Brace yourself, this is going to be a lengthy post.

Totally different from the floral dresses I wore this summer, is this black leather dress. Ron (my husband) immediately said: “Take it back. This is so S&M (sado-masochistic)”. I beg to differ.

Of course, black and leather is always a bit risky, certainly when there is so much of it, but I like my reflection in the mirror. Bought it in May at LAB Women’s Clothing Haarlem and wore it once with bare legs and block-heeled sandals. It was a rather warm item for the end of May, so I left it in the wardrobe until Autumn. The brand of the dress is DNA Amsterdam.

Funny story

One day in the beginning of June, Ron was trying on new shirts he had ordered and I saw this on his back:

When I asked him what that was he answered: “Those are red marks I have put on my back with a marker as a precursor of the marks you are going to give me with your whip” referring to my black leather dress. I laughed out loud.

The best joke however, was the next day when he texted me: “I am at the beach with no shirt on and people are giving me funny looks. I discovered I used a permanent marker ….” Now that killed me laughing. One of the ladies of the beach restaurant scrubbed the red marks off his body haha. Silly man.

Below: A little catwalk video of my colleague Katrien and me in the office.

 

Photoshoot with Kitty at the Marquette estate

The weather was bright, Kitty was available and off we went to Heemskerk. To the castle/estate Marquette. I think it is more an estate than a castle, although it used to be a castle. It was rebuilt a couple of times and is now also a hotel. The hotel rooms are in another (newer) building on the premises.

Below: As we arrived we passed a cute house just outside the gate of the estate. Kitty used to babysit in this house when she was a student. Idyllic is the word that springs to my mind.

Below: Autumn has arrived: great big mushrooms.

Below: The house provided a nice background for the first styling: black leather dress with pearls and sneakers.

Below: The road driving up to the estate is impressive as well. Unfortunately they had to chop down a lot of trees which had become too old and brittle. Wearing the dress with my golden mini bag (present from Marianne). The shirt underneath my dress is lime yellow to soften the harshness of the black leather.

Below: As we walked through the gate, up to the house, we saw there was a film crew unloading their equipment.

Below: Kitty tried to take photos without the equipment in sight which wasn’t easy.

Below: I “borrowed” this photo from their website.

Below: Indeed an idyllic place. Further down you will see a picture of how it can be when you have a summer wedding on the grass.

Below: We started inside with the second styling: dress with a leopard belt and leopard pumps. Both very old.

Below: The hall normally looks very nice, but they had put in a sideboard with a coffee machine for the film crew, which I crudely photoshopped out of the picture. The high black table and the banner behind this had to stay as I am not skilled enough in photoshopping.

Below: Marquette rents out their place for photoshoots and such. As we didn’t pay anything we had to shoot outside. Fair enough, especially because the people filming, had paid for the privilege. After explained that my blog is only a tiny thing and non-commercial, the staff wasn’t too strict, but we did avoid indoor photographing most of the times.

Below: I hadn’t figured out yet that I had to button the dress higher in order to wear my gold necklace properly. Otherwise it doesn’t sit right.

Below: This is more about the building than the dress haha.

Below: Close-up of a stuffed bird.

Below: Third styling: with silver ankle boots and silver dotted tights. I kept the golden bag. Silver and gold can go well together. I buttoned up the dress higher by this time.

Below: This was really too difficult for me and Knee. Minding my step, I returned to safer grounds.

Below: A good view of the boots but a little too revealing. One button too many is undone. As I lost some weight, I also went down in bosom size. Doesn’t really show in this picture, does it? This is how the dress should NOT be worn. Tacky.

Below: On the grounds is this little arbour. Wearing my sneakers of course as we headed there, otherwise I would have scarified the grass, ruining my boots and Knee in the process.

Below: Marrying on this estate is fairytale-like. This is what it looks like when the sun is out on your big day. As there was no wedding, we had the place to ourselves.

Below: Fourth styling: with white boots and another pearl necklace (seen before with a yellow jumper and jeans). Bought the necklace the day after we had the funeral service for my best friend Pat, so I always think of her when I wear it. Mind you, I think about her a lot anyway.

Below: Fifth styling: with white boots and a leopard mini bag (also see the first photo at the top of this post). Again the bag is a present from my friend Marianne. I have told her to stop it now, which she promised. Polka dot tights to liven up the outfit. We had been wondering what that white stool was doing in the arbour. Until I sat on it: great! (It is probably meant to put flowers on it.)

Below: As we went downstairs to wash our hands for lunch, we found this room which is obviously for the bride to get dressed etc. Cute.

Below: A family had booked the Chinese room, adjacent to the restaurant, for a private high tea. After they left, Kitty took this shot.

Below: Details of the wall. The flowers are made from pieces of silk, not painted. Gorgeous.

We enjoyed the lunch in the little restaurant and forgot to take photos. Yap, yap, yap.

Below: In the big restaurant you can also dine if you aren’t staying in the hotel. Talk about atmosphere. I must ask Ron to have dinner with me there one time.

Below: A photo of my lovely photographer Kitty. Apparently I didn’t do a very good job taking her photo as she choose this one of her at a distance. Could also be that she wanted the tower to be in the picture.

Below: One last autumn picture and we went home.

That was quite a long post. The funny thing is that the snake print boots I showed you last week at the end of the post, are soooo good with this dress. With them I created the sixth styling and to me that’s the best one. As I bought the boots after this shoot you will have to wait to see that combination. No photo of it yet.

What happened in my life this week

Saturday it was raining cats and dogs. It wasn’t too bad in the morning which was lucky for me as I had to go to the seamstress to have a few trousers altered.

Sunday was a day of hard work. When our dog Watson arrived in March we had put linoleum in our living room, covering our parquet floor. The reason? As he was still a puppy, he might severely damage himself on the slippery parquet floor. Watson is now 10 months and it was time to remove it. The new chairs were moved from their storage place upstairs into the living room and new cushions did the rest. We have our house back.

Below: One side of the living room. Our house isn’t wide or long but it is high which makes up for that.

Below: The other side.

Below: And the sofa. Can you guess we like colour?

Monday: work and Ron had plastic surgery on his eyelids and the bags below his eyes. It was so bad that the insurance pays the bill. I drove him to and from. As I a know the surgeon and his assistant, we had a jolly reunion (I am no stranger to plastic surgery). I told the assistant that I am still contemplating about my earlobes (having the long slit sewn up and another hole pierced). She knows that when you are there and you are “contemplating”, you want it. So….next Thursday I am scheduled.

Tuesday: as Ron still had the impact of the surgery to deal with, I walked the dog in the morning (not my favourite thing to do) as I had also done the afternoon and the night before. Thank God, Ron was well enough to deal with Watson the rest of the day and I could go to work. Busy workday with lots of meetings.

Wednesday: had a wart removed from my arm at the doctor. Well… let’s hope it is a wart. They set up a culture to find out whether it is malignant. Then Ron asked me to accompany him to the beach to let Watson run which I did. Lovely weather, but the beach is not a good place for my knee. Picked up the seamstress work at noon and had my hair done. Ron took me to the seamstress and picked me up from the hairdresser as it was raining again. Humid weather and a fresh blow dry… they don’t go together.

Thursday: training day. Learned a lot about video making. That is commercial videos for the company; I am not going to vlog instead of blog.

Friday: last time of jaw physiotherapy (glad that is over) and dinner at our friends and neighbours with a whole bunch of other neighbours. FUN.

Greetje