But as we recognize the rising number of women entrepreneurs and what they do for the economy, the progress made is not without everyday struggles. So while this one month is when we highlight many of the barriers women have broken, for the rest of the year women are going over hurdles and picking away at those stubborn barriers. What are they? Business experts cite several major challenges in women’s pursuit of entrepreneurship. We look at some of them and how Common Room makers overcame them.
Even if it’s the 21st century and women are running a third of businesses and contributing to the family income, recent research has shown that they’re still “doing more housework and caregiving than men.” It’s no surprise that for most women, balancing the responsibilities between their professional and personal lives can become overwhelming.
Nike Nadal-Reyes, the woman behind Nyuki & Co., certainly felt this way when she quit her crocheted accessories business years ago. “At that time, since I had a baby and I didn’t have any help, I did everything.” The mom of three admits in her Meet the Makers interview how managing her time and balancing motherhood and business became such a challenge. “Crocheting is really time-consuming. I got overwhelmed by the demand…there was also friction in the house.”
After she ended up quitting her business, Nike realized she missed not having a creative outlet. She was also miserable. She returned to crocheting accessories for her brand, with more resolve and finding middle ground. “My attitude changed since I [didn’t] want to give this up. Before it was a choice between my kids and my business. Now it’s not a choice anymore. We are more willing to compromise to make it work.”
Finding funding to get your business started is a challenge for many entrepreneurs—more so for women. Several reports have shown that women-led business ventures are less likely to obtain funding compared to those led by men. Gender biases play a part.
A London Business School study, which analyzed several pitch presentations of entrepreneurs to potential investors, found male entrepreneurs were mostly asked how they would grow the company to be a success, while female entrepreneurs were mostly asked how they would prevent their business from failing. The former question would get better results.
It’s no wonder women get creative and resourceful when it comes to handling financial challenges. You’ve got Roma and Maan making do with P5,000 to start Popjunklove or Cath Limson finding ways to keep her Bedazzled accessories going during the early stages when not having “extras” in terms of capital could have prevented her from continuing her former sideline-turned-fulltime venture.
Striking out on your own has its risks. If you’re a maker or artist, it’s much like putting your work out there. You’re not sure how it’s going to be received. Different studies among different age groups have shown that fear of failure is higher among females than their male counterparts. Whether it’s because women are more influenced by negative feedback or not living up “to the ideal of female empowerment”, it can be an obstacle when you want to build your own business.
Moving past our fear of failure means questioning many of our previously held beliefs on perfection and letting go of unrealistic expectations, as Hannah Armada of Studio Haebi realized when she had to rebrand and create a new collection. There is no guarantee for success in whatever it is we want to do. The risk will always be there hand in hand with the fear.
What Hannah did was to try new things that scared her or she had zero knowledge of. And she failed. A lot of times. “I tried to accustom myself to failure so that in a business setting I’d know that it’s okay to fail. It’s a learning process, the whole thing. And you learn from your failures.”
To grow your business, having a support system is essential. It can be a mentor or a sponsor, business groups, or even just the right network that you can tap into. It doesn’t have to cost you a lot if you know where to look.
In a Meet the Makers interview with Lala de Leon of Simoy ng Haraya, the perfumer shared how being invited by DTI for its Kapatid Mentor Me Program helped grow her business during the pandemic. It was a free mentorship program wherein participating entrepreneurs will be paired with a mentor in the same industry. Even with her advertising and marketing background, Lala learned about the other aspects of business, like supply chain production and accounting.
“It’s like everything you need to know if you will go into a business. There were 42 entrepreneurs, we also learned from each other. If I have a problem I’d go to them, ‘Hey have you encountered this?’ They’d do the same. We’d ask one another. It worked.” Three months after applying what she learned in the program, Simoy ng Haraya started to grow. That was in 2020, the first year of the pandemic, when many businesses were closing. The following year they were even able to open their new HQ!
While there are still a number of challenges facing women in business—some from our own expectations, others from overlooked gender biases in institutions—the situation isn’t bleak. Being aware of things that have held fellow females back and how they still carried on to carve their own path in business, already lets other women know that they’re not on their own.
According to a study entitled the “Hope Theory,” there are two obstacles that keep us from achieving our goals. Its author, Charles Snyder, suggests they are: not believing we can achieve them (those limiting beliefs don’t help) and not identifying ways to actually make them happen. This is where being intentional with your goals or taking deliberate and specific actions to achieve them come in.
Through the years, we’ve seen how many makers and small business owners have persevered and gained wins. And it’s not just pure luck. For many of them, they planned, strategized, pivoted and were intentional with their actions. Being intentional is being aware of the actions you need to take and doing them deliberately. So how do you become intentional with your goals?
Seeing your goal in black and white (or color) allows you to admit to yourself something that you want. It becomes real. Don’t hide it away. Let it take a prominent spot on your desk, your bedroom wall, or computer wallpaper.
Filmmaker and Common Room’s resident videographer, Tin Villanueva, showed us last year that making a vision board has always helped her fulfill her dreams. An essential part of it is taking the time to reflect about “what are my goals for myself, my goals for my career, what future do I want?” she explains.
Having a vision board or your dreams in bold letters staring back at you every day is a good physical reminder, when we feel particularly lost or uncertain of what we’re doing. It’s like a traffic sign. Does it align with your overall goal? Yes, then go. No? Then slow down or make a different turn.
“If you think about it, the idea of manifesting your dreams is true,” says Tin who has seen many of the goals she has put up on her board happen. “That if you constantly think about it and if you always see it, it somehow reminds [you], ‘Ah these are my dreams. What am I going to do about it?” Which brings us to this…
Yes, writing down your goals or vision board-ing your dreams won’t be much help if you don’t think about the steps you need to take to achieve them. Tin shares that she usually has a notebook where she creates a road map, a timeline, and the steps she needs to do to reach her goal. “You need to break down your goals... It can’t just be vague dreams.”
Do you dream of having your creations available for an international market? Find out where you can sell them and check what you need to do to get there. Danger in Design’s Elly Ang provided steps and tips on how she started selling her enamel pins in Etsy since 2017.
When accessories maker and all-around crafter Cath Limson of Bedazzled Accessories decided to make a new brand, she broke it down into several steps–from ideation to developing your products and everything in between.
After you break down your goals into specific steps, get started. Most likely it entails creating a new habit or changing a bad one and studies have shown that doing so takes an average of 66 days. Those small steps when done consistently will help you move forward.
It can still be scary, the fear of failing is real because failure and making mistakes are part of the process of growing. You’ll also likely face a challenge at every turn, but as our very own Maan Agsalud advised when it comes to turning your art into a business, “The hardships of running a business don’t really go away.” They simply evolve and these challenges will grow with you with each step you take.
Tracking your progress is important when it comes to being intentional with your goals. You get to see where you’re making progress and where you may need a bit of help. Seeing both will keep you motivated and informed on what more you need to do.
You can keep a journal to document your journey, it can be your time to “tune into yourself,” as how artist and journaling enthusiast Nica Cosio describes it. She uses the time she sets aside to journal to reflect on what happened for the week. You can do journaling to write about how your goals are taking shape and to celebrate the effort you’ve put in that day or week.
Keeping the big picture in mind is also common advice when it comes to being intentional with your goals. Do you say yes to every opportunity that presents itself? If it will help you reach your goal, go for it. But if it will steer you in a completely different direction, reconsider.
When Cath started Bedazzled, she knew why she was creating her accessories business. “You always have to have a why. With Bedazzled, the why was really to earn money. I needed to provide for the people I love.” The former pre-school teacher already knew how to create accessories. So even with the many difficulties she faced balancing a full-time job while creating Bedazzled (like making her accessories at the back of a bus on her commute), she forged on knowing why she was doing it in the first place.
Having that light, that why, so that you can align your days or actions to it will help you to become more deliberate with what you take on. And you may find 2024 as the year you made your goals happen. We’re #manifestingwithyou <3
If some of the common limiting beliefs below may sound familiar, it’s best to recognize them for what they are. Negative thoughts that you can face and overcome.
Whether it’s to be able to start your own creative venture, live in your favorite city, or some other dream you want to manifest, not having enough financial resources is an obvious obstacle. And the thinking that typically follows is that if not having enough money is what you’re faced with, there’s no way to move forward.
One way to overcome a limiting belief is to “assess its accuracy.” While it’s easy to check if you don’t have enough money, it doesn’t have to be limiting. It does mean you have to be more creative or that you need to take a longer route to your dream.
Some of our makers have proven you can build your own business with little capital. Catherine Limson of Bedazzled accessories admits that money was one of her biggest struggles when she was starting. Orders were always on a COD basis. “I didn’t have extras. It’s either you save, add an income, or get more orders… we can find ways for everything.”
We all get the same amount of time each day. 24 hours. We divvy it up for all the different things we have to do. A large chunk goes to work or school, then there’s time with family and friends, and you’ve got sleep, meals, hobbies and interests, playtime with pets for some, and don’t forget the endless social media scroll before bed.
When you find yourself saying you don’t have enough time that’s why you can’t start or finish your passion project or some other task for that dream of yours, best to take a hard look at how you spend your time. How grounded is it that there’s not enough of it?
Whenever artist Jill Arteche complains that she doesn’t have time, she keeps in mind her dad’s advice. “Make time. That’s what I say to myself,” she says. While we simply can’t make more than 24 hours in a day, we can choose what we make of them. Do you think you can give up the social media scroll before bed to do something else more intended for your goal? What do you give up in order to make time? What do you take on instead? Our time each day is limited, so let’s give it to what (or who) is important for us.
There’s no age requirement or limit to making dreams happen. Of course, being young often affords you to see the world stretching out before you with endless possibilities. We were certainly happy to be part of the many possibilities for these talented artists, fresh college graduates whom we invited in Common Room’s Shared Shelves.
Whether you’re young or old, it’s okay if you’re still finding your way and manifesting your personal goals. People tend to put a deadline on things, we want certain milestones to be achieved by the time we’re 25, 30, etc. But you can't always stick to it. Other things can happen: you’re suddenly the family breadwinner, you have kids, you have to take care of an ailing family member. You can get distracted or exhausted to even think about your own goals.
When you finally do, when you finally take steps toward making your dream happen in your own timeline, know that there are other people like you who are trying—trying to have their own business, trying to get funding for their film, trying to get published, trying to compete in their first marathon. You’re not alone. Bring their stories with you and leave the ageist limiting belief by the door.
Maybe you’re changing careers or have to pivot in your business, but whenever there’s impending change, telling yourself you don’t have enough experience to do so is a limiting belief that can creep up on you. It’s part of a self-loathing monologue in your head that goes, Why are you thinking of becoming [blank] when you don’t have enough experience in it? It may be true, especially if you’re just starting out or if it’s a departure from what you’ve been doing. But through the years, what we’ve learned and seen from the makers we work with is that when you don’t have the credentials at the start to make a dream happen, your curiosity can lead you.
When Ria Olizon started the home fragrance brand Real Scents she was looking at bazaars and realized that there was an opportunity in introducing room scents. There was a brand that was selling a lot in one bazaar and it was a lightbulb moment for Ria. “I was quite curious…’Where [were] they getting this?’ So when I found out, ‘Ah, I can make my own.’ It can be studied, it can be researched.” And that’s what she did.
“Of course, running a business is not easy.” She and her business partner Sarah Garcia joined many bazaars before they were invited to be part of Common Room, where their many home scents now have a permanent home on our shelves.
When you feel stuck or having a bout of impostor syndrome, you may hear yourself saying these words. Whatever it is you do, whatever you want to manifest, you need to know you’re enough. If that’s something you haven’t told yourself, make a conscious effort to change this. You’re good enough, you’re talented enough. Start doing things to support that new belief. It can be as simple as accepting compliments without putting yourself down.
When it comes to creating, abstract artist Yana Ofrasio advised that “you really just need to show up and do it.” She continues, “I think it’s also too much to expect of yourself to just be always in the mood to create.” When you’re having one of those days when it’s not just clicking, putting yourself down won’t do any good.
When you realize that you hold certain negative beliefs about yourself, recognize how they stop you from moving forward and living the life you want. Yana further reminds us in her Meet the Maker interview, “You have so much different potential, different experiences that you are going to be going through. You just have to be kind to yourself. This is not as easy as it looks.”
So whether you’re already in a slump, slowing down, or simply need a daily pick-me-up, here are a few Common Room items to help motivate you.
Remembering why you do what you do is one way to keep you going. These Jeepney Signages—“Kumakayod for my fur baby”, “Working hard for my inner child”—are not just giving us nostalgia feels, but also remind us why we keep persisting when things get tough.
Stick these reminders on your work notebook, in front of your desk, or somewhere you can easily see them, especially when you have to tackle something that makes you doubt yourself. Remember, you are enough.
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When the going gets tough, keep going. Building your resilience is essential to learn how to bounce back from difficult situations. Sew this patch onto your bag, jacket, jeans or other piece of clothing as a simple reminder or badge of honor.
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Have your coffee or cocktail with a side of encouragement or inspiration. There are many printed coasters from the Cork Project (“Prove them wrong,” “Make it Happen,” “You Got This”) so we’re not surprised that they’re one of the bestselling Common Room products from last year.
During those times you’re uncertain of yourself, what you’re comfortable with, and how you want to be treated, learn to trust yourself. Hey, you’ve made it this far. “Trust your boundaries” is a good reminder from the Work series of Mako Micro Press, another bestselling Common Room brand that’s certain of its POV.
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Get motivational reminders even when you’re taking your keys out with this keychain from artist Louise Ramos. Don’t we all want to be able to “do what you love, love what you do”?
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Fear will always be there, especially in creative pursuits. As Elizabeth Gilbert writes in Big Magic, “because creativity asks you to enter into realms of uncertain outcome.” So, let’s deal with that fear of failure (among many other fears we hold on to) and “be fearless in pursuit of what sets your soul on fire.”
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Reading books connects us with the rest of humanity, letting us know we’re not alone in our heartbreak, hopes, loss, obsessions, and delights. It can be a comfort. Even bookmarks we slip into our beloved books (like these magnetic ones from Hopencourage) can offer a small consolation.
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As you make your way toward your goals this year, finding comforting words and motivation in the small details of everyday life can make the journey less lonely and more joyful.
No path to achieving one’s dream is easy. We encounter unexpected roadblocks and detours. We also all have our share of doubts and fears. But when you see a pattern of your own habits pull you in the opposite direction of your goals, you have to ask yourself if you are sabotaging your own dreams.
With the help of some of the makers we’ve interviewed for our YouTube channel, we’ve identified some habits that may prevent us from reaching our goals.
There’s nothing wrong with setting high standards for ourselves. But perfectionism rears its immaculately coiffed head when rigidity and the fear of failure stop you from going after your dreams.
When a brand strategist offered Hannah Armada advice on how she could improve her brand Studio Haebi, the artist went about doing her homework. She answered the hard questions about her brand (she even made a spreadsheet!) and thought of a collection. Then, in her words, she stalled. “I let the fear overtake me. I already knew who I was, I already had plans but I just didn’t have the push to do it.”
Hannah realized that the bigger problem was that she was “too afraid of [the collection] not being perfect.” She wanted to stop or at least tone down that perfectionist mindset. What she did was to open herself to other hobbies (making resin art) and learn new skills (driving). Both activities pushed her to be more patient with herself. She had always expected that she could “instantly learn or instantly do” certain things, so she bravely put herself in situations that showed her otherwise. It helped temper that sense of perfectionism she was bringing into her brand to be able to create better.
Anything worth doing is often difficult. We’re definitely not the first to say it and we won’t be the last. But as modern living provides us almost everything with so much ease, anything that requires a lot of time and effort is often shunned. Mastering a skill, learning a new language, starting a business—you don’t immediately reap the benefits or rewards for them. Oftentimes, you even have to make sacrifices.
The year when accessories maker and entrepreneur Nike Nadal-Reyes of Nyuki & Co. joined Common Room, she also just had a baby and didn’t have any help at home or for her business. “I did everything. That was the challenge for me, managing my time and balancing everything,” she recalls in her previous interview.
As the demands of motherhood and Nyuki & Co. overwhelmed her, Nike decided to quit her business. It made her miserable. She learned what it was like to have something she was passionate about disappear. Eventually, she found her way back to it with more resolve to make it work. We sometimes forget that even if we’re doing something we love, we can still get burnt out. Instead of quitting, giving yourself time to pause is an option, which leads us to...
For many of the makers we’ve interviewed, a significant growth for them happened after they took the time to pause and examine themselves, the work they do, and the why behind it. It can be because of circumstances, like the pandemic, which forced many businesses, like Gouache and Cut the Scrap, to rethink their business models and find ways to pivot.
As an entrepreneur, you also have to pause and look closely at your business when you find yourself not hitting your goals. Kim Tiam-Lee of Pulseras by Kim looked at her poor sales from bazaars and reassessed why in this interview. She realized she had to “find her tribe,” which she saw in Common Room.
Even when you hit milestones for your small business, when you take a pause, you don’t always have to ask, “What’s next?” As Jodinand Aguillon of vintage clothing brand, Glorious Dias, observed: “We’ve been conditioned and trained to be like, ‘You’ve reached that milestone, the next one’s here.” There's a sense that the world just wants you to keep producing, churning, posting. His advice once you’ve reached a milestone, “Sit with it, appreciate it until you’re ready for the next one.”
As you work towards your goals, it’s possible to get overly confident and fall into the hustle culture. You already know what you’re doing so go hard or go home? For makers and entrepreneurs, it’s a recipe for burnout. Even worse, you may end up questioning your goals and whether or not it’s something you still want to do.
Marv Conti, who started Studio Habil as a side hustle in 2013 has learned through the years that he doesn’t feel the need to regularly create a new collection or products. Years have taught him to trust his gut and not succumb to the pressure of what’s expected. “Take your time and don’t pressure yourself to make a lot of items. But we also can’t be complacent," he shares in a previous interview. "I still need to push myself to become better and raise the level of Studio Habil.”
When you break free from the pressures of always being productive, you can look at your creative process as a way to keep learning and be better. And not just to release or make an item just for the sake of it.
Do you tell yourself that you can’t do certain tasks toward a dream of yours because of certain things you lack? Not enough money, not having the latest software or gadget, the absence of an MFA or MBA from a prestigious school—whatever it is, it’s an excuse.
Instead of focusing on what you don’t have, take a look at what you do have to make your goal happen. Those familiar with the story of Common Room founders Roma and Maan, know that when the sisters started their first business, Popjunklove, they didn’t have a business degree, design background, or even enough capital. They only had a lot of old toys, scrap fabrics, and P5,000 initial capital for other raw materials to make plushies, pins, brooches, and other accessories.
“Sometimes people are not doing it because they feel like, ‘I don’t have this, and I don’t have that.’ They’re focusing on the things that they don’t have, which could be true… But what we did, we focused on the things that we did have and what we did with the things we had at the time,” says Roma. Sure, it took them almost nine years and countless bazaars to be able to make enough money to pave the way for Common Room, but there wouldn’t be a Common Room if they didn’t get started with their dream because of what they didn’t have.
You can do the same thing. Take a look at what you do have. Take a look at what you’ve been doing in the past. What less-than-ideal habits have you developed that have stopped you from reaching your goals? Leave them behind, one day at a time. Be fully aware that you already have everything you need for what you have to do today.
If you want to welcome 2024 with less clutter and excess, if you finally have the time to check what you’ve got stuffed in your drawers or forgotten in those mega boxes, here are a few tips to help you declutter your space.
If your goal for 2024 involves sitting in front of your desk, working, creating, or crafting, best to get started here. Yes, you don’t have to tackle your entire home in one day or even one entire room. That can get overwhelming and you might not even start—or worse, not finish it and leave it more untidy than before.
Begin in your desk drawer where notebooks, pens, pencils, and other odds and ends are likely all piled on top of one another. Invest in a desk drawer organizer for easier sorting and put a catchall on your desk for small items. You can also find some inspiration on how the Common Room sisters, Roma, Maan and Selia organized a work desk they built.
We all have it, that box or drawer filled with art prints, postcards, stickers, and all sorts of memorabilia. Instead of simply storing them, find a way to put them up on display. Looking through them will also allow you to see which ones you can part with and will be more appreciated by friends. Either way, you get to free up a bit of storage.
A wall too bare? Stick those beloved art prints by your bed or in front of your desk with double sided tape or even washi tape. Take out those quirky Gashapon toys you’ve been hoarding from your Japan trips and arrange them on your shelf. You can also check how artist and graphic designer Gian Wong displays objects that inspire him in his home.
They’re everywhere, jumbled up cables, chargers, cords, probably even a router or two from your old Internet provider. We keep them around even when we’ve forgotten which old device they’re for or ‘just in case’ we need to reuse that random cable for something else. Just-in-case scenarios abound when it comes to these electrical accessories, but most of the time they don’t actually materialize.
When you sort through them, you can organize the cables and cords you plan to keep with a cord organizer or if you don’t have those, some trusty twine should do. Then let go of the ones you know you don’t really need (if you haven’t used them in more than a year and can’t for the life of you remember what they’re for anymore). Dispose of them properly: for old electronics that are still working, trusted resellers like HMR might take them, your telecom provider (both Smart and Globe) will likely have e-waste disposal programs for certain devices, or find an e-waste recycling group.
If you think there’s already a science experiment happening to all the bottles and containers of food you have at the back of your kitchen cupboards or fridge, it’s time to bravely face them. An uncluttered kitchen makes for easier food prep.
Imagine the possible counter space you’ll reclaim if you put away the toaster, food processor, or other kitchen appliances you don’t use regularly inside an accessible kitchen shelf. Or the fact that you don’t have to guess how long you haven’t used that Korean Pancake Mix you transferred into a jar. Make sure you always label your containers so you don’t play a guessing game next time you do a kitchen cleanup.
In your decluttering, while you sort out your stuff to keep, donate, or throw, also check what you can have repaired before you toss them out. As Maan Agsalud shows us in the condo tour of her home, before buying new things, consider having them repaired
The sofa she already had was perfect for her space. “The structure was still pretty okay, it’s just that it needed an upgrade. I had to have it reupholstered,” she recalls. When it comes to large (and often expensive) items, best to appraise them if you can have them repaired to save on money and not add them to the landfill.
After decluttering your work area, kitchen, or other spaces in your home, you’ll have a pile of items you probably wouldn’t know what to do with. You may want to keep them for sentimental value (like a vintage piece of clothing from your lola that maybe has stained through the years) or because you don’t want to add your plastic items to the 350,000 tons of plastic waste from the Philippines every year.
Roma and Selia show us that you can upcycle some of the plastic containers you have at home. Jordinand Aguilon of Glorious Dias shares tips and ideas on how to rework vintage clothing. For his own vintage brand, Jordi makes earrings and even wall art with old Barong Tagalog.
Beyond old pieces of clothing, home items, or other knick knacks you want to finally say goodbye to or maybe transform, the new year is also a chance for us to look inward and assess what we need to declutter from our own lives. Do we rework our old habits to achieve a goal? Maybe we can re-examine our intentions to see which ones still serve us and which ones we should leave behind. Whatever answers you arrive at, we hope this new year will be free from whatever it is you no longer need in order to move forward.
However you want to end the year—just staying at home to read your books or being true to your overachiever self—taking a pause, staying still for a moment in these last few weeks is good for all of us. With holiday stress that can affect our mental and physical health, we all need to be able to reflect and relax to finish the year frenzy free. Here are a few things we can do.
Practiced for thousands of years, meditation has long been recognized for its many benefits, including reducing stress and anxiety, enabling you to gain a new perspective on stressful situations, reducing negative emotions, and more.
You can meditate for just 5 to 10 minutes each day. First, find a position you can stay in for a while—seated on your sofa, cross-legged on the floor, on the backseat of a car. Be aware of your breath as you inhale and exhale. When your mind wanders (as it usually does for everyone so don’t be too hard on yourself), just bring your attention back to your breath.
We love how Mindful.org reminds us to close one’s meditation with kindness—to take a moment to be aware of your surroundings, how your body feels, and notice your thoughts and emotions. Don’t forget to light up a candle (love the ones from Simoy ng Haraya) to keep the soothing vibe going.
Stepping away from the screen and out of the house (or the office) for a few minutes can be a good mood booster. It might also have to do with the fact that a dose of Vitamin D from the sun plays an important role in regulating mood and reducing the risk of depression.
If you find yourself getting all mopey this time of the year, get out. An outing doesn’t even have to require a passport, booking accommodations, or enduring heavy traffic. You can take your bike around BGC to get the creative juices flowing or just go on a neighborhood tour to spot cafes, shops, and art spots.
Now, what if you don’t want to go out? What if your introverted self is on hyperdrive this season? Make sure you at least get to see the outside world, whether it’s from the huge windows of your condo (as how Common Room’s Maan used to do it when she would get stressed at her day job during the pandemic) or just simply try to find a different perspective as you take stock of what has changed, how far you’ve come, and how far you have left to go.
If your form of relaxation is journaling or writing down your thoughts to further understand yourself or the situation you’re in, creating a vision or dream board is something you ought to try doing. Putting up a collection of images and quotes that inspire and motivate you to fulfill your dreams isn’t something new, but it sure has its devotees.
Filmmaker and Common Room’s resident videographer, Tin Villanueva showed us at the start of the year how to create a vision board. You need to take the time to reflect on what you want to happen. It also means “breaking down your dream… you need to have specific actions,” says Tin, who has seen most of the goals she has committed to her vision board come true. (Learn more about how she does it, in this video.)
A lot of the things happening in the world are enough to make one lose their faith in humanity. Sometimes it’s hard to find a reason to smile, what more laugh? But being able to laugh with your family and friends not only makes us feel good, but it’s also good for our physical health and well-being.
So find those memes that make you LOL. Open a comic book that will tickle your funny bone. While laughter won’t cure all ailments, it actually affects our bodies positively. From stimulating our organs (thanks to oxygen-rich air for our heart and lungs) to relieving your stress response so you end up feeling good and relaxed.
What if you didn’t get to accomplish all the goals you’ve set out to do this year? Take a look at all the other things you’ve done heading towards it, all those small steps you took to make you a better illustrator, to sell more of your homemade products, to be comfortable in your own voice. Celebrate each brave step you took.
Journaling enthusiast and artist Nica Cosio makes it a personal tradition to look through her journal to remind her of all the good things that have happened. “Even if I didn’t meet all my goals!” says the mom of three. “Most of the time, what stands out are the bad memories, the losses and we lose sight of all the good things.” When she looks back at all the good and all those small wins she had put down in her journal, “It gets easier to be more hopeful.”
This is backed by science. According to research, feeling a sense of pride over our victories “activates the reward center of our brains. Dopamine is released which energizes us with feel-good emotions, which in turn can make you want to achieve even more. Looking back at our small wins can make us feel motivated to take on the bigger tasks towards our goals. Hey, every bit helps, especially when we welcome 2024.
We’re in the homestretch of 2023 and for a lot of people this still often means catching up with all the things we told ourselves we would do for the year. That can leave you feeling exhausted and stressed looking at those resolutions you haven’t crossed off your list yet. (That’s why it made more sense to set intentions, as author Chinggay Labrador advised us last year.)
According to research, almost 4 out of 10 people surveyed revealed that their stress increased during the holiday season. It can be due to financial pressures (“How do I stretch this 13th month?”), social gatherings (more people asking why you’re still single, married but without kids, no ‘stable job,’ etc.) gift-giving (“How do I give everyone in the barkada and the office a gift?”), and a feeling that there’s not enough time (“December na?!”).
There are ways, however, to prepare ourselves for this increased stress and rush of the holidays. It might be the homestretch, but let’s remember that it isn’t a race.
In a previous interview with Common Room’s Roma Agsunod, while she was pregnant during lockdown and had to go on bed rest, she still had to work on some projects, including the sticker slam book, the Common Room Ayala Bay branch being transformed as a collab store with DTI GoLokal, and the pop-up space in SM Aura. Because the business was struggling, she couldn’t afford to say no to the opportunities being offered to Common Room.
“The only reason I was able to do all of those things, it’s not just because of our organizational skills, it’s because I have my team with me,” Roma shares. “A mom who’s able to juggle everything and the only reason she’s able to do all these things is because of the people around her.”
Whether you’re married, single, with kids, without kids, there are times when you have to humbly admit to yourself that it’s okay if you can’t do it all. This can mean prioritizing the most important activities for the season and being able to say no to the rest. And when you know you won’t be able to do everything on your plate, remind yourself that it’s okay to ask for help. Which leads us to this…
This means we need to learn to ask for help. This isn’t always the easiest thing for many people. There are many reasons why it can be hard to ask for help. You don’t want to be a burden or you think asking for help will show people you’re weak.
Try not to make an assumption that asking for help will only be taken in a negative way. As Psychology Today advised, you can be clear and specific about your request and try not to look at seeking help as a weakness.
When Roma was trying to cope with pandemic-related business travails and several projects on top of being a new mom, she only said yes to opportunities that she knew she could delegate. She advises, “If you really have to be the one to do it, you have to say no if you really can’t do it.”
Life always follows a cycle. If you caught Roma and Maan’s #PlantitaLife video, Maan talks about how plants have their own life cycles. “We cannot prevent leaves from turning yellow or from withering because they have their own life cycle,” says Maan.
It’s good to remind ourselves that like plants, we also have our own life cycles. There’s a time when we’re blooming and a time when we get all wilted because we’re not getting what we need. There’s a time to hustle and a time to rest. Pay attention to your body. Check to see if you need to take a rest, get unstuck, or go on a digital detox.
When we talk about taking a leap, it’s usually doing something with some risk involved. For sisters Pau and Gabbie Javier, setting up their pottery business Wabi-Sabi Studio during the pandemic was an opportunity they wanted to take even if many businesses were struggling at the time. “You don’t know what’s going to happen next, why not do it now?” says Pau in their Meet the Maker interview on the Common Room PH channel. “While the world was on pause, we took that opportunity to build something in silence.”
At this time, while the world is hurtling towards what’s next and finishing strong, doesn’t it make sense to pause? The risk is in not doing anything—especially if you’re a freelancer, wherein slowing down during the holidays may mean not having enough to pay for bills in January. Balancing what’s practical and what your mental health needs are always a challenge. You don’t have to go all out, ‘F#@% this [insert job, project, here]!’ and treat the last few weeks of the year as one long holiday to hibernate (unless you can afford it, sana all!). But do take a leap of faith, no matter how small. Whether it means figuring out what you want to do next or just taking a weekday off to find creative inspiration, as somebody once said, when you leap, you will “either land somewhere new or learn to fly.”
Another way we can slow down is to take a look back at the year that was. For those who journal, you can simply flip through the pages of the past months. Artist, crafter and journaling enthusiast Nica Cosio showed us last year how journaling has always helped her end the year happy and grateful.
“As the year ends there’s this feeling like, ‘Oh my God, the year is ending! What did I do? Did I meet all my goals?’ Most of the time that definitely doesn’t happen,” Nica shares. But every time she looks through the journal that she has put together, she realizes something. “That even if I didn’t meet all the goals, so many good things happened. A lot of times there are more good things than bad. My journals show me that. I’ve written it all down. I told my stories in my pages.” For Nica, and for all of us who need reminding, when you look back you often see how far you’ve come, which makes it easier to be more hopeful for the year that will be.
From Common Room’s YT channel and webshop, we get a few homemade Christmas gifts ideas to help you get started on brainstorming for some special presents.
This isn’t just a wonderful gift idea for plant parents. Condo dwellers without a lot of space for a full-blown garden should appreciate having some greenery in their space with a lovely little dish garden.
Create your own after watching Common Room’s Roma and Selia challenge themselves to make a dish garden with succulent plants. One important thing to remember: the plants used should be the same in a dish garden (because they would have the same needs when it comes to water and nutrients).
After you choose the type of plants you want to put, have a bowl or any shallow open dish (Common Room used a terracotta dish), your gardening tools (trowel and gloves), potting mix, rocks, and to decorate it, some twigs and pebbles.
Make all your gifts festive and fancy when you add a little lettering to them. You can make digital lettering, print it out, and use it as your gift wrapper. You can also do handwritten calligraphy, use your recipient’s favorite quote and frame it.
If you want to take the digital lettering route, watch the step-by-step of artist Ella Lama on how she does it with Procreate. If you want to do calligraphy, check some of the brush lettering workbooks and basic calligraphy kit in the webshop to get you started.
DIY a plush doll for your beloved inaanak or any kid-at-heart grown-up (there are lots of us, right?). Check how to make felt plushies with Roma and Maan and get a plush doll kit from Popjunklove.
No need to scrounge for materials, everything you need to make one is in the kit—katsa fabric, sewing materials needed, glue stick, fabric paint and brush, and upcycled felt scraps.
Or at least help make it. You can make a natural skin balm on your own. Simoy ng Haraya’s Lala de Leon shows us how to make an all-around lavender balm that’s “pain relieving, anti-spasmodic…and skin-healing.” Simoy ng Haraya sells all the materials in a DIY All-Around Skin Balm Kit at Common Room.
If you want to make a relaxation starter kit, get a box, put the skin balm you just made, add some fragrance and essential oils, a Simoy ng Haraya candle (available in the store), and other items for some feel-good vibes for the lucky person you want to give it to.
How about giving a friend or family member who just moved into their own place a bit of holiday cheer with a box of Christmas decorations. If you want to make it eco-friendly (and flex your crafting skills while you’re at it), think of upcycling items you already have on hand.
Watch how Common Room’s Roma and Selia used upcycled plastic bottles (from “Kuya Father, known in the Poblacion neighborhood for recycling discarded plastic bottles into decorative items) and added their own spin to it. They made wreaths using upcycled plastic decor and some dried flowers.
Whatever gift you decide to give the people on your Christmas gift list—DIY or ready made and store bought, putting some thought into it is always appreciated. Happy Christmas gift making!
]]>Finding your purpose—when what you care deeply about intersects with your values—makes you more persevering when faced with obstacles. (As a Harvard research found, when people “follow their passion” there’s an expectation that work will be mostly full of joy and ease. But we know that work, even if it’s something we love, can still be difficult and exhausting.) When you’re doing something far bigger than yourself, you also get to hold on to a bigger why, instead of quitting when things get tough.
We’re lucky enough to work with makers who create or run their small businesses to help marginalized voices be heard or help uplift communities. Get to know more of them and how we can support their social mission.
Making sustainable wooden products from discarded wood, Cut the Scrap has been working with PWD (persons with disabilities) woodshops since it was established. In our previous Meet the Maker interview with the couple behind this social enterprise, Kai Docot-Tolentino and Mond Tolentino share how it has always been about empowering the PWD community. It was an advocacy started by Kai’s father, Jess H. Docot, who was also a PWD and one of the pioneers of Tahanang Walang Hagdan.
“The woodshop was created by and for PWDs and that is the soul of our brand and we want to continue that legacy,” says Kai. But it hasn’t been easy. “Even when it’s difficult to continue or when there were lots of cuts we needed to do, or when there are challenges…what keeps us going is because of that legacy.”
When the pandemic happened, Cut the Scrap had to scale down the woodshop. But they remained anchored to their mission of empowering the PWD community. They shifted to giving business to bigger PWD woodshops. Currently, they work with woodshops organized by PWDs in Quezon, Taytay, and Cainta.
Find Cut the Scrap products in our webshop, here.
Founded by Rico Sta. Ana, a fourth-generation shoemaker from Marikina, and his daughter Unyx, a techpreneur, Zapateria is the country’s first creative hub for footwear design and development. As a creative hub, its executive director Glice Batulan states that it aims to foster the next generation of shoe designer entrepreneurs and makers.
Marikina has always been considered as the shoe capital of the country, with shoemaking flourishing as far back as the late 1880s. Yet, Batulan acknowledges that there’s still a connotation that Philippine-made shoes are poorly made. “It’s a challenging industry…it really tests your patience.”
That’s why for Batulan it’s important to have a very strong purpose. “You always go back to your why…If you have a very strong why, it goes above and beyond the challenge. You can have those feelings of anxiety, pressure… but if you have something you want to fight for, you keep at it, even if it’s hard.”
The beautiful colorful banig, laptop sleeves, passport holder, and card holders are just some of the products featuring the handwoven work of weaving communities in the country. Woven is a crafts company working with Filipino artisans. It traces its roots after one of its founders, John Francia, went to Basey, Samar to find ways to help the local community recover economically from the aftermath of super typhoon Yolanda.
In our Meet the Maker interview with John and co-founder Trish Lim-Francia, the two recall learning how little the local weavers would earn from making one banig mat (just P150!), which would take two weeks to finish. “From there, we really saw that there’s something wrong with this industry. We decided to help change that,” says John.
On top of pricing problems, they saw that many weavers in the country also didn’t have market access and were not properly organized as groups. They set up Woven as a social enterprise, which for Trish meant having a social mission. “That’s the thing with social enterprise, you want people to rise up with you. It’s hard, balancing profit and social mission. But this is our drive to go into Woven in the first place, to be able to help the artisans.”
Art as activism. Protest art. If we look at the works of artists like Chinny Basinang or Ian and Ara from Mako Micro-Press, we can see how they use their creativity to highlight issues affecting our country and different communities.
Chinny, who works in advertising during the day and pursues her passion for illustration in her free time, has seen her art evolve as she got older. “Mas may malay ka na, alam mo na kung ano yung mga problems ng bansa and the different communities na kailangan ng voice.” Through her illustrations, Chinny tackles topics on women empowerment, the pride community, and politics.
Mako Micro-Press is also not one to shy away from tackling politics, human rights issues and taking a stand. For them it’s important to go beyond “just being a simple artist and to see themselves as fellow countrymen…to be responsible in art because we know there’s a lot of negative things going on so we must awaken our creativity.”
When you visit the Common Room branches or our webshop, amidst all the pins and magnets and little trinkets you will find cross-stitch magnets with distinctly Filipino designs. They’re made by cross-stitch makers from Payatas, a town where the dumpsite used to be.
What started as a livelihood program by a Japanese NGO, Likha provides an alternative means of earning for some of the mothers living in Payatas who mostly scavenge as a way to make ends meet. With Likha, they acquire skills that enable them to create handcrafted products like the cross-stitch magnets.
Jodinand Aguillon of Glorious Dias once said in our Meet the Maker interview, “If you want to start your own initiative or your own business, or get into something that you’re not [yet] into, support those who are. You want those people who are doing it to keep going so you can be a part of that.”
Whether you’re picking up small magnets or elaborate handwoven mats, these products help these businesses to keep creating. They help support makers who are fighting for something—keeping a shoemaking tradition alive and thriving, a livable wage, human rights. They know their “why” and hold on to it when things get tough so they can continue to #makeforgood.
Search online about the best-designed products in the world and you see how design that’s unobtrusive and even has as little design as possible is what stands the test of time and makes our lives easier (influential industrial designer Dieter Rams provided 10 principles of good design if you’re curious). From the humble paper clip (with its iconic double loop design) to the legendary Eames lounge chair, these everyday objects prove that good design gets things done.
We, at Common Room, support makers who, more often than not, find ways to make well-designed products that are eco-friendly and innovative. Add them to your shopping list this Christmas season to support well-made products by small makers so they can keep innovating and making.
If you work on your laptop for long hours, it can put a strain on your neck or negatively affect your wrist. Best to get a laptop stand to prevent this. This Cut the Scrap multi-purpose wooden stand does the job and doesn’t take up so much storage space—you can easily slide it into your bag whenever you need it.
There’s a reason these cord organizers are a bestseller—they’re affordable and they’re useful, particularly, these days when many of us have a number of gadgets which all have their own cords and cables. Another plus, these cord ties are made from scrap leather wastes.
This unassuming tool card can be used 11 different ways. Pretty handy especially its knife edge, bottle opener, saw blade, and can opener for everyday use. It also has a ruler, screw driver, different types of wrenches and more. Plus, it can easily fit into your pocket or wallet.
These days, we use our phone for almost everything, including listening to music and watching movies. Should you need speakers, why not opt for this portable, eco-friendly speaker-slash-device stand. It can amplify the sound from your mobile without any electricity needed.
When your pencil gets too short, do you usually ditch it? What if you can just plant it! These pencils can come to life and grow as bell pepper, thyme, oregano, chili, celery, morning glory, radish, or citronella.
We think it’s delightfully clever whenever an item, take a Barong Tagalog, gets transformed into something so far from its original form. Jordinand Aguillon of Glorious Dias takes old Barong Tagalog and uses them for earrings or wallflower wall art.
The design and function of a coaster is pretty much well-established. It varies mostly in the materials used and for these ones from Krete Manila, they wanted to promote a zero-waste initiative. They used the scrap wastes from the colored home pieces they were making and started experimenting on them. Upon sanding, they saw it gave a confetti-like effect and the confetti coasters were born!
Somewhere along the way though, some kids seem to lose this enthusiasm for learning. For some, school becomes about grades, or worse, anxiety and pressure. It’s important to raise kids who will continue to love learning because when they do, they become more engaged in school. At best, a love for learning helps build resilience, which allows our kids to bounce back from difficulties and failures as they grow up.
So how do you raise kids who love to learn? Here are a few ways to provide children with a positive attitude and a safe space to be curious and learn.
What do your kids enjoy doing? What do they like to talk about? According to a cognitive scientist and researcher cited in this Harvard GSE report, one doesn’t “foster curiosity as a trait.” Instead, you “create situations that can prompt and guide a child’s curiosity.”
Growing up, artist Yana Ofrasio watched her parents working on papermaking, painting furniture, and being in a household filled with creativity. Being in “a very colorful, art-filled household” certainly exposed her to different forms of art.
Even if you don’t have an art-filled home though, you can always provide opportunities for your child to explore what he likes to do. Provide a trip to Mind Museum in BGC to see the Universe Gallery if your child is into everything outer space. At home, have a little reading nook, a box of materials for kid-friendly science experiments, or an arts and crafts corner for some creative hobbies. (Check the webshop here or bring them to any of the Common Room branches to see what they find interesting.)
While it’s tempting to say, “because I said so” when the whys never end, a child’s curious nature should be seen as something positive. It means they’re interested in the world around them. If you don’t have an answer to their questions anymore, you can always ask some questions yourself.
Pose questions that don’t necessarily have a correct answer or ask their opinion about the subject they’re interested in. Instead of testing his memory with a question like, “What are the dwarf planets in our solar system?” You can ask, “What do you think would happen if Earth had two moons?” Of course, make your questions age-appropriate. It’s about encouraging your child to think critically.
Does your kid want to tinker around your garden just like their lola? Or make his own scrambled eggs for breakfast? As much as it’s important to let kids try age-appropriate activities—it’s just as beneficial that we allow them to fail and try again. Let them crack an egg (if you don’t want them near the stove), get dirt in their hands as they help with gardening.
While it can be difficult, especially for helicopter parents (guilty!), allowing kids to make choices (within reason, of course) and have some independence teaches them they can do things on their own. It fosters confidence and helps build resilience.
According to this Medium piece on the importance of resilience and why kids these days don’t have enough of it, being self-reliant at an early age, independence, and self-sufficiency are among the common aspects of a childhood that builds reliance. As parents, we’re there to support our kids without spoon feeding.
In the interview of Elly Ang about how she started Danger in Design, it showed how parents can remain supportive with their grown kids and let them do the work. Elly shared that after collecting pins, she told her mom that she wanted to make her own. “I like that it’s cute and the designs are relatable… I was inspired by the artists abroad and my mom was like, ‘Okay, we can try it.’ She was very supportive.” After that, Elly began her research, searching for manufacturers, etc. before getting down to the business of making her own pins.
We want to encourage independence so we let our kids help us prepare pancakes or make their own art with lots of paint, glue, or whatever material they fancy at the moment. But when they knock over the bag of flour or mix the glue with all the paint, do we get angry and upset?
Kids are bound to run into accidents or make mistakes as they try new things or develop skills. We need to show them it’s all part of the learning process and remain encouraging. We also need to refrain from jumping in when they’re trying to finish a task just to get it over and done with (guilty, again!)
As fellow parents and experts advise, let children figure it out on their own while remaining supportive. In one example cited, if they break things (or in the case of one successful entrepreneur, he took apart doorknobs in their house when he was a kid), make them put it back together. Let them learn to fix it themselves.
Our kids keep a close eye on what we do. Especially when they’re young, children imitate our habits—including how we approach learning, when we find new ideas and how we pursue them.
If we want to show them the importance of setting aside time pursuing our curiosities and interests you can take a page from journaling pro and crafter Nica Cosio. In our YT interview on journaling tips, the mom of three shares that she dedicates a specific time to quiet down and do journaling. Every Sunday, she together with her family spend time together in their coworking space wherein she journals.
For crochet jewelry designer, Nike Nadal-Reyes of Nyuki & Co., she shows her kids how it’s important to stick with what you love to do because it will hone your skills. “When I quit, it was then that I realized that this is what I really enjoy doing. Stick with it and fight for it.”
We can show our children in many different ways, big and small, how we can be lifelong learners. From setting aside time to hone our skills or interests to picking ourselves up with grace when we make mistakes and fail.
There’s certainly nothing wrong with cheering on people who’ve made their dreams happen early on and succeeded. They can be a source of inspiration for us to go after our own dreams and goals. We likely put timelines on our dreams like those who’ve been heralded for their early success. And if we’re to believe everything on our social media feed, everyone else seems to have an unobstructed path to achieving their dreams (may it be world domination, your own successful business, TikTok fame—anything). But it’s all a lie.
We all have our struggles. Nobody’s road to success is free from mistakes and failures. But our struggles look different from each other. Some carry it ‘better’ than others, but it’s there. Being bombarded by images and narratives of having it all figured out and finding success before a quarter-life crisis even occurs, can put unwarranted pressure on you.
When you find yourself in a slump, when you question your abilities or talent because you haven’t reached the success you’ve envisioned for yourself before you hit a certain age, you need to change your mindset. You need to change your focus. Put it more toward the steps you need to take to reach your goal and less on how others are doing with theirs.
We all have different gifts, different realities, and our take on success may even be different, so why do we expect our journeys to be the same?
“Know that you’re an individual person,” says Elly Ang of Danger in Design. “No matter how much you wanna be someone else, you’re never gonna be someone else, because there’s nobody like them and nobody’s like you.”
Comparing yourself to others doesn’t in any way help you. It can either leave you feeling insecure or having an inflated ego—both of which don’t help you. Focus on your own journey.
Take the advice of visual artist Jill Arteche. In our YouTube interview with her, when it comes to pursuing a career in art and illustration, “You do you,” she says. “Especially when you’re starting out, you get to compare yourself to other artists out there… the ones you look up to, you think, if I copy her style people will notice me and I will be successful.” As Jill shows us in her work, staying true to who you are and your style is a better take-off point in any journey. “Use that to create original and honest work. When you commit to doing that, everything else will follow.”
Okay, lists are not all that bad. It helps us with our to-dos for the day. At the start of the year, there are those of us who list down their resolutions (which we’ve found can be limiting as opposed to setting intentions to manifest our goals). Some of us may even have a 30-things-I-want-to-achieve-before-I-turn-30 type of list.
But lists with a rigid timeline can do more harm than good. What if it leaves you depleted and disregarding other aspects of your life in order to meet a timeline? What if you don’t tick off the milestones you want to reach, will that mean you’re falling behind? As we look to the future, it’s important to also be mindful of the present.
Artist and maker Jodee Aguillon of Glorious Dias reveals in a previous Common Room interview that he used to just constantly chase goals that he’d set for himself. For him, we’ve been conditioned to think after reaching a milestone, to look for the next one. “Instead, when you’ve reached that milestone, sit with it, appreciate it until you’re ready for the next one. I didn’t give myself enough time to appreciate some of the things that I was doing. As I’m getting older, I’m just like, I really should’ve enjoyed that.”
Everyone is struggling, everyone has their doubts. But not everyone is willing to be vulnerable about it, so we think we’re the only one among our peers dealing with impostor syndrome, insecurities, and the like.
While social media can help us stay connected and improve a sense of belonging, according to the same study, it can also “lead to tremendous stress, pressure to compare oneself to others, and increased sadness and isolation.”
What’s important is to have a community. For Marvz Conti of Studio Habil having a community means you have a support system. “You can ask them questions, [get] feedback, and you can even mentor. You can have the do’s and don’ts in the business and can also help out those who are starting out in their creative journey.”
For Jodee, who also sees the significance of having a community of other makers and creatives, if you can’t find the community that you want to contribute to, then create one around you. “Your friends, your immediate circle of creatives and other artists that inspire and support you. That can kind of be your ecosystem while you take the next step, and the next step, and the next.”
If we keep thinking we need to have everything figured out, it can get overwhelming. It fosters fear and then you find yourself quitting or not even starting.
When Common Room founders Roma and Maan started Popjunklove almost 16 years ago, they didn’t have a lot of things to build a business. They didn’t have enough capital, they didn’t have any background in design or business. “But what we did, we focused on things that we did have and what we could do with the things we had at the time,” says Roma in the Popjunklove interview. They had only P5,000 for capital, they knew how to sew, and they had scrap materials and old toys they could repurpose. “We made a lot of mistakes, but we didn’t stop.”
Roma adds, “You don’t need to have a 10-year, 5, or even 1-year plan. You don’t need to figure it all out. Do whatever you can with what you have and just take the next step.”
Even if it’s a couple of steps—a few new pieces you’ve made in a few months, a short course to hone a skill, attend more pop-ups than last year. All those little baby steps you’re taking will lead you somewhere. You can be a little closer to your dream or it could have morphed into something different, something that gives you more joy.
“You have to remember that it will take time and it’s not going to be an overnight success,” says Roma. She and Maan spent many nights and days making patterns and sewing, then selling in countless bazaars and pop-ups during weekends before they could even dream of having Common Room.
“You might be at a point where [you think], ‘Nothing’s progressing with me… why am I still doing it? Maybe because I don’t have it in me or maybe because I’m a failure,”” observes Roma. “You take it so personally, because of course it’s your passion. If it doesn’t work out, it feels like it’s because of you, but it really just takes time.”
So give yourself time to figure things out. Where’s the fun in knowing everything, anyway?
During the pandemic, we were among the countless plantitos and plantitas who experienced the many benefits of growing plants. It provided a form of therapy, boosting our mood and easing our anxieties. Even jeweler Louie Gutierrez of Silverworks, who was experiencing palpitations and anxiety due to the pandemic found solace in urban farming. (He eventually established the social enterprise, BGC Urban Farm.)
Many studies (including this and this) have already found that plants have positive effects on creativity as well. But it’s not just about seeing some nature in our indoor space during lockdown. Taking care of plants can also teach us lessons on our creative pursuits. Here are a few we were able to reap from the wise words of Roma and Maan when it comes to growing plants that also speak to creativity.
While there are many tools at your disposal to care for plants, you don’t always need them. In this video on tips for new plant parents, the sisters used old tissue paper tubes as pots for seedlings. They’re readily available and when you need to transfer your seedlings to a bigger pot, you don’t even have to remove them because the tubes are biodegradable. Being resourceful allows you to get things done with what you have.
The practice of creativity is a practice of resourcefulness. Making art or creating new products pushes you to think out of the box even when you don’t have enough resources to achieve it. I’ve had an art teacher who advised us not to go overboard with buying materials and paint. Start with primary colors or the palette you often use and you can mix everything from there, she advised. You also don’t need an MBA to start your business or an MFA to publish your book. It may seem like common knowledge but if you have a fear of failure, there’s a tendency to make excuses for not being able to achieve your goal. Being resourceful though reminds us that we already have what we need to at least take our first step.
Among the many tips Roma and Maan shared in this video, here’s something we all need to hear: all of us can have green thumbs. But growing plants, just like any other skills, should be studied. “The only reason the plant dies is because you don’t know how to take care of it and it’s not because you were not born to be a planter or plant mom.”
Creativity, in our opinion, is also not binary. It’s not either you have it or you don’t. Didn’t we all start off as imaginative, playful children? Many lose it somewhere along the way to adulthood. You stop drawing, writing, making music, designing clothes, building models, or expressing yourself in any creative manner. But creativity is also something you work at. As visual artist and illustrator, Jill Arteche, relates in her Meet the Maker interview, you need to make time for it.
It may seem to come more naturally for others. Maybe you think you’re not just creative enough. If there’s anything I’ve learned interviewing and working with many creatives in the past, is that the ones who seem to be “naturally creative,” actually put in a lot of hours honing their craft. Creativity, however you express it, takes practice and discipline.
When you start caring for plants, you learn that taking care of one isn’t the same as taking care of another. Some are gluttons for water and sunshine, others only need a tiny bit. “You need to know all their little quirks. Some of them you’ll learn over time from all your trials and errors. There are really plants that are going to be sacrificed,” says Maan.
If we can accept that it’s not a one-size-fits-all when it comes to caring for plants, let’s be just as accepting that we all have different working styles. What works for the maker you look up to may not necessarily work for you. Do you like to plan everything, down to the smallest details, before you jump into a new project or commission? Or are you more idea-oriented, more skilled at creating the big vision? Knowing yourself and how you work means you get to recognize your strengths and weaknesses—how you can thrive and how you can improve.
“You do you.” says Arteche whenever somebody asks about pursuing art. “When you’re starting out, you get to compare yourself with other artists out there, especially the ones you look up to. You think, if I copy her style people would notice me and I would be successful. But it should be the other way around, you do you, because if you stay true to who you are and you create original and honest work, I feel like people will see that.”
To know what your plant needs—aside from watching YT tutorials or googling “how to stop killing plants”—Roma advises to observe your green babies. “Your plants are talking to you. If you see them turning yellow, they’re trying to say something… it has different ways of giving you signals, our plants have different ways of talking to us.” When it’s getting too much water, too little sunlight—you’ll get the message with how their leaves change color, curl up, etc.
What signals does your body give when you’re not taking care of it? How often do you listen to that inner voice that wants to express itself? Paying attention to our body and our inner voice makes for a more nurturing creative journey. This short essay on listening to the voice in your head, reminds us how “looking inwards is where all creativity begins.”
When it comes to caring for plants, pruning is often necessary. As Roma shows us in a day in her indoor garden, it promotes growth in the plant. Pruning also lets you remove dead or diseased parts that may make your plant more vulnerable to pests. While you only need your pruning shears and gloves to trim and cut when it comes to your garden, it can be a bit more difficult when it comes to your work.
In writing, experienced writers always advise to “kill your darlings.” Good writing involves substantial rewriting. This often means you have to trim and cut certain parts of your material (a storyline, a character, a clever sentence) that you’ve become attached to if they don’t serve the overall piece.
In any creative work, being able to step back, to see what you need to remove (or keep) makes the narrative clearer. In the case of Cut the Scrap, the wooden scrap business that makes upcycled wooden crafts, when they decided to let go of their own woodshop and instead focus on designing products and working hand-in-hand with organizations that worked with PWDs, they saw their business expand.
“That’s the fun part of taking care of a garden—experimenting and learning along the way,” says Roma, whose own experience as a plantita has seen her say goodbye to some of her plants and experience propagating fails. But failure is one of the most effective teachers there is. It teaches us what doesn’t work. It teaches us to be resilient and to try again. It’s part of the learning process in any journey, whether with plants or creative pursuits. Jordi Aguillon of Glorious Dias reminds us, “Do it your own way, make your own mistakes. The best way to learn anything is to make mistakes.”
Being afraid that your efforts can fail or it won’t work will always be present. Failure is just part of things worth pursuing. Accepting that can be liberating. You get to allow yourself to experiment and keep trying. Maan’s advice for those who want to get into gardening is something we can also hold on for the things we want to do. “It would be a waste of opportunity if you let your fear get the best of you.”
The best way to start any decorating pursuit is to get rid of clutter and to organize. It doesn’t matter if your house has ‘good bones,’ if they’ll be buried in clutter. Besides, when you start to declutter, you’ll likely find some things you can resell or discover a furniture or home accessory you can upcycle.
To make organizing easier, make sure you have containers (like Cut the Scrap crates or this leather tray) where you can put away small objects that tend to clutter. And if you’re OC and want most of your kitchen spices and dry goods in the same containers because they just look nice that way, you can make it easier to identify what’s inside with these sticker labels.
Do you really need a green thumb to be able to grow some plants? While that’s up for debate, having greenery in your space is always a good thing for your mental health, creativity, and your productivity (studies back this up!).
If you’re still uncertain about your plantita skills, you can always start with succulents or moss. Yes, moss. And the great thing with moss, aside from the fact that you don’t have to take care of them, is that homemade decor brand Studio Habil has been incorporating them into wall art pieces and terrariums for several years. They require no maintenance and provide that natural element to a room.
If your home is a rental unit, there are a lot of restrictions on what you can and can’t do. Built-in breaker panels and wall vents are essential, but if they’re in the middle of a room they can be an eyesore. You can cover them with a framed artwork or a decorative vent. Frame these Pilipinas Art Prints by Kaliwete Creatives and hang them in front of that condo breaker panel. (You can also easily remove them should you need access to the breaker.)
Give a plain wall some warm tones and natural textures with woven art. No need to actually spend a fortune for a large woven piece if you don’t have the budget. You can hang your placemats! Bangkuan weave placemats or abaca mats can be hung together using small nails to secure them on the wall. Check how this blogger did it.
Have too many of a certain object that you don’t know what to do with? If you’ve got more coasters than you can actually use, you can turn them into a decorative piece too. You can use this pretty concrete coaster set by Krete Manila to hold your small potted plants that get to grace your desk. You can even make your own concrete tray using old containers.
As Selia Agsalud of Common Room reminds us when they redecorated their own space in the office, “Your space is yours, so there is no right or wrong way to fix it… design it in a way that makes life easier and lighter.” Whether it’s upcycling what you already have, buying a few small items as home accents, or redoing an entire room, there are many ways to make your space truly yours with a little creativity and pieces that make you happy.
We all want our workspace to be a place of inspiration and productivity. Having our essentials and our sources of inspo that keep us working (aside from those bills!) is one way to make sure it stays that way. Your essentials of course, can include the team you rely on like Jan Verceles for her cosmetics and skincare brand Dear Self Beauty. It can be all your furry friends like Danger in Design’s Elly Ang with her dogs. But the two of them, and other makers like them also have other must-haves they keep close by to stay productive and inspired.
You lose a great deal of time when you’re disorganized. Where do you put the printouts for the orders, those tubes of paint or boxes of beads? Is everything you need within reach or are they spread out somewhere in the four corners of your office? Jan says that product organizers and wooden baskets keep their studio organized and they get to maximize space. We saw how she does it and she makes it look easy with how organized her set up is.
If you work with many tools or materials, or you just prefer to have loads of elbow room when you work, it makes sense to have a large table. “They’re very essential for packing and production,” says Jan when they need to pack the many orders online for their tints, balm, and other clever multi-use makeup products.
When you feel stuck and in a creative rut, it’s always advisable to be able to step away from your work and do something else. For many creatives, turning to books is a good way to get some easy inspiration. “I have a lot of art and design books on my shelf that I’ve collected over time and usually when I’m tired of looking at my art, I try to do something else,” says Elly. “Sometimes I just browse them to get inspired or just to take my mind off the art I’m currently working on. And then I go back to my work with fresh new eyes.”
We’ve mentioned how sound can help create a space that sparks creativity, and for Marvz Conti of Studio Habil this is an essential to help him get in the zone when working on projects. Also, don’t forget the coffee. “They can influence my mood and lift up my spirit somehow,” says the moss terrarium maker who also counts his glue gun as something he can’t do without in his workspace. “Coffee is like my liquid fuel. It can heighten my senses and keeps me focused. A good playlist from Phoenix, Haim, UDD are some of my faves.”
We know we’re attached to our gadgets at this point and for Popjunklove maker (and Common Room founder) Roma Agsalud, she can’t do without her smartphone. “I can work non-stop with just this tool on hand. These days, since we mostly do video content for Common Room PH, my air pods are proving to be a must also.”
When she has more time to spare, she can even quickly edit videos on the go and her air pods help her to remove distractions around her. “It ensures I don’t distract others also.” (She makes it easier to lug them around with Punch Crafts’ cord ties and Sustainably Made’s device stand!)
For enamel pins creator Hannah Armada of Studio Haebi, aside from her cutting machine (Silhouette Cameo) that helps her cut stickers, labels and signages, it’s her iPad that she uses “to sketch ideas and write notes” even when she’s out. “I also like browsing on Pinterest for ideas and organizing them when I’m feeling uninspired.”
You can also just go offline. For Cat Limson of Bedazzled Accessories, it’s easier if she works on a design with a blank canvas. “I feel more pressured when I check design inspiration online… When I do this I feel somehow compelled to pattern my designs with what’s already out there,” says the former preschool teacher who’s also behind three other successful retail businesses. “I also feel overwhelmed at times because of the amount of inspiration online. I usually go with my gut feel when designing accessories.”
Besides the external must-haves we rely on to create, it does go back to the tools we innately possess. Happy crafting!
If being creative means being able to let our imaginations wander off and bring ideas to life, we should be able to do it anywhere. But when distractions abound or when you particularly need to get in a creating mood, putting ourselves in a space that can spark our creativity helps. It doesn’t even have to be a room with four walls and a door. We looked for inspiration and tips from how some Common Room makers built their space to work and create.
If you do so many things besides creating your pieces and need a lot of materials to do it, it’s best to have your own private space.
Nyuki + Co’s Nike Nadal-Reyes, a mom and entrepreneur who creates handmade crochet accessories, goes to her “mom cave” whenever she needs to work. With a laundry list of household chores and errands for the family, she gets to focus on crocheting, beading, and designing when it’s time to work. Having that one space—with her desk, her craft cabinet, display stand—allows her to keep everything she needs within reach.
It’s almost similar for artist sisters Ella and Marie Lama. In a previous day-in-the-life video, they showed us that they head upstairs to their attic when it’s time to work. To feel like going to the office, they leave their bedroom and Ella even has an office bag to take with her to their studio-slash-office. When illustrator and lettering artist Ella works, she writes her to-dos for the day on the white board and it’s in the studio where she gets to organize and fix her merchandise as well.
It helps to set boundaries on where you work. Create a dedicated workspace even if you don’t have a separate room for it. In her day-in-the-life video, Common Room and Popjunklove’s Maan Agsalud shows us how she spends her day. She works on her bar table by the window (she prefers to work standing up) and just behind it are her living, dining, and kitchen spaces. When you live in a condo, space can be quite limited. While it’s an open layout, Maan makes sure that when she sits down in front of her dining table, she is in rest mode. She also doesn’t bring any work to the bedroom.
Natural light (lots of it) helps with our mood and productivity. It’s no wonder that work spaces with a view of the outdoors and have natural light are most sought after. We love how Maan’s workstation faces the window of her condo, which affords her all the natural light and a view of the city. “Whenever I feel stressed, I just stare out the window and daydream,” she says.
But if your space doesn’t get a lot of natural light, make sure you have lighting fixtures that will enable you to see clearly what you need to do—whether you have to type or cut patterns, as what the Common Room and Popjunklove teams do in the studio. In episode 4 of Making the Studio, Maan and Roma show us how they lit the space. Because the studio had high ceilings they had to drop the lights and pick cool white lighting—a mix of warm and daylight—to provide some mood but remain functional for a studio space.
Another pick-me-upper in a space are plants. Plants provide many benefits to a work space. They boost our health, lower stress levels, and help us be more creative! (No wonder so many of us became plantitos and plantitas during the pandemic, while rediscovering our old creative hobbies.) According to Space Refinery, “nature relaxes people and allows them to concentrate better, it shifts our brains into a different type of processing mode.”
Shop: Add more greens to your space with Plantable Seed Paper Sheets
Classical music? The latest from Taylor Swift? Complete silence? Sound can play a part in engaging our creativity.
A research study found that “listening to happy music facilitates divergent thinking.” Creativity entails divergent thinking and when participants were asked to do creative exercises that measured this type of thinking, those who listened to happy music had significantly higher scores compared to those who performed the tasks in silence. When you have a mental block or you just don’t feel inspired, happy sounds might just get you in a creative mood.
Shop: Listen to some tunes with a Make It Up Cassette MP3 Player
…and the color. Most of us have our own preferences when it comes to color. But if you believe color psychology, there are “emotional and psychological connotations between colors and emotions.”
For the best colors for work productivity and getting creative, studies have suggested that the color green boosts creativity and innovation. So if you don’t have a lot of plants in your space, a shade of green may help with a spark of inspiration or solution.
What we’ve seen with most creative spaces among Common Room makers we’ve interviewed is that there’s always a space allocated for inspiring works. Nike has an inspiration board where she puts up her designs. In the office room makeover that Common Room did recently, the team installed a cork wall (among other things) in what used to be a drab office room to make it into a huddle room for a creative agency.
Works that inspire are also evident in the space of graphic designer Gian Wong. In a home tour video, he shows us his mini workspace, where he has a pegboard for the memorabilia and art prints he’s made as well as works from other artists. As he finds it boring to just stay in front of his desk, Gian moves around a lot. He also works in the living area where some beloved creative objects are also on display. “It really makes me happy to see these and if I work here, it feels much more inspiring. And I feel more creative when I work here.”
Shop: Find inspiration and put it with an easel stand and all the art prints you want
While we know there’s such a thing as organized chaos, there can also be too many distractions. And clutter is one of them. There are studies that suggest “that when multiple visual stimuli are competing for your attention, you have a harder time narrowing your focus,” reports NBC News. When you’ve got a deadline and those creative juices aren’t flowing, you might be more inclined to clean the clutter than get the work done.
The Ikea desk build video gave some tips on how to organize your desk. Nike, in her craft collection video, showed us her craft cabinet, which keeps her beads and tools properly organized, and the display stand, which she uses to mock up a display.
Shop: From leather trays to cord organizers, find some order for your desk
More than having a space where we can create, being able to create is a gift in itself. Whether you’re doing it in your own studio or just in a tiny corner of your living area that gets to look out the window, keep at it. “Before, I thought, I have to have this, I have to have a studio for me to be able to create and be creative,” said Nike. “But no, you already have what you need. Just make do with that and everything will just follow.”
Fear of failure, when it’s this “constant, overwhelming feeling of dread” every time we pursue a goal or undertake a project is called atychiphobia. We can also call it the cause of death of creativity or the voice of our perfectionist self telling us we might not succeed in it, so why make the effort at all?
“Most of us are conditioned to be perfectionists,” says Marvz Conti of Studio Habil, who makes moss wall art pieces and bespoke moss terrariums. “Society can sometimes tell us that you need to do something perfect in order for people to like it. There is that fear of failure [that] can hinder us from starting something.”
For Studio Haebi’s Hannah Armada, who makes cute enamel pins, her greatest hurdle came in the “in-between phase.” She admits that having a perfectionist trait or fear of failure made her hesitate a lot in releasing new products. “I had the mentality of ‘if I make this, I want it to succeed as much as my other products.’ I wanted to maintain where I was and wasn’t as eager to take risks compared to how I was at the start.”
Both Marvz and Hannah, and most other creatives would tell you that the fear and the apprehension will always be there in any creative journey. As Elizabeth Gilbert writes in Big Magic, fear marches right alongside creativity. How do we move forward in spite of it? Common Room makers share with us what they’ve done, what they still do to continue to create even when perfectionism and fear tell them otherwise.
In a previous interview with Hannah over the rebranding of Studio Haebi that left her hurt, she had to take time to go back to her why and was advised to create a new collection. She did her homework. And then she stalled. She already had an idea but she couldn’t start on them. She realized that the greater problem was she was too afraid of it not being perfect and that she had to work on that.
“I’m still struggling with it. But I took some time to do a bit of soul searching. I took a short course related to music and worship—church related things—and took a break to grow as a person,” Hannah shares.
“As makers and creatives, it is very important for us to feel our feelings,” Marvz says. “As much as possible, I would try to pinpoint specific words that describe how I feel at a particular moment.”
Being able to articulate what you’re feeling—and not denying it—helps to make that shift in terms of how you think.
After she took a break to do some soul searching, Hannah realized that she wanted to keep her business, she wanted to keep creating. “I needed a better mindset, which is to go back to making things I myself would love and finding contentment in that. That’s the first step forward I’m taking.”
She had to let go of the crazy expectations she had always set for herself. While she reminded herself that the fear and uncertainty would still be there, Hannah realized she had to face the challenge before her in a different way. “That if I try the idea instead of not even trying because of fear, that’s already better than where I was. And I can take another step forward from there.”
Stationery artist Jamaica Verceles of Paperaica Shop used to be afraid that her new designs would not be good enough and she’d disappoint customers. One of the ways she overcame her fears was by reaching out to her loyal supporters and other makers for advice. “I also tell my family and close friends beforehand and let them test my products.”
For Daniel Ubas and Viktoria Laguyo of Krete Manila, recognizing the power of the audience and community you’ve built around your products is essential. “Amidst fears of not selling our new product or having to close shop, we must remember that we have a loyal and supportive customer base.”
For the two industrial designers, trusting their audience meant acknowledging that there will always be people who believe in their vision and their craftsmanship. “Having trust in our audience empowers us to overcome our fears and reminds us that we are not alone in our journey as makers.”
The fear of failing is real, because failure is real. “Fear cannot be removed,” says Popjunklove’s Maan Agsalud when talk about starting your own venture comes up.
“Failure is an inevitable part of the creative process,” adds Marvz. So what do you do? “Show up every day and do something, even the small mundane tasks. I would remind myself to create because I love doing it. This will take failure or success out of the equation because the goal was simply to create.”
The main goal is not for the piece you want to create to make you famous, rich, or earn the respect of your family or peers. You strip away all that to remove all those expectations and you’re left with the act of creating. The act that—we sometimes have to remind ourselves amidst the fear and perfectionism—gives us joy and delight. Maan reminds us of the words in the lightbox of a Common Room store, words from an impressionist artist. “‘What if I fall? Oh but my darling, what if you fly?’ What if your idea flies right?”
Cat Limson of Bedazzled Accessories agrees. “Acknowledge that it will be difficult,” she says in her interview. Yes, running your own enterprising venture has its ample share of challenges. Getting into it with eyes wide open may not spare you from them, but it will definitely help you prepare. Here we’ve compiled some common challenges that the makers we’ve interviewed have encountered (and assure you that there are lots to be hopeful for).
As most small and micro business owners would attest, the lack of funds is typically on top of that problem pile. When you don’t have enough cash flow, how do you pay your vendors, pay the rent, or cover the salaries of your employees? It’s no surprise that most micro-enterprises start off at home and with an employee of one. You.
Having little capital or staying conservative with your spending, especially when you’re starting out, doesn’t have to mean not being able to keep your business running. Popjunklove from our Common Room mommas started with a mere P5,000.
When Cat was starting her affordable accessories line, one of her biggest hurdles was money. Since every order was COD, she didn’t have extra funds. “It’s either you save or add a source of income…we can find ways for everything.”
If you’re a small business owner, chances are you’re wearing a lot of hats and doing a lot of things. Work won’t simply be from 9 to 5, you might even have another job to support your little venture. The hustle is real!
Cat, who used to work fulltime as a preschool teacher from 8am to 4pm and would do tutorials until 9pm, could only make her beads in the evening when she got home at 10:30pm. There was a time she would even make unfinished orders of her beaded accessories while on the bus heading home. “I found a way because I really wanted to make it work. If the problem is time, you make time.”
In many of the interviews we’ve done with our makers, a lot of them have cited this common speed bump in their entrepreneurial journey—knowing when it was time to hire people and actually doing it.
Our own Roma and Maan realized it was time to hire sewers for Popjunklove when they saw they were already losing opportunities to take more orders. For the three Verceles sisters—Jamaica, Janeeva and Danice—who each have their own ventures (Paperaica Shop, Dear Self Beauty, and Ciento Cookies), they started hiring their first employees when they realized they couldn’t remain consistent and efficient with their work.
In their Meet the Maker interview, Jamaica shares that she hired her first assistant when she was no longer consistent in creating artwork for her brand. Her time was getting eaten up with production work for the stickers, stationery, and other products. Hiring someone meant the former animator could focus on designing and illustrating.
“With every business, at some point, if you see that you’re already inefficient with what you have to do as the owner you really have to replace yourself,” says Janeeva. “You have to hire someone to replace yourself so you can do more.” Whether it’s doing the design or being more focused with marketing and customer service, hiring employees allows you, the owner, to focus on what the business needs the most at that particular time.
For the three young and successful entrepreneurs, hiring should be looked at more as an investment. “People are scared to hire because it entails a lot more funds…if you hire someone, train them well, the return will be much more than what you’re paying kasi they add great value to your business,” says Danice.
Before the pandemic made “supply chain issues” almost a buzzword for even non-business owners, micro and small businesses already had to contend with supplier and vendor problems.
Ria Olizon and Sarah Garcia of Real Scents count minimum order quantities from their suppliers as the biggest challenge. In their Meet the Maker interview, Sarah explains, “We have to make sure that we’re able to consume those [orders], and not leave them as inventory.” Every time Real Scents has to introduce products, they make sure that they fully consume most of the raw materials they ordered.
Ria adds, “It’s also difficult to find suppliers who can cater to small businesses, because they usually cater to larger businesses, larger corporations with larger quantities.” This can force a small business to work with more expensive alternatives. When you research possible suppliers, it’s best to collect necessary info (including their company values, if they align with yours), check samples, and negotiate for the best rates possible.
We’ve written about how to stay innovative in business. Change is never easy, but it can mean the difference between thriving or languishing. One way to do so is when you pivot to a new business model or even with your brand, which can bring another level of difficulty for a small business.
When Hannah Armada of Studio Haebi, felt something was missing in her brand, she attended a bootcamp on brand auditing so she could pivot her business. In a previous interview, she mentioned that being a one-person business meant there was nobody to call her out on her blind spots. The brand specialist conducting the workshop certainly called her out, which left Hannah hurt and full of questions. She did come out of it learning 10 valuable lessons, but being your own boss often requires asking and answering some hard questions on where you want to take your business. It’s especially hard when you realize you need to pivot to do
Gouache, a brand known for its handcrafted waxed canvas bags, had to pivot to a new business model during the pandemic. Previously, they used to follow a batch process for a design when the item goes out of stock. During the pandemic, they enabled their customers to pre-order an item on their online shop and have it made within seven days. This required management and the local artisans they employed to scale and adjust to the new direction.
Remaining flexible and being bold enough to make changes are important traits to hone when it comes to facing hurdles in your business.
With so many things vying for people’s attention these days, how do you make sure your product stands out?
Before Ria of Real Scents started their home fragrance brand, she looked at bazaars and saw there was an opportunity to introduce room scents. Her curiosity led her to study and research more about it. Today, Real Scents has a line of room and linen sprays, essential oils, premium fragrance oils, water-based diffuser, reed diffuser and hand wash. While they make sure to have the go-to “classic scents” (fresh bamboo, anyone?), they’ve also made it a point to introduce scents unique to their brand that they have created on their own.
For Bedazzled, when it was launched in the market several years ago, most beaded accessories at the time targeted an older demographic with more disposable income. Cat knew she wanted to target a much younger market and made fun accessories that they could afford. By knowing who her market is, what they like, and what they could afford, she made sure her accessories stood out.
Building your own business will come with many difficulties. But if you know it’s what you need to do—whether out of necessity or passion—then make a go for it. “If you have that desire in your heart and you see the opportunity, don’t be afraid to try,” says Ria.
“If you don’t start, you really won’t learn,” says Roma. “You won’t make mistakes, you won’t be great, or at least a better entrepreneur that makes better decisions for your business for it to continuously grow.”
When we keep our favorite (summer) memories written down or captured in photos or in small ephemera like train tickets and postcards in a journal, a scrapbook, or even as a series of IG Stories in your Highlights, we give our future selves a convenient way to find some escape or a wellspring of joy. Which one of these do you already do?
Do you lean more toward solely writing about your travels (storytelling travel journaling), or getting all creative and adding ticket stubs, playbills, and all the purikura you took to go with your tales of adventure (scrapbook style travel journaling)?
Whatever travel journaling style you want to do, you can—as crafter and journaling enthusiast Nica Cosio shares—“capture every moment,” especially if you’re the type who doesn’t want to miss anything. If you’re new to journaling, Nica gives a lot of tips (23 to be exact) in a previous YouTube interview here. You can also get started with some journaling essentials from the shop.
Another way to express your creativity and rely more on printed photos and collected ephemera is through old-school scrapbooking. One can argue it’s almost similar to travel journaling, as you add photos and other small memorabilia from your travels that are significant for you.
One thing we love about scrapbooking is it can be a collective effort. It’s something you and the people you went with on the trip can do all together (if they’re up to it). If it’s a family scrapbook, you can get the kids to put or draw their favorite memory or activity from the vacation. Be sure to have a few materials and maybe a pouch to store some scrapbooking tools and collectibles.
If you enjoy painting or drawing, why not sketch your way through your travels? You can always take a hundred videos or photos of a breathtaking view or a quirky shop facade along with the hundreds of other tourists (you can also do vlogs and IG reels, more on that below). But giving it your own artsy take—that will be uniquely yours.
If you have the time and the skill, find a good place to sit, take out that little sketchbook, and draw what’s right in front of you that’s making you happy or that stopped you in your tracks. Stash these travel-friendly watercolor kit, paintbrushes, brush holders, or pencil sets in your travel bag.
When it comes to a much-anticipated trip, there’s so much excitement that it’s bound to spill over. And when those IG posts and reels and TikTok videos still don't feel enough to spread the joy (Ghibli Park dream come true! A Siargao sunset! K-drama locations in Seoul!), you can look into making a travel vlog.
Filmmaker Tin Villanueva, who loves to do short-form videos and docus (and makes the awesome videos we have in Common Room) shows how to shoot with your phone and even to do a simple edit. From organizing your footage to matching the chosen clips with music, Tin shares her helpful video editing process.
or TikTok videos, depending where you want to post. This is the easiest and fastest way we share what’s happening with our lives these days and if you prefer to edit videos on your phone, we get it.
If you’ve also been living under a rock and you’re only catching up with social media now, this fun and informative video on How to Make IG Reels by one of Common Room’s makers, Kim Tiam-Lee of Pulseras by Kim, should help. It answers the how and the why of making IG Reels and other short-form videos, which you can use to document the favorite parts of your trip.
Do you notice how we accumulate certain objects in certain places—in Japan, you may end up with a lot of train tickets and kawaii knick knacks; in New York, the world-class museums has so many lovely prints, we won’t blame you if you end up having several by the time you go back home.
Traveling gives us a chance to see another place’s culture—what’s prevalent, what they hold dear. If you’re the type who would rather have something to hold to remember a place, like artist Elly Ang who likes collecting enamel pins from her travels, then collecting is a good way to go about it. You can get more tips about collecting, here.
Call us old-fashioned, but there’s something about sending and receiving postcards that can enrich any travel experience. It’s also a quick way to share and preserve memories and cherished details of a trip if you’re not the type to spend hours journaling or scrapbooking.
While the norm is to send postcards to friends and family, how about sending your future self some happy travel memories from your past self while you’re on your summer adventure? By the time you’re back into your daily grind, you get to receive a tangible reminder of a vacation that hopefully gave you a much needed break. Happy travels!
According to research (pre-pandemic), it’s actually two-and-a-half jobs. It found that the average mom spends 98-hour work weeks on parent-related tasks. It didn’t improve during the pandemic, where surveys found that among employed parents who were working from home, mothers (more than fathers) said they had a lot of child-care responsibilities while working.
With so much time allocated for parenting duties, it’s no wonder pursuing one’s dream—if you realized it post-baby or you’re still working towards it—can take a back seat. There doesn’t seem to be enough time. Sure, we’ve been told women can have it all, do it all (as parenting site Parents found, this is often told by celebrity moms and big-time business executives who can hire an army of helpers). However, the narrative of moms doing it all, as we’ve seen through the years, can set women up against some lofty expectations. And when you’re up to your elbows in diaper changes, making snacks in between Zoom meetings, playtime, and a hundred chores, it’s the last thing many moms need.
So what do you do when you’re still dreaming your dream and motherhood has completely taken over your life? We have a few suggestions. No pressure.
We know it takes a village to raise a child, so why hold on to the belief that moms have to do it all? When we realize that “motherhood should never be done alone” and that it’s okay to ask for help, you get to make space for other things—like your dream.
If you have a spouse or partner, it’s a good idea to also let him in on your plans, so he can help you carve time for it and do a fair share of the work with the kids and the house. In her Meet the Maker interview, Nike Nadal-Reyes of Nyuki & Co. admits she had to quit making her crochet jewelry pieces at one point as she was finding it difficult to balance motherhood and her growing business, and there was already friction at home. But she felt miserable after quitting and her husband noticed it too. “Before, it was a choice between kids and my business. Now, it’s not a choice anymore. We are more willing to compromise to make it work.”
There’s this quote attributed to novelist George Eliot,, “It’s never too late to be what you might have been.” Maybe it took a little bit of time to go after what you want, but there’s nothing like having a child that makes you face mortality and realize this is it, this is the one life we have.
Of course, with motherhood taking up most of our time, you can simply do it bit by bit. Listen to a podcast or watch videos of your favorite artists or entrepreneurs on how they did it. Take it from Nike who experienced having to give up her dream before. While she admits it can still get overwhelming, “what changed was my resolve, my stubbornness, because I experienced quitting and I know how it feels when it’s all gone.”
If you’ve decided what you want to pursue—whether full time or as a side hustle—make a plan. Have Gantt-chart making skills from a past life in corporate? Make use of them now. Get some printable planners if that suits your style better. Even a rough timetable and what actual resources you will need will be helpful.
Cat Limson of Bedazzled Accessories shares a step-by-step guide to start a profitable retail business. From finding a business idea you want to run with to deciding if you want to do it solo or with a partner, finding suppliers to product development, Cat brings her 15 years of experience to help anyone of us with dreams of having our own ventures.
When you’re a parent, routines are one of the things both your child and even yourself need. According to educators and child experts, routines and scheduled activities are important for children as it makes them feel more confident and secure when they are in familiar surroundings and predictable situations. It helps them to feel in control and safe.
Routines are also beneficial for us grown ups. Aside from helping manage anxiety, stress and even insomnia, it also helps with creativity and productivity. In this Headspace piece, it presents that “the key benefit of routine for creative people is its regularity.” When you find a routine that works for you—when you do the chores, when you squeeze in time to work at a certain hour—it becomes a habit and it gets a bit easier to free your mind for other things that matter.
When you start to feel like you’re just on a loop (a familiar feeling particularly during the pandemic), Common Room’s Maan Agsalud shares in a previous interview about working from home, that you can always ask yourself, ‘how can I do things better today?’ While she appreciates having a routine each day, she finds that you can also “make tiny changes in your life, bit by bit on a day-to-day basis. It gives you the opportunity to try to do better.”
When it comes to pursuing your dreams, you can ask yourself each day, what can I do to get closer to my goal today? Maybe write a page or two of your future book before the kids wake up. Create adorable plushies with some yarn and knitting needles for your own brand of knitted goodies.
A favorite quote of mine about parenting that rings so true once you become a mom, “the days go slow, but the years go fast.” Your baby is the most wonderful human you’ll ever meet (yes, we’re biased), but if if you’re a new mom, stuck at home and caring for your child by yourself, you might find yourself wondering why the hours go so slow during the day when you have to feed him, change him, bathe him, play with him… and then nap time comes and he’s awake before you can even finish your work and take a proper bath.
One of the things I wish I reminded myself more often during this time was to be present in the moment. When we’re present, we appreciate what’s right in front of us—from our baby’s every adorable expression and milestone to an hour of me time wherein you get to invest in yourself. You’ll have fewer regrets this way, and hopefully, you’ll also have no regrets with the dreams you decide to pursue.
Flexible working hours can mean not working 9 to 5, but burning the midnight oil even on weekends. And no amount of passion or love for what you do will make you immune from burnout. The creative process often also needs inspiration and as any creative professional knows, it’s not always going to be there when you need it. There will be times when you might feel stuck and devoid of ideas.
When you’re in a creative rut—whether due to burnout, fear of failure, or a repetitive routine—we don’t necessarily have the luxury to just wait for inspiration to hit. So, what can you do to get "unstuck” or remove the block? How do you push forward when it seems the well’s run dry? Some of Common Room’s artists and makers share what has worked for them when they find themselves in a creative rut.
For both Elly Ang and Louise Ramos, when they find themselves in a creative rut, they do other things unrelated to their work. Danger in Design maker and designer Elly heads to the kitchen to bake with her sister. For her, it still gets her creative juices flowing. “It’s a break from doing illustrations and conceptualizing, and you get a little treat in the end!”
Artist Louise Ramos swears by stepping away from work during a creative rut. “Stirring myself away has often worked for me. I never like what I'm able to come up with during a creative rut so I just don't.” She gets into, what she calls her other obsessions: video games, K-pop, books and YA novels. “Being away from art makes me miss it enough to want to do it again. It'll come back.”
When Cat Limson, the maker behind Bedazzled Accessories and three other retail businesses, is “not inspired to create or make something new,” she sticks to the basics. For a creative entrepreneur this means she doesn’t force herself to come up with new designs when she’s not up to it. “This will just stress me out.”
She knows that working on her staples, the products that she needs to stock up on for her partner shops, are equally important for her business. “So in times when I don’t feel like making something new, it’s okay, because we still have a lot of other designs to produce.”
If you can, consider stepping away from your desk or your screen. “Going to museums and galleries helps, just to soak in the art and culture,” suggests Elly. “Instead of being cooped up at your desk, go out for some fresh air…a change of scenery helps.”
It’s the same for Louise. “I like to take long walks and on some days, just bask in doing nothing. Sometimes, it takes a few days. Other [times], much, much longer. But I've always believed in seasons. There's a time to bloom and a time to just take in the rain.”
For any creative, this sentiment rings true—there are times when you get into the flow of creating so easily, other times, it’s like pulling teeth. And if you often work with a deadline, you have to carry on with or without inspiration.
So even before burnout or creative blocks come knocking at the door, artist Cheryl Owen has made it a habit to get out and hit the outdoors as much as possible. “Waiting for the motivation or inspiration to come isn't sustainable in the long run,” she says. When her schedule allows it, she runs outdoors and goes on hikes during weekends. “This resets my mind and keeps my creative juices flowing.”
Kimberly Tiam-Lee, the designer behind Pulseras by Kim has ADHD, which she says makes her predisposed to impulsivity. For her as a maker, this means “having spur-of-the-moment ideas on how pieces can be made or designed is how I usually operate.” She’s never found herself forcing ideas or inspiration.
Her creative block is not being able to focus. “With so many things going through my head, I actually need to take time to meditate and calm myself down in order to focus on working on one thing at a time,” she says.
Meditation and other mindfulness practices have been known to enhance creativity. According to Harvard Business Review, many studies have already shown its positive effects on reducing stress and how it opens our mind to new ideas.
It will be different for each of us. It can just be taking yourself out on a coffee date for an hour, diligently cleaning all your shelves for the entire afternoon, or going on a quick walk around your office building because you have to turn in something by EOD.
Cat, who has to create designs for bracelets and other accessories, Hallyu-inspired items (for her brand, K-Bang), and journaling and paper products (for another brand, Stories for Sepi) gives herself time “to take in everything first and gain more confidence to actually do it.”
She explains, “Me time is very important. I make sure that I have a clear headspace before I start a project. I research, make mood boards. I am more motivated to work when I’m sure of what I’m doing.”
Hey, we’ve all been there. Getting stuck or overwhelmed with what we need to illustrate, design, write, shoot, paint, and not knowing where to start or how to begin again.
Hannah Armada of Studio Haebi shares in a previous interview about rebranding her business, that when she was afraid of making and releasing her new collection, she had to deal with her fears first. It took her a year. “You have to be patient with yourself… You have to allow yourself—even if it’s a gruesome wait, even if it takes you such a long time—to get over it, you have to allow yourself that process.”
Cat admits she finds herself in a creative rut right now as she hasn’t made anything new for the past month. She’s been fulfilling bulk orders since the start of the year and she hasn’t found the time to make something new. “But I’m being kinder to myself by letting myself rest, relax, and heal.” She’s taking it one day at a time.
There are many different things we can do to get out of a creative rut. When they don’t always work, show yourself a little compassion. Elly reminds us, “No matter how long it takes, art will always welcome you home.”
Collecting can be a fun hobby. Aside from the stress-busting and confidence-boosting benefits of having a hobby, collecting—within reason and without going into hoarding territory—can be good for your brain: it can sharpen our observational skills and even inspire creativity like how artist Joan Miro collected items from nature on his many walks as take-off points for his work.
Whether you have any Miro-like artistry you want to manifest or not, here are tips on how to start a collection.
Sounds pretty simple, but sometimes you might get distracted with having a collection that can earn you money even if you don’t care for it or collecting something just because a lot of people already collect them. If that’s the case, you might end up with a lot of, say, bottle openers, quilts, or whatever object you decide to collect and don’t know what to do with.
Elly Ang of Danger in Design has always loved collecting pins even before she started making her own. In an interview on her pin collection, Elly shares, “I love collecting things, I love collecting art and I think these are little pieces of art. I find joy and a lot of inspiration from different artists because all of these are well designed.”
Stick to collecting things you know will bring you joy and inspiration and it won’t be a waste of your time, effort, and money. Hey, it can even lead to creating your own piece of collectible.
If you like too many things or can’t commit to one thing you want to collect, take a look at the things you already have. Do you have train tickets and coins from your different trips overseas, unique coasters, or candles you have no plans of lighting?
You can also look at your parents’ house. They might have a cherished item or two that they want to pass on to you or at the very least you might find a clue to a potential collection around the things you grew up with. This way, you can start a collection with objects that are already within your reach.
Let’s put our stalking research skills to good use. Once you have decided on what you want to grow as a collection, look at Pinterest boards, search for related hashtags over at Instagram, look at online shops (ahem, commonroomph.com) to find out what’s out there and where to find the collectibles you want.
Okay, real talk. Collecting can burn a hole in your pocket, particularly if you decide to collect fine art by famous masters, rare antiques, and the like. But as graphic designer Gian Wong shares in an interview about the objects he collects to fill his creative space with inspiration, they don’t always “have to be pricey or branded,” showing a customized item amidst other objects he bought.
Some accessible items here at the shop can add or kick off a collection, too. Love art? How about an upcycled barong wallflower wall art. Want to collect affordable art pieces by your favorite artists? You can take the postcard route with postcards from artists like Cheryl Owen, Issel de Leon, and Louise Ramos.
You need to have a proper space for any collection you plan to build, whether you want them displayed for everyday inspiration or tucked away safely in a box. (What you don’t want is to end up with a room in your house that you and your family can’t use anymore because it’s completely occupied by your collection.)
We’re all for displaying a collection because it can make for a happier space and you won’t need a big display cabinet or wall space when you’re just starting out. Some you might be able to just put on by your desk like magnets or art prints, or on your bedside table like the stacks of notebooks and pads you love.
Collecting can be a way for us to #makejoyfulpursuits. While certain objects can definitely bring some sense of joy or inspire us in our work, it’s also essential to keep in mind that as long as we’re able to appreciate people over stuff, we’re good.
However, with our long list of to-dos and the everyday noise of modern life, learning how to live more mindfully can be a challenge. We eat lunch in front of our laptops to get more work done, scroll through our phones while we’re with someone, or delve into negative self-talk when we remember a past mistake.
As author and educator Elizabeth Scott, PhD, writes, learning to be present in the moment can be a way of life. While there are mindfulness exercises we can do regularly, small adjustments in our routine can also be done so we can become more mindful each day.
One of the ways to teach ourselves how to live in the present is to take a few minutes to sit (stand or walk) and pay attention to our senses. When you do, you may start to notice more things happening around you.
According to mindfulness expert, Jane Bozier, it’s a good practice “to become more aware of your thoughts and feelings as they occur.” And when you become aware of them as they happen, it’s best to take a non-judgmental stance, which is one of the key attitudes to support a mindfulness practice.
When you care for your plants (like this soothing plantita vid of Roma) or get a chance to sit in front of a pottery wheel, for example, as you focus your attention on that particular activity, resist the urge to label what is happening. “Oh, another plant is dying, I really don’t have a green thumb,” or “This mug is starting to look like a bowl, this is wrong.” (Hey, if we can take anything from our chat with Pau Javier of Wabi Sabi Studio, there’s beauty in imperfections.
There are many benefits to keeping a journal. Artist and journaling enthusiast Nica Cosio reminds us of this in her Meet the Maker interview. For her, it becomes her time to tune in with herself and quiet down her mind. It is a chance to write down our emotions and how they affect us.
Journaling is recognized as a way to practice mindfulness as it can help “process and identify actions around your emotions.” When you take the time to journal, put pen to paper, it helps you become more self-aware, stay focused, and as Nica shared in her interview, journaling makes her feel grateful. (You can start on your own journaling journey with a few here)
When moving from one activity to the next or sitting down to drink tea (or coffee), even using the bathroom, practice taking a couple of deep breaths and “coming back to the present moment.” The Seleni Institute, a non-profit focused on women’s physical and mental health, writes that it’s one of the small ways we can practice mindfulness.
If, like illustrator and visual artist Louise Ramos, you have your routine in the morning—your “me time”—you can turn it into a mindfulness exercise, wherein you pay attention to what’s right in front of you (this cup might help you focus). Then notice when your mind starts to wander to the future (oh, those unopened emails) or the past (was the work you submitted for work good enough?), bring it back to the present.
As Seleni advises, it’s also easier at the start to try to be mindful in the moments that bring us joy. Eventually, it will be second nature and you’ll know how to avoid getting overwhelmed when something stressful happens.
We all know having a fitness routine is good for both our body and mind. According to Bozier, it’s also one of the six steps to get started with mindfulness as it helps relax the mind. Whether it’s through the gentle stretches in yoga or an outdoor run with your dog, exercise helps us to be fully aware of our body and our breathing. It can ground us and keep our focus on what we’re doing instead of having our mind jump into what you should be doing next or what you haven’t crossed off your to-do list just yet.
Crochet jewelry designer Nike Nadal-Reyes recognizes the benefit of working out after a full day of caring for her family and her business, because it’s the time when she doesn’t have to think about anything anymore. Think of exercise as a way to get some mental decluttering done to help free up your mind and find clarity when you need it.
It’s one of the best ways to improve our ability to be mindful, as meditation also teaches us to become aware of the present moment. According to PsychCentral, mindful meditation, particularly, is about focusing on our “breathing, thoughts, feelings and sensations as they arise.”
If you’ve never done it before, meditation might seem challenging, but you can actually start with as little as 5 minutes a day using a meditation app or a YT video. Remember to take deep, slow breaths, you can also look into different breathing exercises, and if you want to further soothe your senses, open up a reed diffuser… and breathe.
As we take any of these steps to becoming more mindful, realize that when we forget to be present, it’s simply a chance to pull our attention back to what’s right in front of us. It’s okay. You can always try again. Only when we keep trying do we get better.
Healthline cites studies from Stanford University and UCLA that show that when women maintain these kinds of social connections, it increases serotonin–the happy hormone or “natural mood stabilizer.” The UCLA study even found that women, in times of stress, don’t just have a fight or flight response. We release oxytocin as part of our response to stress, which basically compels us to “tend and befriend”—tend to the kids (if we have them) and connect with other women. Oxytocin is known to counter stress and produce a calming response.
It’s no surprise that a much-needed catch up with girl friends often leave us in a happy and reassured mood. While not all friends are created equal, there are different types of female friends who are definite keepers; the ones below are just some we’ve luckily had in our lives. And we’ve got some ideas on what you can give them as a token of thanks for their friendship.
Want the honest truth about something—that new guy you’re dating, your decision to quit (or stay) in your job, that third pair of shoes you can’t afford—you can count on this friend of yours to dish it out. She makes you accountable for your behavior even when it’s hard to admit your mistakes. Because you know being surrounded by friends who only say yes is not good for our well-being (or wallet).
Gift ideas: Give her a taste of her own truth medicine with a dose of humor—try statement mugs like these or enamel pins that speak your friend’s truth (eg. “Do no harm but take no shit”).
Ever come across a kindred spirit? Someone who thinks like you, likes the same things you like, and often senses it when you need someone to talk to. There’s something comforting knowing we have a friend who totally gets all our crazy sides.
Gift ideas: This should be easy, anything you want to have for yourself! If you both have a sticker addiction or only have each other to gush about paper products, check the goods at commonroomph.com.
When we second guess ourselves, she’s the first one to offer reassurance and support. Made a bad decision? Your cheerleader friend has pep talks ready to encourage you and keep you from spiraling into a pity party for one. She can also balance out your truth teller bestie when the truth bombs get too painful, and all you need is kindness, unconditional love, and a can-do attitude.
Gift ideas: Instead of pompoms, show your cheerleader friend your appreciation with some flowers that will last as long as your friendship or Scrabble pillows because she’s just as comforting.
Do you have a go-to confidant? This is the girlfriend who knows how to listen and more importantly, keep some of your most heartfelt confessions just between the two of you when you’re not yet ready to share it with others.
Gift ideas: Gifts like a beaded chain necklace or a bracelet can be cherished presents to a trusted friend.
When you meet up with your girl squad, we’re sure there’s always one (or two) who amps up the energy of the get-together as soon as she arrives. She’s also often the person dragging your introverted self out of the house. She easily makes you and others laugh with her quick wit and humorous way of looking at things. And hey, with the state of the world, we all need to laugh. These kinds of friends can help you see the funny even in hopeless situations.
Gift ideas: Let your friend proudly wear her personality with some quirky, funny pins and patches like this iron-on patch or this button pin that might speak of their motto in life.
She’s the first person you reach out to when you’re down in the dumps. She can also be your truth teller, your cheerleader, kindred spirit—she can be any one of those things but what’s certain is that time spent with this friend means seeing somebody be strong for you when you’re at your lowest.
Gift ideas: Make sure she knows you also want to be there for her and that she takes care of herself. Being a rock for others can take a lot as well, essential oils for her or a reed diffuser for her home can help for a soothing space.
Let’s remember to celebrate the different types of friends we have who show us what healthy female friendships are. Thanks to these women, we get to have a support system—cheering us on when we have wins and lending a hand when we need it most. Happy Women’s Month!
Elyu continues to lure people for the beach, the surfing, and the lively social scene. But aside from those obvious attractions, it is also known for its pottery making. When you’re not on the beach, head over to the artist-run pottery studio in San Juan, Putik Friends. You can book a class on wheel throwing (and even a self-portrait on terracotta) or browse their gallery and shop.
Watch: Get some initial pottery-wheel throwing tips here.
Puon Bookshop is a neighborhood bookstore cafe in San Fernando, La Union. Drop by to find some good local and international titles, gift ideas and local crafts. It has held talks with authors, zine workshops, and even impromptu art jam sessions. All proceeds from the shop support the Alfredo F. Tadiar Library, which is an independent library focused on Northern Philippine communities.
Shop: You can also find comic books by local authors and artists, here.
After this little island became known as having some of the best surfing spots in the world, the tourists came in droves. When you’re there, take the time to support the local shops and restaurants, even better if they make it their mission to give something back to their community like Lokal Siargao. Its community space, vegetable market and snackbar are at the Hub. Drop by for their workshops, game nights, and iced coffee.
Read: Learn more about why shopping small has a big impact, here.
Designated as a “Creative City” by UNESCO a few years ago, the summer capital of the country is brimming with spaces that nurture artistic expression. It has Tam-Awan Village, the BenCab Museum, Ifugao Woodcarvers’ Village, Oh My Gulay and the community art space there to name a few of some of the city’s long-enduring creative spots. Ili-Likha Artists’ Wateringhole, a relatively younger establishment that was opened by National Artist Eric de Guia (Kidlat Tahimik), is also a must-visit.
Just behind Baguio Cathedral, Ili-Likha appears like a dreamy, strange, maze-like treehouse one assumes is what it's like in the mind of Kidlat Tahimik. There you can stumble upon local handicrafts and artwork celebrating Cordillera culture, a mosaic-tiled rainbow staircase, different quaint food kiosks, and even a theater.
Watch: Get creative and try painting with this how-to video
Its many islands have been ranked some of the best in the world, with its beautiful beaches, clear blue waters, and lagoons. In the municipality of El Nido, you can get all that and be inspired. You can also get some creative inspiration at Kalye Artisano. The sprawling retail hub provides local artists, artisans and traditional craftspeople a space to carry their works and products. You can also find cafes, a noodle resto, and activities that pay homage to nature all around El Nido (foliage art, anyone?).
Watch: Learn how to build your own retail space for artists and makers, here.
While it has one of the most urbanized cities in the Visayas, the province of Cebu still has plenty of island charm and cultural interest that makes it an ideal holiday destination. When you’re done with its beaches and historic spots, head over to Qube Gallery in Crossroads Cebu for contemporary art and HoliCOW Gallery Store at Streetscape Mall for sustainable, locally-designed furniture and houseware.
Watch: Do you have your own art style? Here are a few tips to find it.
However you define joy, it’s something we all want to experience and practice. It can mean different things for us. It can also be the same. Here, we find out what joy means for some of Common Room’s makers and artists.
“Joy, for me, is getting in the zone of creating something. That moment when your hands start to tremble out of excitement. You can already imagine the end result and feel, smell, even taste
your creation, while not physically being there yet.”—Lala de Leon, Simoy ng Haraya
Watch: How this Filipino perfumer grew her business during the pandemic
“Joy is being able to create art without the pressure of numbers and social media bogging down my inspiration and creativity. To be able to fully create what I want and not what the market or the algorithm wants. Joy is being able to spend time with the people I love.”—Elly Ang, Danger in Design
Watch: Enamel pin designer Elly Ang offers encouraging words to anyone starting out
“Joy is waking up each day and realizing I have the best job in the world—a full-time dreamer who gets to breathe life to her ideas and share all these with other fellow dreamers. Joy is knowing that this job allows me and my husband to be full-time parents to our baby girl and be a mom who gets to witness her every milestone in life.—Roma Agsunod, Popjunklove and Common Room
Watch: What it took to build the retail business that Roma calls “the best job in the world”
“Joy for me are quiet mornings while making art in my studio. It gives me joy to be able to pay the bills while doing what I love.”—Cheryl Owen, artist
Watch: For Cheryl Owen, choosing art as her career was the best decision for her
“Something I've been trying to remind myself a lot more of is ‘if you enjoy something, then it's never a waste of time.’ Joy, right now, is these pockets of time where I get to worry less and just appreciate that whatever I do is enough.”—Louise Ramos, illustrator
Watch: Learn from Louise Ramos how she juggles a day job and freelance art projects
“Joy is being able to tell our client's stories through jewelry.”—Kimberly Tiam-Lee, Pulseras by Kim
Watch: How a jewelry maker grew her passion project into an independent jewelry brand
“Joy for me can be found in the little things—leaves sprouting, walking around on a nice day, hearing birds outside even if I'm in the city, seeing dogs playing and chasing one another. When you hear an old favorite randomly play on Spotify, when you catch a movie that made you cry, corny jokes, a good cup of coffee, when your Grab arrives early. Coming home to a made bed, clean dishes, a cold bath, getting on a call with my niece, sharing memes with friends, receiving a funny reel, making a mess for the sake of just making. For me, intentionally seeking those tiny joyful moments every day, no matter how inconsequential they seem, are essential building blocks to a life of happiness.”—Maan Agsalud, Popjunklove and Common Room
Watch: How Maan and Roma started Popjunklove with only P5,000
“Joy means each other. Our personal and professional lives are both deeply rooted and heavily shaped by our interactions and relationships with our people and the environment. We create, and persist in doing and living in the hopes of everyone being able to enjoy what they want freely. Our joy is in witnessing and supporting each other's growth and in intricately creating spaces of care and safety so that everyone may also live with freedom and joy.”—Mako Micro-Press
Rekindling an old hobby–an activity you regularly do for the sheer joy of it–can also teach us a few things and we don’t even have to start from scratch. We also don’t need another lockdown to have an excuse to revisit hobby from the past. Because just like a good friendship, you usually can pick up where you left off. Here are five things you can learn from picking up an old hobby.
Research has found that in times of overwhelming stress, there’s a natural instinct to feel nostalgic, because it helps us become accustomed to a new reality that may be jarring or stressful. So it’s no surprise that apart from longing for the good ol’ days when you were a kid whose only goal for the day might have been to catch Kim Possible or Invader Zim after school, a childhood hobby rekindled can also provide some stress-busting potential.
Did you like to experiment with the bottles of toiletries and scents on your mom’s dresser growing up as soon as she left for work (don’t judge)? Or did you prefer to get your hands all muddied, digging in the garden to plant mango or watermelon seeds? Watch how to make a natural skin balm if you’re still curious about making your own scented concoction or get some plantita inspiration from Maan Agsalud with her indoor garden tour.
When our parents encouraged us to have hobbies when we were kids, it wasn’t just to get us out of their hair. Hobbies can boost a child’s confidence. And if there was a hobby you got into as a kid or teen, which you abandoned when the adulting became all too real, it won’t hurt to try your hand at it again.
Revisiting something you were good at can give you a boost in confidence, especially if you’re not in a good place. Were you into photography (get a few tips from our DIY Product Photography tutorial), playing the uke, or impressing everyone with your crocheting projects (here’s how to make your own crochet scrunchies)? Time to schedule some ‘me time’ with your old hobbyist self to remind yourself how awesome you are.
When we pick up an old hobby, the nostalgia and joy it brings might come naturally, but the other things might take more time. If you were into painting or sketching, for example, and had abandoned it to try something new, getting back into the groove of it and finishing a piece might take more time. It’s okay. Doing something worthwhile often takes time. The great thing about picking up an old hobby this time around is that there are loads of video tutorials on YouTube for you to get some tips.
For painting, you can get watercolor painting tips from Cheryl Owen or a how-to from Marie Lama. If you need tools, you can check this at commonroomph.com.
When we find ourselves stuck in our current job or wondering what our calling is, turning to our old hobbies can open many possibilities. In a CNBC report, there’s science to back how having a hobby can make for better work performance and overall health.
There’s also a chance that rekindling an old hobby can open up the possibility of turning it into business. With all those hours spent doing calligraphy or lettering, have you ever considered doing it on the side? From having a game plan to building your online presence, turning an old beloved hobby into a business can be done.
If for nothing else, doing a hobby you’ve always loved allows you to be fully present. Remember losing sense of time and just being completely immersed in something? Practicing mindfulness in everything we do has a positive impact on how we cope with stress and has been found to decrease depressive symptoms.
Whatever your old hobby used to be, from doing embroidery to designing, just because you said goodbye to it before doesn’t mean you can’t welcome it back. It might not yet be done teaching you a few things.
Being able to bounce back from difficult situations instead of throwing in the towel is essential to success. It seems like a no-brainer: You stay on course and don’t pull back the moment you face a wall and there’s a chance to reap the rewards of your labor. As Common Room’s Roma Agsalud shared in this interview on business struggles during lockdown, “continue with your plans, even if it’s not showing any results. Not all the seeds you planted won’t bear fruits.”
Having a resilient mindset though doesn’t always come easy. It takes a few habits to cultivate resilience, so that when you face failure or crushing disappointment, you know you’ll still keep moving forward.
We don’t mean don’t take risks or not put yourself out there. Certainly, do those things (more on that later). But when you make a mistake or experience a setback, it’s best to “practice positive self-talk.” We’re allowed to make mistakes so reassure yourself of that. Take comfort also knowing that oftentimes, it all works out in the end. They might sound cliche but they are true and sometimes they’re just what you need to hear to pick yourself up and try again.
When artist Hannah Armada of Studio Haebi attended a 2-day bootcamp on auditing one’s brand to pivot your business, she was told that there wasn’t anything special about her brand. Understandably, she felt hurt and her confidence was shot.
While she felt sorry for herself at first, Hannah started asking herself some hard questions. She prepared a spreadsheet of what the brand strategist asked her and turned it into a sort of journal, writing down all her thoughts, particularly on her reasons for starting Studio Haebi in the first place. “I just gave myself and my brand a space. It’s okay to take time to figure out where you’re going as a brand,” she shares in the 10 Hard Lesson on Rebranding interview.
Being able to journal (yes, even in a spreadsheet) or getting into the habit of creating a gratitude list even when you’re not facing a setback, can help you keep things in perspective when those dark days do come.
Crochet jewelry designer Nike Nadal-Reyes has a full plate raising three kids, managing a household and her crochet accessories business, Nyuki. As a mompreneur, she considers that the challenge for her is to make time for her business after all the family and home tasks are done. But that doesn’t mean all her hours are solely divided between her family and her business. During the pandemic, she shares in an interview that she sets aside time for herself at night by working out. “It helps keep my energy up, because I need the energy and that’s my me time.”
Whether it’s working out at home, doing several laps in the village pool, or taking regular walks around your neighborhood, setting aside time to be active is a form of self-care. Many studies have already seen how almost any form of exercise helps with relieving stress. So when you do experience a crisis, you already have a physical activity to help you cope with anxiety or stress that may arise from it.
Not being afraid of stepping out of your comfort zone is also a resilience-building habit. Whenever we do this—from volunteering to do something at work that you’ve never done before or just trying out a new hobby—we get a chance to grow. However, this often involves some level of discomfort and growing pains.
When Common Room was struggling during the lockdown, Roma shared in the interview how exhausting it was becoming—their savings were getting depleted and they were doing everything since their staff couldn’t work in the stores. She and her team held on because of all the makers and employees depending on them. Roma discerned, “It’s not really what’s comfortable for you.”
Some of us get into the unhealthy habit of doing everything ourselves. For instance, if you’ve turned your passion project into a business, it’s easy to think that everything will get done faster if you just do them all yourself since you know your brand the best. In a Forbes article about building resilience, it highlights the importance of cooperation (vs resistance) when faced with an obstacle. One of the key takeaways: how we spend our energy is key to resilience.
Kimberly Tiam-Lee of Pulseras by Kim, in a previous interview with Common Room, shared that when she finally hired somebody to help her in her minimalist custom jewelry business, “It did wonders for my mental and emotional health. It also gave me space and room to think about what’s next for the business.”
The more we let go of the idea that we can control everything—either by doing everything on our own or micromanaging—the more energy we have to focus on finding solutions when problems come our way.
Whether you still see the value in making resolutions or not, setting intentions for the year to help manifest your dreams are always helpful. When we set intentions, we can use it as a guide to our daily life, directed towards creating new habits to help manifest or achieve your goals. From psychology journals to even business publications, setting intentions are encouraged—even considered more effective—instead of making resolutions many of us fail to keep.
Chinggay Labrador, author of the book Practical Magic, tarot reader and host of Your Weekly Oracle podcast, agrees. What she has learned from British writer and teacher, Susannah Conway is that setting intentions is a lot more useful than giving yourself resolutions. “For example, your resolution can be, I’m going to lose 10 lbs this year. That’s very limiting. Either you do or you don’t, that’s very surface level.”
For Chinggay, who’s been doing tarot readings professionally for five years (a couple of more years previously for just friends and family), “When you set an intention—which I think is what’s behind manifestation—you’re a lot more open and you get down to the essence of the resolution.”
In her example of losing weight, she says the essence behind it can be that you want to feel good about your body. So by setting an intention, ‘I want to feel good about my body,’ it can open up to so many other things. “You will be able to see it manifest in so many different ways, you’re not just stuck with losing the 10 lbs.”
So how do you make the shift from making resolutions to having a more open mindset about setting intentions? Chinggay gives us a few reminders on knowing what truly matters to you and the power of intentions.
Intentions can “help you stay oriented toward your goal” even when you’re thrown off course, because it’s connected to what you truly, deeply want. However, if you’ve spent years ignoring what you truly want (you didn’t think it was possible, you were afraid of failing, or for one reason or another), then intention-setting can pose some challenges.
Chinggay recommends to channel your inner child and keep asking the why behind your goal “until you can’t ask why anymore.” Maybe you want to open your own store, make your own skincare product, or pursue a career in art—ask yourself why. It sounds simple enough, but you have to dig deep to understand the emotion fueling that yearning.
When it comes to setting intentions, what has helped Chinggay for almost a decade is finding your word for the year. Conway provides a free workbook to “uncover your power word.” As Conway writes in her ebook, you can’t “break” a word like you can break a resolution.
A word, like BEGIN for example, is more open and it can guide you through your day, whereas a resolution—like, stop procrastinating or enroll in a painting class by January–can either be too vague or limiting and easily set you up for failure. There’s also a tendency to judge ourselves when we don’t meet the specifics of our resolution. (And really, we can always look at ourselves with more compassion.)
When it comes to manifesting or even setting intentions, less control and more openness is better. Chinggay admits it’s a hard lesson to learn—”that you have to surrender.”
But she has seen that when you want to take control so much of what you want to happen it can become detrimental. “When you’re holding it so tightly, if you’re so controlling and close-minded, you’re not allowing things to flow and take place. That’s a big block.”
When this happens, you can lose sight of the fact that there are so many other ways for what you really want to manifest. “You need to be open to possibilities,” advises Chinggay.
Should you decide to find your word, there has to be a practice that you need to do so you don’t lose sight of your intention. Chinggay found the monthly check-ins with Conway’s workbook to be helpful so she doesn’t lose sight of her intention. “[When] it’s so ingrained in you, it’s going to come out in the choices you make.” You can also do journaling if you want to write down your intentions, revisit them, and track your progress.
For her, while we remain open, we also have to be responsible for our intentions. When she does tarot reading, Chinggay admits it’s only half the equation. The other half is about the recipient processing the reading–what made sense to you and what are you going to do about it? “Nothing’s going to happen if you don’t take any action. I think that’s what gets lost with a lot of people talking about manifestation.”
One more thing to remember when we set our intentions, Chinggay says, it has to expand our world.
When we have to move forward, make a decision, or we’re faced with something unfamiliar, we can feel either anxious or excited. Chinggay’s advice: we have to tune into it to recognize what we’re feeling. “Does it make you want to contract, get smaller? Does it make you nervous because you don’t want to face it? Or is it making you nervous because you’re taking a big step, because you know it will open doors for you?”
Knowing what you truly want, setting intentions, they all have to start in a place of truth. After that, the future is wide open.
Mabel has been a writer and editor for many publications including a teen fashion mag and a book on the most endangered Philippine trees. She spends most of her time writing, illustrating, stalking Common Room’s online shop, and making ferments. Together with her sisters, she co-created startersisters.com to celebrate fermentation and eating more plants!
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