Again, the boyfriend jeans. This time with a khaki jumper. You have seen these jeans last week with my sequinned jumper and a couple of weeks ago with my cream jumper. Boring. Sorry, I am a jeans girl and boyfriend jeans are very comfortable in these Covid times. However, I would really miss it if I weren’t allowed to wear dresses or skirts anymore.
Having said that, I do feel a shift in my attitude towards clothes. I feel I have too many clothes and adding more won’t make me feel better. Plus, I want more comfort, also in heel height. Combined with my retirement (and Covid) this may lead to a different approach. Not that this is a sure thing because I have said “I am not going to buy any more clothes” many times before. Only, the amount of clothes has come to a ridiculous stage, not to say anything about sustainability.
Now how will this affect my blog? I can hear you say: “Why don’t you start creating different combinations with the clothes you have?” Well, and this might sound strange, I hate that. All those clothes and shoes out on the bed, me thinking some combination is going to be terrific, only to be disappointed when I look in the mirror, not my kind of thing. I am not a stylist. I am just very lucky to have many friends who know how to style and the help of stylists in the shops that I frequent. We will see how this develops dear readers. For the time being there are still new clothes in stock for a blog post.
Warm jumper
Over to the jumper in this post. When I found it online at ME+ EM I couldn’t believe my luck: it was in the sale for a third of the price. A discount of 66%. ME+EM has quality stuff, pricey but really good stuff. The first clothes I bought (in their London shop) were the pink jumper and cream trousers, a fabulous combination.
When the jumper arrived midsummer I thought it was really heavy, warm and thick and I wasn’t sure about the colour khaki on me. Now that it is autumn I love it. It is so snuggly warm. Does the colour suit me? Hmm, I still don’t know, but I like it a lot. I also like the shine of the material. It looks a little bit as if it is knitted with ribbons. Further down you will see a close-up.
Photo shoot in Amsterdam
It was supposed to be nice weather the Sunday Ron and I went to Amsterdam for the shoot. Alas, weather is still hard to predict. It was cold and rainy while it had been sunny the previous day, for which day the rain had been forecast.
Ron wanted to take photos with some other statues than the ones of last week. I wasn’t too keen as it meant going from one end of town to the other, ergo a long time doing the shoot and parking problems. My hair doesn’t last that long in damp weather. As we arrived at the first statue, it had temporarily been moved to a spot we couldn’t reach because of building work. Next plan: just take Amsterdam buildings as background, that is always nice.
Below: This row of houses with the red shutters has a special meaning to Ron as his grandfather, who he adored, oversaw its renovation. Address is Bloemgracht 87, 89 and 91.
See the three face bricks with the year 1642? They depict a way of life in those days: a man with a job in the city, a man living off the land and a man living off the sea. I will give you a closer look.
Below: The face brick on the left. The man with a job in the city. A city slicker haha.
Below: The face brick in the middle. The man living off the land.
Below: The face brick on the right. The fisherman.
To continue these face bricks, here are two more from 1752 and 1763.
Below: The one from 1752, sawing his acres, Bloemgracht 77.
Below: And the one from 1763, a young man sawing, Bloemgracht 81.
Right, enough about this and back to the outfit.
Below: Of course there are bikes, although all I see is my ample bosom.
Below: We crossed the bridge to the other side of the canal…
Below:…where I had a peaceful sit on somebody’s stairs. The bag is the same one as I used with my cream jumper.
Below: This is something you will experience in every nice city…You want to get a lovely shot, but there are (other) tourists with that same thought. In this case all four wanted to have their photo taken with the canal in the background. We waited (impatiently).
Below: Finally they were gone. I was freezing and my hair was drooping.
Below: Bridge over the Bloemgracht. With bikes.
Below: Did I say bikes? More bikes.
Because a lot of you appreciate the buildings I show (you say so in the comments), here is a little more Amsterdam.
Below: See that window in the middle? Ron imagined how grand it would be if that was your bedroom.
Below: A close-up of the window. The letters give a Dutch saying which means “Unaware of any wrongdoing”.
Below: Lots of the old houses on the canals have beautiful outside lamps.
Below: I will throw in one more face brick. You guessed it…the sun.
It is a bit funny for us Dutch as ‘Son” is the old spelling. Nowadays it would spell ‘Zon’. What makes it funny is the fact that in Amsterdam dialect the Z is always pronounced as an S. It made my chuckle.
Below: Details. My earrings. They were a present from Ron about 30 years ago.
Thank goodness my earlobes have both healed now and I can wear whatever earrings I want, although not too heavy. The piercer warned me for that. He told me that, although I have new holes, my earlobes are thin. If I hang heavy earrings in them, I will have to do this whole circus of plastic surgery and piercing again in 10 years. No thank you, I will be careful. With a photo as close as this, you can also see that these old earlobes are a bit wrinkly. That cannot be helped.
Below: A vintage brooch from my vintage brooch shop. Three metal colours: silver (coloured), copper and brass. You can also see how the jumper is knitted.
What happened in my life this week
Visited my mum. She is well but of course in these Covid times, she gets lonely. Below: she is looking amazing as always, without any make-up and being 92.
Wore my orange snake print shirt on jeans, yes, those boyfriend jeans. I (can) live in them. Link to original post where I wore the shirt on a classic pair of black trousers.
My friend Lia who doesn’t live far from my mother’s village, was going to come to my mum’s house and we were going to go for a walk. That fell through because Lia’s daughter and granddaughter unexpectedly came to visit her. Instead we chatted through Facetime, my mum as well. Mum hasn’t seen Lia for such a long time. We have known each other since we were 16, so my mum knows her as well.
Below: An outfit of this week. After I saw this photo I changed the belt to a simple black one. There was too much going on in the outfit. Link to original post.
Two new garments were on my officer’s wash basin behind me but they are still a surprise, so I covered them with a sticker.
As I didn’t have photos in stock, Ron volunteered to do another shoot on Monday when the rain stopped for an hour or so. Oh gosh, my hair was still drooping from the Sunday shoot and …well you will see it next week.
Work (well, between bracets)
I have told you about the earrings from Lara Design. I got chatting to Marcella, the owner of the site and she told me she was very busy. As I am not, I offered to help her. So I checked her site for flaws. That is such a good job for me. I had to stop myself from rubbing my hands together in glee haha. I gave her a lot of tips and she is implemented most of them. Which needed to be checked again. I have been working on it for two afternoons this week. On Tuesday Marcella came to visit me. So nice, seeing one another in real life. We had only had contact through mail and Facetime.
We talked about earrings, our lives, our house interiors, Covid, shoes … everything. And I forgot to take a photo haha. Stupid.
Horrible mice stories
Wednesday started horribly. My cat Sophie caught a mouse and brought it into the bathroom (her cave). I took it away from her and put it back in the garden which was a difficult and heroic deed because usually I just scream my head off. Not that I am afraid of mice, not at all, I think they are adorable, but I cannot cope with any human or animal suffering.
I kept the cat indoors for a couple of hours to allow the mouse to hide. No such luck, three hours later Sophie came back in with the same mouse. Which I rescued again and this time I put it outside at the front of the house where Sophie cannot come. Then I saw that poor mousy had a terribly broken leg and I cried. Together with the girl who was delivering the post. We both cried.
It would have been humane to kill the mouse than to let it suffer but I just couldn’t kill it. How do you that? Smash its head against the pavement? I couldn’t bring myself to do that. The mouse crept underneath a car and was out of sight and out of reach, leaving me feeling terrible and crying. Of course I know this is nature and of course I know there is so much more suffering in the world, but I just cannot handle suffering. Which is the reason why I do not read papers or watch the news. Trust me, the big news comes to me anyway, but at least I avoid all the terrible “smaller” news.
Two days later Sophie brought another mouse into the bathroom!!! And again Ron was out and I had to catch it. I think it crept in the scale for hiding. I took the scale and put it out at the front with a note on it: “Please do not take this with you. A mouse is hiding in it that needs to escape.” When Ron came home he thought it was nonsense and put the scale in the shed. Honestly that cat needs to find a new home, preferably on a farm or something like that.
Rest of the week
Still shaking I had to get ready for a photo shoot with Kitty. We had a lucky break from the rain: two hours of sunshine. After the shoot we got take-away coffee from my favourite place (Vascobelo) which we drank sitting outside on a little bench. You are not supposed to do that, but hey… sometimes….
We talked a lot about Covid and how worrying it is getting. More and more it seems like Russian roulette whether you catch it or not. The news on Friday said that it was proven that taking vitamin D can help you prevent getting it (or getting it badly). Which means that in two days there will not be any vitamin D left in the shops. Like there were no toilet rolls left at the beginning of Covid.
Some more bad news was the dog throwing up his food in three places, yuck. He has been doing that a lot lately. The vet said it was nothing, but he has to take some tests next week as it is not getting better. Ron had to take our friend to the doctor because something was wrong. They are going to test him on Monday and they think they know what is wrong and there are pills for that, thank goodness. That is the friend who was so very ill and hospitalized in the summer of last year, so we worry easily. Together with the news about decapitated schoolteachers in France, the increasing number of Covid cases, the rain and grey days, I am really fighting not to get depressed.
Some lighter subjects.
Below: Wore this on Thursday. Link to original post. I solved the ‘problem’ of the legs being too long by pulling the draw cord tighter so it sits higher.
Below: Wore this on Friday. Link to original post where I wore it with an orange top and no earrings.
Below: Close-up of the earrings. I think they look smashing but they are heavier than I thought and I am rather scared my newly pierced holes might stretch.
Well, it’s been quite a week.
Greetje
Oh, I would have been crying right along with you over the mouse. Mice are so sweet, and I know the cat was just being true to her nature, but I don’t like to see any creature suffer. I found a bird in our back yard that must have hit my bedroom window but was still alive so I wrapped it in something soft and held it until it died. Shed quite a few tears over that one.
You always look so good in your jeans with your mile-long legs! I am feeling the same as you about my clothes right now. I have too much, and most of it isn’t getting worn because I am working from home and not going out anywhere except to the grocery store. There are times where I would like to just stuff the majority of it in garbage bags and donate it but with the amount of money I have invested in some pieces I can’t do it. I don’t need any more of anything!
Seeing any creature suffer is just too much for us. Even a spider cannot suffer in my view and I do not like spiders. I did a phobia course to overcome my fear of spiders and one of my conditions was that I wanted to learn how to get rid of them without killing them. After all, not everything I am afraid of (rationally or not) needs to die because of my fear. Right? No great love for spiders, but if a spider suffers I get into the same twist. A living creature may not suffer.
If there is something I do not need, it is more clothes and shoes. And yet, I cannot stop myself. Perhaps I should see a shrink?
Lovely jumper, its color and texture are really nice, and love the brooch too!. I think you look fabulous in jeans, so no problem in lots of photos of you wearing them!. Actually, you rock!
Sorry that you don’t enjoy playing with your clothes and creating different ensembles. I know that some people hate it: some of my friends do it too!. Usually they ask me to have a look at their wardrobes and make suggestions, which makes me happy (it’s like a playground for me!)
Totally understand that you can’t cope with news, nor deal with your cat’s ‘presents’. You are a sensitive human being!.
besos
Oh good… lots more jeans coming up haha. And I have asked many friends to take a look at my wardrobe and come up with combinations. Often I get one or two good combinations from an afternoon, but it does wear me out. Isn’t it strange? I like clothes so much.
I would describe myself as an oversensitive human being (alas).
Splendid architecture, as usual. I so love the Dutch aesthetic!
You look great in the khaki top, though it may not be your best color. A most unusual and interesting stitch, I love to knit myself and I used to be quite prolific at it due to long air flights when I worked for pharma in research. by the way, I consider khaki my best color, they match my eyes!!
Your mama is lovely, coquette, with beautiful hands! I miss mine terribly, she was quite a Grande Dame, always dressed to meet the queen,if only out to buy a loaf of bread!
I came to realize that too many clothes maybe a woman’s bane. I really don’t need anything, I just want everything. Can’t explain it, it must be a pandemic, highly contagious!! I donate or sell the higher end ones through consignment stores. Still, its an overabundance. Perhaps, I’m trying to make up for the 20 plus years behind the Iron Curtain with no clothes or shoes to speak of!
Love the earrings, quite a lovely and original design. They are winners.
Please, excuse any spelling mistakes, just had cataract surgery this am, and I’m seeing double!!!
The Covid is raging here again as well, so we stay away from crowds if possible, but we will not shut ourself in as we are urged to do.
Please, forward the clouds and rain this way for a change. I am doing a rain dance like the Natives!!
The only time I did any knit work was at primary school and I sucked at it.
Don’t talk to me about overabundance with clothes… it is like that in my wardrobe too. You can blame the 20 plus years behind the Iron Curtain (I am sure this is the perfect reason). I have nothing to blame.
The earrings were too heavy for my earlobes so they found a new home.
Hope you can see well again by now.
The rain has stopped here, so perhaps it has now arrived at your place?
I love that slouchy style of sweater/jumper, but they always overwhelm my frame as I’m shorter than you (but I’ve got the boobs too!).
I enjoy the beautiful buildings, and the bikes (we never see that many here), and even the tourists in your pictures.
Isn’t your mum a lovely woman? You get your looks from her! ;-P
Oh dear, I’d be shrieking at the mice too! Not the cat’s fault (she’s just being a cat!). I saw a squirrel on the road recently – its foot had been crushed by a car, and I just cried. I couldn’t do anything, but it’s so sad to see the creatures suffer.
I am so happy for you that you can wear your pierced earrings again! There are products out there that you can add to earrings (on the back) that can help support the weight of heavier ones. You could also turn these ones into a necklace.
Have a good week, Greetje!
Actually, I take as much after my father as my mother. A clean mix.
Glad you are like me, crying over a squirrel with a crushed foot. I would have done that too.
Yes, my earlobes are now really fully healed and the world of earrings is open to me once again. The disappointment is that I can still cannot wear earrings which are heavier than the little ones. And my earlobes are thin and creased. Oh well. I already have the bigger support thingies at the back (poussettes). The beautiful long ones with the lime stone at the end have found a new home.
Hope your week is going well too.
The khaki sweater looks so good on you. I have been seeing the slouchy style on lots of websites and seriously considered ordering a pretty one from Anthropology. You wear it well. The face bricks are fabulous. I definitely want to visit Holland when the Covid crisis abates. Your Mom looks wonderful. My Mom is 91 and is having heart issues which are very worrying. And about the mice–I do not like to see any little creature suffer either. My neighbor and I have adopted a mother cat and two kittens. Then another cat left home and joined us too. A menagerie! Have a good week.
I have had to see what kind of jeans work for me (and my inverted triangle shape) and how to deal with it. Usually I do not expose my hips and bum. The trend these days to tuck in at the front and leave the shirt or sweater long at the back is heaven-sent for me.
My mother has all sorts of ailments but none life threatening thank God. It must indeed by very worrying for you, I don’t envy you.
Adopting cats will give you a lot of love in return. Hope you have a nice week too.
I like this casual look. Your jeans, your oversize sweater, the big bag and your boots. You know I like to see you in nice dresses, elegant and feminine skirts … but you also know that I think you and jeans make a great couple.
Thank you again for the precious photos of this country that I love.
I love your earrings and your brooch, a nice design.
Beautiful close-up of my beautiful friend, with other fantastic earrings and her hairstyle that I love.
Man, you know how to make a woman feel good about herself. Thank you very much. Creating blog posts is such a hobby of mine. Eight years already. Oh and the long earrings have found a new home. They are not for me/my thin earlobes.
Such a nice story again dear friend đź’žYour mother looks amazing good. This period is taking his toll on every one, expecially on the older ones who lives alone. Let’s hope it all ends one day and try to make the best of it in the meantime. Thanks for the Amsterdam tour.. By the W I love the colorful long earrings. C u soon dear. đź’‹
Sorry, the colourful long earrings have already found a new home. They are not right for me. Luckily there are a lot of people helping my mother in her village when she needs help. And of course, if necessary I will hop in my car too. I hope to seeing you soon, but I am afraid Rutte is going to put a stop to that.
I so envy you ( in the nicest possible way) of having your Mum. She’s fabulous- what a beautiful lady!
Look forward to hearing what you are up to every Sunday.
And I am glad being able to tell you all what I have been up to. It is so nice to know that my blog is enjoyed by so many women. And yes, I agree it is fantastic to still having my mum, to still being a child to someone.
The weave on that sweater is really interesting. And like you, I’ve been living in my boyfriend jeans. And I understand completely about wanting to “cull the herd.” I’ve been doing the same little by little over the last few months.
Count me as one of those people who loves seeing the houses and architectural details!
Poor little mouse! A couple of weeks back we had a rat in the wall again. The exterminator set out sticky traps and advised us of the gaps near the roof we needed to patch. This has been done and we haven’t seen Ratatouille again. I’m relieved we didn’t trap him, that would have been pretty traumatic.
Wanting to cull the herd and actually doing so, are two different things. I keep putting it off. As I have been through my wardrobe quite a few times in the past year, sighing that there are so many good pieces. Saying goodbye to pieces you don’t really love isn’t that hard. But if you love them all…
I am glad you couldn’t trap Ratatouille as I agree, it would have been pretty traumatic. Glad you could patch the roof to prevent this from happening again.
Your post arrives Sunday morning and I grab a large cup of coffee and curl up on the couch and I get to escape to Holland with you!
I have family in Holland whom I miss greatly. Spending time with you and catching up on fashion and daily life, brings me a little closer to your beautiful country!
I think the green sweater is smashing on you!!
Thanks for all the effort you put into these post!!
It is so nice to hear that my little blog is a coffee and curl-up moment. Love it. It is a big compliment to me. Blogging is a strange and rather lonely thing but it is my hobby for 8 years now. I don’t want to expand on it, I don’t want to earn money with it, just continue to engage with people all around the world and try to bring some joy.
Hello from DC, where anxiety rules! Your blog always arrives at lunchtime on Sundays, and it’s such a welcome respite, thank you.
I’m totally intrigued by this:
>>A close-up of the window. The letters give a Dutch saying which means “Unaware of any wrongdoing.”
Is there any more to say? What could it mean? It reminds me of the McCarthy era here, but clearly, this was centuries earlier. Thoughts?
I have searched high and low, but the only thing I can find is that it is a tribute to an architect by the name of Gerard Prins, who renovated the house in the second half of the previous century. I find that hard to believe, but it is all I could find. My first interpretation was much nicer. Unaware of any wrongdoing is what you say when somebody has done something bad without knowing that what they were doing was wrong.
I can understand the anxiety rules in DC, in a great part of the USA I presume. These are worrying times.
Hi, Greetje! Though it sounds like you had a difficult week, you sure put together a wonderful post for your readers! The pictures of your Dutch scenery really is uplifting and helps with my travel yearnings. I can so relate to your worries about depression this winter. I usually get depressed in the winter months, but this year keeping my spirits up has been a struggle even in the summer, so I’m gathering ideas, projects, uplifting quotes, and lots of jigsaw puzzles for the coming months. I ordered a “happy light” to try, too, and I’ve made a list of therapists for video sessions, if it gets too bad.
On a happier note, I love that orange snake-print blouse and the red floral pants! (Wearing bright, cheerful colors is another help for me.) Styling outfits is a real skill, I think. Angie, of the You Look Fab blog often explains why pieces work or don’t work well together. Would you ever consider hiring a stylist to put together some new outfits with items you already own? You have so many beautiful and unique pieces, they might pay YOU to play with them! Ha!
As always, thank you for brightening my Sunday and I hope this week goes better!
I have a happy light in my closet. If necessary I can always use it as I did in the past. It is not that I get really depressed, just listless and gloomy.
Angie of YLF is a favourite of mine, but I don’t watch her site enough. I will start doing it again as you are so right. There are stylist on YouTube and Instagram whom I follow, but apparently I am rather thick as it just doesn’t sink in. And I want somebody with my bodyshape explaining, not somebody with perfect proportions. Somegody like for instance Trinny Woodall explains a lot too but often based on her own figure (pear shape, the opposite of mine). I have hired a stylist once, but she already needed two hours to get through all my clothes and the outfits she put together in the last half hour were nice, but again, not really with my bodyshape.
You thank me for blogging, but I thank you for reading and taking the time to comment and giving me all these lovely compliments.
Poor little mouse! but that is what cats do. It is their job . Covid is really bad over here in the U.S. I am so stressed about Covid and our election. I am praying that Trump is defeated. I think Biden would be a great president. Hope you have a good week and no more mice!
I know its what cats do. I actually got myself two cats in the past for that reason when my house was crawling with mice. I just hoped that the smell of a cat would be enough to drive the mice away, not necessarily be killed by the cats. They caught one and killed it. At least I didn’t have to watch it suffer and I hope it was a swift death. I am hoping with you as far as Trump and Biden are concerned. But I can still remember my amazement and dismay when Trump won the first time.
Greetje – I hope you continue to write your blog. It’s not just the clothes, but you, your friends, the beautiful buildings you show us, everything! My Sundays would not be the same without you.
It sounds your week was mixed,. The mouse part was awful. I would have gotten equally upset. Fortunately our dog has no interest in wildlife, although she freaks out when she sees the coyotes who live in our neighborhood.
I try not to watch the news either, especially now with the US election coming up in two days. It’s a crazy time. My hope is that Biden wins, and we can try to fix all all of the damage that’s been done.
Yes, Biden must win, and he will. Trump is a disgrace to our country and our intrinsic values. Our democracy is at risk. Your good nature just shines through your blogs. How pleasant to run into you every Sunday! You look terrific in big, dangly earrings. I have found some that are quite light weight. Maybe you will too! Have a serene week and wish America the best as we look forward to an election like never before.
I will light a candle that Biden wins, but whether that will help…?? Thank you for your kind words.
The big dangly earrings are really quite light, that is, in your hand. It is another matter when they hang in your ear. But they have already found a good home. You win some, you lose some.
And I have found lighter earrings, the ones of Lara Design. But still, I have to be careful with my thin earlobes.
I am hoping with you, although I don’t know whether the tide can be turned. It is not that I feel for you in the USA, I also feel for ourselves. The world is getting more frightful every day.
And I have every intention to continue blogging, it might just be that the stories become a little different. But not for a while, don’t worry.
Greetje, that is such a stunning photo of you with the earrings!! Could you possibly convert those earrings to a clip style? They look smashing on you!
Thanks Lynda. I have thought about converting them into clip earrings but I can never keep clips in for more than 3 hours. I have also thought about shortening them, keeping only the lime parts, but decided against it. The lime stone is still heavy. So I found a friend who loves them and she gets them as a present. Always nice to make somebody happy.