October House of Horrors and Missing Mojo

I have been absent for a while, maybe you have been wondering where I have got to! Well I am still here but not so much in a happy place in my happy space for the last week or so.

I have been experiencing an early halloween, a week horribilis and I certainly don't have any enemies I would wish this experience upon. 

Warning, some gross details lie ahead before I post a photo of a somewhat relevant finish. A last day in October type finish, just a small finish.....my desire to work in my studio has taken a battering!!!

You see, we live in a 130 year old church and for all or most of those 130 years I imagine, all sorts of insects, rodents, possums and birds think that even though they don't pay the mortgage they have a right to squat here! Over the 4 years we have been here we have had our fair share of invaders and most of them want to park up in the roof of my studio, a roof that is impossible to get into the cavity of. When we first moved in it was the possum, he thought he had existing occupation rights but the .22 gauge thought otherwise so he went almost straight away. Ok, I dealt with that! Then we have had loads of ants and ants on the wing on and off, they seem to have (fingers crossed) decided they needed a change of scene. Ok, they were soooo annoying but I dealt with that! The birds can be incredibly persistent and they have a keen eye for the ammunition once you've used it once but you eventually outwit them. Dealt with that too! But the rodents, the rodents suck, they  go into all sorts of places and all through these old walls scratching away. You see this old build isn't built like houses these days, it is built out of gorgeous kauri but the rodents can run straight up inside the walls, one floor to the next. The rodents, now that the possum, ants and birds have gone have decided that my studio roof is a pretty cool place to hangout permanently and this unappreciated relationship has been going on for a while. Because you cannot get into the roof cavity there is only one option to rid yourself of rodents, yep the nasty stuff that gets them from the inside. But the rodents like to draw their last breath it would appear, in their own bed!!!!!! Yep, it's happened more than once to me already, but this time , this time, it was in the ceiling right over my desk. Now no amount of scented candles can deal with that putridity and neither could I. Then, just when you think it cannot possibly get worse.....the ceiling in my room is.....tongue and groove.....yes, that means it has gaps......the repulsion just got ten times worse when the food supply started to diminish and the crawlers dropping from the ceiling began!!!!!

I have been at my total wits end with it all this time. It was unbelievably disgusting!!!! We do have plans to rip off the roof and replace it whereupon we can address this problem but we have so much else on renovation wise my husband can't do that job yet. Please, please, please don't let another rodent shuffle off this mortal coil above my head before that happens!!!!!

So the up shot of it all is that I didn't want to sit in there doing much of anything and my computer is now on the dining table. I had to move loads of stuff out of the 'drop zone' and so my room is everywhere. I have decided to take this opportunity though to reorganise my room and to finally paint the two bookshelves in there with the Annie Sloan chalk paint that I love so they match my other furniture. I was putting it off as I have to move all my craft books but now I was forced I have at least got mojo enough for that task!!!

What a mess!

And yet more mess spreading into the lounge!

My painting work today has been rather cathartic!

Paint on, two coats of wax to go...looking good!

So due to the horrific ordeal I have gone through this past week not much has been produced. My only stitching has been in the evenings in my stitching chair well away from my studio. I managed to put together my Pineberry Lane primitive that I finished stitching just a little while ago. It is quite appropriately halloween-ish and befitting this creepy crawly situation imposed on me. 

May I present to you, one very cool witch called Fancey Blackett and this pattern is called Fancey Blackett's Brooms...love it!

Love that little painted wooden snail button from Theodora Cleave

Ya'll will have noticed that I have been playing with the graphics on my blog. It's a work in progress...got stalled by other appalling events in my life. But now ya'll will know why my mojo vanished as did my blog posts. I am on the way to starting to feel like a happier camper in my what should be  a happy space.