Thanks for the well wishes, but the ring is not found.

I’ve given up on the notion that I ate it.

I still can’t imagine where it could be. I put on a different ring to show Clark and asked if he knew where my ring was. He didn’t.

The girls spent 30 minutes before homework last night looking for it.

So I’m dyeing a sample of wool and alpaca for Nate’s sweater to distract myself, since the last sample didn’t work out. I’m dyeing it a color that went all haywire on the silk and showed no sign of even being related to brown, so I’m heating it very slow, and using no vinegar whatsoever ’til the very end to set the color. In all of my miserable and failed dye attempts (as far as getting predictable results. Most things have been pretty), it seems that the dye is striking extremely fast. Maybe it’s my uber-soft water? That’d explain a lot. I’ll let you know how this goes.

When Clark goes down for a nap, I’ll start laundry. I’ve already gone through the laundry bins and pockets to no avail, but I’m still holding out hope that I’ll find it in the bottom of the washer when I transfer a load.

Let me first start out by saying that I do NOT want a replacement, but I couldn’t help browsing Shaneco.com (something I do a couple times a year anyway) to see if they still have the calla cut diamonds, and they do. Wanna see something pretty?

When I first saw an ad for this ring a couple years ago, I don’t remember where, I went in to the store to try it on. At the time, I remember thinking it was prettier in the picture than it was in person, simply because it sparkles SO much, you can’t really see the flowers/design of it.

They’re amazing diamonds.

I’m curious to try it on again, but it’s pretty pointless. I can’t imagine having nothing better to do with $5k than spend it on a ring.

And I want mine anyway.

I woke up this morning and the first conscious thought I had was, “(gasp), my wedding ring’s gone!”

I’ve looked everywhere. Stripped the bed. Moved everything. I have no memory of taking it off, and I always know where I’ve taken it off on the rare occasions when I do. It’s just gone, and as ridiculous as it sounds… I’m afraid that maybe I ate it in my sleep.

That’s the only thing I can think of. I don’t know what to do.

So I’m getting almost nothing done as I pace the house, wracking my brain for where it could possibly be.

Oh, and on a completely less consequential note, I’ve started the sleeve to Clark’s sweater.

Which one of you suggested vinegar and rock salt for polishing the brass bells on my Woodstock fountain? I was cleaning my fountain this morning and decided to give it a try.

Can you tell which three bells have been scrubbed, and which three haven’t? The interesting thing is it wasn’t just the vinegar, and it wasn’t just the salt, it was definitely both. If I stopped getting results, I’d add more of whichever had been used up, and it started cleaning again.

I’ve tried brass polish, I’ve tried steel wool and detergent, I might have tried bleach, I don’t remember. Nothing had the tiniest effect, and now, after using vinegar, rock salt, and steel wool, I have a pretty fountain again! (I wonder how it’d do on the bottom of my shower???).

I love you!!!

Blog readers are the best. Happy Monday!

Hey all. So, once Nate’s birthday is over tomorrow I’m going to boycott sugar ’til Thanksgiving on November 27, which is just about 4 weeks. I’ve done it before, but I have much less confidence in myself now than I did in the past. I’m going to do my best.

Anyone else?

It’s difficult at first, but gets easier quickly. The key is to drink a lot of water to flush out the detox, and to make sure you’re feeding yourself good food so you don’t get too hungry or low in blood sugar. I always feel so good when I do this. I have so much energy.

Happiest of birthdays, my dear husband. I adore you.

I’m so excited! Usually, all the garden spiders are dead by Halloween, and while most of them are this year, our window buddy (the one that Clark, of his own accord includes in mealtime prayers) is still here!

I have about two skeins of the mohair left to spin. Then I’ll dye yarn for Nate’s cardigan, finish Clark’s sweater, and start knitting mine.

My mom came into town unexpectedly, so we’ve been playing. I got a couple more skeins of mohair spun, and I’m almost done carding the fleece.

for how beautiful this is. And I DYED IT!!!

Carding it with the handcards has really improved the look of the yarn. It blends the colors a bit, making the colors appear more complex which better compliments the other wolf yarn I’m combining this with.

So to restate, this is my kid mohair fleece that I dyed, hand picked and lightly carded on my handcards, and have spun into wolf yarn to go into a sweater with the other wolf yarn I spun from mohair bought at the Black Sheep Gathering in June. This fleece is SO soft, that my other incredibly soft wolf yarn doesn’t even feel soft anymore.

I’m really excited to be putting my own dyed yarn into this sweater. (That I still have to design. Any ideas?).

Wanna see something unbelievably beautiful?

And if you think it looks good, you should feel it.

It’s soooo soft! This is the stuff I dyed. I dyed it 4 different colors, in four different batches, and had to dye each batch at least 4 times because I couldn’t get the color saturation the way I wanted it. It still isn’t exactly how I intended it to be, but it’s lovely.

I thought that since the mohair I bought at Black Sheep was just picked open, it would be enough to fluff the locks I dyed before spinning them. But I it looks like I’ll get a nicer yarn if I card them to open them up a little more first.

I hardly mind. It’s heavenly, having my hands in this stuff.

*Thanks for the comments. I’ve removed this part of my post because I’m over my irritation from that particular conversation and am ready to move on.*

Thanks, Carrie and Anna!

So, I didn’t make my goals this week, but I tweaked my back super bad on Tuesday, so that’s my excuse. However today we’re on massive housecleaning detail, and I’m definitely breaking a sweat. We’ve scrubbed dishes, cupboard doors, drawers and handles, dining chairs and barstools, swept and are now mopping the floors.

I will try to exercise this next week, and I think I’m a couple weeks from getting my elliptical, finally. That’s very exciting.

I’m thinking about doing a sugar fast again from Halloween to Thanksgiving like I did a number of years before my pregnancy with Clark, in which I would have starved to death without dairy and sugar. That was pretty much all I could keep down.

Anyone want to join me? If some of you are doing it, maybe it’ll strengthen my resolve.

How was your week?