Anchor print blouseThis post will only be a little bit about the anchor print blouse and a lot about the house of an inventor. You see, the father of our friend Arine sadly died recently and she and her brother and sister have to clear out their parent’s home. Arine’s dad is Lou Ottens, a famous inventor who invented the compact cassette while working at Philips.

As his house is filled with science stuff and quirky experimental things, Arine asked my husband Ron whether he would be interested to have a look around. Everything was already sorted with the family and the things that were left were of no interest to them, but might be for someone like Ron.

WOULD HE BE INTERESTED??? I stopped him from jumping in the car immediately and scheduled a trip a couple of days later.

I decided to make a ‘documentary’ of our trip with the outfit of secondary importance. So brace yourself, you are about to see a lot of photos and I have absolutely no idea whether this ‘documentary’ will interest you at all.

Below: Before we left, I asked Ron to take a few photos of my outfit with the anchor print blouse, to have at least one or two outfit photos. The blouse is by Malene Birger, from 2013. I keep clothes that are really good and I think this blouse is. The boyfriend jeans are by G-Star Raw, the boots by a Dutch brand, Paul Noyen. The little silk scarf I got from kpa.haarlem. Dog Watson was photobombing.

Anchor print blouse

Below: The house of Arine’s dad is a bungalow in the woods that was built in the sixties. Not a bad place to live if you like peace and quiet (as you know I don’t).

Below: We started in the garage.

Arine and Ron in the garage

Below: A toy that the inventor made for his children.

Below: A wooden boat! The things you find in an old garage.

Below: Ron found a fez and imitated the British comedian Tommy Cooper, famous for his fez.

Ron

Below: I loved this ship with the battered old sails. It is a ghost ship.

Model of a ship

Below: We went over to the stables. There had not been any horses in there since Arine’s mum and dad bought the house, but the previous owners had them.

Below: Now, lots of planks and books were stored in the stables. Ron found this hockey stick, just the thing for his gentlemen’s club (as he calls his upstairs room in our house).

Ron

Below: Three photos that won’t interest you a bit as you don’t know these people haha, but I will show them anyway. Ron and Arine discussing all sort of things. Apparently it was funny.

Arine and Ron

Arine and Ron

Arine and Ron

Below: Meanwhile Doctor Watson was running around, having a great time. We had to stop him from digging holes in the grass and from walking into the overgrown pond.

Watson

Below: He was a happy dog, certainly after he found a ball. He is not really allowed to play with tennis balls as they are sooo bad for their teeth, but for only 15 minutes, it won’t be that harmful.

Watson

Below: This bust is a gift to Lou Ottens from his fraternity for his 80th birthday in 2006. It is the Roman goddess Minerva. Click on the link and read all about who Minerva was and what she represented.

Below: Great thing to lean on if you don’t know what to do with your hands. Because it was a rainy day, I had put on my hat (I swore I would never put a hat on my head ever again) and took out the vintage trench raincoat I had bought two years ago. Looks pretty cool like this, don’t you think? Only I never wear my coats open. What’s the point of a (rain) coat if your body and clothes are exposed to the elements anyway?

Anchor print blouse

Below: This is what the coat looked like buttoned up and with the belt tightened. This is what you get with big boobs, a short torso and hardly any waist. I was so appalled when I saw this photo, that I immediately took off the coat when we got home and I gave it to somebody with the right body shape.

Long trench coat

Below: After I loosened the belt a bit, it was better, but then it made me look verry narrow. The flowers on the bush are pretty though.

Long trench coat

Below: I decided it was time to take a nice photo of Arine, who, like most people (women?), hates having her photo taken. And really there is no reason for that. She is a lovely woman, inside and out.

Arine

Below: And she has the nicest laugh. Wholeheartedly.

Arine

Below: We went inside to check out the boxes with quirky things. I really should have taken this tiny bingo thing home to my mum. She loves playing bingo haha.

Very little bingo instrument

Below: I was smitten by the simple design of this clock, until Arine told me the ticking of the clock was very loud and very annoying. Hmm…better not then.

Clock

Below: You are about to see a couple of photos of ‘the useless box’. I will explain how it works. You switch the lever on the right side, then the left side of the box opens and a little perspex finger appears, pushing the lever back to off. A truly useless box haha. It came with us.

Useless box

Useless box

Below: See the perspex ‘finger’ appearing?

Useless box

Below: The mechanism.

Useless box

Below: I tried two pairs of old glasses of Arine’s mum. They didn’t suit me.

Anchor print blouse

Anchor print blouse

Below: But I did like these sunglasses. They are very ‘en vogue’ (I think).

Anchor print blouse

Below: I couldn’t resist this vase, sculpted on paint brushes. So cool.

Vase made out of paint brushes

Below: This vase is made with Lego, some sort of promotion thing for French florists, years back. Quaint.

Lego vase

Below: During all this looking, laughing, ohhs and ahhs…we had coffee and scrumptious home-made apple pie. Arine is a good cook. She effortlessly whipped up a delicious dinner for 5 out of nowhere.

Below: I loved this as well. They are a bunch of wires you can twist into any shape, like this skeleton.

Below: Arine’s daughter and her boyfriend arrived and as I took their photo, I thought “What’s that thing hanging from the ceiling?”

daughter Arine and boyfriend

Below: It is a witch, handmade by Arine and her siblings as a present for their parents. They were small children at that time and loved crafting things.

Witch from the ceiling

Below: Doctor Watson was mesmerized by the squirrels. There were three of them running around, making him tremble with excitement.

Watson and the squirrels

It was a lovely day, spent with lovely people.

What happened in my life this week

We saw the newly built house of our friends Marcel and Maurits. It is nearly finished, lovely and big. They have great taste, so I cannot wait to see the house when it is all done and decorated. It was nice weather that day and they brought food and drinks for an improvised picnic in the place that had to become their garden.

Another milestone in our life: we have air-conditioning installed in our bedroom. It made me giggle as the temperatures have been pretty low this spring. But who knows? We might be very thankful in a couple of months.

I paid another visit to Marianne as she received her online order of a new wheelchair; one to travel with outdoors. She has a motorized one for in the house. As I often am the one who ‘chauffeurs’ Marianne, she wanted to be sure it would fit in my car and that it would be lighter/handier than the one she has got. As this was the whole point of ordering a new one. I had said to her once, that as years go by, a time would come that I wouldn’t be able to lift that thing in my car. She had ordered a beauty: lighter and nearly everything came off in a very easy way, like the wheels. It even fitted in my boot if I removed the window shelf. Saves me rearranging the back seats of my car to get a loading surface.

Below: Marianne in a cute blue shirt.

Marianne in blue

Below: Nice embellishment on the collar.

Embellishment

Below: I wore this outfit and decided the vintage necklace was cute but had to go. I want to become a bit more sophisticated. (Probably the effect of reading all the style books Sylvia of 40+Style gave me). (Link to original post where I have a pink cat brooch on the jumper. I like that more.) Ron however, really liked this outfit and the necklace. Hmmm…

Me in pink and green

Wednesday was a beautiful day and I spent some time in the garden in my new bikini.

Below: I put this photo on Instagram and Ron said he thought it was a hideous photo and that my boobs looked huge. Well, there is reality for you haha. At least the wart-like thing disappeared beautifully after the doctor’s treatment.

sunbathing

Below: In the meantime we have these peonies to admire in the house.

peonies

Thursday was another glorious day. In the morning we walked Watson by the seaside, had cappuccino and apple pie on the beach and in the afternoon visited our friends Georg and Marla. Who said retirement was rotten?

Friday I went into town for some errands, had coffee with a shop owner I have known for years. And my neighbour Ina, from across the road, came round for a cup of tea in the garden. All in all, a relaxed and fun day.

Below: I wore this outfit on Friday (see original post) and Ron said he thought it was rather matronly. I was trying to do elegant and/or sophisticated. According to the style books Sylvia gave me, the outfit below could meet the criteria elegant and sophisticated. It is also a side of me, but Ron prefers my colour outfits.

Black and white trouser outfit

Below: And I really liked these Lara Design earrings with this outfit. (A bit of a bad hair day.)

Long earrings by Lara Design (.nl)

We’ll see how I will get on, stylewise.

Greetje

No Fear of Fashion

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