The Christmas Roast (and catching up)

***please forgive the DUMB centering of my text on this blogpost.  The computer is doing it all by itself.  The Blogger interface SUCKS, to be honest and until I can find a replacement to Live Writer, I am stuck with it and all its annoying drawbacks**

The girls and I are currently in hibernation mode.  It's well over forty celcius today (Thursday), tomorrow is meant to be hotter and Saturday is hotter again!  'They' are forecasting 44 degrees, with a cool change on Sunday - it should only be 37 C then.  Have to break out the wooly jumpers!

Both the dog and cat are inside with us, and I've been watering the chooks often during this weather (by watering I mean squirting with the hose trying to cool them down) and crossing my fingers we don't lose any.  I seem to lose a chook a year with the hot weather, but maybe that's just old age and the heat helps them along.  

I don't know how the Northern Hemispheres 'do' the heat, but in Australia we learn to close all the curtains early on a day like today, and I have done that for a week or so now.  The house is quite dark now, but very cool due to a gold plated airconditioner, stone walls and large bull-nose veranda.  One daughter is tinkling away at the piano, teaching herself Christmas carols (we recently acquired a free piano, but not one of us is musical at all!).  The other daughter is sharing the lounge room with me, cartwheeling over and over.  She's just learnt how to do that and she thinks she is just fantastic.  She's more fantastic than me, I never learned to do any sort of clever gymnastics.

I've been baking today (seems entirely sensible given the heat!!) and have made about 2029475 pizza scrolls.  Yesterday was chocolate chip cookies for Christmas and tomorrow is the big Christmas Honey Biscuit Bake.  I make these biscuits once a year, work my little buttocks off doing it and swear I'll not do it again, it's just too much hard work.  But year after year I do it, and give the biscuits away to my husband's work colleagues.  Every year he asks when he can take the biscuits in, so of course I'll keep going as long as he likes.

Sewing is sadly not happening much this time of year.  I've been watching the Bonnie Hunter Mystery Quilt happenings over the internet, and for the first time I haven't begun it with the others.  It's a combination of too much happening and also being so turned off (sorry Bonnie) by last year's design.  I've decided to wait until I see the finished result before committing myself to making it.  I have a very strong feeling that this finished quilt will be something I'll love (I keep imagining Roman tiles) so no doubt in January when life is quieter, I'll make it at my own speed.  It would be Murphy's Law that the one year I decide not to make it is the one year I adore the design.

What else is new?  Nothing really.  I haven't got any of my own quilting photos to show you so I shall leave you with another tutorial I enjoyed finding.

Sew Mama Sew has a million (well, maybe not that many but A LOT) of beautiful tutorials that you must check out.  I found this really lovely penguin designed by DelilahIris Designs.  I might make more than one!

Hope your Christmas planning is going well!  If you're in Australia keep cool please!

Happy Quilting!

Suzie