Love it or loathe it, Social Medias are part of our lives and are pretty much here to stay. If you are a blogger, this means you really really CAN'T ignore them if you want to get your content out there.
And it is confusing, and daunting and some of you might think it is stupid, I totally get it. I was like that at first.
But guess what? You could be writing the best content ever, and have the most stunning pictures there will ever be and no one would find out about it simply because you failed to promote it. A classic case of "If a tree falls in the forest and nobody heard it, how can we know it did fall?" To get people's attention, you got to make some noise (the right kind of noise)

The problem is that social medias are a plenty, and all work differently and it is hard to figure out where to start.
Home Cyn Home is on Facebook, Pinterest, Twitter, Google + and Instagram. Each have their specific challenges, and strengths, and I will walk you through them below.


Facebook

This was the first social media I got into to promote my page when it became clear that I could no longer avoid doing it. If you have a Facebook account, you can create a page (in fact as many as you want) for your blog, website or business. Your personal account will not be displayed on said page and you can start building a community from there.
That said, things have changed a lot with Facebook, and people who took the time to like your page might not see your content in their feed as easily as they would have a few years ago. Blame it on Facebook being too dense a network. You should not neglect it though, and the good new is that it isn't a very demanding media.
You can still get exposure if you post at least once a day. The best way is to share contents from other source. The big strength of Facebook pages is that it allows you to interact with your readers outside the blog and they get notifications if someone replied to their comment on Facebook. It keeps the discussion going.



Twitter

Many consider this social media as frivolous and silly. I did that for years and that was a BIG mistake. Twitter is the platform where all bloggers and brands have a handle and presence. You can't afford not to be part of it.
Due to the 160 characters limitation, you need to go straight to the point and learn the art of catchy tweets. Bear in mind that these days, adding pictures is a must if you want people to notice you as well.
Of all the social medias, Twitter is probably the most demanding. The feeds are faced paced and you will need to promote your content several times to get it seen. Aim at posting at least 5-6 tweets a day and avoid too frequent repetitions. The good new is that you don't have to be glued to Twitter 24/7. It is fairly easy to schedule your posts in advance using a scheduling service app. I myself use Hootsuite and I spend about 15-20 minutes in the morning scheduling my tweets for the day. I then will check twitter on occasion and re-tweet and interact with those I follow myself. Favourite what you like, re-tweet what you really really love and think your followers will love too.



Google+

I'm going to be frank, this one is my least favourite social media. BUT, it is one that gets me a lot of traffic, with minimal effort. The reason being that Google loves Google. And things that get shared on Google+ will be appearing higher in search engines results. Things that get a lot of +1s even more so.
I really just post my links to the blog on my profile for all to see and am part of a few select communities in which I share the same links. This takes about 2-3 minutes of my time each time I publish a blog post. I know some people that are for more active than I on Google and get good results from it. It is worth giving it a try, and check it on occasion. Bloggers that have a presence there usually also have a presence on Twitter, so I find it easier to keep up with them elsewhere.



Instagram

If you write a lifestyle blog, chances are you have lots of pictures to share. And Instagram is the absolute BEST place for that. I only started keeping an account specifically for the blog recently, and this is one of those things I should have done long ago (follow me there if you haven't already, just click the link above). A lot of the pictures I post there aren't on my blog but reflect the theme of the blog : colours, good food and DIY. It sets the tone for who I am and what Home Cyn Home stands for. The best way to get people noticing you there is the use of hash tags. Some are more popular than other and lots of people tend to follow a few that are dear to their hearts.
My favourites are #ABMlifeiscolorful #abmcrafty and #vscocam, whenever one of my picture fits one of these category I add the appropriate hash tag.
A Beautiful Mess also tend to re-gram what they like from their hash tags, so if you post quality pictures and they like it, they will share it giving you even more exposure. This happened to me recently after they re-grammed my dragon fruit picture (#ABMlifeiscolorful).



Pinterest

Confession : I am not as active as I should be on this one. But as a lifestyle blogger it makes a lot of sense to have a presence there. I will get to master it one day, that moment isn't just now. What I do however is make a point to pin all my DIY and Recipe posts to appropriate folders in my account. I have a Home Cyn Home Arts and Craft, a Home Cyn Home recipe and recently started a Home Cyn Home Blog tips folder as well.
And of course, I still pin recipes, home decors and ideas to my other non blog related boards, because we all need a source of inspiration



Still feeling a bit confused? Start small. You don't have to be on ALL social media platforms out there. In fact, many might not even be the right fit for you and your blog. And guess what? That is ok, completely ok. If you don't have crafts projects or pictures on your blog, then Pinterest and Instagram might not be your priorities. You first need to start hanging out where your audience is hanging out. And if you don't fully know your audience just yet, Twitter is probably the best place to start these days (my personal opinion,do what you must with it).
My advice is to be very active on at least two social media and do your promoting work correctly on them.

Have you given social medias a chance? Which ones are you favourite?

I am finally ready to give you the big reveal and details on the project that kept me busy most of last week :


It is one of these project that I have been thinking about for MONTHS, literally! I started thinking about this bit of boring blank space above my dresser in January. You know...when all sane persons take down their Christmas decorations.
Because, this very spot was adorned by this paper wreath last festive season (ok the wreath stayed up until last week, don't judge).

I went back and forth between ideas (in true Cyn fashion of course) for a long time. I thought of just putting a string and clips on the wall. Then I thought about a cork board. These ideas got replaced by the thought of an empty frame with wires and clips. Then a couple of months ago (as in May-June), I decided to settle on a rectangle board with just clips.
I even had a draft with the measures and everything, heck I even bought the clips the instant I saw them at the craft supply store.

The idea was to get the carpenter to cut a board and put hooks behind, and I would paint it with blue acrylic paint myself. But, because we got so busy the plan was on hold until two weeks ago when DH decided it was time to get the carpenter to our place.
This is where I got a huge change of mind, and a possible epiphany. I suddenly wanted a black board so we could doodle on it as well. Oh, and I wanted it to not be just a rectangle.

So, I went to work and drew a life size template on brown paper (the kind you use to cover school books) and handed it to the carpenter along with the order to find black board paint.

This is what he came up with a few days later :



A perfect replica of my life-size template in plywood.

He mounted it on the wall for me and gave me the pot of chalk board paint I asked him to look for (after showing him a picture a friend sent me on whatsapp eons ago, long before I thought I would need it).
And,  I got right to work :



In India, you have the choice of spending a fortune (as in 1500 rupees) on a tiny pot of water based chalkboard paint on Amazon, or go for the all surface oil based acrylic version from Asian Paint (the one in the picture above).
As you can see the oil based paint is way cheaper and comes in a 500 ml can (which means I have tons left for other projects).

What you need to be careful about though is that it is a paint that do contain solvents. Only use it in a well ventilated space and protect the surface adequately. Keep some turpentine on hand to clean the brush afterward (the only way to clean oil based paints off your tools).

The can label advised to sand and brush the surface before painting, which the carpenter did already for me. I ended up filing the edges a bit though, and since I didn't have sanding paper on hand, I used an old foot file (it works no joke). It also said the paint was fast drying but that 6 hours were recommended between coats.
I painted the first coat on and let it dry. At this point I think it could have worked with just that one coat, but I decided to give it another one just in case the next day.


While my black board paint was drying, I got to work on my wooden clips. They were untreated and I knew that without paint or varnish they would get really dirty with time. To remedy to it, I painted them gold. Two layers did the trick.


Once the second coat of black paint was dried and cured (6 hours), I glued my clips to the board. I used what is commonly called rubber based contact glue.
Contact glue is a type of glue that need to be applied to both surfaces and create a strong bond if used correctly.

To do it right you first apply the glue evenly on both parts that will need to be glued together. Then, you need to let it dry a little for about 2-3 minutes BEFORE joining the two items together. This part is very important with contact glue, if you stick both surface while the glue is still dripping wet, you won't get a good solid bond at all. And, because it is a solvent based glue, it goes without saying that you will need to do it in a properly ventilated space.


Regarding the paint, the can says nothing about prepping it for chalk, but many websites and blogs where different brands have been used recommend that you gently rub chalk all over the surface and then wipe it off with a damp cloth before the first use. I did it, but I don't know how essential that step is really.

I finished the board itself last Thursday, but because I didn't have any pictures to display on it, I was stuck until those came.
I got to work on that last Friday, editing many of my old mobile phone pictures and point and shoot pictures to have a nice selection of square photos to choose from. I sent everything to Zoomin later that same day and it came within 24 hours. By Saturday night I had some of the pictures up and I did a quick doodle and snapped pictures on Sunday morning (because the light was better).

We plan to rotate the pictures and add new ones regularly. The board will hold funny message and Holiday greetings as well.

Now I can move on the rest of the creative projects on my list (if I don't add anything more to it). 

Did you ever find yourself in that spot? The one where your mind is racing with a million projects and ideas but you realise it would take more than 24 hours days to do it all?
This is pretty much me right now (like I hinted at last Monday). And to be fair, I did accomplish a lot of things (just not all blog or creativity related). It's just that the amount of things I wanted done was humongous, and probably very unrealistic a goal, then the heat we are experiencing in Mumbai didn't help either.

I spent a lot of time glued to my sofa (literally! my excessive sweating stuck me there). The study is quite unbearable after 9am so I moved my base of operation to the coffee table in the direct path of the slight draft we can hope to still experience in this furnace.
I spent a lot of time editing old personal pictures (like the one above) for a big project at home. Said big project occupied me in other ways as well and it will be featured on the blog very soon. For now, I give you a sneak peak :


This big project involved the help of a carpenter, and the use of chalkboard paint. My first time using said paint at that. I now have one other solid idea involving this paint, and a few not so set in stones one...
You know, because in the world of Cyn, a can of paint can  does trigger a creative chain reaction.

When not working on that project or being held captive by the sofa I managed to get some cleaning done, and some de-cluttering, and worked behind the scene on some blog stuff.
Oh and I made lists, because you know...I love lists. Lists are great, lists are awesome, lists prevent my brain from going Kaput. The problem if lists is that they trigger chain reactions too.

Now I have a 2016 Printable calendar project that needs the be completed. I am already thinking of Diwali (the holiday is looming on the horizon), and Christmas, and New Year, there is a whirlwind mayhem of painted lanterns, paper craft, cooking, graphic making new recipe trying that are competing with all the other million ideas I added to my lists just this week.

On the positive, it doesn't really look like this blog is ever going to run out of ideas. I might need to forgo sleep completely though, and that is an entirely different story.

Now it is time to get back to my watercolours. If I manage to be able to lift my forearms off the surface of my desk. My sweaty arms have taken to the laminate surface quite well...

I said it before, these days blogs can't really afford not to be supported by great pictures. if you have a lifestyle blog, this is practically a must, and people will expect you to have a strong visual content. Bonus if said content is yours: meaning more personal photos and less stock photos, and certainly NO STOLEN pictures (I still see it way too much).

The problem is that if you start googling for tips on how to take blog pictures, you will get the idea that it is going to turn into a very expensive thing. Most will tell you that having a DSLR camera and a couple of reflectors, filters, and diffusers are a must.
I'm here to tell you that you don't necessarily need to make huge expenses if you don't want to or simply can't just right away. First because most smart phones nowadays have a very good camera built in, and if you learn to use them, you can take great pictures. The pictures below were all taken with my HTC One M8 Eye :

What you don't know, is that all 3 pictures were taken in what I came to call my "Home Photography Studio". and what you really really don't know is that my Home Photography Studio looks like this :

That's right! I take most of my pictures in my laundry room, on top of my white washing machine (it gives me an incentive to keep it spotlessly clean).
The reason I decided on this spot is a fairly simple one : lots of natural light all through the day. In fact, it is probably the brightest spot in my North - North East facing apartment. And the first rule of good picture taking is to have a good light source. Camera phones excel in bright natural light.

Depending the type of picture I take, I rely on DIY back drops and reflectors. Once again, this is not something you have to spend a lot of money on :


For this picture, which I took just for the sole purpose of illustrating this very blog post, I used a white backdrop which is just a bit of cardboard I recycled from a package. There was enough light when I took the picture, but since I am trying to make a point, I also used a piece of Styrofoam as a reflector. This come in handy when you want to project light on an object on all side. On a really gloomy day, you are going to be better off using a silvery reflector, which you can totally make just using the roll of silver foil in your kitchen and a piece of cardboard.


This is what my picture looks like once it has been taken from a proper angle, and has been fully edited. In this case, the back drop is darker than the top of the washing machine and you see the line in the background. It's ok to do it, if this is what you want to achieve. You can also use different painted back drops. I keep all bits of usable cardboard from the stuff I purchase online to paint as needed.
If you are looking for a seamless back drop, the solution is to get a big roll of white paper and hang it behind the object and underneath it.

I mentioned editing, I have done that in the past as well. This is because editing is a MUST nowadays, all blog pictures you are seeing around are edited. This again need not to be costly, there are many free apps and software that will help you do it and you should make full use of them (no excuses at all, most are super user friendly as well).

Do you want to know what the picture above looked like before editing it? Look no further :


Glamorous isn't it? I edited it using Photoshop Express on my iPad, a free app that packs a lot of features and correction tool. I also often use VSCO cam (another free app), Photoshop Mix (yet again free) and the A Beautiful Mess app (60 rupees) because each has some different filters and strength. I sometimes even start editing in one app and bring some finishing touches in another app.

To summarize everything, you can totally have a photography studio at home (and you should), it doesn't take much space (as you can see) and doesn't require you to make huge expenses either. Remember that the most important thing you will need for your photos is a good source of natural light (this is totally free) and a few easy to pull from scraps props (which wont even take that much space to store away trust me).

How do you take your blog pictures? What does your photography spot looks like?

Introverts are people who spend a lot of time in their thoughts and have a particular affinity with quietness. I should know, I am an introvert myself. And while I have no problem being out in the world from time to time, I need huge chunks of solitude to feel balanced and happy.

Like most introverts, I am a creative soul and like most creative souls, I tend to scatter my thoughts in many directions. Imagine a wed browser with about 50 tabs opened at any given time and you have the most accurate description of how my mind works. And because my mind is always buzzing, it becomes essential for the outside world to just keep quiet. No joke, I tend to get a wee bit panicky when too many stimuli occur all at once and interrupt the chain of thoughts inside my mind.

Weeks of unforeseen circumstances like the "no school" that happened last week usually put me a bit on edge. Simply because my mind will just pull me into more direction, most of them conflicting. It becomes near impossible to focus on a creative project when you have the voice of reason screaming on top of its lugs that it is now time to cook breakfast, lunch or dinner.
Voice of reason often backed up by a whiny kiddo who is not only starting to feel hungry but is also bored out her mind.
Ishita happens to be an extrovert that really really finds it very hard to do quiet and alone time.

Last week saw me ambitiously wanting to tackle about 4-5 food related projects, and about 9-10 artsy ones. That was before one trail of thoughts led to another and I found myself cleaning the wardrobes, making lists for an additional 20 projects and ideas and spent all my evenings out of the flat just to get a serious change of scenery (you know in order not to get mad).

To be fair, I managed to chalk a few things off the list, or at least get my ducks in a row for this coming week.
There is a wall board picture display in the making (waiting for the carpenter to do his bit). I did a batch of pumpkin puree for a couple of pumpkin recipe. I started thinking about Diwali decor ideas. I cleaned my wardrobe (big big round of applause on this one), I even went as far as deciding to get a few old clothes to the tailor to have them modified in order to not go too crazy on Myntra (my latest favourite app...don't judge). And in the middle of all that I even got a half baked Epiphany in the middle of the art supplies shop regarding the transformation of a painting I really dislike now.

Who cares about the cheese crackers, pretzel crackers, bagels, cupcake and eggplant dip I saw myself tackling? Or the fact I had this crazy plan to de-clutter my craft supplies drawer, find a way to organize my washi tape and buy more yarn to attempt some woven art? Or the fact I wanted to print pictures and do a scrap book. Paint last few graphics I need for my 2016 printable calendar and finish said calendar? Or even put finishing touches to the laundry room?

In the end, what matters is that nobody died of hunger or boredom on my watch this past week. But I will admit that this constant mayhem in my mind, did as usual leave me a bit frazzled and I am quite happy to have the leisure to reboot my system this week. As the true introvert that I am, I will do it staying home, with no TV, no music and just my books, and creative projects...

What about you guys? Are you an introvert? Do you find it hard to stay on course with your ideas and thoughts?

This week has been a accumulation of all the things that should be cumulated: Solo Parenting + last minute unforeseen week off school + intense Mumbai October heat. This end up all summing to: chaos, boredom, irritation and lack of productivity.

Ishita's school send us an SMS of doom last Saturday announcing that due to urgent electrical repair, her floor would be shut down and the kids were to stay home on Monday and Tuesday. This has been quickly replaced by a new more apocalyptic SMS on Monday night announcing that the school would remain shut the whole week long...THE WHOLE WEEK LONG!!!

If that alone was not going to ensure my entire blog and work schedule would be disrupted greatly, lets throw in DH going away on a business trip...you know just for the fun of it. This ensured that I would be on my knees by mid-day with a 1st Grader bored out of her mind (and voicing it) with no chance of any spousal  moral support.
But wait! There's more (insert over zealous sales person tone and picture an equally overzealous enthusiastic face to go with it).
Because having a 1st Grader home the whole week and no chance of spousal back up is clearly not enough to drive a person insane (at least not a veteran like myself), let's add the heat into the mix.
In true blue Mumbai fashion, October sees a comeback of Summer, making  it absolutely impossible to be out between 9am and 5pm without steaming, sweating your entire being to a puddle and possibly evaporating in the atmosphere. during the actual real Summer break I have the option of sending her to the neighbour to play (and we usually take turns taking the kids). This week she was the ONLY school going kid NOT to be in school in our neighbourhood!

How do you keep a 1st grader happy at home when there is nobody to play with until 5pm? HOW??? I tried to put her to work, but it wears thin quickly, so does a few hours of TV, and a couple of craft projects, and a grocery shopping trip here and there (trips that nearly killed us in the heat). It inevitably always ended up with Ishita whining at 1pm saying "Mama I am BORED", and me feeling dead beat and terribly unproductive hearing it.

Came 4pm we would be out  the door, thanks to some of my friends who were in the mood for play dates, both indoors and outdoors. Oh boy did we look forward to the end of the afternoon just to get out from a home that felt more like a messy prison than a home.


Thanks to this past week though, nothing has been achieved on the blog front, and all the plans and projects I had on the art front (including some big ones)  went out of the window. I even had plans to do fun cooking with Ishita, but that also went out of the window due to the intense, burning heat from hell in the kitchen (it's that bad in Mumbai folks!). I also got submitted to the school whatsapp group rants as every single parents in her class were as sapped and frazzled as I was. With many having to rearrange their office work week with their boss.

Because the school didn't take time to consider what a burden it would be for working parents. Didn't plan on alternative arrangements and simply made the assumption that ever woman in India is a happy go lucky housewife with no life beyond the the lives of her own progeny. We are still all trying to get the school to explain what kind of "emergency" that electrical repair was. Especially after I noticed two days ago that all the lights and AC units were on and clearly working on that floor. The school has instead chosen to not pick up the phone, and to not reply to emails. The very few lucky souls that got them to pick up the phone only got a cooked and canned reply of : "It was for the safety of the kids". Without elaborating any further, or explaining how serious the electrical problem was, or even coming with an answer to our questions about their plan to compensate for that lost week of curriculum.

This, my dear sends two very disturbing message to people :

1) Women better stay housewives for eternity in India, because their wanting to have a career is incompatible with the whims and fancies of schools and the ridiculously heavy government holidays list.

2) Education is to be taken as a joke, schools can decide how much of it a kid is entitled for as part of the school fee, and decide at the last minute to slash into the allotted time  for any reason they feel like giving.

Us parents should only nod and be happy about it, because hey, some of us might end up kissing a promotion at work goodbye, or see their bum on the company's ejector seat. But hey! At least our kids are safe from a phantom electrical emergency the school didn't even feel like explaining to us...

Have you ever heard the sentence "Life is what happens when you are busy making other plans."?

This sentence pretty much sums up the lives of a vast majority of people in this world, including myself. We all grew up making or having big plans.  As kids, we were all asked early what we wanted to be when we grew up. We probably all ended up following a few of these leads.
We planned, re-planned, had a plan B, and a C, and possibly a D, you know just in case...because it is the wise thing to do. Just in case life happens, and it usually does.

Life happens, and you find yourself resorting to plans X, Y and Z (and probably beyond, but we ran out of letters, dang dammit!). That is probably because plans don't really work. From experience, I'll say that is probably better to have an idea and a set of goals rather than a big master plan.

Like everybody, I had plans. Some were cool, some were crazy, and some deceptively normal. As a kid I wanted to be a teacher, then a vet, then a circus performer, and an actor. As I grew into a teenager, I wanted to be an art teacher, PE teacher, doctor,  a decorator and a synchronized swimmer. I even remember once asking how one does become an astronaut in the course of my childhood.
I pursued synchronized swimming, and there was a time I was serious about becoming an art teacher, but only because my original plan of becoming an artist was poo pooed by my parents who said nobody makes a living with arts.

A few changes later, and I wanted to be an interior decorator. I was really sure this plan was going to work, I studied for it and everything.  But that was before Internet entered my life to eventually ship me to India (who would have thought!)
The irony is that Internet was never part of the plan you see. It was a distraction, a fun, fascinating new fad that I enjoyed discovering in my free time. I didn't even know back then that finding computers fascinating was considered geeky.

Interestingly, as I stand today, it ended up a distraction that pretty much shaped my life and who I became. Not only did it send me across the world and gave me a husband. It also taught me a whole bunch of pretty cool skills no school of my days would have taught to me. Back when I was a kid, home computers didn't have Internet (very few of us even had computers at home).
My learning journey pretty much all started with iVillage, a online portal for women that is now sadly no more. I was a Community Leader (CL) there, hosting message boards of various topics over the course of a decade. Not only did it help me better my grasp on the English language, it also taught me how to be a supportive voice to those in need in message boards. And because iVillage was constantly evolving and us CL were to be kept up to date, I learned the basics of website building, photo editing, HTML and graphic art making.

This very blog would never have seen the light of day if it wasn't for a fellow CL to suggest I start writing about my "Adventures in India" as she put it.

Internet was a catalyst for change in my life, without me even planning on it. People in my life used to make fun of it. Spending time in front of a computer instead of going out to parties was for "losers". Many tried in vain to "save me" by trying to put me on the extrovert fast lane. Back then I didn't even know that being introverted was a thing, and a normal one at that. I am sure that today, many of my childhood friends still see Internet as a futile distraction, one better left untouched not to be driven off the well travelled road. Have they succeeded sticking to their own original plans? I have no idea.

I myself am more of a beat your own drum and march to your own tune kind of person. If I see a path less travelled, I am likely to take it. And guess what? The artist life my parents claimed had no future is the one that is right now offering me the most prospect and ended up having the most diversified options of all.

I took the "accidental path" I pretty much allowed life to happen all along. But then, was it really all an accident?

It is steaming hot in Mumbai these days, in true October spirit, that goes without saying. As a result, my will to cook complicated dishes has all but melted like snow in the sun. Salads are the perfect dishes to prepare and eat in this climate and this particular one is super easy and quick to pull.

Couscous is originally the name of a Moroccan dish that is made of a semolina base and spicy meat  and chickpea gravy. But, it isn't uncommon for the semolina itself to go by the name "Couscous" these days.
In Europe, that type of salad would commonly be called a "Tabouleh" after the Middle Eastern dish of the same name. BUT a true Tabouleh is made with broken wheat, not couscous semolina, so I choose not to call my salad by that name.

If you can't find couscous semolina where you live, broken wheat can be used just the same. While doing so, keep in mind the taste will be different and the prep time a bit longer (broken wheat requires a bit more soaking than couscous).


The absolute beauty and advantage of couscous semolina is that it gets re-hydrated and cooked in minutes without much effort from your part. All you need to do is boil some water and pour it over the desired quantity of semolina and wait 5 minutes. If you are going to use it in a salad you will want to let it cool down too, but preparing it the night before and putting it in the fridge is not an issue.

When I prepare this salad I use a very intuitive approach and do not really measure the ingredients that go in it, below, I'll give you an approximate, but you can easily adjust the recipe to your taste, what you have on hand and how many people you plan to feed.
As an indication, the bowl above gave me 3 big servings.


What you'll need : 

- 1 cup to 1.5 cup of dry couscous semolina
- 1 boiled water in sufficient quantity to cover the semolina properly. 
- 2-3 cups cherry tomatoes, halved
- a generous hand full of each basil leaves and mint leaves
- the juice of one kafir lime (use a regular lime, or an Indian lemon if not available)
- 3-4 table spoons of olive oil
- 1 table spoon rice vinegar
- salt to taste

1) Start by soaking your semolina. To do so, put it into a large salad bowl and pour boiling slated water over it until there is about a centimeter of water above the grains (a finger width or about a quarter of an inch if the metric system confuses you). It will take about 5 minutes for the grain to absorb all the water, once it has, use a fork to fluff up the grains and let it cool.

2) Halve your cherry tomatoes and mince your mint and basil leaves and add them to the cooled down semolina and mix well.

3) Add the olive oil, kafir lime juice and rice vinegar on top and mix again. Serve as it is or chilled, as a stand alone dish, or as a side to bigger meal.

There are hectic days, and there are days that are all out to whip your butt, grind you to a fine powder and kill you. You know the kind of days where everything you do will end up in a disaster. It doesn't matter how determined you were to start your day right. These kind of days will see you setting you hair on fire while burning your breakfast egg and go from catastrophes to catastrophes until you go to bed exhausted, beaten up and possibly crying yourself to sleep.

Sound familiar? If you say no, I am either going to go on a limb saying you are hiding something, or ask you what your secret is.

These days happen to everybody, and frankly, from experience it is better to accept that any form of resistance is futile from the start. Trying to fight these days, is pretty much like attempting to swim against a hard current : you'll only end up exhausting yourself further and faster (don't do it it is stupid).
When one of these days of hell come upon me I usually adopt a much saner approach: by not trying to make it a better day, but to try to salvage what is left of it.

First, I turn all my expectation on "Low". As I said, there is no point fighting against those killer days, NONE. So I might as well decide that it won't be a day for epic productivity, wonder achievement and gourmet meals. On those days, as a work from home mom, my sole goal is to keep everybody alive, with a huge bonus if I didn't make the shower explode while washing my hair. Get the idea?

I believe a cup of tea can fix almost everything. So, when my world start looking really craptastic, I put water in my tea kettle, switch it on, and back off quickly just in case it decides to attack me and wait for my hot water. Then, I sit down and drink it, doing nothing else (or almost nothing, because watching silly cat videos on YouTube counts as something right?)

I push all non urgent deadlines to another day. Because, let's face it, I'm not going to do a good job at it anyway and it will end wasting my time, and the time of others. On a crappy lousy day, I really only stick to what I truly can't avoid. Taking a new assignment can wait another day.

If I have time, I go get out and walk it off. When frustration gets the better of me and my head is about to explode (possibly from shampoo residues from the shower) I grab y running shoes and go for nice long walk with my headphones on. Will it prevent me from burning dinner or cutting my finger with a piece of paper? Probably not, but walking help me think and put things back into perspective, which might be just what I need to remember there is no point fighting against the current.

Then, there is always the "Cynfull" decadent sandwich. That is my secret weapon, and is pretty much part of my "Crappy day emergency kit". I always have the stuff to pull a chicken sandwich in my fridge...ALWAYS. The decadent version means I skimp on nothing, I go for the whole shebang : mustard, butter, lettuce, gherkins, cheese, and double the amount of chicken. It's big, it's indulgent and it is best eaten ALONE while watching a favourite movie after my daughter went to bed.

And remember, if all fails, there is still wine...

These are less of a "If I ever win the lottery" fantasy than they are to become a likely purchase in my future. These old fashioned rubber seal jars are just the perfect thing to store your flavoured butters, home made pickles and chutneys in style. Again, they bring back memories from my childhood.


I might not be always for geeky, quirky items, but that doesn't mean I am not most of the time. if I can find a quirky alternative to something otherwise blah, I will go for it. You know something like this :


Why go for a boring loose tea infuser when you can get an awesome looking whale one? That is provided nobody runs after you holding a straight jacket for thinking spending over 2k on a tea strainer is normal. It's a fantasy list you people!!!!! Don't send me back to the weird room with padded walls!


Last but not least, what about this awesome way to have your half boiled eggs:


A R2 D2 Egg cup!!!! I couldn't find the cookie jar to put on my list, but this one satisfies the Star Wars fan in me. If you'd like to know I also found a R2 D2 kitchen timer, and light saber BBQ thongs (with sound effect). I won't post the links there, because now it is your turn to go wild and go on a e-window shopping spree and have fun.

Meanwhile, I'll go back to waiting for my very demure and elegant looking ramekins cups to arrive. Once it does I'll be in egg cocotte mode (with a recipe to share to the key).

Now, tell those guys in white coats to just back off already!