Catch Up

Happy Monday ~ I have lots to catch you up on.  As you know, I have spent the last three weeks working temporarily at Ikea of Sweden.  The purpose of my job was to help prepare an exhibit that will be seen in the next several weeks by Country Managers down to the Store Managers.  I spent my time ironing sheets, duvet covers, and curtains.  Additionally, I sewed curtains, duvet covers and built furniture.  I also learned how to install lights on top of PAX wardrobe units and how to hang curtains from suspended ceilings.  I truly had a great time doing all of this work and at the end of the three weeks, the exhibition was looking absolutely stunning.  The Country Managers arrived over the weekend and starting today they will see all the new products that have been created.  On Tuesday and Wednesday this week, David will give the same presentation on the new mattresses 12 times to 12 different groups of Country Managers.  I am glad that I am not him!

Today, I started my Swedish Lessons!  I will be taking them 3 times a week for 2 hours each time.  I can now tell you my name, where I am from, where I currently live and ask how you are.  However, I am not comfortable doing it quite yet.  I have a lot of practicing to do.

The winter darkness is starting to set in.  The sun is coming up between 7:45 and 8:00 and setting by about 4:00 right now.  By the winter solistice, we will only get about 6 hours of light a day.  I will let you know how it feels and such.

This past Saturday, David and I went to a Christmas Market in the afternoon.  This was the last weekend that it was going to be close to us.  The Market was located about 30 kilometers from our house and it took place on an old estate/farm called Huseby Bruk, which was very nice and along a river.  The cost was 80 Kroner/person to enter, about $14 in U.S.  However, the booths were located in the old buildings on the estate and there was not much room to walk through and browse.  I was hoping to get some gifts to bring back at Christmas, but I was somewhat disappointed in their selection and the fact that you could not get through the buildings.  I am a bit claustrophobic and do not like to be in tight places with a lot of people.  We did see some interesting things, like a choir singing Christmas songs in a set up that looked like the Whack a Mole game.  All you saw were their heads.  We also saw a lonely Santa Claus, he did not have much action.   One thing you would notice is there is no drinking of alcohol at these events, because Sweden has a very tough DUI law, basically, you cannot drink more than 1/2 glass of wine and be safe from getting a ticket or put in jail.  Also, the Swedish people do not really eat at these types of events, like perhaps you would see in the U.S.  The whole atmosphere was quite mellow and subdued. Here are some pictures of the estate.  As you can see the sun was setting and it was dark when we left.  We arrived about 3:15 and left about 5:15.

 

 

Here are the pictures of Santa and the Choir:

I forgot to show you the dresser I made for the exhibition.  Remember, I was making making a dresser in any way I wanted to show how you can be creative with this dresser (Tarva) from Ikea.   This is my finished product:

I had another idea, but when I received these glass knobs that I purchased, I wanted to just highlight the knobs.  They really brought out the golden color in the wood.  If I can, I will show you the other finished dressers as well.  They came from all over the world and were quite interesting.

On Sunday, I finished making curtains for the kitchen, so we will no longer be on display for the walkers and bicyclists to look at.  Actually, it makes the room softer and not so hard looking.  In doing all this, I decided to replace the curtain in my bedroom, so now I am on a search for new curtains!

Hopefully tomorrow I will share more random thoughts about Sweden with you.

Vi ses (See you)

Bridgette