It was sooooo much fun…. the blogger meet up in Vancouver. I arrived on Thurday afternoon and was met by Suzanne Carillo (in above photo on the right) who visited us in The Netherlands last year. Suzanne is one of the organisers of the meet-up, together with Melanie (Bag and a Beret) and Sue (A Colourful Canvas), further referred to as “the girls”. Around 20 bloggers attended. From LA, Florida, Utah, Singapore, London, Haarlem (me), Vancouver and other places in the USA and Canada.
Friends ask me things like “did you learn a lot?” Well not so much about blogging. However I did find out how lovely all these fellow bloggers are. My goodness, did we laugh !!! And talked. Went for lunch, dinner, coffee. And talked. And laughed. And shopped. And took photos. You can see a bunch of funny Instagram photos here. You can see them even if you are not on Instagram.
Let the photos do the talking.
Above photo: selfies in the restroom of a shopping mall. As that is what bloggers do.. they take photos where ever they go. From left to right: Sheila, Trina, myself, Melanie, Sylvia and Suzanne. At the bottom of this post, you will find all the links to the blogs of every attendee.
Below: we started the day with coffees and chats. Suzanne and me:
Below: Trina and Sylvia. Trina and I met at last. We have been following each others blog for two years now. She is a sweet, sweet lady.
Below: Sheila, Suzanne and Melanie. 
Below: as it was raining the first day I asked for an indoor event… shopping at a mall. At Ted Baker Sylvia tried this beautiful skirt with cropped top. I wanted the top as well but the girls just didn’t fit in size 4…
Below: Sheila, trying on a tophat. Looks bloody good on her.
Below: Suzanne found a stray rabbit. (Looks like the one you have Daniela. And that might be right as we were at Max Mara. Very pricy if it isn’t an outlet.)
Below: we went into a very expensive shop called Holt Renfrew where a marvellous Sales Associate (Corey Mah) styled all of us in terribly expensive clothes by Prada, Etro, Miu Miu etc. He must have known we wouldn’t buy. Here is Sheila, discovering a price tag…. WHAT???!!! 
Below: but…. they did have awesome jeans. Our lovely Sales Associate Corey Mah, guided me to his colleague at the jeans department as (quote:) “he knew much more about jeans”. And he did know everything. 
Below: yes, I bought the wide legged jeans (above) and also a pair of skinnies. Soft as butter. No pinching in the tummy, high rise. I am so happy. Don’t I look happy here? Even though my hair is down in the dumps? Credit card baby, solves it all (until you get home….).
Below: I am demonstrating in that posh shop how I keep my bare feet from getting blisters and at the same time prevent my nail polish from chipping. With a little cut-off sock.
Below: after all the shopping we went back to the hotel room where Melanie changed into this tiger playsuit with palazzo pant legs and a matching maxi quilted overskirt. A gift from her friend and fellow blogger Pao/Pat. This suit was made by Pao’s mother. 
Below: at the dinner Friday night. Want to know who’s hand that is???? 
Below: it was Mad Melanie’s hand. Gosh, did we have laughs.
Below: Friday evening: Pretending to smoke (with a Pretz) in a cocktail bar.
Below: too bad it is such a vague photo: Suzanne and Melanie, both wearing beautiful skirts.
Below: Saturday morning in the hotel. Anne and me. Anne is an artist. Stylewise we couldn’t be further apart. Inside we connect. She is such a nice person.
Melanie had a “party” in one of our hotel rooms with a few of us, using lots of wigs and making compromising photos haha. She has got some blackmail material. I know, I saw the photos. If you like, see her posts 1 and 2 about the meet-up. Very funny.
Below: Pat (or Pao as she is also called), an artist and teacher. Melanie put a red wig on her and I didn’t recognize her anymore. Looks so good on her. 
Below: a nice picture of Sylvia. That perfect jacket she is wearing???? I got that as well. Making it item number four that I copied. Fortunately she also copies me sometimes. We often have similar taste.
Below: we visited Granville Island, Public Market Courtyard, which is such a lovely place.
Below: part of the gang
Below: where is everybody? Here!! Sue is holding her umbrella. Tiina sitting next to her.
Below: Sue in her colourful jacket (she sews like a pro).
Below: Suzanne, Trina and Patti.
After the market we went up to South Granville shopping district. At Eileen Fisher we spent a lot of time. Mainly due to me as I couldn’t decide. Their stuff is rather expensive but such good quality, I succumbed to a T-shirt and a long sleeveless top. Both silk.
Below: here you see Wendra at Eileen Fisher. Wendra makes and sells that looking glass she is wearing. Very handy for when you don’t want to wear reading glasses but have to read the labels in the supermarket.
Below: see? I was not the only one. Look at that gorgeous necklace Trina scored at Anthropologie in the sale. Looks so good with her green/gold outfit too.
Below: “the girls” organised a clothes swap in one of our rooms. Everybody brought a few pieces and Melanie donated tons of clothes. That was a fun event. Sheila here and Sue.
Below: Shawna and Sheila. Shawna scored the looking glass necklace Wendra brought.
Below: Melanie. She looks drop dead gorgeous in this dress. I think it was Anne’s.
Below: I had 3 dinners, two lunches and a brunch. Not everybody was attending all the time but around 15 to 20 of us were there. The name tags we are wearing came in a cute goodie bag with a rosette, a fun little bracelet, a beautiful notebook etc. The “girls” made quite an effort.
Below: Trina and me.
Below: Sheila bought this fascinator in the afternoon. Cool.
Below: a perfect picture of Sylvia. She managed to buy this very expensive jumpsuit for a bargain price, making me regret I didn’t stay on at that shop. Such a cool outfit.
Below: by Sunday morning my hair had given up. Nevertheless showing this photo with Sue is more important. The cheat is standing on her toes haha.
Below: pretty Patti who has a blog link-up every other Monday for bloggers over 40, called Visible Monday.
Below: Melanie and me Sunday brunch. She made the necklace I am wearing, Got me compliments all day. Isn’t she beautiful? I now know she is, outside and inside.
Below: after brunch a few of us went to a shoeshop called Fluevog. They have a fantastic philosophy and very different shoes. I bought these black and white booties with open heel. And in a consignment store we found these legging/trousers. I couldn’t resist buying them as they were a steal but I don’t think I have the guts to ever wear them together. You can see that by now, my hair had surrendered to chaos.
It was a fun, fun event with so much good spirit. Thank you Suzanne, Melanie and Sue. Now underneath you will find all the bloggers that came with their name and link to their blogs. Clockwise starting top left.
Below: Trina – Tea Time with Trina, Tiina – Elegance Revisited, Ally – Shybiker, Wendra – Through the Looking Glass 
Below: Sylvia – 40+ Style, Suzanne – Suzanne Carillo, Jodi – Day 2 Day Wear, Tracey – Fashion Forward 40
Below: Melanie – A Bag and a Beret, Sue – A Colourful Canvas, Sheila – Ephemera, Shawna – The Director of Awesome
Below: Pat – Project Minima, Anne – Spy Girl, Patti – Not Dead Yet Style, Tami – Thrift Shop Commando
Below: Barbara aka Vancouver Barbara (a loyal reader of a lot of our blogs), Louisa – Damselfly’s Delights, Chloe – Fat Rabbit’s Delight and Jane who writes a column that is almost a blog for a local paper, The Island Word.
This was an elaborate post. Hope you enjoyed it and didn’t find it boring. Like looking at somebody elses holiday snaps.
Greetje
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