The Haarlem bloggers got together again. From left to right: Sylvia of 40PlusStyle, Misja of MisjaB, Anja of Curly Traveller and me. So nice when we are all together in the Netherlands. It was horrible weather that day: fierce wind and rain. We only had to walk a little distance from the parking garage to the restaurant and we were blown away. Umbrella flipped. Which meant we couldn’t go outside to take photos. So this is going to be a short post, not a lot of “darlings to kill”.
Below: The restaurant where we met is Café Martinus, located in Haarlem on Spaarne 94. More pictures of their wonderful interior, you will find in the post with the 4-way styling of my wide black midi skirt.
Below: A good shot of Sylvia. Love her modern jewellery.
Below: And here is Anja, colourful as always. Unfortunately the portrait photos of Misja were not up to scratch.
Below: Before we ordered lunch I decided to take a smoothie. The waitress warned me it was very big and I thought I could solve that by asking four straws, one for each of us. As it happened, it wasn’t the smoothie itself, it was all the fruit on top that made it big. Isn’t it beautiful? Like a bouquet of flowers. I was so delighted with this thing, that I didn’t share much. Loved it too much myself. (Bad, bad woman.) Of course when the lunch came I could only eat half of it.
Below: I was secretly taking pictures of the shoes. These are Anja’s.
Below: Sylvia’s.
Below: And Misja’s. Note the dots on her bracelets and on her socks. That is no coincidence. She is sooo good in combining different colours and patterns. I wish I could do that, but my brain hardly ever comes up with these things. And they make an outfit so much more interesting.
My friends were sweet enough to take some photos of my outfit. If you clicked through to my other post in this restaurant, you know about the fab walls they have.
Below: The jacket is ancient. Part of a set with my tuxedo trousers. It is beginning to show some wear and tear but I cannot find a similar one to replace it. Luckily it fits again, that’s one problem solved.
Below: The yellow plastic bracelet resonates the yellow in the dots of the T-shirt even though it is a different yellow.
Below: Close-up of the T-shirt. Blue with custard yellow dots and grey dots. My niece and her husband design and print these shirts. They design, print and wholesale. I was so lucky to buy this one and others at cost price. The brand is Paala and produced completely sustainable.
Below: Hmmm… no bum to speak of. The boots are just for show. You saw them before with my green maxi dress. They are so HIGH! Combined with my knee they are virtually impossible to walk on. It does look nice in the photo haha. Never be fooled by dazzling photos. You didn’t see me hobble afterwards.
Below: Misja from top to toe. I would have loved to own that belt. It is a very good find; I think it is Dries van Noten.
Below: Sylvia in a top by Stella Carakasi. Nice brand, I like their stuff, but it is very much black and white. Great “canvas” for jewellery as Sylvia demonstrates.
Below: Anja, colourful and “Ibiza”. She is the more is more girl. I forgot to take a picture of her in the restaurant. We therefore took this picture in my house. Same colour theme as the restaurant.
Below: And here am I again. Taking a load off my feet haha. The jeans are by J Brand, bought in 2014 in Vancouver when I was there meeting some bloggers. Comfortable like PJ’s.
Below: My teeth are coming along fine with the braces. They are getting in line again. As there are dots in my T-shirt, the earrings are dots as well.
What happened in my life this week
Saturday: told you everything that happened above. Nothing else happened that day.
Sunday spoiled us by being a beautiful, beautiful and warm day. The opposite of Saturday. And I was fortunate enough to go on a photo shoot with Kitty. The photos turned out excellent. I am killing my darlings as there are so many I want to show you.
Monday was a bank holiday in the Netherlands. Ron and I visited my mum. She is in good health and still living on her own but obviously her strength is not what it used to be. Ron weeded the garden, the sweetheart. We had a good laugh at his expense: he told me how to get the broom back on its stick again and … failed miserably. The broom-bit fell off the stick and Watson snatched it immediately. He loves fighting brooms. “The act” reminded mum and me of my dad, bless his soul. He was great in demonstrating things that went wrong. Like demonstrating his new motorbike and driving it straight into the hedge. We ended the day with chips.
Tuesday: just work, nothing special apart from the fact the office was so cold I thought my legs would freeze off. Apparently, management thinks we work better when we are not too warm.
Wednesday, my day off: Rain, rain and more rain. Good for the garden, the buildings, the rivers. After last year’s drought you won’t hear me complaining about rain anymore. Sylvia and I first went to Today’s Vintage in Hoofddorp to go through the second-hand treasures. Apparently others had done that too, as we couldn’t find anything. Although I did find a lovely wide white belt of leather for only 5 euros, which came home with me. We continued the day in Amstelveen, a suburb of Amsterdam as they have a roofed-over shopping mall which sheltered us from the rain. Lunch at Popov which was excellent. I had really planned on buying nothing as my holidays are coming up and I need my money for that. Of course now I found two things that I had been searching for: a long striped shirt to replace a checked shirt of poor quality AND a red leather jacket which fits me much better than the jacket you all liked in this post with the wide blue skirt. Sylvia gave me the good advice to try it with all the clothes I had wanted to use the jacket for but never did because it wasn’t quite right. Just to be sure I am really going to use it. Solid advice which I am going to follow this weekend.
Thursday: all work and no play.
Friday: end of the work week and start of the holiday! Yay.
Greetje
How nice to see you all together again; such a great group of very stylish women! I take photos of people’s shoes if I’m at an event where there is creative footwear. The smoothie “topper” has a week’s worth of fruit – looks yummy! Shelley
I did make the mistake of taking the shoe photos while my friends were talking instead of paying attention to what was being said. I won’t do that again. Live in the moment right?
The smoothie is worth going back for.
Greetje
Ladies you all look fabulous and carry yourselves so well with grace and style. Loved reading this post. Regards Jill stylishatsixty
http://Www.stylishatsixty.wordpress.com
Thank you very much Jill. I will forward your compliments to the ladies.
Greetje
I just bought a pair of white booties that look exactly like yours. I never thought of wearing them with pants. Thanks for the idea! And the fruit on that smoothie is insane.
Hi Ally, I hope you can walk on your booties. I am still working on that part haha. The fruit on the smoothie was indeed insane but I will go back and have another one. It was delicious.
Greetje
THAT FRUIT TOPPER IS BIG!
WHAT GORGEOUS LADIES!
I NEED TO HOP OVER TO THEIR BLOGS!
I HOPE YOU TOLD THEM YOU WILL BE AN UP COMING STAR ON MINE!ALways nice to get a FRIENDS PERSPECTIVE!
XX
Give me heads up when you are publishing and I will link. I’d like to talk about it in my post. Have you already set a date?
NEXT WEEK THE LAST THURSDAY OF THE MONTH!I think that’s next week?
Since your ahead in time wise THAT LAST FRIDAY!!!!
THANK YOU!
SORRY I DIDNOT RESPOND RIGHT AWAY!
LIFE!
XX
I have sent you an email.
I just l-o-v-e Anja’s boots. I am drooling!! I have big feet, wide too and now I am ‘older’ need to wear orthotics. I am limited in what shoes/boots fit and are relatively comfortable. I wear sneakers/runners mostly. I do have a plain black pair of boots that are fairly comfortable, got them through the podiatrist, nothing as stylish as Anja’s.
Anja is our boho/Ibiza/more is more girl. Her boots are indeed really nice. Hope you can find something like that too, given your limitations in foot wear.
Greetje
High heels always look pretty but are never comfortable. I’m trying my best to avoid them as I grow older.
It’s so great seeing you all together again. What a lovely bunch! You all look wonderful.
Suzanne
http://www.suzannecarillo.com
Ah those good old days when you joined us here. That was a terrific spur of the moment action on your part.
I’m suddenly curious about how you four found each other!?? The fact that you’re all bloggers makes me wonder if that was the inspiration or if you knew each other before hand and also influenced each other to become bloggers?
At any rate you’re always a stylish bunch and you seem to greatly enjoy each other’s company. I’m going to steal Misja’s cute yellow shoe/black polka dot socks idea!! Your white boots have an artistic flair. (Is your knee accepting a new a little better now?)
I’m so glad to hear that your mom continues to do well Greetje! Has she met Watson?
Mum has met Watson and he was as good as gold.
How the four of us met? Anja is my neighbour. She went to Singapore for a few months and met Sylvia who’s in-laws live in the street behind me. Anja tijd me to follow Sylvia’s site which I did. And I think both Sylvia and Anja “discovered” Misja. As we all live in Haarlem and pretty close to each other too, we meet when we are all here.
The knee is still not what it was but I am still hoping for full recovery.
I always love your white boots. I ordered THE PERFECT pair a few weeks ago, but the sizing was weird and they were too big. The next size down had sold out. I blame you for my white boot obsession.
Despite being indoors, these photos are really lovely!
I have always been obsessed with white boots and these are for me the perfect pair. Such a shame I cannot walk on them hahaha.