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...

"Mamma you and me we are horse girls"  Mila is playing with plastic horses, soft toy horses, barbie horses, riding on her stick horses or running around being a horse most of the time. While we are here in Khimki, Moscow we have a stable 10 min walk from us. The stable is cute and the lady who runs it nice but not really the same standard as I am use. It is fun to have chance to let Mila ride the little pony Marta and to hang in a well known environment but still so different. For example look at the tiniest stable aisle how the manage to get big horses in and out is for me a mystery.  

We drove down town Moscow today ( no traffic so it only took us 20 min... Amazing) Parked in our old neighborhood at Shabolovka and walk to Gorky Park. Gorky Park is my favorite place in Moscow. A park full of life and always somethig cool going on. A modern and artistic park with great food places, Garage Contemporary art museum, play ground and view over Moscow River. Today it was boiling hot sunny weather and we had a great time. It was fun to see Garage museum new building impressive and funky. The Urs Fischer clay YES project outside was super cool. 200 ton clay used for the project. 

We are back in Moscow and will be here for a few weeks. Great to be full team all together and to hang in our second home for the last time before we move from here. It feels like home vacation, home but at the same time far away. Crazy how much stuff we have with having furniture's and equipment for two homes and now we will soon have to store everything from here in Lundsätter.  The flight over went well but it is certainly no walk in the park travelling by myself with 1 year old and 3,5 year even it only takes 2 hours ( thank God!) I have a lot of experience travelling with and without children and here is my best advice: Plan your hand luggage well with snacks, toys and more snacks Trunki bag is the best invention ever (expensive hard plastic bag for kids with wheels that the kids can ride on) I don't know what I would do without Trunki with a tired 3,5 year old and hundred kilometers to passport control. With Trunki she can just hop on and ride and me easily pull and h...

I have noticed a big cultural difference that I am trying to get use to, but it is hard. Sweden has cold winters (or should have or used to have at least) same goes for Moscow I am expecting minus degrees and snow. The difference is that here they are kind of compensating for the cold outside temperature with extra super warm inside. I mean 25 degrees seems to be normal and many people I see use shorts and t-shirts as indoor clothing. In Sweden normal is around 20 degrees inside it is warm but not summer hot and you still need to add a layer of wool to keep toasty and warm but it is pretty comfortable I think or maybe its because I am use to it.  So here I am sitting in our kitchen and sweating in 24,7 degrees and can hardly think straight.  Floor heating and also radiators. Why I don't turn the heating down you might wonder.. I do. But unfortunately in order to get the heating system to warm up upstairs I need to keep a higher temperature on the thermos...

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...

Team Nikolovski is using the opportunity while we are in Russia to try wine from this region as that is something we can't get hold of that easily back in Sweden. So Italian, French, Spanish, South African and Portuguese wine has to wait and instead trying Russian, Belarus, Moldavian etc types of wines. So far we haven't found one which really fits our taste and I decided to start to take pictures and reviewing them here so I can keep track of what we have tried and if we find something we like it is good to remember. Todays wine was very rich but way too sweet. For you my dear friends in Prague not doing wine for 40 days I never said I join that challenge only the no sugar challenge... 

Of course you want to see how we live in Moscow. For many me included I had no idea how to picture life and living in Russia, Moscow before we moved here. I feel even a little embarrassed to admit that I was really suspicious and thought that here is much more undeveloped and primitive than Europe. But I was proven to be wrong and I am very positively surprised with many things here. Yes I do know that we are very fortunate and can pick and live in nicer areas not having to see the ugly faces of this big city. Because of course every place has good and bad sides more or less. As Loren's office moved further out from city center we decided to also move so instead of spending 1,5 hour in traffic to work ( on a good day) now Loren only has 5 minutes drive and we have much more time together. Before we lived very central and walking distance to Gorky park & Red Square, very nice indeed but the benefit of the Team spending more time together is priceless. Also I love the fact tha...

What has happened.. This Halloween thing is really spreading everywhere.. Even here in Moscow pumpkins, ghosts and monsters in every other window.  I remember when I was 10 years old and for the first read about Halloween in my first English textbook. It was a very american celebration and now it seems to be established in Sweden and also here in Russia. At least in my neighborhood. Me and the kids went over to a neighbors place for lunch on Friday and she was preparing making small candy bags to hand out to all the kids coming for Halloween. Did Team Nikolovski remember to prepare and buy any treats? No of course not. I was partly thinking that maybe they will not knock on our door as we are new. But MY GOD the kids dressed as ghosts, zombies and monsters started coming around seven o clock and after that the door bell rang every 10 minutes!!! Last group rang at 22 and but that time we had really cleaned out everything containing sugar. Horrible feeling being soooo unprepared a...

It is hard to move as I have mentioned before. The fact that I know things will feel home and we will meet good people give it some time is hard to remember when your little girl looks at you with sad eyes and says " Mamma I have NO friends here!" I tried to sound positive and replied "but you have me!" and she just looked at me and said " But I want a friend like Malou here that I can play horse with!" Hmmm nothing to reply or discuss just let the mamma heart break and then take action.  So I took action and wrote on like three different expat parents in Moscow Facebook pages to introduce us and to ask if anyone one else living in our area and fancy to meet up. I also wrote to International women club Moscow and a Swedish group who are organizations to connect internationals in this huge city. Yes maybe I felt a little embarrassed like billy no mate asking for friends but I thought what the hell who cares and in the end of the day it is 2015. Also wh...

Yeah it is horrible the first snow fell last week in Moscow, 8th of October. I repeat 8th of October!!! That is like at least one month too early. I was just about to get depressed when I saw Mila's happy reaction. She is very much into Walt Disney´s Frozen and didn't even have time to eat breakfast before heading out to play in the snow. It was fun to play in the snow for about 30 minutes and thanks god the snow is gone now and please no need to come again before 1 December.. Förra veckan föll den första snön över Moskva och la ett vitt kallt täcke över oss ett par dagar. Åttonde oktober är för tidigt för snö, ja menar nog för att det är fint och så men inte i oktober! Kom igen i december då är jag redo för dig. Mila blev superglad iaf, hon är ett stort fan av Frost ( en Walt Disney film om en prinsessa som kan förvandla allt till is och snö....) Vi hann knappt äta frukost innan hon ville ut och leka i snön. Jag fick leta fram hennes vinterkläder från förra året och insåg...

First week back in Moscow. I am unpacking boxes creating home slowly but surely. It is great so much space. I can focus here and there to organize and to find home for everything, no rush. Or that's what I am trying to tell myself. I am so eager to get things how I want it and to unpack every box. But I am trying not to stress it and I think I am doing a pretty good job this time. The area is very cute and it feels like a great decision to move here instead of living down town. But it does take time to settle in and feel comfortable for all of us. I have moved so many times that I know that it is no walking in the park this with moving, but I also know that with time we will feel home and find our way around. I thought I with all my experience moving to different countries would feel calm with the knowledge that I will feel home and find great people just give it some time, but I can't help getting a little stressed and want to reach this stage now now. I guess that's wh...

Big part of Team Nikolovski will be out of town for sometime now when finally the beautiful spring season is coming to Moscow ( no not bitter that we survived the ugly cold winter season and will miss from what I have heard the best season in Moscow) We have done I don't know how many pro and con lists what to do and came to the decision that we will use our Sweden home as base for sometime while baby number two will be born. Logistic reasons and to have family close when we go from three to four is the main reasons behind. We have during these few months after Christmas managed to get more use to our Moscow life and so it feels a bit strange to leave for a while. But also great to be able to have the best of two very different worlds.  What I have learned from our time in Moscow so far is: - All the Russians I have met is much nicer, helpful and service-minded then my expectations - In the playground all kids are everyone's, babushkas will make sure that the kids are dres...

Here is some pictures from last weekend when we headed to Red Square. It was pretty busy as we arrived and the main street was closed of because of national holiday in Russia, Defender of the Fatherland. The holiday celebrates people who are or were serving the Russian armed force but also like a Russian version of Fathers-day. It was a lot of men in uniform waving flags on the streets and people watching them.

Yes today I could feel the spring in the air here in Moscow. I know that this normally happens in February and that you get terribly disappointed when the winter comes back as a boomerang. But hey lets nit be to negative about it and enjoy the spring signs instead. Me and Mila walk to Gorky park where we enjoyed the sun, coffee, danish smörrebröd, play ground and nice big puddle of water.  

I got inspired to create some new funky kids hats. Might be because of a little feeling of spring in the air even here in Moscow. And yes ready to change the woolen hats for something new and light asap. I mixed some colorful jersey fabric that I have in my now pretty big fabric collection. The black giraffe is a favorite as well as my turquoise circus fabric designed by great Swedish illustrator Ingela P Arrhenius . Also I am this season into grey tones and found this fabric with farm animals in Prague before we moved and like to mix it with something bright. If you are interested in any of my funky hats on your funky kid just drop me a line. I make three different sizes ( 1 year, 2-4 year & 5-6 year) 

Here is some pictures from our Moscow home. We live on Shabolovka street in a small complex of 4 pretty tall buildings. And everything you need you have in reach within these buildings. Small shop which we use more frequent then we would ever dream off, like an extra fridge. Yoga and kids studio which I am planning to utilize but still haven't. Hairdresser and beauty saloon. Dental cosmetic clinic and ski shop ( I know very random..)  We live in building 2. Our building has 20 floors and amazing view over Moscow center from the top, so I have seen on Instagram, we live pretty close to the ground and have a horrible view over a factory on one side and new very tall fancy colorful building complex on the other side which is still under construction. Our dinner table next to the kitchen. The built in art work window that I hated when we moved in I am slowly starting to not only get use to but actually like I like our kitchen and especially this part with ...