The past few weeks have been busy here in the Nikolovski household. On top of everyday happenings I have been very productive creating hats, scarves & bibs. My sewing machine has gone warm and I even have muscle ache in my right buttock from all the acceleration on the sew machine pedal. Colorful fabrics has been turned into cute and wearable garments. Also I have ordered postcards of some of my illustrations, hard work to find good printing business for good prices and also to know what I actually want and how I want to print it. I have tried a few different and is more happy with some things and know for the future what and how to do it next time.  Little Mila is such a supportive little lady, while I work with my stuff she is fixing her stuff... That includes to put all her toys all over the room, pull every book from the selves she reaches, throw all the fruits from the fruit plate on the floor (also tasting here and there) change some settings on my computer, hid...

A few weeks ago me and a couple of friends and babies returned to Maluj Kreatini Kavarna in Vinoradhy ( Prague) Here you can combined a good cup of coffee with creativity in pottery form. Also a playcorner although very dirty for the kids to entertain themselves. On the selves there is a lot of different pottery in different size and form that you can pick and choose what to create on. I decided to make a plate and bowl for and together with Mila. Mila cooperated and contributed with her hand-print, great way of remember this mini hand in years to come. Fun day for everyone mothers as well as babies, although mothers could've stayed a lot longer then the kids. The pottery got sent of for burning and glossing and yesterday I picked up the final products. It looks pretty cute and can't wait for next time..

Here is my contribution and interpretation of expat life featured in Winter issue of Bridge magazine for IWAP ( International Women Association in Prague)

Today has been a beautiful day here in Prague. Cold or actually freezing and clear sky and bright sun. Every time I walk over one of the bridges over-viewing  the river and Prague's beautiful facades. The impressive castle in one direction and Vyserad church in the other. And I get overwhelmed of its beauty and for each time I fall a little bit more in love with this magical place. Sunny and clear days like today make it even more beautiful and magical. Pretty often I take pictures of this view and the photo never make the view justice I guess it has to be seen live.  Strange that I have picked this illustration with a girl inside on a rainy day you might think. This is an illustration I made before I went out today and is a proposal to a job for a children book about a little girl called Hazel. Many different illustrators can make a proposal and bid for the job. I thought the job sounded like a cool project, so fingers crossed. 

I am currently working hard with my kids clothing collection - Made with Love. Warm, colorful and funky hats, scarves, bibs and dresses are in the making. Check out my webpage to find out more CCillustrator I which I had great and cute little helpers like these three that could give me a helping hand here and there.

This collage of my dogs is my contribution to this weeks theme Tail at Illustration Friday...

I have decided to make cards of some of my illustrations. This time I have chosen to go with my dogs, cats and horse. The cards will be a little bigger so they can be used as small posters as well. Also a few bookmarks and also I am looking into making smaller tags for presents or a short note to someone you love. I am very very excited to see what they will look at.. I will have cards for sale and if you are interested you can send me a mail on info@ceciliabooknikolovski.com. Here is some of the illustrations that I am waiting for.  

Team Nikolovski LOVE books Loren has a special and very passionate relationship with bookstores. He can spend hours in there. He tak great proud in buying, smelling and reading books  I also love to buy, smell and read books  Mila loves to eat books... When she thinks we are not watching ( well sometimes she doesn't really care whether we are watching or not) she uses her small little teeth and eats the corners of her books. Not just like a little bite and spits it out oh no no this little girl actually eats pieces of her books and she is very fast so we won't stop her. All her books and some of ours now have eaten corners. When will she stop with this and just enjoy to smell and read them like her parents??

I have ordered labels/tags or what to call them for my sewing projects. I am very excited to see what they will look like and to place them on my creations. This is the design I have ordered . What do you think? Where I will put them? Yeah I am producing cute and colorful dresses, bibs, scarves and hats for babies and kids. I will make a bigger presentation of my collection soon, but here is a little preview. If you are interested and want a closer preview do not hesitate to contact me.

       Lets celebrate numbers with a nice cake 100 likes on Team Nikolovski's Facebook page ( If you are not one of them now is you chance.)  And this blog has now passed 10 000 views  Great and thank you for following!

På nedervåningen hos morfar Sven-Hugo har det funnits en ståtligt lampa så länge jag kan minnas. Ja eller när jag var yngre lade jag väl kanske inte direkt märke till lampan, mer än att jag tyckte att det var lite festligt att tända och släcka lampan med hjälp av två små snören. Den stod där brevid den där röd/oranga fotöljen som det gick att snurra fort i och som i sin tur stod brevid en gammal spinnrock som det inte gick att sticka sig på som i Törnrosa. För några år sedan blev denna lampa min. Jag hintade nog ganska kraftigt till morfar att om han inte använder den så kanske kanske den skulle göra sig bättre hos mig. Den flyttades upp från källarplan till ett ljusare plan. Från Vingåker till Örebro och sedan vidare till Prag. Lampan var från början morfars moster Frida's lampa. Mäktigt på något sätt att den har fått lysa upp livet hos en gammal släkting som jag aldrig träffat och nu hos mig. Undra var och när hon köpte den.. Tyget på skärmen har jag låtit sitta sedan den ...

Det har varit lite tyst och tomt här. Vi tappade fotfästet lite. Hamnade i en mardröm som jag nu hoppas att vi är på andra sidan av. Molnen har skingrat sig och nu känns det nästan som vanligt igen. Fast jag har men, jag känner på liten pannan och tar tempen stup i kvarten. Kollar ännu oftare att hon andas och vill ha henne ännu mer nära hela tiden. Jag är räddare än räddast för bassilusker och virus. Men herregud var har hänt tänker du. Det var hemskt och det värsta jag varit med om. En torsdagsmorgon vaknar av att Mila får en attack av något som sedan visar sig vara feberkramp (snällt ord för något så otäckt) ambulans till sjukhus och blev kvar där i en vecka. Infektion, feber, tester och antibiotika. Ledsen men modig baby. Ledsen, hjälplös och rädd pappa. Ledsen, hjälplös och rädd mamma. Allt ställs på sin spets och man inser hur skört allt är. Vi har fått fantastisk vård och fint stöd från alla håll. Mila mår bra igen och är piggare än piggast. Its been a little quiet here for...

Man tager vad man haver, så löd väl ett av Kajsa Vargs uttryck ( vem var Kajsa Varg egentligen?!) Sagt och gjort. Symaskinen stod framme. Kände att jag behövde en utmaning och ta mitt symaskinskörkort, som jag tog på Säfsta skolan någon gång på slutet av 80-talet, till nya höjder. I min tyggömma hittade jag detta tuffa bomullstyg från IKEA. Tog en av Milas klänningar som en slags mall och here we go. En gammal fleece filt fick bli fodret. Spetsen längst ner införskaffade jag på en loppis någonstans i Kinna trakten för några år sedan för 30 kr. Tyckte det var ett svinbra köp då men har i ärlighetensnamn tvivlat på hur bra det köpet var tills nu!! Passar ju perfekt på denna mini kreaktion. Som grädde på moset fick mina röda plasthjärtsknappar pryda axelbanden. Inte illa pinkat av en trähäst som min gamla mattelärare Sture brukade säga alltför ofta. You take what you have - is a literally translation from an old Swedish saying. And it means basically that, use what you already have at h...

  Say no more this is how I have been feelin for a few weeks. It is no doubt hard to be nine months and growing and developing. So much to learn and on top of this growing teeth ( it most be very painful indeed) and of course you need your mamma close to you 24-7. But it is also pretty hard to me mamma and to support the small one 24-7. Thank God it seems that we are now approaching the other side of this big and hard development phase. Hallejuja!!

Autumn is a beautiful season no doubt. We all seems to be amazed and impressed by all the beautiful colors of the autumn leaves that are transforming our landscape and slowly preparing us for cold and dark season. Just go on Instagram and it is currently full of leaves from different countries and perspective. It is touching how we worship the yellow, red and orange leaves, nearly as mush as when they first come in the early spring. I also love this season. Fresh, bright air on a sunny autumn day. All the vibrant colors all around us, so strong, beautiful and powerful.   Time to buy cute and warm scarfs woolen hats, socks and gloves. Light some candles, make hot chocolate and scones and enjoy it in front of a good movie.   All good, but new for this year is the panic over what and how to dress the smallest member of Team Nikolovski. Is she warm enough ? Can she move in all the clothes?  Is she too warm? Do we need overall, jacket, rain-gear and ...

Mamma Mi ordered a profile picture. The order specification was as following: Make me intelligent, kind, economical ( BA teacher) and good-looking. Here comes my reply.   Now Mamma Mi I know you want to leave a reply and I know you can do it. Do it ! Click on the letter at the end of the post, choose anonymous user (if you don't have a Google account) write something and send it !!

There is this hill that I face driving down to Andel where I park the car when me and Mila is going down-town. This hill is amazing, so many colors and powerful shades. Each season is so magical. At the moment the hill is changing costume to warm autumn colors. For everyday more orange and yellow is coming through. I love it. So beautiful and magical.

Thank you P!ink!! Thank you to making my baby stop complaining, screaming and making her fall asleep. When nothing else work we put on your songs and she will listen intense and calm down. Your CD:s has come to be one of our most important things of all things we owe ( who would think that..). Always on in the car. Some kids use dummies to relax but this crazy baby of ours listens to your music. Here comes her top three songs: "Just give me a reason" ( works every time and sometimes we have to listen to it over and over again..)  "Perfect" ( Plays over and over in the car at the moment and I am starting to get a little worried that one of her first words will be Fucking perfect..) "Don't leave me" ( she loves this rather violent but fun video)

Were we really this silly before we had a baby? What did we spend our time doing before?  Is it really that fun to see us pop up in the doorway and say tittut in a loud voice? Or maybe she is just being polite and laughing to make us happy.

Before you read any further this is a little warning!! This post comes from a proud mother who wants to remember important dates in her babies development... Mila was for weeks doing some rather weird movements and getting very frustrated. I was also getting frustrated think that she needs to have a plan with her movements in order to succeed. But what I didn't know was that she had a plan and on 4/9 she manged to go from stomach to sitting up. My God that proudly smile she gave me after mission completed was to die for. A new world opened in front of her.     And she continued to practice different moves. Getting more frustrated. Frustrated over the fact that she was reversing instead of moving forward. I had to give her a helping hand her and there, for example when she got stuck underneath the sofa over and over again. And finaly all the frustration and practising paid off once again.. On 15/9 ( actually the date of our 2 year engagement annivers...

Mila is 9 month and 1 week exactly today. As a proud mother I use this forum to show off her new development ( you know I also promised myself not to do that before having a baby, but the need is just stronger then me....) She has really expanded her interests and recognizing objects that is fun to point out. Lamp ( lampa) is still of course most interesting and fun to point out, but now in competition with her two rubber ducks ( var är ankan?..) Stevie ( named after Stevie Wonder) & Whitney ( after Whitney Houston as she has a bodyguard looking scarf on) Airplanes ( flygplan) no wondering considering we live close to Prague airport and their route for the past few months has been straight over us ( according to Mr Nikolovski they should change direction very soon, but it never seems to happen..). I could write a long post about how annoying this fly route is but lets instead be happy that Mila likes airplanes and got to see them every few minutes and that it is very very con...

More and more often pappa takes Mila when he goes food shopping. Mr Nikolovski  loves to go food shopping. I don't share his passion. But I love the fact that Mila share his passion. Great some time to myself and only myself... The house to myself. But as soon as I have waved them bye bye I already miss them. And also I get a little panicky with the big question  How do I best spend my time? Should I start the sewing project that I been thinking about for weeks (maybe even months), do I paint something, read something or just relax. I get a little overwhelmed and paralyzed. So I just simply do some washing. 

Together is a nice topic. It is nice to be together. Together we are stronger. We are better together. Etc etc. I like these two illustrations on the topic. The first one symbolize the great togetherness we these days can find through Facebook. My friends all over the world are close but far away. I can keep in contact with my family in an easy way. Also helps to find new groups and friends. Here in Prague BBT ( bumps, babies and tots) has been a lifesaver. Here you can find play-dates, friends, questions, answers, many opinions, different opinions and many nationalities. Second illustration is an aquarell about being together and having fun together.

Today me and a friend took our little girls to a new playground here in Prague. A big soft carpet to practice standing and crawling. Different toys to play with. Relax area. Big slide and swing set. Cute place. Everything was creatively hand made and not so plastic as other play places I have been to. I am sure you can find this kind of places in most countries. But I am not sure that they all serve beer, wine and cocktails in the bar. At least in Sweden you can forget about it. In Sweden the strongest you can get is a coffee and there they talk about mothers who heavily consume cafe latte while being on maternity leave "latte morsor". Here in Czech republic Pilsner/Staropramen/Slatopramen, you-name-it-pramen mothers. Great idea is it not? I am sure the playground will be much more fun after a couple of beers. Can you imagine it.. Mothers laughing, talking load, running around, crawling, sliding down the slide in crazy poses after a few drinks. Who said that the playground...

Illustration Fridays topic this week : Totem  My totem is colorful and playful. I am pretty pleased with the result and framed it together with one of my colorful aquarell patterns.

Little Mila is turning 9 months in a few days. Wow how did that happen?! Already 9 months!! She was so small when we took her home from the hospital and that feels like yesterday. At the same time it feels like she has been around forever. She is developing and learning new things everyday. Such a sweet girl and it is amazing to be with her.  I remember wondering why lamp is one of the first words babies learn. Now I know. Mila is fascinated by lamps in any size and form. She scans every room for lamps and points them out. So cute.