Blue and lime sweaterThe easiness of this blue and lime sweater sold me, plus the earrings that went with it. As I cannot wear those earrings yet, I chose my lime rubber necklace as accessory which is a present from Sylvia (40plusstyle). You have seen it before here and when Sylvia, Suzanne Carillo, Anja (Curly Traveller) and I cruised though Amsterdam here (oh happy days).

As I told you, I ordered quite a lot from Essentiel Antwerp with my last salary before retirement. I only needed the link to their website and went down the rabbit hole. The patent leather ankle boots are also from Essentiel but from last year (or the year before).

Ron was my photographer and we went to an old part of Haarlem, right in the centre, called De Vijfhoek (= 5 corners).

Below: Pretty streets, lots of green, people sitting in front of their house in the sun, church in the background and café De Vijfhoek on the corner. All is well.

Street in Haarlem

Below: It is a really pretty part of Haarlem with a lot of green, although the streets are narrow. No cars allowed.

Below: Ron sat me down on this little bench in front of a house. Love the wisteria.

Blue and lime sweater

Below: My hair was getting really long.

Blue and lime sweater

Below: Now this is a fun Dutch sight. Orange tulips in the window.

Below: Of course we used it for an outfit photo. The orange tank top I am wearing was Ron’s idea. He said it would add interest. Combining it with my orange boots was a no-brainer. If I am not using this necklace but the earrings which you will see next, I will wear the tanktop back to front as it will be higher and give me a bit more orange in the V.

Blue and lime sweater

Below: The pretty earrings (also by Essentiel). They need pierced earlobes, so I will have to wait to wear these.

Earrings by Essential on a blue and lime sweater

Below: The official photo on the site of Essentiel Antwerp.

Earrings by Essentiel Antwerp

Below: All the houses in De Vijfhoek are very old, this one is from 1670 and really small.

With the next two photos I will show you the difference in creativity between Ron and me.

Below: This is what I do when I see something nice, like this cat. I point the camera and press the button.

Cat in the sunshine

Below: This is how Ron shoots that cat, from a far more interesting angle. I may be good at blogging, but I will never be a good photographer, no matter how well I can operate the camera. I just do not have “the eye for it”.

Cat in the sunshine

Some more beautiful pictures by Ron.

Below: Wisteria, hanging over the street.

Wisteria

Below: Wisteria reflected in a front door window. You can also see the old-fashioned doorbell.

Wisteria reflected in the window

Below: The outdoor lamp.

Beautiful outdoor lamp

Below: I cannot remember whether I photographed this street or Ron. Just another example of the area.

Street in Haarlem

Below: Me and the blossom tree.

Blue and lime sweater

When I see my hair in the above photos I am so glad I was able to visit the hairdresser again. See the result below.

What happened in my life this week

Saturday. The man came to clean the sunscreens/awnings. Hurray. Oh gosh, they are like new. What a good investment and what a terrible job for this poor guy: very cold, very wet, working with your arms above your head and water running into your sleeves. He earned every penny. (If you are Dutch and have sunscreens that need cleaning, this is the guy to call or email: Direct Sun Schoonmaak. (This is not sponsored, I am just very happy with the result.) Wore nearly the same outfit as above but with white boots and jewellery. The photos are a bit dark (the awnings were down haha). At first I had the pretty flower necklace on, which Anja (Curly Traveller) gave me, but later I thought the outfit called for a more arty style and chose the white brooch.

Blue and lime sweater with white

Sunday. Just did the laundry, some blogging and reading. Peaceful day. Wore a dress for a change and walked to the plastic waste container. One needs an outing these days, right? Had to put on hold-ups (thigh-highs) and boots later on. It wasn’t warm enough. (Link to original post with this dress.)

Yellow, black and white dress

Monday. Had another quiet day (apart from exercises) and had a Facetime conversation with Sara in New York State. Lovely. Wore this excellent combination which I so love. It was a bit warm for this though on Monday. Link to original post.

Pink jumper with cream trousers Outfit Monday

Tuesday. A full and fun day. I headed to The Hague to pick up my repaired watch and combined it with a visit to Marjolein. We were ever so careful and sat in the garden and had a really good time. Here are a few photos I made with my iPhone. First a peek-a-boo usie:

Usie peek-a-boo Marjolein and me

Then a remote usie. It looks as if I am close to Marjolein, but I am the required distance. Optical illusion. Very flattering pose (whahaha).

Marjolein and me

Marjolein took this photo of me (after I had dismissed 10 previous ones). She is so kind, just keeps on photographing me.

Haori in Marjolein's garden

And this is the one I took in the bedroom to give you a head-to-toe shot. I am wearing my antique haori (= a short kimono). Link to original post. In the original post I am wearing it with high heels and jeans, but I think the styling below is better, although the white shirt underneath should have been black. Here is a link for further explanation on a haori.

Haori black, white and red

Wednesday. Exercises (sigh), a few grocery shopping (also for my mum), a bit of sunbathing (half an hour), some reading and blogging. Wore this checked shirt with pink sequins on the collar for about an hour. The trousers are baby blue. Link to original post, worn with jeans and sequinned sneakers.

Green checked shirt with pink sequins

Thursday. Ron and I visited mum again in the garden for coffee and apple cake (bad for the weight). It was very “gezellig” as we say. Gezellig is: warm, cosy, friendly, good atmosphere etc. There is no translation for this multi-purpose word in any other language. Picked up grand strawberries from a farmer along the road and took some for mum too.

After we came back I cycled into town as my lovely shop owner Karlijn of kpa.haarlem had posted a great outfit on Instagram and I was sold. Counted my money as I do have to watch my pennies more carefully as a retired person and decided the purchase was possible.

In the afternoon we visited our friends Georg and Marla for the first time in two months. Well, apart from the occasional drop-off of fish or groceries. We took them some strawberries as well. It was such a delight to talk to each other again. They had rotated the garden table 1/4 turn to ensure the appropriate distance between us. We had agreed on bringing our own food, glasses and drinks. Nevertheless, as they are excellent hosts, they couldn’t resist offering us that as well. Holding a bottle with a piece of paper and feeding us fishpie with a cake-server. Especially the freshly baked cheese cookies made me jump for joy. Here we are in their lovely garden, sitting under the sun screen. The outfit is the same as Wednesday’s as I had barely worn it.

Marla and Georg

Ron and me

Friday. A bit of a blah day. But what really cheered me up was the doorbell ringing and there were friends and neighbours Froukje and Petro. They came to deliver a little bag filled with lovely home-made nonsense accompanied by funny texts. It was such fun to unpack it but I bet it was fun creating it as well. Froukje came in for a short while to admire the garden.

Surprise bag

In the afternoon as Ron had returned from his allotment garden, we unpacked the surprise bag and killed ourselves laughing. They had put things in like a napkin with hearts and a card attached saying: “For romance”. A bottle of the rosé beer which I like and on the note: “For Ron to get Greetje a little drunk because she is really funny then”. Or a jar of vegetables with the note: “For when Greetje has bought another blouse which she didn’t have yet and accidently spent some housekeeping money as well”. (Which I never do, honestly, never). It was so funny. Isn’t that wonderful? Friends that go out of their way to make you laugh like this?

Content surprise bag

Wore this on Friday as I decided it was a lounge day. Link to original post when we visited the brocante market near Paris.

Outfit Friday blue shirt

Kitty came round to our house at the end of the afternoon to fix Ron’s iPhone in our garden. She works part-time as a tech girl at Apple. The Apple store hasn’t opened yet, but she could fix it. Really… that woman is such a jack-of-all-trades. She is a photographer and teaches photography, desktop publishing, graphic design; she is a storyteller, paints everything in the house etc etc etc. Really resourceful.

And to end this post, here is another shot of our garden shed with the flowers nicely blooming. (Ron is going to paint the green shed doors as well. All in good time.)

flowers at the shed

Greetje

No Fear of Fashion

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