It's Already Fall

It's Already Fall

I'm so bad about keeping up with this blog.

It's been 8 months since I last posted anything.

That doesn't mean I haven't been busy.  Just to prove it, I'm adding several items that Cajun Stitchery has worked on this year.  

These pictures are definitely not all inclusive.  The machine has been busy this year.

Since last year I've been trying to digitize a Pensacola Beach design for each holiday.  I think that's been pretty much accomplished.

I did the Pensacola Beach Ball and the Pensacola Beach sign for Mardi Gras.  Turned out that lots of people loved the Pensacola Beach Ball but only a few cared for the Pensacola Beach sign.  So, I stuck with the Pensacola Beach Ball.

 This little Nutcracker tee shirt was special.  A customer contacted me on Facebook to do this.  She purchased the tee shirt online and had it delivered to me.  I did the embroidery and shipped it to her.  She paid with PayPal.  That was one of the coolest orders I've ever had.  The project just worked perfectly.

I digitized this crawfish awhile back and listed it in the Etsy Store as a digitized design for other embroiderers.  A potential customer contacted me recently wanting a patch with this design and "Crawdad" printed on the claw.  The potential customer never purchased it but I liked the design so much that I have it listed for sale on Etsy.

I made another USA flag quilt this year out of scrap fabric for my husband.  It really turned out nice, used up a bunch of my scrap fabric, and he loves it.  Yes, that's the Pledge of Allegiance stitched on the edges.

And then I started working on aprons.  Just because I wanted to do so.  Then I purchased waaay too much satin fabric in a myriad of colors.  But it makes me happy.

There is a special spot in my heart for the bridges-to-be who contact me.  From robes to handkerchiefs to anything needed to be embroidered for weddings.  I just love doing this.

Until next time

Visit me at https://www.etsy.com/shop/cajunstitchery

Peggy

Cajun Corner – Vol. 6, No. 21 – September 7, 2014

Cajun Corner – Vol. 6, No. 21 – September 7, 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.my-catalogs.com/cajunstitchery

and www.companycasuals.com/cajunstitchery.

This has been a very rough week.  Most of the Labor Day weekend was spent working on a rush order for a left chest logo that was needed on Monday.  Tuesday was going to be our Labor Day holiday.  When Tuesday arrived I received a disturbing call from one of my Nereid sisters telling me that one of our youngest members was in the hospital.  She suffered from a cardiac arrest Monday morning and had been in an induced coma ever since because of the time she went without oxygen to her brain caused swelling in her brain.  I sat at the hospital on Tuesday with the family and one of my fine finned sisters.  Although she was still in a coma, the medical staff was bringing her out of the coma.  I was able to visit with her, although she was still comatose.  The medical staff brought her out of the coma on Wednesday morning and the neurologist was able to perform an EEG which revealed a complete lack of brain activity.  Since one of her brothers suffered from kidney failure and was on dialysis, the family decided that her kidneys should be donated to him.  The protocol for that procedure took a day or two and turned out that they were not a match.  The family then decided that her kidneys, and other salvageable organs would be donated and she would be able to help at least 3 additional people.  She was taken off of life support this past Friday at noon.

Needless to say work was not a top priority this week.

A few orders did come in from our Etsy store which, of course, were filled and shipped.

This weekend I have gone through all of the items in our Etsy store and placed 94 items in a Sale category.  A lot of the sale items are marked down at least 50%.  If you are looking for Christmas gifts and stocking stuffers, please browse around the store.

This year we have had a few issues with the post office not delivering our items.  The only way I know to track through the mail is via priority mail.  The policies in our Etsy store have changed.  The default is 3 day priority mail, and first class mail upon request.  Shipping to Canada remains the same, first class mail, because priority mail is outrageously expensive to Canada.

Another addition to our Etsy store are a few fall and Halloween items.  Only a couple of Christmas items have been listed at this time but I do plan to list more.

All in all, I just want to get rid of the old stuff in order to make room for newly created new stuff.  As always, I am open to ideas and critiques.  So, bring it on.  What do you like about the shop and your shopping experience?  What don’t you like?  Got any ideas on improvements?

George found two old dining chairs that were left over from the previous homeowner or somehow got in our garage.  He took the seats off and painted the chairs white, at my request.  I plan to recover the seats with, of course, embroidery.  I just have to decide on the design.  You can never have too much seating.

Last year I was looking for large bolts of fabric to make curtains for the studio.  I found an online site out of New York that seemed to have what I needed.  All I wanted was plain, white muslin.  I purchased 100 yards of plain, white muslin and received a fabric that did not appear to be muslin.  It turned out that it was 100% polyester muslin.  That was pretty difficult for me to understand.  In my mind, muslin is a 100% cotton fabric.  I went back to the site and found they offer 100% cotton muslin and 100% polyester muslin.  After a little research I found that you can purchase about any kind of fabric you want in polyester or a poly-blend.  The polyester fabric is, of course, cheap.  The truth is that I’ve just about used up my 100 yards of white polyester muslin on a myriad of items.  It is strong but doesn’t have the nice cotton feel to it.  However, it goes against my “all natural” side.  I later purchased 75 yards of 100% cotton, red muslin from the same company and I am satisfied with that purchase.  I really like the company because although they are the middle man, they state that they purchase only from mills in the USA.  Their fabric is all made here.

The same issue appeared recently when I purchased chiffon scarves from a different wholesaler.  The caption stated that they were 100% chiffon.  When they arrived, I found them to have the same feel as chiffon.  The tag says “100% poly – Made in China.”  I suppose they are 100% poly-chiffon.

HAVE A GREAT WEEK

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Natural Nail Polish Remover:

Pour equal parts vinegar and lemon juice into a small bowl and soak a few cotton balls in mixture. Meanwhile, soak your hands in a basin of warm water for 10 minutes to loosen the polish a bit. Apply the cotton balls on the nail and leave on for 20-30 seconds. Wipe off the polish gently. Repeat if needed.

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. 5, No. 44

 

Cajun Corner – Vol. 5, No. 44 – September 2, 2013

 

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.

Happy Labor Day.

I finally finished the beautiful, large embroidery design.

Clothilde is working just fine.

George’s father fell and hurt his head last week and was rushed to the ER.  George’s sister went up to Atlanta to check on him.  He seems to be fine but he is falling more frequently these days.  George and his sister have tried to talk him into moving closer to us but he refuses.  The truth is that he does have a sweet deal on his house rent up there and really could not find anything near that price down here.  Kathie wants him to move in with her in Fairhope.  George and I feel that the offer is on the table and if he doesn’t want to move, he shouldn’t have to move.  It is just that if he gets too feeble to travel, he will have lost this opportunity.  Not to mention that it would be easier for Kathie and George to visit and care for him if he were here.  Oh well.  Like Mama used to say, you can lead a horse to water but you can’t make him drink.

The krewe has been working hard on a new costume to wear in a Mermaid Parade in two weeks on Pensacola Beach.  We are practicing our dance routine, as well.  It should be a lot of fun and we are all looking forward to parading.  We have a basic pattern for the costume and then everyone embellishes as they like.  It should be interesting.

Our gnomenator remains a mystery but he/she has been busy.  I received a gnome we call Happy Henshall a/k/a Smiley.  Another friend recently received her gnome, too.  The gnomenator is still out there.

I am simply addicted to Pinterest these days.  A “search” for antique handkerchiefs brought a wealth of photographs and websites.  Looking at all of these beautiful hankies put another idea in my head about making them.  I’ll have to try it out and see if it works first before I tell you how to do it.

Have a wonderful week

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 Patrice for the following:

A retired gentleman went to the social security office to apply for Social Security.

The woman behind the counter asked him for his driver's license to verify his age. He looked in his pockets and realized he had left his wallet at home. He told the woman that he was very sorry but he seemed to have left his wallet at home. "I will have to go home and come back later." The woman says, "Unbutton your shirt." So he opens his shirt revealing curly silver hair. She says, "That silver hair on your chest is proof enough for me" and she processed his Social Security application.

When he gets home, the man excitedly tells his wife about his experience at the social security office. She says, "You should have dropped your pants. You might have gotten disability too."

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. 5, No. 42

 

 

 

Cajun Corner – Vol. 5, No. 42 – August 18, 2013

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.

Still working hard on this beautiful, large embroidery design.

I saw a pattern for an embroidered muff the other day.  It reminded me of my mother’s wedding to my step-father.  My sister and I had a real cute white furry hat and muff.  We more or less shared.  The day of Mama’s wedding we both wanted to wear the hat and muff and began to argue.  Mama decided that one would wear the muff and the other the hat.  There is a picture of Mama and Daddy leaving the church after their wedding.  Nancy and I were in front of them.  What the picture does not show is that we were fighting over the muff.

Every little girl would love to have a nice furry, soft muff.  Even in southwestern Louisiana, little girls love muffs in the winter.  They are so soft, so romantic, and so girly.  They are very easy to make.  I made one when I first got Doris, the first embroidery machine.  It was made from some soft faux fur and a pretty mermaid was embroidered on the front.  The lining was a satin fabric and a pocket was constructed on the inside.  A friend of mine saw it and fell in love with it.  I know this because she took it and said “Mine.”  I haven’t seen it since.  Hope she was able to use it.

Oatmeal lowers cholesterol.  According to The Mayo Clinic the top 5 foods to lower your cholesterol are: (1) oatmeal, (2) fish and omega-3 fatty acids, (3) nuts, (4) olive oil, and (5) foods with added plant sterols or stanols.  We eat the first 4 items pretty regular and now we have oatmeal at the studio in case we want something to eat during the day.  High cholesterol can cause strokes.

We went out to eat Wednesday night at The Oar House.  George bought me a mermaid tee shirt.  Reminds me of the time we took our embroidery tech out to eat at this same restaurant.  The waitress had not been by our table in awhile so we called the restaurant on my friend’s cell phone and asked the waitress to bring us water.  It was all in fun and our waitress, at least appeared to understand and laugh along with us.

A scalloped edged handkerchief was designed a few weeks ago.  Since that time it appears that all sorts of shaped edges will work for handkerchiefs.  An organza hanky was made with multiple scallops along the edges.  I don’t think we will be selling that hanky since it occurred to me that since the organza is shear, when you blow your nose, you can see it.  Ewwwww.  We’ll use the organza for other items, not handkerchiefs.

Etsy sales have picked up a bit.  We sold another “You have a booger” handkerchief.  It always makes us laugh because that handkerchief design has out-sold everything else in our Etsy store.  We sell lots of napkins, handkerchiefs, and other items, but that one hanky design always seems to sell.

Several friends are heading out to a mermaid retreat on the east coast.  They will be gone for five days.  During their retreat they will have walking mermaid tails made, a photo shoot, and there was some talk of them performing.  Oh my.  I can’t wait until they return with all of their stories.  A couple of the girls attended a Merpalooza last week in Tampa.  There should be some really good stories when these girls return.

The holidays are just ahead.  If you are looking for a special gift for the man in your life, you might consider a nice woven shirt.  Check out our online catalog at: (http://www.imprintit.biz/cgi-bin/cobrand/site.w?location=b2c/product.w&action=catalog&department=DV00008&category=PC01298&prb=&srb=&mill=&product=LSFISH&brands=no&frames=no&target=main&sponsor=000699)

Browse around.  There are ladies styles, as well.  We carry name brand shirts such as:

 

o                                                        Bill Bass

o                                                        Calvin Klein

o                                                        Cubavera

o                                                        Featherlite

o                                                        Hilton

o                                                        Inner Harbor

o                                                        Jonathan Corey

o                                                        Nyne

o                                                        Robinson Manufacturing

o                                                        Sierra Pacific

o                                                        Van Heusen

o                                                        Weatherproof

 

Now that Christmas has come to mind, I realize that Christmas items need to be made soon or we won’t be ready for the holiday rush.  With that in mind today was R&D day, research and development.  Card stock can be embroidered.  It needs to be embroidered with cross-stitch embroidery; otherwise, the needle and thread can tear the card.  Today some old cards were used for embroidery samples and it not only worked beautifully, but metallic thread worked nice, as well.  There are several other methods that need to be tried and developed but it sure seems that embroidered Christmas cards may be in our repertoire soon. 

 

Continuing with R&D day, the new organza was hooped and embroidered with metallic thread.  That worked out remarkably well.  This, too, led to additional ideas that will require R&D.

 

The little North Pole sign or even the Christmas lights wreath with the monogram in the center would be perfect for napkins.  A friend of our’s loves his Christmas dishes.  So much that he would love to use them all year.  Do you have Christmas dishes?  A set of fanciful holiday embroidered napkins with your monogram would certainly enhance your table setting.

Have a wonderful week

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 Jeanne Tawney for the following:


The teacher gave her fifth grade class an assignment:  Get their
parents to tell them a story with a moral at the end of it.  The next
day, the kids came back and, one by one, began to tell their stories.

There were all the regular types of stuff:  Spilled milk and pennies
saved.  But then the teacher realized, much to her dismay, that only
Janie was left.

"Janie, do you have a story to share?"

'Yes  ma'am.  My daddy told me a story about my Mommy. She was a
Marine  pilot in Desert Storm, and her plane got hit.  She had to bail
out over enemy territory, and all she had was a flask of whiskey, a
pistol, and a survival knife.

She drank the whiskey on the way down so the bottle wouldn't break,
and then her parachute landed her right in the middle of 20 Iraqi
troops.  She shot 15 of them with the pistol, until she ran out of
bullets,  killed four more with the knife, till the blade broke, and
then she  killed the last Iraqi with her bare hands."
''Good Heavens,' said the horrified teacher.  What did your Daddy tell
you was the moral to this horrible story?"  "Don't f**k with Mommy
when she's been drinking."

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. 5, No.1

Cajun Corner – Vol. 5, No. 1 – January 6, 2013

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.

Happy 2013!!!!

George ended up spending the week in Atlanta with his sister and dad.  They buried Mom on Friday.  George says it was a very nice military funeral.  They folded and presented the flag to Dad, played Taps, and the Navy officers escorted Dad. 

It was a difficult week.  The New Year holiday made it a bit difficult getting the funeral plans finalized, but in the end they did what had to be done.  On top of everything else, George’s birthday was Wednesday, the day they received Mom’s ashes.  George and his sister left Atlanta yesterday morning.

A lot was done at Cajun Stitchery during the week.  The dogs, cats and I spent the week alone with an occasional visit from neighbors.  We were able to churn out some beautiful embroidery though and work on some creative designs.

This upcoming week already looks busy with more heirloom embroidery and a large ball cap order.

Sometime ago a friend told me to sell no more than 4 or 5 different types of things in your store.  Just have a lot of each of those things.  Etsy allows 10 categories of items in each Etsy store.  My new embroidery friend in Alaska reiterated this to me.  She has over 1,000 items in her EBay store.  They are all embroidered towels, mostly hand towels, and a few bath towels.  Her EBay store is booming and keeps her busy everyday. 

Reviewing our Etsy sales from last year it appears that the one item that sells most is handkerchiefs.  Our plan is to build up our handkerchief supply and turn our Etsy store into just handkerchiefs or handkerchiefs and another item, perhaps scarves.  That is Step 1.  Later on we may open a second Etsy store for a couple of additional categories.  The Etsy rules do allow you to have more than one store but they make a point that they do not encourage this practice because it can become confusing.   Now the question is what to do with the other items that I make. 

Yesterday was the Queen’s Brunch for our krewe.  We get together over mimosas and bloody Mary’s, eat a fabulous brunch, socialize and then our past queens retire to a private room where the envelope containing our votes and kisses are tallied for our new queen.  Only the past queens know who will be the new queen until the announcement at the King Kake Party.  We usually begin the Mardi Gras season on the island with our King Kake Party that same afternoon.  At that time we serve King Cake and then announce our new king and queen.  This year John Thomas was crowned King Nerius XXII and Peggy Henshall was crowned Queen Doris XXII.  It was simply a magical day for me.  Those girls are the very best.  I really like the tiara a lot.  I wore it until bedtime last night.  Actually I wore it to bed but it wasn’t comfortable sleeping with the thing on my head.  The tiara returned to my head this morning and I wore it all day. 

I began designing my royal logo last night and posted it on Facebook. 

We also found that the Pensacola News Journal wasted no time in publishing an article on our party before the evening was over.

Today we had a birthday meal for George at a friend’s home.  I wore the tiara.  Food was great.  Conversation was wonderful.  We had a lovely afternoon.

This Mardi Gras season is very short and very busy, but I plan on doing it all and attending it all.  Here we go…

J

Laissez Les Bon Temps Rouler

J

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 Harold Wilkes for the following contribution:

 

The General went out to find that none of his G.I.s were there. One finally ran up, panting heavily.

"Sorry, sir! I can explain, you see I had a date and it ran a little late. I ran to the bus but missed it, I hailed a cab but it broke down, found a farm, bought a horse but it dropped dead, ran 10 miles, and now I'm here."

The General was very skeptical about this explanation but at least he was here so he let the G.I. go. Moments later, eight more G.I.s came up to the general panting, he asked them why they were late.

"Sorry, sir! I had a date and it ran a little late, I ran to the bus but missed it, I hailed a cab but it broke down, found a farm, bought a horse but it dropped dead, ran 10 miles, and now I'm here."

The General eyed them, feeling very skeptical but since he let the first guy go, he let them go, too. A ninth G.I. jogged up to the General, panting heavily.

"Sorry, sir! I had a date and it ran a little late, I ran to the bus but missed it, I hailed a cab but..."

"Let me guess," the General interrupted, "it broke down."

"No," said the G.I., "there were so many dead horses in the road, it took forever to get around them."

* * *

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.