tick tick tick

In 11 hours and 10 minutes, I will be on my way, and I'm waiting for the last load of laundry in the dryer so I can finish packing, but I couldn't leave without sharing this vision of loveliness:

Dozens of flowers, violently ripped from their stems and tossed in a pile. If you ever want to work out aggression, popping the heads off flowers does the trick. All the while, I kept singing under my breath "Momma had a baby and her head popped OFF!". Where did that little rhyme come from? As a kid, we used to sing it when decapitating dandelions. How odd. Maybe it's a Maine thing. Never let anyone tell you that kids aren't violent little beasts. Lord of the Flies? Yeah. OK, all that aside, aren't they pretty? I put together 6 kits for my class and of course bought way too many flowers (they were on sale!).

I accomplished most of what I set out to do. I feel like my outfits will be theme appropriate, but not as over the top as I'd like them to be. Oh well. I keep telling myself that I will have fun no matter what.

Seeing as this is a quilting weekend, I packed 2 UFO's that I plan to finish: a wall hanging and table runner that only need to be sandwiched and quilted. I'm amazed at how much stuff I have to bring with me to sew: machine, power cords, power strip, foot pedal, scissors, thread, cutting mat, cutting ruler, rotary cutter (by the way, even when the blade of an Olfa rotary cutter is retracted, you can still slice yourself pretty badly), fabric, and batting. Jeez! I'm spoiled by the portability of knitting. Of course a I also packed a sock to work on but it only took up one sandwich baggie. Ha! I can't go 4 days without knitting.

Speaking of knitting, one of our destinations tomorrow is Keepsake Quilting in Center Harbor, which just so happens to be in the same plaza as Patternworks. I have no business whatsoever buying yarn or fabric, but I am allowing myself to buy 2 skeins of Koigu KPPPM at Patternworks (they have a huge selection) and enough fabric to make one tote bag at Keepsake (because, as you know, I really need another bag). We'll see how well I stick to my self-imposed "diet". I have no illusion about sticking to a food diet this weekend. Tomorrow evening we'll be going for our annual dinner at Bellini's in North Conway. If you ever go to North Conway, you MUST go to this restaurant, but be warned: they don't take reservations.

Ta ta for now pals! I'll tell you all about it when I get home, with lots of pics, and then I promise I'll start talking about knitting again!

Peace man.