Cajun Corner - Vol. 3, No. 52

Cajun Corner – Vol. 3, No. 52 – December 31, 2011

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

ΘΘΘΘΘ

Don’t forget to visit our blog at www.cajunstitchery.blogspot.com, 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.

Today is New Year’s Eve.  I sure hope everyone can look back on this year and have many happy memories.  May 2012 bring each of you good health, joy and prosperity.

Our family tradition is to take down our Christmas decorations on January 2^nd, George’s birthday.  Out with the red and green; in with the purple, green and gold.  I actually have some friends who take the Christmas decorations off of the tree and replace them with Mardi Gras décor for a Mardi Gras tree.

I must say that 2011 was certainly a Facebook year for me.  I have made so many good friends via Facebook this year and met all kinds of people from everywhere.

The garden is still giving.  It is unbelievable but wonderful.  We have to harvest more peppers and tomatoes today.  It’s time to plant celery, which I’ve never grown before and hope it does well.  Sometime this coming week the spent plants will be removed and new seeds planted.  We have some broccoli seedlings that need to go into the garden soon.

This has been a busy week.  Everything in our Etsy store is now on sale.  As I was putting the items for sale, I was upgrading a lot of things, especially the scarves and adding lots of rhinestones.  I still don’t have everything that I’ve made on there but I really want to get rid of some of the items that have been around for a while so that I can make some new items.  The sales are good until I take the sale off, which will be in the next couple of days.  You should visit the store and browse a bit.  I really slashed prices on the majority of the items.

The market baskets have been a huge hit this season.  So, for the Mardi Gras season I’m doing some market baskets with the Mystic Krewe of Nereids in gold/topaz rhinestones and a couple of cute mermaids in mylar.  I think all krewes should have these, especially since we carry so much stuff around.  But Krewes aren’t the only people who should have market baskets.  Many of my business friends should have them, too.  Not only is it a fabulously unique way to advertise by having your company name embroidered on the basket, but these baskets are perfect when you are carrying your wares around, like Avon, Mary Kay, soaps, oils, embroidery, etc.

You know each year I give my krewe members the same but special gifts for their birthdays.  One year I gave them personalized mermaid pillowcases; last year it was personalized mermaid bath towels.  This year I have something else special but I’m stumped on what design to use.  I’ve thought about several things but nothing has really grabbed me.  January starts a whole new year and new birthdays, so I better come up with something quick.

We were able to get the red aprons at a super discount price during the Christmas season and have sold out.  The sale is now closed and instead of $5 per apron, they are now $10.12 each.

We still have many items in stock that are on sale and have not been listed in our Etsy store.  We have tee shirts, polos, jackets, napkins, caps, and other things.  Call or email me if you are interested in looking at these items.

Happy New Year!!!

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. 

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Thank you Paulette Provost for the following:

Boudreaux and Thibodeaux were a couple of drinking buddies who worked as aircraft mechanics at de Estherwood International Airport . Mais one day de airport was fogged in and dey were stuck in de hangar with nuttin' to do.

Boudreaux say, 'Man, I wish we had someting to drink!'

Thibodeaux say, 'Me too. Y'know, I've heard you can drink de jet fuel and get a buzz. So dey pour demselves a couple of glasses of high octane gas and get demselves completely smashed.

De next morning Boudreaux wake himsef’ up and is surprised at how darn good he feels. In fack he feels GREAT! NO hangover! NO bad side effects. NUTTIN! Den de phone rings. It's Thibodeaux!

Thibodeaux say, 'Hey, how you are dis morning?'

Boudreaux say, 'Man, I feel great, how 'bout you?'

Thibodeaux say, 'I feel great, too. You don' have a hangover?'

Boudreaux say, 'No dat jet fuel is great stuff -- no hangover, nuttin’. We ought to do dis more often..'

Thibodeaux say, ' Yeah, well dey's just one t’ing.'

'What's dat?' says Boudreaux.

'Have you farted yet?' axes Thib.

'Mais No.' says Boudreaux.

'Well, DON'T - cause I'm in Shreveport!'

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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.

Christmas Stocking Tutorial

Since I wrote on Friday about creating the in-the-hoop design for the Christmas Elf Stocking I have been embellishing and making more.  This post is about these stockings. 

I started out digitizing a basic stocking shape with the curly toe.  The top was left open.  I used a single stitch outline.  My plan was to hoop some tear away stabilizer in one of my largest hoops.  Then I would lay the fabric on top of the stabilizer, unhooped with the fold of the fabric across the top of the stocking, and let the first round of stitches outline the stocking.  The next thing that stitched would be whatever design that was going to be on the front of the stocking.  I chose a single color ornament design.  Then I would lay the next layer of fabric over the first layer, fold of the fabric across the top of the stocking, and let the outline stitch again.  Everything worked as planned.  I was able to pull the fabric away from the tear away stabilizer, trim the fabric around the stocking stitching and turn the stocking right side out.  It looked nice but was a bit small, and I noticed that I had not attached a loop for hanging the stocking.

Back to the drawing board.  I have a regular, red and white, fuzzy stocking that I bought as a standard for comparison purposes.  Through the next few tweaks with the digitizing program, I was able to enlarge the stocking to fit the hoop.  The hoop that I'm using is actual 16 1/2" x 11", but I cannot use all of that space because the corners are rounded.  The stocking ends up about 8" wide and 12" or 13" long because it's being made inside out.  Measuring the elf stocking against the standard stocking shows that the final is only slightly smaller than the standard.   The design was finalized and there were 3 stockings constructed during the tweaking phase. 

Since I had more of the golden colored fabric, I made two more stockings in the final design, one with candles and a poinsettia and one with candy canes.  They turned out very nice.  That is pretty much where I was when I last wrote.  I realized that I would need to figure out how to make a cuff and embellishments.

That is what I've been working on this weekend.  I had used all of the golden fabric but I did have scrap pieces remaining.  I thought if I could make a row of small, one inch, designs, on the folded golden fabric pieces, fold at the bottom, I could attach the row of designs to the top of the stocking.  It worked perfectly.  By placing the right side of the cuff to the wrong side of the stocking, I sewed around the top edge.  Then I placed the loop at the seam, loop side inside the stocking, and stitched loop and cuff straight up to finish off the cuff.  The cuff was then folded outside the stocking and it was done.  It looked very nice.  I have since thought that if I need to make the stocking longer, I could simply make the cuff longer and fold the cuff outside at a higher place.  I haven't tried that yet.





Once all of the cuffs were done, the stockings looked real cute but still needed something.  So, I got out my rhinestones and began applying them on the stockings.  They turned out adorable.  The only one that I didn't put rhinestones on was the candy cane stocking.  I would be concerned if a child swallowed a loose rhinestone.  I'm still thinking that there should be something on the toe of the stocking.  Maybe a little jingle bell, but I'm not sure at this point.









Today, I was looking around in my studio and found a piece of black satin fabric.  Since so many people around here love fleur de lis, I thought I would make a stocking in black satin with a gold fleur de lis.  I only had enough black satin for the outside of the stocking.  Instead of having a double layer of fabric with the fold at the top, I used a double layer of gold jersey with the fold at the top and then laid the black satin on top of the gold jersey and folding the top down a few inchs.  The outline and design were stitched and then a second layer of the black satin, folded at the top a few inches, with a double layer of gold jersey on top of that.  Then the design finished.  This worked out beautifully.  In fact, at this time I realized that using the double layer of jersey gave the stocking a bit of thickness that was lacking in the other stockings.  I used some of the scrap black satin fabric to make the cuff.  This cuff was made with a 2 inch fleur de lis design making the cuff larger.  Once all of the sewing was done, I filled in the fleur de lis outline with gold rhinestones.  The lining of gold jersey adds an pleasing touch. 



Tomorrow I have orders to fill.  This weekend was my time to play with the stocking design.  Hopefully, I'll be able to make more stockings before the Arts & Wine Festival in October.  Now that all of the designing and digitizing is done, these stockings are a lot of fun to make.



C'est tout, mes amis.

Cajun Corner, Vol. 3, No. 33

Cajun Corner – Vol. 3, No. 33 – August 19, 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.

When Nancy and I were pre-teens and teenagers Mama made two great big bags for our Christmas presents.  She probably used about two yards of fabric for each one.  One was green and one was red.  She got some iron on letters and ironed “Nancy” on one and “Peggy” on the other.  She closed the big bags with cording that slipped through an opening at the top of the bags and she attached bells to the cording.  They were very cute and very practical.

We always opened our Christmas presents after midnight mass.  Nancy would open her bag and I would open mine.  After the presents were opened, we would have breakfast and then everyone would go to bed.

Mama was very practical but very creative.  I made a bag like this for George a few years back.  Of course, I embroidered his name and a cute elf on it.  Not only are these bags practical but also environmentally friendly Not even Mama realized that she was a conservationist.  They are environmentally friendly because the presents were not wrapped.  Newspaper was wadded up inside to hide the shapes of the presents but, as Mama used to say, “Santa doesn’t wrap presents.”  If anyone ever wants one of these bags, let me know.

The topic is Christmas and I’m talking about Christmas because I’m preparing for the 4^th Annual Pensacola Beach Arts & Wine Festival.  I began making Christmas stockings.  We’ll let’s back up.  I began considering making Christmas stockings.  I have a red fuzzy Christmas stocking that I purchased sometime ago at the store and used that as my standard.  I digitized a stocking with a curly elf toe.  Then I stitched it out.  It was much smaller than the store bought and although it would make a cute little stocking; it wasn’t what I had in mind.  See the photographs attached.  The first one had the ornaments.  I could get my hand in but it could be a tight fit if someone had large hands.  I then widened it.  See the photo with the snowflakes and the little Eskimo.  That worked well but I wanted it longer.  Then I increased the length and widened the top a bit.   So far my final is the one with the candles.  It’s not quite as big as the standard stocking but it is a nice size.  Then I did the one with the elf and the candy canes.  I fell in love with that one.  These stocking are not finished because I need to put a cuff on the top and I’m working on that. 

Since I was digitizing, stitching and thinking about stockings, I realized that over the years stockings have become larger and larger.  I’ve seen stockings that hang from a mantle and go all the way to the floor.  What is the point of that other than novelty?  When I was growing up, we did not have a fireplace or mantle.  I don’t recall actually having a stocking; we had the bags.  We did have stockings for our boys when they were growing up and would put little things in the stockings, such as little toys or lotto tickets or candy and treats or little novelty type stuff.  I don’t think the stockings were intended to encapsulate all of the presents.  Maybe historically they were, but not since the tradition of putting the presents under the tree.  I must admit, though, that Christmas stockings in general are pretty.  My ultimate decision was that it probably doesn’t matter how large the stocking is anymore.  So, I’m sticking with the final size that I created.

Last weekend George and I celebrated our 41^st wedding anniversary.  Our plan was to have lunch in Perdido with George’s sister, Kathie, on Saturday noon.  Come home and then go to Pensacola Beach to celebrate our friend, Amy’s, birthday.  It rained while we were having lunch in Perdido and followed us home.  We decided that we really didn’t feel like driving in the rain to Pensacola Beach.  So, we stayed home.  On Sunday, we planned to take the Pensacola Historical Trolley.  The owner is one of my friends on Facebook.  I messaged him on Facebook to ask if they were going to be having the tour.  No answer.  I went to his website that said that they have the tour 7 days at week at 11:00 a. m.  It did suggest that you make reservations.  I called on the phone and got a voice mail.  So, we went to the Visitor’s Center and looked around while we were waiting for the trolley.  11:00 came and went and no trolley.  We waited until 11:30 or so and left.  We decided to just drive around and take in the sights and actually ended up in Gulf Shores.  Then my phone rang.  It was the guy at the trolley company.  They had a group that reserved the trolley for a special tour that morning.  At least he did call back.  So, it appeared that most of our plans did not come to fruition but we enjoyed each other’s company.

I messaged a friend of mine on Facebook who is into scrapbooking and asked her about the tiny appliqués.  She told me that scrap bookers love that kind of stuff.  So, I’m going to have a basket or bowl or something at the festival with a bunch of tiny appliqués.  We’ll see how they sell.

There are so many ideas going through my head about the festival and things I want to make and ways I want to decorate the tent.  At one point I was worried that I would not have enough stuff.  That was only a fleeting thought because I am bulging at the seams with stuff.  If anyone has any old fishing nets, I’ll be glad to take them off of your hands.  I think I want to have a theme to our tent this year.

A couple of friends made an appointment with me for today.  We spent almost 3 hours taking orders and letting them look at Cajun Stitchery’s wares.  It was so much fun.  I’m always open for this.  Just make an appointment and I’ll set aside some time and pull out all of our stuff and just give a grand display.  Of course, I’ll serve coffee, water, wine, or whatever you like.  We can even look at designs on the computer.  Enjoy it all while sitting at my kitchen table.

We still have our shipment of XL Fruit of the Loom, Adult, short sleeve, tee shirts in a variety of colors.  I chose XL because that tends to be the size most often ordered.  Of course, I can get you whatever size you like.  The colors that we have are:  athletic heather, black, forest green, Kelly, khaki, J. Navy, pacific blue, royal blue, true red, and white.  Tee shirts make great gifts and everyone can use them.  So, if you are planning for Christmas, think about giving a tee shirt with a name or monogram embroidered.  Of course, we can embroider anything you like.  Just remember the old saying that the sweetest sound is your own name.  Give a tee to someone with their nickname or special term of endearment embroidered on it.  So what, if you don’t have the entire logo digitized; get a tee with the name of your company anyway.  (If there are enough responses for other sizes, I might get that size next time.)

SALE:  In stock XL Fruit of the Loom, Adult, short sleeve, tee shirts with a name or monogram for $10.00 plus shipping/sales tax.  Sale is good until we run out of stock.  See above paragraph for available colors.

I should be ordering towels in the next month or two.  If anyone needs towels, let me know.

Don’t forget the upcoming Mystic Krewe of Nereid’s annual Splash Party.  The Splash Party will be held on Sunday, August 28^th, beginning at 2:00 p.m., at Paradise Bar & Grill on Pensacola Beach.  Mark your calendars.  It’s going to be a real S-P-L-A-S-H.

Speaking of the Splash party tonight is our krewe’s monthly meeting.  My friend from Alabama is going to drop by and pick me up and we are going to spend the night on the beach.  Our meeting will be a working meeting and we will be preparing everything for the Splash Extravaganza.  Don’t miss this event.  It is family oriented, so bring the kids.   Dress up like mermaids and bring your water blasters.

As planned, this past Tuesday I was on local radio station, 1620.  I had prepared a cheat sheet, just in case I became so flustered that I couldn’t think of what I was to say.  The whole thing lasted about 30 seconds.  The cheat sheet should always be with me.  That was one handy little thing to have.

CHRISTMAS is around the corner.  Unbelievable, I know.  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. 

Cajun French Phrase of the Week:

Cracher en l'air ca va tomber sur le nez= if you do evil it will come back to hit you in the face or what goes around comes around

Taken from:  http://www.acadian-roots.com/cajun-names.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. 25

Cajun Corner – Vol. 3, No. 25 – JUNE 24, 2011


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

ΘΘΘΘΘ

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

Hope all of the dads out there had a wonderful Father’s Day. Next holiday is going to be the 4th of July. We’re back to the red, white and blue and there are several patriotic items in our Etsy store. Drop by for a visit.

I was pleased to find out this week that Paradise Bar & Grill is listed in the top 10 bars in Florida. A hardy congratulation goes to Fred and Rene and the gang! The official ceremony is going to be this Sunday. I think it’s at 4:00 but you better double check. Fred is asking everyone to please attend to congratulate Rene and staff.

I may have mentioned this before but I read an article not long ago about dog collars. The article said that it is very important that your cats and dogs have collars with their names and telephone numbers. This is true especially for disaster purposes. The aftermath of Hurricane Katrina was devastating on pets and their owners. Most were never reunited. My cats do not have collars because they are strictly indoor cats. They have had their front claws removed. After reading that article, I plan on making collars for the cats today and will embroider their name and my phone number on the collars. You don’t know what is going to happen at any given time. Another point is that even if your animal has an identification chip embedded, most people don’t think to take the cute little animal to the vet to check for ID. Nothing against ID chips; they are valuable. Also, if a pet finds itself misplaced, it is probably quite stressed. To see the animal’s name and be able to call him/her by name would be comforting and calming to the pet.

Needless to say this article touched my heart. So, this week Cajun Stitchery has purchased the necessary items to make pet collars. Our very first commercial collar was made this week for Daisy. Miss Daisy’s collar was picked up today. I urge everyone with cats and/or dogs to please get identification collars whether from Cajun Stitchery or elsewhere. We feed our pets healthy, nutritious food. We take them to the veterinarian. We train them. We care for them. We love them. Please also keep them safe with identification.

About last November, I received a call from a lady saying that she had an advertising company out of her home where she did advertising on local restaurant menus. The deal was that she provided the restaurant with free menus paid for by the companies advertising on the menu. For the advertising companies, we would get our business card size advertisement on a menu in a popular restaurant for 12 months at a very reasonable cost. In addition, once you lock into a particular cost for advertisement in one menu, you could advertise on any menu that she does for the same amount whether it is today, tomorrow or in 10 years, you would have the same rate. It seemed like a great deal that I could afford with a very small business. In addition, the restaurant would be Native Café on the beach, which has a special place in my heart. I agreed. The lady, in fact it was two ladies, came to my home and showed me the proof for my ad. We discussed changes and ideas. The menu was to come out in January. It was November at the time. I paid her. I signed her paperwork. And I counted the days to see our ad at Native Café. When January arrived, George and I went to Native Café for breakfast and there were no ads on the menu at all. I inquired about the ad with our waitress and she told me that the new menu would be coming out shortly. I called the advertising lady when I got home and she explained that there was a delay and the menus would be out in a couple of weeks. I finally made it back to Native Café last month. Still no ad. The owner came out and told me that there are lots of angry advertisers and he is not happy, either. The lady, who appeared so professional to me, never came through with the menus. In fact, she cashed the checks and no one can find her. She put everyone off long enough so that the bank cannot do anything about the checks. It is really a very sad situation because the idea is brilliant. It is a win-win situation for everyone involved. Haven’t we all seen menus like this with the advertising? Well, I learned my lesson.

People like this make reputable companies look bad. There are reputable companies out there because we have all seen this type of menu. I say this because a friend of mine has a company, Menu-tizing, that does exactly this. She is reputable but I didn’t know about her last November. In fact, Cajun Stitchery will be embroidering her companny shirts soon.

Speaking of shirts for Menu-tizing, our new digitizer is digitizing the embroidery design for Menu-tizing today. This digitizing company has won many awards for their digitizing and I’m looking forward to seeing their work up close and personal. I think this will become a really nice relationship. They told me that all of their digitizing is $30 per design. Of course, lettering and words, unless they are a logo or something that requires digitizing, can be done in-house without a digitizing charge. Same is true for stock designs. Since I have to pay the digitizer upon receipt of the digitizing, the $30 digitizing fee will be required up front.

SALE: Right now I am overloaded with stock, especially cloth napkins. These are the 20 inch square, restaurant quality napkins with hemmed edges. The colors that we have in stock are:

1. Rust

2. Purple

3. Natural

4. Lavender

5. Blue

6. Royal Blue

7. White

8. Burgundy

9. Teal

10. Brown

11. Sea Foam Green

I’m selling these (in-stock) napkins at $2 each; first come, first served.

The market baskets are just adorable and very functional. I have one for myself with the Cajun Stitchery logo embroidered. These market baskets are canvas and really nice. Perhaps it’s because no one else seems to be using market baskets for advertising purposes, but people really do stop to look at them. They have stopped me.

Right now, in stock, we have black, red, purple, navy blue, hot pink, and black with white polka dots. These are all regular size market baskets and the price, without embroidery, ranges from $22 (for solid colors) to $28 (polka dot), each. A name or initials would be $5. Of course, the more embroidery you want on the basket, the more the cost.

I think the purple would be great for Mardi Gras Krewes. Krewes are always lugging around stuff from food, to costumes, to items to create a float. Put your krewe logo on the side of a purple market basket.

We also have a black laptop case($24), a black with white polka dot carryall($14), some blue and white striped canvas purses ($8 each), hot pink purses($8 each), hot pink mini purses($6 each), and a brown purse($8 each). I’ll embroider a monogram (name or initials) for $5.00.

The market baskets have a bunch of uses.

• One customer said they are perfect for a beach tote.

• They make great personalized gifts or gift baskets.

• With your logo embroidered, they are a wonderful advertising tool. If you are like me and always seem to carry a bag with my wares, picking up or delivering items, your logo embroidered on the basket is ideal and unique. It’s an eye catcher.

• Recent embroidery on a market tote was done by embroidering the outline of the word “Mine” and then filling the word with rhinestones. It turned out beautifully. The same technique can be used for any word.

• They also make great picnic baskets. Include a set of matching cloth napkins, a tablecloth, some personalized can wraps, and an assortment of picnic items and you have a great gift. These totes have two mesh pockets on either end on the inside of the basket, as well as plastic feet and a luggage grip. A red market basket with blue or white embroidery, filled with red, white and blue napkins, tablecloth, can wraps, and other picnic items for your 4th of July picnic would be very patriotic.

• Another really great idea is a wedding gift with the names of the bride and groom and the date of the wedding embroidered on the basket. Fill it with household items, linens, or picnic items.

• And don’t forget that this makes a great diaper bag for mom. Embroider the baby’s name on the side. Fill it with diapers, blankets, bottles, and an assortment of baby items. Pink for girls; blue for boys. In fact, today someone came to me at the WBL meeting saying that she thought I brought a baby.

• Fill it with your cleaning items and take it from room to room as you clean the house.

• Same with gardening items. Don’t forget to include a pretty little apron.

• The possibilities are endless.

The 4th of July is next weekend. We now have the red, white and blue stripe, and the blue, white and red stripe webbing, 1.25” wide. There are more rhinestone flag buckles. If you are interested in a pretty terrific gift or patriotic attire for the 4th of July, George will make the patriotic belt for $10 each. Just let us know the waist size. About 6 inches are added to the waist size for proper adjustment of the belt.

I can’t believe that no one won last week’s contest. My very first job in Pensacola was my job for 14/15 years. I worked at the Levin Papantonio law firm as a paralegal.

CONTEST: First person to answer correctly is the winner. Which one of my pets, Stinky, Evie, Sylvester, Tigger, or Poly is the oldest? The winner will receive a set of 4 cloth napkins, restaurant quality, and 20” x 20” with your initials/monogram. (Color choice depends on what is in stock.)

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 Kim von Aspern-Parker for sending the following joke:

The Louisiana State Police had received numerous reports of illegal cockfights being held in the area around Abbeville and had sent their famous Detective Boudreaux from Thibodeaux to investigate.

Boudreaux promptly began his investigation and then reported to his Commander the next morning.

"Dey is tree main groups involve in dis rooster Fightin", he began. "Good work! Who are they?" the Commander asked.

Boudreaux replied confidently, "De Texas Aggies, de local Cajuns, and de Mafia from N'awlins".

Puzzled, the Commander asked, "Now Boudreaux, how did you find all that out > in one night?"

"Well," he replied, "I went down and done seen dat rooster fight in person. And I knowed immedjiately dat dem Aggies was involved when a Duck was entered in the fight."

The Commander nodded, "I'll buy that. But what about the others?"

Boudreaux nodded knowingly, "Well, I knowed de Cajuns was involved when sum_body bet on de duck!" "Ah, I see, I see....." sighed the sergeant,

"And how did you figure the Mafia was involved?" "De duck won."

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French Phrase of the Week: éclairs de chaleur (summer lightning)

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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.

Cutting and Sewing the Skirt

  

I purchased the fabric for my blue, floor length skirt and red vest on Tuesday.  I chose the patterns that I will use from my stock of patterns.  The skirt will be made from an A-line dress pattern that I will alter for the skirt.  The vest pattern is smaller than my size and I plan to adjust the pattern to fit me.

On Wednesday I hit the fabric store and chose a red and a blue satin for the shine effect.  I began with the skirt.  I pinned the pattern and cut the fabric.  Then I serged the edges and serged a seam on each side of the skirt.

Today I was too busy to work on the skirt.  I did try it on and so far, so good.  All that is remaining on the skirt is to reinforce the side seams, put in a waist and hem it.  I'm debating with myself about the waist.  Do I want to put in a waistband and zipper or just use elastic.  The wasteband and zipper would make it look much nicer and professionally finished, but the elastic wouldn't look bad and it would be more comfortable.  I should finish the skirt this weekend.

Tomorrow night is our monthly krewe meeting and we will be celebrating two birthdays.  Since I'm giving each of the girls an embroidered towel for their birthdays this year, I spent all day working on the two towels.  All of the towels have the same mermaid design but the back applique is different, as are the colors.  One is for my friend, Marilyn, who is a master gardener and owns her own landscaping company.  I love the shiny orange and red flower applique.  The other is for my friend, Chrissy, who is active in several organizations, including the gold star ladies.  Since my favorite color is red, I love this patriotic design.

Tomorrow will be a busy day with a couple of meetings.  I wanted to ge this posted while I had time.

Oh, yes, and did you see the cool collar I made for Ms. Stinky?

C'est tout, mes amis.