Last December, I hosted a Christmas party at home. A party that was attended by many of my expat friends, all of them European. My guests loved the whole atmosphere of said party and some commented on my decor. One of them told me she loved the European feel of my home.
Being European myself, I of course knew what she meant, but still spent many weeks reflecting upon it after this event.


I saw the potential for a blog post, and ended up polling my friends for it. Because, you see, in India there is a thing called Western or International style.
The problem, like with many a Western thing in India, is that it is more often than not heavily inspired by American trends. However, the truth is, there is a much different approach to home decor on both side of the Atlantic.


If what you end up picturing at the mention of a Western home is something that involve a lot of white, painted furnitures and splashes of pastels with an overall coordinated set of accents, your inspiration likely comes from an American home.
Ditto if you are picturing big comfortable furnitures, large airy rooms and open plan kitchens. Or if you heard of terms such as Costal theme, or country, or boho, or city chic...


Homes in Europe are on average smaller than the average American homes to begin with. Open plan kitchens aren't as common and themes are something people in Europe aren't going to preoccupy themselves much with.
And while Americans have a love for old painted furnitures (preferably in white or grey), Europeans favour wood tones, even for non-wood furnitures. The inclination to go for an all white decor is far less dominant on that side of the pond.



There is also a marked preference for compact furnitures with simple lines. Bonus if your pieces serve a dual purpose (think hidden storage or dinning table that can expand itself). This probably has to do with the fact homes are smaller.

After quizzing my friends, we came to the conclusion that while furnitures in Europe aren't uncomfortable (far from it) they are favoured for their versatility. There is a tendency accross Europe to look for items that can be shuffled around and not only work well for one room, but can adapt to being later used in another. It seems shuffling your furniture around is a more European thing than it is in the State. Which is why pretty basics are often favourited.


Several of my friends also pointed out that Europeans seem to favour bolder colors when it come to walls and soft furnishing. And almost always in solid colors rather than patterned ones. Think bright splashes of reds, blues, yellows, greens and purples, on throw cushions, curtains and carpets. In general, the lack of statement made by the furniture themselves is more than made up where wall, floor and window decor is concerned.
There is also less concern for what I call the "matchy matchy" look. New pieces of furnitures are made to blend in with what is already there without resorting to painting everything the same shade the way it seems to be now the trend West of the Atlantic.
A friend once told me that the European home decor seems organic and is meant to evolve and grow over the years rather than be a finite picture perfect thing from the start.


Being European, I of course agree to it all. And, yes, my home definitely has a European feel. Living in India, that goes without saying that there are some ethnic touches too. But, the core of my home is and will always be European.

I hope you all had a nice weekend. And if you are in India, had a nice long weekend (Happy belated Republic Day by the way)
We spent all of yesterday lazing around, watching a bit of the parade on TV in the morning and just plain chill axing the rest of the day. The weather in Mumbai was really pleasant and mid morning I realised that all that was missing to that bliss was a batch of freshly baked cookies.

I have an easy choco chips recipe that just about does the trick. Though, choco chunk would be a more appropriate name for them.
I have heard many expat complain about the non availability of chocolate chips in India over the years. I always found that a bit puzzling as far as complaints are concerned.
You see, in Switzerland, growing up, we didn't have these infamous chips. What we did, and what I still do, is just crush a regular chocolate tablet into small bits. And, it works awesomely to say the least.

What you gain from doing this, is some large chunks that retain a gooey center once the cookie is backed. Give that method a try, I as an guarantee you that you won't turn back or even consider buying ready made cookies.



Here is what you'll need to make them:

200g butter at room temperature (it makes about one cup of butter chunks)
1 cup Demerara sugar
1/2 cup caster sugar
2 eggs
2 cups flour
150 g dark chocolate (I use Amul Dark Chocolate)
1 tbsp cocoa powder
1 tsp vanilla essence
1tsp baking powder

1) Cream the butter, Demerara sugar and caster sugar together using an electric beater (or a fork if you don't have one)

2) Beat in the two eggs and vanilla essence to form a nice batter.

3) Take a rolling pin and bash the chocolate still in its wrapping foil. For best result chill the chocolate before hand, it will break more easily

4) Add the chocolate chunks, flour, cocoa and baking powder to the wet ingredients mix and stir to combine evenly. The dough will be a bit coarse and chunky, this is normal.

5) Preaheat your oven at 200 degrees Celsius. Meanwhile, using a spoon, place little piles of dough on a baking sheet lined with baking paper. Do not worry about the shape, the piles of dough will flatten and expand while cooking.

Bake for about 10 minutes and let them cool down on a cooling rack before eating them.

The recipe will yield you a fair amount of cookies, store them in an airtight container of a cookie tin.

Are you a toss n turner? Do you wake up in the middle of the night unable to go back to sleep for hours? If so, welcome to the club.

I am an insomniac, not the chronic type that dread bedtime, fortunately. I'm however regular enough at that game of let's wake up at random in the dead of night. It can happen several time a week at its peak, and still a couple of time enough in a month for me to remember what it feels like.

I've been at it for as long as I can remember. As a child, it was exciting, mostly because I was up at a time I was not supposed to. There was something mysterious and probably magical about that time in the dead of the night, and my parents never got to know I was awake. I would just peek through the gaps in the blinds, observing the stillness outside. Then lay down in bed making up stories in my mind until I fell back asleep.
And despite the fact I was starting school at 8, it was still manageable then, school wasn't very demanding until I turned 12.
The teenage years were a whole different ball game, I was chronically late to school, and finding myself struggling in every topics that were served to us before 10 am. It wasn't even that I was going late to bed at night, it is just that my body clock is incompatible with societal norms.

The early bird gets the worm must be the most ridiculous idea I ever hear. This notion that only those who get up at the break of dawn can have a life of success and triumph. Last time I checked, owls get to feast on mice all night long, who needs a worm then?
I am of that lot that can't be productive at sunrise, that doesn't mean I am lazy or unproductive. The years I had the freedom to work on my own timetable, freelancing from home were the best and most productive years of my life. Back then, bouts of insomnia did not feel so crippling. I had the freedom to work around them, sleeping a bit longer in the morning, getting about with my daily life later, and still clocking in enough work hours. Insomnia has alway felt great when the pressure to be an achiever of the dawn age was lifted.

Heck, I often gets great ideas in the dead of the night. Ideas I would not get otherwise.

Sadly, my timetable isn't too compatible with the system. And even less so with a child that despite being born from two night owls is an absolute lark. I am back to dreading these nights of light sleep again. Waking up at 2am to go back to sleep at 4-5 feels daunting. I inevitably know that I'll be up at 6 again. Against my will and better judgement, forced to act remotely productive and doing a half backed job of faking it.

This week has been a rough one when it came to sleep, and as a result, the nice planning of blog posts I had on paper pretty much went out the window. A couple of nights of no good sleep in a row left me in a zombie-like state. A state widely incompatible with creativity that left me dry.

Gone is the plan of editing pictures for coming post, out the window the home decor post I was planning to draft yesterday and post today. I turned to my personal diary full of insomnia fuelled rambling to make up for it.
One day, I might even whip up a series of tip to make these nights easier...because I do have some. All veteran light sleeper do have them, and some of them do actually work.

One of them being to take it easy during the day. So on these "wise" words, I'll take a bow and practice what I just preached.

I don't know about you, but Winter is just about the perfect time to enjoy soups. I myself could call them lunch, dinner, and possibly breakfast. I love soups, well, now that I am a sophisticated grown up anyway. As a kid, I hated them, and sadly this is how meals started in my family. If I could go back in time I would tell my 7 years old self that she is plain old stupid for whining in front of her plate of tomatovevetablemushroomcreamwhatever soup.

Soups are also easier to make from scratch than one think. In India, the only challenge being finding stock. Something I haven't yet been able to find. The closest would be the Magic Masala Cube from Maggi. Their chicken cubes will somewhat do the trick, their vegetable variant is sadly not up to the mark...at all.

The best solution would be to make your own stock and freeze it, and a I admit I prefer chicken stock over vegetable stock, and have no idea how to make a homemade veggie based one.
To make a chicken stock, you need chicken bones. I usually save these each time I make a roast chicken and dump the whole leftover carcass in my rice Cooke, add lots of water, some salt and boil them for hours, adding water regularly. The longer they cook, the more flavourful the stock will be. I then pour it in old take out containers and put them in the freezer.


But, back to my pumpkin soup shall we? To make it you will need the chicken stock mentioned above. It would also be a good idea to have pumpkin purée on hand, and that pumpkin spice mix :


If you don't have any pumpkin purée ready, making your own won't take too long, you just need to cube enough fleshy pumpkin and cook it in as little water as possible and mash using a potato masher. Like chicken stock, I do these in batches when they are at their ripest and freeze. I invite you to try it, to save yourself time and possibly your sanity.


And now, the recipe you were waiting for!

You will need :

4 cups of chicken stock
2-3 cups of pumpkin purée
One big white onion sliced
3-4 garlic cloves, crushed
2 tsp Pumpkin spice mix
Salt and pepper to taste
Butter

Walnuts to garnish (optional)

1) Heat about 2 tbsp butter in a flat bottomed sauce pan (I use my Dutch oven pan). Once the butter has melted sauté the onion and garlic until they start turning golden brown and give out a nice fragrant flavour (it takes about 2 minutes)

2) Once the onion and garlic is ready, pour the chicken stock and bring to a boil. Add the pumpkin purée, pumpkin spice mix, salt and pepper. Bring it to a boil and switch of the heat once it does.

3) You will need a stick/hand blender at this point. If you don't have one, a good old mixie will do too. BUT, and I can't stress that enough, it is very important. Do NOT put the boiling hot mix in the mixie right away, let it cool first.
If you have a stick blender (and you should, they rock), plug it in and immerse directly into your pan full of clumpy lumpy soup and blend it to a smooth velvety cream.

You are done

Serve it with toasted bread and sprinkle walnut on top. You can also add fresh cream to it before serving, though it is against completely optional. This is a thick soup, if you want it to be runnier, add more chicken stock or less pumpkin purée.

If you are following me on Facebook (and you totally should), you already know that thoug I had a plan to blog yesterday, I decided to enjoy a day off. Lazing around and taking a giganormous nap in the afternoon with Ishita who was off school. What can we say, we take cool and pleasant Winter day very seriously over here.
I had the pictures, I had the time, but not the inclination to write. Doing laundry (and forgetting to hang it) was all I was willing to do, and not even feeling one iota of guilt about it.


So, my potato salad recipe could perfectly wait another day. It is a ridiculously easy and quick one, provided you have boiled potatoes on hand. Potatoes you can totally boil the night before, in their peel and whole. Keep them in the fridge once boiled until you feel ready to gently peel the boiled skin off and you are almost nearly completely done with that salad.
Diet conscious people, turn your head, or close your browser now. This is NOT a carb free, fat free, low whatever recipe. It is a tasty, hearty filling salad, best enjoyed in moderation and as a side to a steaming soup and bowl of greens in the Winter. Or, as a barbecue side dish in the Summer. The point being that it is a side dish, not a main course.


For this one you will need :

5-6 medium potatoes boiled and cubed
1 red onion, sliced
2-3 tbsp of mayonnaise (told you it wasn't for diet conscious people)
2 tbsp of mustard (more if you like a sharp taste)
A drizzle of olive oil


1) Start by boiling the potatoes. Spare your nerves by putting them all with their skin in a pressure cooker and pressure cook for 15 minutes. If you don't have a pressure cooker or are in the clan of those who think they are scary, a plain old pan of boiling water will do too, you just will have to boil them a tad bit longer.

You can do this step way ahead of time, and then let the potatoes cool down before doing anything else to them. Store them in the fridge still in their peel if you cooked them the night before.

2) Peel your potatoes once they are cool enough to handle (the peel will come off effortlessly using your fingers) and cut them into bite size chunks.

Put them in a serving bowl and drizzle with a little olive oil. This will prevent them from sticking. Mix gently together. Then, slice your red onion and separate the layers. Add them to the potato chunks.

3) In a small mixing bowl combine your mayonnaise and mustard evenly. Add the mix to the potatoes and mix gently to coat them


Voila! This is that easy! Serve it with a soup and some leafy green, or some grilled meat...your choice.

After re-fluffing old cushions, it is now time to refresh some drab and sad looking cushion covers.



I had these old cushion covers for a while, and when they were new, circa 2012, they looked cheerful. Several dog attacks and recurrent washes later, they looked only good enough for the cushion to serve as chair pads. Function they occupied for two years...until now.


I forgot to take a proper "Before" picture. I was too carried away getting them back to some sort of former glory. By the time I realised I needed to get that essential to bloggers doing DIY post before picture, I already had stencilled golden leaves.
Just imagine that faded, orangish area in the middle with nothing on it, because that is what these covers became to look like after just a couple of wash.
When I bought them, that area was a gorgeous orange and the faded dull colours you have now all over was the colour of the batik-y prints on it.


I looked hard and long into my old pictures to see if I had any good shot of what they looked like. The picture above was the best I could find, and they already were a bit faded, 6 months after having them.
This should give you an idea of why they ended becoming chair pads. They were an embarrassment to my decor anywhere else.


After I finished stencil printing them, I had to deal with the little "pom-poms" no longer in the corner. I decided to dig in my box of fabric scraps and found kurti sleeves material I kept for that kind of small DIY projects. I stitched them in the shape of little "horns" over each destroyed pom-poms.
Then, I used fabric paint in metallic green and, yup, you guessed it, 3D liner paint to draw a funky designs on them.



Finally, I used some cable trimming I had leftover from Christmas, and glued it all around the faded orange square with fabric glue.


The perfect project to end 2014 it was. The two tiny purple cushions have miraculously passed the test of time. I bought them at the same time as the orange ones, they have no cover, have been as many time in the washing machine, and haven't lots fluff or colour. So, back on the sofa they went along with their now better looking siblings.

If my dog wants to continue chewing them, fine, the whole makeover didn't cost me much more than a new pot of metallic green paint anyway.

This was part of my last project of 2014 and will be the object of two blog post. The first one being how to rescue lumpy old cushions and pillows and make them plump and happy looking again. Step 2 will be posted on this blog tomorrow, and consit of prettifying sad old looking cushion covers.


I always said that cushions in my home never really last long, or stay put on the sofa very long. My dog is a cushion killer, and in her youth shredded way too many to make us want to invest in anything fancy, or even consider having any in our living room.
Except, I love cushions and snuggling with one or a few on the sofa, especially in the Winter (in the Summer, I couldn't care less, everything including my own skin try to kill me).
But since my dog still like to bite into whatever soft cushions or remnant of what once upon a time was an appealing plum cushion, I was really not feeling like buying anything new.

That is how my rescue plan kicked into gear.



Growing up, supermarkets in Switzerland used to sell (and I am sure they still do) poly fill cotton in big bags. Because a lot of people used to refill their cushions with fresh filling every now and then. Both my grand ma were doing, my mom was doing it, many of my friends' moms were doing it. It was a usually 20-30 minutes fuss free project that implied cutting a small opening in a cushion and inserting handfuls of fresh filling to add up to the already existing one. Then stitching it back before putting the cushion back in its cover, resurrecting flat lumpy things back to their former glory.

I had two really ugly rectangle guest pillows that we are retiring (we bought new ones that will no longer shame anybody). And, We had two square cushions that we used as chair pads until I defended to buy pads for more than two of our chairs.
All in all, that means enough stuffing to my disposal for a few soft furnishing project. The first one being bringing back the sofa throw cushions to life.

At the time one of the square cushion was dirty, so I decided to use one of the yellow guest pillow of shame no longer. I cut it open on one side and emptied the entire stuffing.
As you can see above, that was a hell of a lot of mated and compacted white stuff that just begged to be re-fluffed.
And re-fulling I did, pulling and stretching handful of it between my hands before putting it back where it belonged.



Once the pillow was filled enough to make for a decent square cushion, I folded the extra fabric and did hand stitch it close.
As you can see in the picture, I still had some filling left, and one of the two square cushion left. I did the same thing with the square one, using the white filling first and complementing it with some of its own original filling.

I put the extra filling in a plastic bag for later, and still have one pillow and one square cushion left to work with. But, for that little project I really only needed two cushions, as I had two really ugly worn out cushion covers to prettify.

All in all this re-fluffing took me an hour. See you all tomorrow to see how to resurrect a cushion cover.

Winter in Mumbai is something to celebrate. To savour and enjoy with abandon. Because, of all the seasons we have, this is the only one truly enjoyable. It is also the shortest of all. One that could feel like an anomaly in our otherwise hot and humid hell, or wet and cool fungi growing intermission.

Once a year, for two or three months (if we stretch it), we get to experience not sweating bucket, feeling suffocated by our own skin, or peeling soaked wet textile items off said skin.

I know those of you living in North India will laugh at our idea of what feels cold, but yes anything below 20 degrees with a mere 30% humidity qualifies as such.
We love the seasonal change, we love the chill, and we celebrate it by wearing warmer, comfy clothes and getting outdoors more.

Here are my Mumbai Winter favourites :



Wearing socks.
Ah! The little things! The joy of no longer being barefooted and for once in the year letting them take the dirt while roaming inside my flat. As you can see, them matching is not even a prerequisite. I can guarantee you I didn't slip these just for the photo-op. I ran out of matching socks between two laundry loads and these were all I had to keep my tootsie warm (it was 19 degrees...don't judge!).


Tea, and more tea.
All. Day. Long.
I am a tea lover, I need to start my day with a cuppa. Green or black without milk or sugar in the day time, and a fruit infusion before bedtime (a typically Swiss habit, we drink something warm and herbal before bed).
In the Summer, I really keep my intake to the strict minimum to function...a cup a day, even bypassing the night cap. Comes the monsoon or Winter and I drink several cups of warm fluids a day. Not all caffeinated of course.



Soup time.
In the cold months, I can call a steaming bowl of soup and buttered toasted bread dinner several times a week. I make my own most of the time, because they taste better, are healthier, and are ridiculously easy to make. But, I am not against using a ready made instant soup mix from time to time, especially if I decide to call one a mid morning, or mid afternoon snack (yes, perfectly!).


No more fans.
The blissful sound of silence!
I usually spend the first few days of fan less bliss just enjoying the absence of that whoosh whoosh sound. Plus I can read the paper, or do paper craft projects without anything flying around.


Outdoor and loving it.
3 months of not sweating bullets, soaking your underwear and discovering you can actually sweat inside your ears and in your butt crack!
Can I say bliss? Do I need to say more? No really, it is THREE months of not pondering wether going out to buy bread mid day is a necessity worth melting to a puddle five minute into the expedition.
A solid 90 days in the year during which the elements are not all out to dehydrate us or drown us. A trimester of not feeling icky, sticky and plain old gross after just going out to buy some milk. Let's celebrate!

Bake and cook.
While cooking is a necessity year round, the Winter months are the ones I truly enjoy doing it the most. I can spend hours in the kitchen without liquefying and turning into a blob. And have a newfound energy to actually try some of these recipe I keep pinning on Pinterest.



Feeling cosy.
If you need any sort of inspiration, look at my cat. She has mastered the art of celebrating Winter by sleeping the days away.
If sleeping the whole day is impractical (which I am sure is). Do like me and just enjoy wearing comfy sweats and wrapping yourself in a warm shawl while reading a good book or watching a movie at the end of the day...it works too.


And to really honour the season, you are therefore prohibited to even contemplate wearing anything short, or thin, or even both. I heard light cotton kurti have that need to hibernate anyway.

Have you ever uttered those words? I'd love to craft but...but it's scary, time consuming, too difficult, I'm not creative enough...the list of reason not to craft is endless.

But if you'd LOVE to craft, you should not let anything stop you, and certainly not let things like time or the perceived lack of creativity stop you. Here are 6 reason not to craft busted. 6 reasons that should no longer stand in your way. 6 reasons that are complete myths. If you'd love to craft, don't let these come in the way...ever.


But, I don't have time.

DIY and craft projects can appear time consuming. But they actually aren't all so. Always remember that you don't have to start with big projects to begin with. And that longer projects can easily be spread over days, weeks, months...
My mom worked all day as a teacher when I was little. She also loved to knit. She would sit in her favourite spot in the living room after dinner and knit. She made all of our sweaters, some with complicated patterns. She just loved knitting, it was her stress buster. However, she never aimed at finishing a sweater in one sitting, it would not have been possible being a full time teacher and mother. She would just sit for a few hours, and do as much as she felt like doing only to pick it up later on where she left it.

It really doesn't matter if you can only spend one hour a day to craft. A vast majority of projects can be done in "instalments". I have myself spent months on just one painting.



But, I am not creative enough.

Let me get this straight. You'd LOVE to craft but are afraid to try it because you aren't creative? First, creativity is subjective, highly so. The moment you want to create, you are creative by default. Sadly, these days, it has come to mean that you have to be Pinterest worthy.

If you aren't, you are apparently uncreative.

Don't let these societal notions dictate your life. Just do it, and who cares if the product of your creativity is not award winning! You must do things that make you feel happy. Children do not care about the Creative Quotient of their toilet paper roll art, or doodles. They just do it, and continue doing it without caring about how well their art is received by others. They have fun with it.

Beside, practice makes perfect, and we all have to start somewhere.



But, I don't know where to start.

This is a valid concern to have. Launching oneself into DIY and craft projects can be very daunting. Which technique to try, which materials, and what project to embark on...Should you paint, knit, stamp, stitch, or do paper crafts?

My advice is to explore your option, don't confine you to one niche. When you are a beginner at anything DIY, you don't know yet what you like and dislike.
Before starting anything, browse blogs and websites. Look on Pinterest. Pin and bookmark projects you like.

Then, decide to do one, just one, any one you feel like doing. Buy the supplies just for that one project and go through with it before doing another. In time you will find out that there are things you are most attracted to than other.
I myself prefer painting things. And I do not discriminate on the surface, I paint canvas, glasses, wood, walls...anything will do. But, I don't like needle work much, and I really really really don't like knitting...at all.



But, I can't afford it.

Not all supplies are costly. And you don't have to buy everything all at once. I myself work with a lot of things I have on hand. Jars that would go in the dustbin otherwise, scraps of fabric I have lying around, paints from previous projects...
You only need to buy a few things for each new projects. There are always a few leftovers you can use later.



But, I don't have the space.

Good news, you don't have to have tons of space. The idea probably come from all these fancy craft rooms that are featured across the World Wide Web. They are as uncommon as the dream walking closet. A lot of us do craft on our dinning table and pile up our craft supplies in a wardrobe.
I store mine in my living room, in the lovely chest of drawer I bought recently to replace my termite infested dresser.
All my assorted lot of paint, ribbons, brushes, paper and stock of jars and boxes fit confortably in four of the six drawers that unit has, with room to spare.

I live in a flat that has an extra room at the moment, but that hasn't always been the case. In fact I had no problem doing the same type of projects and having the same amount of supplies I have now in my tiny studio apartment in Geneva. That place had a total of 280 square feet, of which 32 were the bathroom. And guess what, it was considered a big studio by Geneva standard.

Unfishinished projects can be put away in a wardrobe, or left in a corner of a table (provided you don't have cats).




But, I don't know where to find the supplies.

I'll assume you live in India for that one. In Europe chances are your supermarket or even local hardware store or hobby centre has all you need.
I recently wrote a whole blog post dedicated to craft supplies in India, which you can read here.

Aim at a stationary shop that cater to school children and you should find a lot of wonderful basics. The staff could even point you in the right direction to find certain things they might not have. And don't ignore the Internet. Big e-shopping sites all have various type of paint, brushes, and canvas. Itsybitsy has a e-shopping portal entirely dedicated to craft supplies.
And of course, there are all the things you can repurpose at home : old clothes, cushions, empty jars, toilet paper rolls, old gift wrap paper (yes do keep these!), magazine pages.

You'll quickly find out that almost anything can be recycled into a craft project.





To conclude...

There are no reason not to embark on a craft project if you really really WANT to. There are only fears that hold you back, fears that you need to let go off.

Now if you really just don't fancy crafting...that is a completely different story.

Here we are, the board has been wiped clean, the last of the wine drank, and the resolutions are implemented. For those that do them that is. Because, I don't.
Unless vowing to continue to be awesome counts as one. And I think it totally does qualify to be a resolution. And perhaps the only one that truly matters. Repeat after me :

I am awesome, and I vow to keep on being awsome.

How does that sound? Better yet, how does that feel? Much better than "I resolve to eat healthy and go to the gym everyday" right?
We can all use a little positivity, and there will alway be enough people trying to sabotage our self esteem without doing that ourselves.


What I do every year however, is count my blessings, moments of triumph, achievments and happy moments. I litterally sit down and reflect on them in the last few hours of the year. And I only count the good, the bad goes to the mental trash, it,s not worth remembering, or holding to it. Unless I learned something from it that positively impacted my life, in which case it stops being a negative.
This year, I wrote all of it in my Gratitude Diary. It filled close to five pages in it. It include saving a cat's life, expanding my social circles, changing the name of my blog, getting business cards and learning new skills. among a great other many things.

I have absolutely no regrets about last year, but then I rarely do regrets to begin with. Regrets only hold one back, I can't be bothered with that.

I am wishing you all a Happy New Year...make that an Awesome New Year, because this is what it will be if you want it to be.