It might have been better if I saved this third styling of the shirt for next month so you won’t get bored with it (link to previous styling). On the other hand, you’ll get to see the possibilities quickly and you can compare them.
Combining the teal and cream shirt with an oversized blazer makes the outfit look tough rather than polished. The look requires tougher boots as well. These golden boots are from 2014/2015 and they have served me well. From time to time my cobbler repairs the damage to the gold surface and makes the boots look like new again. They were a very good buy. (Link to old post where I am wearing them. I was a lot slimmer then…I had to give away the black blazer as it became too tight.)
Below: Loes only had an hour to do the photo shoot as she was going out. Doesn’t she look great?
Below: It was raining again which forced us to go to the restaurant Zijl82 as they have big windows to let the light in. The possibilities for a head-to-toe shot were limited. And I think we rather disturbed the peace and quiet of the other guests.
My Dries van Noten bag echoes the gold accent of the boots. The men’s blazer is brown/grey and you have seen it before on the blog in this post. The teal trousers are ancient.
Below: We decided to continue at the brocante store across the road. Do you know the word brocante? Vintage, nearly antique, collectibles. The shop is called Negen Levens (Nine Lives) and it holds so many gems, you can wander around for hours if you want to see everything.
Below: A few corners of the shop.
Below: We decided to use the big window at the front for another outfit photo. Me singing “If I had a hammer…a hammer in the morning…a hammer in the evening…etc”.
Below: It was towards Halloween and this ‘blood-dripping, torn-off arm’ prop was on display.
Below: Three more photos of the cute shop.
Below: Close-up of all the brooches. In my brocante days I used to collect quite a few brooches. They are hard to resist.
In this post no beautiful buildings but a beautiful shop. Hope you liked it.
What happened in my life this week
Rain, rain and more rain. This means I did not venture out much which will make this part of the post short and a bit dull this week.
I saw mum and we had a cosy afternoon. She is doing well again and is almost completely recovered from her pneumonia.
Below: Mum is getting used to having to smile when I point the camera at her haha. She always says: “I look a lot better than I feel.” And I think she is right. Still, at 95, not bad. See how a bright colour can be worn by older ladies too? I think it looks very good on her.
Below: I wore this outfit that weekend which feels like a polished version of a jogging suit. (Link to original post.)
Monday was a day of very little. Fitness and blogging. I don’t mind a day with nothing. Quite relaxing.
Tuesday I spent the day with my friend Lia whom I know since we were 17. As you can imagine, that is always a terrific day. She was also kind enough to press the camera button several times. Yay, another photo shoot in stock. I am saving a photo of Lia for the blog post with the photos she took of my outfit.
Wednesday I got a call from friend Ayen that she wasn’t able to visit me as she was ill, poor thing. We did spend an hour or so talking on the phone and planned another date.
As I still wanted something “extra” that day, Ron and I decided to have coffee and lunch at the restaurant on the corner. After coming home, I got a call from my friend Rolf who requested my advice. Could he come round? Sure. So half an hour later I was back at the corner restaurant where I tried to give him my best advice and of course, catch up with him. Forgot to take a photo, but below a photo of him and me in August 2022. His wife, who is also a friend of mine, is suffering from Long Covid for the past two years and is slowly regaining some strength, enough to go back to work and be knackered in the evening. What a mean illness this is.
Below: The bad weather doesn’t affect our darling dog Watson at all. Husband Ron is getting soaking wet, even though his rain clothes but Watson is having the time of his life, running around in parks or at the beach or in the dunes. He even jumps into any lake he comes across.
Friday I was doing my fitness exercises, which is very necessary. I sit on the couch all day or in the car and that is sooo bad for your body. Then my neighbour Ingrid invited me for coffee. It was my intention to wash and blow dry my hair after fitness, but I just used dry shampoo and postponed the washing and drying till Saturday. Having a nice chat and good coffee with Ingrid is far better than washing hair.
Below: My Friday outfit. In the original outfit post I wore a different white shirt than this one. This new white shirt has exactly the same shape as the blue jumper (lower at the back than the front). Love that.
Rest of the day I spent on the phone with the tax office over wrongfully imposed taxes for Ron’s two old private limited companies. This concerns a lot of money, so I am willing to spend a lot of time to see whether I can reverse that. Not my hobby but I am pretty good at such matters, even if I say so myself. Whether I will succeed is yet to be seen. Fingers crossed.
Greetje
Brocante is a new term for me too! I love a shop like that, thank you so much for the browse around! I love your outfit – the golds read more bronzy to me, but I love the mix of teal and the tough look.
Good to see your mum! She looks radiant in green, and she’s very good at posing. I’m happy to hear that the pneumonia is over.
Good luck with the taxes!
Nope, the boots are really golden, not bronzy but the light was terrible of course. You cannot beat outdoor photos. Alas, it is not always possible.
I have gently coached my mum to pose with a smile haha.
Love the outfit and especially the boots. Very cute. I also enjoy browsing in vintage (antique) shops. It’s like a walk down Memory Lane. Your Mother looks very good.
That is the thing that vendors of brocante stuff here the most…”Oh we had that at home too!”. Or…”My grandmother used to have one of those”. Haha. Very understandable but if you hear that every day, I bet they grow tired of it.
Hi Greetje! Reading this at the airport on my way to Thailand. It looks like boot season is definitely ON in The Netherlands. Great outfit and I love that photo where you sing the hammer song….
Oh yes, boot season is on, although I can still wear trainers as the temperatures aren’t bad. And this week the rain is a lot less, we even have more or less dry days.
Thailand again eh? You restless soul.
You always look so elegant and I love the places you choose to photograph your pictures. This week’s brocant shop was very interesting. So happy to hear your mom is doing better. She looks beautiful in her green jumper.
Funny, I don’t see myself as elegant. Modern, casual, put-together perhaps, but elegant no. I do sometimes “do” elegant with a nice dress, dainty shoes and bag, but rarely. I am more of a jeans woman, especially now that I am retired and need no formal clothes anymore.
Mum will not believe your kind words haha. But she will read them.
Really elegant outfit! And I also liked the other two shirts on you, and the boots and bigger jacket – and lovely big colourful costume jewellery. Your mother looked great in the emerald sweater. I think the English for ‘brocante’ would be ‘junk’… or maybe ‘vintage’ is the word nowadays.
I think “junk” is not really covering it. Vintage (as in old) is much better. Sometimes you’ll find real gems. For instance, cut liqueur glasses. Or beautiful photo frames. I used to collect the brooches as well, I have quite a few.
So nice to see you! As usual your outfit was very interesting!
Please Tell Loes she looked so very nice for her outing!
We have brocante stores here, items that are very old but not antique. I don’t collect those types of items but love antiques.
We have finally had a tiny bit of rain and mist. There are several mountains where hundreds of acres have burned. Now with the wet forest floor, there will be less damage and help the fire men fight the fires.
I’ll email you.
I will tell Loes, for sure.
Gosh, I wish I could send some rain over from here as we haven’t had so much rain since 1906.
Love the brocante shop — so many interesting things to look at. Your mum looks lovely in green, and you look great in your outfits. I think my favourite is the black and white.
You said your favourite is the black and white. I had no idea what you were talking about so I was scrolling back to see. I think you mean the Friday outfit and that is blue and white with burgundy boots. But I’ll agree that this is hard to see.
Love the brooches! I started a collection a few years ago, but since i never wear jackets here in Florida, it seems a waste to keep them. I love your outfit, the boots are great as well as the jacket. Does it always rain that much? I would hate that! And I loved the antique store, at least that is what i call it! just love poking around in that kind of store!
You can pin the brooches to a dress or a cardigan, top or sweater too, can’t you? Especially when you do three or four together as a little group. Or on a denim jacket for the evening chill.
The jacket of my outfit is a men’s jacket, small size.
No, it doesn’t always rain that much. These last few weeks we had the worst amount of rain since 1906. We are a country which is used to battling with water but we have to really pull out all the stops to keep dry feet. Fortunately we are a flat country. In hilly countries like England and France there are floods. In all honesty, yes it does rain a lot in the Netherlands. A very green country.
So good to read about your life , Greetje! I do like your outfit with the boots…you rock those …and good to know metallic leather finish can be kept in good condition. I follow a couple of Francophile blogs, so know what brocantes are, and that store is absolutely super! So much to discover. Happy to see your Mum looking well…even if she’s not necessarily feeling that way. Gushing rain with wind last night on eastern Vancouver Island, but this morning, Rememberance Day , the sun shone and it was beautiful at the beach down the road. Very fresh fall feeling. Now , about all of the colourful leaves that have fallen and need to be raked up. Good core exercise! Are you expecting to see Susan Blakey, since she’s just across the water, and presently in London?
To keep your metallic leather boots in good condition, you need a very good cobbler. Mine is European champion, three times over.
The shop is good, right? I have been in many brocante shops in my life so I recognise a good one when I see it.
Here is so much rain, the most since 1906 and the land can hardly cope with it.
I won’t be seeing Susan as she is staying with friends. We were supposed to meet in Paris while she was over here but I had to cancel (long story). I was thinking of taking the plane to London and see her but that is a bit ridiculous, only for a couple of hours. Hopefully she will come to Amsterdam next year.
That blazer outfit is perfect on you! I love those boots. I can imagine they are very versatile. The color of Loes’ outfit really makes her glow. We’re supposed to get lots of rain in Northern California next week, I hope you get some sunshine soon!
Thanks for the compliments. I’ll make sure Loes gets it too.
As for rain…awful. The groundwater level is so high at the moment that our cellar is making water. We haven’t had this much rain since 1906. This weekend we saw some sunshine, a welcome break but next week we’ll start all over again.
Love the striped shirt and the whole “tough” outfit. Very chic and edgy. Also love your Friday outfit. I have a sweater like that so I’ll have to see if I can dig up a shirt to go under it. Maybe a pale blue denim one.
I’m recuperating from getting cortisone shots in my arthritic knees. I’ve never had them before and my knees do seem to feel less stiff. I guess it will take a few more days to kick in. Fortunately I just got a big pile of new books from the library so I’m all set!
Have a good week.
I contemplated a good few hours before I decided to buy the white shirt. After examining all my white shirts in my wardrobe I decided their shape was not “now” and I bought the shirt. The added benefit is that it goes well with other new things like the jumper which is about 2 years old. I hope your pale blue denim one does the trick.
A cortisone shot in your arthritic knees will probably help. It will fight the inflammation caused by arthritis. Arthritis can cause arthrosis, which is what I have. But it depends on what kind of arthritis you have. Anyway, it’s one of these things you get for free as you age.
I’m partial to the Friday outfit. It’s both chic and fun. And I just love your Mum.
Thanks for teaching me another word/phrase. “I am partial to” was something I had heard but didn’t know what it meant. Now I do and it is a very nice compliment, thank you.
Mum reads my blog posts and the comments, which means she will read your compliment (and say “I don’t understand. Why?” haha).
Loes looks wonderful in that outfit in this post.
You, too, of course.
I had taken the photo of Loes the day before when she came over to ask my opinion about the outfit. As she didn’t have time to get properly dressed for the photo shoot and we had little time, I didn’t take a photo of her during the shoot. And then I remembered this photo. I love showing my friends and their take on dressing. Adds a bit of extra to the blog.
You’ve taught me a new word! I had not heard the word brocante before. What an absolutely delightful shop! I could easily spend quite awhile there and possibly find a treasure or two.
The photo of your Mum is lovely and I do love your outfit this week. It looks classy, but a bit casual and very comfortable. To me, those are all important factors when choosing an outfit.
I taught you a new word…that’s the world upside down. The brocante shop is a very good one.
Classy, casual and very comfortable…indeed, these things are pretty important. I remember the times well that they didn’t matter as long as you looked good haha.
Lovely as usual, I like the boots. Mom looks good in that bright green color. I would have never guessed she was 95, how lucky you are to have her 🥰
As I said (and she says as well), she looks a lot better than she feels. But all in all, she is not doing bad. She never sat in the sun. Might that have anything to do with it? And I am indeed very lucky to still have her.
I do like this week’s outfit and think it works well. The gold boots are fabulous! Keep your phone with you later this afternoon… 😉
Thanks Susan. It is also comfortable. Something I am appreciating more and more as I grow older.
I’ll be waiting by my phone dear.