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.

Cajun Corner Vol. 2, No. 24

Cajun Corner – Vol. 2, No. 24 – June 18, 2010

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

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Don’t forget to visit  www.cajunstitchery.etsy.com often.

Father’s Day is Sunday. Make sure you treat your father special, at least for that one day. If you are near the Gulf Coast, take him out to dinner on the beach. Those businesses really need patrons since the tourist count is down. I think I’m going to take George to the beach this weekend to celebrate.

Speaking of the beach, last weekend we went to the beach and ate at Peg Leg Pete’s and then went down to Ft. Pickens. I wrote the story in the Monday blog but the lady at the gate asked George is he was 62. He got a life time pass to all federal parks for $10. There are a few perks with getting old. Ha-ha.

This week has been consumed with Etsy. I’m trying to put something new on Etsy everyday. There is so much competition on the internet. Suffice it to say that I joined Twitter, Kaboodle, Tumblr, Google Analytic and StumbleUpon in addition to Linkedin, Facebook, Blogger, Picassa, Feedjit, Etsy and some others that I already belong to. I post on the Blogger site every Monday, Wednesday and Friday, routinely. Tumblr is also a blog and I’ve gotten to like that one a bit because I can blog snippets during the day and post pictures of things I’m doing. I’m not sure I can handle all of these but I need to get customers. I need to continually evaluate what are my pros and what are my cons. I can read, write, sew, and embroider. And I have been reading everything I can get my hands on to market the Etsy shop. I’ve implemented most everything that I can. Then I found one forum on Etsy where the shop owner said they did all of the tweets, links, hits and found in the end, the thing that worked was just to do what they love doing – crafting and posting the items for sale.

Since I have been participating on the Etsy forums I was included in a “Treasury” this week. I was so excited. A treasury is where other shop owners at Etsy pick a theme and then chose 12 of their favorite items from other Etsiers’ stores to feature in the “Treasury.” That was real nice because it kind of meant to me that it was acceptance by my peers on Etsy.

Between Google Analytics and Feedjit (both are analytics showing the statistics of visitors and other technical stuff) my visitors to Etsy come either directly to our shop or via Kaboodle. A lot come from this blog and blogs that have listed us in their favorites. If you have a blog, please include Cajun Stitchery and we will be glad to reciprocate.

The patriotic visors with the stripes on the bill, blue headband and stars on the headband are now SOLD OUT. Yay!!! We still have the visors with the flag on the bill, red headband and the flag on the Velcro closure in the back. $5 for the visor plus $5 for most embroidered names or initials.

We also have a dozen burgundy ponytail caps and a dozen khaki with green bill ponytail caps. Passing on that sale is the same deal $5 per cap and $5 for most names or initials embroidered.

My friend, DJ, stopped by this week to visit and pick up her mermaid droid phone holders. We had such a lovely time. I only wish she could have stayed longer.

It’s getting hotter and hotter outside and the garden kind of weeps in the middle of the day but that garden just gets prettier and prettier. We have been harvesting tomatoes and bell peppers.

I’m still working on Etsy. I’ve rearranged our store on Etsy several times. I’m trying to get a new item on their everyday, although some days I don’t. Now I’m reading the forums and participating in that way. Etsy says that by participating in the forums you get your name out to other Etsiers and that’s a good thing.

One of my friends has ordered a set of 4 black napkins with red embroidery for a wedding gift. The engaged couple have registered for red and black plates. These napkins are going to be beautiful. Since my friend is working out of town right now, I’ve proposed that we do these napkins through Etsy and I can wrap the gift, include the card, and send onto the newlyweds, who are also out of town. Ha! Customers don’t even need to come to the house anymore, if they don’t want to. We can handle it all. Service with a smile:>)

I also have another set of pillowcases to design and embroider for someone special in my life.

I better get back to work. Have a wonderful week, everyone.

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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Years ago, when Boudreaux was a college freshman, being fresh off the farm, and a rather healthy young man, he figured he'd try out for the football team. "Can you tackle?" asked the coach. "Watch dis," Boudreaux told him, and proceeded to run smack into a telephone pole, shattering it to splinters. "Wow," said the coach. "I'm impressed. Can you run?" "Mais, sure I can run," said Boudreaux. He was off like a shot, and, in just over nine seconds, he had run a hundred yard dash. "Great!" exclaimed the excited coach. "But can you pass a football?" Boudreaux rolled his eyes, hesitated for a few seconds. "Mais, Coach," he said, "if I can swallow it, I can probably pass it."

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French phrase of the week: puits d'huile oil well

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From: http://www.dailyecotips.com/

When you live in a hot part of the country during the summer, you know how important your air conditioner is to your comfort. It is also important that it doesn’t drive up your energy costs and there are some simple things that you can do that can keep this from happening.

• Thermal Curtains- These are a great solution to keep heat sources, like sunlight, from entering your house. For those on a budget you can just put these in the rooms that get the most sunlight. If you don’t want to go and buy new curtains and have heavy curtains you put up in the winter, they will work just as well.

• Blinds- If you have blinds up closing them will help to keep most of the sunlight out of your house and keep the house cooler during the day.

• AC Itself- Turn it off when you are not in the house to enjoy it. This seems like a simple tip but letting it run while you are not in the house uses energy that you don’t enjoy. Also if you are home alone and have window units, only keep the one on in the room that you are in. This will save energy cost and keep you comfortable.

• Blankets- It doesn’t seem possible that I would be talking about blankets and heat but it does happen. Instead of turning the air conditioning down so much at night, use a lighter blanket and you can turn the temperature up and save on energy.

• Maintenance- Clean your air conditioner if you have central air. Upgrade to an Energy Star unit if you have window units. This will keep your wallet and the Earth happy.

• Shade- When considering where to put your air conditioning unit, make sure that they are in the shade. This will keep the air conditioner from having to work so hard and will not use as much energy.

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, June 24, 2010)

PONYTAIL CAP SALE!!!

We have one dozen of each of the burgundy and green bill with khaki crown ponytail cap styles in the photographs. This sale is for these 2 dozen visors. First come, first serve.

The ponytail caps have a brass slide closure.

Sale: one ponytail cap without embroidery is $5.00 plus tax/shipping. We will be glad to embroider on the cap, upon request. Most embroidered names or initials are only $5.00.
(Note: We still have a few of the patriotic visors for $5 each, first come, first serve, until they are gone.)

Tomatoes, Bell Peppers, Bowties and Ball Caps

We had planned a Memorial Day neighborhood get together but Monday morning was raining cats and dogs.  So, we cancelled.  By afternoon the sun was out and it turned out to be a beautiful day.  We should never have cancelled the get together.  However, all was not lost because I either visited or was visited by all of our neighbors, one at a time, on Monday. 

The oil spill is getting closer and closer to Pensacola and we are just holding our breath.  I really try to think of something positive about everything.  This one has been hard.  I just hope that this spill opens the eyes about our environmental issues and how delicate our environment really is.  I hope this spill stops any more oil wells in the Gulf of Mexico -- forever.

I learned how to boil peanuts this past week.  I've never been a big fan of boiled peanuts.  However, George loves them.  But I must admit they were simple to boil and they did taste good.  Of course, since our Memorial Day get together was cancelled, we have a bunch of boiled peanuts in our frig. 

The other thing is that we grow the stevia.  You know, the plant from Paraguay that has 300 times the sweetness of processed sugar.  It is prolific at my house.  I was reading about how to actually use it.  My first attempt was in iced tea.  I boiled 3 sprigs of the stevia with the tea and it tasted really good.  It could have been sweeter.  The next batch was boiled with 4 sprigs of stevia -- perfect.  You strain out the leaves, along with the tea bags.  Who knows.  I may even include the lemon balm in the next batch.  Lemon balm is supposed to make a really good tea.

The garden is beautiful.  We picked our first tomatoes and bell peppers.  Yummy.  These are our first normal sized tomatoes.  We've only been able to grow the cherry tomatoes before.  There really isn't a lot to plant in the summer except for okra and eggplant.  We planted some eggplant seeds but the rest of the garden is now planted in flowers -- at least, until August when we plant the fall garden.

Those ball caps are something else.  George has the ball cap attachment down pat on the embroidery machine.  We embroidered my Cajun Stitchery cap and then we had to learn a few things.  Good hooping is going to take a lot of practice.  The designs are digitized differently than designs for flat goods.  Plus the designs are small, no more than 2 inches tall.  Wide is okay but height is no more than 2 inches.  As they say, practice makes perfect, and the credit really goes to George, who has worked with this thing.  There was a hooping dilemma.  I think George has figured that out.  We are working together on digitizing designs that work on the ball cap apparatus.  So far, so good.  George embroidered some really nice visors today. 

Funny story about the Junkanoo ball caps.  We knew we needed to get that design cap friendly.  We messed up on the first few and just kept tweaking.  We did a white ball cap with the Junkanoo design but the "Krewe of" at the very top was not as bold as it should be.  Then we fixed that and in the end we had several Junkanoo caps tossed to the side as experiments.  Several weren't really bad but we could see it and knew what the problem was.  Yesterday, one of the Junkanoo ladies dropped a jacket off and I had the white Junkanoo hat on.  She bought the hat right off of my head -- literally.  haha  Wish I had take a picture of the white Junkanoo ball cap. 

I'm still working with the Etsy store.  I've been reading a lot of articles and trying to do what they say.  I need to put something new in the Etsy store every day or so.  I don't want to make the same thing all of the time.  I decided to make a bow tie.  I have to make a bow tie for George to wear to the upcoming Fiesta Ball anyway.  I made one and it turned out so nice but I don't have the hardware for it.  All I have are hooks and eyes and snaps or velcro.  I looked all over the internet for the slide and hook for a bowtie.  I can't find them.  I noticed one lady on Etsy selling bowties and she had a clasp.  I went looking for the clasp.  In usual Peggy fashion, I found the clasp and bought a bunch of stuff that I'm sure I don't even need.  So, I'm at a standstill until the hardware arrives.  Last night I made a bowtie that doesn't use the hardware.  The problem is that so few men or women know how to tie a bowtie, hence the hardware.  I guess I could sell the bowtie and give instructions on how to tie it, but even George kind of frowns on that one.  Anyway, to my surprise browsing around Etsy, girls wear bowties, guys were bowties, little boys wear bowties, and even dogs wear bowties.  I might try one or two on Etsy and see how it goes.

Cajun Corner Vol. 2, No. 21

Cajun Corner – Vol. 2, No. 21 – May 28, 2010

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

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Don’t forget to visit http://www.cajunstitchery.etsy.com/ often.

The good news is that so far the oil has still not landed on the shores of Florida. Prayers continue that our shores be spared. The bad news is the oil is still flowing.

It has been a pretty busy week. We delivered the polo shirts to our new customer Flora-Bama Farms. If you live in this area, please visit Flora-Bama Farms are 6404 Mobile Hwy. It’s a fresh fruit and vegetable market and they have some pretty good deals. They carry a lot of the Amish foods, as well. The prices are very reasonable. You are buying local. It’s a win-win situation. Not to mention they love our embroidery and are thinking about ball caps and aprons.

The neighborhood gang has not gotten together since the going away party. I’m thinking that we need to remedy this situation soon.

The lettuce and other cold weather crops have pretty much been harvested and are gone. So, sad to see that gone but our tomatoes are growing. Each year we have success with the little cherry tomatoes but not the larger tomato. This year George purchased several Better Boy seedlings, instead of starting from seed, and they seem to be working. The tomatoes are still green but if they all turn red, we are going to have a bounty for sure. We also, of course, have the little cherry tomatoes planted. The bell peppers are just about ready to pick. They are green. We have a few that are a pickable size. If we leave them on the plant, they will turn yellow and then red. It looks like bell peppers are going to be a winner this year, too. We still have some carrots and onions in the garden. The parsley is going to seed. The stevia is back and lush. The lemon balm grows everywhere. That is one amazing plant. We had to pull it out of the herb garden (we never planted it there in the first place) and in the process, the mint came out, too. I’m hoping the mint comes back.

George planted some eggplant but just a few. The first year we planted eggplant we had so much I couldn’t give it all away. Of course, now maybe Flora-Bama Farms will take it. Green beans are still growing.

I made one blackberry cobbler this year. We had more blackberries in our little area but after the first harvest, there was never enough at one time to make another cobbler. We were both so impressed at the working with nature aspect of the blackberries that we are going to section off a larger plot that we will weed and allow the blackberries to grow.

The jasmine is just about finished blooming. That plant has such a wonderful smell. I hope it just covers the entire fence. Speaking of a wonderful smell, the gardenia bushes have been looking pretty sad for the past few years. We think it has to do with them being in a shaded area. George cut them down, almost to the ground. I noticed yesterday that one lone gardenia is blooming from a tiny branch almost on the ground. We have another small gardenia bush that George grew from a clipping that is also blossoming now. Another fabulous smell for our yard.

The lilies are spectacular this year. I took pictures of some of them and posted on Facebook and put more pictures earlier this week on the blog. Some of the lilies smell and others do not.

We planted a little flower garden outside of Mama’s room when she moved in. I wanted her to be able to see beautiful flowers when she awoke in the mornings. That room is now the Cajun Stitchery embroidery room. There is a beautiful blue hydrangea in bloom right now. She would be so pleased. She loved hydrangeas.

With the flowers and plants come the birds. The birds have also been spectacular this spring. The red tailed hawks are not nesting in their usual oak tree. We have had a plethora of cardinals, as well as an array of other species. It’s like they all decided to move into a bird paradise. They drink out of the solar waterfall. They bath in the sprinklers, they eat in the garden. That’s the life. My cats just sit in the window all day staring at the birds, with an occasional meow.

We had many baby grapes on the vine this year. We still have a lot but are noticing that as the grapes are getting bigger, the grapes on the clusters are thinning and we are thinking the birds are enjoying our grapes. Last year George and I were able to enjoy one little bunch of grapes from our vine. I hope the birds leave enough for us this year.

I haven’t made any more cell phone holders. It took days to put the ones I did make on Etsy because I didn’t want to “flood the market” with all of the cell phone holders in one day. We have had a lot of visitors to the store, looking and browsing. Etsy remains a classroom for me in retail. I’m learning a lot.

We had another order for a couple of tee shirts for my Aunt Philo’s bowling team. Seems a couple of gentlemen have decided to join and, of course, needed their own team shirt. You know my aunt is now 92 years old, deaf, has compromised vision and bowls. I am so proud of her.

The really big news this week has been ball caps. YES! The cap sash issue has been conquered. George can put that cap sash on easily. He hooped our first cap and stitched out our Cajun Stitchery logo without a problem. I’ve been wearing that cap all week. We ordered several “practice” ball caps and we are working on all of it. There will still be a learning curve until we get it down perfectly. Part of that curve is in the digitizing. We already have some orders. I digitized the requested design and it stitched out fine on flat fabric but messed up on the cap frame. Who knew? Digitizing for caps requires some special techniques. I’m learning.

I never knew there was a whole lingo for hats and caps. There are structured and unstructured, different size crowns, different size bills, different fabric requires different techniques. We have read instructions and watched videos until I think we are embroidering caps in our sleep.

Several months ago a friend gave us a “ponytail” cap and asked us to learn to embroider on ball caps. The ponytail cap has an opening in the back larger than usual to accommodate ponytails. I looked up the company on the tag and found a really good cap company. This week I send the required documentation to allow Cajun Stitchery to purchase wholesale from this company. To try them out, we ordered two dozen patriotic visors. The prices are good. We ordered the visors delivered UPS ground. The visors arrived yesterday – one day delivery. So far, I’m very impressed with this company. The patriotic visors are our sale of the week. See below.

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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The pretty young schoolteacher was concerned about one of her eleven year old students, "Tee" Boo. Taking him aside after class one day, she asked, " 'Tee', why has your schoolwork been so poor lately?" " Mais, I can't concentrate, Teacher !" replied :"Tee". "I done fell in love." "Oh, is that so?" said the teacher, holding back an urge to smile. "And with whom?" "Mais, wid you," he answered. "But 'Tee'," exclaimed the secretly pleased young lady, "don't you see how silly that is? It's true that I would like a husband of my own someday; but I don't want a child." "Oh, don't worry, Teacher" said "Tee" reassuringly, "I'll be careful."

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French phrase of the week: Mon père peut pas manger son gombo sans craquettes. (My father cannot eat gumbo without crackers.)

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From: http://www.dailyecotips.com/

Traveling:

Before You Leave

Make sure your water heater is on the lowest setting

Turn off air conditioner or put on reasonable temperature for animals and plants

Unplug energy hog appliances

Traveling Eco-Friendly

Use the bus or train instead of flying.

Travel with a group. These packages can be found with any travel agent.

Hotels

Find a eco-friendly hotel before leaving.

Reuse towels while in the hotel.

When leaving the hotel turn off air conditioner if no one will be in the room.

Tourism

Walk around the town or use public transportation. If on a group package, they will have a bus for you to travel on while site seeing.

Eat from the local menu.

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, June 3, 2010)

WE CAN EMBROIDER ON BALL CAPS SALE!!!!

We have one dozen of each of the patriotic visor styles in the photographs. This sale is for these 2 dozen visors. First come, first serve.

The visor with the red, white, blue, and yellow bill has a red band.

Sale: one patriotic visor without embroidery is $5.00 plus tax/shipping. We will be glad to embroider on the band, upon request.

Cajun Corner Vol 1, No 33

Cajun Corner – Vol. 1, No. 33 – JANUARY 8, 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 blog at http://www.cajunstitchery.etsy.com/ often.

Remember my miraculous tomatoes that were producing tomatoes in December? They are gone. It’s cold. Our yard looks like it went into shock. The temperature this week had and has lows into the 20’s most of the week. My dogs are house dogs and go outside to do their business. This week there has been no smelling the roses when they go out. They are out and then in. Baby, it’s cold outside.

Yesterday would have been Mama’s 92nd birthday. Happy Birthday, Mama. My Aunt Philo will turn 91 later this year.

January 2nd was George’s birthday. We had the neighborhood birthday party at a neighbor’s home. These surprise parties really are no longer surprises. We all know they are coming but it is fun to act surprised. The routine is that everyone arrives a half hour before the birthday boy or girl, to prepare. We were to arrive at 5:30. At 5:00 George called our neighbor and said that he’s watching our other neighbors walk to her house with food in hand. The party was, of course, delightful. The neighbor who had family down from Georgia brought them to the party. By the time they left, they were thinking about buying a house in the neighborhood. It has turned into a great place to live.

We finally posted our New Year’s Resolutions on the blog this week. It is going to be a great year with a lot of diversity and fun.

The Mardi Gras season begins today for me. The Krewe has our den and we move in today. Tomorrow is our King Kake Party at Paradise Inn where we crown our new King and Queen and officially open the Mardi Gras season on the beach. If you can, please come out to Paradise Inn tomorrow at 3 p.m. for the party. Tonight we are all putting our raffle baskets together and getting our decorations out of storage.

This week we embroidered jackets for the Krewe of Junkanoo. Hope I remember to post photographs of those jackets. I am proud of the embroidery, not only because it turned out beautiful, but also because I digitized it. We also embroidered and digitized 1st, 2nd and 3rd prize aprons for their Chili Cook Off. Everything turned out great – except that I forgot to take photographs of the aprons. Maybe one of my Junkanoo friends will do that for me. We are working on more of their jackets today.

As I mentioned last week, we are on etsy.com now. I had made a couple of pair of white fingerless gloves a/k/a arm warmers with cute fish embroidered on them. Those two pair were the first and only items on Etsy so far. I keep making more of those gloves and before I can put them on Etsy, they are gone. This past Wednesday night we had two birthday celebrations at our Wednesday night girls gathering and I gave a pair to each of the ladies. They love them. Who would have known they would be so popular? The gloves are made out of jersey a/k/a t-shirt fabric and very comfortable. The nicest thing is since it is jersey, you can throw it in the washer and dryer.

One of the girls mentioned that we need to have a special name for these fingerless gloves, something that says they are a Cajun Stitchery design. I am definitely open to suggestions. The whole glove thing made me remember a story that Mama used to tell me. When Mama, Philo, Odette, and Lillian were little girls they would go to their grandmother’s house. They called their grandmother Landry, Mom. Several of their uncles were young adults at the time and they had a pool table and would play cards and other things upstairs in the house. They did not want the little girls in there. So, Mom would tell the little girls that they could not go through the door (which actually went into the room with the boys) because Madam Grand Doigt would get them. Please forgive my spelling but translated it meant Mrs. Long Fingers. I think this is such a cute story and can picture those little girls scared of Madam Grand Doigt. Interestingly, I have since heard other Cajuns mention Madam Grand Doigt and apparently that was a pretty common story at the time. The best I can figure is that they used Madam Grand Doigt like we do the Boogie Man will get you. Every time I think of those fingerless gloves, for some reason, I think of Madam Grand Doigt. Maybe we should call them Madam Grand Doigt gloves. What do you think?

This week has been so busy that I don’t know if I’m coming or going. George has been downstairs working on the Junkanoo stuff and I’ve been upstairs working on the fingerless gloves. One thing that I wanted to do this week is visit my favorite store – Fabric Outlet in Cantonment. Yesterday, we did just that. We came home with a garbage bag full of fabric. While traveling to the store, I thought of a much better way to make the gloves. It takes more fabric but less time – and they are fully lined which makes them warmer. Last night I tried out my theory and it’s perfect.

While at Fabric Outlet, I also purchased fabric for table runners. I’m getting ready to do my pretty Mardi Gras table now. I also purchased a bunch of fabric that was a good deal. George laughed. He asked what I was going to do with all of that fabric and I was telling him the jersey would be the fingerless gloves, the satiny fabric would be the runners, and the other fabric was a great deal and I had to have it.
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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One day Boudreax and Thibodaux were watching TV. A good commercial about a movie came on and it said, "Coming To A Theatre Near You." Boudreaux looked at Thibodaux and said, "Thib how they know where we live?"

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French phrase of the week: uni (adj.) 1. united. 2. smooth. C'est mieux de danser dessus un plancher qu'est bien uni. (It's better to danse on a floor that is nice and smooth.)

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Many businesses use promotional products that allow people to see what their business is all about. A new idea with these type of products are products that are good for the environment. This includes products that are made from substances that will easily decompose. There are many websites that show all the products that are available that people can use to promote their businesses. (It would also be a good idea to mention to the businesses that you would prefer something eco-friendly to something non-eco-friendly.)

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 new catalogs and pass some time with me, cher.

Cajun Stitchery