This pale yellow dress was meant to be used only to elongate another dress which I thought was a bit too short for me. As this dress has no sleeves I never intended to wear it on its own. Why? Do I think that you are not allowed to wear sleeveless tops or dresses when you get older? NO WAY. You wear whatever you please and let nobody dictate what you should do. The title of this post is merely a little try-out to see whether a “how-to post” attracts more readers. Are women really seeking advice in this matter and do they google on things like How to wear a sleeveless dress over 40? No idea, we’ll see. For myself I don’t like showing my arms anymore because of my own aesthetics. My skin is very wrinkly on my arms (thanks dad) and I just don’t like to look at it. Presenting my best version to the world (that is what my blog is about) means I hide them. Condemn me.
The pale yellow sleeveless dress was for sale in Bella’s Etsy shop (Citizen Rosebud) and a steal. Thinking of my Sportmax dress which is the same colour and a bit too short to my liking, I bought it, only to pay quite a bit to my seamstress as it was hell to get it to the right length haha. Trying to find an outfit for this post I searched my wardrobe and found three ways of wearing this sleeveless dress instead of only the one way. Which means my seamstress cost are a good investment after all.
Loes and I went to the Haarlemmer Kweektuin, which is a communal garden where you can grow vegetables and plants. And a lot more is happening in this place as you will see when you read on. Everything very sustainable. The weather was terrific.
Below: This is the dress on its own. It reminds me of a flapper dress. I know, I know… you are going to tell me my arms look fine. Trust me, they don’t when you come a little closer.
Below: The little black cardigan is ancient. The shoes are from 2017 (worn in this post with my orange leather skirt). They are surprisingly comfortable for my knee, very firm.
Below: Little statue to make the photo even more picturesque.
Below: Close-ups of two statues. Aren’t they cute?
Below: The earrings are the only new thing in this post. Bought them when I went shopping with Peggy in the 9 streets of Amsterdam.
Below: In this dress it looks as if I have a bum.
Below: Loes was wearing a charming dress, fashionably with sneakers. Coincidently her dress has the same colours as I was wearing: pale yellow, black and creamy white.
Below: Close-up of the earrings.
Below: And a close-up of her sparkly sneakers.
Below: We enjoyed all the lovely spring flowers everywhere.
Below: The Haarlemmer Kweektuin has a café, a corner with plants and more.
Below: This for instance, is a corner with clothes made in a sustainable way.
Below: I resisted trying stuff on because I like bright colours. Pastels don’t suit me.
Below: There were necklaces made of plastic. Fun. Wearing my Sportmax dress here with the sleeveless dress underneath, elongating it. The peeptoe pumps (Bruschi) are my best ones, no blisters in these babies. Bought them years ago in Turin when I visited Daniela of the blog The Pretty Cute. (I elongated another short dress with a pencil skirt while wearing these shoes in this post.)
Below: Plastic necklace. Made by children? Made to show what you can do with plastic instead of throwing it away?
Below: There are little corners, all different. This is a corner with sustainable products.
Below: And here is a mini library with a piano You are invited to play.
Below: The sleeveless dress works very well underneath this Sportmax dress. The colour of the pumps corresponds with the dress (no coincidence).
Below: When you bend over, a little bit longer is preferable 😆 .
Below: A better view of the back.
Below: We continued our photo shoot outside. Here is a goat, making small talk to his neighbour the rabbit.
Below: Plants and herbs are cultivated in front of and inside a big greenhouse. Every spring there is a big sale of plants, herbs and flowers on the premises.
Below: The third outfit I created by putting this yellow/cream jacket over the sleeveless dress. You saw it once before when I wore it to the UK Blogger Meet in 2016.
Below: We continued by walking the gnome route. This is for children and the sign encourages them to sing a song and asks them if they know what the word for the instrument is.
Below: Lovely lanes. It seems that the jacket is shorter on one side. Don’t know whether this is because I have one arm bent or whether I am lopsided. My physiotherapist checks regularly whether I am straight and I am.
Below: Cute bridge means I know what to do with my hands. Contrary to Ron, Loes does allow me to hold on to something.
Below: I would have made a terrible ballet dancer. Only had three lessons and during the third lesson I thoroughly disagreed with the teacher who said I was doing it wrong. When she didn’t change her point of view I announced that I was then leaving. She agreed to that and I never returned. I was 6 years old at the time, the lessons were free and I was very pigheaded. This started at a very early age. Another example: for my fifth birthday my mum and dad took me to a bicycle shop to find me my first bike. I loved one that had a stand which you could flick with your foot and wanted that one. It turned out the stand didn’t come with the bike, it was the shop’s property. I had the audacity to say: “Then I don’t want this bike”, turned round and left the shop. I mean… 5 years old! The nerve! Of course I got that bike anyway. It was what my parents could afford and in those days parents were not afraid to “damage their children’s poor soul”.
I nearly forgot, I did have 7 months of jazz ballet lessons when I was 23. I liked the exercises but when you had to put everything together and actually dance, it turned out I had no coordination to do so.
Below: End of the gnome route.
Below: Passed the aviary.
Below: One last shot of the church on the premises.
What happened in my life this week
The usual stuff really, which is very nice. Saturday was a hairdresser’s day again. My hair needs a cut and dye every 6 weeks. As I lead a very structured life, I plan my appointments 12 weeks ahead. That way I always have the best timeslot. Had coffee in our garden in the afternoon with neighbour and friend Froukje who showed me her new sneakers and at the end of the afternoon friends came over for dinner. Which of course my husband cooked. Leg of lam this time. We were silent for a minute at 20.00 hours to commemorate the people who fought and died for us during the second world war. An event that takes place every year on the 4th of May.
Sunday my friend Ayen came over and stayed for dinner. I took care of dinner for a change. Not by cooking but by ordering the same paella as I did a couple of weeks ago when the BVA girlfriends came to visit. It just needed heating and it was delicious. So nothing major over the weekend but thoroughly enjoyable. And with all the war commemoration, I realized once again how utterly great it is to be living in freedom. Little is as precious as that.
Monday at work we had the kick-off of the campaign I have been working so hard on. I have already left that team to join another team last week and I left the presentation to my successor. Of course they were nice enough to mention my hard work. Now it is on to new adventures with my new team.
Tuesday our neighbour Ina from across the road came to pick up a parcel we accepted for her and we invited her in for drinks and a pizza. Ever so nice, “gezellig” as we say in the Netherlands. We have such a nice street, filled with lovely people. A lot of people only look at the house itself when they buy or rent one, but the neighbours, access to shops or parks, noise or not…all these things are of such importance for your living pleasure. Alas, you cannot find out what the neighbours will be like before you move in. We were very lucky in this respect.
Wednesday I had lunch with the Shopping Saturday girls. We didn’t have time for a full shopping day, therefore we agreed on lunch. Always lovely to meet them. You will see the pictures next week.
Thursday and Friday were rather uneventful.
Update on Watson the dog
He is getting better and better. We got him off the couch and chairs, which means we can move back our beautiful couch again. Our nextdoor neighbours came back from holiday and as a “thank you” for watering the plants, they brought us a toy for Watson. A dummy Trump haha.
See you next week.
Greetje
I love the way you styled these outfits, especially the striped dress. You created the perfect length and added some interest at the hem. I’m going to try your dress-over-dress technique!
I was very pleased with the result myself. And surprised. Such styling doesn’t come easy to me in spite of what most people think. Great that I could inspire you.
Greetje
Gosh, I didn’t think I was going to like all the ways you styled this, but I really do! Sometimes when people show you more than a couple of ways to style something, they’re really stretching it a bit, but yours are all totally stylish and wearable. I didn’t think I was going to like the dress under the dress, but again, you proved me wrong and I do!
These photos are so beautiful and springy and I thoroughly enjoyed the tour of this sustainable communal garden. What a BRILLIANT idea.
Watson, you are a doll! Those eyes!
Enjoy your week. I’m still in tech and blog host hell, but hoping to have it all fixed this week.
xxx
Luckily I have a woman (over 40) helping me with the tech issues. Very comfortable for me.
I agree that usually when you come up with multiple combinations, there is always one which is clearly the best. I surprised myself here as well haha.
Greetje
Also, I don’t really like the way my upper arms look as well. They’re thin but they’re not very muscular. Plus I feel like I always need a cardigan at it is usually overly air-conditioned in the summer.
I’m curious as to whether you’re posting title had any effect with your google search results.
I think writing for Google is not a very good idea though. Just in my opinion. You write with a real authenticity, humor and style inspiration- and that’s what drives people to your blog.
❤️❤️❤️
Elle
https://theellediaries.com/
I don’t think the “Google” title had any effect as I foolishly changed the underlying URL haha.
I agree with you not to write for Google purposes as I don’t sell anything so why would I care? If was just a harmless test which failed anyway.
Greetje
I love this post, and Greetje I love the two dresses combined. The statues are so cute too. I can see your ballet training and you seem to be graceful despite what you say.
Good shoes make a big difference. Sounds like you had a pretty lovely week all in all. I’m so glad that Watson is being trained so nicely. And that Trump doll. LOL.
❤️❤️❤️
Elle
https://theellediaries.com/
It happens a lot that my photos have to be taken again and again because I am slouching. I hate it but cannot seem to get my back to stay up right.
Good shoes indeed make a big difference, I agree.
We have our couch back now that Watson isn’t jumping on the couch anymore. Yay.
Greetje
The dress is very sweet Greetje and I like all of the ways you’ve styled it. You’re right to say about your arms – I always talk about the things I don’t like about myself as it saves my readers from feeling sorry for me. Show your arms, don’t show your arms – it’s about what makes you happy. Your posts are always so full of interesting things and now we get an update on Watson too, how fab. That toy is ace! xxx
I am so pleased to read such lovely compliments. Really chuffed. Thanks Anna.
Greetje
LOVE THE TOY!WATSON RIP HIM APART!!!!!!!!!
YOU LOOK LOVELY IN YOUR OUTFITS TO COVER THE ARMS…………
YOU ARE VERY SAVVY TO SEE IF YOU GAIN MORE PEOPLE!LET ME KNOW Although I am not a fashion BLOG nor a selling BLOG what am I BLOG?
MY GARDEN IS POSTED THIS WEEK YOU MAY ENJOY!
POP in if you have the time…………………XX
I have a blog like yours: a personal blog with no commerce or promotion. Only personal stuff.
I will have a look at your garden. You lead a life of Italian nobility in the USA. Like in the old nobility days. Beautiful house, garden, husband, children etc etc.
Greetje
Love the little white dress and your shoes. You have the most amazing shoes closet! The yellow coat with the white dress is my fav, but the looks are all great. Yellow and white screams summer. Like daisies. So friendly. Have a great week.
I don’t know what your screen resolution is but the colours which you see are often not the colours of the clothes I am wearing on my blog haha.
The white sleeveless dress is actually pale yellow. But I still think it screams summer.
Greetje
You look particularly adorable in these light summery colors. I love the pleated dress and how you styled it!. My favourite outfit could be the last one, as I love a long jacket over a dress, but also loving the ‘doubled dress’ tip!. And those new earrings are really cool!
Love your friend’s outfit too, she looks elegant and comfy in her sneakers!
And glad to see Watson, he’s so cute!
besos
Thank you for the compliments. Very sweet of you. I was rather smitten with the result as well. What started as an outfit post with a dress you already saw three times turned into a good post with variation.
Watson still is a handful but it slowly is getting better.
Greetje
I’m coveting that long striped dress. The black and creamy yellow vertical stripes are so unique and very sophisticated! You actually look stunning in all of your versions of the creatively elongated dress!
Tell Watson to put in a few extra hard chomps on his new toy for me. I can’t believe we’ve endured this man for almost two years. I’m sickened by his incompetence and narcissism.
I was rather pleased with myself as well. Usually I am not that good in creating multiple outfits with the same pieces. Getting better though.
And eh… I will instruct Watson 😂.
I love how your dog is chewing on the Trump doll! I cannot stand him. Embarrassed that he is our President.
My husband said: “You risk losing a lot of readers when you post this, as there might be Trump lovers amongst your readers” I replied: “That is the beauty of a personal blog with no commercial ties. I can publish whatever I want to publish. It is my blog.” If the statistics show me I lost half my readers… tough haha.
Greetje
I love the other dress peeking out from underneath. It adds more interest to the piece.
Watson’s new toy is hilarious. Especially the hair! LOL
Neighbours are very important to liking where you live or not. We also got lucky.
Suzanne
http://www.suzannecarillo.com
You should read the sentences they have put on the Trump toy haha. Like on the back: Push here to inflate head.
I am very pleased with my secondhand sleeveless dress and pretty proud of myself for having created 3 outfits with it. You know I am not that good in creating multiple outfits with the same pieces. But… getting better all the time.
Greetje
That’s a very clever solution to having a dress or skirt that’s too short. The communal garden is so charming!
I always wanted to take ballet when I was young (and it probably would have helped my coordination) but my mother believed that only “snobs” gave their children ballet lessons. As an adult I enjoyed English folk dancing and Morris dancing. It did help my coordination, and was SO much fun.
I am afraid I just do not have any coordination. It was difficult to follow the teacher’s instructions as she was facing me instead of standing with her back to me so I could imitate her moves.
Greetje
I love how you made this dress work in so many ways Greetje!! It’s like a dress extender yet even better!!
OXOX
Jodie
And to think that two of the three combinations were thought up in 15 minutes haha.
Greetje