Monday, December 3, 2012

Swedish Christmas Bazaar

We went to the Christmas Bazaar at the House of Sweden (the Swedish embassy) last Saturday. It was a little crowded but definitely worth it...if for no other reason than to spend a little time in one of my favorite buildings in DC.

The architecture of this building is so inspiring to me as a designer. I love the materials, openness and transparency, site, signage, everything.

You enter into an atrium that's enclosed with glass walls that have water running down them. It's part of a permanent installation entitled March 6 pm by Swedish artist Ingegerd RĂ¥man. There is glass and water throughout the building, all part of this piece. Some of the glass is etched, frosted, combined with granite...all meant to invoke the Swedish landscape of water and ice. The space might sound cold or hard when described this way, but it really isn't. It's beautiful.

Here's Peter being a good sport and posing in front of the water wall.

There were lots of cute kids running around, of course.

And lots of Swedish goodies for sale. Can you guess what I bought?

I got a new little white Dala horse to go with my older blue one. I thought he was getting a little lonely on the mantel all by himself, and now he has a friend. Don't they look cute together?

They also had some pretty decorations up along the waterfront.

I like the simple green and gold theme.


The next day, we went to another Christmas fair, but I'll save that for another post.

Also, I promise it won't be all Christmas posts for the entire month. :)

9 comments:

  1. Looks like so much fun! I wish we had something like a Christmas bazaar around us because i would totally frequent it!

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  2. It is quite a lovely building! Glad to hear you all had such a fun time!

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  3. beautiful pictures! this is something to check out in DC in the future :-)

    darlene
    www.woodenspoonandcrafts.blogspot.com

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  4. I love your new Dala horse! I've been eyeballing some on Ebay, since they've been hard to find around here. Swedish Christmas decorations have been some of my favorites since I was a kid and read the Kirstin American Girl books. (She's been discontinued, by the way, which is a travesty.) Even then, I liked things that were understated.

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  5. Oh my...am I jealous! My mothers family is Scandinavian, and those Christmas decorations and several dala horses are in all of our homes!!! :) this must have been such a fun shopping day!!
    Sarah
    http://atticlace.blogspot.com

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  6. Love the Dala horses :)
    And the water wall is cool too!

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  7. Why not have Christmas posts all month? Especially if they come with beautiful photography like this :) And I love the Dala horse, and Scandinavian Christmas! I wish there were even more photos from inside the embassy, would have loved to see it. It looks stylish, minimalistic and warm!

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  8. I won't complain if it's all Christmas posts ;-) I think my blog will be the same throughout December! The embassy looks amazing, I love the wooden style cladding outside.

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