Linnea 'Ea' quilts...

I caved in. And wrote a quilting bucket list to add to my blog pages . Why? Well, partly to inspire myself, but more importantly to be able to remember my quilting journey and all the things it has taught me. Happy quilting, everyone :)

I photo-scrapbook about my quilting hobby on Facebook, and Instagram, using the photo albums. To anyone curious, I put a link to (so far) all three albums (years 2015 to 2017). You'll find them in the blog in the column on the left. Notice the three photos in left column? Those will take you to my albums. That was all I wanted you updated on :)

Follow my blog with Bloglovin *hugs*

I stopped blogging for 1989 days. That's how long it's been since my last post. A lot has happened since then (enter comic eye brow movement here...), but I think we'll address those changes when they become apparent. One of the changes I think I want to point out here right away: I changed the theme I had on the blog. I wanted something more "modern" and "simple" and "background should complement photos of colorful quilts". Needless to say, the background stayed white. (Insert smirk here) But I changed the name of the blog from just "Ea" (my nickname) to "Linnea "Ea" quilts...writes and lots more" (only the first part should show up in the title. Why the name change? Well, I want to mainly document my experiences as I learn more and more about quilting, and as I become more and more skillful it's nice to look back and say "yes, I actually did THAT". Other than writing about quilting, I want to write ...

....  photos of Ikea 365+ teacup . I think mine look rather dashing at 5th position. This is because of my post about t-t-tea . ...  photos of IKEA Tolsby frame.  Here, I found a photo from the post were I did some IKEA-hacking of the Tolsby frame into a earring display . It was on the 6th google-page. Now I'm beginning to wonder. Should I feel proud here, or become thoughtful? Because the other search words on the blogger statistics page (you can check your own via your own blogger-page) just doesn't make any sense. At least not to me. And Goddess knows what google thinks makes sense here on my blog? Have you looked through your statistics page yet? Or is it just good for laughs, in your opinion?

Like I mentioned in the previous post, I have thought about writing blog posts somewhat regularly during 2012. I've seen that lots of people do this, so maybe I'm just finally just giving in and joining the hipsters. Or maybe I just want to force myself to write, hmm? Anyway, the posts I thought about writing are going to be posted on Wednesday, Thursday and Friday. The Wednesday post  is going to be about some arts and craft project that I'm currently working on . It doesn't have to be a finished projector anything, more of a short presentation of it. I was thinking it can be of a certain technique or material, or some notes I've jotted down about just that project. It will also serve me as reference posts for the future. The Thursday post is going to be about the truth. More specifically, the truth about me . Why choose such a topic? Well... I've actually thought about this quite long and hard. About over-sharing, "netiquette" and how som...

For all of you reading this through an rss-reader, or the like, this post is slightly more for you. I just wanted you to notice that I changed the over-head banner of the blog. Yes, I know, that wasn't any kind of huge news at all. New year, new banner. The one I had before was just the "Ea" in the middle, and a small rant underneath. I sort of chose to keep the "idea" behind the old banner (easy to make, simple layout, nothing photo that takes 10 sec to load...)  but still making it look like a fresh coat of paint on the blog. Yes, I know lots of people change their blog's layout after New Year. Yes, I joined the hype, stop giggling! Just admire the patchwork of words, will you?

Or tea, for me. If I drink coffee I get even more "angst" (or are those palpitations?), so I'll stick to tea, thank you very much. Possibly the last post before we're heading to Kirkkonumi and wait for our flight to Rome.

Pumpkins, nectarines and oranges. So much orange :) My autumn is different shades of orange - sienna, burnt, golden, bronze and pumpkin. Coupled with gray skies and yellowing leaves, it's not a bad color scheme. What's your autumn colors?

The saddest thing you can see, in my dad's face when he realised that I couldn't eat anything on the lunch menue. After he had already paid for it. But the kitchen chef here at the lunch restaurant, called "Lounas mania", was super nice and made food for me that didn't have paprika in it. Here's a photo of Mom eating dessert.

Today, I'm traveling by train to Kirkkonummi. The Finnish railway company VR has launched a new ticketing system, and so far a lot has been chaotic about it. Look, you even get HUGE tickets! Apparently, they're only made for the interim period, but still.

My first blog award - thank you so much Garnhamstern , this made my day so much brighter :) And, since you've gotten it from Linda (who I also considered worthy of the award), and I really wanted to give it to folks who hadn't already got it, I thus choose the following bloggers as recipients: Ikomi // Inari because she just knows how to uses colors as she writes, and takes the loveliest photos. It's a pleasure to read her texts. Plus, I like the layout of her new site. (envy ++) miiamaria // Maria because she proves to me time and time again that even though life is at times tough, you have to focus on the good it still brings. If there was a bittersweet award, she'd be the queen recipient of it. And I so enjoy reading the (oh so rare!) texts she writes about different handicrafts. (awe ++) Waenthoronien // Tove because she writes like I would want to write. Fast, furiously, just pouring it all out, so that not every little detail is analyzed in the tex...

Early morning adventure in our kitchen. Mikael is going to be away with the boys for the entire weekend. They went to the Aland Islands, to Mariehamn. There, they're going to hold a product demonstration for the thing they've been coding on the whole summer. I hope it goes well for them. * holding my thumbs * Meanwhile, I'm going to take the advantage of being able to hog his computer. I want to have use of his big screen, because then I don't have to stress my eyes so much while I'm writing. Since I have a ton (actually just 21) of non-written blog posts I want written, I'm guessing it might take all day. Maybe all weekend. But that's okay, I'm going to take it slow, and otherwise just enjoy the weekend. Hope you too can take advantage of something at home (like an unoccupied couch, or being able to knit in peace, or finally getting to hog the TV remote) , and treat yourself to some laziness! You've earned it too, I'm sure. I kno...

Okay, this is going to be quite random * , but here we go. I don't like coming up with names for my projects, essays, recipes... Never have, never will. *lets out my breath, because the house didn't crash down around me* Now that that is out, I just came up with a perfect solution. Name generating engines! If you google " name generator ", the first thing that pops up on the list is... .... the  Fantasy Name Generator ! How fitting, since I'm sure all the other ones are really nice and probably works like a charm... but it's the "fantasy" part of the thing that gets me. Yes, you may roll your eyes if it makes you feel any better. I'm still gonna use that one. Quickly browsing through the other generators, I must say that out of the 10 name generators highest up on the list... 3 have to do with creating names for roleplaying. Concerning that, I am so not touching the World of Warcraft one. Why? Well, we have quite enough WoW at home her...

Okay, Inari shared a tip on her blog about how to see a dynamic overview of your own blog - or anyone else's too - by using the new Blogger "dynamic view" function. Basically, all you have to do is add the string  view/functionsname  after any blogger-url, e.g. for the dynamic view called "flipcard" mine is  http://linneagronstrand.blogspot.com/view/flipcard . In short, the new functions are: /view/timeslide /view/mosaic /view/snapshot /view/sidebar /view/flipcard And I must say, after trying them out... Oh dear goddess how booring the pictures I take are! :( No real scene sense, no flattering poses, no good contrasts. Nothing. Just boo-oo-oo-oring. Not inspiring at all. Crud. What more can I possibly say?

"Och för er som undrar hur jag hinner kan jag upplysa om att jag går upp ganska tidigt och lägger mig ganska sent. Ljuset gör mig pigg. Och sen kollar jag typ aldrig på TV och just nu tillbringar jag väldigt lite tid vid datorn. Det ena projektet avlöser det andra och än så länge går det bra. Då har man ju mera tid." - Anna Neah (singer, blogger and so much more) ( ~ ) Sorry, won't bother to translate for you, that's what the "translate" button on the browser Google Chrome is for. Or Babelfish and Google Translate. Use the tools at your disposal, don't complain. Cobble stones at the Old market square close to the Cathedral. I guess I should take Anna's advice, and just get up a bit earlier in the morning. Goddess knows, I stay up late most days anyway. I never said I'm smart, and sometimes staying up to the wee hours of the morning is really dumb. Dumb like "it will bite you in the [insert body part here] later" kind of dumb. A...

~ "My husband has admitted that the way he remembers my birthday is that he knows it happens when it's warm - so one night when it's warm, he waits for me to go to sleep, then checks my drivers license. Is that charming? I think so."   - Stephenie Pearl-McPhee, knitter and writer, aka "the Yarn Harlot", on her blog ~ There are times when I'm so glad I'm literate. In fact, that's pretty much every day. It's nice to get to snigger when you read peoples witty comments. "Knowledge costs, or not". Thanks Emmis for letting me play with your poem-magnets!

"Sorry that I've been away. I am a bad blogger." - Neil Gailman ( ~ ) Why do people apologize when they haven't posted something on their blog for a while? It isn't at all like when people ask other peoples' forgiveness for their tardiness. Or make excuses for their own existence. That last one is seriously despicable. It's your blog. No one else's. Why the stress? o_O On of the authors of a blog I  really truly very much  enjoy to read only posts about once a month. I think it's both the wait and the way he writes that makes it - truly - enjoyable. Henceforth, I will never apologize for such behavior. Likewise, I won't apologize for this photo. Something I think the person who placed this sticker (on the Theater bridge here in Turku) won't be doing either.

Do you ever write blog post that are to be published later , as soon as you've added some things (photos, more text etc.) to them? Well, as the dedicated Post-It girl of my family, I must say that there are soon too many blog post in my "to be written list". I need to finish writing and just publish them, but since most of them don't seem  to be so in the now , I've kept putting them off. And thus, the list has grown. This simply will not do. I need to get the amount of 19 unwritten posts on this list down to 0. Seriously. Life is made out of lists.

The above is the most condescending thing I've ever read about the blog-phenomenon. It was in Hufvudstadsbladet , and it was in a column where the writer (a woman if I remember correctly) vented her anger at people who don't understand us people who blog. I her column, she shared some quotes she'd either read or heard about "why people even bother to blog". There was a whole lot of other stuff she'd written too, but my memory ain't THAT good. Anyway, on the few blogs that I subscribe to, there are a few women who sometimes put up pictures of the things they've bought, or made, or are gonna buy, or want. Sometimes, the pictures are so many you feel as if they're spamming their own blog, but since I love sharing peoples creative ideas.... and sharing a picture is so much easier than describing something in words, I don't mind. I like to read about people who share pics of the things they've sewn, crocheted, knitted, crafted, beaded, twist...