Casey is home!!

I took Casey and Rocky out for a walk in a really neat park this morning. They loved it and it was just like old times, just me and the two boys. Note in this last pic the cool rainbow at the bottom of the picture, that says it all!!

Love Di

Been layin low........

Had to post this pic as Sunday is our 1 year anniversary of the first day Tony and I met in person!! We met during the sweet 16 games, our teams were playing on the same night, just not each other; the Cards and Xavier. We met at the BW3's in Highland Heights, Tony drove for 1.5 hours to watch the two games with me and have a beer and then he drove home. Goodness, that should have been a sign of a great guy in itself. Who would have dreamed that a year later we would have been married for 3 months!! Seems like a whirlwind courtship but in reality it was just right. We didn't want to waste one more minute not being married! And we have turned out to be the perfect people for each other, even our kids get along great.

I've been laying low the last couple of days, trying to get my back to stop spasming. I over did it at the gym earlier in the week and have paid dearly. I did get on the mini tramp yesterday for a few minutes just to do something, that didn't hurt but this am I woke at 4 with bad pains. I have to stop acting like I don't have a herniated disk before I end up in bed.

Casey will more than likely be in Indy on Sunday. There are horrid storms through MT and ND and they are moving slowly. They also have a stop in St. Paul to unload so that will take some time. Can't wait to see my baby, he will be tired from all that riding I am sure.

You all have a great day, I have more bookkeeping to do and then I am done, whooo hooo!

peace and love, oh and have a great weekend if I don't get on again.

Di

This is better...........

This is the Peobo resist that I wrote about last time. The gold line is very pretty and it comes out of the tube easily, doesn't run and give you a nice fine line. In the moving I lost the little pamphlet of directions on how to use this but I looked it up in my Dharma catalog, I do have to iron this resit to fix it to the silk, no biggie, this silk scarf will not be washed so I have no chance of washing out the silk paint with this method. These colors, this bright will always stay this bright, think I have come across a plan............finally!!

I bought 4 silk scarves from Dharma, 9" x 54", all blank white, ready for painting/dying whatever. So I will hopefully get at least two done this week for our trip to Alb. Mom and Deb will love them.

Our doggie Casey will be given to the transport guy today by my Mom in Seattle. We are very excited to have him coming home. Amy was here yesterday to pick up Jake and have a little cookout with us all. She is sooo hyped up, she hasn't seen her doggie in over 3 years!! Tony and I will travel to Indy on Friday (we think) to get him from the guy as he passes through on his way to northern Ohio. Mom is already on her way to Seattle, I talked to her this am. She has so many doggie things she is sending along, plus his big kennel that we used to ship him on the plane out there. This guy is going to really wonder when he sees all that stuff!

We had a blast with Jake this weekend. Scott ended up staying with us for Sat and Sun instead of going with his mother to her friend's house. That poor kid gets drug along to the weirdest places with her and her lady friends. We took Jake and Scott with us to church and Scott was such a help with Jake. Of course Jake pulled the "I have to pee" thing in the middle of mass and Scott volunteered to take him.

We had everyone over for a cookout during the Cards vs Sienna game and it was great fun. Amy had Sarah and Kyle come too as they both go to school at U of L and they were in town. Lots of kids, lots of food and lots of fun. I always wanted more kids but of course Don wouldn't allow it, once we had one of each that was the end of kids. It used to make me sad but not anymore, now I have the bigger family that I always wanted and I am loving it!!

Have a great spring day everyone!
Di

This didn't work too well..............

First off, Happy Anniversary to Tony and me!! Today is our 3 month anniversary, man how time flies when you are having fun, lol!

Here is a pic of my little sample piece of silk that I tried the gel glue resist method on. This is a shot before I washed out the gel. Well, sorry to say that this method did not work on silk and with silk paint. I had to wash it so vigorously to get all the gel resist lines out that I about wore out the silk and the silk paint faded horribly. These colors are nice and bright in this pic but the finished piece looks like an old dirty rag!! I think this gel might work better on cotton with real dye as you don't have to steam cotton to set the dye. Dye is the way to go as it sets very well and does not fade at all, and the colors are super vibrant. In the directions for this method the lady used cotton, so cotton might be the only way to use this gel glue.

So today I am trying another trial on a different reist, this is a commercial water based gutta from Peobo. I have three tubes that I have never opened, it makes a very fine nice line, I tried it on paper last night. This resist you do not wash out, it comes in colors like gold and silver and copper and it shiney and really neat stuff. It adds a really pretty fine line in color for the design, I am excited to try it. For color I am going to try dying the piece in kool aid, you can get some awesome effects in kool aid on silk. I have to boil the silk piece so hopefully the gutta will stay, I'm crossin my lil fingers.

Lil Jake comes to spend the weekend with us so I have lots to do to ready the house for him. Scott has been here this past week, first time he has spent 5 consecutive days with us and it was fun. He is a great kid. His Mother had to keep him on the phone for 1 hr. last night with her non-stop nonsense. She is the most combative person I have ever met, even beats out my ex and that is saying a lot.

You all have a great day and enjoy our last day of winter!!

Di

Hey guys

Hey guys, no time for photos today. I have so many things on my plate that it boggles my wee mind. I am trying to get at the pieces of silk that I bought from Dharma so that I will have Mother's Day gifts in hand when I get to Albqueruque for Easter. So much easier than mailing them later. But, alas..............that means I have to actually create the little masterpieces first!!

One of my Mother's contacts in art out in Port Angeles gave me a really great heads up on a technique for using a resist on silk that is NOT toxic and therefore going to be really good for me. It is plain ol gel glue, the kind you give kids to use, who wudda thunk it! I previously used melted wax for a resist but the smell and toxicity of melted wax is just to high of a price for me to pay. Plus, in this house there is no basement to hide in and create a mess in so anything I melt is smelly all over the house. The 4....soon to be 5 doggies and Tony and the kids cannot all wear a facemask all day!! Well maybe they could and maybe it would be super cute to see us all in them but that ain't gonna happen, ha!

So my focus today is #1 go to my fitness instruction apt. at LAC (Louisville Athletic club) #2 finish the trials on this new resist and use my best paints so I can see if it works #3 MAKE AT LEAST ONE OF THE DESIGNS on the silk scarf so that I am feeling like I am making progress on this quest.

It is raining here today so I won't be tempted by outside stuff. Like yesterday when Derek and I went to Auto Zone and bought oil and all the stuff to change my oil. That was actually really fun and REALLY MESSY!!

Oh by the way, I do not have YO's email address. I read all of her posts but can't post to her blog and wanted to email her but alas it is not in my mail box. Can someone please email me at dmenglert@bellsouth.net her email address.

Thanks and hugs all around!

Di

Casey is coming home!!!

My step Dad Bob with Casey in Port Angeles, WA.

This is a picture of Casey and Amy taken some years ago when we lived in Alexandria. Casey was/is Amy's dog. She begged and begged for this dog from the pet store, we had to visit it several times a week as a puppy in a large litter. It turned out that this little guy was the runt and the very last dog left. The owners of the pet store said to one of the workers, " if that lady and girl come to see that dog again just give him to them", so that is how we ended up with Casey. Don always called him the most expensive free dog ever. We built a $3500 fence for our yard and the main reason was so Casey could have a great fenced yard to bark in. lol!

Casey was my constant companion when I first got sick, he slept with me in the bed when Don would go to work and I was first bed ridden and at home. This went on for almost a year I was so heavily medicated to stop moving that I slept almost constantly. Casey would jump in the bed with me and snuggle next to me to comfort me. Many days I spent crying to him and holding him wondering if I would end up in a nursing home I was in such a horrible state with the Dystonia. When I started to get better we adopted a little friend for Casey, Rocky our little Chihuahua, they were fast friends and had so much fun together. Casey was a gently giant to our little 1.6 lb tiny baby puppy, he would let Rocky lay with him for naps it was so cute. Our two cats at the time would always snuggle with Casey too for naps, he was just the most loveable dog ever.

Fast forward to Don kicking Amy and me and little unborn Jake out of our family home. He said and take that "damn dog with you" so we tried to do just that but non of the apts. that I could afford on disability would allow 50 lb dogs. So my mother and step-Dad who had just lost their two sweet yellow labs to old age said they would take him in for a year for us. This was such a blessing for us and turned out to be a really amazing blessing for them. They missed their two big labs so much, they had them since they were pups when they died so they had not been without pets for many years. Casey fit right in and helped heal the wounds and losses from the "boy's" deaths.

Then that very next March 18th our dear step-Dad Bob passed on from brain cancer. Yes, today is the anniversary of Bob's death, he has been gone 3 years now. Casey has been a constant companion to Mom these 3 years and has brought her so much comfort much like he did for me when I was so bad and in bed. At 75 years young she can no longer care for Casey like she used to be able to when Bob was there, she can't get down on the floor to brush him and she can't lift him. And Casey is getting older and needs special arthritis meds and has trouble walking so he is now quite a bit more expensive than he was 3 years ago. I called Amy and asked her what she thought about taking Casey back home to us and of course she said, "yes, Mom do it, we need Casey back". So I told Mom I would look for a ground transport to bring Casey back home to us and we finalized a good transport for him yesterday.

Casey will be coming home on Monday of next week, driving with a moving company driver on his way to a move from Seattle to Ohio. He will sit in the cab with the driver and keep him company on the trip. I will meet up with the truck in Indianapolis and get Casey from him there. This awesome sweet dog is now making it back to us full circle. We can now care for him in his older years and time of need just like he did for me and then for Mom and Bob.

This is why I haven't been on the computer blogging, setting up his transport and bidding back and forth on UShip has been very time consuming.

Peace and love to everyone!!! We get our big sweet pup next week, I can't wait to see him, I haven't seen him in over 3 years.

Di

Latest project..........

I am making Jake a little covered pillow for his second birthday party. He loves this fabric and used to carry around the fabric piece before I had a chance to make it into something. We thought that was so funny so we had to take it from him when he was napping so I could make it into something. This pic is hard to see but I am machine quilting around each of the little cars on the fabric. Then I will sew each quilted side into a pillow.

On the subject of Katy's zingers. This method she has of going through the symptoms and systematically trying this and that to find the cure of reducing the zingers has me thinking. I am not supposed to be eating wheat flour products and sugar. I have been trying to give them up again and I have noticed that when I do give them up my zingers are greatly reduced. I had attributed the increase in them from the stress of living in a new city, new kids, etc. But now I think it is just the diet and a little of the stress.

You all have a great day, big hugs all around.

Di