Eaten alive

WARNING. If reading about infestations gives you the heebie jeebies then stop here.

Ok, you were warned.

We've been away for the weekend to visit friends, and I'll do a post about that soon. For those of you not in the UK the weather has been roasting (for here) all weekend and today.

We got home this evening around 9:45pm and I immediately took Ewok off upstairs for a bath. I'd taken his clothes off in the living room, and while the bath was running we both wandered into the main bedroom so I could open windows as the room was baking (it's in the roof). When we got back into the bathroom I was about to take his nappy off and pop him in the bath when, to my horror, I saw that his legs were covered in fleas!

Looking down I saw that I was similarly infested (I'd taken my trousers off to bath him because he splashes, a lot) and I immediately started plucking them off him and crushing them. In the end there were so many of them, and while I was delousing him the b$%&@ds were munching on me, I just lobbed him in the bath and washed them off him, then left him splashing while I killed the ones left on me. Then I had to shout for Wookiee to watch him while I got my big can-o-flea-killer and sprayed the bedroom, the landing, the stairs, the hallway and even the living room.

I think the bedroom was worst because the cats are not allowed in there unless accompanied, so the fleas had hatched out (thanks to the heat) and had nothing to feed on until Ewok and I walked in.

It's my own fault for not treating the cats for fleas sooner. I noticed they were scratching several weeks ago, but I've been so busy I didn't go to the vets to get some more flea treatment. You can be sure I'll be going there tomorrow, to get that and a new big can-o-flea-killer as that stuff prevents (re)infestations of eggs and larvae for 12 months, and fleas for 2 months. So the whole house is getting dosed, there's still a floor to do and the can I have is almost empty. Fortunately there doesn't seem to have been any hatching on the lower ground floor as that floor stays relatively cool, except for two rooms into which the cats never go.

Ewok and I are now covered in bites, him mostly from the waist down, me around my feet and ankles, with several more up my legs, arms, and on my back, and I'm itching all over from the thought of them as much as the actual bites. On top of that I'm mildly allergic to cat fleas, I get hayfever-like symptoms when I get bitten, the more bites the worse the reaction, so I'll be buying some antihisthamine pills tomorrow as well. I dabbed witch hazel all over his bites and mine. It's not helping me much but it seems to have helped him. We'll see what he's like in the morning.

If you've managed to make it this far then I suspect you're now joining me in some sympathetic scratching.

Urgh *shudder* fleas!

The advantages of a big house

In the comments of my last post, Karen asked how I was able to work with Ewok running about the place. The answer is simple: I don't have to watch him all the time.

It's taken a lot of time, and trial-and-error, to get the house laid out in such a way that I can leave him unsupervised in two areas of the house while I work. The first area is the living/dining room. This is two sizeable rooms joined by a large archway. The living room part is 23'x13' and the dining room part is 11'x10'. This has allowed us to set it up so that my 'office' is at one end of the living room, behind the sofa, and then we have a large dining table in the dining room, which is where I cut and serge the fabrics. Nothing in either of these rooms is within Ewok's grasp (well that's the theory anyway, it doesn't always work out that way) so I can work at the computer, or chopping and stitching fabrics while he plays in the main part of the living room.

Of course he pesters me from time to time and is usually far more interested in my antics than those of Pocoyo, or the Tweenies, and occasionally he'll be very naughty and warrant a telling-off, but for the most part this arrangement works.

Finding a way of doing the actual dyeing with him about was a little more tricky, but we sussed it in the end. The utility room, where I do my dyeing, is in the basement (which is more of a lower ground floor than an actual basement, the house is built into a hill), and the room itself is tiny. Of course I couldn't have Ewok in the room with the dyes anyway, it's too dangerous for him in oh so many ways. However the basement has a large hallway (about 13' square max), off which all the rooms lead, and with the application of three baby gates we were able to fence off the central part of the hallway as a playroom for him. So while I'm dyeing, he can play safely in the hallway, and I'm just a door away. Dyeing goes in bursts of activity with frequent 5 or 10 min breaks, and I spend these breaks playing with Ewok, so he never has to amuse himself for more than about 30 mins at a time, usually a lot less, and if he needs me I'm right there.

Finally, I usually have 2 hours each afternoon while he naps, and 3 to 4 hours after he's gone to bed, before I crawl into my pit, and of course I get loads done then because there's less distractions.

It does mean that my 'me' time will have to be mostly sacrificed until the show, but I'm hoping it will be worth it, and I'm not giving it up completely. I'll still have an hour in the afternoons to stitch and watch tv, although even then I'm working, as the piece I'm stitching at the moment is on one of my fabrics and I'd love to have it finished in time for the show as a model.

Mice eat Bombay Mix

Who knew?

Apparently they also eat tuc crackers (cheese flavour crackers for the non-UKers), which I suppose isn't so surprising.

Of course you're wondering how I know all this, well we have a mouse, or maybe meeces, it's hard to tell if there's just one or more. As far as we can tell they're getting in through some holes that have been drilled into the outside of the kitchen wall. We had no idea they were there, and we don't know why they're there, but there they are, and according to the pest control guy who came to take a look, they're big enough for meeces to get through.

The first indication we had that there were rodents of some kind in the house was hearing scrabbling, skittering and gnawing in the ceiling voids at night. Kind of creepy when you hear it at 2am and don't know what it is. Some of you will probably say it's creepy when you do know what it is, but I don't really have a problem with mice per se. I have three cats, I'm used to them bringing rodents of all kinds into the house, dead and alive. I have to say the dead rat did creep me out a little, but not half as much as the live one, especially as it was big enough to escape back through the catflap on it's own.

The next thing I found was when I went into my baking cupboard. Bear in mind I haven't actually done any baking since we moved here, so the contents of this cupboard haven't really been disturbed for a while. I pulled the first bag of flour out and discovered that the whole of the bag of the bag had been destroyed and there was flour everywhere. Further investigation showed that the mice have a taste for plain and self raising flour, caster sugar, and icing sugar.

I cleared all the mess out and noticed that the back of the cupboard isn't solid all the way up (it's a floor cupboard by the way), there's a gap at the top, obviously where it/they had been getting in. I bought new baking products and relocated their storage, leaving the area where they had been, empty. The rest of the cupboard contains bottles of alcohol, and quite frankly if the little buggers can gnaw their way through the bottles then they're welcome to get, well, I suppose rat-arsed would be the appropriate term.

The next attack came on the fruit bowl. I guess they were getting desparate now. Several old apples had teeth marks and there were little bitty bits of apple all over the worktop behind the bowl. More cleaning and moving and now the little buggers really had to get clever.

This morning I found Ewok's bottle of medicine had fallen on the worktop from the corner shelf where it lives. Then I noticed that all the empty egg boxes that I store on top of the fridge/freezer had been disturbed. So I got the steps and climbed up for a better look. We keep the crisps, biscuits, cakes etc on top of the fridge. There had been a half pack of tuc crackers up there, now there were only crumbs and shredded bits of plastic packaging. More cleaning up and securing of foodstuffs in boxes. I also decided to tidy up the corner shelves where the medicines are kept and that was when I found the bombay mix debris. It had been put up on one of the shelves and forgotten about, again it had been about half full, and the little buggers had scoffed the lot!

Part of me is intrigued to see what they're going to find to eat now. They've got until the weekend, because that's when we're going shopping for traps*, and something to fill in the holes.



* Yes, humane ones, alright.

Busy doing nothing

Well that's what it feels like anyhow.

We've got to that stage in the great house clear up. We (well Wookiee anyway) spend masses of time and energy sorting, boxing, shifting and storing, and yet the house doesn't seem to be any tidier now than it was two weeks ago. Sometimes it feels like it's going to be Christmas before the house is ready to show, and I originally wanted to get it on the market by the end of August!

Enough of that anyway, here's some stitching news:

I've decided (very last minuteish) that I'm going to the Knitting and Stitching show at Alexandra Palace this year (this very Saturday in fact). The last couple of years I've been to the one in Harrogate and met up with stitchy friends from the north of the country. This time I decided I'd like to meet up with the southern bunch for a change.

Unfortunately, having left it this late to decide, I can't get any cheap train fares, so I'm going to drive there and back all in the one day, and it's about 2.5 hours each way. So I'll be totally pooped by the end of the day, but it'll be a good pooped.

I have only one specific stash thing that i'll be looking for, and that's some needles. Specifically very fine needles for stitching on silk gauze. You see I recently found this in my stash:



It's a very old piece that I stitched (and as you can see, didn't quite finish) back in the mid-90's. It's stitched on 45 count silk gauze (I went cross-eyed counting it), and the whole thing is just 33mm square.

I love the way stitching on silk gauze looks like a miniature painting from a distance and this kindled in me a somewhat crazy idea.

You see in my stash I also have a 10" square piece of this gauze, purchased around the same time, and in my wishlist I had this design, and this design (and for those who don't want to follow the links, it's a couple of Quick Stitch designs from Heaven and Earth Designs). Each design is 150 x 195 stitches, which means the finished pieces will only be 3.3" x 4.3". So I treated myself to both charts (they had a sale on), I have the fabric and I have the floss, so I just need the needles. If I can't find anything specifically for silk gauze then I'll have to manage with my short beading needles.

Yes, I know, I'm bonkers, crazy, nuts, totally tonto, call it what you like.

Moving on...

Joyus asked on one of the forums we both frequent, for people to show off their WIPs. As part of the big tidy up involved me sorting my stash, I was actually able to lay my hands on them all. So here for your delectation are my WIPs:

This is my oldest, Night by Teresa Wentzler, ongoing now for some 18 odd years. I will finish it one day, I will.



Next up, Celestial Dragon, also by TW:



Middy. Still a WIP because of all the blasted blending filament in the wings:



Nefertiti from Janlynn's Egyptian Pair:



Egyptian Garden from Chatelaine Designs:



My Tatty Teddy afghan, only one teddy completed so far thanks to the awful backstitching on those designs, and the fact that the afghan is 18 count evenweave, so you're effectively stitching over one:



Finally, my current piece, Chorus Line by Valerie Pfeiffer from Heritage:



I've actually stitched a little more since that picture was taken and the fourth tit now has a bottom!

Right, I think that's enough rambling for one night and it's time I was in bed.

Nearly there.

The decorating is almost done. The house looks very different now. When I get a bit of time I'll post a few before and after photos. Unfortunately I didn't think to take proper before photos, so they'll have to be whatever I've got, most likely with an Ewok in them.

Now starts the mammoth task of 'staging' the house and hiding away all our crap. I've already taken the step of putting my figurine collection in storage. I've been cataloging them as they've been going to the store, mainly so that I know what I have in the event anything disatrous happens to them, and so I know how much to insure them for. At the moment I'm just going by the purchase price, but I know some of them are worth more than the original purchase price, and I have one piece that is a one-off paint finish of a regular piece. Just going by the purchase price I'm already up to £2500.00 spent! *yipes* although that is over 15 years of collecting.

We've set one of the basement rooms up as a 'library' with shelving all round, but we're boxing a lot of stuff up and putting it on those shelves. This means that this one room will be cluttered (although in a tidy way) but it will declutter all the other rooms, making the place look so much better.

In other news, we're off to GenCon UK on Wednesday. This will be Ewok's first big convention so I hope he doesn't get too cranky during the day. It's being held at Reading University so there should be plenty of green spaces where I can let him out of his pram for a run around, but for most of the day he's likely to be pram-bound watching Wookiee and I playing games of various sorts. I am hoping to get in a visit to a fellow stitcher and blogger while I'm there. She's just moved house and I suspect will be glad of a break from unpacking boxes.

It will also be our longest stay away from home with Ewok. We've been away before, but only for two nights and he was pretty well behaved. The only real problem we had was getting him to settle down at night with us in the room with him, while he was supposed to be going to sleep. This time we're staying in an apartment as there's five of us (and Ewok) all going together, so we'll be able to put him to bed in the bedroom and leave him to it, more like being at home. As long as the lads don't make too much noise with the requisite convention drunken carousing, we should be ok.

Oh dear.

Why move?

On my previous post, Karen asked why we are looking to move house. Well, simply put, it's all Ewok's fault.

We live where we do, because it's halfway betweem my workplace and Wookiee's workplace. However because he uses public transport to get to work, it takes him around 2 hours each way. Now that I've decided not to go back to work, we don't need to live here, and it's fairer on Wookiee to move closer to where he works.

There is the additional factor of paying the mortgage. Without my salary, we (well he really) could afford to pay all the bills, etc... but there would literally be nothing left over. I know there are many many people who do live that way, but when you've been used to having a sizeable disposable income, it's very hard to be happy without it. As it is, we can move closer to Wookiee's workplace, find a house of a similar (maybe slightly smaller) size, for considerably less than this place, and possibly be mortgage free (or with just a tiny one).

The big sacrifice, for me, will be in location. We'll have to move to a city suburb, and I'm just not a city girl. However we can't afford to live in the countryside close to the city, it's all way out of our price range, and if we go too far out then it defeats the object of trying to reduce Wookiee's commute. There are a few places I think I could cope with, where there is still a lot of greenery and quiet secluded back streets, so that I can pretend I'm still in a village, rather than the suburb of one of the biggest cities in the country.

In an attempt to make the whole house selling and buying process slightly less traumatic, we've decided to move into rented for a short while. The downside is that it does mean moving house twice. However the upsides are that we remove the upward chain for the sale, and when we come to buy again, we'll effectively be first time buyers, add that to us possibly being cash buyers and that will put us in a very good bargaining position.

All go

It's busy busy busy here at the moment. We are in the process of cleaning the place up in preparation to put it up for sale at the end of this month. Part of this involves getting the decorators in to redecorate the whole place, top to bottom, walls, ceilings and woodwork. All in a nice shade of Barley White for the walls and White everywhere else.

So far they've done the main bedroom and bathroom and all the hallways and the difference is amazing. When we moved in, most of the house was painted in a mustardy yellow, except the main bedroom and bathroom which were painted a sunny yellow (methinks the previous owners either liked yellow, or got a job lot of paint). I'm not a fan of yellow but it wasn't unliveable, so we put up with it. Now I'm wishing we'd had this done sooner so we could get the benefit of it ourselves. The hallways in particular are so much brighter now.

We've also got the insurance people in to look at where one of the showers had been leaking for some time without us noticing. It's seeped into the room beyond (it's an en-suite to the fourth bedroom) and damaged the walls, skirting board and carpet. We spotted it some time ago and stopped using it, but as everything dried out, the walls and skirting warped and cracked. We were all set to get it sorted when Wookiee suggested that it might all be covered on the insurance, so I called them up and amazingly it is. So far I've had four visits from various people, assessing the damage, putting in dyring equipment and then taking it away again, taking bits of carpet, etc... Sometime this week I've got some people coming to try and trace where the leak was coming from (duh, the shower), and then of course, once all the people have been and assessed and done their thang, we'll have people to come and rip it all out and replace it. I wanted to get this done before we had people coming to look at the place but it's not going to happen that quickly. Hopefully it won't put people off.

And finally...

Ewok is fully recovered from his lurgi. The temp of 102F was the worst of it. He was still a bit feverish and grumpy the next day, and wasn't much better for having had no sleep. Then we both slept like the dead the next night and all was right with the world again.

Of course it doesn't last and this morning I've had to call NHS Direct for advice when I caught him eating cat poop (eeeeeeeeeewwwww!) I'm assuming one of the cats had a little bit caught in their skirts and it fell off in the living room, and of course Ewok's at the 'everything goes in the mouth' stage. To give him credit he did look utterly disgusted by the taste, and allowed me to fish it out of his mouth again, but I had no idea what (if anything) he'd swallowed, and being aware of the dangers of toxoplasmosis, I wanted to know if I needed to worry and what I needed to watch out for.

As it turns out, fresh cat poop is safe to eat (blech), it's only if it's 2-3 weeks old that you need to worry. The nurse I spoke to was very nice and gave me some symptoms to watch out for over the next 3 weeks, if they occur then I have to take him to the GP, and the treatment is antibiotics for 3 weeks!

KIDS!