Something entirely unexpected on Valentine’s Day, a flared black midi skirt combined with a black cashmere turtleneck. And you are seeing this correctly, the photos were taken while it was snowing. The lengths I go to for you, my lovely readers…
Was it freezing cold? Yes it was.
We are having snow in the Netherlands and we haven’t had that for a couple of years. It will probably be gone in a week but it is still special to us. Kitty (my photographer) wanted to seize the moment and do a shoot with my all-black outfit. All-black on all-white is a challenge to photograph as it is difficult to get good contrast in as well the black as the white. Hurray for Kitty’s skills.
SNOW
Below: Four photos of the snow taken by husband Ron. The first two are taken through our back door window into the garden. The third one is next to our shed and the fourth is my trusted bicycle in front of the house.
You get the picture. And this was only the beginning as it kept on snowing. With all that wet stuff falling down, I texted Kitty and cancelled our shoot as I didn’t think my hair would survive. And, as I said, it was bloody freezing. Then the feeling of guilt got the better of me. I thought to myself, if she wants to make the effort, so should I.
The shoot
Kitty came to my house and as I stepped out the door, she asked: “Don’t you need a coat?” Hahaha… yes I certainly needed that, but the point was to photograph the outfit and there was no place where I could lay my coat. So very carefully I walked through our street on Kitty’s arm as my ankle boots are quite slippery (very new). Add to that the snow and a broken hip is only one slither away.
Below: First photo after having taken five steps. I think Kitty did a great job. The tan ankle boots and the tan bag are from kpa.haarlem and you saw them two weeks ago in my parking garage post. For this outfit I replaced the small chain strap of the bag for a crossbody strap.
You might have spotted the earrings in the above photo. They are by (you guessed it) Lara Design. Marcella (the owner of Lara Design) and I both love these earrings. The button is made from green glass; the little branch of non-allergic metal is gilded with 16 carat gold.
Below: A close-up. As the outfit was pretty simple in the sense of no patterns, no colour, no frills or anything, I thought that these earrings would be THE thing to add. They also bring colour to my face.
Below: A bit of a scary very close-up shot, but it shows the earring in detail. I was pleased that Kitty took the ‘head shots’ first, before my hair would fall to pieces.
Below: I am following Kitty’s instructions to stand near the tree, trying to be creative with my poses.
Below: I turned the clasp of the belt to the back as it was getting tangled with the bag strap at the front. It also created something to see at the back as it is quite plain there. The clasp should have been exactly in the middle of course, but we didn’t have time to fuss over such details.
Below: Around the corner of the street on to the next street. The boots fortunately didn’t suffer from the snow. I had treated them with water-repellent spray. If you want to see this skirt styled in three more ways, here is the link to that post.
Below: At this stage, people were passing us, wearing thick coats, snow boots and woolly hats. We got quite a lot of cheerful comments like: “Life of a photographer isn’t easy”, to which Kitty replied: “Neither is that of a model” haha. The strange thing was that Kitty was freezing; her fingers were so numb she could hardly operate the camera and I was quite fine, not cold at all. So strange. I will admit that I was wearing a heat-tech shirt from Uniqlo underneath my cashmere turtleneck. (I haven’t put on extra weight, just an extra layer of warmth.)
The whole shoot took 6 minutes, the fastest shoot we have ever done. We scooted back to my house, chatted and had some lovely cappuccinos. As we Dutch say: gezellig (= cosy, warm, nice, pleasing… there is no translation for this word).
What happened in my life this week
On Saturday morning Kitty and I had agreed to do a photo shoot at the beach. Not near the seaside but inside a beach pavilion. It wasn’t snowing yet and we had the wind in our back as we walked from the car park through the dunes to the beach. You will see the shoot next week. It was a lot of fun. I am sure you will like it. We had coffee and lunch at the beach and returned feeling happy.
In the afternoon Loes came over for a cup of tea and a chat, always nice. See her below.
Sunday the storm and snow arrived. We looked outside and decided to dress warmly and curl up on the sofa.
Monday morning Ron’s view was me with a towel on my head and he couldn’t resist documenting it. This is reality for you, the naked truth. Luckily it is a bit of a blurry photo. What on earth possessed me to buy a grey morning gown, I don’t know. I think it had to do with the structure of the material. When the cat is on my lap, she cannot damage it, like she could with terry cloth. Still, I should have looked further as it is awful.
After “putting on my face” and blow drying my hair, Kitty came for the shoot of this post and for coffee.
In the afternoon Karlijn of kpa.haarlem dropped by to deliver a beautiful shirt which I had seen on her Instagram account. It fitted perfectly and I kept it. We chatted for half an hour or so before she went on to the next delivery. Tough job in the snow. She came by foot as the roads were too icy to drive or to ride a bike. Talk about service eh?
I could afford it, even though I splashed out on the earrings as I am saving money these days. I missed two appointments with my (expensive) hairdresser, I don’t need diesel (not going anywhere) and I don’t spend any money on lunches, restaurants or instore shopping.
Because I cannot ride my bike with the snow, I have taken up walking with Ron and the dog. Another way of keeping keeping lithe and fit. We wore our snow boots and took good care of how we walked. Old people and falling is not a good combination.
Otherwise I did nothing else but phoning with friends, social media, working on my blog and reading books.
And…(drum roll)…I have been putting up shelves into a shallow closet. When it is finished it will be my jewellery cabinet. For all my necklaces, brooches etc. YAY. The shelves even have a raised edge so nothing can fall off.
I found out that the last three shelves were not wide enough as the closet appeared to be wider at the bottom. Ron measured again and said: “You have to add 7, 8 and 9 to the width of the shelves for the last three.” So I ordered three new ones, mistaking the millimetres figures for centimetres haha. Came home and they were too wide! On my return in the shop, we had a good laugh and they sawed them to the right size. Pfff… I always had trouble with this. And to think I worked at a bank for 20 years. No worries, I was in advertising. The only mistake I made there was to give the figures of a newspapers’ circulation instead of the cost of running an advertisement in it. Never even dawned on me when I saw the figures.
Below the work in progress:
Now on to some outfits I have been wearing. I’ve been wearing a lot of black this week. No idea why.
Below: This is an old outfit with a double-breasted jacket. Originally I wore it with a blue/black striped turtleneck. In this week’s outfit I changed it to a simple black top so I could wear yet another pair of new earrings. Silver square buttons with a bright yellow pendant. The bracelet is an old one, which combines beautifully. This is my kinda style.
Below: Even closer. The earrings are by Lara Design.nl
Below: The skirt is green and is a Dries van Noten. You can see it much better in the original post where I wore it with a V-shaped necklace. As a comment on that post, one of my readers (Lauren) said the necklace wasn’t right; that I needed one with a more modern vibe and I think she is right. Only I haven’t found a replacement yet. The one I used below isn’t right either.
Below: Ah…good…some colour. Here is the link to the original post.
Below: I tried to brighten up the black with an orange chain necklace. I liked the original version better; it is in the post with 12 variations on grey skinnies with these leopard boots. The original version had a black and cream chain necklace (very little colour) and no turtleneck underneath the jumper. The jumper with its wide boat neck on its own was too cold. After wearing two black turtlenecks this week I am done with them. They seem to emphasize the wrinkles and my long neck. Not my cup of tea, no matter how much you would disagree.
Below: Instead of the arrow shaped brooch on this khaki jumper as in the original post, I wore the orange brooch.
The jewellery cabinet is now finished and I am pretty proud of myself. It contains a lot of my jewellery but not all of it, I am ashamed to say. There are still brooches and necklaces on the mannequin in the bedroom and necklaces in boxes. But at least I have everything that was scattered all over the place in my own little room, in one place now and on display.
Next week I will have tidied up everything and I will show you a photo of the result.
Greetje
Very well done, that jewelry cabinet. Did you fix the shelves yourself???
I love almost all the outfits in this post. Except the green skirt with the fat necklace.
You’re so lucky with Kitty as your photographer!! And to have found Lara: endless earrings AND a new friend!!
Yes, I fixed the shelves myself after Ron told me how. And I really enjoyed doing it.
I am indeed very lucky with Kitty and with Marcella, the owner of Lara. She gives me things to do and on a subject I am highly interested in.
I’m impressed that you put up the shelves yourself!
So was I. And I liked doing it.
Gorgeous photos in the snow- the outfit really suits you and you look wonderful!
I am amazed that so many people like this outfit. It isn’t my favourite as I always have problems with the sight of ankle boots underneath a midi skirt. I know it is modern, but my old brain cannot accept it.
The photos are indeed very good. Kitty is a good photographer and I am lucky so wants to take them.
I love this flared midi skirt, it is a garment that I have always identified with elegance and the most glamorous femininity. And I love your photos in the snow, an unusual landscape in your posts.
How beautiful the earrings that I see in your close-ups and how beautiful the smile that always accompanies them. I love to see your hair from behind, it looks beautiful on you.
And what can I say about the jeans again? You know what my fetish look is.ent
Hahaha, your fetish look, you are funny. There will never be a shortage of outfit photos of me in jeans. It is the first item I grab. I think you like a flared midi skirt, because it was used a lot in the fifties, especially by Dior and those were the days of ultimate elegance.
So wonderful to chat with you yesterday, Greetje!
What a great photo-shoot in the snow! You really maximized your time – how you suffer for your art, ha ha. Fabulous pictures.
I enjoyed all your outfits – I love those bronzy boots you have.
We all suffer for art and we love it, don’t we? I was very glad I did the shoot. My bronzy boots (actually golden) are very much treasured by me. Often the gold comes off but my cobbler can fix that. Brilliant man. And the chat sessie? It was so nice.
That long black skirt and tan accessories outfit is really lovely on you and your hair looks really bouncy and full of volume. And ‘a broken hips is only one slither away’ made me giggle – what a phrase to remember. But my favourite outfit this week is the skinny jeans with the leopard print boots – you look amazing. Please would you share the details of your red lipsticks? I’m so fed up buying them only to find they don’t suit me or don’t last longer than 15 mins before wearing off – and this is a particular challenge now with the obligatory mask situation. I’m similar colouring to you. An entire post devoted to lipstick would be great! Have a lovely week and stay safe. x
My hair looking really bouncy and full of volume must be the biggest fake on the internet haha. It is really thin and there isn’t a lot of it so hurray for my hairdresser, who I miss very much at the moment.
I am very pleased that “one slither away” made you giggle. Telling jokes, even creating them, in another language isn’t easy, so you made me feel proud.
The details of the red lipstick are: Sensai The Lipstick, number 02 called Sazanka Red. It is horrendously expensive, but it is the only one which doesn’t dry out my lips or is too greasy or shiny. And it doesn’t creep into the lines around my mouth. It also has a sharply shaped point which makes it easy to apply and it stays that way until the very end. Don’t expect an entire post devoted to lipstick from me as I am totally not interested in make-up (surprise), so I don’t know anything.
I have done a couple of photo shoots with friends on cold snowy days and it is a challenge for both photographer and model. Your photos turned out very well, so both of you deserve credit. If you don’t get snow often it’s important to document it 😉
I’m very impressed by your jewellery shelves in your closet. I always remember my father, who was a carpenter, saying “measure twice, cut once”.
I love the photoshoot in the snow! Classy outfit and beautiful pictures. I would not have been able to brave the snow. A lifetime in California and I don’t don’t like being out in weather that cold at all. But it’s fun to see in other people’s photos lol.
I don’t like cold either, but I do like the changing of seasons, which is why I am very content with the Netherlands. Rain and snow falling are things that make me stay indoors, but I didn’t want to let Kitty down and it worked out beautifully. Just goes to show, you sometimes have to just do it.
My father was a carpenter too! I was a bit silly to do 6 shelves in one go instead of 2. When I figured out I needed more shelves and less space I had to pull the carriers out again. Oh well.
It is not really a good carpenter’s job. It is a bit wobbly, but it will serve me fine.
Thank you to you and Kitty for sacrificing your toes and fingers for the shoot. I wear a lot of black so it was good to see how you brightened the outfit. I know at my 66 years I am aging myself in black. Wearing a mask all the time lessens the effect. Haha.
I am excited to see your jewelry closet. There is so much I don’t wear because I don’t “see” what I have. Thank you for making me smile each week.
The shoot was a lot of fun, much more than I expected to be. And as I said, I wasn’t cold at all. Very strange. I am 66 as well and black also ages me, which is why I don’t really like wearing it near my face. But sometimes I just don’t care; one or the perks of getting older.
Thank you for telling me I make you smile as that makes me proud.
Those photos, particularly the first one, of you in the snow are absolutely gorgeous Greetje!! And I adore the outfit, but I would have frozen my arse off LOL!!
Excited to see your new jewellery cupboard!
Big hugs
Suzy xx
Sometimes everything comes together and the result is great. As was with this photo shoot. And I was so NOT expecting that. As I wasn’t expecting not to be cold. Weird.
Your peridot green earrings with the golden leave twig are stunning! You look great with them! Great outfit ideas!
Those earrings do look a lot like peridot, don’t they? But they are glass. If you ever want a pair, she does ship abroad and when the combination you want isn’t on the website, she will make them for you. No extra charge.
No idea of my green/golden leave twig earrings are on the website, but if not, she will make them for you.
The photos of you in the snow are wonderful. The first one is particularly fabulous – the kind of composition I can imagine gracing a magazine cover. We had snow too (now gone) last week, but I did not look as good as you on my excursions outside. The earrings are fantastic. I love them all.
Have a great week!
I’ll let you in on a little secret… I copied the pose of the first photo from a book with 1,000 poses. Nevertheless the wind moving my skirt and the genuine smile on my face are things you cannot fake.
All other excursions outside were quite different. All bundled up in a big coat with big snow boots.
Good to know, Marcella (the owner of Lara Design) does ship her earrings abroad. Just send her an email. Also if you cannot find a particular combination on her website, she will make them for you, no extra charge.
My green earrings witht he leaves are perhaps not on her site, but she can make them.
Thank you for the information about Marcella.
The snow looks wonderful! Beautiful pictures and great outfits!
xoxo
Lovely
http://www.mynameislovely.com
Thank you lovely. It took a bit of a deep breath but wasn’t at all bad to do. As the saying goes, you fear more from the fear you think is coming than from the fear itself. (This is a literally translated Dutch saying haha.)
Oh brr, that looks cold. Kitty managed to get some great shots in a short time! I love that bag, it’s such a great color.
Can’t wait to see your jewelry shelves. What a brilliant idea!
Strangely enough I wasn’t cold at all. And my hair kept rather well too. Kitty had done some homework on her camera before she came out for the shoot. As it is tricky black on white.
The bag is easy in use and just the right size. Vegan.. the new leather.
The photo of my jewellery cabinet will be on the blog next week. For sure. It was Ron’s idea. He is the man with the ideas.
Love, love, love, the snow outfit!! The Dries skirt is a revelation, makes you look like a teen-ager!! i need that right now! Getting ready for phase two of the vaccine, and will most likely have some untoward reaction. The Dries would remedy that. Plus the boots as well.
Still wondering if Lara Design sells to US.?? by the way, the large chain necklace ;oops great with the outfit. No need to try something else.
No snow here, in the San Francisco Bay Area, but plenty in the nearby mountains. Great skiing days ahead. Keep them coming. Your pictures in the street remind me of Baltimore row houses. Interesting. Perhaps the Dutch were early settlers there!!
Actually I am not too keen on the Dries skirt because it is rather tight and I don’t know whether it is such a good thing to look like a teen-ager when you are 66.
My mother had no reaction to the vaccine whatsowever. She will have her second shot next Saturday.
And yes Marcella (the owner of Lara Design) does ship to the US. I don’t know what her conditions are. Just send her an email and she will let you know.
I am surprised you like the chain necklace with the Dries skirt. I want something in a V-shape.
There have been Dutch immigrants in Baltimore from 1850 onwards, so it is possible that they build their houses to the Dutch model.
The snow pictures of you are fabulous – maybe because you are smiling so much. But the black and your light coloring just work. and kudos to the photographer!!
I am always smiling when I am photographed. Because when I just look ‘normal’, I have a “resting bitch face” haha. I did have a lot of fun with this shoot though and Kitty kept shouting at me: “You have to pull a nice face. SMILE”, which made me laugh. Indeed kudos to Kitty.
You look so natural and happy in those snowy photos ,and shows everything about your lovely personality .
Enjoy reading your blog each week,hearing about your family, friends,and country,and of course the inspiration from your fashion shoots.
Much love,
from,
Snowy Scotland
Thanks Patricia. I am glad you like it so much. A Scottish Patricia holds a special place with me as my late best friend Patricia was Scottish. Fond memories.
I love black and think you look stunning! I esp like the combination of fairly plain black clothing with the jewelry and shoes you’ve chosen — so nice.
Thanks. And to think I wasn’t all too sure about this outfit. It gets way more praise than I ever expected.
Love the snow photos and also your green and gold earrings!
Love the snow photo shoot! You look fantastic in black!
Thanks. But actually black is not my best colour at all. Bright red, fuchsia, yellow, green and orange are much better colours. But sometimes I just ignore that.
Thanks Anne. I was very pleased with the shoot and adore my earrings (well, really I adore them all haha).
So much to enjoy in this post. 1. Outdoor chandelier! 2. Snow photos. 3. Every outfit. 4. That darling, colorful cardigan. 5. More delightful earrings. 6. Grey bathrobe – I have similar plus 5 more. (Love soft, cozy robes that my 10 cats can’t ruin as quickly as others.) 7. Brilliant jewelry cabinet. Can’t wait to see finished product. Happy Valentines Day from cold and snowy New Jersey where I gaze out at 2 feet of snow in my cozy red bathrobe.
1. Outdoor chandelier… Is there because my husband loved it. 2 Show… I dislike it. 3. Every outfit gets a thumbs up? Oh my, that is a lot of praise.
There are even more earrings to come (wink). Glad you have such a bathrobe as well. And a love for cats. The finished jewellery cabinet will be on the blog next week.
Good afternoon. We also are having snow and cold. I am bundled on the couch reading and watching movies. I really like all of the black fashion. The first photo in the snow is so good. Bravo to you and Kitty. Only 6 minutes and such good photos. Your hair looks so good too. Looking forward to seeing the finished result of your jewelry closet.
I suppose half the world is bundled up on the couch (apart from Africa and Australia and the such who are still enjoying summer.
Kitty had prepared herself and the camera thoroughly the day before the shoot, as she knows it is difficult to get it right. I agree with you that the first photo is rather good and of course, that is why it is the first photo (wink).
Hello, You
Thought you weren’t going to roll your jeans up anymore….? Tut! Otherwise, lookin’ good!
Er, is your bike locked up, nailed and glued to the wall? It would need to be over here if you lived in certain places and left it outside.
Stay safe
Gee x
No, I didn’t promise that. I wasn’t going to roll my jeans up when it was fighting with an outfit or the shoes. In this case I thought it was OK. And yes, my bike is locked up and chained to the house. Thieves are everywhere.
Wait- people don’t like when you roll your jeans?! I think it is such a stylish look- I took inspiration from you to do it with my own jeans when I wear booties! Just know I like the look!
And look at me- I’m internet famous- you mentioned me on your blog! Woot woot! (Changed my avatar picture, but it’s still me!)
Oh yes, I take your advice very seriously because I recognize the truth in what you say immediately. And I agree, I like my jeans rolled as well. There was just this instance with my houndstooth blazer and white lace-up boots where the turned-up trousers were just a bit too much. And I agree with that regarding that outfit.
And I mentioned you because “give credit where it is due”.