It's time for a change.

I’m moving! 

Yes, after 7 years of blogging over here I found my new spot on Rafa-kids New Website.

You can find the New RAFA-kids blog over HERE : 

https://www.rafa-kids.com/blog/

It was not an easy decision, as I can't take with me all the posts I have created during these years. If I look back at the work and passion I put into it I think it would be great to print it as a book about design world for children.

I will unpack my things and create a new cozy and fresh place over at Rafa-kids website. You can expect to see there few of your favorite blog posts, so you can still feel familiar.  It's somehow a new start for me.  I will do my best to continue this creative and inspiring Blog. 

Are you joining the Journey? 

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It's always a good idea to go….

Summer Simplicity

Villa in Sau Paulo

Finding an authentic place to stay with our family during holidays, is one of my top priority since some time. After we got kids, we hardly ever choose hotels, as they give us sort of claustrophobic feeling and are such a unpersonal place to stay. I always spend a lot of time searching for the best possible accommodation within our budget. Airbnb is a platform that I’m starting my searching path. If you are lucky, you can find treasures, like the one I’m showing you today. This Saõ Paulo villa is created by an architect Paulo and hidden in a very nice residential area of the city. Worth the walk around too! 

I’m not going to show you a lot, as I think it is a house with a soul and the pictures can’t do its justices….. Paulo rebuilt two old buildings, connecting them with a charming patio and a large kitchen on the ground floor. I really like the combination of the raw concrete, the unpolished large wood elements with greenery sort of over growing it all. The outside jungle is present inside thanks to using large glass panels, and this creates such a unique feeling when you are around. The villa is decorated with plenty of objects and furniture which we absolutely love, and we felt so well and comfortable, as it was almost our house….well, we could keep dreaming, right?  

If you ever going to visit Saõ Paulo, you can find the villa here: Airbnb - Villa Sau Paulo

please send greetings to Paulo from us. Obrigado! one day we will be back! 

picture credits: Rafa-kids - Arek Seredyn

Brazil with kids - part 1 - Olá Rio!

It is exactly a week ago since we came back from our wonderful family trip to Brazil. It will be difficult to show you all, probably absolutely impossible so I will try to do it just step by step, to give you a glimpse. As Brazil is such a huge country, we did not want to be too ambitious and decided to stay around Rio and the South Coast. I will start with a little impression from the marvelous city of Rio…well, can you imagine a city with gorgeous beaches, mountains around it, a lake in the middle and between all this powerful landscape there are different districts, each with his own vibe and atmosphere. Well, that’s not all, imagine it is warm there almost year round and the sky is so blue. I don’t know any other place like that…We decided to stay at Ipanema district, just 2 minutes from the beach, the restaurants, the best ice cream ( what do you think about ginger ones? we got it at Milk frutas Cafe ), and yellow taxis, which become for us the easiest way to travel around…

We took it very slow and decided that one attraction per day is enough for us and for our boys. What are our favorite spots? Botanical Garden! walking in a jungle of greenery, then a trip to Sugarloaf mountain to see the sunset, we joined a food tour ( highly recommended! ) - called Eat Rio. Tom was a wonderful host and we had a chance to visit the local market, try plenty of fruits and juices, and also walk around colorful streets of Lapa…and at the evening we run on the Ipanema beach! I really love walking around the colorful Centro of Rio. The mix of architecture and people is just so fascinating!  We have a feeling that stories about the danger in Brazil are exaggerated. We experience this country as welcomed, warm and very friendly for our family, as people talked and try to connect with us, even we didn’t understand single world! Of course, you will also see the poor and tougher parts of the city, but I think it is good to show that to kids too, and talk about it. The world is not a perfect place, but it doesn’t make it any less fascinating….to be continued…

Family Time in Brazil - 5 years of Rafa!

This year Rafa-kids will become 5 years old. 

Exactly 26th of April 2012 our website went life. I know it’s just a date, and there was a lot of work to create our brand before and after this day, but I wanted to make something special because of that. Since we started our own business and welcomed our second son Robert, things got a bit more intense and time absorbing. We keep running and working a lot, and as our work is our passion it’s always a bit different. You get a lot of energy and satisfaction from what you do, but there come little moments, when you feel like you need rest. Real rest, when you can step out of your shoes, and get a new perspective. I hope the blue sky in Brazil will help us to do that, and the warm breeze will take us somewhere we don’t know, and we can finally just let go….

If you would like to follow our 5 years Celebration Family trip to Brazil 

you can find Rafa here on Instagram. 

I will try to give you a little update from time to time. Of course, 

after we will be back, I will tell you more. Take care and Stay Good. 

Out and About

Remember my first post about Friday’s ‘Out and About’ ? Each Friday we would like to go and discover some new places and recharge our batteries and get inspired. Today I would like to show you our last outing.  We went to Amsterdam, to see the fourth edition of pop up event called : The Loft. This event is created by interior design agency, with passion for design in the field of furniture, arts, accessories and curiosa. Everything in the space is curated with an eye for the smallest details. 

Directly from a busy street in the heart of Amsterdam we climbed the 3floor of the building to Enter The Loft. I wasn’t sure where to look! From the beautiful windows with views I could stare for hours - big garden behind the Amsterdam’s canal houses and on the other  site historical brickwork of Bijnekorf , the most prestigious warehouse of the city….then there was the loft. It belongs to  ‘Miss Bare’ as each pop up interior is dedicated to  an imaginary person. This time it was a divorced women, her kids lived already independent ( this we had chance to know during our visit). We really like the serene atmosphere and reach textures of all the minimalistic objects. My favourite was the contras between the dark, sleek kitchen with marble top, put next to the ‘imperfect’ and relax table set with chairs. The pictures above the kitchen made it very monumental, but the rustic and romantic table - softened the whole.  Living in one open floor plan with kids is not an option I think, but maybe one day we could move in such a relaxed and free space. I really would not mind. 

Pictures for the post from The-loft-pop-up and Rafa-kids. 

Need for a change

Welcome in New Year! I hope you’ve had a great start of 2017. 

I am still very much in the mood of planing, dreaming and taking some important decisions for this year. It is one of my favourite times of the year, when it feels like a new start and a 12 months seems like long, open time to fulfil….well , at least that’s what I hope for.

It is winter for many of us, and we are still waiting for some snowy days out here. At the same time we are all about summer vibes and new collections showing up here and there. Today I’m bringing you a bit of sun from Nepal and beautiful products made by Muskhane. We are so glad to cary at Rafa-kids some of their soft colourfu pillows and the Grizzly carpet is our customers favourite at the moment. We will bring you even more beauty and inspiration this year. I promise. This is just a start! 

Summer end

We are back….

4 weeks off, 4 weeks without connection with the internet world. I hope you are still hanging around here through my very long break. It feels a bit difficult to catch up with all what happened during this break, so please give me some time to adapt. Our boys are staring school this Monday and I will be back to work straight away.  It was so good to relax, walk endlessly on the sand beach and do not plan, do not rush at all…. I selected few of my favourite vacation pictures and I promise that everything will be back to normal on the blog very soon.

“ One of the biggest luxuries in modern life is unscheduled, uncommitted time. 

Defend it fiercely and value it. FREE TIME. It is not wasted. 

Your brain needs it to filter through the daily assault of information and come up with new ideas. “ 

 Ilse Crawford book “ The Sensual Home “ highly recommended.