Although my style is really all over the place and not something specific like bohemian, I think you could say that jeans with a smart top is my signature style. In this post you’ll see the jeans with a green and white striped jumper. Perhaps the white is off-white, I don’t know. I bought it when I was shopping with Tanja, my former boss, a couple of weeks ago. I love stripes (most women do, I think) and the fresh green shade made me pick it up.
The day these photos were taken I was with my Shopping Saturday friends, Sabine and Anke, who decided to come to Haarlem. We’d like to get together more often than we actually do as we have so much fun, but there are other things in our lives that need attention too LOL.
Let me reacquaint you with them.
Below: Anke with great sunglasses.
Below: Sabine. Both women have beautiful hair which I envy them for.
Below: My sunglasses are from the seventies. My friend Arine gave them to me; they were her mother’s.
We joked about the geraniums on the restaurant tables. There is a saying in the Netherlands for old people who do absolutely nothing: “they sit behind the geraniums” (in the window sill). As I am recently retired…you get it.
Below: The terrace where we had lunch is on a street with this beautiful church.
Below: In the narrow street which is only for cyclists, this wedding bus passed, followed by a Volkswagen van with the bride and groom. The street leads up to the big market square where the townhall is. London transport in the Netherlands.
Sabine started photographing me and my outfit.
Below: With my hairdressers in the background. They house in a lovely old building.
I was proud having used 4 colours in this outfit: green, white, jeans blue and fuchsia. Much nicer than for instance just 2 colours. (Sylvia of 40PlusStyle taught me this.)
Of course I took head-to-toe shots of them as well.
Below: Anke. Casual with an edge.
Below: Sabine, always the one with daring (colour) combinations. The gorgeous blouse is by Isabel Marant.
Below: Photobomb!
Below: We asked a waiter to take a photo of the three of us. Who needs to sit up straight? Right…me.
Below: Then the shopping started. Sabine with a polka dot blouse.
Below: I am trying on a jeans jacket, against my better judgement. I have tried jeans jackets so many times and neither the shape nor the colour is right for me. You can see it in my posture I am not liking it.
We were in Zeilstraat and stopped at kpa.haarlem. Of course we did, as this is one of my favourite shops. The girls bought a lot there. Apparently they hadn’t shopped for a while.
Below: Sabine tried on this pink jumper (sweater) and although she liked it, it didn’t come home with her.
Below: We were all smitten by Anke in this dress, but she told us she already had something similar or was that it wasn’t her style
Below: Now we’re talking. This fuchsia jumpsuit is great on Anke.
Below: And this jeans dress as well. She bought one size bigger so it would close across the chest. She also used this dress as jacket over the fuchsia jumpsuit.
Below: This cream combination was the bomb as far as we were concerned. Especially the long tunic blouse is so good.
Below: What a cute blouse on Sabine. Of course it came home with her. Such a beauty.
Below: I tried on this skirt, but it was too tight in the waist. I did what we always do when we are not sure of something we want to try; just drop your trousers and if you think the item is worth it, you can take off your shoes and trousers. As I had published quite a few photos of Sabine in this position, she said “Now I got you; you will publish this photo!”
Below: A sitting pose opportunity. The little girl’s mum is sitting on the other side of me.
Below: The earrings are by Lara Design. (Here is the link to those fuchsia earrings but with a tortoise button. If you prefer another button, just send an email and she will fix it for you.)
As usual we had a great afternoon.
What happened in my life this week
Very little I am afraid. Really nothing to show you.
Saturday with the Shopping Saturday girls was fine as you can see above.
Sunday I had a birthday party of a close friend and I went all out. High heels, dress, clutch…the works. I just cannot show anything as the dress will be featured in next week’s post. So it would be a spoiler. The food at the party was out of this world.
Monday my friend Marjolein came to our house as the weather forecast wasn’t too good. We were going to create new combinations with items already in my wardrobe. Something I don’t like doing and which is nicer to do with the two of us.
As she arrived the weather was perfect for a photo shoot. A bit cloudy, warm and no rain so we did the shoot anyway and I chose the dress I wore to the party on Sunday.
Tuesday I drove to my mum with my weekend bag to stay the night. We had to get up at 6 a.m. the next morning to get to the hospital in time for her angioplasty surgery. I made my bed, took everything out of my bag and then I needed to phone the hospital to check about the anaesthesia. “Hold the line, there are 11 people waiting…”
Long story short: it took me one and a half hour on the phone only to find out the surgery had been rescheduled to Friday at noon. They just forgot to inform the patient. AAagghh. The receptionist told me that ‘surgery planning‘ had postponed the surgery that morning and had informed her about it. She assumed that ‘surgery planning‘ had informed my mother and ‘surgery planning‘ assumed that the reception would do this. As I have said so often at work, Assumption is the mother of all fuck-ups. And I drove home again.
It meant I had nothing in my agenda (anymore) on Wednesday and Thursday as I cancelled my dates and reserved those days for mum. Now I had to cancel my date for Saturday too as I had to pick up mum from hospital.
A very quiet week, which is nice too. I have chats with neighbours, with people in town and I can do a lot of work at home, so I am not bored. It is just that I haven’t got anything to show to you or talk about.
I started to look at new combinations with items in my wardrobe and I came up with a few good ones (very proud of myself). Then, behind the clothes, I found a large envelope with photos of me in 1989 or so. The photographer at the advertising agency where I worked at the time wanted to photograph a model instead of chairs and lamps (his usual subjects). He took these photos in his studio. I am showing you all seven photos while crying “WHY DIDN’T I KNOW AT THE TIME HOW BLOODY GOOD I LOOKED??”
Below: I didn’t know his camera could zoom in so close or I would have buttoned up a bit more.
Below: Head to toe, weighing 59 kilos, bra size a lovely B75.
Below: Close-up. The photographer showed me polaroid photos before taking the definite shot. I was much further away in those polaroids, not as sexy as this.
Below: Apparently I was not supposed to smile. (Those lips… that skin…)
Below: Oh look, a little smile. My love for big earrings started early.
Below: I was really tanned at the time, but not orange as this photo shows. I did have brown hair, styled like Peggy of Married with children.
A wore a lot of jewellery and although matching, it was before I knew that it can be too much; all items are competing for attention. I know Iris Apfel thinks differently on this subject. Her motto is “More is more and less is a bore.”
Below: Perhaps the background made me look so orange.
Friday was a good news day. I took mum to hospital and the angioplasty surgery went very well. Succeeded. I can pick her up from hospital Saturday morning.
No video this week. I had no inspiration.
Greetje
I enjoyed the photos of your shopping trip with your friends. Fun times. Thanks for sharing the photos of you from the late 80’s.
Everything was entirely my pleasure. Glad you enjoyed the post.
I enjoyed virtually joining you and your friends on your shopping trip. I love the photos of you from the late 80’s – you would have made a great model with those legs. I like the black and white photos, especially the second one with you standing up. It’s so true that when we are in our youth, we never feel that we are beautiful, and are not confident about our appearance, but looking back at photos of ourselves from that time, we realize we didn’t appreciate what we had.
So very true that we did not appreciate what we had. Which is why I decided to be bloody pleased with myself right now to avoid looking back with regret in 10 years haha.
Once, while I worked at an advertising agency, they needed a leg model for tights. I nearly got the job as most models were on holiday that summer. But blast, there was Wendy, whose legs were even longer than mine and she got the job.
This is a happy post. Full of beauty, gaiety and emotion. Girls just wanna have fun, any age! Thank you for sharing the photos of Greetje, the earlier years. You were and are an adorable gal. As are your gal pals. P.S. The striped sweater is darling.
Thank you for the many complments. I tell you, if you ever want to gain confidence, you should start a blog…I got so many compliments over the years, that I have to be careful not to get vain haha.
Hooray for Mum getting her angioplasty! How annoying that they didn’t actually connect to tell you it’d been rescheduled, though.
Love your shopping trip with your gorgeous friends. That pink jumpsuit and denim dress are lovely.
Wow, Greetje! You were a true 80s stunner! I love these pics of you – you should frame the last one (it’s my favourite – I love the orange/yellow background) and proudly display it! I know – I look back at pics when I know that I hated how I looked at the time…and I look great. Sigh.
You can say that again…SIGH. The first one is my favourite. The black and white, the blouse, the legs. I find that the proportions in the last photo aren’t quite right (shorter legs). But the photo is printed on a huge format. It will be a little narcissistic to hang that on the wall haha.
Love the pics of you and your friends shopping, what a stylish and fun looking bunch you all are. You look fabulous in those early pics and still do but you are right that we don’t always appreciate ourselves enough when we are younger. Glad to hear your mums surgery went well and hope the new swelling isn’t anything too serious.
I am glad you liked the post. I do have stylish friends, don’t I? I suppose it is mutual ground which starts a friendship? But not always. I also have friends care less about clothes.
The swelling of mum’s foot was due to blood running through the veins again. The veins go like: “Hey, ho, what’s happening bro?”
She told me it got a little better today.
Loved this blog post, I adore the choices that your friends made in clothing and those pictures of you in the 80s are just so brilliant. Love them
And here I was, worrying whether you would like the post. I never know if a post or an outfit will be loved.
Enjoy your shopping try-ons with friends. Your 4 colours make a real statement, very bold. Love it. There, you encouraged me over from IG!
You think it is very bold? Gosh, I thought it was rather subdued. Thank you very much for coming over to my blog post. I hope it entertained you.
Hi dear,that’s my line…look how beautiful you are this moment instead of realizing it many years later when you look back.It’s a common thing on most women. Perfect combi is the green striped sweater with some pink! I like the westernshirt from Sabine very much and the combi with the sweater on top of it! Very very nice pictures from the past with Rod Steward hair and bambi eyes, love it.
Adding pink to the combination of (jeans)blue, white and green made the outfit more interesting I think. I have learned that adding an extra colour (usually in shoes) or another texture (although I still don’t know how to do that) are smart tricks.
My hair back in the days wasn’t so much Rod Steward as it was Peggy from Married with children haha. I am glad I like how I look now a whole lot better than in those days.
Great post! I love your self confidence. You seem very “comfortable in your own skin”.
I am very comfortable in my own skin. And I appreciate the way that I look a whole lot more than when I was young and less “frayed”. One of my readers used that expression “frayed at the edges”. I love it.
I had the same experience recently. I came across a photo of my husband, a male friend of ours and me from 35 years ago and I was gorgeous, all in cream – stirrup pants (!), short boots, t-neck top and a thigh-length jacket with faux-fur collar. I didn’t know it then and was always judging my looks negatively. How hard we can be upon ourselves and what wisdom age can bring! You were gorgeous then and are so now.
I love your suggestion of 4 colors. I’m still a bit in 2-3. I also love the blue striped blouse on Sabine. I’ve looked here (California) and online for an interesting blouse like that, to no avail.
So good to read your daily life and I’m glad your mom is okay.
It is youth that is getting in the way of liking ourselves. I find it a perk of aging that I look at myself so much more appreciative (is that good English?). Thank you for the lovely compliments.
Usually I only have three colours in an outfit and I am counting neutral like jeans or cream as well. Today I am wearing jeans (= blue) with a silver belt, silver bag and silver shoes (very matchy matchy), a yellow jumper and gold with green earrings. Can I count the little bit of green in the earrings as the fourth colour?
I loved this week’s post.
Thanks Kathleen. Just goes to show I never know what my readers will like, as I wasn’t too sure about that this week.
Oh, I love the older photos of you! Your legs, so long! Of course, you are still so fashionable and gorgeous! I love seeing you all shopping and seeing what your friends pick out.
Glad you liked the post Linda. I am never too sure whether you like to see so many photos of strange women, although I have featured them so often, you probably are familiar with them.
My legs always have been my assets and I knew it. That was the one thing I was sure of.
I’m so glad to hear your mum’s surgery went well!
That jumper is very nice, and I like how you’ve incorporated the 4 colors in the outfit. My first thought was “I rarely wear 4 colors in an outfit,” but if I count jeans and neutrals as you do, then yes, I do!
Speaking of color, I like how Sabine’s sneakers pull in both the blue and orange from her outfit!
Of course you may count the neutrals as colours! Sabine is ever so good in creating outfits. I remember seeing her in the office somewhere, not knowing it was her, and I sat down in front of (what I thought was) a strange lady because I had to pay a compliment. Then I recognized her. Red and pink and fuchsia, all in one outfit and it was stunning.
Oh my goodness! You might think that you didn’t have much to share this week, but I loved this post. First, the shopping day with your girlfriends was great fun… almost as good as shopping with my girlfriends which sadly hasn’t happened in too long. Anke looked fabulous in the floor length dress, the fuchsia jumpsuit, and the denim dress. I’d love to add a dress like that one to my wardrobe; one that can be worn alone or open over a pants outfit.
Then, the black and white photos of you are absolutely stunning and I’m so happy to hear that your mum’s surgery went well even if it was delayed.
I never know if a post is going to be appreciated or not. More or less the same with the outfits I come up with haha. The girls had lucky finds, I must say. Of course I have raided that shop so many times, there wasn’t anything new for me. Which is good for my bank account.
Dag Greetje
Hoewel bericht over t uitstel vd operatie van je moeder natuurlijk grrrr is. Heb ik me opnieuw enorm vermaakt door je verhaal. Heerlijk om er te shoppen . Je beschrijft zo leuk dat ik helemaal mee zit te kijken.
En jou foto’s van vroeger: geweldig. Toen stunning nou stunning
Ik had je blogs een paar keer gemist. Was blij t weer te lezen nu
Weer eens afspreken zou ik fijn vinden!
Nou zeg, wat een leuke comment. Ben ik erg blij mee. Graag spreek ik met je af maar het zal eind juni zijn vrees ik. Vakantie en staaroperaties zitten eraan te komen.
Wow! I love those 1980s photos — so chic and fashionable, and really fun to have in your portfolio.
I chuckled also at your statement that “assumption is the mother of all fuck-ups.” One of my favorite quotes, that works in English only, is “assume makes an ass of you and me.” Ass. U. Me.
So true!
Hahaha… Ass.U.Me…that’s funny. I must remember this. At the office I was renowned for this statement. As soon as somebody said “I assume that…“, then looked at me and saw me opening my mouth, they said it for me haha.
The photos of 1989 are precious to me but I am a whole lot more confident now.
So glad your mom’s angioplasty went well! I loved the rest of your post as well, but that is such good news. And those photos of you modelling are stunning.
Wow wow wow! Stunning pictures of you from the past. Isn’t it sad how harshly we judged our appearance even as young women? And isn’t it lovely at our age to be (mostly) free of that and to enjoy the gifts we have?
Wonderful news about your your mum!
Well Sarah, I couldn’t agree more. Let’s call it the perks of aging. There are perks!
I am also very glad mom’s angioplasty went well. We do have a hick-up though. Another part of her foot is swelling and painful. We don’t know yet what is the matter. So fingers crossed.
I really like the green/white striped jumper; so fresh-looking and always good with jeans. I also love the Fuschia jumpsuit your friend picked out. Great to see those old photos of you too. Wow – you look young, hip, and a bit rock chick. Strange that it seems to take a lifetime before we appreciate the beauty of our own youth. All I remember, at the time, is being too self-conscious and lacking in confidence when there really was no need.
Yes, I was the same in my youth. Looking at those old photos I also think there was no need, no need at all.
Anyway, now that I am older I look at myself a lot more appreciative. Aging does come with perks.
Well, you know I loved seeing you in your skinny jeans, for me it’s your iconic look. The white sweater with green stripes is very cute, its sleeves are beautiful. You have beautiful hair too and sitting behind the geraniums is relaxing sometimes. I love the polka dot blouse Sabine tried on, and Anke’s white dress. Anke’s fuchsia jumpsuit is gorgeous, it would look great on you. I loved your picture with the skirt and jeans down! LOL . How beautiful in your youth photos, the photos are precious.
I am not sitting behind the geraniums but I do have a life at a slower pace nowadays.
Anke’s fuchsia jumpsuit would not look at all good on me Josep-Maria. I have no hips and no bum and you need that for a jumpsuit. Remember you once commented in my early blogging days on a pair of trousers with a dropped crotch that “there was too little Greetje at the back” hahaha. That was funny. And accurate.
Wow – you and your shopping friends are so gorgeous!
Glad that things went well for your mom. I bet you are both relieved to have that over with.
Have a good week.
Glad you liked the post. I wasn’t sure whether showing a lot of other women would be appreciated as you don’t know them. Although, they have been on my blog so many times, you might be rather familiar with them.
Hello You
Everyone looks so glam this week and I’m loving the earlier pics of you in particular. I think we all know that sinking feeling when seeing old photos and thinking, ‘ Oh flip, ‘Was that really me?’ Did I really look that good back then and not know it?’ Not like today’s youngsters who are well aware of their image down to the smallest detail. Still, I comfort (as in, kid) myself that while my edges may have frayed a bit now the real me is still there somewhere and actually, I can still scrub up okay for my age. I think. I hope!
So glad that your Mum is doing well. Love and a gentle hug to her.
And to you.
Have a good week
Gee x
I totally agree with you Gee. Nowadays I look at myself with a whole lot more appreciation, even though “frayed at the edges”. Lovely way of putting it.
Wow Greetje! You looked like a fashion model! Still do, of course. You’ve got what it takes.
Thank you very much Kat. I never saw myself as a model, not even as very pretty. Just average. Now, when I look at those old photos I regret not having felt better about myself.
I still don’t think I am a model but I do appreciate my looks a whole lot better these days. Blogging helped a lot.