on the deck with a glass of wine as the sun goes down and just loving the environment. As the temperature cools, we will even light the chiminea. Another of life’s simple pleasures.

Speaking of the garden, we are still harvesting bell peppers, carrots and beans but haven’t even begun our fall planting. I’m thinking onions, broccoli, carrots, lettuce, garlic, and celery. Our tomato plants are still lush and beautiful. As the temperatures cool, maybe we can get some tomatoes. Last year we picked the cherry tomatoes well into December. Sassy still has some fruit and I sure hope it ripens this fall. I’d plant brussel sprouts but they don’t seem to do well for us. Maybe we’ll throw in some cabbage, too. Squash doesn’t seem to work well for us, either, but we did get some cucumbers this year and maybe we should just keep trying.

Until last night, I’ve been a slacker this week with the Etsy store. I need to get back into the swing of at least listing one item a day.

I need to find some ice blue thread. The embroidery room has 5 shades of blue and one of the shades if very close but I’m trying to match at bedspread. So, I ordered a couple of shades of ice blue thread from my usual wholesale thread company. Then I ordered some rose, burgundy, navy, and by the time I was finished I spent more than $100 on embroidery thread. I don’t expect the order to arrive until probably last next week but we are going to have thread coming out of our ying yang.

Speaking of ordering, George has embroidered some beautiful caps for the Arts & Wine Festival and ordered 2 dozen more caps which came in the other day. He will be working on his caps downstairs after he finishes his clean up project in the embroidery room. Then he is going to start working on a Cajun Stitchery banner for our booth at the festival. I cannot wait to see the finished banner.

I embroidered monograms for every letter of the alphabet this week on 2 ½ inch, red ribbon. I was going to make luggage tags with the monograms but, in the end, I didn’t like the luggage tags. I love the monograms on the ribbon but it just looked too big for a luggage tag. Now what am I going to do with the rest of the alphabet?

My son, Hank, wants me to make him a cell phone pouch with the Gators insignia. I explained that I cannot because the insignia is licensed, but I can make him a cell phone pouch with a gator on it, but not the official insignia. That licensing thing seems to be difficult for people to understand. There is a fine line between what I can and cannot embroider.

It is football season and I need to make more fleur de lis and gator items. What is your favorite football team? Let me know and you may just find a variance of the mascot on some of our items.

Christmas is coming and customers are starting to do their Christmas shopping at Cajun Stitchery. Get this out of the way as soon as you can. For all who have businesses out there, remember that we also sell gift baskets.

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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A long time ago, Boudreaux and Thibodeaux decided to go out west. They were in a covered wagon but somehow got separated from the wagon train. Boudreaux was in the front driving while Thibodeaux was relaxing in the back. All of a sudden, Boudreaux heard a yell from Thibodeaux in the back: "Hey, Boudreaux, there's Indians on horses back here chasing us." Boudreaux said, "Thibodeaux, how big are they?" Holding his finger and thumb about 2 inches apart, Thibodeaux said, "Mais, Boudreaux, they only about this big." "That's okay, Thibodeaux," Boudreaux said. "Tell me when dey get bigger." About ten minutes later, Boudreaux yelled out, "Hey, Thibodeaux, how big are those Indians?" "Mais, Boudreaux, dey are about tree feet tall." Boudreaux yelled back, "That's still okay, Thibodeaux, but tell me when dey get bigger." Ten minutes after that, Boudreaux cried out again, "Thibodeaux, how big are those Indians now." "Mais, Boudreaux, dey as big as you and me!!" "Well, shoot 'em!" screamed Boudreaux, "shoot 'em!" "Mais, Boudreaux, I can't," said Thibodeaux, holding his finger and thumb about 2 inches apart. "I've known 'em since they was dis big!"

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French phrase of the week: pain de maïs cornbread. pain perdu French toast.

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From: http://www.home-remedies-for-you.com/remedy/Asthma.html

Wow! There are tons of home remedies for asthma:

Asthma treatment using Honey

Honey is one of the most common home remedies for asthma. It is said that if a jug of honey is held under the nose of an asthma patient and he inhales the air that comes into contact with it, he starts breathing easier and deeper.

Asthma treatment using Figs

Among fruits, figs have proved very valuable in asthma. They give comfort to the patient by draining off the phlegm. Three or four dry figs should be cleaned thoroughly with warm water and soaked overnight.

Asthma treatment using Lemon

Lemon is another fruit found beneficial in the treatment of asthma. The juice of one lemon, diluted in a glass of water and taken with meals, will bring good results

Asthma treatment using Indian Gooseberry

Indian gooseberry has also proved valuable in asthma. Five grams of gooseberry mixed with one tablespoon of honey forms an effective medicinal tonic for the treatment of this disease. It should be taken every morning

Asthma treatment using Bitter Gourd Roots

The roots of the bitter gourd plant have been used in folk medicine for asthma since ancient times. A teaspoon of the root paste, mixed with an equal amount of honey or juice of the holy basil leaves, given once every night for a month, acts as an excellent medicine for this disease.

Asthma treatment using Drumstick Leaves

A soup prepared from drumstick leaves, and taken once daily, has been found beneficial in the treatment of asthma. This soup is prepared by adding a handful of leaves to 180ml of water and boiling it for five minutes. After being allowed to cool, a little salt, pepper, and lime juice may be added to this soup.

Asthma treatment using Ginger

A teaspoon of fresh ginger juice, mixed with a cup of fenugreek decoction and honey to taste, acts as an excellent expectorant in cases of asthma. The decoction of fenugreek can be made by mixing one tablespoon of fenugreek seeds in a cupful of water. This remedy should be taken once in the morning and once in the evening.

Asthma treatment using Garlic

Garlic is another effective home remedy for asthma. Ten garlic cloves, boiled in 30 ml of milk, make an excellent medicine for the early stages of asthma. This mixture should he taken once daily by the patient. Steaming ginger tea with two minced garlic cloves in it, can also help to keep the problem under control, and should be taken in the morning and evening.

Asthma treatment using Bishop's Weed

The herb bishop's weed has been found valuable in asthma. Half a teaspoon of bishop's weed should be mixed in a glass of buttermilk and taken twice daily. It is an effective remedy for relieving difficult expectoration caused by dried-up phlegm. A hot poultice of the seeds should be used for dry fomentation to the chest twice daily. The patient can also inhale steam twice a day from boiling water mixed with carom seeds. It will dilate the bronchial passages.

Asthma treatment using Safflower

Safflower seeds are beneficial in the treatment of bronchial asthma. Half a teaspoon of powder of the dry seeds, mixed with a tablespoon of honey, can be taken once or twice a day in treating this disease. This acts as an expectorant and reduces the spasms by liquefying the tenacious sputum. An infusion of five grams of flowers mixed with one tablespoon of honey, taken once daily, is also useful in this disease.

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 catalogs and pass some time with me, cher.

SALE OF THE WEEK (Good through Thursday, September 2, 2010)

SALE: Short Sleeve Denim Shirt sizes S-XL with first name or initials embroidered for $25.00

Sierra Pacific - #0211

Short Sleeve Denim

Catalog page: 17

6.5 oz. 100% cotton. Button down collar. Double needle stitching with 2-ply back yoke. Wood-style buttons with spare. Left chest pocket and locker loop. No back pleat.

Girls, Girls, Girls, I Love Being A Girl

I just spent a wonderful weekend with the girls.  There were 15-20 of us at one of the girls' homes.  We swam in her beautiful, salt water pool; we ate delicious food prepared by our hostess and other girls; we drank until we were absolutely silly; we talked and talked and talked; and we sang songs.  This weekend was marvelous and if she reads this blog, my heartfelt thanks to our hostess for making this such a wonderful weekend.

Our Krewe, the Mystic Krewe of Nereids, is hosting a SPLASH party at Paradise Bar & Grill on Saturday, August 21st, beginning at 3 p.m. on Pensacola Beach.  The theme of the SPLASH party is Love It Local.  Our intention is to support the local business establishments who are suffering from a lack of tourists due to the oil spill.  A portion of the proceeds will also go to the Breast Cancer Foundation.  We hope to get prizes and gift certificates from the various local businesses to bring customers into their establishments.  We are suggesting things like one free meal when you order two.  Of course, our caps and visors will be on sale at this event.  There will also be fun and games for children and adults.  We will have a dunking booth with some infamous islanders.  There will be a children's duck pond.  And we hope to have a raffle every 15 minutes, giving away prizes from our local establishments.  I heard there may even be a tug of war between some of those establishments.  And don't forget your squirt gun or water blaster!

When I returned home from my wonderful weekend, I found George teaching himself to digitize.  I'm so proud of him.  He is my cap man extroidinaire.  He finished all of the caps and visor orders and was working on his own designs.  He loves caps.

Well, I'm invigorated and hope to get lots of creative items embroidered this week. 

C'est tout, mes amis.

What Do Customers Want To Buy?

It has rained all week until yesterday afternoon.  The sky is blue and the sun is out this morning.  It is a beautiful day.

Cajun Stitchery has been busy this week.  I've been thinking about a lot of lace stock designs that we have and I've wanted to stitch them out for a long time.  This week those designs are coming to life with several new techniques on the embroidery machine.  I read that you take FSL (free standing lace) designs for corners and stitch them out on WSS (water soluble stabilizer), then rinse off the stabilizer and attach the new lace to whatever you want to attach.  I have some beautiful lace designs but they are not held out to be FSL.  I embroidered the lace design onto a light weight cloth, then carefully trimmed around the design and then attached the corner design to a handkerchief.  They turned out beautiful.  I made 2 handkerchiefs in this fashion on the black polka dot fabric and put them up for sale on Etsy.  Then I did the same thing on a 3rd handkerchief but this time included a lace design of 2 birds and the word "amour" (translated "love" in french).  That made a beautiful handkerchief.  Then I made the 4th handkerchief with just the birds and no lace corner.  Again, very beautiful.  By that time I was over black and white and wanted some color. 

I was also thinking about a new way of doing the handkerchiefs by applying the lace first, onto the fabric before making the handkerchief.  My eyes caught sight of a beautiful piece of pink fabric in our fabric drawer and the experiment began.  The fabric was hooped.  A design was digitized of little circles and then stitched out.  That worked fine.  Then I found a nice corner lace design and stitched that out.  Then I found a lace dove and stitched that out.  After looking at the design created in the hoop, I felt that was enough.  The fabric was unhooped and I measured 11" square using the edge of the corner design to begin my measurements.  I trimmed around the corner design very carefully and hand rolled the hem around the rest of the handkerchief.  I am very pleased at the result.

As these handkerchiefs were being produced, I was listing them on Etsy.  A lady convo'ed me and said she really liked the way I used some modern ideas and fabric in an heirloom handkerchief.  The visitors and hearts applied to the handkerchiefs and our store on Etsy has been pretty high, at least compared to normal.  Friends have commended on how much they like these new handkerchiefs. 

I did some searches on Etsy to see what other handkerchiefs were being made and only a few are being hand made.  Most are store bought hankies with embroidered personalization on them.  What really stood out is how much less I am charging for these handkerchiefs.  I know what they cost me wholesale, and what the store bought/wholesale hankies are selling retail locally.  That's how I based my hanky prices, but on Etsy they are much more expensive because rather than purchasing the plain hanky, the one's on Etsy have the personalization and embroidery on them.  I realized that mine are completely handmade and at least need to be in the ballpark of the others, if not higher.  I'm not going to go back and change the prices of the one's already listed, but from here out, the prices will be more than the $6 I was charging.  In fact, the pink handkerchief is being sold on Etsy for $10, which is really a steal.

I ordered some bags that should arrive today to fill some orders that we have.  One bag in particular, I'm curious to see.  We are going to use it as a diaper bag and the info on the internet and the pictures makes it look intriguing.  We ordered the bag in purple.  It says that there is a velcro water bottle compartment.  That should work out for baby bottles.  We'll see.

We have some more pillowcase orders to fill.  Customers are starting to give me some real general ideas and letting me create designs.  You know I love that.

I still need to get to my fabric store and get some special fabric.  We are going to start making scarves and I have so many ideas. 

I still don't understand why the kloth koozies were not a real hit.  I love those things and they are so pretty.  But they didn't sell and that's the whole purpose.  I may just make some drink can sleeves and sell for about $5 because they are easy to make.

Right now I'm thinking that aside from the odds and ends that I make, my five main categories are going to be cell phone/droid holders, napkins, handkerchiefs, scarves, and I need to figure out a fifth category.  The plan is to try lots of different things and keep throwing them out until I find 5 solid categories of items that customers buy. I know that I'm over the totes thing completely.  It may be that I can do some table runners, placemats, pot holders, or dish towels.  Those waffle weave dish towels that we purchased earlier this year were a real hit.  I'm not sure if we have any of them left over.  I have not put any pillowcases on Etsy.  I might try doing that.  What I have learned is that in retail everything evolves.

Gotta go embroider. Gosh!  I love doing this stuff.

C'est toute, mes amis.

Christmas and Arts & Crafts in July

It's Monday morning.   Thank goodness, I think I'm back on a regular sleep schedule.  Monday, of course, is lawn and laundry day at our house.  No lawn today because it's raining.  This is one of the beauties of working out of our home.  I can work and do laundry at the same time.  Also, I don't have to get out in the rain to go to and from work.  Sweet.

This morning 3 of our 4 pots of lemon balm on the deck is dead.  We don't know what happened.  Maybe too much rain.  The lemon balm really does smell like lemons but better than that, it contains natural citronella.  I think we are going to empty the pots in a nice, sunny spot in the yard and try again.  I've never had problems with the lemon balm before, so this is puzzling.

The tomato plants are very lush but no tomatoes.  I looked it up on the internet yesterday and it said that if you have several consecutive days of temperatures over 90 degrees that the fruit will not form.  That must be the case.  So, I'll just continue to pamper my tomato plants and maybe when the temperature gets down in the fall, we will have tomatoes.  At least that's my plan.  Bell peppers and green beans, however, are doing extraordinarily well.

George had planted some hibiscus in the front yard that have blossumed this year.  Those dark pink flowers are gorgeous.

It was a pretty active weekend for us.  Friday night we attended a cocktail party on the beach.  Saturday we met for lunch with George's sister on Perdido Key, and yesterday we had a delightful afternoon with the neighbors celebrating the 4th of July.  I guess most people in the US have a holiday today, but not me.  I don't even mind because I love what I do.  It's part of my life.

I've been working on lace lately.  Today I actually think that I'm going to post some handkerchiefs with my lace on Etsy.  I'm still trying to combine the black and white, french and animal themes throughout.  That's not easy for a girl who loves color.

We have a few orders that need my attention this week.  Some pillowcases, scarves and bags.  I need to get to Cantonment to my favorite fabric store.  Maybe I can do that tomorrow.  They are probably closed today.  I think they are closed on Monday's anyway.  That'll take awhile because once in that store I touch everything and look at everything.  It's my playground.

Also this week, I'm hoping to build a light box.  I've read that a light box will help with the photography of my items.  We'll give it a shot.

Since it's now July, it's time to start thinking about Christmas and the upcoming Arts & Craft Festival on the beach.  Need to work on getting enough items in stock to fill our booth for the October Arts & Craft Festival.  I haven't heard a lot about it this year and I sure hope we are still doing it, in spite of the oil situation.

Also since it's July, I have to pay our quarterly sales tax.  Paying it is not as bad as figuring it out.  Poo yie.  Not my favorite thing to do.

Nevertheless, July is going to be busy.  Since George has the job with Deepwater Horizon now, I am not going to have my right hand man here to help with the embroidery. 

On our Mexico Beach trip we had some fabulous food.  My friend, Lynn, sent the recipes and my absolute favorite was the spinach balls.  I made them the other night.  My intent was to make them and take them to the 4th of July celebration.  However, George and I ate all of them.  I want to make some substitutions to the recipes that keeps the wonderful flavor but leaves out or substitutes some of the high coloric ingredients.  Spinach is so good for you.  It's really the butter and bread crumbs that are the only high caloric ingredients.  I'll see what I can do.  It's an easy recipe that even I can follow.

Back to work.  Stay posted.