During our Christmas break in Sweden I was going through my studio at Lundsätter.  There I have all my arts and crafts supply, paintings I have made, notebooks with stories and diaries, all my calenders saved, Illustrations I have drawn, photos I have taken and all sorts of stuff I have sewn. We were sick most of our stay in Sweden so that gave me a chance to go through things ( not that I can trow things even if it might be needed no I like to reorganize my stuff and I am a true hoarder)  Also decide what I should bring to Germany as Loren was driving the car up and down this time. I have boxes and boxes of illustrations I have made mainly used here in the blog 2012-2014 and I want to go through the pictures and maybe do something more with them. Can I create a story from the pictures I already have is one thought also maybe make small prints and of course sort them and put them in Mila and Filip albums now when I have time. It so much fun to go through it all and I found th...

Debatable success rate in parenthood when your 5 year old daughter is asking whether you are bribing or threatening her to do something.....

A bit late update.. Team Nikolovski has had a great weekend with a lot of birthday celebrations for our little Mr Sunshine who turned 2 years old. 2 years old and such a great little character and really our bright mr sunshine. Sometimes we wonder how it is even possible that we managed to get such happy kid with the most catching smile. He is strong willed little boy with a mind of his own. His Santa pyjamas on this picture is hard to ask him to take off and drama when it needs to be washed. "Aaaa" he calls it and gets very angry that he can't have aaaa all day every day. Is interest is driving around on the bobby car or pushing little stroller around filled up with his tools. Shoes is another interest of his. He likes walking around in my, Lorens or Milas shoes and sometimes different sizes and shapes of shoes at the same time. At the moment he climbs everything. Pushing chairs around and climbing up on kitchen top or tables. Eating sitting on top of the table otherwi...

I am truly crap in writing lately. Not that I am not creating things or pre-thinking what I am planning to write or lacking funny stories to write.. But I just simply doesn't manage to put pen on paper. I know not end of the day but kind of feel bad if I let go of my blog it is my way of getting me writing and being creative in words together with my illustrations. Ok enough about that... Here is not a vey new post but I never got a round to post it so here it goes.. This is a memory from 2016 Halloween. Last year we were in Ivakino Moscow and the kids were ringing on our door bell every two minutes asking trick or treat. AND I had forgotten to by sweets. It was going on for hours and at first I found sweets that we had got from the company for Christmas the year before but after given away last bits of chocolate, nuts and fruit it felt like a never ending nightmare. This year back in Sweden no trick or treat as we live million miles out in the forrest and no kids can get here....

Do you remember your first love? Or love maybe more your first boyfriend ? Ok yes maybe same thing I don't remember if it was love but I do remember my first boyfriend. I was 4 years old ( i think) he was in the same group at my kindergarten. My kindergarten was called Myrstacken (Anthill) and it was the best kindergarten in the whole universe. My teacher Irma was the best kindergarten teacher one can have. My boyfriend was called Gustav. He always used to make jokes about my surname, Book. Every time we were gonna read he was laughing and asking "are we gonna read Cecilia Book?!" Very funny!! NOT! I got sick and tired of these jokes and one day I told my kindergarten teachers that I had changed name to my mothers surname, Folkesson. The teachers changed all my name tags and my mother was very confused when she saw my new name tags but somehow agreed and I change to Folkesson even in all the official registers... Gustav could not understand how I could pick fish and p...

This is a couple of illustrations from my sketchbook journal I made while we were in Moscow from our local park Tolstoy Park in Khimki. The park is great and has all sorts of fun entertainment for kids and adults. Playground, mini zoo, carousels, dance stage, restaurants, cafés, selling corn on the cob in every corner and a sandy beach. Team Nikolovski headed there on a very warm July day. It was very warm and sticky. Me and Mila went for a walk while we left Loren and Filip in the playground. Our plan was to check the beach out. Both me and Mila got super excited that people were in the water so we run back to tell the rest of the team to hurry up and lets go in the water a bit. I was like "we are going to beach hurry up and bring the swim-wear" and Loren replied "Are you insane!!! Who would consider going in the water in a river in MOSCOW??" and I was like "yeah but there is lots of people in the water..." and Loren started to wave hands and speak ver...

While I was going throw my Moscow studio and arranging for moving everything end of the summer I found this map of Prague which I started but never finished when we moved from there. It was indeed a very emotional move leaving a place that we all loved and with great friends around us to the unknown life of Moscow. This map illustration I was planning to have on the wall as a memory of Prague and our cool group of friends. But because of all the emotions I think I never managed to get it done back then. It is on A3 so pretty big and I will try to get it finished and framed when it will get here in Sweden.

I continue my sketchbook journal with an illustration from yesterday morning. I was in the bathroom getting ready to head in to town when the war out on our patio kicked off. My dad had just woken up came over to say good morning and I handed him Filip to look after while I got ready. They were sitting together when Mila came and attacked them with her water gun. To attack granddad and little brother before granddad even had had his breakfast is not a good idea.... He took the water gun from Mila and sprayed her back. AND the war had broken out.. I have never seen Mila so angry.. She came in and screamed "I am gonna hit granddad!!!" "Mamma give the fly flapper I gonna hit granddad with it!!" She was so angry and I know very irritating with a mother who laughs in these situations but it was all just sounding too funny.  After a few minutes all sides calmed down and Mila apologized and granddad apologized and the peace agreement got signed with a hug.

I have bought a new sketch book. I love buying pens, pencils, papers and sketchbooks. This sketchbook is going to be my new illustration journal where the plan is to draw thoughts, adventures or everyday happenings here and there. I would love to say and to commit to do an illustration a day but that is just not realistic with everything else that needs to get done in life with two kids, two dogs, house and garden..  My first drawing is from what I do at the moment all day from morning to evening at least if I want to keep Filip happy... Filip is 1 year and is practicing to walk and need me as support. Great for my back and already bad posture... NOT... Mila is riding around the garden on her horse "Hello Kitty" we have buildt a jumping course and I am appointed judge.

I am in a phase where I am not getting around to update my blog. The internet is pretty bad out here in the forest. My computer is still in Moscow and I am borrowing my dads at the moment and we are not getting along that great. I have been busy with garden projects and before that stair project inside and many other things. But maybe the biggest reason is that I have writers block or maybe more asking myself why am I blogging and for whom am I writing. After doing some serious thinking I have come to following conclusion.I am updating and want to keep updating my blog because: I have such a crappy memory and by using my blog as a journal I will capture feelings, events, memories etc which I have noticed is gold worth especially as the kids are growing up so fast. It is away for me to sit down switch my brain on and activate my writing skills and use my English in written form. Maybe even thinking it would be good to also write in Swedish sometimes. I mean other then here I don...

Not long now before our little baby Filip is turning 1 years old. Where did this year go? Feels like he has always been around but at the same time just arrived. Since he is born he has been our mr Sunshine. Such happy easy going character that we sometimes look at him and wonder where did he come from. It is lovely to see him growing and amazing to get to know this little boy and what he likes and wants. For each day he is learning new things and developing new skills. He is now in this cute phase of pointing at things saying "dääär" ( there in swedish) not only pointing out every lamp in the house but actually poining at what he wants. Why he is still not crawling or not even really trying is probably because he is so good in pointing, charming and has so many assistants helping him to get it. For example granddad Stefan is with us a lot and has many creative ideas to entertain Filip. He has a long rope on not only the walking chair but also on the swingset so my dad can...

Me and the kids came back to Sweden from Moscow a couple of weeks ago. Mila missed her friend and activities and so did I. Winter is not so easy as it has a lot of limitations a specialy in our neighbourhood in Moscow. A lot of snow fell and even if we have lots of dedicated full time snow cleaners they never managed to get the roads clean so I could walk with the stroller probably and with Filip being so small I need him tucked in the stroller when we are outside in the cold. Also as though you might think Russians are when it comes to cold and kids they are extremly careful and so it is very hard to meet up with other kids in the area as they are being kept warm inside. I will write more about coultral difference also that I have experienced in an other post. So we are here at Lundsätter. Mila got bright and happy coming back and are enjoying seeing friends and family. Here is an update illustration I made last week. - Mila has got a ballerina dress that she wants to wear all th...

Tonight I managed to put together a memory illustration from November and our Moscow adventures. We have been here just over a month and time is really flying by not far off before we are heading back to Sweden for birthday, Christmas & New Year and Christmas II (orthodox). We have really managed to settled in here better then I ever expected and I am so happy for that. I will list some important happenings.  Happy girl  - I am so proud of Mila that I feel like throwing a big party. We started a kids fitness group twice a week in our neighborhood more or less as soon as we arrived. Mila was so shy and uncomfortable hiding between my legs holding on to me screaming mamma as soon as teacher even looked at her in the beginning. It is in Russian with Russian rhymes and songs and different exercises and I thought it would be fun to met other kids in the area. After a couple of times I thought this will never work why am I putting her through this. But she wanted to conti...

Sommartider hej hej sommartider! Sometimes but only sometimes I wish it was 1994 again, I made a couple of illustrations on this topic sometime ago. It was a warm and sunny summer Me and my best friend was playing cards on the beach all day Sweden playing good football and ending up third in the world cup and we were all signing "Digging for gold in the USA" and dreaming about football players I was laying in the grass with my best friend dreaming about the future and making rather weird foretelling lists ( hundreds of them) and then in the evening we were doing the same but inside a small playhouse where we slept all summer In the field I had a bunch of grass fat ponies to enjoy an evening canter with in the lush nature Going to riding camp with other horse crazy girls is their anything better then that? All good memories although I am not sure that I would want to be 14 for more then for one or two days again.

First of all I do miss my scanner! The illustrations doesn't really come up that well with the camera on the phone and I also don't really have the time at the moment to work on them in the computer. However here is the annual Midsummer illustration. Great memory to capture this very Swedish celebration in an illustration. As the previous three years Team Nikolovski celebrated at Lugnet, my mother and her husband's very nice summer house by the lake. The traditional herring & snaps lunch was planned to start at two o clock and the we got order to be there well in advanced. To follow this order we decided to get ready and leave the house straight away after breakfast (late breakfast but not that late...) My God it takes time to get a two and a half year old ( refused to change from pj to something more decent), a small baby (little cranky because of some tummy issue specially for this day) and a husband ready to go. To pack for this crew only to stay for a couple of d...

If I don't get a chance to draw, paint, sew or illustrate I will become crazy. But I am mean like crazy crazy and not very nice crazy.  So I am happy and the rest of my team probably even more happy that even our newest little member gives me some time ( not a lot but at least a little time here and there)  Here is a memory of May illustration I have made lately The illustration started like this   And with some more color like this.. I will go through the memories 1 ) Mila started sometime ago to ask me like a billion times a day about all sorts of objects " What does this sound like?" Not a problem when she ask about sounds of cat, dog, horse, car etc even though sometimes she doesn't agree of the sound that I make ( she is asking me even though she knows and will correct me like she is checking me on my sound intelligence...) The problem is that she also ask about noises of very quiet objects like a sandwich, a cucumber, a leaf, a tree etc. Somet...

We decided to enroll Mila to dagis/daycare here in Sweden. She was excited to start. I had explained what you do at dagis so she could prepare for the big new step in her life. First day was great everything I had promised was fulfilled. Dolls, singing, swing-set and eating fruit. For me it was harder, am I really ready to leave her ( I know only 3 hours a day but she is my great sweet companion and baby..) Also scared of all the snotty noses and germs flying around. First introduction week was great she was so excited to go and by the end of the week she even forgot about me for a minute or two.  But of course I managed to catch all the nasty germs during our first dagis week... God damn it for these nasty kids germs. I can't remember last time I was ill and now pregnant in week 36 I had to get this coughing like I thought I would cough up the baby.. Yes I have been feeling very sorry for myself but now lets look forward and hope April will treat us well ...

On a snowy day me and Mila went to the Swedish school to go sledging and drink hot chocolate with fellow swedes. Funny how the outdoor plastic cups ( skogsmulle kåsa) still looks the same as when I was a kid. Mila was happy after one time down the hill and told me that I could go by myself next time.... On our Thursday eating dinner out day Mila from out of the blue thanked the waiter in perfect Russian "Spasiba!" and there me and my two year old are on the same level of Russian knowledge... Loren has been practice counting with Mila & on the way home the other day she pulled of her glove very determined (only -5 outside) and counted perfectly her little fingers in English and then Swedish (her granddad who is professor in Mathematics will be pleased with this progress soon ready for algebra..) My baby bump is getting bigger and bigger, week 26 now I think ( with Mila I knew exactly what week and read everything about each weeks development and this time I read...

I made this illustration some time ago before our little Mila turned 2 years old as memory of her current interests. She is developing so fast at the moment with her language it is new words and cool sentences everyday. I heard somewhere that they pick up 10 new words per day in this age. To illustrate some of them is a way for me to remember as it is so easy to forget cool stuff too fast. So since this was illustrated a lot has happened so this is a recap of Mila in November 2014 mainly for me ( proud mother with short memory) so you are excused if you don't feel like reading this... She is still constantly singing or asking us to sing rock a bye baby ( Check it out on youtube... It is a super extra boring lullabye song if you ask me!!!) she also put toys in something and swings them back and forth as she sings. If me or Loren are asked to be involved in this game she will for sure get upset (very upset with crocodile tears and throwing herself of the floor kind of u...

On a Facebook page for Swedes living abroad I found the greatest inspiration to a collection of illustrations about Sweden. 198 comments (gold mine) about how we Swedes living abroad see Sweden and Swedishness. My creative jumped up and did a high five with itself (?!) and out came 6 illustrations about my favorite observations from Sweden that I recognize and that I have been thinking to myself that maybe it is just me.. But obviously it is not just me, sooo many more  also see this weird things even though we love Sweden ( for a week or two) If you are Swede living in Sweden you can jump down to the last one because you will most probably not agree or understand the other once ( no offense) If you do read them anyways and think to yourself that I am not fair and don't have the right picture, that is ok and also typical Swedish. Jag fann fantastisk inspiration på Facebook i ett forum för Svenskar bosatta utomlands. En tråd full av observationer ( 198 kommentarer!!!) som vi ut...