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...

And so I finally found my camera in all moving mess and can do a short update what has happened lately. Lets move back a bit. End of October Team Nikolovski said bye bye to beautiful Prague. We have really enjoyed our time and made Prague our home so it was very emotional to pack and leave. I think it is the place that was the hardest for me to leave. The size of the city is perfect, the beauty and it is a very comfortable way of living. But hardest was to say bye to our friends that we have made and that Mila has grown side by side with since she is born and they have really become great friends. We have had such a great play dates and lunches and will miss it a lot. We knew that we most probably was not going to stay in Prague but even so hard to leave when you feel nice and comfortable somewhere. Prague will always have a special place in our hearts and will always follow Mila in her passport, you never know maybe we will be back one day, but for now Thank you very much Prague fo...

Reusing this autumn illustration of me  Team Nikolovski's adventures continuous and it has been a lot going on with moving from Prague to Moscow with a longer then planned stop in Vingåker, Sweden. Updates are coming very soon I promise!! While staying in Sweden a lot of creativity as a result of the limited access to internet but to show it I have to transfer creativity to computer ( not my favorite part of the process). Also I am drowning in boxes to unpack here in Moscow apartment. God damn it I am so super extra bored of unpacking boxes and trying to organize things as I want it. I know it is fun to make it nice and home but first Lundsätter and now here, is there an end to it? And I still can't find my stars and advent lights for this weekend. Moscow has treated us well so far, but we are just getting use to the neighborhood really and UNPACKING BOXES. I will be back soon with more moving details and moving thoughts. Mila and neighbour cat at Lundsätter on of many...

Not far before Team Nikolovski is moving from Prague. Me and Mila is squeezing the last out of these days with great friends. On our to do list before leaving Prague was of course to visit the zoo. Together with Miki and Lisa we had a great visit this morning. Autumn grey but not so cold day. We managed to time lunch during a shower of rain.  Mila was mostly impressed by a muddy water puddle she found next to the elephants but gorillas was pretty fun also. I was super impressed by pappa gorilla, such a big animal. Also I liked the polar bear who was having a great swimming show for us. Prague zoo is cute, tidy and well organized. I can highly recommend a visit here. 

To get little M to sleep has lately been a struggle ( read nightmare) and I am going insane!! I am not proud of my lack of mood control and I know she is not not sleeping by purpose, but MY GOD she drives me crazy. I mean which human being would keep calm during endless bedtime? Or is it just me ? First tired happy to go to bed then it starts waving arms and legs, need of water (ever 5 minutes) and after a while she says "namnamna" hungry (even though she has already had big porridge and sandwich just before bed) Please let this phase pass asap or else I will go totally insane !!!

Good Monday morning!! I moved my blog to my webpage on wordpress and I have really tried to feel at home there, but I just can't get use to that environment so I am back here at Blogger. I hope my inspiration and more frequent updates will return now when I am back "home". 

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...

Mila turned 1 year & a half while we were in Sweden. I can't believe how fast this year and a half has past. It is amazing to see this little girl grow and see all her new skills and funny ideas. During our stay in Sweden her linguistic skills burst out in bloom and all the blabla start to make more and more sense and formed more cute little words . This is a mammas proud memory post about her new words. Mila is already a big Pippi Longstocking fan and she is saying Pippi in the cutest way and wants to listen to Pippi song all the time. Ko (cow), kaka ( cookie) & boll ( ball) is also new words frequently used .   But maybe her most important and useful word is mormor (grandmother) which is making her grandmother extra super proud. She wakes up asking for mamma, pappa & now mormor. And aunty Sofie she calls Bee

Team Nikolovski is back from a great week in Sweden. Midsummer time is amazing with the light nights and it is easy to loose track of times ( read remember to put Mila in bed and to feed her in decent time..)

I have taken great pride in organizing Mila's own corner. Millions of books, cuddle toys & plastic things. On the wall she has mamma's illustrations and mammamade pocket organizer as well as cute french dresses. I have also bought nice wooden boxes that I am having fun painting and decorating. It is cute that she has her own little space and she likes to play here although most of the time she transfer toys from her corner to the living room or actually spreads them out in the whole apartment.

Team Nikolovski is packing.  We are heading to Sweden tomorrow to celebrate Swedish midsummer We will head to Lundsätter to stay with my dad and to breath some quit forest air.  Midsummer eve ( always third Friday in June) we are heading to my mothers summer place where preparations for midsummer started half a year ago.  We are a pretty big gang and we have already received roles, responsibilities and a detailed schedule for the day. This is a summary of how our day will look like! Collect flowers for the maypole, make the maypole, Eat herring lunch & strawberry cake and sing snaps songs and drink snaps. Dance around the maypole, Midsummer Olympics with 6 different competitions, BBQ, Campfire, sauna and swim in freezing lake & at midnight hotdogs. After this we will sleep very very well I am sure!! If you want to know more about Swedish midsummer here is a fun video for dummies!!   Swedish Midsummer for Dummies    And why ...

Summer heat came to Prague last weekend and has stayed But I mean heat heat as in 35 - 40 degrees Celsius It is HOT outside and it is HOT inside I am dreaming about a cool pool And a big cool cocktail

Today I finally made a comeback in the yoga studio A great class on Tuesday mornings for mothers and their walking kids Great studio and best teacher  Nice to stretch and to relax Or actually forget the relaxing part Sweet cute Mila is having fun but also needs assistance from her mamma Running around collecting all candles in the room In need of a snack (bribed to keep happy..) Asking every two minutes "what is that?"( in swe "ä dä?") Heartbroken when she wants the same toy as the other kids until her mamma finds a replacement fun activity. And ever so often needs to come up to mamma for a cuddle especially if yoga teacher come too close or touch her mamma. If you live in Prague and looking for great yoga teacher, check out Wellness Yoga

  He is not only inspiration to my illustrations he is also the cutest and wildest pensioner I know. Nantwich Lad aka Spot came from England to Sweden as a birthday present for my sister 16 December 2004, 10 years ago!! It was a cold and snowy winter that year and he was acting as if he had never seen or experienced cold, snow and ice before. I lived in England at the time and I was helping Family Smith to ride their young horses. They had this very furry pony that was not doing a great lot. He was old already back then and had had an injury to one of his front tendon "Why don't you send Spot to you sister?" Cheryl asked me one day. I thought why to send that hairy old thing with bad legs all the way to Sweden. As I got to hear his history I realized that this pony is just not any old pony he is a very special pony with a extra big heart.  According to his passport Spot is born 1981 and I have heard that he was bought on Beston cattle market as a young pony...