Black leather dress with combat bootsWhat a sunny but rather cold day it was, the day Marcella and I visited the old town of Alkmaar. I looked through my wardrobe for an outfit that was warm, comfortable and could be photographed for a blog post. My black leather dress with combat boots and thick tights met all these requirements. I added a white shirt and green earrings to brighten things up a bit. Mind you, I also wore a Uniqlo heat-tech top underneath and all these layers were a bit much for the dress which is rather tight. In hindsight I also do not like how the collar of the shirt fights with the collar of the dress. I will not wear it like this again.

Below: Marcella. We choose a white wall to start the photo shoot.

Below: My Salvatore Ferragamo second-hand coat.

Below: A red wall is another good background. The Wandler bag adds some elegance and makes the outfit veer away from common. Black leather is tricky in that respect.

Black leather dress with combat boots

Below: As usual we started with cappuccino. The sun was so warm on this terrace, that we could take our coats off. Never expected that.

Below: Nice shot of Marcella, squinting against the sun.

Below: If you are ever over here, do visit Alkmaar. It is such a lovely town, filled with little boutiques.

Alkmaar

Below: The first shop we went for, was Vintage No 5. As the name says, these are second-hand clothes, but good ones. I bought my bronze metallic Mulberry bag here last summer.
I asked whether I could borrow a pair of sunglasses. These are from Michael Kors. I nearly bought them. The dog isn’t real, in case you are wondering.

Black leather dress with combat boots

Below: On the left is Margreet who models for Vintage No 5. On the right Esther who is the owner.
Esther asked me once whether I was interested in modelling for her. I said yes but at the time she already had Margreet for the slightly older demographic and a beautiful young girl to represent the youth.
After seeing Margreet and how everything she put on, looked good on her, I changed my mind. Margreet has all the right measurements (Dutch size 36-38) and is perfectly proportioned. I am not. Although I love my body and know how to dress myself, I nearly got an inferiority complex when I saw how good the clothes looked on her.
She modelled a soft yellow dress which I thought was stunning. Later, when I saw it hanging on the rack, I didn’t give it a second thought until it struck me it was that dress. I just don’t have the fantasy, the ability, to assess how something one-dimensional will look on me.

Vintage No 5 ladies

Below: Marcella made me pose in front of the shop window because my earrings matched the green of the dress.

Black leather dress with combat boots

Below: A bridge, blue sky, great background…what’s not to love?

Black leather dress with combat boots and green earrings by Lara Design

Below: The green earrings by Lara Design (=Marcella). Of course, I wore earrings created by Marcella. Would have been rude not to.

Green earrings by Lara Design

Below: We were invited to have a look inside Sweets & Antiques. It is a store and restaurant with freshly baked sweets situated in a tiny medieval building. Boy oh boy, did we want our afternoon coffee/tea in this place.

Sweets and Antiques

Below: The ‘menu’ of sweets. Marcella had the apple pie (top left) and I had the waffle with custard cream (bottom right) and whipped cream instead of blue berries. It was one of the most delicious things I have had.

Sweets and Antiques

Below: Marcella could choose from 6 different teas. Her apple pie was so big, she had to take half of it home in a doggie bag haha.

Below: To give you a feel of the place, here are photos of the other seating areas. There are 5 small areas to sit.

Sweets and Antiques

Sweets and Antiques

Sweets and Antiques

We visited another great second-hand shop, called Mevrouw Jansen. (See her Instagram account as well.) Marcella bought a blouse and a pair of trousers and I bought a kimono jacket (I know I promised not to buy anything anymore…) I forgot to take photos so I nicked this photo (below) from the internet.

Vintage shop Mevrouw Jansen Alkmaar

Below: Picturesque little canal to end this post.

Alkmaar

What happened in my life this week

Saw my sweet mum again last Sunday (see below). She is doing well.

mum

Then there is something I haven’t told you anything about until now. Last Tuesday I have had an operation. My left kidney was removed and also the tumour that had clamped the urethra, causing the kidney to slowly die.

Remember I told you I found a drop of blood in my underwear? And the doctor sent me to the urologist? Well, he researched and found all this. Don’t worry, the PET scan showed no metastases so the urologist said it looks pretty good. The tumour will be staged to see whether further treatment is necessary. Just goes to show that even a speck of a blood drop is enough to sound the alarm. I am so glad my doctor immediately sent me to the specialist. She told me that these things are hard to discover.

I am now carefully moving through life, not lifting anything and walking little and slowly. Below: back home, welcomed by Watson, the dog.

Back home from hospital

The average recovery time is 6 weeks, but don’t worry, I have been working ahead and have enough material to create blog posts for this period. Only this section “What happened in my life” is probably going to be empty as I won’t go out. Mum is taken care of. A lot of people in her neighbourhood offered to help. Some members of the family will also chip in and Ron will do his utmost to replace me. The poor man will have a full agenda but he is at his best when he can take care of you.

Although completely unnecessary, but very sweet, I got a lot of attention before and after the operation. Whatsapp messages, telephone calls, flowers and a giant unicorn. It is good to have caring friends and family.

Below: Our house now looks as if I celebrated my birthday.

 

If you are all going to react with sympathy I will not know how to handle that. And I won’t know what to say either. So be prepared to get a short answer like “Thank you” haha.

Greetje

No Fear of Fashion

 

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