Wide cobalt blue trousersIt was my turn to host my group of friends, the BVA girls. I use the term girls loosely as the youngest (Claudia) is 54. In our heads we are still the girls (women) we were 25 years ago when we were colleagues.

Below: Wearing my wide cobalt blue trousers (also see the post when I wore it with my green and white Angela Caputi necklace), a white top, a yellow bag and a blue/white/lime scarf (I am finally bringing out a scarf). The silver of the shoes is repeated in the brooch and the belt. The brooch keeps the scarf in place. Unfortunately there was too much fabric for the pin to manage, which broke the brooch. Good old Ron fixed it again.

Wide cobalt blue trousers

Below: Marijke and Claudia being totally relaxed. We were giggling over Claudia’s low-cut dress. She changed into it on arrival at my house but hadn’t worn it for a while. She was surprised it revealed so much. We told her to be proud of such a beautiful bosom.

Marijke and Claudia

Below: As I started taking photos Marijke decided to ‘cover’ the cleavage. Always goofing.

Marijke and Claudia

Being the host means starting with cakes and coffee at 11 o’clock, followed by lunch. Around half past one we all go into town to do some (clothes) shopping and we return when the shops close. In the Netherlands that is at 17.00 hours on a Saturday. Time for drinks and snacks at my place which is followed by dinner. I was lucky as Ron cooked for us ‘Spanish chicken’, a recipe he found on the internet. For dessert he made a strawberry trifle with mascarpone, whipped cream and sponge fingers. On top of that, he also cleared everything away and ran the dishwasher twice. I love this man.

Below: Marianne was dressed in a top and trousers of black broderie anglaise (English embroidery), with silver trainers and a silver bag.

Marianne

Below: Arriving downtown, Jilske was the goofing one. Claudia had changed into trainers and shorts.

Marianne, Claudia and Jilske

Below: Marijke took this sitting down photo in front of a nice shop because the bench was turquoise which went well with my trousers.

Wide cobalt blue trousers

Below: Jilske is pretending to take a bite out of Claudia’s leg. The man arrived on his bike and saw us laughing and taking photos and he wanted to join. Why not?

Marianne, Claudia and Jilske plus a stranger

Below: I like this photo. It gives you a good view of the scarf. While it looks stained, it’s actually the effect of the little specks of lime.

Wide cobalt blue trousers

Below: When I took this photo I thought to myself it is such a shame people don’t dress up anymore. I get it, it is far more comfortable than a dress with a crinoline, but it doesn’t make for a pleasing picture. Imagine people being dressed for a wedding with these old buildings as background. Luckily this is the town hall. Lovely dressed people will be on the stairs regularly.

Haarlem

Below: Time for some shopping. Of course we visited kpa.haarlem. Regular readers of my blog know I buy a lot at this place. Marijke was interested.

Marijke

Below: Jilske and Claudia were interested as well. But they all came out empty-handed. I started to talk to customers in the shop and by the time I was ready to try on the dress I had picked, they had all moved on to the next shop.

Jilske

Below: Marijke bought this dress plus a blue one with sleeves. She was talking again as I took the photo…sigh.

Marijke

Below: Jilske also found a few things but decided against it. Claudia bought a dress. This shop offered a big discount, especially when you bought more than one or two items.

Jilske

Below: In another shop I had bought this little cardigan for 1/3 of the price. I thought it went well with this outfit, not that it needed an addition. The cardie will come in handy, I’m sure.

Below: The sweet little earrings are by Djills jewels, a company owned by Jilske, who created the earrings. I know some of you will say they have a golden hook and I am wearing a silver brooch. I wear gold and silver together.

Earrings by Djills jewels

Below: We went past my hairdresser having this vase with artificial flowers on their counter. Pretty.

A vase with flowers at Rob Peetoom

Below: Close-up of the yellow Coach bag. I never used it much but lately it is coming out of hiding.

Yellow bag by Coach

Below: On our way home I took a photo of a group of almshouses.

Haarlem

Below: Through the gate on the right I got a glimpse of the courtyard. This is one of the prettiest almshouse courtyards.

Haarlem

As usual it was a great day with a lot of laughter, loud talking, interrupting each other, telling stories and again laughter. Ron decided to hide upstairs and in the garden haha.

What happened in my life this week

After that busy Saturday with my BVA girlfriends, I slept in and visited mum on Sunday.
Below: I fancied something nice to wear for a change and opted for this orange dress (link to original post). I thought I didn’t have to walk far that day, so out came the high heels. It was a mistake. Doing some shopping for mum did the muscles of my calves in.

Orange dress

Of course the following Monday we had to deliver the keys of mum’s old house to the landlords. Although perhaps quite unnecessary I hoovered the place one last time and cleaned some spots. We hired a bailiff to do a survey of the house. He will send us a report and he took photos of the house. Just in case the landlords decide to send us a bill for things they reckon, should have been removed.

I found myself being very emotional which is so totally NOT me. The main landlord was being himself again. When I said to their real estate agent that the relationship between us had gone sour, he said that he had only pointed out what the responsibilities on both sides were and that, as far as he was concerned, we were still friendly with each other. By that time I feared I would burst into tears. Again, that is so not me. Making remarks dipped in vitriol would be far more my style.
I was not going to let him have the satisfaction of seeing me in tears, so I backed away and let my husband follow them on their tour through the house. Ron was recording the whole conversation on his iPhone (genius idea). The main landlord didn’t like that but Ron replied that he did. “In that case I won’t say anything anymore” the landlord replied. Strange.

As they arrived upstairs the landlord mentioned that we did not remove the glue from the floor and his real estate agent said: “That is no problem; you can easily put another floor on top of it’. Whahaha. We have that on record.

Below: Wearing my green suit (link to the original blog post) to meet the landlords.
When I was hoovering and cleaning I was dressed in “work clothes”. I didn’t want to be dressed like that meeting them, as I knew they would be in suits. Never underestimate the power of dressing or the influence on your state of mind being underdressed.
I combined the outfit with my new shiny silver bag.

Green suit

Tuesday and Wednesday were quiet days with a lot of rain. Where is the sun??

Thursday I picked up my new wide jeans by Samsoe and Samsoe from the seamstress. She managed to elongate the one leg which was just an inch too short. I saw those perfect jeans in spring at kpa.haarlem in size 29-32 and I needed 29-34, so slightly longer. I went to the brand’s website but they didn’t have them in the longer size anymore. The rest of the year size 29-32 didn’t sell at kpa.haarlem. It kept calling me.
My seamstress solved my dilemma (I hate trousers which are too short, even if it is in fashion, childhood trauma), so I bought them after all. I am very pleased with them.

In the afternoon I went to see the film Barbie with my friend and neighbour Monique. Just to see what all the fuss was about. I am not sure what to think of the film. The actors gave a very good performance and I liked the end message (the way I understood it, but someone else might have another idea). I thought that the message was ‘You shouldn’t be judged for how you look, which also includes being pretty. You should be judged by who you are as a person”. Although I like that message, I cannot help thinking the whole film had only one purpose and that is to excuse Mattel and to stop the accusations that Barbie causes unrealistic expectations with little girls who want to look like her.

As the booth was there anyway, we also took our photo. Childish, I know.

Below: Monique as Barbie in her box.

Monique as Barbie

Below: Me as Barbie in a box. (Link to original post wearing this Dries van Noten sweater.)

Me as Barbie

Finally I want to show you the parrot Claudia gave me last Saturday. It took some persuasion to get Ron to agree and leave it in our plant (below). I think it is a funny joke.

Parrot

Greetje

No Fear of Fashion

 

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