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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.

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 :

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 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.

Once upon a time, a girl started a blog on a platform called blogger, it was back in 2004 and it was a time when blogs were kind of online diaries about their daily lives. In 2013 said blog became Home Cyn Home and became more lifestyle focused before this girl decided to turn it into a design brand. This is when Home Cyn Home, the blogspot blog became confusing and many attempts to clean it up failed. As sentimental as this girl was, the old blog had to go, it outgrew its purpose and it led to not being able to grow a clear audience that was in line with the brand's core value. A clean slate is what this girl needed for her whole branding, and approach, so, she moved everything to a new platform to start afresh. With no glitches, broken bits and confusing off topic posts. If you followed Home Cyn Home from the old platform, welcome to the new one! We are still decorating around here and the smell of fresh paint is still in the air, but don't let that stop you from having a seat and grabbing a cup of tea. The new blog will be more targeted on Home Cyn Home's designs updated, journalling tips, and how to live you best life, high in color. Home Cyn Home's tag line is after all "Be bold and colorful" and it's all about living a fun, colorful life. After all, life is too short to live in boring greys. Do not forget to subscribe for all websites and blog updates. You'll get access to a member only page on the website which gives you access to cool new printables every months.