I went to dinner a couple weeks ago with my dear friend, Nina, and we started talking about how different we actually are. Nina is an artist — she’s free thinking, creative, slightly disorganized, a bit messy, and incredibly talented. I am an obsessive neat freak — my house is never a mess, everything has its place, I thrive on organization, and I get a thrill out of de-cluttering my closet. Unlike Nina, who collects little trinkets (rocks, leaves, chocolate boxes, tokens, etc.), I can’t handle having anything in my house that doesn’t have a purpose. Collect things? Certainly not.

It’s interesting how two people with such different personality traits could be such good friends. We were laughing last night about how when she comes over to my house, she wonders where everything is, and how she goes home and tries to organize her house but just doesn’t know where to start. It’s funny because when I go to her house, I feel the urge to run home and mess mine up a bit, throw things on the wall without calculating, un-alphabetize my book shelves, etc.

Nina is a very talented children’s book author/illustrator. Her books are very imaginative, and the illustrations are a reflection of her style — a bit unusual, sort of random and dreamy; very very cool. Only Nina could design such cool books. There is no way I could ever think of those things; my mind just doesn’t work that way. One book, Rêves d’animaux, is all about the dreams animals have. Another one, Trolls de dents, is about the teeth trolls who come and live in your teeth if you don’t keep them clean!

Though Nina is Swedish, her books are written in French, which I suppose is the only pity for me because I can’t completely comprehend everything. But the illustrations are so cool, it simply doesn’t matter. I just love opening up the book and noting all the wacky details. It is imagination at its best!

-Courtney