Simple grey top with a green statement necklaceMeeting my friend Marjolein wearing jeans with a grey top at the Japanese garden in the Hague. I had absolutely no idea what a Japanese garden entailed. And to be honest, I still don’t, The only thing I know about Japanese plants and trees is pretty pink cherry blossom (in spring of course; not in autumn) and bonsai trees. That’s it. But somehow I expected something spectacular. Instead, I saw an autumn park swamped with people. You can be the judge whether this Japanese garden is beautiful as we have taken a lot of photos and I photoshopped all those annoying people out of sight. Took me hours but it is good practice. Wrinkles and such I leave as they are, but people in the wrong place have to go.

Below: This is an example of the amount of people in the garden. At the right you can see a lady, ready to cross a beautiful little bridge, but standing in line.

Japanese garden in The Hague

Below: And this is how I make things pretty. If trimming the trees and bushes is part of the garden’s beauty, then I am afraid I might have spoiled some of that.

Japanese garden in The Hague

Below: The little red bridge.

Japanese garden in The Hague

Below: Marjolein, my friend and photographer of the day. She was wearing a purple coat (even though it looks blue in this photo), white eyelet shirt, faux leather trousers and leopard print boots. Complimented with red tassel earrings. Way to go Marjolein.

Marjolein

I will let you see a couple of garden photos and ‘sprinkle’ the outfit photos in between.

Below: The branch of this tree is supported by a wooden X and continues across the path (see the photo underneath this one).

Japanese garden in The Hague

Below: That branch reaches pretty far and goes back up.

Japanese garden in The Hague

Below: The grey top underneath a bright yellow blazer. I like the grey as it tones down the brightness of the yellow. A white top would have a different effect. I bought this Transit top at a shop called LAB Women’s Clothing in Haarlem. They have beautiful clothes and the women in the shop always help me a lot with styling. And they are honest with me, which I highly appreciate. My champagne-coloured boots by Eijk Amsterdam are soft golden yellow, which I thought would go well with the blazer.

Simple grey top with a yellow blazer

Below: The big blue bag made its first appearance on the blog in this previous post. about my lime leather jacket.

Simple grey top with a yellow blazer

Below: The Buddha temple, which is behind me in the photo above.

Japanese garden in The Hague

Below: Wearing my abalone earrings from Lara Design.

Earrings by Lara Design

Below: Beautiful although I don’t know what it is (I am so ignorant).

Japanese garden in The Hague

Below: Marjolein only appears to be leaning against it. There were strict rules to stay on the paths.

Marjolein

Below: Some more beauty.

Japanese garden in The Hague

Japanese garden in The Hague

Below: I figured that this long jacket with its grey background and yellow polka dots would look good with the grey top as well.

Simple grey top with a long yellow polka dot jacket

Below: It is more for spring but I am just showing you the possibilities. I changed the blue bag for a pewter mini bag from Midlifechic.

Simple grey top with a long yellow polka dot jacket

Below: I took another photo of Marjolein (she was looking into the bright light of the sun, which is why she isn’t smiling.)

Marjolein

Below: Two more lovely tree photos without the many people who were ruining the pictures.

Japanese garden in The Hague

Japanese garden in The Hague

Below: As we were leaving the Japanese garden, we were in Park Clingendael which is beautiful and very big. The building behind the tree is the Clingendael Institute.

Park Clingendael The Hague

Below: The Clingendael institute building from the front. It is “an independent think tank and diplomatic academy”. This is where our diplomats get their education.

Clingendael The Hague

Below: One last outfit photo of the grey top. As in the first photo of this post, I am wearing a green statement necklace by Angela Caputi.

Simple grey top with a green statement necklace

Below: Close-up of the Angela Caputi necklace. As I was copying her site address, I resisted looking at her jewellery. Too dangerous.

Green Angela Caputi necklace

Below: At the entrance of Park Clingendael is this cute little house. They had Halloween shirts hanging in front of the windows. Spoils it a bit but indicates that people actually live in this house.

Park Clingendael

What happened in my life this week

Because you have been complaining when there isn’t a photo of mum in a post, here is another one. She was trying this new jumper, asking my opinion. I said “Keep it”. She even has purple trousers to match the jumper.

Mum

Below: Little triviality. I thought up this flower combination. When I asked for some green leaves, I got this rather exotic one (eucalyptus) which I love. So that was a better execution than my initial idea.

Flowers

We are back on wearing masks again in shops etc. as the Covid-19 contamination rate has gone up considerably again. The bars and restaurants close at 8 p.m. Sort of a mini lock-down.

I had agreed to go out to dinner with my friend Helga and we had to reschedule the restaurant, starting at 5 p.m. Suits me fine as I am always peckish at 5 p.m. Instead of eating snacks until dinner, you now start with your first course.

Below: Helga and me in restaurant Toujours. That strange net left from us, is from a cosy corner. It was a strange but also lovely restaurant. There were plush seats, old-fashioned lamp shades, flower wallpaper and more. There was a definite boudoir vibe.

Helga and me having dinner

Below: When I asked where there was a spot with enough light to take a head-to-toe shot of Helga, they pointed me to the toilets. They made the space very “Instagrammable”. Helga’s boots have a scalloped side seam, very special.

Helga head to toe

Below: Close-up of Helga. Believe it or not, but she is 66. Some people have such good genes. She is a sweet, intelligent and witty person.

Helga

Below: Me in the restaurant, wearing my leather dress. (Link to the original post with several styling possibilities.)

Me at dinner with Helga.

Below: And this was a new-to-me cocktail. A Pornstar Martini. I love that name. No idea whether they make it like this everywhere but it was delicious. I had two (and really felt it haha). My all-time favourite cocktail is Piña Colada, but hardly any bar or restaurant serves that these days. Apparently it is an old-fashioned drink. Not hip.

Cocktail porn star martini

I had three photo shoots this week. Monday with Loes in cold and grey weather. Wednesday with my friend Marjolein and low temperatures but the sun was out. And Thursday with Kitty in the early morning (9 a.m. aagghh); it was cold but sunny, good photo shoot weather.
It is good to have outfit photos in stock for those rainy weeks when shoots are out of the question.

As we were having lunch at Vascobelo, Marjolein drew my attention to the window next to us (below). Beautiful stained-glass window. I have been to that restaurant so many times and I have sat at that table at least 5 times. Never noticed the window. Shame on me.

Stained glass window

After the photo shoot with Kitty on Thursday, my friend Katrien from Leiden popped by and handed me the coat she made me. A bespoke coat. It is not only bespoke but such a statement. I love it but I realize it is an acquired taste. You will have to wait for Kitty to photograph it.

Below: My Thursday outfit. The grey green jumper from last week, brown belt, leopard boots by Eijk Amsterdam.

Jeans outfit with grey green jumper

Below: Close-up of the Lara Design earrings I was wearing with it. Golden top, brown square and lime stingray drop.

Earrings with stingray by Lara Design

My appointment with the eye doctor has been postponed to next week as she fell ill this week.

The weather has been quite sunny this week (apart from Monday) and on Friday I joined Ron to take dog Watson for a walk in the park. See Watson below having a great old time.

walk in the park with dog Watson

To adorn my candle plateau I gathered berries and little pinecones. Below: The mushrooms stayed the park, but they were beautiful.

Mushrooms in the park in autumn

See you next week.

Greetje

No Fear of Fashion

 

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