Tidbits : Craftparking Maastricht 2

(pictures taken by my hubby before the fair started; he was more interested in the building than in the market ....)
I am back from the Craftparking fair in Maastricht and it was awesome !!!! I have never seen so many visitors; I had no time to sit or to visit all the other participants. I have a soar throat from all the talking in Dutch, English, German and French; it was pretty difficult to switch between the languages, so that when I started to get tired it became a very nice european mix language "fredugerglish" (maybe an idea for the EU ???). But the BEST OF ALL was to meet all my European Street Team friends from Etsy ! Greet, Kim, Mitsy, Karla, Veerle, Maria, Nathalie, Kerrin, Vanessa, Ina, Nicole, Bai; and of course all these etsy widowers and orphins.... Later I found out that I missed Maartje and that there were two other Etsy members in the participants too. Sorry Maartje for not passing by and saying hi to you. I think I had not laughed and talked so much as last sunday, especially after all my intestine problems it was fantastic ! And the funny thing was that, although we had never seen each other in real life, I had the idea of meeting old friends that I already knew for a very long time.

(1. AINSI Ateliers; 2. Q4; 3. AINSI Ateliers; 4. 16-08-2009 at 10.45 am; not many signs of a fair yet.)
The market was in an old cement factory built in 1927 by Peutz; a construction out of steel and concrete at the south of Maastricht centre to the foot of the Sint Pietersberg along the river Maas. It offers now facilities for artistic amateurs and professionals; there are lots of workshops for artists and offices for creative companies. It was the perfect place for this craft market !

(1. Buitengoed Slavante; 2. Slavante op een oude ansichtskaart)

After the market we walked a little higher on the Sint Pietersberg to the Slavante Restaurant, a beautiful old building with a gorgeous view over the river Maas, where we had a lovely evening together; I loved the Limburgs zuurvlees. Finally, little Peggy started to feel ok again, She suffered a bit from the heat, all the people and the noise (there was quite some echo in the factory). But at Slavante she found the road to the kitchen very quick... It was a great evening among "old" new friends, and it was fantastic to say goodbye to Kerrin in such a personal way. I want to thank Mitsy for all her organisation; she did the best of jobs !
(my own stand before the visitors arrived)

Tidbits : "Weihnachtsmarkt"

I attended last weekend for the first time the Xmas market here in the neighbourhood (Weihnachtsmarkt Süderbrarup); it was in the former cattle exhibition hall. In the past this region had a lot of breeders from the beautiful Angler cattle and those breeders held their shows in this hall. An old brick & wood building, with lots of open air ventilation. So pretty romantic but very cold.... It was quite dark in there too, so my husband had to go home again to get me a lamp. Next year we have to plan that better; I need much more light on my table !

There were about 20 market stands, from wooden toys to aquarells, and of course lots of punch and food. I was surprised to see so much artists and the market had lots of visitors. There were musical events with child choirs, bands, Santa Claus, clowns, ets. too. It was nice to see those kids enjoying themselves.

At the moment I am quite exhausted from this happening; my legs hurt, I got a cold and could not speak any good German anymore at the end of these 2 days (I am Dutch myself). But I sold quite some hats, especially of the black winter ones, and my button jewelry did it well too. So, maybe next year again ???