My brother. Around 1970. Here he was as old as my little Domík is now. The pictures have a strong déja vu for me, although I was not born yet then.

Merry Christmas!

Folks and Brooch

I am happy you liked the previous post, maybe I can reveal some family history in few sentences here, I do not have many pictures though, let me find some and take pictures of the pictures.
My parents when they were twenty something, I guess. My dad was tall and skinny, it changed when he was around 40, after he had rebuilt a house for us he grew strong and became the most handsome dad in the vicinity. He has been nice and caring all his life, did not show much of a male self-conceit so typical here, which I appreciate a lot. I like looking at my parents in these pictures how they used to like hanging out together.

Last picture, an embroidered brooch that I made before Christmas, first it was a present for the kindergarten teacher but after I imagined her possibly perplexed expression I gave up. Domik likes it, however, and he made one for himself. Believe me, I will show you next time.

Old pictures

My grandma. Born 1909, two kids, died early. I never met her. Talented painter, spent some time at the academy, ended up as a seamstress and a dress maker. Almost went to New York in 1930s to take an apprenticeship as a milliner at one compatriot lady but it was crisis and fashion changed and hats were out. I thought of her when I climbed out of the train station in Big Apple this summer.

Second: My mum. My dad liked taking pictures of her. I think so, we have many nice ones. She was photogenic (she still is in her late sixties!) and he liked his Flexaret. Necessary to say, I am also intrigued by her hand knitted sweater. If she only knew what I am showing here....

entre nous

Thank you all for the expressed sorrow over my lost pictures, but I was able to get them out. The computer is dead though and I will not have a new one untill summer. I think I can survive it, even my blogging venture will survive, without having to stop. It will not even harm my possible work, here and there, some translation and helping in the publishing house - if they keep a promise and give me a valuable work. I realized I cannot work full time being a mother, I didn't think about it untill now, after I found out there is no way how to get my kid to and from kindergarten and be on time at work. Not mentioning that kindergartens, the state ones, are full and I cannot actually put my kid in a kindergarten at all. Not mentioning that the kid cannot stay away from his mummy for very long.

So I will continue doing nothing on doctorate, apart from being a librarian every two weeks for three hours, embroider and do some work, here and there.

Entre nous, I am happy this will not affect our mornings with Domík, playing and doing little art projects for kids (mummies) and running errands together and having coffee breaks in cafes. We both love them.

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.

My Butterflies

Stripes and Checks

I don't know about other mums, but I don't miss my son's baby years. Or at least not yet. Having older nieces in the family and encountering their fits and changing personalities, I had thought that nostalgia for baby that doesn't move all day would begin earlier. Well, an own kid is just different. He is still cute. He still gives me beautiful innocent looks, even more beautiful than before. He starts speaking. We have short dialogs of four lines. Although he asks for my attention all the time, it is easier to please him. Now, when he can do and play stuff. The best play is at peeling onion or husking peas, then I have off.
Other things I like doing with him are cut-outs, simply paper and scissors. He likes watching me and I like concentrating on some hand work. This cut-out in the third picture pretends to be the Universe with the Sun in the middle and the Earth, an unknown planet, a comet and UFO going round it. Our home gets slowly filled with this little clumsy and useless stuff.

Breakfast corner view

This is from where I sit when I have breakfast. Very urban view, a cluster of courtyards behind our house. On the window sill you can see Dominik's bath utensils there, a candel and few dry lemon peels for my and Dominik's common art project.

For breakfast we usually have yogurt or out meal or bread and butter and cheese and ham or honey, black tee to drink and chamomile tee for Domik. No picture, sorry, nice designy pictures of rich tables always look silly from me.


Sometimes we paint right after we have breakfast. This is one of the latest Dominik's achievements. Going for horizontal lines.

jane, ladybug-zen, ian, bonnie, esti, sophie, cele, modsquad, caitlin, joyce, ani,couturecoucou, kim, a day that is dessert, natsumi, epe, kaylovesvintage, trinsch, c.t., jeannette, outi, schanett, ritva, dongdong, francesca, state of bliss, jennifer, dana, denise, cabrizette, bohemian girl, ruth, dianna, isabelle, amber, the girl in yellow shoes, mister e, janis, kari, jgy, jenna, skymring, elizabeth, audrey, allison

A postgrad mum

I cut his beautiful hair. Just the longest parts, curly though, and... beautiful.

I picked all my courage and went to the school today to present a proposal for my future postgrad. Seems that I might end up doing that, the professor liked it or, let's say, didn't have any objections. Now I only need to pass the exam and then I am TRAPPED AGAIN in the system. This time I hope I will only get benefits out of it. In this country, the hardest part is to get to the university at the very beginning, to pass the entering exam to start the master or bachelor. Postgrad and such are simply like a cherry on top of the cake. Well, that is what they say ...

Deciding

If I start the postgraduate studies... I will remember quickly why I promised six years ago that I would never ever enter the school again.
If I start the postgraduate studies... I will be able to spent another beautiful half a year with my Dominik at home. He won't have to go to kindergarten and will be happily playing with his mummy.

The thing actually is, that I probably won't be able to find a place for him in the kindergarten when my maternity leave ends and therefore this postgraduate thing comes as a topic of the day. I would be paid little money (which is positive here). I would stay in my profession. I would have almost no duties at the faculty and mostly could handle my time easily. I would enjoy going to library again and all this late student life. But all that time, there would be this strange feeling in the back of my mind that I have some work that needs to be finished (and do I know how?).

I have about two weeks to hand in an application form. Three pages of a project approved by a professor. List of literature. I can make it but have very little time to decide.

Memory of my Family

Old slides from 1970s. They have such a romantic atmosphere that they illustrate perfectly how memories of our childhood resonate in us: the trees were bigger, the grass was greener and the sky bluer... My mum has a dreamy air of a film star and my brother is immersed in happiness. The setting is like 19th century.
The last picture shows me when I was something like 4 years old. Check out the amazing plastic tablecloth (I wish we still had it, but of course it had to be cut up and used for something useless)! The picture is actually badly taken but now it has what it requires: unfocused picture, memories long gone. You won't make one like that today with digital camera. Or maybe you will but I have no idea how.
(Was going to post my new dress, but the photo scared me out. Next time!)