Saturday morning Team Nikolovski woke up to a winter land. White fluffy snow was falling down and covering streets and balconies in a white dress. Pretty, but wait a minute it is only October and way too early for snow!! Mr Nikolovski who is following weather forecasts with a special passion knew that this could happen. He has for sure tried to enlighten me about this, but my ears most often chose not to register weather forecasts. The snow came as a shock to me. I had no idea and had planned to replant my flowerpots this weekend. Now instead my poor geraniums were covered under a heavy blanket of cold wet snow together with the newly bought autumn flowers. Typical!   My childhood friends Titti and Tess were spending the weekend with us in Prague. We had planned to enjoy the weekend strolling up and down Prague's streets in nice warm sunny autumn weather. Now instead we had to dress warm with hat and ...

Illustration Friday is an online forum for illustrator´s and artists at all levels. At this forum I can read articles, blogs and get inspired by people from all around the world who also loves to draw, paint and illustrate.  Every Friday afternoon a new topic is presented on the forum. Everyone who wants to participate illustrates something on this topic and share it on this forum. A small online exhibition is created in this way. The topic works as a good inspiration, motivation and is a great challenge. It is also very nice to see other illustrators interpretation of the same topic and get new ideas.   My inspiration to last week´s topic sky on Illustrating Friday is the season we are in. Autumn is so pretty and magical with all the powerful colors and shades. Crispy fresh air, cold winds, wet, muddy parks but so so beautiful when the sun comes out. I imagine that I could fly around with the leaves up in the sky. Up there I can enjoy the be...

Mr Nikolovski asked me the other day what the point is with my empty frame that I have hung on one wall. Even though I think it looks pretty cool like it is, empty, I do have a plan to put something in the frame eventually. My plan to action process can sometimes unfortunately take some time, but in this case I promise I am working on it!! This is at least my first prototype and a good start. I will get back with the finish product when or maybe if I manage to produce something that I am happy with. For now we have to enjoy the empty frame, but at least it has a great bright turquoise color.   En tom ram = Ett nytt projekt Mr Nikolovski tittade undrande på en tom ram som jag nyligen spikade upp på väggen och frågade vad syftet med denna färgglada men tomma ram var. Jag tycker att den gör sig ganska bra tom, men kan meddela att ja jag har en plan att fylla den med något. Den kreativa funderar processen har påbörjats i mitt huvud, men så ska det ut på pap...

  Autumn and all the autumn colors have really reached Prague. It is beautiful with all the bright impressive colors surrounding the city. I love this season even though the dark mornings are killing me. Unfortunately the weather changed a couple of days ago from nice, warm and sunny to grey, foggy and cold. Team Nikolovski have had great visit during last week, granddad Sven-Hugo & Ellen. They have explored Prague, enjoyed Czech beer, came with us on a day trip to Dresden, been telling interesting stories about old relatives and their stories. Together we've made Folkesson traditional Christmas sausages, gone shopping and we've had great help to keep the flat nice and clean. Thank you for coming and visiting us I hope you come back in the spring when the sun is back..     Höstiga färger och trevligt besök På beordran skriver jag några rader på svenska. Google översätt är magiskt men hittar på en del språ...

I am writing my thoughts regarding that Sweden together with Germany, Belgium, Holland & Luxembourg has asked to reintroduce visa for Macedonian citizens. For some for me unknown reasons they want to cancel the visa-free agreement that was introduced in December 2009, where Macedonian citizens are able to travel within the Schengen area up to three months without visa. This is on the top of all the news in Macedonia, but on Swedish sites I cant find a word about this never mind any explanations. Why no information and what is the reason for this reintroduction? Sweden is claiming to support Macedonia in their development and also to in the future be able to be integrated into EU withing the future. With this background it is even more strange that Sweden now is building walls for this European country and its two million citizens, the word is nothing but hypocrisy.   Varför dessa murar ? Varje tidning och nyhetssändning i Makedonien di...

I have no idea where I got this idea from or actually I do...  I am still not sure if my latest haircut was a success or catastropha, I guess that inspires me in weird and unexpected ways... This is anyway my contribution to Illustrating Friday on this week topic mirror . This is a naked and pretty ugly truth that can happen to us all...

IPhone is a marketing phenomenon with around 37 million units sold worldwide. Team Nikolovski is not one of them fallen for the phenomena.  In matter of fact the whole phenomena is so absurd and feels more like a sect than anything else. IPhone has taken marketing and branding to a new level and has managed to create a new buyer-seller relationship. New factors seems to be driving the demand and supply, where the consumers are more than willing to wait long time for new releases as they are caught up in the world of Nextopia. Nextopia where our expectations of what are coming will be so much better then today lives. IPhone has created an exclusive feeling including gadgets and aps that will entertain it's users at all time. As an outsider the whole thing looks so bizarre. I have never seen people so proud of a technical device before. They hold them, touch them and can hardly stop looking at them. IPhone people are so proud to be an IPhone user that they f...

This weeks topic on illustration Friday is Book. This gave me many ideas, however sometimes the time isn't enough.  I remembered an illustration I made beginning of this year on the book theme and decided to reuse it.  

We have been fed with sooo much food during our trip. The Balkan food and the way of eating are amazing. It starts with meze containing cheeses, salad's, bread, aijvar, salami, ham, tomatoes and much more. At this face of the meal I am very hungry and there is so much nice, so I eat and I am every time eating too much. Seriously it looks like this is the main dish as it is so much food, but  this follows by a nice warm soup and more bread. This is also very good and after a portion I am really starting to get full full. Don't think this is the end, oh no here comes the main dish or dishes I should say. I have no room for more food but it smells and looks so good that I have try to make extra room and continue to eat. A big piece of a very tasty homemade cake finishes the meal of. By this time I can feel that I have eaten far too much and that the food coma soon will kick in. The question is why the hell I don'...

Skopje has really treated Team Nikolovski with great super warm October weather. 34 degrees in October is unusually even for Macedonia. We have had a good time even though it was very busy to work daytime and to have the chance to see family and friends at the evenings. The long trip and full schedule all week has got us to realize that it is time for me and baby bump to start to slow down a little. I am sure that the nice weather made our mini member to grow quit a lot last week.    Our general feeling about Skopje is that they are trying hard to make it shine and that the city center is really looking extra ordinary with all the giant statues and new buildings. The diversity is radical, as beautiful the surrounding landscape and city center is as ugly some parts are. Also you can clearly see the diversity of the residence of Skopje. You can feel and smell all the different flavors like a mix of different spices. Some flavor...