what to do on quite a, I mean a quiet Sunday

• Breakfast. Tigger Tail bread (because the label saying it's made from "local and important" ingredients makes me chuckle) and the last of the double brie
• Download audiobooks in my ISP's bonus time (so this doesn't vacuum up the megabytes quite so much) - first up, I've succumbed to Pride and Prejudice and Zombies, because in the sample the reader did a spiffing job - and I might be able to use bits of this at work. I'm behind in downloading - the list also includes Bill Bryson (Notes from a Big Country) and Skulduggery Pleasant books 2 and 3 (because Rupert Degas' narration is beyond brilliant).
• Wonder again why authors/agents/publishers/audible.com conspire to make so many books I'd like to download 'unavailable to my geographic area'. Don't they want my custom/money? Sometimes you can get them on CD, but really truly, I don't want to mess around with CDs and boxes and postage. Just want to download them to my computer and transfer them to my iPod. And listen, and enjoy.
• Cut out the Christmas table runner (I gave up and chose entirely new fabrics that are happy to co-operate with my design ideas)
• Make the Christmas table runner
• Bind the other Christmas quilt that I sewed and quilted yesterday
• Feel pretty much unChristmassy, but then you never do in April/May, even though that's the season when you're designing magazine projects
• Listen to The Time Traveler's Wife on audiobook again while addressing the above items (William Hope and Laurel Lefkow, your work is brilliant!) and wonder why the dogs, I mean gods of film distribution think that it's OK to release The Time Traveler's Wife film/movie in August in the US and not until November in Australia - even after they've been sitting on it for months (AND Eric Bana, who plays Henry, is A Local Boy).
• Cut out and sew another quiltlet (letter S is next on my making list)
• Work out yardage/meterage for another quilt project from some deeeeelicious new Australian designed fabrics
• Finish planning Monday's presentations at the work seminar that's on
• Aim to write a 1000 word draft of an article that's due, oh, by the end of May for a work-related publication
• Write a short blurb for another work-related conference presentation that needs to be in early this week
• Feel happy that I have till mid-June before another work-related article for a publication is due
• Try not to think that there are going to be five quilt projects requiring instructions to be written
• Plan to quilt, bind and write instructions for another table runner that's due next week
• Plan to quilt, bind and label one quilt show entry quilt (due in by Wednesday) and bung some velcro on the other entry
• Breathe. Eat lunch and dinner sometime, too.
• Stop writing an entry for my recently-sparse blog and get back to the list above....

Nothing like a quiet Sunday.

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Is there?

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coming soon....

....more blog entries.  Work's been crazy-busy, and I've been working on other deadlines too.   Hope your lives have been calmer!  It felt wintry today (wintry for here) - a nip in the air, and wanting a coaty layer while heading for the car, and the heater went on at home for the first time this evening.  So it's kinda amusing to be reading northern hemisphere blogs with delighted/delightful effusions about spring and summer.  Still, after the summer we had, there are no complaints about cooler weather, no siree!
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This evening I've been trying to get a Christmas project together, and the fabrics just won't cooperate.  I haven't cut any, am still working on the design.  Fabrics are fine, I'm happy with what I have, but I just haven't yet landed on exactly how they should go together, block/layout.  I don't usually find this particularly difficult, but tonight, with a tired tired brain, I've been messing about in EQ for a couple of hours and nuffin is working.  Think I'll sleep on it.  Tomorrow is another day!
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And the weekend.  Hurrah!
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Do you know Booko?

This house contains quite a few books (cough).  Recently, some have been coming from The Book Depository (gimmick: free shipping worldwide) - it's a UK online bookshop, and with our dollar being strong against the pound, plus free shipping (most books arrive in a week), it's been pretty good.  Certainly cheaper than buying the identical books locally, sad to say.  And well packed, so they don't get bingled (unlike some Amazon orders which thumped about in their boxes and arrived the worse for wear).
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But what if you wonder if you're getting the best price, and you can't be bothered checking a whole shebang bunch of online shops for what you want?  This week I learned about Booko (http://booko.com.au/).  Bung in the title you want (or for greatest precision, the book's ISBN/International Standard Book Number) and hey presto, a whole bunch of prices from a multitude on online bookshops, INCLUDING freight costs and ALL CONVERTED to Australian dollars.
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Great little online toy, that one.  Another good one if you do want to convert currencies is the Oanda VisualFX converter.  What I like about this is that it doesn't have to load another page to show you the conversions.
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Of course if you're buying a certain number of books, or over a certain dollar value, some sites will offer free shipping too, but for a one-book comparison, Booko's handy-dandy to know about.  (I've just reread its info page: it can calculate shipping for multiple items from one supplier).
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Small domestic pleasures

• The warmth of sunshine on clothes from the washing line
• Quiet time to read the Saturday newspaper on the verandah
• The smell of baking that you know is almost ready
• A new book you've been looking forward to reading
• The corner of the sofa to curl up into to read
• Watching a quilt come together, something that was an idea and is now real
• Flannelette sheets on cold evenings
• New season Pink Lady apples, crisp and sweet and tart

What would be on your list?

Quilt: Charm and Charisma

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I've been making an intermittent series of table runners for Australian Country Threads magazine, basing them on charm square packs.  This is Charm and Charisma, from vol. 9 no. 6.  Such pretty colours, this fabric range!  Sometimes all you want to do is play with a little bit of a lot of fabrics you like, to enjoy them and make something useful from them.  Do let me know if you make your own version of this.

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I've got some more design ideas in the works - these are great for quick hand made gifts, too, and not vastly expensive.  Here's a pic of Festive Charm.

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