Lazy Weekend To-Do Lists

I love weekends. They stretch out before me from my vantage point on Friday night like an unblemished landscape, a blank canvas waiting to be filled. I love the promise of lovely, lazy days; or busy days in the kitchen; or time spent with friends; time for sewing or reading; or trips to the park with the playground-obsessed kids in tow - all in between the week's washing, tidying and cleaning.

The problem is, I tend to want to do all of the above. I write imaginary lists in my head, not really accounting for how long each task will take. Unsurprisingly, I am usually slightly disappointed on a Sunday night when I realise my imaginary list has only half of its items imaginarily crossed off. I remember Mike once saying on a holiday we spent with them that Annette likes to 'suck the marrow out of each day'. Well, that's me every weekend.

So, now I make real lists. Not the rigid, 'I have to do absolutely everything on this list' kind. Just lists of things I'd like to do, this weekend or next, or even next month. It's kind of a collection of ideas. (Sometimes Nath has to remind me of this - slow down, Nicole, take a breath, hey, do something radical and have a nap even!)

Taken at 9:00am this morning - it was minus two overnight here.

This weekend? Well, it's been cold here, inspiring me to start that patchwork bedspread I've been meaning to make, backed with the purple woolen blanket that was my aunty's as a young girl in the 50s.

I'm also taking Mezz's idea of making a whiteboard from a framed piece of material - and making a matching framed pin-up board as well.

 We have dinner guests tomorrow night, a belated birthday celebration. I'm doing a curry feast, with dahl, poppadoms, raita, chutney, curried cabbage, saffron rice..... and, the star of the night, this lime and coconut goat curry. I've made it before, and I think it is now my favourite curry.

I bought a lovely cream tablecloth today at the Salvos, big enough for even our oversized feast-worthy table, and I plan to quickly make some placemats and serviettes to brighten it up.

So, what's happening in your world this weekend?

Love to you all.