Today me and Mila celebrated another little friends first birthday. I have been working on her present for a couple of weeks and I most say I am very happy with the result. I got great ideas from the mother of what she would like, the group of small friends in a Prague environment as a great memory for the future. So here they are... Rozie and birthday girl in the middle, Mila and her baloon, Loki walking around, Manon crawling and Lisa checking out a present. Significant for Prague is the astronomical clock on Staromeska (Old town square) Charlesbridge and also Narodni Divaldlo ( The national theater)

Today I found great illustration inspiration in my friends kitchen. Sweet explanatory illustrations from her Japanese cook book for young children caught my attention. I love it.   Oh yeah and I also ( as discrete as I could) looked through her food cupboard and found interesting products and cans. Especially this silver shiny can that I just had to check out a little closer. Sorry Miki for sticking my nose in your cupboards but it is just so exotic for a Swede like me and it brings me for a little moment a little closer to Japan.  

Sometimes I find great inspiration in the most unexpected places or is it the inspiration that finds me.. For example the other day in this pretty dirty kids play-corner where the bacterias and cold viruses are hanging out with dolls, teddy-bears and mini tractors ( petrified every-time of what we will bring with us home as I let down my wild one year old who likes to put things in her mouth..) I looked up and find the walls nicely and cutely decorated by hand on the coffee and cake theme. What do you think? Ibland hittas inspirationen eller inspirationen hittar dig på oväntade platser. Som här omdagen i den smutsiga lekhörnan där dockor, bilar, bitringar och bakterier trängs ( lika rädd varje gång för dessa bakterier när jag släpper ner vild ett-åring som har myror i brallan och som gillar att stoppa allt i munnen..) På väggarna dessa söta små målningar på kaffe och kak teamat.   

Finally the winter and a little bit of snow came to Prague after all this nice and warm weather. I decided to make the most out of it and to grasp the winter wonderland before it is all gone again. Started the day with a nice coffee and some play (in dirty play corner..) in cute Café Pointa. Crossed the street to Lethna park, the park that has the best view over the city. White and snow and very very beautiful. A nice walk and many pictures and also great photo coaching. Great a few more days like this and then I think that is enough. The downside to snow is the extremely dirty car and stroller, salt that destroy my shoes and all the extra clothes, but who would think about that now when it is all so pretty..

In the Nikolovski houshold every spare minute is used for practicing the art of walking. Faster and faster along tables and chairs. From chair to mamma. From pappa to mamma and back. Holding hands and holding no hands. Bending knees up and down up and down a al going skiing but I have now skis. Careful careful practicing and getting better and better for each day.

New season and a whole bunch of new fabrics have been bought for coming spring collection. I found nice fabrics by Dapper made by pinkstudio in a latky shop here in Prague. Bright Green, cerise and warm yellow colors makes a great cheerful combination. Cotton jersey fabrics to be turned into sweet clothes for happy, active and funky kids. I have been making a few tops, dresses and scarves so far. I am also waiting many new funky fabrics ordered from Sweden which will be included in my spring collection.

Here comes some sort of a summary of my 2013... My year in three words  ( Thanks for the idea Alexander) Love, Happiness & Creativity. Love because it is amazing how much love I feel for our mini member ( which is also a product of love) and that it grows more and more and stronger and stronger for each day (even when she doesn't want to be in her stroller and complains load and clear.) Happiness is also what this little amazing person has brought us this year. I am so blessed that I get to spend my days with this little sunshine. Creativity has always been part of my life but this year I have really taken my creativity to new heights or actually it is my creativity that has taken me to new heights. I have been illustrating a lot as well as painting on canvas and also sewing projects that I started this Autumn. So inspired of my everyday life and blessed that I have a baby that likes to sleep in mammas lap while mamma is multitasking with drawing, painting, watching Sw...

Just after Christmas we packed our bags and headed to warm weather and to celebrate New year in paradise style. In Paris we met up with the rest of the family. After 12 hours and a sleepless night on a freezing plane we arrived to Mauritius airport. The sun, heat and the high humidity gave us a warm welcome. We got to see some of this green and lush island as we drove to our hotel on the other side of the island, Grand Baie. Beautiful hotel Le Mauricia with nice pools and with white beach and turquis water only a few steps from our rooms. Do I have to say that it was more then nice to feel the warmth and the sun (when we finally managed to change our sweaty jeans for something lighter)  We have eaten a lot of seafood, fresh exotic fruits and croissants from a great bufé. Although some of the company mostly enjoyed the pizza, pasta and the ice cream. We have been swimming a lot in clear salty water and Mila floating around on her yellow duck and made happy ahh...

This weeks topic on Illustration Friday is Time Time should I draw a clock in some cute shape or form ?  No for me time is something more like - Oh I have time, I do a bunch of stuff or I do nothing and all of a sudden I am running out of time and ends up late ( only sometimes :)) And when I am realizing what time it is and that I am not really ready at all this is what I look like... Kind of calm on the outside and pretty stressed inside ( I make my husband even more stressed..)

I had the ambition to create a cute little gingerbread house with icing and colorful sweets as decorations. But I didn't. I as you can see above also had the ambition to at least draw one, but not even that I managed to finalize. Oh well the great thing is that the same traditions comes back next year and the year after that so lets aim for another year...

Time has flown by and especially December was a pretty fast passing month. Here comes a short summary of what has happened in Team Nikolovski household during December. 20/12 Birthday party in the house for our mini member who turned one year, wow already one year. It has truly been one amazing year ( I will right more about our first year as parents in a later post) We had a great party with a super sweet bunch of wild small people and their nice mothers here to celebrate with us.   Christmas preparation in moderate doses. I did all my Christmas shopping together with everyone else in Prague and annoying asking myself why the hell I couldn't have done this in November when all the shops were empty when I anyways only needed a few things to get here and there. I made some fudge which I eat very quick together with far too many gingerbread cookies weeks before Christmas ( go figure what my new year resolution will be..) Great granddad/ granddad Sven-Hugo came from Sweden...