During week 24 I have been working on preparing thank you gifts for kids teachers and friends. I like to give something symbolic which also can be useful. This year I decided to buy water bottles for the teachers and to make them personalized writing their name and some flowers on them. I bought plain smaller bottles at IKEA. With my Cricut i designed and cut it out of permanent vinyl. With adding vinyl on the bottles, they can only be hand-washed otherwise the vinyl will come off.  After five years in Germany I have gotten so use to saying Frau Janssen rather then using her first name. So I decided that I will use the last name because that is the only name the kids use. Funny how you get use to something that I from the beginning thought was so stupid and old fashion.  When I was playing around with my Cricut I also figured out how to transfer my wine ladies into svg file which is needed so the machine can cut out my illustrations. I did a test with iron on transfer vinyl. I...

End of May beginning of June this wonderful time of the year and it is starting to be more and more emotional and real that we soon will be packing up and leaving. After this very cold spring it is nice to finally warm up and that the pool season has started. Here in Wittlaer Düsseldorf we have a local pool in Kaiserwerth Freibad Flossenweg where we go to swim. On a normal school day in the afternoon it is not too bad with people but on a hot hot weekend it is very crowded. It is kind of funny living in a place where you meet parents from school and neighbors first fully dressed and then undressed in the pool.  One amazing experience was seeing Düsseldorf Tonhalle from inside where Mila and her school together with four other schools in Düsseldorf had a Sing Pause concert. It was magical to hear them all sing in this old planetarium which has been changed into a concert hall.  My Creative work has been focusing on personalizing Art journals. I bought plain brown paper art jour...

Düsseldorf and Wittlaer being our home and everyday life for the past five years are coming to an end. This summer we are moving back to Sweden and Örebro. Many mixed feelings. Five years is a long time. And this is home although of course going to Sweden is going home but very clear when we are flying back to Düsseldorf that this is also home. Our comfort. Our routines and where we belong. Kids were so young when we moved here that they have lives most of their life in Germany. Only gone to school here.  I have used my Düsseldorf illustration a lot on my creations - bags, pencases, earrings etc. and I because they will not sell as well in Örebro. I got a chance to participate at International School of Düsseldorf in Kaiserwerth - the biggest expat/english speaking community. My last market here which feels weird.  My friend will keep my Düsseldorf products and bring them with to markets but without me. 

Christi Himmelfahrt means a nice long weekend in Germany. I had booked a trip to explore Rotterdam a big city in the Netherlands which I have not been to before. We left on the Friday around 11 and headed to Familerestaurant The Clown a Pannkoekenhuis close to Valkenswaard. This is Filip favorite restaurant and a must stop every time we are heading to Holland or passing through Holland. I do like the kids to have a favorite place  to come back so the memories will stay strong (especial close to Valkenswaard where i used to live when I was young). Of course it is nice to try new places but the rest of the trips are full of new places and experiences so I do like the routine of making The Clown a good stop on the road.  In Rotterdam we stayed at a hotel in the Erasmus University area. We found a small supermarket and a Starbucks on campus where we had breakfast before exploring the city. Public transport with a tram was a easy and good way to get down-town. I had done some ...

May is a beautiful month although this year has been much colder than usual. Kalkum Schloss park is our go to place during the spring - it has a nice little pond where the kids can collect tadpoles and let them go again after. They are happy walking around looking and collecting for hours. It is a great spot to enjoy nature. The geese walk past with their baby geese. It is amazing to watch the moorhen chicks running on the water lily leaves and to hear the frog croak loud. If you are lucky you can also see the turtles living in the pond. And by dusk the muskrat comes swimming around the pond.  The pictures of the books - well first of all I love books! I have been done a good job this week and gone through all my books and the kids books.. I don't need to keep all the books that I read - right!? And in my life I have transported many books around the world from Sweden to Prague back to Sweden and some followed to Moscow and then back to Sweden and then a new bunch of books to Düsse...

My creative work during week 19 has mainly been going through some of my illustrations and added them to my portfolio on c ccillustrator webpage. I have also uploaded my Düsseldorf gift bags and wine bags in my webshop.  Our Düsseldorf time is coming to an end this summer so I have gone through my prints and cards and I will bring them to Düsseldorf International School market end of May.   

First of a few long weekends during May month in Germany. I had booked a trip with friends driving to the coast of Belgium which is 3,5 hours away from Düsseldorf ( depending on traffic around Antwerpen and Kennedy Tunnel). We booked hotel on the beach in Blankenberge and only 10 min on a fast train to Brugge. I am making the most of living close to everything since we soon will be living very far away from everything. This trip was planned as a birthday celebration trip for Filips 8th birthday together with close friends and I was thinking Belgium waffles, fritjes and chocolate will be perfect ingrediens for a great weekend. Brugge is a city I really wanted to see and experience and I was super excited to go on this trip and also to see Belgium beach in Blankenberge. I had explain for the kids that our hotel is right on the beach, but I guess they couldn't quite picture it because they were soo amazed when we got their. The weekend was great and the weather was on our side, warmes...

 My creative work during week 17 was mainly wine bags and wine ladies. The project started with that I was sewing gift bags for bottles. With my Cricut machine I made cute wine texts that I ironed on. Super cute and stylish wine gift bags - but I felt it was not really my style.  I was doing some thinking and I decided that the bags are missing my illustrated people to make it more fun and my style. I was sitting drawing some alternative and thinking how I can get them on the the bag  Here above are all my Vino ladies ready to bright up my bags. I printed them on transfer paper and ironed them on. And voilá !! Welcome Vino bags to my ccillustrator growing gift-bag collection What do you think of my new bags? 

First week back in Düsseldorf after Easter break. It is beautiful here now more and more trees are blossoming and nature is going through the green explosion.  My creative week Beginning of April I saw on Instagram that Penstore ( Art store online) was arranging a talent contest. They were having kits you could order which contained 8 pens or pencils from international well-known brands. I didn't know before hand which pens or colors I would get in my kit but from these 8 pens create something using all of the pens and no others. I love challenges so I decided to give this contest a go and also so fun to try new pens and pencils which I normally would not use. During Easter in Sweden I was testing the pens on different papers and decided early to stick to my style with red Swedish country house, nature and my characters. Although looking on Penstore´s Insta #penstoretalents2023 people are so talented and I feel inspired but also I feel I am a child and my drawings not worth to be ...

It is time to say Aufwiedersehen to my Easter bunnies for this year.  It was fun to create new Easter bunny bags this year and also the help to develop the faces with iron-on vinyl.  Next year I am thinking I can do a combination of the digital and hand-painted because I kind of miss the little pompom noses. But for now I will focus on other things although I already miss Easter and I need to write down all my new Easter ideas