Tikka Tikka Creative

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Tikka Tikka Creative

For meaningful connection between child and caregiver, through play and storytelling.

20/05/2026

We’re learning ‘fsied’ in our house lately. It means cuddles, but the Maltese word feels softer somehow, rounder in the mouth.

My mum used to call me fessuda tal-mama. I don’t even know how you’d properly translate that. Something like mama’s little cuddly one, but that loses all of it really. It’s one of those words that only works in the language it was born in, said in the voice it was said in.

I think this is part of why I started Tikka Tikka. Not the grammar or the alphabet or the proper sentences, but these small warm words. The ones a mum whispers at bedtime. The ones that carry a feeling more than a meaning, and somehow hold a whole childhood inside them.

What did your mum call you? I’d love to know the words you’re holding onto, the ones you want to pass on.

01/05/2026

There’s the version of me by day. Architect, interior designer, businesswoman, which is about 95% of who I’m trying to be most days. And then there’s Tikka Tikka, which started when I became a mum and finally gave myself permission to take children’s books seriously. The two don’t always feel like the same person.
I’ve been a bit distant from this space since the book fair. Not because I stopped caring, more the opposite, but because I do everything here myself and the architecture work has been full lately. So I’m trying to return gently. And I’m trying to figure out how you keep the passion in a passion project when life is full of other good things too.
Honestly though, right now feels sweet. Real architecture work, this little world, my kids running around the flat. Maybe it’s all happening because I’m finally letting myself be more than one thing at once, instead of squeezing into a single title. Still very much a work in progress. But some days I let myself enjoy it, imperfections and all.
Does anyone else feel this split between a day job and the thing you make on the side? How do you hold onto it?

30/04/2026

Spring in Berlin is this tentative, hopeful thing — everyone suddenly walking a little slower, looking up at the trees like they can't quite believe it, layering a coat over a t-shirt because the air hasn't committed yet and neither have we. There's something sweet about it, this collective holding of breath before the warmth actually arrives.

Spring in Malta doesn't do any of that. It just shows up — one morning you step outside and the jasmine is already overwhelming and the light is doing that thing where it's warm and golden before 8am, and summer is clearly already on its way whether you're ready or not. I grew up thinking that was normal and I've spent years quietly missing it from other people's springs.

I love both, I really do, but one of them feels like home in a way the other never quite will, even after all this time here.

Where are you reading this from, and what does spring feel like there? I'm especially curious if you're raising kids somewhere that doesn't feel like home — how do you talk to them about the place you came from? 🌿

27/04/2026

I didn't really know what to expect from my first book fair — I'd pictured it as this overwhelming, high-energy thing where you had to be "on" the entire time and come home with a notebook full of contacts and a to-do list that would take months to work through, and I think I'd been quietly dreading that version of it for a while.

And then it was — different. Quieter than I expected, in a good way. I came back with fewer names than I thought I'd collect, and more real conversations than I'd hoped for, and I said no to two things I probably would have said yes to out of excitement a year ago, which felt surprisingly okay. Maybe even right.

I'm still figuring out what this version of doing things looks like, but I think it might involve doing less of it, more deliberately, which is a sentence I genuinely couldn't have written before this week.

If you're in a similar season of trying to figure out what you actually have room for — I'd love to hear what that looks like for you. Drop it in the comments or send me a message, I read everything. 💛

11/04/2026

Sometimes I feel a bit guilty when I bring my kid along to work, or when work spills into our time together. I keep wondering if I’m doing enough of either thing properly. Do you ever feel that tension too, like you’re constantly trying to balance being present in both worlds? I’d love to know how others experience this.

Also, happy weekend 🤍

03/04/2026

Every year I tell myself I’m not going to stress about figolli.

Every year here I am, elbow deep in almond paste, (kid also elbow deep in almond paste), rolling pin nowhere to be found 😂

There’s something about being Maltese and living abroad that makes you need to do this. Like if I don’t make figolli, did Easter even happen?

Started sketching a figolli inspired font this morning before we continue the bake off..

Anyone else? Making them, attempting them, or just calling your mum to send some over? 👇

maltesemums eastertraditions figolla

31/03/2026

Il-bajtar tax-xewk!

I drew this just now, on my phone at 10pm after the kid was finally in bed. Not quite Nanna’s garden but it made me happy :)

Somewhere between the bedtime battles the dishes, and the rest, I’m trying to hold onto little pieces of Malta for my kid and myself. A word here. A drawing there. A fruit he’ll probably only see in a picture (BREAKING: no prickly pears in Berlin) 😅

Does your child know what bajtar tax-xewk is? Drop a 🌵 if they do, or tag a Maltese mum who’s also figuring it out as she goes.

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Melbourne, VIC
3057

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http://www.tikkatikkacreative.com/

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