Christmas Market

Advent Calendar / 15 December

The smell of roasted almonds gives a special atmosphere to the Christmas market.

The red wooden market stalls are put up in the town square for the Christmas market from 1st Advent until Christmas.

More things to eat! The sign says “4 kinds of sausages” – reindeer, elk (moose), wild boar and – garlic?! (The last one does not really seem to fit in with the others!)

Hmm… I’m getting suspicious…
Why were Santa’s/ Tomten’s reindeer not in their stables???

Market Day

Last weekend in September means Autumn Market in our town. Some of the streets are shut off from traffic and filled with market stalls. The regular stores have their own special offers too. I’m not really a “market person” since I’m not very fond of being in a crowd. If I go, I like to go early before it gets too crowded, and I usually get tired rather quickly.

But… My camera wanted to go… ;) So we did.

There are certain things I do sometimes keep a lookout for at these markets, if I happen to need them. Handbags for example, or woolly slippers, or gloves.

 
Traditional Swedish clogs. Top part leather, bottom wood.
( I never wear them now, they’re too hard for me.)

But I wasn’t really in need of anything just now.
The only thing I bought was some post cards…

 
Some extremely colourful doughnuts, which, for the record, I did NOT buy. ;)

… and a mug of popcorn. Photographers, take my advice: If your main purpose of walking round the market is to use your camera, do not buy the popcorn (or other food meant to be consumed on the spot) until towards the end! Unless you have someone with you to hold them for you… I was there in my own company, and hence, I have no photo of my mug of popcorn!

I was never one to enjoy fairground rides myself – anything going round in circles, or up and down ;) I always preferred to keep my feet firmly on the ground!

See more market pictures in my Picture Book.

An Expensive Sunday Afternoon

Usually, I keep to pretty inexpensive pleasures. Last week’s art exhibition for example had a very moderate entrance fee, and the tour of the Town Hall didn’t cost anything at all. Today, however, I went on a more costly adventure.  I read in the paper about a scrapbooking trade fair taking place at an exhibition hall not too far from where I live, and decided it might be fun to go and have a look around. After a long winter in hibernation I’m kind of itching to “do things” now.
 
The thing about trade fairs, though, is that they never come cheap. First of all, you have to pay a pretty large sum of money just to get in; even though their sole purpose is to sell stuff to you.



The purpose of the entrance fee (I suspect) is to make you feel obliged to then buy a lot of things marked “bargain” or “sale” or “three for the price of two” to make up for that extra money you had to pay to get in there at all. Sneaky, but it works.



Browsing around among the stalls at a fair like this, even if you’re not really all that much of a scrapbooking fanatic (as I kept telling myself…) - it’s very easy to still find yourself picking up some plain cards at one stall, a few sheets of coloured paper at another, a box of little flowers at a third, some pretty ribbons at a fourth… Paying for each item to separate salesmen keeps you in the illusion that you have hardly spent any money at all!



I think I had not quite grasped before how much scrapbooking has been growing as a hobby also in Sweden. I browse my Australian friend Rose-Anne’s blog sometimes – she keeps making beautiful cards at incredible speed and mentioning names of tools and things that go way over my head. (I still have no idea what a cuttlebug is!) Walking around this scrapbooking trade fair made me feel even  more like an amateur. So many things I had no idea how to use! And in spite of that, the amount of money in my purse kept mysteriously shrinking.

Luckily I had only brought a limited sum of money, and the decision not to use my credit card. So I got out before I got ruined! And here’s my booty:

Now all I need is someone with a birthday coming up soon so that I’ve got a reason to make a card!

.~.~.~.

The exhibition hall where the trade fair took place is an interesting place in itself. I’ll get back to that in my Picture Book blog next week, I think.

Fire and Ice

Yesterday (Saturday) I did get myself into town to have a look at the Christmas Market. It was a good day for it since for a change the temperature was just below zero and it was not raining  - we even had a bit of sun for a while!

The snow in the picture above though was especially made or imported for Santaland - it has not been snowing in this part of the country! And the same goes for the ice block used to make an ice sculpture:

The sculpture was supposed to be a polar bear. The job was going to take several more hours to finish though, and I didn't have the stamina to hang around all that long! Today the temperature is above zero again with some rain - so it remains to be seen how long the sculpture will last...

Autumn Market Day

This weekend was Autumn Market, and I took a walk down town yesterday, bringing my camera. It was a grey day but at least it was not raining. There were a lot of people about already, on Friday before noon. I usually do not feel quite comfortable taking pictures of strangers on the street in my own town... But at events such as Market Day it is so crowded, and there are so many other things to look at, that no one really pays much attention to the camera. I think some of the shots came out quite good. I used Picasa 3 to edit these.

A few more market photos may be showing up at the other blogs in the week to come (i.e. Soaring through the world and my new blog DawnTreader's Picture Book).

Shopping spree

Market photo borrowed from the internet

Today was Spring Market Day, and I had a bit of a shopping spree...

"All my favourite things", i.e. the things I usually look for at this kind of market!

This time I came home with seven pairs of socks, two packets of postcards, and two handbags! The black bag has a very smart design. You can wear it either as a backpack, or just on one shoulder, or in your hand. Who would not need it?! And the red one, well, it's a lovely colour, isn't it, and it might just possibly be bigger on the inside than on the outside...

Ah, well. Now you know one of my weaknesses. Or three...

PS. Note to myself for Autumn Market Day: Do NOT buy any more socks. Sock drawer full!