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Diwali, Halloween, Thanksgiving, Hanukkah, Christmas, New year...No matter where you live, chances are you have a couple of festivals lined up in your immediate future or you might always been sucked into what I call the "Festive vortex" for a few weeks now. Festivals are happy time that are supposed to be all about family and celebrating the season, but let's be honest, they are also an incredible source of stress that can leave us exhausted and short tempered as well. What if I told you there is another way though, one were you can enjoy the festive spirit without running yourself past the point of exhaustion every year? The festive season is that time of the year during which we try to replicate the magic we felt as kids at all cost not realising how much of a toll it takes on our sanity and no matter how hard we try, it always falls short from what we remember from our childhood days. of course there are a couple of very logical reason why we feel all that we feel trying too hard to bring back the past in our festive plans : We were kids, we had a much different perspective and take on everything and it's not possible to replicate that We had no idea how much work our parents put in to make the Holidays magical to us, chances are they were as dead beat tired as we are around that time of the year Times have changed, so has our lifestyle and replicating everything won't work keep it simple! I actually wrote that in my planner a whole year ahead of time after I got so tired I couldn't enjoy the fancy Christmas meal I just cooked for me, my husband and then 2.5 years old daughter. Back then Christmas had become a chore, and no matter what nothing went to plan and I felt miserable. The fact I am a Swiss girl living in India had something to do with it, but the cold hard truth is that I seriously brought most of the stress upon myself and I had absolutely nobody but myself to blame. It was December 2011 and I took out my planner for 2012 and wrote "Keep it simple" on the December 1st page of said planner. The irony was that our landlord asked us to vacate the flat on December 21st 2012 to sell it and that year had been exhausting too, but not because I put pressure on myself to deliver a "perfect" Christmas. After that we made good on keeping all festivals as simple and fuss free as possible. In our multicultural family, we celebrate both Christmas and Diwali. don't do what you don't want to do The reason we tend to run ourselves into the ground on Holidays is that we try to make everyone happy, keep up with traditions that no longer make sense just because they are tradition, and before we know it, our expectations run the show instead of us. Part of my "Keep it simple" plan is to do away with anything I don't resonate with, I speak more about Christmas here since in our household I am the MC for Christmas and hubby is in Charge of Diwali (but we both pitch in on both festivals). I realised years ago that I actually don't care at all about the cooking part, for just us 3 it's a waste of time. What I care about is spending time as a family, and we can do that anywhere really, so we now head out to a nice restaurant for lunch and then go catch a movie in theatre. The movie thing came in 2015 when the Force awakens was released (on Christmas day), I'm a huge Star Wars fan and it was also the year we decided we preferred doing stuff as a family rather than exchanging gifts. Since then we found the magic formula for our own unique Christmas tradition, none of which involve sweating in the kitchen the whole day and being dead tired by the evening exchanging gifts that we quite frankly don't feel as excited as we were with as kids. It's more exciting to go watch a new movie we've been wanting to watch in cinemas. If you are hosting a party, you are perfectly into your right to dictate the terms of said party so if you don't feel comfortable cooking all the food, you can announce it as a potluck, or order some take out food or go through a caterer, yes it might cost you a tiny bit more to order, but in the end to you want to be exhausted and resent the Holidays or enjoy it? I'm quite frankly the type that would rather spend less on gifts, and more on caterer fees if that is what it takes to keep me sane during the party. create a keyless life Last year I read Chillpreneur by Denise Duffield-Thomas (Amazon affiliate link) and in it she mention aiming at living a keyless life after she realised how much simpler her life as a busy mom changed when her new car had a keyless feature, letting her open and unlock her car without a key. In her book, she urges her readers to take this approach at simplifying and delegating all the tasks they don't feel excited about as much as possible. The book has been written with entrepreneurs in mind and applies to business, but the keyless principle really applies to everything in life, business or no business. All in all it's another way of saying "Keep it simple" and probably more proactive at finding ways to simplify an already fairly simple thing. For years, Diwali has always been a bit tricky for us. Hubby and I have an habit of doing everything last minute and the result is not unlike Christmas : we get exhausted when the actual day of the festival comes. Diwali usually send people in a cleaning frenzy to get the home ready to welcome in the goddess Lakshmi, then there is buying something made of metal on Dhanteras, decorating the balconies with lights, making a rangoli in front of your door, buying sweets, and new clothes, and oil lamps called diyas... Back in 2019 we were exhausted from just deep cleaning our flat and I remember saying "Next year we hire cleaners to do it" Of course 2020 had other plans, and Diwali was low key, then in 2021 we were going to our family's place to celebrate so this year is the first time we can (and did) make good on that 2019 statement. We hired cleaners to deep clean the bathrooms, kitchen and clean all the windows. We also hired an electrician to come hang up Diwali lights on all 4 balconies because both hubby and I are afraid of heights and hanging them was always a source of stress. Since all of our lights fired over the year we also asked them to bring us new lights (that we paid for) to hang. Two of the tasks we dread the most each Diwali are now out of our way and our sanity is still intact. This year I also set out to go buy all the small things like diyas and rangoli powder early (no last minute shopping this year) and I got introduced to "Rangoli mats" by my favourite shop owner. It's a foam rangoli (mandala) cutout shape with raised edges for each element of the design so that you pour the colored powder in each compartment and make no mess. I love making rangoli, but quite frankly sitting on the ground in our gloomy hallway sweating buckets and smearing powder all over was something I never liked, having the option to simplify that process is something I am not going to say no to. As Denise DT said, find ways to make everything keyless in your life. make a list of what matters and plan from there We often do things for festivals that we either don't care for, or downright hate doing just because we feel obligated to do them for all kind of reasons. It's time to put an end to it, NOW! Take a pen an paper and draw 2 columns and write everything you LOVE about a festival on one side and everything that you HATE. Be brutally honest, just write from your feelings, not what the society expect you to love or not. Love making beautiful gift wrapping and buying persents for everyone? In the love column it goes. Hate the stress of hosting a big party? In the Hate column! At this point don't look at it as "But I have to", just segregate things in a love and hate column. Once you have that done, look at the love, and check if realistically with your lifestyle and budget you can do all of these and incorporate them into your version of the holidays or if some of them can be altered, toned down a bit, or if you can delegate some of it. Personally I love baking Christmas cookies, but for the past 3 years I had such a hectic time around December, that I decided not to do it and order Christmas treats instead, I might bake some this year, but I haven't decided yet. I also love Diwali lights on my balconies, but I'm seriously scared of plummeting to my death falling off the ladder so this year I delegated it. Then repeat with the HATE column, but be a lot more brutal in purging it. Unless there is no way around it, what you hate about a festival HAS TO GO. And for everything that can't be chopped off that list, look at ways to make it less of a pain in the behind : hate cooking but love family meals? Order food from outside, or go to a restaurant. Hate gift shopping but can't wiggle out of it? Order online or check with small business owner around you if they have options that would keep you out of a crowded mall. Don't like the idea of buying anything material as gift? Why not look into gifting experiences like an art class voucher, a night out to see a concert, or a massage. Holidays are supposed to be fun and happy times and what worked for our parents and grand parents may not work for us, and it's more than ok to build new family traditions that work for you, nothing is set in stone so don't pigeon hole yourself into something rigid just because you feel there is only one right way to celebrate a festival, especially if you have kids. Kids don't know what is right or not right about Christmas, Diwali or New Year, they don't have expectations, adults do. Kids will only pick up on your emotions, so if you are snappy and tensed and drained around a festival, rest assured they will pick up on that. You owe them to be relaxed and happy, not tired and grumpy, that should be your only goal for any big celebration during the year. This blog post contains Amazon affiliate links, if you click on them and buy anything, I get paid a comission at no extra cost to you.

Bullet journals or BuJo for shorts have been the talk of the journaling world for a number of years now and for good reasons. They have revolutionised the way we plan and sort our lives. They also offer a lot of flexibility in terms of what goes in them, and they can be as messy or pretty as you want them to be. Elaborate or plain, practical or decorative? It's really entirely up to the journal keeper. But! Is the bullet journal method really a right fit for everyone? I'm writing this as I made the decision NOT to keep a BuJo in 2023 and go back to a most conventional, pre-printed planner after 5 years of bullet journalling. Many of you came to my website and blog looking for BuJoing tips over the years, including where to find supplies in India and here I am, telling you all I'm giving up on Bullet Journalling. I have my reasons, and I'll explain further down, first I want to walk you through what the whole BuJo method is all about. so, what is a bullet journal exactly? A BuJo is a notebook in which you plan your life and schedule in a flexible way that works for you. Ryder Caroll the creator of the method and author of the book "The Bullet Journal Method" (Amazon affiliate link) explained his method in a nutshell in this YouTube video. Of course his way is minimalist, basic and doesn't work for everyone, this is why many have gone further and Pinterest is now flooded with elaborate spreads and trackers and themes and ideas to make your BuJo work for you and reflect your personality. What it is though, no matter the look, is a flexible way to plan your life and track what is important to you. You might go through trials and errors trying to figure out what works and doesn't work, but all in all it's a great self discovery tool and cool way to keep track of your to-do list and habits your want to form. If the Swiss Army knife had a journal equivalent, it probably would be the Bullet Journal, because it can hold your appointment, tasks, help you track certain habits, reflect on your life and log things like things you are grateful for all in one place. Does it have to look pretty? Seeing all those super elaborate spreads on Pinterest and Instagram, you might be wondering if you are even cut out for it, or if it is worth your time at all, especially if you aren't artsy or creative enough to doodle and color pages of spreads to follow a theme. The good news, is you don't have to keep it visually pleasing, elaborate or intricate at all. The past 3 years I had less and less time to devote to doodling and relied on washi tape and stickers (which you can find free on the Freebie page). You also do not have to do all the trackers and logs you find online, this method is meant to be tailored for your needs. So if you don't care about tracking your mood, you don't need to include a mood tracker at all. the bullet journal method is a right fit if: - Conventional planners limit you in anyway and never seem to have all the space you need to log things that matter to you - If you want to have all the infos like expenses, personal growth and your daily schedule in one book - If you are tracking certain habits in order to make change - If you need something more visually appealing than a regular planner to remember things (some of us have a strong visual memory) - If you like the idea of spending a few hours each months planning and decorating your BuJo and like to play with stickers, markers and washi tape but don't have time to keep a separate art journal. here is why it no longer works for me I love journalling, I love pretty pages, and I am absolutely ADDICTED to all things notebooks, but this year, I found the BuJo is no longer the right fit for me. I got into so many different creative projects, that often, I feel like setting up visually appealing pages and weekly spreads that would help me plan my schedule is something I constantly postpone until the last minute and then I rush to get it done and it stresses the hell out of me. Over the years I also realised I don't care much about trackers, and I prefer writing my grateful moments, my successes and struggle in what I call my "life journal" and thanks to a busier schedule, I often myself find thrown between my BuJo and my other journal and I realised I'd much rather have time to write in said journal than work on my bullet journal, which has become more and more of a regular planner. Over the years, conventional planners have evolved a lot and there are now many options that are super cute, visually appealing, come with notes pages and trackers pre-printed and the idea of no longer have to write all the dates and make all the spreads from scratch is a a very appealing thing to me. I need the visual, the doodles, the stickers and stuff to remember things, but I don't need to be the one creating it all from scratch. I'm in a place right now where the way my Bujo would need to look to be useful to me is also no longer saving me time but consuming huge chunks of it I'd rather spend doing something else. Plus I can still use washi tape and stickers in both a conventional planner and my life journal so the part I still like doing can be done in other notebooks. All in all, I think it's entirely possible and acceptable to outgrow the bullet journal method and not feel like a failure or like you are missing out turning your back on it. It was fine while it worked for me, I grew a lot, had lots of fun, stayed on top of things, but now I have gone beyond and ready to try a different way to plan my daily tasks and log my appointment. If for any reasons the BuJo does not work for it, it's perfectly ok to move on to another system.

Redbubble is all out to cater to all our furry friends and is expanding their range of pet products by adding pet bowls to their offerings. Earlier this year they introduced 4 pet products : feeding mats, blankets and bandana, and now you can make your pet's feeding station even more stylish by matching the feeding mat with a feeding bowl. These bowls come in 2 sizes : 32 oz and 18 oz capacity and Redbubble states that they have an anti-slip base and are made of stainless steel. While they recommend people to handwash them to preserve the quality of the print, they are apparently dishwasher safe as well, provided that they are placed on the top drawer and without the rubber ring at its base. As of now, it seems Redbubble is not listing all my pet bowls in the pet category, probably a glitch due to the fact it's a newly launched product. So if you want to find them, you'll have to click on any of the designs and opt to view all products for that particular design. I enabled pet bowls on most of my designs that had a pattern option that would render well on those bowls. Simply visit my shop to know more. If you want to know more about all the Redbubble pet products available, go have a look at the blog post I wrote a few months back.

We might be in September, some of you might be looking forward to fall starting or already enjoying a slight nip in the air while sipping a pumpkin spice late and Halloween is more than a month away. BUT!!!!! If you are a surface designer, none of this matter, the time to get ready to launch new Christmas designs is NOW and if you haven't already, you need to start getting your portfolio and print on demand shop Holidays ready. If you are anything like me, chances are that the voices of your ancestors are screeching "But it's still 3 months away, stop rushing everything". But what your great - grand parents, grand parents and parents don't know is that when you are in business of creating patterns and artwork, you need to get in the mood and get ready to churn out those design a lot lot earlier than November and most professionals have been working quietly on designs for a few weeks nows (myself included). the way people buy changed a lot 20 years ago, online shopping was just really starting to catch on and people usually started buying things for the Holidays in October or November, and in fact, until the pandemic there still wasn't much variation on that theme, people seldom shopped Christmas stuff before Halloween was even in the picture. Fast forward to 2022 and I kid you not I already sold 4 Christmas themed cushions, and quite a few Christmas stickers...in September, no less. The same kind of shopping pattern happened in 2020 and 2021 so it's not a fluke, it's really starting to be a trend. The reason for all this early shopping probably lies in how disrupted the supply chain got since 2020 and people no longer want to gamble and risk getting their order late for the festive season. With the world going upside down, people also got a LOT more attached to the end of year festive season as a way to get a solid dose of comfort and familiarity in a world that has quite frankly gone mad. Heck I went all out in 2020 with Christmas, and last year after an even crazier year, I found myself sipping hot chocolate watching an insane amount of Christmas themed romantic movies just to feel better and more relaxed. Like a lot of people, I usually start decorating for Christmas on the 1st Advent Sunday, which is 4 Sundays before Christmas and will fall on November 27 this year. The cutout date to order things so that they get delivered on December 24th in the US usually falls around December 10th, this means that after this date, Holidays themed sales will be on the decline and adding new Christmas themed designs to your shop will not be the best idea. as a designer you need to think ahead With Christmas themed items starting to sell in September, you should be ready to publish new work by the last week of September or early October, and really ramp up the uploads and marketing for these by October end, until the end of November. By the time everyone is getting stuffed with Christmas cookies and Mariah Carey's Christmas song makes you want to run away, is the time you need to start planning your New Year and Winter content, including Valentines Day! Retailers plan their Christmas collection even earlier When Deny Designs first contacted me to add me to their wholesale catalogue, I think we were still in June and the shop went live in July, with you guessed it, Holidays themed designs. The reason being that big retailers start shopping around for the holidays months in advance to allow for not only the manufacturer to produce a bulk order, but have it in store long enough in advance of the festive season so people get to buy what they need without rushing everything at the last minute. our grand parents might argue we are rushing things, but really, who isn't completely swamped with events, gathering and fairs of all kind comes November? Kids recital, office Christmas party, the gym's end of year party, trying to squeeze in a few crafts sessions with family and friends, attend a few Christmas concerts. Comes November and the entire world wants a piece of us, and celebrate something with us, if you wait that long to start planning your Christmas shopping, you are going to find yourself burnt out before December 25th and resenting the actual day that is supposed to be all about family when it comes. Which is another reason why people shop a lot earlier now and why as a designer, you really need to key in on that shopping pattern trend right away, or else, you'll be a burnt out neurotic designer that not only went to too many weekends event like everybody else, you'll be overworked and stressed too. create when in the mood and then shelve those designs until it's time. If drawing Santas, Christmas trees and candy cane in July doesn't come easy to you, especially if you are living in a tropical area like I do, don't force it, instead take advantage of the fact that nobody will expect you to release anything new in December and draw those without the pressure to have them up for sale right away. I have a number of Christmas designs ready to go right now, and I created most of them in December last year. While following trends is paramount the rest of the year, for Christmas, it matters a lot less, people don't necessarily want trendy Christmas designs, they want comforting ones. It doesn't mean sticking to red, green and gold designs, but it takes the pressure off trying to figure out what is going to be the IT thing of the festive season. I have a number of Christmas designs in my portfolio and without a fail, every year, the ones I sell the most are my pink Christmas ones. Pink Christmas is not a new trend at all, it's been there a while, and people still buy it because it's fun, it's comforting and that's exactly what people want out of a holiday.

Home Cyn Home is proud to announce that it now has a membership that give you access to a member only zone where you get access to cool freebies, including the welcome stickers set that originally went to my newsletter subscribers. Joining as a member is FREE, it just replaces the newsletter that I felt was loosing steam and quite frankly became a bit tedious for me to write every Sundays. If you are an old timer follower, you probably know that before Home Cyn Home had this new website back in April, the domain name and URL was linked to an old Blogger blog which I have now killed to start afresh. The Mailchimp newsletter was something that felt a lot more at home back on blogger and made more sense there, but when I took the very risky and scary jump to kill all my old content, I needed to have that one bit, and the mailing list I built there come with me to the new website. I knew though that I wanted my website to have room to grow, and that was exactly why I moved away from Blogger and got on Wix. I wanted the option of having members only pages, and more importantly have everything integrated on one platform. The thing that ended up pushing me to start a membership area on my website was that for the past 5-6 weeks, there had be zero changes in my mailing list, and the weekly Mailchimps reports also showed that very few of my subscribers ever opened my emails, or clicked on anything, which meant that all the printables I created over the last year have not reached people at all. I knew it was time to move on, and quite frankly, I have to let you in on a little secret here, I never quite understood the concept of newsletter and my intuition always told me that it was probably not the best move for me. BUT! marketing experts all tell us that building a mailing list is crucial to building an audience, and I agree with them here. What I didn't know, and I now know, is that there is more than one way to build your own audience, and you don't necessarily have to write newsletters every weeks to keep them in the loop. To make sure I was doing the right thing, I informally polled my followers on Instagram to know who was subscribed to my newsletter, who wasn't and more importantly, WHY they weren't subscribed. Many answered "I hate emails" and a few answered "I don't know how". The "I hate emails" group was the biggest, and the one that I really needed to address. Because, I LOVE giving my audience freebies, and it made me a bit sad that people would either forgo getting access to these because they hate emails, or forget to download them because the newsletter they subscribed to was something they didn't have the time to open. To be honest, I don't read most of the newsletter content I subscribed to myself, I get it, we have busy lives, and we are solicited entirely too much these days. Enters the Member Area and the Freebies page! You now have the option to sign up as a member on the site, it's free and all you need is to enter your email address. I can GUARANTEE that this address will stay private, and that I won't share it with anybody, so you will not get unwanted spam from me or anyone after signing up. Once signed up, you should normally be subscribed by default to blog post updates and these will be the emails you get each time I publish a new post. BUT! You will also have the option to not recieve these emails if you don't want them by changing your preferences on your "account settings". Aside from getting notified about new blog posts via emails, you get access to Home Cyn Home's freebies page, it's a member only page where all the printable will go, including the calendar page of the month, and the printable stickers set of the month along with any extra freebies I might chose to give at random. Some of these will stay in the list permanently and the page will grow, other will get available only for a short time (Like the calendar pages). For these, there will be no notifications, so you will have to check the page regularly to know what's new. There will still be announcement emails from time to time I plan on sending out one email a month to let you know when the printables of the months hit the page, and those emails will ONLY go to Home Cyn Home's members, the old email list I built on Mailchimp will ceased to be used at the end of August 2022. Aside from that one monthly email, there is the chance I will share a hot sales announcement if any of my shop partners offer a killer deal or if there is a particularly big website announcement and that will be about it. There will be room to grow The whole point of creating a member only area on Home Cyn Home is so that it can expand and grow as the brand grows. For now we will stick to just a Freebie page, but there is no telling where we'll go next, and I am thrilled to have you all part of the journey.

Despite living in a world that is more and more visual and relies more and more on artists, photographers and designer's work, the concept of copyrights is still a topic that many do not fully understand or think doesn't apply to them, or can be bended with ease, which has lead to many myths about them still persisting. Chances are that if you are over a certain age like yours truely, you saw the birth of VHS tapes, and later DVDs. These always came with a disclaimer at the beginning that nobody read, but really was the first copyrights disclaimer you probably been exposed to. The one that said you were not allowed to reproduce the content of the tape, redistribute it, or even play that tape to a wide audience. Things haven't changed at all regarding intellectual property and copyrights, yet, people still don't have a good grasp of what it means, and what is allowed and not allowed to do. As an artist who's been victim of art theft more than once, I wished people would be a lot more educated about it and stop spreading the same old boring myths about the very notion of copyrights. Here are eight of them I'm debunking for you today. You need to apply for a copyright certificate license in order for your work to really be copyrighted. Copyrights aren't the same as applying for a patent, an artist, musician or author's work is considered an intellectual property and it's copyrighted by default the instant the work is created. This is why in the past (and probably still to this day) photographers, and writers used to mail themselves the negatives or the original manuscript by post and kept it in a sealed envelope with the postage date acting as the date of first publication. They did so BEFORE sending the work to any publishing house. Why? Because in the case of a court trial, whoever is in procession of the work with the earliest date on it, is going to be the original rights holder. In the digital world, the timestamp appear when you first save your file, and also when you publish it anywhere on the internet, replacing the postage stamp proof. Creators do not have to apply for any certificates to copyright their work, so assume everything you find online is copyrighted unless specifically stated otherwise. If i use a picture or artwork another artist created and change the colors it no longer is copyrighted to them and I can sell that work. NOPE! Changing the colors or anything about someone else's artwork or photo only creates what we call a DERIVATIVE, and derivative work is still the property of the original author. They have the right to decide who is authorised to create derivative work and profit from it and they are still entitled to demand their share of that profit. Imagine this scenario in term of physical property if you struggle to see the logic above : You see a bicycle in the street you really love, so you take it home, spray paint it pink and add ribbons to it. It doesn't stop the fact you stole it and the new paint job doesn't make it your own. Same thing with art! fan art is 100% my work so i can't be sued for copyrights infringement. No, it's not 100% your work, even if the whole drawing/painting is yours, the characters belong to the original author, and in many cases are also trademarked (different from copyrights), which means the rights remains with the authors, and owners of the franchise. Fan art counts as a kind of derivative work, this means you should apply for a license to create and sell that type of fan art directly with the owners of the right. Usually you will need to provide some sample work and they will decide if they want that kind of work to be associated with them and commercialised. There are many artists that got caught selling fan art on sites like Etsy, Society6 and Redbubble without having the rights to do so. Marvel/Disney has an army of lawyers on their payroll to serve copyrights infringement notices, so it you are selling fan art without the license to do so, you are taking a HUGE risk. if caught i can always claim "fair use" and get away with it Fair use! The mythical "get out of jail free" card of the creative world! if it were that easy! First fair use is a US legal doctrine so applying it outside of the US might not work. Then it only applies to very specific situations and is always debated in court and is pronounced by a judge. There is absolutely ZERO guarantee that your intellectual property theft will be covered by fair use. What can possibly fall under fair use is parody work of an original, using the original IP as part of an educational manual or text and in the context of research. But again, it can and will be contested in court and the "fair use ruling" comes from a judge. everything on the internet is free to use This myth also has a little brother : "But I found it on Google image search!" Nothing on the internet is free unless stated otherwise, so you can just google an image, take it and decide you can use it as you please and profit from it. Google is a search engine, it crawls and index URLs of pictures and will pop them in a search if the keywords you input matches the keywords associated to that picture. The URL where it appears isn't even a proof of ownership sadly, I had several of my former's blog picture stolen and used on other people's websites. In the case of social medias like Facebook and Instagram, the content belongs to the creator again, despite the popular and quite wrong belief, Facebook/Meta does not own the material posted on their platforms, and if prompted, can remove infringing content and ban repeat offenders. creative commons and public domains are the same thing Though there are similarities, they aren't the same thing at all and there are different type of creative commons to begin with. Creative commons is a license deal in which the author of the work agrees to make it available for other to use for free under specific terms. The owner still owns the rights to the intellectual property, and nobody can claim exclusivity over that content. Usually creative commons like stock photos are free to use at personal and commercial ends but they are not free of clauses, and you must always read the fine prints, sometimes attribution to the original author is required and sometimes commercial use is restricted to some uses. Want to know more about Creative Commons? This website lists all the different types. Public domain means the copyrights on the intellectual property expired, this usually happens about 70 years after the author/artist's death. Longer or shorter depending the country. This means that for example the work of Picasso despite being around 100 years old is still NOT in the public domain because Picasso passed away in 1973, it's been 49 years so far, so his work is not due to go into the public domain for another 21 years. The Mona Lisa is in the public domain and you can use her at commercial ends and do all the derivative work you want on her, because Da Vinci died in 1519, but there might still be restrictions in place as to how you can commercially profit from creating art prints for example. The Louvre museum might have the exclusive rights to sell reproductions on certain support out of their gift shop, so always make sure you are not infringing on those rights Exclusive rights means I own the work I bought those right for Exlcusive rights isn't the same as giving up all rights to an intellectual property, so if the artist gave the exclusive rights to a company, or individual over a piece, it usually means that under specific terms, the licensee enjoys exclusivity to commercialise it...kewords : UNDER SPECIFIC TERMS. This means that in an exclusive contract, the ownership to the work is still with the artist, and they are granting you a specific license to use said work under very specific condition, and usually for a limited duration. Those terms are always included into a contract that binds both parties. For example, the artist might give you the exclusive right to sell their work on a coffee mug or cushion cover for a duration of 5 years. During that time, the artist can't sell coffee mugs or cushion with the exact same design elsewhere or license it to other parties to be sold on coffee mugs on cushions. But they are free to license it to another licensee to sell as bedsheets and art prints. If you obtained the exclusive rights for coffee mugs, you can't sell it as an art print without negotiating another contract with the artist. In an exclusive or non-exclusive rights contract for that matter, the licensee also usually owe royalties on each pieces sold for the duration of the contract, because again, the artist still OWNS the work. I commissioned an art piece so it means I own all rights to it No you don't, unless you specifically asked for the work to belong entirely to you and the artist to release ownership to you. When you commission a piece, you need to be specific about what you will use it for and if you want FULL ownership, you need to request it and have it put in a contract in written form. Know that your asking for ownership of the intellectual property rights will come at a price, because in letting those rights go, the artist agrees to let go of all rights to further profit from said piece. Similarly, when you buy an original painting, you only get the right to hang it in your home or office, and the right to resell it if you don't want it anymore. It doesn't give you the right to create art prints and sell them. The only person authorised to do so is the artist, unless they sold the reproduction rights to someone or sold the property rights (two different things). Copyright laws applie to any creative work, analog or digital, so always make sure you check the fine prints of everything if you plan on using something you didn't create yourself. We artist spend hours creating work, and we don't take lightly to someone stealing it and profiting from said work in our place. Just take the time to contact us to ask us what our terms are, if we are open to licensing the work, or open to work on a commission, state your terms clearly, and in the end if you can't agree to the price or terms of a contract, just move on, don't go behind an artist's back and steal their work anyway.

When it comes to having stickers printed, the common misconception is that it's a job better left to a professional, even more so if said stickers need to be printed on glossy vinyl sticker paper. Printing stickers at home with your inkjet printer is something few people think is doable. Well, it's not only possible, it actually gives you some really good results. So you should definitely not let the fact you have a basic inkjet printer stop you from printing your own planner or journal stickers. All you really need is the right paper and an inkjet color printer and be familiar with the printing settings (it's really not difficult at all, don't let that scare you). The first thing you need is a fairly decent inkjet printer and make sure it has the original brand's cartridge or ink in its tank. I cannot vouch for results with cheap refill inks, but you can still give it a try. I currently use a Epson L805 ink tank printer made to print photos, which is a bit more high end than your regular all purpose home printer, but you will get good result with a more basic color printer model just the same. In general, and from experience, Epson and Canon printers give better color printing results than HP, but this doesn't mean HP is bad by any mean. This means I don't want any of you to think you absolutely need a premium printer to do the job. I repeat, your regular printer WILL do just fine. Next, you need sticker paper that is compatible with inkjet printers, and that one is VERY important, the inkjet printer ink tend to stay tiny bit wet during the printing process and the wrong paper could cause the ink to smudge and your printer to get insanely dirty, so when you buy sticker paper, make sure it is specifically made to be used with an inkjet printer and NOT a laser printer. There are several brand and finish options out there with different finish. My 2 favourite are TeQuiero Vinyl sticker paper with a glossy finish, and True-Ally Vinyl sticker paper. Last but not least, you will need to pay attention to your printer settings carefully. On most printer, you will be better off using the best printing quality settings available and select "Glossy Photo Paper" as your paper option. The print speed will be a lot slower than with regular paper, this is normal, this is your printer's way to ensure the ink gets to dry and not smudge during the printing process. One thing I recommend is to make a test print on regular paper before you print your stickers, to check if all ink nozzles are clean and working correctly, and to make sure the color mode of your printer is giving you the best color results. Not all printers and inks are equal in that department, some printers convert the on screen RGB color values better than others, and denpending the print results, you might have to tweak the color settings a bit before you print. You will find those color options in your printer settings as well. A few years back, I made a YouTube video explaining it all. Cutting your stickers for use Once your stickers are printed, you'll need to cut them out of the A4 size paper, and you don't need a fancy plotting machine to do that. All you need is a good pair of scissors and a bit of patience. I usually cut mine out with regular craft scissors and then store them all in a box for when I am ready to use them in one of my journals. When I use to sell stickers on Etsy (Which I don't anymore) I would use an exacto knife and a cutting mat to do it. With an exacto knife, you can also "kiss cut" stickers so that just the sticky paper side get cut and the backing paper stays intact, it's all a matter of applying the right pressure with the knife on the paper. I do kiss cut more now that I have long acrylic nails that make peeling the backing of a completely cut out sticker really hard, ultimately you've got to stick with what works best for you right? If you are a sticker addict, make sure you sign up for our newsletter, you'll get a cute printable sticker set immediately upon signing up, and then a new sticker set every first Sunday of the month. Simply click on the picture below to head to the sign up form, it's that easy! Plus, you'll never ever miss an update. Disclaimer : This post contains Amazon affiliate links, if you click on them and make a purchase I get paid a commission at no extra costs to you.

What if I told you there is one foolproof way to instantly boost your mood and energy and has the potential to change your life? This thing is a real thing and it's called "gratitude" and this has been a practice pretty much every self-help guru, entrepreneur and successful people have bee practicing and advocating for quite some time. In fact, gratitude is at the core of the "Law of attraction" (LoA for short) practice. You may or may not believe in the LoA, but psychologists agree that simply being grateful for what you have has a big impact on your overall happiness and mental health, and yes some researches have been conducted on the topic, it's even published by the Harvard medical school. I myself have been a big fan of practicing gratitude for a number of years. I've always been a believer in the power of positive thinking, and I do believe in the law of attraction as well, but I didn't connect the dots with gratitude until I think about 10 years ago when I picked up the book "The magic" by Rhonda Byrne in a bookstore. The link I just shared, is an Amazon affliate link by the way, more on that at the bottom of this post. That book was my first real exposure to the art of gratitude, which I was kind of already practicing unconsciously already. The general idea is that by being grateful for what you have, you can bring more into your life. You may or may not believe that part, but you can probably agree that when you are being grateful or say thank you for something you are not focused on what you DON'T have and that alone is a big win. There is a right and not so right way to practice gratitude This might come as a shock to you, but often, people practice gratitude out of a place of condescension or lakh, and we've all been there at least once. Raise your hand or nod if you have heard or even uttered some of the following sentences : I'm grateful for the food on my plate, because there are people less fortunate than me who go hungry I'm grateful for my half broken down car because at least I have a car Or you have had people make you feel guilty of feeling a certain way because some people obviously have it "worse" than you and that means your feelings whatever they are invalid. I'm sure you have been in a similar situation at least once : You : "I'm so exhausted, being a mom whipped my butt today" Well meaning person : "At least you have kids, you should be grateful, there are people who are desperate to be a parent and can't" Sounds familiar? I bet! If it's not about parenting it's about other things, I remember more than one instance of me expressing my frustration about my maid breaking my dishes or constantly slacking only to have "well meaning" friends point out "At least you have a maid, show a bit of gratitude" The fact I was paying for a certain level of professionalism I was clearly not getting was apparently to be equated with a lack of gratitude. Let's be clear about one thing here, having something that someone doesn't is NOT a reason to be grateful, and it certainly not a reason to invalidate certain feelings you may have. You can be grateful about being a toddler mom AND be dead beat exhausted and on the verge of loosing your sanity. Feeling worn out, tired, and frustrated are VALID feelings you are ENTITLED to have. If gratitude has to be tied to someone not having something you have, it is not REAL gratitude. It comes from a place of lack and in the LoA lack is a negative energy, let it creep into your life and it'll bring more of it to you. but, wait! Didn't you say gratitude is the key to happiness? Yes it is! But not at the expand of other feelings. Nobody can feel super happy all the time and it's actually healthy to have moments when you don't feel your best. We are all humans. Plus, just like you can be grateful to be a parent, but super exhausted and frustrated at the same time. You can lead a happy fulfilling life and still have moments of frustration and anger. The difference is in how you let certain feelings get at you. You must acknowledge them, but the key is to not wallow in them and let them rain on your parade longer than they should. this is were real gratitude comes in The practice of gratitude is a daily practice, but if I feel low, I take a pen out and write a list of all the things I am grateful for right this second. It doesn't matter of small they are, if thewy make me feel warm inside, I'm grateful for them. I have written things like "I'm grateful for tea" in my gratitude diary. Just tea, and NOT because there is someone who potentially doesn't have it. I am grateful for tea...just because. The very act of listing all those small things that make you happy and say thank you for them is actually distracting you from feeling like your anger/fear or anxiety is going to eat you whole and if you go at it long enough, you'll suddenly find that you suddenly feel at peace. If that is hard to picture, imagine a bottle that has some mud stuck at the bottom. Now imagine trying to fill that bottle with clear water and seeing all the water turn muddy. If you keep on filling the bottle and make it overflow, it pushes the muddy water out. Do that long enough, and eventually, the water inside the bottle will become clear again. This is what the power of gratitude does. Imagine your anger, fear of any negative feeling that is taking a too strong hold on you as the mud at the bottom of the bottle. The water you pour in and let overflow is all the things you are grateful for. The practice of gratitude is not about negating the negative, it's about making sure that the positive outweighs the negative at the end of the day. If you have more things to be grateful about than you have to be frustrated with, your general state will be a state of happiness. Ultimately is all about tipping the scale in the favour of what you want. a gratitude journal is a good way to start If you are just getting started on practicing the art of gratitude in a conscious way, keeping a journal and setting 15 minutes a day to fill it is a great way to start. Consistency. like for everything else, is the key. It takes about a month to form a habit, any habit, so make those 15 minutes a day absolutely NON NEGOTIABLE. I personally do it at the end of my day, but seriously any time that works for YOU is a good time. During those 15 minutes, start listing all the things you are grateful for, one by one : I am grateful for tea I am grateful for a quiet, peaceful morning I am grateful for breakfast on the balcony I am grateful for a good night sleep No matter how big or small these things are, list them in, and notice how with each one you write down, you feel lighter, more at peace, take time to be grateful for that feeling as well. After a few months of keeping a journal, you might not have to do it as often because you will probably notice that saying thank you for things all through the day is becoming a second nature to you. I know some people make fun of people who say tank you to taxi drivers or doormen for holding doors, or cashier who give back the change at the supermarket. But guess what? If saying thank you is the key to happiness, then there is no reason not to, as long as you are doing it genuinely. I myself am a serial "thank you" sayer, nobody is too insignificant to not deserve a thank you from me. I am truly grateful for baristas making my coffee, the doormen holding doors for me, and taxi drivers taking me places. I don't write as much in my gratitude journal anymore, but I end my day silently giving thanks for everything at bedtime. I'm not religious at all, but this act of giving grace is one that is present in every religions, the concept of gratitude is in the prayers of every faith. If you would like to never miss a post and get access to cool printable freebies, please take the time to sign up for the Home Cyn Home newsletter, simply click on the image below : This post contains Amazon affiliate links, this means that if you click on them and make a purchase, I get paid a commission, at no extra costs to you.

When you live in a rented flat or house, you are always at the mercy of your landlord's rules and expectation, and sometimes it could mean not having the right to drill any holes in your wall to hang pictures. It's something that could seriously impede your ability to turn your rental property into a home that reflects your personality. Fortunately, there are ways around draconian landlord rules, and not only are those rental friendly, they are also a wonderful way to decorate your wall if you just plain hate drilling holes every time you want to change your home decor. I've got 2 words for you : command strips (Amazon affiliate link). I lived my entire life in rental properties so far, and in all that time I only had one landlord who included a 'no holes in walls" clause to the lease agreement, if I remember correctly he also was against using scotch tape on the wall, but turns out he wasn't too strict about that and we stayed years in that flat and he also ended up having no problem with a few holes here and there. In the flat we currently live in, we have no holes restrictions, other than my finding it a pain in the behind to call a handyman each time I want to hang a new picture, and abide by the homeowner association's rules about timings for noisy work. A few of my paintings, namely the ones we had when we first moved in are held with screws in the wall, but a few years ago I discovered command strips and there was no turning back. When I decided to make a gallery wall with some of my mint and pink illustrations a few months ago, I knew the hardest part would be to choose which artwork I wanted up on that wall. The whole part of putting them up took just a few minutes per canvas print. To make sure you end up with a balanced, harmonious gallery wall I HIGHLY recommend that you create a mockup with kraft paper to decide where everything should go. To do so, simply trace the size of your pictures, frames or canvas on a kraft paper roll and cut each of them out. Then using masking tape or washi tape, stick those mockup shapes to your wall so that you get an idea of how each picture will look. If you aren't sure you are going to remember which kraft square correspond to what, just write the description or name of the artwork on the square. Once your kraft paper squares are in place and you are satisfied with the placement of each of them, take a light pencil and mark the corners of each of them onto the wall. DO NOT remove the paper squares just yet! Following the instructions on the command strips pack, stick them to the back of your frames or canvas and then, one artwork at a time, place them on the wall. To do so, remove the corresponding kraft paper square and line the two top corners of your artwork with the lines you traced on the wall and press the frame against the wall so that the command strip adhesive gets to work its magic. Repeat the process for each and every frame or canvas that needs to go up. Command strip can be removed off the wall without leaving a trace if you follow the removal instructions, which is to pull down on the little tag at the bottom of the strip. Since the pictures are held to the wall with a velcro system between the wall and the frame strip, you also have the option of removing one canvas and swapping it for another by simply sticking a set of strip to the new canvas and placing it on the old strips on the wall. That method would only really work if you swap two canvas of the same size. The most important thing with command strips is to choose one that can bear the weight of your frame, so do pay attention to the weight bearing capacity of each sizes of strips in the range. In the pictures above, I used medium strips on each of those 12x12 inches canvas squares. I used 2 strips set per artwork. It's probably a tad overkill in this case and I could have done it small strips but I liked the idea of the canvas being hooked to the wall on a larger surface of strip. This post contains Amazon affiliate links, this means if you click on any of the links above and make a purchase, I'll get paid a commission at no extra cost to you. If you haven't already, take a minute to join the Home Cyn Home newsletter, you'll get a printable stickers set as a welcome gift and you'll get weekly updates, a new stickers set every months and the printable calendar page at the start of each months. Simply click on the image below :

May is mental health awareness month and it's right around the corner which means the blog will focus on self-care, personal development and well being post a whole lot all throughout the month. I am taking a bit of a head start with it because one of the most affordable, yet powerful tool for self-care and growth is keeping a journal. I encourage ALL of you to give journaling a go if you haven't already because what you'll get out of it is something that is hard to quantify or explain. I've been keeping a diary, aka journal since my teenage years, I think my first entry ever was when I was 13 and the victim of a nasty bully in my class. I was full of rage, and felt pretty let down by a system that unfortunately, didn't take bullying nearly seriously enough, it was back in 1992 and since then, my diary became a confident and quite frankly a great way to sort out my feelings and thoughts. It worked so well as a teen, that I kept on doing it as an adult, in one way or another and has helped me see clarity on a lot of things and heal a few trauma wounds from my past as well. As a 40 something grown up on a mission to move past certain negative patterns and blocks, I embarked on a journaling mission on steroids during the 2020 lockdown and have called those journals my "Life journals" because unlike all my previous diaries, these are notebooks I go through again regularly, re-reading old entries to keep track of my progress. And quite frankly, this is the best kind of journaling you can do. i call it "life journaling" It's a fancy term I came up with to describe the kind of journaling that has the express purpose to address your own self care, explore past trauma, and dive deep into your set of own negative patterns you are attempting to break but don't quite know how just yet. In ma case a lot of them were around material posessions, belief about money and the idea that work has to be hard and draining to be considered work. All in all, it helped me grow into my power, rewrite certain beliefs and move past serious blocks that were preventing me from living my own best life. All you need to get started is a notebook, and ANY notebook will do really, don't feel it has to be a super expensive one. But! Make it a notebook that will feel special to YOU. This is after all a LIFE journal, and I believe your life is important enough to be jotted down in a notebook you feel happy about. Personally, I like pretty journals, with enough potential to draw and doodle in them, for those reasons, my life journal is currently a pretty pastel pink Leuchtturm 1917 (Amazon affiliate link). It has dotted grid pages which gives me the flexibility I want to have right now, but if you prefer to write on ruled paper or even blank, go ahead, it's again all about what feels right to you. Over the years I have written on all kind of paper, in all kind of journal sizes, one thing that was always important to me was the whole ritual of choosing the notebook in the first place, or perhaps it was the notebook choosing me...You'll know it when you will feel that push just just buy that ONE journal out of all the others in the stationery shop. how to start writing in your journal? So, you got your notebook, you made it home and now you are sitting down, looking at it and wondering how you should start filling the pages. What the heck do you even write in a life journal? Where do you even start? Here is my advice: Start by writing down what the best version of your life should be like if there was no financial, work or family constraint. As my favourite author, Denise Duffield Thomas calls it in her books "Lucky Bitch" and "Get rich lucky bitch": write about your "First Class Life". Once you have done it, re-read it and see how you react to it all. Chances are you are going to find some of it impossible to reach, or you might be tempted to play it down, replacing a first class dream with a more practical one. These reactions will be your cues as to were you should start digging deeper into your subconscious to unravel the reason why your reasonable self decided your dream life is...well...nothing but a dream. One of the thing I trained myself to do while "life journaling" is to challenge my inner voice each time it comes with downplayed scenario or a rebuttal to what my goals and vision are. If my inner voice say "Seriously get a real job already" I will ask it "Why do you think that way?" and usually it's very vocal and reply with a reason that pretty much come from something someone said in my childhood at one point or another. Because guess what? A lot of our self-limiting beliefs actually have a root in our childhood. It often has to do with the fact that our capability to really reason things out do not really develop fully before we hit puberty, so a lot of the things we witness as kids are often taken at face value by our subconscious. In order to grow, you need to rewrite those "truth" and this is why mindset is pretty much everything when you are going after a goal. In order to reach a goal, you need to change your mindset accordingly, and sometimes, your mind will oppose those changes because there is a mental block, somewhere that need to be addressed first. This is where journaling really helps you get down to it. Often those blocks can be tiny but deep rooted enough that it could take you weeks or months to go over them and a journal is a great way to keep track of your thoughts, reflexions and progress. I usually find that the very act of writing down what bothers me on paper is making the problem clearer and less scary. It's pretty much like I can look at it and say : "Well! Hello there! You aren't as mean as I thought you were' Writing my problems and blocks down gives them a shape, a physical form on paper that let me see them for what they actually are. I am a visual person, so for me writing is really the best kind of therapy there is. You don't have to solve the problem right away In fact, from experience with journaling and getting in touch with my feelings, trying to force a solution really doesn't really work. Those repressed feelings, traumas and mental blocks really just want to get out and away, so more often than not, you just give them an outlet through journaling so they can do just that. Once they are out, you'll just be able to implement a new thought pattern without resistance. You must realise that the things that are holding you down, are often things you repressed too long and just want to be acknowledged and given their due importance before they can leave. They don't want to fight you, so don't feel you have to do so. Sometimes you will have to rinse and repeat a few times, you'll find that certain theme will pop back up often, but the good news, is that each time, they will pop up a bit less strong util one day, they get to fly free and let you be. This is why re-reading old journal entries is ALWAYS as good idea. write about your successes too The beauty of journaling is that it's also a place to log your personal wins and celebrate them. My journals have lists of goals I want to achieve and lists of things I succeeded at. It also has gratitude logs, because the power of gratitude is a force not to underestimate on your journey to your best life. Do take time to acknowledge those wins as much as you acknowledge those pesky mental blocks, your life is made of both and both need to be addressed and given value. if it's too hard don't do it alone A journal is NOT a substitute for the help of a professional therapist. If for any reasons you find that your introspecting journey is stirring up a lot of anxiety, more negative thoughts, make you aggressive or send you down a path of self harm. I URGE you to seek professional help RIGHT AWAY! Seeking help isn't a weakness, and you should not suck it up and bottle up those feelings again. If journaling opened a big wound, you will need to have the help of someone that can help you heal such a big would. Just like some physical wounds are beyond the help capabilities of a simple band-aid, some emotional wounds can't be just addressed with a journal, sometimes you need someone to stitch you back up together, and that is OK, more than ok in fact. If you liked that blog post and don't want to miss on any updates, please do take the time to subscribe to the Home Cyn Home newsletter for printables, shops updates and weekly blog post recap so you can live your best life and be bold and colorful. Simply click on the image below. This post contains Amazon Affiliate links, this means that if you click on them and make a purchase, I get paid a commission at no extra cost to you.

Before I became an illustrator and surface designer, I did an apprenticeship as an interior decorator specialised in upholstery and soft furnishing. It was back in 1999 until 2003 and the home decor trends were still heavily inspired by the 90s and the ridiculous amount of beige everything. Most of our clients back then were playing it safe within the trend and I saw enough boring beige, cream and white curtains and sofas to last a lifetime. Our shop had a wide array of very colorful fabric samples and colorful, bold prints that had me dream of doing my future home all in colors yet I think about 1% of our clients would consider these. I would have blamed it on trends then, but if time has taught me anything, is that most people will play it VERY SAFE within any given trends. The beigy-beige of the 90's and Y2K era just gave space to the era of "Everything grey", a commercial even safer than beige tone family and if you ask me, quite boring on its own, and I currently have a dark grey sofa (don't judge!). I know now that people shy away from colors because they are afraid to screw it up. Color theory is not something everybody is well versed into and there is that fear that what is popular now will not age well, or look so bad in your home that it's better to leave it alone entirely. I'll let you in on the professional insider tip though : NOTHING stays timeless and there will ALWAYS be a moment at which something will not age well. BUT! Like the Phoenix, trends die only to be reborn from their ashes a few decades later and the cycle goes on and on. Hello mid-century modern revival and cottagecore! You should always go for home decor that you like and take any trends with a huge pinch of salt (or rather a whole tablespoon). If you like colors, give them a chance, and don't worry about screwing it up, because thanks to the marvellous invention that is the internet and the surge in home decor blogs and Instagram accounts, you'll get all the help you need if you are color wheel challenged. I think it's pretty clear from the vibe of this website and my designs that I love turquoise, pink and mint tones. In my home decor I also like white, and pretty much every shade of blue and my style is pretty modern and minimalist with splashes of colors everywhere. Before we got that grey sofa, I had a velvet peacock blue one, which was old and worn out and had to go. But the rest of my decor is so fun and full of colors that one grey couch is not looking as boring. My advice is to first start with white walls. I live in rental so it's pretty much my default for walls, but even if you own your own place and are a newbie at venturing in the world of colors, go with neutral walls. If you can, also keep your furniture in neutral colors, as I said, I prefer white, but we also have some natural wood around. With those basics and neutral big items, playing with colors will be a lot less scary because the color splashes will pretty much just come from the textile items like curtains, bedding and throw pillows and thing like wall art and small decorative items. Those are all small items that you can get rid off and change if you end up hating them or simply want a change of decor. They are also quite affordable and you will find colorful soft furnishing and decorative items for every budget. The second step is to decide WHICH colors you want in your space and start looking at how they go together. In the basics of color theory you can either work with analogous colors or complementary colors. A complementary color pair is always a primary color (red, blue or yellow) paired with the secondary color directly opposite on the color wheel. This means red pairs with green, blue with orange and yellow with purple. Complimentary colors offer a very SHARP contrast so if bold is not your thing, you might want to soften then a bit with softer tones. Analogous colors are colors that are side by side on the color wheel and they usually flow into one another. I typically use analogous color combination in my decor and in some my designs and illustrations as well : Mint and turquoise are basically greens drifting into blue, and the blue drifts into the purple and pink. The Home Cyn Home signature mint and pink palette is actually a COMPLIMENTARY palette, Mint belongs to the green family and pink to the red family, but because they are pastel tone, the contrast is a bit toned down. If you go with mostly analogous tones, like for example an interior that is blue and blueish-purples, my advice is to introduce a complimentary color as well, in small doses. In this case the color would be a yellow or orange hue, and it can be a pastel tone to make the contrast more harmonious. The reason being that an all blue can really become too monotonous and cold. Altgernatively, you can play with different hues in the same family. Navy blue pairs well with other lighter blues on the green or purple side of the spectrum. The key to a successful colorful decor is to NOT be all matchy matchy. if you ask me this is the rule to ANY home decor, the matchy-matchy beige from the 90s and the grey overload we have right now is also pretty boring, precisely because it all matches oh too well. Still scared? Pick 2 colors you love to start with, and stick to those color family to buy your decor accents, without being obcessive about all the shades matching. If you like blue, just pick blue items without worrying about them matching what you already have. Chances are it will match anyway because we are all wired to like certain colors over others and certain tones within that color family. Personally, I will always pick a turquoise or a lovely sky blue over a Prussian or cerulean blue. But if by any chance I end up finding a really cool cushion in those lesser used tones, they will still match the lighter blue and blue green I have around. take baby steps If your home is all neutrals and you still feel on the fence about using colors, simply out of fear of messing it up (you won't) start small. For example you might want to just start with putting a colorful tablecloth on your dinning table and find chair covers in a similar tone. Or, you could start with just a few cushion on the sofa that match the artwork you already have on the wall. Then, as you go, you can build on that and add curtains that falls in the color palette you are working with, or upgrade your photo frames to match, or introduce a few colorful decorative vases and bowls. Building your decor over time is totally an option, do not feel you have to just go for one giant makeover and then learn to love it right away. Doing one giant makeover when you are a colorful home decor newbie is actually very scary...don't feel like you have to do it, because you truly don't have to. If for any reasons you grow bored of your decor scheme, change it, place all those pillow covers and trinkets in boxes and explore a new theme, you don't have to have a lifetime commitment to your color palette and if you went in with neutral walls and furniture, the fix is going to be quite inexpensive...heck you can even change the mood of your home each season by introducing different colors all thorough the year, fellow home decor blogger Rukmini and her brand Trumatter is the queen of dressing up her French farmhouse decor to go with each seasons. And, always remember, even if you end up painting your walls or funriture : It's JUST a little paint, if you don't like it, paint over it. Just the same as if you hate a certain throw pillow cover or blanket, just CHANGE them. Donate what no longer works for you and move on. But I beg you my dear, do not stay away from colors in your home if your only reason is that you are afraid to mess it up. 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Be the change you want to see in the world! Who hasn't heard or read this famous Mahatma Gandhi's quote? While he meant it in the context of society to change, I seriously think this quote is one we should all apply to our personal lives as well. Too often we tend to wait passively until a change occur to start doing something, but it doesn't always happen and we keep on waiting passively for that one thing to happen to start living in a different way. If you believe in the law of attraction, you probably know that to make anything manifest in your life, you need to start acting like it's already there instead of waiting until the thing manifest itself. Last year, I was reading the book "Lucky Bitch" by Denise Duffield-Thomas (affiliate link) and had that "ah-ha moment" where the pieces fell together once and for all. See, the law of attraction is all very nice, but the problem is that it's easier said than done living as if you already have something, especially when you are starting from nothing and this is why it can feel super discouraging at time. What most LoA books and guru out there tend to miss, is that you don't have to go all in when you try to manifest a new reality, especially if this new reality of yours demands a whole new income. You can go about it gradually and level up your life bit by bit until you reach your goal. if you've read the blog post about journaling for self-growth, you know that the first thing to do is to write down what your ideal life, money no bar would look like. Go about it in all the tiny details you can or want. Once you have established that, look at what actionable steps you can take right away toward that life. It's not about going all the way to the goal, but finding the next doable step and then do it. Frankly, that bit was a huge revelation to me, and it made the whole process a lot less daunting. I have big goals, who doesn't? But for the first time since last year, I realised that I could change certain things in my everyday life without having to wait until everything else fell into place. In my "first class life" I have a spacious bathroom with a bathtub in which I take bath with scented candles lit around. The bathroom of my dream also has a cosy, inviting decor. It's actually a far cry from the bathroom I already have : tiny, not the most practical, no bathtub... Sure! I could wait until we move out of that place, luck out on a flat with a better bathroom, and hope that one day my dream bathroom will manifest. But that is not how things work, and there were actually several things I could do about my current bathroom anyway. For a start, scented candles do not require a lot of money and taking a nice warm shower with scented candles lit in the bathroom is as doable as with a bathtub, so I levelled up and started using some. Making a fairly impractical bathroom cosier just required a few Ikea shelves, an artificial plant and a cute basket filled with rolled hand towels, another thing that didn't break the bank. What it did though is making me look forward to shower time and lifted my spirit up so I could tackle the rest of the day, or go to bed at night feeling more at peace. This slight shift in mindset got a cascading effect and I felt more relaxed, more productive and more tuned in to new opportunities that would take me closer to my main goals. See, when you start giving yourself more respect, you can hike your standards in life and take decisions that will be more in line with what you want. It's as simple as that. Last year, I realised I was CONSTANTLY settling for things, playing myself down and quite frankly didn't put the amount of care about myself or my life that was in line with my goal. Exibit A : I was too stupidly frugal to discard old frumpy, holey underwear and indoor clothes for the sole reason that I spent "good money" on them and it would be a shame to throw them away before they fully disintegrated. That's right! I was forcing myself to wear quite frankly, crappy clothes in the comfort of my home because it would save money! Quite incompatible with my money goals too, which include not being afraid to spend money or questioning the prices of things. Here I was, unable to let go of an old worn out pair of cotton Jockey panties! Good lord help me dear! Back then, I had to pretty much force myself to empty the entire content of my wardrobe and do some SERIOUS editing in the name of following what Denise said in her book. It was hard, I almost bailed a few times, but I pushed past it and it made room for not only better clothes, it also got me to reevaluate my standards a LOT. A while ago, a friend shared a meme that said "You can't expect to be treated like a Louboutin if you act as a flipflop". This quote speaks volume about how we first treat ourselves directly affects how the rest of the world will react to us and how we will see the world. And in general, people tend to see you the way you project yourself, so we have a big degree of control over that narrative since then change starts with us right? Give yourself a level up challenge Last year, I gave myself one whole month to do something each day to change my current lifestyle, mindset and situation and brought me closer to that "First class life" We were on lockdown, stuck at home while the Delta wav raged across India, but I still stuck to it. I took time each day to journal about it in a way or another to keep a log, 30 days of it actually kickstarted the habit for the rest of the year. The steps don't have to be big, they just have to bring you closer to your goal and hike your level of self-respect. As I said, I started with putting candles in my bathroom and discarding old frumpy underwear, hardly the kind of earth shattering move huh? So, let's say your ultimate goal if finances aren't an issue is to get your nail done and have regular sessions at a fancy spa. You don't have to actually wait until you have the perfect income to act on that goal. The next step could be to just buy a manicure set in your current price range and start doing your nails at home. Or buy skin care products within your current budget and start using these regularly. Or, if your current budget allows it, make it a goal to go to a salon once a month to get a basic mani-pedi. The point is, you've got to start levelling up somewhere and go about it in increments. Each steps that bring you closer to your ultimate goal, no matter what that goal is will also boost your confidence in the fact this crazy goal IS indeed possible. rinse and repeat once a year The challenge is one you can repeat once a year, dedicating a whole month to levelling up your life further. Get comfortable into your new personal reality, live it and enjoy it, and then dive back in and see what next step you can take from there and take it. Chances are you WILL face resistance again, your inner voice is going to protest it and try to get you to maintain the status quo again, so like the first time, you'll need to journal it out, and if you encounter any mental blocks along the way, journal about these too. If you don't know how, I encourage you once more to read "Journaling for self-growth". Along with the book Lucky Bitch, I also recommend you read "Get Rich Lucky Bitch" as a follow up. Both those links are Amazon affiliate links, this means I get paid a commission if you buy anything. But as a rule I never recommend things I haven't tried and tested myself and those books are quite frankly among the best I read on the subject of self-development, they are specially geared toward women who have quite frankly been conditioned by society to play it safe, dim their light, and settle for things rather than go for what they TRULY want. If you liked this blog post and want to keep being updated and access cool printables every months, do join the Home Cyn Home newsletter. Simply click on the image below.