Käpphäst straight translation into English = stick-horse, but as I was gonna do this post I googled translation and realized is is actually called hobby-horse also in German is it called Hobby Pferd...  A friends daughter here in Düsseldorf turned two years old a couple of weeks ago and I decided to try to make her a little hobby-horse with pink mane. My last attempt to make a hobby-horse was a big failure so I was a little skeptical that I would manage. I used a blue cotton fabric as the main part and then made ears out of a stretchy jersey fabric. Pillow stuffing as filling and as made I made small mini tassel's from rainbow yarn. I went to Bauhaus and bought a wooden stick and cut it in the lenght I wanted - approx 75 cm. I thought it ended up pretty cute and the right size for a smaller rider.  When I send a picture to my friend back in Sweden I got a picture back from her daughters hobby-horse she made in kindergarten... I love it next one I ...

I have many different plans all the time what I want to do now and what to do in the future when it comes to carrier and work life. I have the opportunity while we are here in Düsseldorf to go back to my creative projects and work more in both fields of illustrating and sewing. It is no secret that my dream is to create a children's book of my illustrations.  To reach this dream it does take a lot of hard work and dedication. I have to admit it is much easier to be employed and have someone who puts deadline on your work and where you know what to do and that you have to do it.  Being free working for yourself is great but I can also choose to do other things during the day which is not leading me towards my goal. Also the feeling of being needed is easier to reach if you have a job to go to. It is a mind setting if I see what I am working with at home worth something or not and it is defiantly a privilege to be able to try to make my dream come true.  Still my plan...

My husband thinks I am crazy when I say I need to spend time in the stable to recollect energy. I understand him when I take a step back and look at my stable life and how it is to have a horse as a hobby I can full see how crazy it must sound in a none horsey persons ear. I go to the stable where I am mocking, making the bed, preparing food, change rugs, carry water etc etc etc and this I call my own time a break from taking care of the kids..... And I go and take care of a 500 kg animal instead and call this relaxation... It sounds crazy but it is good for the soul and I am happy my husband might never fully understand it but accept it and helps me so I can have Qina. For me to just be in the stable and to all things a horse owner has to do and to get to ride a few times per week is where I collect all the extra energy I need. 

Yes it is sort of life changing this with me starting working again. It feels good that I started on a nice level with 3 days a week even though these days are very intense. New carrier path as a teacher is no walking in the park, but I like challenges and to learn new things so I guess this is just what I needed. I am trying to stick to my mantra to do things good enough. That doesn't mean that I don't care or that I am doing things bad it just simply means to do things good enough and not to stress over things or striving to be perfect. Already now I have problems not to over work or over think things but hey it is hard to teach an old dog to sit. Kids and their granddad has been at daycare introduction for 3 weeks but I will write more about that in other post. Last week not only did we buy a new car we ( read me) bought a horse. Yes it is true I BOUGHT A HORSE. I am sharing it with a friend with great knowledge about horses and who also have worked professional with h...

I love these orders of family portraits. It is so challenging and fun to try to capture people and their personality in an illustration. This order I got from a friend to draw a friend of hers and to give the illustration as a present. I got some information and pictures to work from. In this case I had a lot of picture material on internet as well as she is one of Sweden's best dressage riders sucessfully representing Sweden in the last world championship, Jeanna Högberg . I sat up one evening and made this drawing and worked a lot with bright fun colors. I am happy with the result and hope that they also got happy with it. 

Last day of April, an old Swedish celebration called Valborgsmässoafton. Witch craft, fire and a lot of drunk people if I would make a very short summary of what this tradition represent. This year it was very windy and pretty cold so we decided to give the big public outdoor fire and fireworks a miss and instead enjoyed a nice warm fire inside at my mothers summerhouse. Loren tried to recovery from a nasty cold with a good book, honey, lemon and paracetamol. I tried to sit and do as little as possible hoping the baby would want to enter the world. And Mila enjoyed hanging out with mormor and Sofie at a horse show. Also we took the opportunity to take our pony Spot for some nice hacks in the forrest. Spot is 35 years young and still full of energy and happy to have a new little rider ( normal ponies are lucky if they make it to 25...) Mila was super excited and managed very well on this crazy old pony and I managed to walk in his power speed to make sure little rider would be safe and...

This weeks theme on illustration forum Illustration Friday is Passion  For me horses has been my big passion since I was a small girl. I started to ride in the local riding school in Vingåker when I was four years old and only wanted to ride the stables biggest horse, Swedish girl aka Flicka. I still remember the disappointment if I had to ride one of the small Shetlands ponies called Jolly and Polly. At 7 years old I got my first own pony/bestfriend, Ballerina, the cutest of the cutest welsh mountain ponies who stayed in the family for 17 years. Ballerina was just as novice as myself and so everything we learned we learned together. She had a heart of gold to say the least. After Ballerina came Mr Herbie, Pojken, Pikona och many more through the years. So I more or less grew up in the stable where we (big group of girls in the same age) did more but sometimes less horsey oriented activities. And every other weekend was spent at competitions. The passion for ...

  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...

  I have printed some of my illustration in smaller formats and made postcards out of them. I have cut out the illustrations with a  zigzag pair of scissors and with help from cute Japanese washi tape put them onto high quality double folded postcards. This collection is on the animal theme and I have four different motives. A lot of Scandinavian influences as well as all the dogs in Prague that has inspired me.  They are sold in a cute package with 5 mixed motives and colors ( or by request what colors and motives you prefer) and matching envelops. They cost 9 EUR ( 200 CZK & 100 SEK) Interested send me a email to  info@ccillustrator.com

Having fun on great paper and missing the art of riding a bit. This autumn I will go and try out a stable outside Prague and see if it is any good.