This is how I’ve felt lately… separated into different pieces because life turned me in a completely opposite direction then I expected. But you know what? I think that this process that I’ve been forced to go through will actually turn into something amazing – something way better than I could have ever imagined! So even though I’ve felt like I’ve been in split into pieces, I think I’ve put myself together again, one piece at a time. I know where I wanna go, and hopefully how to get there!
I’m gonna find a dream team to work with, in an amazing work place, with fun, interesting, and exciting projects where I get to be creative and have loads of fun! YEAH!
(I haven’t mentioned anything about it at all, but in the end of September, I was laid off work due to their bad economy. So I, along with three others, were made to leave. Long story short, there’s still a process going on with that, which I’ll not get in to. But, while not working, I’ve studied a class, gotten a certification in User Experience Design (UX-design), and worked on my portfolio. So now I’m ready to hit the job market again! Wish me luck ♥).
A few weeks ago, our friend Claire from London (and who also was our tv producer of House Hunters International), came for a visit! We had such a great time; and as a thank you for staying with us, she had bought a gift. How sweet and totally not necessary! However, I have to admit, I got really excited because… how amazing is this packaging?! I knew immediately where it came from, from the black and white bag. NK – Nordiska Kompaniet in Stockholm. Americans, think Macy’s in New York City. I loooove how NK wraps their gifts; and, of course, I loved what was inside! Thank you so much, Claire! Ok, let’s check it all out!
A newly bought “Cheap art manifesto” poster from Bread and Puppet Press in Vermont, USA.
A plant in our hanging crystal planter from Bean and Bailey Ceramics in Tennessee, USA. We bought it at The Big Crafty in Asheville a few years ago. Pretty much love all their stuff. Check their business out, here.
Various vases on the window sill. These ones come from Clas Ohlsson (surprise!) and from the Danish brand, Bloomingville.
A print, ordered from Gallerix, of a picture I took at the beach in North Carolina, USA, this past summer.
A few weeks ago, on a pretty warm and beautiful day in May, my friend Lina and I spent some time outside shooting me and my longboard. Yes. Love the pictures she took and I want to, of course share them with you here. Thanks Lina, for helping out and being creative with me!
It’s been crazy these past weeks!! In the beginning of February we were notified that we had have to move out in about six weeks due to personal reasons of the apartment owner. We freaked out since the housing situation in this city is unbelievably tough (competitive) and expensive. However, we ended up with the opportunity to actually buy one, so the search started, and we went to several apartment showings until we found the one that we might have a chance to afford. Some other apartments were either taken off of the market or had gotten too expensive (people bid on prices here. So one apartment, if several people are interested, can end up being really expensive – I truly dislike this system…but it is what it is). It was a really nervous day that Tuesday, two weeks ago, when we were competing for the apartment that we just fell in love with immediately, AND WE WON!! Today, we’ve signed the final contract, and gotten the keys so it’s time to celebrate a new era in our lives. An era where we don’t have to be stressed out about moving in the last minute, an era of owning a place where we can do whatever we want to the interior, and perhaps a tiny bit of renovation, whenever we want to. I’m so unbelievably excited, happy, and relieved! We’re moving, starting on this coming Friday already, and will permanently live there from Saturday! We haven’t really talked about this in social media until we knew for certain everything was set and done. And now it is!
As of right now, Liz and I are subletting an apartment in Uppsala, in an awesome location, with lots of character (wooden floors, high ceilings, etc.). However, we know we can’t rent this apartment forever. The living situation in Uppsala is horrible with really expensive prices when it comes to buying apartment (which is a normal thing to do in Sweden – basically you can either rent/sublet a house or an apartment, buy a house, or buy an apartment.
Since we’ve decided that Uppsala is gonna be our home base, where we eventually want to own our own place, and then later on also have a place in the States as well where we can go every now and then to, I’m checking the Internet and apartment market pretty much every day. I check it for various reasons: it’s fun, I want to learn what the market looks like, and I want to be as prepared as possible when it’s our time to purchase a home. When you do this research on a regular basis, you also come across some amazing places where you could pretty much move in right away because you love it SO MUCH! That has happened now. This apartment has many of the things I really love. Of course, there are also things I wish it had, which it doesn’t, but it’s pretty rare you find THE one, with everything you want all in one place. However, I thought I would share this dream apartment of mine that’s for sale right now here in Uppsala, and a place I so dream about owning. Gaaaaaah, if I only had some more money right now. First some explanation about the stuff I like.
Location
This apartment is located downtown Uppsala, on one of our favorite streets full of cafe’s, restaurants, independent stores, pubs, and our favorite pub really just around the corner. It takes about 2 min to walk to the main shopping street and about 1 min to get to the beautiful river. It’s a dream location pretty much, according to us.
Size
Since our goal is to have a second home in the States eventually, we really don’t need a big space. This is a one bedroom apartment (2 room as we say in Sweden), and is a little bit more than 470ft² (44 m²).
Floorplan
I really loved the open floorplan in the apartment we had in the States, where kitchen/dining room, and the living room, were all combined. And this one has the same. It’s perfect for socializing when someone is cooking food, and the other one or guests are hanging out comfortably in the living room area.
The building
I either love older apartments with plenty of character or modern, new-built apartments. This is a combination since the building is from 1810-1906 (it was probably built in different stages and additional parts of the building was added due to the huge span of about 100 years!), but modern inside, with still some character when it comes to the windows for example. I love that you go through a gate of the building on the street, walk across a backyard/courtyard, and have your own entrance to the apartment. It gives you a house-owning feeling, but it’s an apartment. Think: pumpkins on the doorsteps and a Christmas wreath on the door, and other holiday-related decorations that you can actually do even though you’re living in an apartment downtown!
Style The apartment is like a blank white canvas where you have the chance to put your own touch when it comes to decoration and interior design. I want my place to look clean, but yet have a personal touch with textiles, and decorative things based on our two cultures – the American and Swedish culture. The windows, again, are f a n t a s t i c!!!
Ok, so there are a few things I do wish this apartment had. First of all, a balcony! However, it’s only a two floor story building, where you can always hang out in the common backyard areas – grill out and sit at a bigger table etc. If you live in a house, you have to step out of a door, down to the grassy areas anyway. I also wish it had a walk-in closet because I really would like to be able to see and have all my clothes available all year around and not have to pack them away due to season. But as long as I have some more space than I have now, I’m fine. Dressers could be a good solution. In my dream world, it would also be amazing if it actually was a two bedroom apartment instead of one bedroom, so we could have a separate office/guest bedroom. But, again, we don’t want a big apartment anyway.
I think I’ve been inspired by Liz’s job where she’s developing film and doing other things photo related. I’ve been taking pictures with my system camera lately, and I’m also getting more into taking pictures with this little thingy – my Diana Mini Analogue Camera. I bought it in Berlin a cold, but yet, cozy and fun February day in 2013. I think I almost got tired of it, not even using it, when I created a digital 3D version of it in one of my classes at the University in the States. Hehe..a really twisted and sad reason for not using it. So this is gonna have to change. It’s time to find all the accessories, instruction/inspiration book, and start getting creative! I think the beginning of fall here, when it’s still a decent amount of light outside, will be a good period to finish up the first roll. Deal!
A Premium Theme:Rosemary – Solo Pine Font-family: “Karla”, sans-serif Theme color: Gold (#C69F73)
Below is a guide for you to read through so you’ll become a pro on how lier.se is organized; but this is also a kind of post I would like to have saved just so my blog theme/design is documented as well. Even though I work as a graphic designer/web designer and build websites for living, when it comes to my private stuff, I like to make it pretty simple. As some comedians explain, I’m pretty serious private. You probably get my point.
So this is a paid-for premium theme, focused on blogging. Since I’m not studying anymore nor looking to find a job, I decided to not focus so much on my portfolio anymore, and to focus more about blogging instead. So that’s why I’ve taken away the portfolio part.
When you write lier.se in your browser (like you’ve already done since you’re here, reading this), you see the first page, the index page, to be precise. This is where you find the main content, the blog, with the latest post first. ↓
Let’s take a closer look at the navigation bar. There are links to read about me, to get to the blog if you’ve clicked away from it, to check out the archive, get contact info, and check me out on other places on the Internet – the social media links to Twitter, Instagram, Pinterest, and Vimeo. And the navigation bar is where you’ll find the search tool.
If you click on “ABOUT LINA”, it will take you to the page where you can read a short post about me. It’s not a very long introduction, but enough to get a picture of me, and then if you’ll follow my blog, you’ll get to know me even more. That’s my idea of my about page at least. It looks like this.
If you click on the word “BLOG” in the navigation bar, it will take you to a separate blog page where I’m describe in depth a little about each of the categories you’ll find here.
It looks like this when you’re scrolling down below the first picture.
If you click on one of the categories under “BLOG”, the view is a little bit different. The blog posts are a bit skinnier in order to give space to a sidebar, which you’ll find on the right. This sidebar shows pretty much everything you’ll find in the navigation bar on top of the whole website, but in a smaller format. It’s a picture of me with some about me text, contact info, social media links, recently written posts, a little snippet of my latest posted pictures on Instagram. You can also walk down memory lane to read older blog posts, check out posts based on the various categories, and you’ll find a direct link to Liz’s (my wife) blog and our Asheville Brewery Guide.
If you hover over “ARCHIVE” a sub menu will be shown with years linked – like it did under “BLOG”. If you click on each year, you’ll get all the posts that were posted within those years in a feed. On this blog, you can go back to 2008! Between 2008 and 2010, I used the blog platform, blogg.se and lmve.blogg.se, which you can still find if you click on that link. “Lmve” is short for all my names – the first letter in all my names. However, I’ve moved over those posts to this blog, but I find it fun to still be able to get to that blog and check out the design I had then, so I let it stay. Before blogg.se, I used a not so big and well known blog platform called, nogg.se. I wrote there between 2006 and 2008. In 2004 and 2005, I used my friend’s server, coded my own website, and used the free host name .tk. My website was then cureda.tk (cureda was my nickname everywhere back then), but unfortunately, it’s not available to check out nowadays; but I have done a blog post and posted some of the designs of it, which you can check out here.
In the navigation bar, you can also find the way to contact me/check me out more, and that page looks like this.
Lastly, if you’re scrolling down to the bottom of each page on this website, you’ll find my Instagram feed, with the six latest photos posted. It looks like this.
I believe that was the end of this design’s little tour, hope you enjoyed it!
So while I’ve been sick and worked from home the whole week, music has made a huge difference in my mood (I’m so tired of feeling crappy and I haven’t been outside since Saturday lunch – it’s freaking Thursday evening now!!! End of short side story.). Monday was all about new discoveries through Spotify’s own playlist designed for me that comes out every Monday – based on what I’ve listened to before. Tuesday was all about fall coziness with various fall playlists, mainly Liz’s latest one for September. Wednesday was all about my own fall music list, and today, Thursday, has been all about musicals! Yes, I love musicals and I can totally get stuck on shorter specific parts of a song (goes with all music I listen to and then I have to play it over and over again. I’m probably a pain to have playing music out loud. End of side story 2.)
Will see what I’m in the mood for tomorrow. Thank goodness for my awesome headphones. Otherwise, Liz would probably have killed me. Or not..but you get the point.
Liz och jag fick i höstas av Ann-Louise (min goa vän från gymnasietiden), ett presentkort på Illum Bolighus Sweden i Stockholm (en Dansk inredningsaffär) då hon var och hälsade på oss i Asheville. Jag hade berättat för henne att vi funderade på att flytta till Sverige så hon kom på idén att då ge ett presentkort till den affären. Herre, vad jag älskar den och kan spendera timmar där inne. Hur som, när Liz och jag var i Stockholm i lördags för att titta på körbärsträden i Kungsträdgården (ett annat blogginlägg om det en annan dag!) så passade vi på att gå in och shoppa upp presentkortet.
Vi hittade så himla mycket fint och med oss hem fick en fin liten sax, en förvaringsask i glas samt en kopparljusstake följa med. Samtliga av märket, HAY, vilket är danskt design. Älskar alla de tre och tack Ann-Louise för den så himla bra presenten. Tacktack.
Short Summary
HAY
Liz and I got a gift card last fall from my good high school friend, Ann-Louise, when she was visiting us in Asheville, to an interior design store in Stockholm called, Illum Bolighus Sweden. We visited the store when we were in Stockholm last Saturday, and I was in heaven! We found some really cool stuff from HAY which is a Danish design brand. Please try the more or less good Google translate, if you want to translate the whole text.
Jag har alltid varit intresserad av inredning och då det har blivit en del flyttar i livet, har jag fått rensa/skänka/sälja majoriteten av det jag ägt, vilket betyder att jag också fått starta om på nytt inredningsmässigt många gånger (både till en för- och nackdel). Jag har gått igenom alla möjliga slags träslag inredningsmässigt – från björk i mitt tonårsrum, ek då jag studerade på universitet, svart/brunt-färgat då jag hade mitt första professionella jobb, till vitmålat/industri. Så vad är det dags för nu, i vårt nästa boende? Har gjort ett litet collage här nedan med inspirationsbilder och där det visar lite på hur vi tänker framöver.
Ledorden är: jordnära naturfärger med inslag av grått, vitt, ljust trä samt industri (metall, koppar etc.). Tänk er gråa lakan (vår soffa kommer även att vara ljusgrå) en enkel plywood-bordskiva som skrivbord, förvaringslådor så att vi får undan småsaker för att få en mer clean look, industri-inspirerade möbler för att få den där lite mer robusta och hårda känslan, blandat med det ljusa träet, och många kuddar och filtar samt en stor mysig matta. Ja, och så lite färg förstås i tavlor/affischer samt i de ovannämnda textilierna. Jag tror att det blir toppen det här. Är riktigt pepp på att få börja inreda!
Med oss få USA har vi bl a. en del trådkorgar, gamla äppellådor i trä från Waynesville, NC (älskar när det står var de kommer ifrån, att de faktiskt har en historia och inte enbart är nyproducerade), en läderfjärilsstol, liten bokhylla, soffbord, en tidnings/post-förvaring i metall och så vårt porslin som går i två nyanser av grå mm. Detta var bara en liten del utav det vi flyttat över. För trots charmen i att börja om helt på nytt, så var det skönt att för en gångs skull ha kunnat flytta över en del – speciellt då våra inköp i USA utgick ifrån att vi faktiskt hade flyttat dit mer eller mindre permanent och då satsat en hel del på inredningen där.
I have always been interested in interior design and here is an inspiration board of the styles I like and some of the things we have, will buy, or simply inspiration. The color scheme will be earthy colors, light wood, white, gray, and some splash of colors here and there. A little industrial feeling mixed with cozy pillows and blankets is also the plan. Exciting and so much fun to decorate! Please try the more or less good Google translate, if you want to translate the whole text.
You might already know this, but for those who don’t…If you want to, you can follow me on bloglovin’ which is a blog following platform where you collect all the blogs you’re following, and once you get on that website, you’ll see if I have any new blog posts and you can read them and not have to get on my website and check if I have any updates. You can also download the bloglovin’ app and read the blogs you’re following, on your phone. It’s free. You can read more about here.
If you would like to follow my blog through bloglovin’, you can simply click on the link below and then click + follow ↓
Tuesday evening I had my final exam time for my evening class – Introduction to Motion Media. Since we had animated short movies, we brought a bunch of snacks to class, and watched all the animations while snacking. This is what the snack table looked like. My classmates laughed at me when I was taking this picture and loudly said that it was soooo American. Oreos, Goldfish, chips, soda…and so on.
Today, I had my second final exam in my New Media Art and Design class. We presented our final projects we’ve been working on for a few weeks, and after about 2.5 hours we were done, and I headed home to…
…this. I have my final exam in History of Design tomorrow. So much to memorize..and I’m so bad with names on a daily basis, and now I have to remember almost 70 names of different designers/artists, and who belong to different time periods, styles plus all the facts about the various styles. I’m overwhelmed. BUT at this time tomorrow, or actually a few hours earlier (like 5.30-ish, hopefully earlier), I’m done.
Two pretty dark and blurry photo booth pictures of me, taken a min ago, as I’m heading to school (yes, at 6.30pm – ca 8.30pm) for my first final exam of this semester. Gotta go!
Gosh, have been totally busy today with one of my final projects in school – a short 3d animation movie. It’s been taking pretty much the whole day to render (what the computer software do to make the file look like a ready product – like a finished look). Hard to explain. Anyway, it takes hours and hours…but I’m pretty much done with it now. Have edited some, added my music, intro. etc. Not gonna look at it for a few days now so it’ll be easier to see any possible changes to make later on, since I’m too tired of it now.
While rendering on both my computers, I decided to play Christmas music, light candles, and light the star which we have put up in the windows now, and go through my studio stuff (read old school papers, notes, office supplies etc.). Feels good to go through it in several different phases so I really get rid of the things I don’t need. Gaaaah, the charm of moving from one continent to another.
Liz and I are getting our Christmas tree tomorrow so be prepared for Christmas Tree hunting pictures along with pictures of us decorating the tree!
I have had a website or a blog for ten years as of 2014! So I was thinking of looking back at some of the designs I had then..and some years ahead.
2004 – 2005
I was coding everything from scratch and used one of my good friend’s server to upload the website. My hostname was free (.tk), and my nickname on the Internet back then was, Cuerda which means rope/string in Spanish. But the Swedish name Lina also means rope or string in Swedish. Got it? A little bit too long of a stretch, but whatever. I liked it. I moved to Uppsala in fall of 2004, studied music at the University, shared an apartment with a friend, sang in a choir every week, spent all my time at school – did music stuff, and/or hung out with friends. The year after, 2005, I worked in Uppsala and shared a tiny, tiny student room in a dorm with another friend. Good times and good memories.
2006 – 2008
I moved to a tiny tiny town, called Mariannelund, located in the county Småland in Sweden, and studied Social Work at a boarding school there. Since I wasn’t in Uppsala anymore, my friend (who had the server I used) and I didn’t have those geeky coding sessions together when we worked on our computer stuff, so I moved over to nogg.se instead. I still used my nickname Cuerda, and you can actually still find and read my blog. Check it out → here. It wasn’t that much to do with the design there, more than the color schemes, the profile picture, and the background. I used this blog between August 2006 and December 2008. I met Liz in the summer of 2007, and had left the boarding school to study Social Work as my major at the Mid Sweden University.
2008 – 2010
I missed designing websites, so I started a blog account on blogg.se and chose to leave my old nickname Cuerda. I now called my blogg lmve which stood for the first letters in all my names. You can actually still find this old blog → here. I did an internship in Denmark and started going back and forth to the States quite a lot. Liz and I were, and are, so in love. It was during this blog major changes happened toward the end. I participated in a → blog competition in my hometown, and won! You can read about my winning post (in Swedish since I had to write in Swedish for the competition) → here, and → here (when I found out that I had won – in English). Anyway, I won my own domain name, space on the Internet, and a private website/blog workshop. Therefore, I changed from lmve.blogg.se to lier.se where I am now. Lier is based on the first two letters in my first and last name – Lina Eriksson. It’s also what I’m using all over the Internet as my nickname whenever it’s possible. See links at the end of this post.
2010
Liz and I decided to share webspace in the summer of 2010 to celebrate Liz moving to Sweden. I began by creating a first page, and then linking it to our separate blogs. So below, you can see our first page, and then our separate blogs as well.
2011 – 2013
We didn’t keep our first page with links to our separate blogs for a long time…can’t recall the reason why we stopped. I changed to use only lier.se and that’s where we are now. I’ve had a few blog designs since 2011, and the ones below are just a few of them.
2014
Since I started the University here in Asheville, North Carolina USA and studied New Media with a concentration in Interactive Media and Web Art/Design, I’ve also added a portfolio to my website, and therefore it has a first page where you then click to either my blog and portfolio etc. As I’m writing this, my website looks like this.
My blog looks like this (as you can see..hehe)
Can’t believe it’s been ten years now..if you would like to follow me on other places as well, you can find me here ↓
Since I’m soon not gonna be a student anymore, I’m planning on releasing a new design within the next weeks – still the same address. Just a little tease 🙂
Guess what?! I have gotten a job! And not only a whatever job, it’s as a graphic designer!
Guess what again?! It’s in Uppsala, Sweden!
My wife, our cat, and I are, therefore, moving back to Sweden in less than two months. This is, of course, a bittersweet situation where I’m over-the-top excited to work within the branch of what I’ve been studying, but also to be close to my/our Swedish/European friends and family. On the other hand, we’re truly sad about leaving the States, Asheville, North Carolina and all American friends and family here…
The good part, though, is that all my benefits at work will allow us to go to the States every now and then! So now, we’re in the middle of planning a big moving out party, contacting moving companies – geting quotes from them, organizing our things, finding somewhere to live in Uppsala…and the list continues.
But before all of that craziness starts for real, we’re going to celebrate a really cozy Thanksgiving next week, prepare for the Christmas Holiday, and my parents are coming in less than a month to stay with us for some weeks. We’re going to have a cozy Swedish Christmas Eve celebration (Swedish tradition to celebrate on the 24th) and of course an American Christmas Day celebration. The perk of being in an international relationship ♥.
So I guess it will be mix of blogposts here from now on – all the catching up posts I’m doing right now from fall happenings, our preparations/updates in the process of moving, end of school year posts, and Holiday celebration posts.
As of today, I finished up my last whole week of school!! I only have two more regular school days left (this coming Monday and Tuesday), and then we’re having Thanksgiving break. After the short break, we have a couple of reading days, and then finals week starts on the 2nd. This semester I’m done with all my finals within the first three days, which means I’m out on the 4th! ONLY FREAKING 2 WEEKS FROM TODAY!!! Crazy. Anyway, this is one of my classrooms where I’m taking History of Graphic Design, and a typical time when I’m first in the classroom, being bored.
This is how I feel now – excited that I have just conquered one of my biggest fears within the arts – to do some major sketches (not logos, etc)! My homework in my Introduction to Motion Media class was to sketch an environment, which we’re gonna turn into 3D picture on computers later on. I’m more of a straight line, Illustrator/Photoshop/InDesign person who loves to design logos, plan websites (colors, fonts etc)… so the fact that I’ve sketched something in a sketchbook with plenty of details, is pretty big! Ok, ok…I’m gonna show you, because this is historical. Truly.
Yes, it’s true. Lina is gonna sketch this morning which is a huge deal. I’m not really good at all and put so much pressure on myself so it usually leads to a minor meltdown. BUT, I’m gonna work on this now. Practice, practice, and not freak out about going to class where my classmates are gonna look at my sketches and give critical feedback (good and less good). Gaaaaah. I’ve been staring at this sketchbook for an hour now. It’s time to get started. The homework is due tomorrow – sketch emotions in two characters, tell a story with just simple drawings, and then do it on my pen tablet so it will be in a digital format. Sounds pretty simple but for someone who attended a science program in high school and then studied to become a social worker at the university in Sweden, this is a huge deal.
That’s right. After an amazing summer break it’s time to go back to school, and everyday life again. I’m only taking three classes this semester and they’re all design classes so I’m really excited. I will hopefully be able to have some time to do some pro bono stuff too in order to build up my portfolio more. The classes I’m taking this semester are all four credits, and are: New Media Art and Design, Introduction to Motion Media, and History of Design (graphic design). Gonna be so much fun and I can’t wait to see exactly what they’re gonna be focusing on, and all the design challenges I will face this semester! Woo hoo, I’m stoked!
I’m still alive…but crazy busy (as you probably can tell). Last week was unbelievably busy, but the weekend was relaxing, and this week is sort of in between busy and relaxing. BUT fall break is next week – YAY! Although it’s only two days…Liz and I are heading to the beach right after school is over on Friday, and will stay at the beach until Tuesday! Gonna be nice!
So today I’ve had a lecture, and then worked on my homework in my design class – an animation. I’m still not done, needed a break (read: write a blog post, eat dinner, and watch Breaking Bad on TV). Will finish it up tomorrow instead. Just wanted to leave a short note here and let you know that I’m doing good!
Peace.
A few days ago when I got really tired reading a difficult and confusing text for one of my classes…
A few days ago when I got really tired reading a difficult and confusing text for one of my classes…
