the joy of living with cats

I have been fighting a cold the last couple of days, luckily it doesn't seem to be too bad.

It is time for the cats to have their flea and worm medicine and I think it just gets worse every time we have to do it. We have five cats so it is quite a challenge to sort them all out.
It started yesterday, managed to grab Lucky (cat4) as he finished his breakfast, popped the pill down his throat and put the cold wet flea medicine on his neck, he wriggled free without any injury to us but I swear he ran through the house warning the other cats because we didn't see them till dinner time.
Day 2:Got hold of Merlin (cat3) while he was sleeping on the couch, gave him his pill then the flea stuff, let him go then realised it wasn't all out of the tube, chase him round the house and corner him in the garden. Now for Leila (cat5) she is sleeping in her bed but as soon as she sees us approaching she is off, an hour later she is on the couch and I get her while Wendy holds the medicine, one torn shirt and bloodied elbow later she is still not done and we are holding the open medicine, so I manage to wrestle Sasha (cat1) out of the bushes and we send him off sorted out.
Play hide and seek with Leila for the rest of the day but when we approach she runs. 10PM sitting on the couch sewing while watching TV and Mishka (cat2) comes to sit on my lap, pill down the throat but when the flea stuff is popped out of the packaging he is off. So the saga continues.

Jessica in her pretty dress

Jessica has just been completed and put on ebay. I had such fun embroidering her dress and think it looks so dainty and delicate.
She can be seen at http://cgi.ebay.com/ws/eBayISAPI.dll?ViewItem&item=140226572752

I seem to have mislaid (more likely lost) my pliers. I have had them for years and they were tiny jewellers pliers just perfect for doing the small cotter pins. Now I have to go hunting for a new pair, I find it funny how you get so used to a particular thing that nothing else seems to work quite right. Two years ago I took my scissors to be sharpened and they got ruined, the blades cross over each other, so now I am the proud owner of twelve pairs of scissors because none of them are as good as the old pair.

The weather is finally showing signs of autumn, cooler in the evenings and dark by 6:30, I just hope the rain holds off till after the bear fair on the 1st May, being an outside venue we really are reliant on the weather.

Well it has been a crazy week. This is the new pattern I have been having trouble with but am happy with him now, the perfect little Baloo.

Yesterday at 3:00 we had two different estate agents bring people to look at the house. (Going on for 4 months trying to sell the house - we always seem to choose the wrong time) anyway, Leila my little black kitty is very nervous of people and with the whole influx and chaos she just took off. I couldn't find her and after an hour was starting to panic, well Wendy (my mom) and I started searching everywhere, asking neighbours, walking around the block calling for her. I was in tears, she is such a scaredy cat and normally comes when we call. We looked everywhere we could think of and by 7:00 PM I was getting desperate. Thank heavens she then appeared from the garden down the road, virtually crawled up the road to get home (they have a big bully of a cat and I think he must have had her cornered) poor little baby got shouted at (not really) then hugged and given extra food because poor chubby child that she is must have been starving after her four hour ordeal. Well she hasn't moved out of the house today and has been bothering the big brothers for attention.
I most proberbly spoil my kitties too much but they do become your furry children.

This is Leila looking so beautiful sitting in the sunroom.

I am trying to finish a little duck that I started on Easter weekend, still in pieces but it will be so cute to put with a bear. I am also busy embroidering a dress for a bear for ebay and Wendy has the cutest little boy and his dog on ebay at the moment.

Well a lot has happened the last week. We have now got scheduled power cuts, so every Friday 12:00 - 2:30 and Monday 20:00 - 22:30 we have to sit in the dark (figuratively and literally). What a way to live, I am carrying on about it a bit but I think it is crazy and also the inconvenience is the big problem. After the power came on again on Friday we couldn't use the adsl on the computer, an hour long phone call to Telkom and we then had to reconfigure the modem again (this could happen every time the power goes off apparently). Now .... enough moaning.
I am going to stay with my sister for a week in early May. I haven't been to Durban in years so am excited I just hope it is not too humid.
Posted off a few of the bears I have been working on to their new homes, I just love this little girl "Charlotte", am sorry to see her go.
I have a bear fair on the 1st May here in Cape Town and on the 8th June in Stratford, UK so am busy working on bears for them and also a couple of new kits, am having a real problem with designing a new pattern but the bear is slowly coming to life, hope to have him finished today.

Beginnings

My sister has been on at me to get a blog, so here goes. It has been one of those dreadful summer days (yes we are supposed to be in Autumn now) temperature of 36 degrees C and no wind, I just don't want to do any work when it is so hot.
Eskom has finally struck again, I was in the local shopping centre when the power went off, pitch black and it took the generator a couple of minutes to kick in. By then all the shops had closed their doors so that was the end of shopping for the day. Luckily we had power at home.
I am supposed to be working on bears for an order and a new one for ebay but all I want to do is play with my tatting. I am really having fun with tatting, learn't how to do it last October and am getting the hang of it now, hopefully some finished pieces will follow.