over the river and through the woods

I went on a lovely pair of hikes in New Hampshire's Franconia Notch State Park today with a group of friends and colleagues from IQuISE. New Hampshire is full of fall foliage right now, which made the woods especially beautiful.


We started the day hiking along the Falling Waters Trail (starting with a short bit on the Bridle Path trail from the trailhead across I-93 from the Lafayette campground).  The goal was Cloudland Falls, but, based on pictures, I think we turned around at Swiftwater Falls--it looked like a destination water fall.  This was a reasonable hike, but the path was a bit tough for our group with several stream crossings and lots of wet leaves on the trail.

view from the top of Bald Mountain

After a lazy lunch near the campground, we headed to the trailhead for a 1.5 mile loop trail up Bald Mountain and Artist's Bluff.  The trail was very rewarding--Bald Mountain provides beautiful views for a small amount of effort.  I'd do it again!

brown paper packages tied up with string

The craft bug bit again just in time for Mom's birthday!  I dropped by one of my favorite discount fabric stores a week before her birthday and found two adorable fabrics that matched in both theme and color:

Bag pattern: based on Skip to my Lou's reversible tote.
Size: Bag cut for 13"x14.5" finished size
Fabrics: (butterflies) The Emperor's Garden (Maywood Studio, pattern 87102)
(honeycomb) LaLa's Garden (Andover Fabrics, pattern A-5611-MY)

Pouch pattern: Skip to my Lou's pleated zippered pouch.

Tissue holder: patternless!