24 - MERRY CHRISTMAS!

- 24 -

(please, do not copy or re-publish or re-send this picture in the e-mails. Copyright © Adele Enersen 2010)

Hyvää joulua, Merry Christmas, God Jul, Boas Festas e Feliz Ano Novo, Joyeux Noel, Froehliche Weihnachten, Mo'adim Lesimkha. Chena tova, Buone Feste Natalizie, Shinnen omedeto. Merii Kurisumasu, Kung His Hsin Nien bing Chu Shen Tan, Sarbatori vesele, Feliz Navidad, Wesolych Swiat Bozego Narodzenia or Boze Narodzenie, Pozdrevlyayu s prazdnikom Rozhdestva is Novim Godom, Buorrit Juovllat, Noeliniz Ve Yeni Yiliniz Kutlu Olsun! (I seriously hope they went right! And merry christmas to all other language speakers too.)
With love,
Adele, Lasse and Mila.

23 - Christmas tree and +6 days

 - 23 -

We had to improvise, since we are suddenly going to spend christmas in Finland. There has been teeny tiny difficulties with the air traffic, so our flight is next wednesday... 

22 - Book News, Good News!

- 22 -

This has been too busy day to take any photos, but I've got some good news instead:

Daydream illustrated "When my baby dreams" -book is going to be published in 2012 in all english speaking countries, and also in Italy, German, Brazil and Israel! Yay! 

21 - Packing packing and packing

 - 21 -

Well, I think I have all I need. 

20 - Gray bureaucracy day

- 20 -

I ran trough the park after I "enjoyed" poor customer service at the bank. Bureaucracy-crazy people.

17, 18, 19 -2nd Anniversary ♡

 - 19 -

Our wedding picture, drawn by my mother-in-law, Liisa.

16 - First christmas gifts

- 16 -

I love these wrappings! Fabric strings and stripey paper by Marimekko.

15 - Love

- 15 -

*sniff*

14 - Kung Fu LIVE posing with dad

- 14 -

IMPORTANT SECURITY NOTICE: do not use baby as a weapon while playing. Posing to cam as cute as a button is all they can do in this game ;)

We don't play that much with PS3, but since Lasse had a change to compose music for this unique game called "Kung Fu LIVE", we tried this game at home, and it's really funny. You are actually in the game via webcam and you control the game with your body motion. I like playing with Wii, but this is more intense, and I was totally exhausted after 10 minutes fight in this comic Kung Fu world. And of course there's great music to enjoy too!

13 - Playtime

- 13 -

She is learning to crawl, or fly. Maybe both. 

12 - Mila's first blueberry & beetroot painting

 -12- 

I'm raising this next (female)Jackson Pollock here, and she prefers to think outside the box. 

11 - Winter Wonderland?

 -11-

"Honey, was it yesterday when you dug our car free from the snow with the tiny showel, and it took like a 40 minutes?", "Yes..", "Ok, just checking, please, don't look out from the front window..."

10 - The Ugly Gingerbread Boy and other weird cookies

- 10 -

The Ugly Gingerbread Boy burnt his fingers in love matters.
 It's no good to fall in love with the oven if you are made of dough.

I didn't have a cute mold, but I had fun with the frosting.

PS, if you dip the clean brush in to hot water, you can "paint" with the frosting. 

9 - We are all made of books.

   - 9 -

The Self-portrait, which actually looks like my Mother-In-Law.

I love reading. Especially paperback books while traveling or when we have vacations. You don't even need to travel to visit in other countries and cultures if your read the books from there. I believe that studying in school is not that important but reading is. Everybody should have an opportunity learn to read. You can be a self-made genious and teach yourself from the books and internet. Sometimes it doesn't even matter what you read. My mother-in-law used to be a really poor and when she didn't have afford to books, she read the phone book! Here is her true story, finally in English. Enjoy!

One quote from the story: 

"I stayed over in Helsinki at Lasse's place and went to sleep on the floor on a blow-up mattress that didn't have any air in it."

- Well, I have to make a note that Lasse was not married by then. ;) When nowadays my dear mother-in-law visit us, at least we pump some air in the mattress. Haha. 

8 - Sweet Dreams

-8-

She still sleeps like a champion...in her sweet baby trap grib. 

7 - just another dead houseplant

-7-

 I think I'm a houseplant serial killer. This one supposed to be those "easy ones." It's a lie! I think they are the worst.

More suffering plants, mourning their fate in the candlelight...

"Help! Anyone? Is all the water in the world frozen? We haven't seen any lately...Ouch, those little fire-things burn!" 

UPDATE:  17.49 Rescue mission. The Curmudgeon gave us excellent advice in comments, so we decided to give a change:

"Trim it down, distribute across maybe three pots, and in a few weeks they'll be gorgeous again!" Sounds great. 

Yes, it's definitely "wandering jew", we call it "juoru" in Finland, and that means "Gossip"
It should spread like one. Yeah... this one doesn't wander or spread so much. 

"Mom, are you sure you can save it?" My little assistant asks.

There's nothing green or moist left....maybe we should just give up? I just have a feeling that even few weeks intensive care wouldn't make this one gorgeous. 

6 - Finlandia

-6-

We are celebrating Finland's Independence Day today. Instead of taking photo I found this nice video from Youtube. 
Music: Jean Sibelius - Finlandia. 

5 - Blueberry Lipstick

-5-

Mila loves berries. Blueberry, strawberry & lingonberry sauce without added sugar .

4 - New friend

-4-

There's a new bunny in Daydream-town

3 - Morning

-3-

 I'm cooking worms oatmeal for my early bird, while the town still sleeps.

2 - Daddy's Little Viking Princess

-2-

Lo and behold...she's awake!

Christmas Countdown Calendar: 1 - Introduction

This year we are not going to spend X-mas in the traditional way. Well, I've to confess, we nearly never do, especially this year, since we are going to travel to Venice Beach on Christmast Eve.

I like some of the traditions and when you have a child it's more interesting have them, although Mila is far too young to understand all that fuss... so I decided to build my own photo - countdown calendar in to my blog.

I'm going to snap a photo every day until we leave. Let's remember that I'm not educated photographer and just learning how to use my new camera. 

-1-

Journey Begins From Home

PS It would be fun if you like to copy this idea and have your own christmast calendar in your blog! Make it by photos, thoughts, art&craft works or bakings, either way it would be fun to see. Maybe you've done that already?

Greetings from the Darkness

This is the most darkest time in finnish climate. There's only a few hours of daylight per day, and that daylight is dim. There's wet and cold out and slush ruins your shoes. Don't get me wrong, I love Finland since this is nice and safe country to live and we have plenty of cool things* coming from our tiny, dark and weird country, but I still would like to ask from my ancesters that what the heck they thought when they settled to live in this country with the cruel climate... they had to arrive during to summer, and in the autumn time they were too lazy to move again. Or too depressed. (Yeah, yeah, we are taking our D-vitamins with Mila and using light therapy lamps to avoid seasonal affective disorder symptoms...)

But, the photographing is quite impossible for me, when I don't know nothing about lightning, and I just love natural light. I just bought a better camera so I could get even some memories saved in this pitch black winter. Finnish winter feels like never ending. I miss the sun. We miss the sun.

Finnish winter feels like...

Few weeks ago I was just wondering...why exactly we should stay in Finland since I still have my maternity leave until it's spring and our baby is healthy? SO we got this crazy, once-in-a-lifetime idea... Let's spend this winter where there is sun at least sometimes, California! So in the end of next month we are going to start our ultimate few months holiday in Los Angeles. Yay! 

Send me your suggestions what to do or try on that trip, and we might give a try and blog about that. ;)

*Angry Birds -game. Sauna. Santa Claus. Rare exports -movie. Marimekko. Salmiakki (Salty liquorice). Esa-Pekka Salonen. Sibelius. Tove Jansson and Moomins. Vampira. Designers. Computer nerds. Artists. Composers. Musicians. Filmmakers. you name it. (List of Finns)

Scandinavian Spice Cake

Scandinavian food is usually mild and spiceless, but not this cake. The aroma of this cake is intoxicating. This traditional spice cake is great treat with the coffee and it's so easy to make. You need only one bowl to mix.

Dry ingredients: 

2 dl Dark Farin sugar (Brown sugar)

0.5 dl White sugar

(Or just 1.5 dl white sugar with 1 dl brown syrup. Mix syrup with liquids)

4.5 dl Flour 

1 ts baking soda

1 ts baking powder

(ground spices into a fine powder)

2 ts Cardamom

2 ts Cinnamom

2 ts Ginger

2 ts Clove

1 ts Allspice (Pimenta dioica)

1 ts Nutmeg (Myristica fragrans)

2 tbls Dark cacao powder

1/2 ts salt

                              (*ts = teaspoon, tbls. dl = deciliter)

Liquids: 

2 dl Buttermilk or yoghurt 

2 eggs

1 dl Coconut Oil (Good quality.)

 Other veggie oils are ok too, and definitely more "scandinavian style", but I love cold pressed coconut oil. Even if you hate coconut smell and taste, from these flavors it won't pop up. 

Mix all dry ingredients well in big bowl with the wooden fork or spoon. And then, add all room temperature "liquids" once, and mix them well with the dry ingredients, but don't whip them too much. You just need to get smooth dough. Room temperature is really important with the coconut oil. If the dough is too cold, it solidifies. If that happen, don't worry. This cake is pretty much impossible to ruin. Just place your bowl over hot water bath and mix even. 

Pour into oiled cake mold and bake in the oven 175° (celsius, it's about 350° in fahrenheit) 45 minutes.

And here comes the hardest part: Turn mold over and let the cake settle . I know, I know, you would love to eat it right away, but it's better when it's cooled down. 

The plate is lovely Finnish design:
Iittala - Taika

Tip for measure conversions: 

American

1 cup = 8 fl oz = 2.4 dl = 24 cl = 240 ml

British

1 cup = 10 fl oz = 2.8 dl = 280 ml

dl 

1 deciliter = 6 (scant) tablespoons

I hope you steal this recipe and enjoy! :)

Lullaby for Mila

I'm often singing lullaby's to Mila. One night I just started to hum a little melody in my head. When Mila fell asleep I went to ask my hubby if he had heard that melody before, and where it might be from, or did I just made that up. He said it sounds like I made that. "Can we make a lullaby for her from that?" I asked. "Yes, sure. Or we could make a Broadway musical?" He replied. "Well...let's try that lullaby first." I laughed. 

So I made the melody for the verse, lyrics and singing, and my hubby did everything else and made my singing sound ok.  The song is called: "Tuulen tuutulaulu" (Wind's lullaby) you can listen it from here: Tuulen tuutulaulu            

The lyrics are in finnish AND loosely translated in to english. (click photo below). Lyrics are naive and quite daydream-like. I just found how hard it is to make, not just a translation but more like a transcreation, if you have made "creative" text like lyrics in another language. I'm not that satisfied with the english text, and don't even know if it's singable. But you get the picture from that. 

My husband is ridiculously talented composer and I'm just a educated music listener, who's still suffering from childhood trauma's from studying piano and flute for 10 years and sucking in that every minute. But with him I've started to enjoy about music more than in years. I'm still at my best in listening, but now I get it that joy of making music. My old music teachers would be very surprised to hear that. I love singing, even when I'm not that good in that. Luckily babies don't care. (And autotune is invented.)

I love to hear music in our home. Sometimes when he's composing film music, it's like we are living in movie. When Mila is going to be older, I'd be happy if she would like to play some instrument. Then I really have to face my own traumas. How to encourage child to do something and not to force to fill our own expectations? How to keep a joy in everything so they don't lose their natural interest and love for learning. I hope we know the right answers when it's time. 

Maternity moments: Baby-led weaning

The poor thing, formerly known as broccoli.

After our first meal experience so many of you suggested Baby-led weaning. It sounds really good and logical method, so I decided to give a try... 

The broccoli was never even near Mila's mouth. She picked it up into her little fist and just squeezed the life and fluids out of it like it was a sponge. She snarled to it. Then she decided to throw me with it. 

Well, we'll try this thing later again. She is now definitely ready to crab food, but the putting in the mouth -part needs some serious developing.