When I wear my orange and cream kaftan dress, it is like wearing PJ’s. You don’t feel any restraint. It was the print that made me try it on. I even bought a scarf in the same print; so pretty.
At first I wore the dress with a 3/4 sleeved t-shirt, covering the wrinkles on my chest and hiding my elbows. But, as it is a dress for really hot weather, I wanted to lose the t-shirt. I came to terms with my elbows, but the wrinkly chest had to be hidden.
The hem was shorter at the front and the back than at the sides. I didn’t like that because it meant I had to wear high heels in order not to step on the hem. My seamstress helped me out by creating a straight hem. With the cut-off piece of fabric, I created a little V-shaped insert at the top and the “problem” was solved.
Another thing that needed to be addressed was the gap at the sleeve. If you lifted your arm, your underwear was revealed. I bought a long and soft, white summer dress to wear underneath the dress.
I didn’t anticipate all these adjustments.
To my delight, Kitty offered to do a photo shoot. She has been a bit under the weather, so I didn’t bother her with requests for shoots. She was feeling much better now.
I showed her the dress and she suggested to go to a skateboard space, completely “customised” with graffiti. I knew the place but it never crossed my mind to use it as background for a shoot.
Below: A lot of graffiti.
Below: They even spray painted a tree.
Kitty told me to go up the platform via a ramp. At my age and having a wonky knee, I thought that was hazardous. Perhaps not so much to get up, but more to get down. When I was up there and Kitty walked around the platform, she discovered stairs haha.
Below: Looking very devout.
Below: I am trying to show how much fabric there is in the dress.
Below: To tell you the truth, I don’t really like the back that much. It is rather shapeless. I never looked at the back, not when I bought it and not when I tried it on.
The bag is Furla and needs to be fixed up a little, although I don’t know whether the strap can be saved. Sweaty summer hands should not touch light coloured bags. If the strap had been all leather, it wouldn’t be a problem to clean, but there is a rubber finish on the edges which deteriorated. My cobbler is going to have a look at it.
Below: Taking a risk here, sitting down on graffiti. I was fine, no stains. The baby blue shoes are by 2/3 March, a Belgian brand. Bought them at kpa.haarlem a couple of years ago.
Below: Kitty climbed up the platform as well. Effortlessly of course, but she is much younger. She is wearing a crochet vest which her friend’s mother handed down to her. Many years old and highly fashionable again.
Below: More walls with graffiti and me grinning.
Below: Orange with golden earrings by Lara Design, which you have seen many times. The photo also shows the fabric well and my self-made insert.
Below: The baby blue bracelet is a present from my friend Marjolein.
Below: After the photo shoot we had cappuccinos, as usual.
Then I ran home to change and jump on my bike to ride to the train station.
What happened in my life this week
It was a hectic week.
Saturday I went back to my mum in her new place to fix lots of little things. That was a sweaty business as temperatures were high that weekend. At the end of the day, Ron and I went out to dinner and ate a very good steak.
Marcella dropped round for coffee (forgot to take a photo). Saw my physiotherapist to treat my swollen knee. That will need a few more treatments.
Tuesday morning I said pretty-please to the owner of our hardware store as soon as they opened at half past 8 (we don’t have 24/7 in this country with lots of little shops). I asked for their handy man to come and change our front and back door locks. We couldn’t get the key in anymore, so one of us had to stay home to let the other one in. Very inconvenient on that Tuesday as Ron had appointments and I had the photo shoot plus a lunch in Amsterdam. The handy man came within half an hour and fixed it. Love him. Kitty and I were in the car by half past 9.
Then in the afternoon, I met Nikki Garnett of Midlifechic who was visiting Amsterdam with her husband. I have followed Nikki’s blog since the start and I have met her twice in the UK (see this blog post). She is a smart and lovely person.
We had lunch at Brasserie van Baerle while her husband Mal wandered through Amsterdam. The restaurant is a beautiful place but we had hoped we could eat outside in the garden. Alas, that day it was a bit chilly and windy, so they didn’t serve in the garden. Still, the restaurant itself is nice too.
I hope I wasn’t talking too much during lunch, but there was so much catching up to do and we only had a couple of hours. Husband Mal joined us for coffee after lunch and took the photo below. He is very used to that as he takes all of Nikki’s blog photos. I swear, the fact we match so well was pure chance, we had not coordinated our outfits.
(Link to the original post with my yellow summer dress.)
Wednesday I sat in my mum’s old house waiting for someone to remove the personal alarm system my mum had. He didn’t show up as there was a mix-up due to two colleagues being ill. (We managed to make another appointment last Friday and one of mum’s old neighbours dealt with it so I didn’t have to make that trip again.)
I had also made an appointment with the landlords to view the house and to tell me in what condition they wanted me to present the house back to them. After my mum lived there for 63 years I cannot imagine they will say “We want it to be the same as when you moved in…in 1960”. We’ll see.
Of course I visited mum as well, but briefly as she had a visitor and she was being picked up by her hair dresser to go and visit mutual acquaintances. Mum is getting busy there. Mind you, it will take her at least six weeks to adjust. If you haven’t moved house in 63 years and now, at the age of nearly 95, you go and live in a home, that takes a lot of adjusting. She will have to find her way and I hope she will like it there and be less lonely.
Thursday was a quiet day. A day for fitness, for creating this blog post and to go to the hair dresser to cut my fringe. Lovely weather all day, until I had to cycle into town. I changed my nice outfit for something sensible and looked like this (below). This is why Dutch women often dress practical, sensible and not very creative. It is the weather together with the cycling.
Below: We have had sunshine and rain, rain and sunshine. The plants in our garden love it and are growing fast. Here are three detail photos, taking right after a shower.
Below: Notice the jasmine in full bloom on the right? The whole fence is covered with it.
See you next week.
Greetje
The kaftan looks great on you! With perfectly matched earrings!
Your garden is lovely. The jasmine must smell divine. Thank goodness for the rain.
I have a great collection of earrings, thanks to Marcella of Lara Design, who became a friend. The kaftan was a lucky find.
The beautiful caftan is dreamy on you. Your additional fixes with the insert at the neckline and the slip-like dress underneath are perfect. Love the photo of you and Nikki in your lovely summer frocks. Born in 1953, I adore long, feminine dresses. You both look elegant and comfortable for a summer day. Always enjoy seeing your luscious garden – we live in a very wooded area, so hard to have flowers as the deer are abundant. Hanging plants are our solution. Love all the critters who live around us, so Iâm ok with that. Prayers for you and your mom. You do the best you can and hope that there are some sparks of joy in her life each day. (My husband was paired up with an older gentleman on the golf course a few weeks ago. He is 103 and plays 9 holes every week. I marvel.)
Having deer at your doorstep isn’t half bad either haha. Your husband’s golf mate amazes me and I am sure, many other people.
Some people have very good genes.
Your garden is looking so lovely, Greetje!
I laughed that you and Nikki had matching monochrome outfits – great bloggers think alike!
I adore your printed caftan dress, and I think those were excellent modifications to make. You can resolve the under-arm thing with a piece of fabric (like you did for the cleavage), but I prefer the slip/thin dress, as it will give you a layer to sweat on instead of your lovely dress!
Glad to hear Mum is getting settled. Your cycling outfit is what 99% of people here in Victoria wear. I don’t mind the practicality (and that red is awesome) – I just wish they’d wear something else when not cycling!
Have a great week, Greetje! You’ll be very proud of me – I’m on Instagram! https://www.instagram.com/sheilaephemera/
I am following you on Instagram Sheila. But I will warn you, it is not a warm platform as your blog. I use it to “advertise” my blog, but it doesn’t really generate many viewers. I haven’t stopped posting on Instagram because you get a lot of “visibility” from it, which is good for other purposes. And of course I have to block at least two fake accounts a day. Accounts created with stolen photos, often of generals or doctors, with the sole purpose of getting connected with me, let me fall in love and then get money from me. They are easy to recognise.
I enjoyed seeing the photo of you with Nikki Garnett. How fun for the two of you to meet for lunch and a visit. Your home garden is looking great.
It was indeed lovely to meet Nikki again. I would love to meet her more often, but being in a different country and leading busy lives, that is not possible. Our garden is doing well, only one catalpa tree got badly damaged in the storm last Wednesday. So sad.
Love your beautiful caftan. The print is fabulous! I donât feel âfreeâ enough for that type dress, being a rather buttoned up sort myself, but you rocked it. Your friend Nikkiâs green dress is the sort I would LOVE to find!
I hope your mum continues to do well! It sounds as though sheâs open to some new adventures, which is to her great credit. But of course you are right, it will take some time.
Have a wonderful week!
Thank you for the compliments. Being an extrovert, I am always surprised when I read things like “I don’t feel free enough”. But of course it takes so many different kinds of people.
Nikki always provides links to the shops where her clothes come from. This green dress is already in her wardrobe for some time, but she often chooses such dresses. So, if you follow her blog, you might get lucky in finding a dress like that.
An inspired shot of you sitting down with your shoes matching the graffiti! Love it. The dress really suits you and I love Kitty’s sporty look as well. Your mum is bound to be fine – change is difficult at that age and after so long in her old home, but it sounds like she’ll have plenty to do and will soon make friends. Have a good week!
I hadn’t noticed that my shoes matched the graffiti. I only knew that the colour blue was in the dress.
Hopefully mum will make new friends and is going to like her new place. The fact that she has bad eyesight and bad hearing doesn’t help. The hearing care professional did all he could but in a large room with no carpet and all hard materials, the sound echos.
I loved this kaftan, it has a beautiful print. It is a look that strays a bit from your style, but, in my opinion, it looks very nice and elegant on you. As for the back, I don’t mind that simple and basic design, I like this wide and flared style more. By the way, I love your shoes, this minimalist style is also unusual for you.
I am not sure whether I have a specific style Josep-Maria. But if I do, I am glad I could surprise you. A woman never wants to be predictable. The shoes are my style as I usually have shoes without frills or patterns. One solid colour is much more practical.
LOVE this dress on you! and the blue shoes are such a pleasant surprise. Today I’m wearing my first maxi dress in decades. My blogger friend, Cindy Hattersley, did a post on Zara’s maxi dresses. I ordered 4 and kept 3. A new era! Having been a home stager as well as an image consultant, I’m curious what the agent will tell you about your mum’s house. Here updating and staging are pretty much necessary. Your garden is so lush and beautiful.
Maxi dresses are brilliant for summer. They look good with flat shoes and they are (often) airy.
Updating and staging is not our concern. The owners (no agent) of the house have asked us to present the house cleaned, with nothing in it and with bare walls. We will engage a company to do that for us. And how the owners are going to sell it, is their concern.
Great post! I love everything about that dress and it really suits you. I love that yellow one, too.
I was so surprised to read your mother has rented that home for so many years! In the U.S. that is unheard of. I feel that here people often move every five or ten years, especially if renting. I wonder if renting is more common in the Netherlands than in the U.S. Do landlords make updates like new flooring, paint, or plumbing when one rents for so many years? Of course, housing here is in short supply these days and renting is ridiculously expensive. So much so that I worry that when our home is sold we will struggle to find a place to rent if a suitable one to buy canât be right away. First world problems, I guess. Sorry for all the real estate talk on your beautiful fashion blog. đ
Thanks for a bright, cheery Sunday post.
The landlords weren’t amused that she rented the house for so long. They had other plans with the house (selling it). And as rent is under rules of the law, they couldn’t increase it that much. Mum didn’t pay a lot and even got some compensation from the government as her income was low.
Landlords do have obligations, like fixing a leaking roof or having the plumbing repaired if such things happen but updates, no. Sometimes updates happen and then they are allowed to increase the rent (under rules). New flooring, new paint…no way.
If I were in your situation, I would put a clause in your selling contract that the transfer date will be when you have moved out and into your new home. Then you have a buyer with commitment to pay and you have the time to find a new house. This is how it works in the Netherlands. But why should you sell? Can’t you keep on living where you live?
Youâre right, we could add a clause to the contractâŚwith the market as it is now, that might not be as big a deterrent for potential buyers as it has been in the past. Weâve decided we need to downsize and move closer to town and medical care. Our home is pretty remote, in a high fire risk area, and just isnât working well for us as we age.
You are very wise. Good luck with it all.
LOVED this post!! Great dress, location so unexpected/fun, and the photos of your wonderful photog and your beautiful secret garden : ) My mom is 92 and still in her home..it is so hard to grow old, and I am on my way, too! The loneliness is very real living in a private home. Pls keep us posted how she is doing!!
When I finished creating the post, I was pretty pleased myself. Everything was the way I wanted it to be.
And I know what you mean, aging to 95 isn’t easy at all. You have to come to terms with the fact there are so many things you cannot do anymore. My mum’s hearing aids can only do so much so half the time she cannot hear what is being said. And her eyesight is poor too. These are things which can isolate you. I will keep you posted on how she is doing. So far she still needs a lot of time to adjust.
The caftan looks gorgeous on you! And your garden is beautiful. I love jasmine and how good it smells.
Have a great week.
I am very pleased with the kaftan (I spell it with a k but I think either is right). The hot weather is now over (typical) but it is a piece that won’t age.
The jasmine smells lovely indeed.
Such a stunning outfit! I especially love the photo of you and Nikki as I have followed her blog for years. It does look like you planned your outfits in advance.
Thanks Cynthia. The fabric of the dress was love at first sight. Then, as I tried it on, I thought “Yep, mine!”
Nikki and I really did not coordinate our outfits. We did have a laugh over it.
Oh, that dress is FABULOUS! Gorgeous print and shape. It looks so good on you. And how clever of your seamstress to add a panel to the neckline. Love the shots in the skate park, too.
I’m so envious of how well your garden is looking! We just had our gardener fill in some of the bare spots in front, but will take a while for the new plants to grow in. Backyard, pfft. The weather’s been so yuck I’ve barely been out there and it needs a lot of work.
I love this dress it looks so stylish on you. Your garden is so very pretty. I do hope your mum settles in and enjoys having company around.
Maxi dresses are great when you don’t want to wear high heels anymore. My flat feet with low instep don’t look good in flat shoes but that shows less with maxi dresses. So, I could have gone even lower with the kaftan dress. I just liked the sandals with it.
I also hope mum settles in.
Hah… this time it wasn’t my seamstress, it was me who added the panel to the neckline. My seamstress’task was to get the hem straight and that may sound simple but it was far more difficult.
We had a lousy spring and all of a sudden it turned and it was hot for weeks. Ron and Froukje spent a lot of time picking plants and planting them at the end of May. It only needed a little filling up in June.
That first photo perfectly captures your graceful long lines in this dress. Beautiful!
Thank you very much. It is a very flattering photo…which is why it is at the top haha.
Kitty is a good photographer.
I love your caftan dress. I wontered if you could wear a camisole or tank top in place of another dress which must be very hot. I think your dressmaker can draw in the caftan in the center back by placing a panel on the inside of the center back.
We got back from a week at the beach late yesterday. We had a wonderful time with our son, daughter in law, and 2 grandsons.
We had a frind of my husband stay with Shadow. The big playful dog ran in the woods the first night! Here was this big guy holding pieces of chicken in the woods yelling “Here’s a yum yum!!!” trying to lure Shadow in!!!
The dress underneath isn’t hot at all. It is a thin summer dress and very loose. I not only need coverage at the top but coverage over the hip. And then you can see a line as the dress is rather see-through. So a long undergarment is best.
Did your friend get Shadow back in with the chicken? Must have been funny to watch.
Hello You…
Pretty dress, pretty garden and pretty clever of you to make that little fillet (as we call them) for your dress. My pet hate is a neckline that isn’t particularly low to begin with but billows out when you bend down and shows both bra and bare flesh. I’ve haven’t bought a nice linen summer dress I’ve had my eye on because the neckline is just that little bit too loose. Maddening, but as it’s a round neck I don’t think a fillet would be suitable. Well at least I’m saving money by not buying it!
It’s good to hear that Mama is settling into her new home. She’s bound to make new friends quickly given her lovely smiley face and sweet demeanour.
Have good week kiddo
Gee x
My trick with necklines that are too loose, is to use fashion tape at the shoulders. That is double sided tape which sticks to flesh and to fabric. That way, the garment stays put where I want it to. Very useful.
I agree that mum should be able to make friends, but friendships take time to develop.
What a gorgeous dress! I love your adaptations to make it more wearable. I know you enjoy heels, but with your knee, why. This dress could easily be worn with flats and still be beautiful. It’s a mindset shift.
I imagine your mom will be far less lonely, although she might miss living alone. Tradeoffs of aging. Like flats vs. heels, LOL.
Funny thing is that three orthopedic surgeons told me I could walk on high heels if I wanted to. No problem. Now that I hardly walk on high heels, its my muscles that ache. I am going through the transition of high heels to flats.
And yes, trade-offs they are. Cannot be helped.
The opening shot is sublime. So lovely is this outfit. At 5â 2â, I cannot help but be envious of your stature. And the shoes are perfection. I am happy that your mum will have people around.
I always place the best photo at the top. Funny you should say you are envious of my stature. As so often I am of things with other women, like hair or hips of…so much. What a wasted time, don’t you agree? We should stop this.