The Sun light was too bright yesterday, hurting in eyes, freezing and warm, perfect for touristy photography. I had some errands close by so I couldn't miss a morning walk in these places where a local scarcely comes. Welcome to Prague, most of us live on the horizon.
Taken from the Prague Castle.

Report on Domík's Third Birthday

The Ping-Pong lover could finally fulfill his dream. To play. The picture lies a bit, he is not as good as it seems. The dinky and kind of cheap looking cake was actually pretty good. Chocolate. I have to admit I copied the style little.

Things for little Domík

1. Sweater. I wish I had knit it. I actually wish I had designed the pattern. Now the challenge would be to knit it, a larger version. Bought on discount ridiculously cheap.

2. Now I have my own Japanese pattern book. I don't understand anything, of course, but I vaguely remember about the title to say something about New York. That is all I need to know.
There is lot of girlish stuff, so I have to leave that out but I especially dig the suit jacket for a little boy. It is kind of conservative look for kids, but I don't know why, they look cute in it. Definitely cuter than in a teenage like clothes with characters from animated TV series that he even doesn't know. Well, some of them. There is something romantic in a suit jacket. And something naughty in teenage like T-shirts. Will he wear the jacket once I finish it?

Three Fairies

There was a theatre play for children in Prague called something like Big Adventure of two Gnomes. Their journey through a forest has been paved with mushrooms of all kinds, the stage designer really liked making them. So, they inspired me to work out her mushrooms even further. The cap is made of foam rubber and leather, the leg from wood. Cutting in foam rubber is fun but it took me a while to figure out a good shape and improve the technique. The material also needed to age so that it would become natural yellow.

These mushrooms served me well this Christmas as palm trees in our Nativity scene.

Find them on Etsy.

Collection 2010

Very limited one.
Pattern on the bag: it is all krtek's (little moule's) fault and instant watching it on youtube, although unwanted. But there are some really nice backgrounds painted and at one point a factory appears, all colorful and decorative. So this is where the wheel and sort of cubes come from.
Birds: Everybody likes them.
It is all on Etsy.

Mushrooms are part of the collection but wait till tomorrow, I will have better pictures.

Drawn by his cousin, an 8 years old girl, during Christmas holiday. She was mostly sorry he doesn't look familiar. What I like is that his eyes really LOOK. They are not blank, he sees something with them.

New Acquisition

I got so pleased the other day that Elizabeth from Fine Little Day wants me to give her an advice on good book stores and second hand book stores in Prague when she comes here in spring that I went to few of them to observe the situation. And I found this H. G. Wells's book First Men in the Moon, published in 1964, in Czech, cover and illustrations by Adolf Hoffmeister. The collages have something of Jules Verne books and suddenly they become very 1950s, others look like modrnist stage designs for a theater. I would call them retro-sci-fi. Looking into that I found this site with all the images from the book shown and lots and lots and lots of books. Covers and illustrations.

Looking at the illustrations this curious Czech film comes to my mind.

Winter

It is snowing that we could easily go sledging on the hill behind our house. We don't. We don't have a sledge, Domik looks like he is afraid of that kind of activity and my nose is running after being out for an hour, trying to build a snowman.

Art Therapy for Advanced (by age)

I like the way my son paints and draws. I try to do the same, doodle on a piece of paper like crazy but it just won't go out. It doesn't have the same kick. So instead I finish now what he has started. See the pictures. I added an eye and legs and it is a bird! Face and legs and it is ... an animal. We also have few landscapes with Sun or birds added but these are the least redone. I could do this for a while feeling like I am undergoing some kind of art therapy.

The winner is....

number 11
At-swim-two-birds!
Congratulations!

And thank you to all the others who showed a nice interest in having something that I made. I would like to give something to every one of you, so there might be another similar thing going on soon. It was also an unintended inquiry on what you like the most and it made me know what I should make more of. There is something under construction on my table right now.

Other than that, I have had less time for blogging these days as I have started to work a little. Yes, a little. I am deciding whether I want to send my little guy to kindergarten or rather not yet. I like our days at home. But he needs other kids and I need to focus on something else, too.