Eastern Market

I glossed over shopping at Eastern Market in one of my first posts, but that visit had been in the winter time. Shopping at Eastern Market in the spring and summer is a completely different, and much more enjoyable experience. There are a HUGE number of vendors to choose from during these seasons. While all that's available in the winter are the indoor food vendors, spring and summer shopping include a little bit - no, a LOT - of everything. Jewelry, art, furniture, clothing, food... and sooooo much more. I'll tell you about some of my favorite things I've found at Eastern Market...

Eastern Market (well... part of it)

First, I have to talk about jewelry. You can find any and every style here, pretty much. Smaller, delicate pieces, to large, chunky, tribal-inspired pieces. It can get pretty pricey. I bought one necklace - a turquoise stone surrounded by a gold and rhinestone frame on a gold chain. It was $10, by far the cheapest thing I found there. My roommate bough a very cool, African-inspired silver necklace. We're wearing them here:

Heading to Georgetown for the day, wearing our lovely Eastern Market necklaces

Next, the art. Like with jewelry, you can find a little of everything - painting, photography, even some sculpting. One of my favorite artists built giraffes, frogs and lizards out of soda and beer cans. They were a little pricey though, so I never bought one (though I really wanted to). I did buy two paintings - one a was a painting of the national mall made to look like Van Gogh's Starry Night. The other was a painting of the Jefferson Memorial and cherry blossoms.

Eastern Market paintings

Beer can giraffes

A slightly random, but neat little innovation I found at the Market was a little old lady selling nail files made from glass. They were very pretty, worked well and, according to her, last forever. Again, too pricey for me (I was definitely doing DC on a budget...), but very cool.

Not the exact ones I saw at the Market, but similar

Last, but certainly not least, are the delicious foods the Market vendors serve up in the spring and summer. My roommate came home once with amazing smoked ribs. Another popular item are Migue's Magnificent Mini Donuts.

Migue's donuts

Eastern Market is open Tuesday - Friday, 7a.m. - 7 p.m., Saturday 7a.m. - 6 p.m., and Sunday 9 a.m. - 5 p.m. It is closed Monday. The closest metro is the Eastern Market metro.