Kit, I'll try. For the hole in the ginger bread man, you will just have to darn it closed. For the white bobble, you can either make a new one and replace it or tack the pull in place. For the pink chain edging, it looks like the stitch was stretched. See if you can work it back in place with a crochet hook. If not, tuck it back and tack it so it can't be seen. As far as I know, there is no other way to fix the hole in the body. On the knitted piece, I can't be much help with the edges. On the hole in the middle, take a crochet hook and fix the stitches back together, then tack them where they should fasten. Try to do any tacking as invisibly as you can, and you can use regular sewing thread to do it. It won't be as pretty and perfect as it was originally, but will still be a nice keepsake and can be gently used. If they aren't fixed somehow, they will continue to come apart and your brother won't even have them for the memories. Maybe someone else can give you better suggestions, but this is what I and another lady I know have done in the past. Tami

Depends on the situation. It can be a real slap in the face if you've worked really hard and pulled out all the stops to get a place sold, only to see the listing go at the price you've been saying all along to another agent and sell in a week. The problem with the OP & their realtor is they probably never should have listed with the agent to begin with, they used him for the wrong reasons, hoping he would sell it since they overpaid. The realtor.com listing is minimal plus the listing link on the agents site doesn't "stay".. how does someone keep a link like that when shopping for a house? If there is no relationship, get out of the contract. Sit down and talk to the agent, tell them why you want out. If they say give me two weeks with a price drop, either give it to them or not. If you choose not to, tell them why... It's one of the reasons that a two month listing simply isn't enough. No agent is going to pour their heart and soul into selling a listing knowing that in 8 weeks it could be gone to the competition. I've had sellers insist on short listing contracts and unless the house is priced to sell straight away, I won't even consider taking the listing. I'm lucky (touch wood) I've only ever had 3 listings expire, and two of those were thanks to shorter listing agreements and deals that fell through. Both of the sellers knew that the deal dying had nothing to do with me - I FIGHT to keep transactions together, but sadly a bad taste is still there and most sellers can't help but associate their realtor with it and want to start over fresh. Those are the really tough ones, but I can't say I blame the seller really, they just want to shake off a bad experience and start over. We signed a 3 month. Even though the house hasn't sold yet (think we have 30 more days) we know it is not our agents fault and are still very happy with her. We are 99% sure we will list with her when the contract is over. It's hard to find the "right fit" especially if you're in a small town like me where a lot of the agents are doing it part time. From what I see none are aggressive.

I'm not sure if I'd want those chemicals near a fruit producing tree (I'm assuming that we're talking about an edible fig tree). The easiest way I've found to remove bothersome ants is to find the ant trail and sprinkle a little borax (boric acid I believe) on the trail. They will track it back to the nest and it will kill the nest. I wouldn't do it under the drip line if at all possible and use gloves when handling, but borax is generally considered safe in small doses. Tanglefoot spread over masking tape will keep ants from climbing the tree and is another option, but would need to be reapplied every now and then.

Thank you for asking the question and all responses. I think my potted azaleas have the same problem - lace bug issues...These developed right after the flowers fell. I sprayed with various sprays and still have an issue. one is encore azalea, Will it bloom again this season?