The Great FAN ART Competition!

I have noticed from Mila's Daydreams Facebook page that many of you guys are inspired to make your own dream pictures with your family. (See the photo gallery) That's so cool!

So I have decided to create a competition for you.  You can send your own dream picture to whenmybabydreams(@)gmail.com   (Remove parentheses from @. Only one picture per person. Add your contact details for the prize.)

I will pick the best picture of the every Friday and publish it here in my blog with your name (or preferred nickname.) Between all the best pictures of the week I will choose the winner at Valentine's Day, 14th Feb 2012!

And the prize is…. *drumming*

A lovely basket of gift books, including: GOODNIGHT MOON,  RUNAWAY BUNNY, And of course, WHEN MY BABY DREAMS!

And of course we are going to pick randomly four other winners between all who take part in this competition by sending their pictures before 10th of february 2012. They are going to get When My Baby Dreams -book! 

So now, send your best dream picture to whenmybabydreams (at) gmail.com and you are in the competition!

3 weeks and it is HERE!

...and it's a BOOK! 

Can't believe it, only 3 weeks left until When My Baby Dreams* is here! 

I hope my stork will bring it to you too. 

(*From this book link you find list of retailers and can pre-order When My Baby Dreams in a click!)

Where do dream ideas come from?

BEFORE                                                                                         AFTER

From her real dreams, don't you think? 

Coming soon: More making of dream pictures and some funny before and after scenes. 

                              Also "When My Baby Dreams" -competition for YOU. Stay tuned!

Paintings and drawings

This autumn my favourite thing was to paint or draw meanwhile I listen audio books from my Kindle. Well, until I got so nauseous that I couldn't draw a line without feeling sick. My morning sickness has been quite unpredictable and abstract. I guess now I know how my hubby felt two years ago, when I got nauseous from his composed music and threw up after we saw movies like Avatar and Up! 

It's totally unfair to feel sick from the things you normally love, luckily this state will pass. 

I can't wait to be able to paint something again! 

Saluki.
(I absolutely love sight hounds)

Epiphany.
(as a teenager I realized that
 I'm not going to be ballet dancer, ever.)

Look who's drawing too!

She's into abstract expressionism.

I tried to draw Croquis from a cornish rex cat photo,
but I got carried away and coloured it a bit. 

Siamese. Meow!

Sorry for the radio silence - I've been...

...oh, how to put this nicely? Well, I've been a bit nauseous lately.

"Morning sickness", who ever come up with that term is a very lucky woman or man, who has seen his wife only at the morning time, since the feeling is definitely 24/7 sickness. At least for me.

But Yay! I'm pregnant! Mila is going to have a sibling next spring!

And I promise I try to update this blog more often now that I have likely survived from the first trimester. ;)

Art course - Autumn

After a long break I decided to continue my painting and drawing hobby. I think I have nowadays more patience  for that, being a mom has changed me for good. Mila sleeps now two naps per day, and I try to write during the morning naps and draw or paint on the afternoon. But sometimes I do a little sketches at the morning before I write. It helps me clear my mind and concentrate.

So here's something I've done lately about autumn colors.

(Acrylics on oil color paper)

Mommy's summer job: Music Video

Artist: Emmi Salo

Director/Writer/Make-up/Wardrobe: Adele Enersen

Producer/Assistant Editor/Lighting Assistant/Playback: Lasse Enersen

Cinematography: Juge Heikkilä

Camera Assistant: Heikki Slåen

Color Grading: Timo Luomanen/Post Control

Editor: Santeri Enstedt

Last summer I had an opportunity to direct a music video. We had very tiny budget and only one day to shoot, but we had a great time and all the people were so great to work with. I would love to do little projects like this in the future too. 

The video was shot by my Canon 5D Mark ii camera with Technicolor Cinestyle color profile. And all the locations are all within three kilometers from our own home in Helsinki.


Since I couldn't find the perfect "Umbrellas of Cherbourg " -style umbrella as a pink, I coloured white one with the acrylic paint. It's kind of unique now, and guess what, after drying it appears to be waterproof! 

Rainy Day Fun

I love autumn and rain...especially 'cause it's perfect reason to stay home and do something funny.
So we built a indoor "swimming pool" to Mila, and meanwhile she was playing with her best friends (Cat theCat & Tigger) a draw some comics etc with my new markers.

1) First you need lot of pillows, 2) put a bedspread or comforter on top of that, 3) swim with the friends in a puddle of fabric!

When I was a kid, sitting in a backseat was the most boring thing ever.
 Except when it rained.
 I used to watch moving drops on window, wonder which drops 
"fall in love" as a giant drop, and fall faster together. 
I guess falling down from the window is a good thing, if you are a drop?

 I got so inspired about drops that when Mila fall in sleep, I stayed up and made this little Stop Motion animation:

Laundry Day Monsters!

... and how to avoid household chores.

Project Nursery - Coraline inspired painting

I just wanted to paint something cute to Mila's new room. I got my inspiration from Coraline book/movie. This is my cutie pie version of those characters. The clue of this painting is real sewed buttons as a eyes.  

These are our snap photos from
Universal Studios ...

...of real Coraline  stop motion
characters, props and sets. Cool!

If you didn't know,
I'm a HUGE Stop Motion
fan! Someday I'll do this too,
I swear!

On the wall of the nursery. 

The man behind my favourite stop motion, Nightmare before the christmas, is Henry Selick. He's also behind this Coraline movie. (the book was by Neil Gaiman, adore that too!) I love the cat character in both movies, and I found this youtube video where you can see them both.:

When My Baby Dreams of reading her books...

Oh here it is! Our first book cover ♡ When My Baby Dreams (HarperCollins, Balzer + Bray )

This book is highly tested with the target audience. Here you can see the test group in action. ;)

The Project Nursery: The reading corner is still middle of progress,
I'd like to make some kind of babyproof divan there,
where we could read or play with Mila.
 Before I figure out how to make that,
there's just blankets and pillows to make it more comfortable.

 Mila's favourite books so far: 

1. Cat the Cat, Who Is That? by Mo Willems

2. Not a Box by Antoinette Portis

3. Beautiful Oops! by Barney Saltzberg

4. Who Will Comfort Toffle? by Tove Jansson 

(Ok, this one is actually MY favourite, but I love to read this one for her. The author was a Finn and incredibly talented woman!)

5. Good Night Moon by Margaret Wise Brown

(Classic!)


Hey, what are your favourite books? I'd love to hear...

Pssst...wanna see something?

Go to babycenter.com !
(She said mystically and winked to all her blog-friends)

Nursery - Cherry Blossom Chandelier

We went to New York too. This is from Central Park.
What a lovely place.
 I loved all the museums and walking around the city. 

And I absolutely fall in love with the Cherry trees.
They gave me an idea...

I bought some water based and non-toxic Tattered Angels Glimmer Mist and lamp shades....

...and this basic "Kronetorp" chandelier.
 I also bought some silk cherry blossom -flowers.

I coloured lamp shades with different colors.
Blue grey as a sky,
pink and darker pink as a cherry blossoms
and light yellow as some buildings and sun.
When they were dry, I took some thin black wire and twisted cherry branches to lamp.
There's also pink silk ribbons tied to loop.

Here it is, piece of New York in Mila's new nursery!

The Project Nursery - Before and the floor

Yes, my hubby used to have his playroom studio at our home.
And it was the only place where I didn't even try to put decorations,
pillows and nice new curtains. His sacred man cave.
Now all these fancy equipments and huge bunch of electric wires
 are at his new studio, and I deserve a medal for my patience.
Don't you think? Now it's going to be Mila's nursery.

makeover starts! 

                                                                                                                                       

Floor sanding. Oh my how I hate those cabin doors. I bet they are built from the ugly stick tree.

Finally...NEW White floor! So much better already.
 I crochet bigger pillow from cotton yarn.
 Old violin we found from our attic, too bad it wasn't the Stradivarius. ;)

Happy Birthday Mila!

Mila is celebrating her very first birthday this week.
I took the "official" 1 year old picture of her in a same dress I was wearing in my picture in 1979.

Past is reaching to future. 

Cardigan dress with a button embroidery

             My mom just crochet this little cardigan dress for Mila, and I thought it needed something extra...

Since I've been buying stuff for nursery decorations,
 I've found also other cute things,
 like rosy pink, lila and greenish brown buttons.

Hum... I see an owl! 

Here it is!

This amazing transformer owl was my "model".
(english text: http://animopedia.com/ptilopsis-leucotis-the-transforming-owl,
picture source: http://kamoltd.blog110.fc2.com/blog-entry-29.html)

Happy happy, joy joy!

PS  In case you haven't seen this hilarious Transformer Owl video before, see it! I can't stop laughing at the owls "evil face". It's just so...cute. And these "Hungover Owls" -pictures are so funny too. 

Back in FINLAND!

Hello my dear friends,

Her Pinkiness at the Rodeo Drive

First of all, I'm sorry I haven't been blogging lately. Our vacation in States was truly a vacation. Few months in California and one week in New York was an amazing journey. I got new friends, had a great time with my family and enjoyed the sun. Mila got 8 teeths, ate her first handful of Venice Beach sand and learned to stand and crawl so quick, that she's almost impossible to manage. Time goes so fast, she's not a little baby anymore, she's more like a toddler with a strong personality. I can hardly wait that she's going to start to talk. Maybe then she can tell me what she dreams about.

The Project Nursery

Since I know it's a kind of a bummer that I don't post those daydream photos anymore, but I decided to start another, creative project here in this blog and in our little home. I hope you like it! We just started to make a renovation in my hubby's old studio, it's going to be Mila's new nursery!

There's a lot of things to do, and I want to make personal decorations.  Paint furnitures, sew pillows, curtains and maybe some soft toys. My hubby is going to do some improvements to the old plank floor with his best friend and Mila's godfather Miika.

"Mommy, is this my new room?"

I like all arts and crafts, and children room is perfect place for my creative outbursts. I hope Mila will love her room, too bad she's still too tiny to tell me what she wants, but I know a few things she will defintely love. In that picture on left you can see that round pillow, she loves to hug that pillow or lay on top of that like she's planking. (you've heard about that silly internet craze?  So yes, she will have that pillow in her own room. This pillow was also in my first daydream -picture, so it has some sentimental value too.

Now I have to go and take those first "Before" photos from that room. I have to confess that I find that room quite ugly as it is right now. It's practical as a walk-in-closet or studio, but as a nursery it's almost dangerous. Well, we are working on it. More soon!

//Adele & Mila

Early Bird Gets a Worm!

It’s true, almost 365 episodes of The Today Show will run before my book, When My Baby Dreams, is released by HarperCollins (it’s scheduled for January, 2012), but if you tune into today’s episode of The Today Show (that’s February 10th, for those of you keeping score), you might see Mila’s first big publicity hit and one unpublished daydream photo! Woohoo!

And since 365 todays means 365 tomorrows, and you might get really busy and forget about these funny little dreams by the time 2012 rolls around, I thought I’d set up a mailing list and do the remembering for you!

So, if you’re interested about the book news, just type in your e-mail address below, and I’ll send out a couple of notes as soon as we get closer to publication!

All the best,

Adele Enersen

✩☆✩

Subscribe to "When My Baby Dreams" book news, and you'll know first things first!

Email:

Lunch at Santa Monica

(pictures by: Lasse Enersen)

PS...and here is my first vanity project! Finally I found something to test. 

As a TV heavy user housewife (that's all I'm able to do with my left eye, while I rescue my crawling angel from the dangerous situations 24/7.), I ended up to be a infomercial-victim, so I ordered Wen Hair Care -products. I just received them from the post, so now I'll test them and post another hair picture after 3 weeks.

There is about 5 inch my own color, then some old highlights and the red in the lenghts is old red henna, which was mistake. I like the effect henna does to hair structure, but bright red color is just too much for me. I prefer my non-colored mousy hair with non-coloring "henna" aka. senna. (Cassia Obovata)

Before Wen. Stay tuned...

PS2  Since I've got so much e-mails lately, I have to apologize that I don't have time and energy to reply all them individually, even when I truly truly love to. I hope you guys understand. I promise to answer every now and then here in latest blog entry comments, ok? Love ya!

EDIT:  The Great WEN-experiment report. 

After only one wash:

I have to say it was very effective for my dry hair, but it was almost too good, my hair felt so silky it was hard to handle, and my ponytail felt thinner than usually. So I had to try that Aloe Vera for thin hair, and it was a better for my hair. Only negative effect was that my very sensitive scalp was a bit irritated, but I can't tell if it was because of Wen, or Los Angeles water, or what. The water smells weird there. 

I didn't have any problems with canceling my order after three months, and now, after two weeks without Wen, I'm missing it. It was so easy to use. I wish I could buy that from Finland too, but it's not possible yet. Bo-hoo!