When you think of minimalism, what is the first things that come to you mind?

All white decor? No decorative items? Only 2 pots 4 plates, 4 glasses and 1 tea mug in the kitchen? Making do with only 10 pieces of clothing? Living like a monk that made a vow of poverty? Downgrading to a tiny house and forced to throw away 90% of your belongings?

What if I told you that minimalism is actually none of those things (unless these things work for you).
Minimalism has been this big fat trend for years and it keeps coming in one avatar or another : Scandinavian minimalism, urban minimalism, country minimalism, boho minimalism, monochrome minimalism, colorful minimalism, zen minimalism...

We had all the lifestyle and house organising experts telling us to get rid of all the stuff we don't need, downgrade and live a happy less material life.
They aren't wrong, but the message leave a lot to interpretation, and if you think burning half of your underwear drawer because it doesn't bring you joy is the solution to all your woes, you couldn't BE anymore wrong (Insert Chanlder's voice from Friends).

That's because minimalism is not in what you see, or how color coordinated your home is, it's a lifestyle, and one that is very flexible at that.
It also isn't about throwing things away in hope of gaining happiness, because happiness is in internal state of mind.
If you haven't worked on your unhappiness state, the only thing you will achieve throwing away everything is going from a unhappy soul with a lot of things, to an unhappy soul with a near empty home.

Work on your happiness first

Make more space for what you love doing

Minimalism is really about making things work for you 

When my mom came to visit last June-July, she brought a few things that belonged to me from her basement, because when I left Switzerland, I  left a couple of books and trinkets behind, stuff that mattered to me then, and that near 16 years later, I don't all remember. 
Among those prized forgotten procession were a bunch of diaries, as I have been a diary keeper since the age of 13 (more or less regularly).

Imagine my surprise when my mom handed me one of those, I know there were more in her basement somewhere, but for some reason, only one was in the box she looked into. What is very interesting though, is that of all my diaries, that one is probably the most pivotal in my life. 

It was the diary I wrote from late 2000 until mid 2002, I was 21 when I started it, and almost 23 when I left it with a few blank pages at the end (to start a new fresh book). 
I just turned 40 by the way, you know for those of you not really into doing the maths. 

The reason that particular diary is so pivotal, is that unlike my earlier ones which had a lot of teenage angst and a record of fairly petty issues (and some deep stuff too), that diary marked the beginning of my love life, moving out of my childhood home, and beginning my journey as an adult in my 20's.

I wasn't really thinking about re-reading it, I just put it in a shelf and left it there for weeks because I knew from the first page, that it would be filled with deep emotional stuff. 19 years later, I still remember how awkward my 20's were and this is definitely a time I neither miss nor regret. 
But last week, I suddenly had that urge to take a peek, and ended up reading the whole thing. 

I wasn't a super regular writer back then, but what I wrote was raw, and brutally honest. What I found the most interesting, is that it was the exact time I really started shaping into who I am today. 
A lot of the issues and questions I had back then, are issues and questions that I kept working all through my 20's, 30's and are just now really starting to make sense at age 40. 
I also recognized some of the character traits I had all along and am please to still have : determined, stubborn, passionate, never giving up. 

I changed my mind on a lot of other things too. In my 20's I was still fragile, figuring my place in life, and pretty much went through all the Awkard 20's Clichés that made the TV Series "Friends" such a massive hit. 

Remember the Opening title song : 

So no one told you life was gonna be this way
Your job's a joke, you're broke
Your love life's D.O.A
It's like you're always stuck in second gear
When it hasn't been your day, your week, your month
Or even your year I challenge any of you no longer in your 20s to say that none of it applied to your life back then. Because as I grew and evolved, I came to realise that those are pretty much what define the 20's for pretty much everybody. Back when I wrote that diary, I was in a relationship with an asshat, then met my now husband, faced long distance relationship, was an apprentice decorator earning peanuts. My flat was in the attic of an old house with a poorly insulated and leaky roof and my home decor was a medley of stuff from IKEA, my Childhood and flea market finds, complete with mismatched tea-cups and a collection of trinkets that pretty much took over the whole of my very tiny space and spoke the story of my life. Imagine Monica's apartment, shrink it to about 280 square feet with only one big space to eat, cook and sleep (and thankfully a door to separate the bathroom).

The 20's are the modern equivalent of Trial by fire

Learning from our past is always a good idea

The title of this blog post cannot convey my excitment strong enough, not without using a bazillion exclamation marks and possibly a few happy dance emojis.

IKEA now delivers in MUMBAI!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

We all have these kind of days, you know, the crazy busy days that can drive you up the wall with pure insanity before the day even starts.
The days of you running around like a manic headless chicken and has you collapse on the sofa at night with a glass of wine and an un-healthy amount of chips while watching Netflix.

On these days, I usually find some sanity in jotting down all that I have to do on a piece of paper, otherwise known as writing a to-do list.
If you are anything like me, it only helps to an extent, and it's replaced by wondering where to tackle the list, and freaking out at the end of the day because you left some important stuff undone because they were lost in a mayhem of words and you end up your day frazzled and miserable feeling like a total failure for not staying on top of things.

This is probably because your to-do list wasn't very clear about what needed to be done and what was less urgent, in a to-do list writing frenzy, it's easy to lose the sense of what matters and what doesn't (don't blame yourself, we've all done it).

The way to beat the insanity is to take a few extra minutes and decide what is urgent, what is less urgent and what can be optional (aka the world wont stop spinning if it isn't ticked of the list).

Over the years, I found that putting a priority order to the items on my list really helped me get things done more efficiently, so much so that I ended up designing my own to-do list notepad :

The list above, is one I drafted in early June, just before we left for Lucknow. I had packing on my mind, and the prospect of having just one week after we came back to do it all before my mom came to visit, I also knew that as soon as I would be back from said trip, I would also be plunged into a packed schedule of art classes.
That day I also had to ship an Etsy order, pay the newspaper, ironing and our cook, and the instant I realised I was letting stress eat me alive, I wrote down all the things that were not part of my routine but needed to be done, then I went right down to work on checking what was important, and what was not.

My to-do list notepad has 3 categories of tasks : Must be done, Should be done and Could be done. I usually put no more than 3 tasks in each categories (We have to stay human here).

Must be done Is for all those things that ABSOLUTELY have to be completed by the end of the day. They are the top priority tasks that I should not make excuses not to do, or should not postpone at the expense of something less urgent.
On that day you can see that going to the post office, ATM and buying snacks for the trip was on top of my list.
It so happened that I could also all club them into one errand run : Heading to the post office first, then stop at a bank to withdraw money and go buy the snacks before making it home.

Should be done Is the section for all those still quite important tasks that should be done by the end of the day, they are urgent, but not as urgent as the ones in the "Must be done" box. They are the task you can do without having to worry about a shop closing deadline, or that do not involve stepping out and drive around. They are the tasks that you can comfortably do later in the day and let drag into your evening if needed.
On that day it was scheduling all my June art classes, what project I would do in each class and jot down how many hours each student would be present for to draft the total fees to be paid to me. The second task was to clean the bathrooms because they were quite messy, and there is nothing I hate more than coming back from a trip to a dirty home.
And also because with a line up of art classes in the one week before my mom came, I wasn't sure I would have the time to deep clean everything, so I decided to tackle it before we left for our vacation.

Could be done Is where you jot down all the things that ideally you would want done by the end of the day but that in reality aren't that important. They are those tasks that you need to be prepared to drop if you realise that you either won't have time for after your "Should be done" is all ticked off or those tasks that you would half ass out of sheer exhaustion after you completed everything else.
It's the category for all those tasks that would be great to tick off, but also the ones that won't send you in a melt down if left undone because they could totally be postponed to the next day.

That day it was getting the July spread done in my Bullet Journal, I had all of June set up, but with my mom coming for 3 weeks between June end and mid-July I wanted to have my July spread ready before she came. Mostly because I am a weird creative who hates having people around when I doodle, draw and create stuff. I also knew I would be kicked out of my office, and working on the bed or dinning table with my art supplies scattered everywhere is not an ideal scenario.

That day I ticked them all off my list, ALL OF THEM, on top of cleaning the flat, doing all my other regular daily things, and even found time to go Swimming in the evening.
This could have been a day of me burning out, but because I took the time to sort out my priorities, things went quite smoothly.

As I said, this cute little notepad is one I designed myself and currently sell in my Etsy shop, but you can also just make 3 priority boxes on a blank piece of paper and sort out your tasks that way.

The advantage of that cute notepad is that you can also write lists for your kids to follow, pin it on a memo board or the fridge and have everything sorted out in a fun and VERY visible way.

If you live in India

The world over, people are FINALLY waking up and realising that plastic has become a menace of epic proportions. This is leading to bans on certain items, people cribbing about the change, and then finding substitutes and solutions that were right in front of their nose all along.

Just last year, the State of Maharashtra imposed a ban on plastic bags and single use plastic item...to an extent.
There are still a lot of grey areas and loopholes that lead to food distributor still being able to get away with things like wrapping veggies in cling film in my local supermarket, or milk bands selling milk in pouches.
I personally think that the government can only take us so far, and that we as consumer need to consciously make the effort to change our consumer behaviour, not just about plastic, but everything else. The moment something hits our dustbin, it's trash, and the time has come for us to ask ourselves if what we threw couldn't have been avoided, or if there was a better way of disposing of it.

If we want to make a positive change for our planet, it's not just how we consume, or not consume plastic that is to be re-thought, but how we make the best out of our resources, how we commute and how much we consume.

Do I really need it?

The packaging does matter

Recycle, repurpose and reuse 

I dream of BYOB being taken to new heights

Time to kiss July goodbye and welcome in August! I don't know about you guys, but I am glad July is over.
I've been crazy busy and barely saw it come and go and I'm glad that back to school happened just before my sanity went in for a toss.

Here's to August, the start start of the festive season pointing it's head and to continue planning it style with the Home Cyn Home 2019 calendar! You can go download this month's page and skip the rambling, or stick with me a bit longer (your choice).

August, in my synesthetic mind is a bright yellow, but because it is eerily similar to April, I always end up tweaking the colors a bit when I plan my monthly spread in my Bujo, or when I create illustrations for the calendar. This time around, I added pink and blue to it, but gave my Art Nouveau style lady a voluminous golden blond mane.

 As usual with my calendar illustrations, they are all available in my Society6 shop and like all my other Art nouveau ladies, this one also comes in two versions. Version number one, is without the month name. She goes by the name of "Summer Lady" and is available on almost everything, including the tapestry in the picture above, or the Acrylic box below :





In version number 2, I added the name of the month in the illustration, using the same font as on the calendar, but keeping it one solid color instead of going for a gradient.
Her name on that version is Lady August and it's available for sale on items that either help you plan your month ( notebook, stickers...) or on cute items that make for a cool gift for a friend celebrating their birthday that month, like mugs or t-shirts.

Before I leave and conclude this blog post, let me share one interesting fact :

Today, August 1st is Switzerland's National day. I find it funny that my country of origin and my now home country (India) have their National day in the same month. India is celebrating its Independence on the 15th.
I'm not patriotic by any mean, I don't really celebrate either day in anyway, growing up in Switzerland, the 1st of August was always associated with heading the the county's municipal party ground where they would set up a tent, have a live band playing, and many food stalls to eat from. The kids would run around while the parents danced, ate and drank until the official ceremony which always happened after Sunset (so around 9pm), the story of our founders was told, then a huge bone fire was lit, the National Antem was sung, and then it was fireworks time.

People in India always assume that I never burst crackers or lit firepots before moving to India, and in the first few years it lead to me being babied around them. Which is really silly, because believe it or not, on Swiss National day, people burst their own crackers and fireworks in the designated area on the party ground, or in their garden at home (though not fully recommended).
Fireworks and crackers are on sale a few days before August 1st and the last day to buy them is on the day itself. You won't find them anywhere for sale the rest of the year.
When I was a kid, there was also a "lantern parade" as part of the festivities, mostly for kids, it involved kids holding a paper lantern on a stick and walk together in a parade. When I was a kid, those were a bit tricky because we all had real candles in our paper lantern, it was later replaced by small torch lights, and when I was teenager, the whole concept did go a bit out of fashion, but my mom told me that as of late, it is getting a second wind and kids parading around with their paper lantern is once again a thing.