Another newly created outfit with stuff from my wardrobe: man repeller jeans with an oversized orange blazer. I like the addition of the silver bag, but every time I wear a bag cross body, my blazer rides up.
Above: The brooch is pinned horizontally, as you can see. I would have put it on vertically but Ron said: “No, is should repeat the stripe of your shirt”. Ever so handy to have a stylist in the house.
WARNING: many photos to come.
Marjolein and I went to the old town of Delft, by tram and got out at Museum Prinsenhof. This used to be a convent and the home of Prince Willem van Oranje, who was killed in his home. Before it became a museum it was the town hall of Delft.
Below: It is a beautiful place and of course, now that the trees have their leaves again, even more beautiful.
Below: Close-up of the building.
Below: That is one way of decorating a lamp post. As it is Delft, it is done in Delft blue.
Below: The Prinsenhof garden with a statue of Willem van Oranje (oranje=orange).
With all the orange I am wearing, I am totally upstaging him LOL.
Below: We walked to the museum for our first coffee.
Below: The entrance with its gorgeous shutters. Goofing here. Still, I can stand on one leg wearing a stiletto heel, albeit a modest heel.
Below: In the museum café, Marjolein wearing a marvellous jumper.
Below: While having coffee, Marjolein gave me a present for my 70th birthday last month. A versatile pretty little scarf by Essentiel Antwerp. Very sweet although she shouldn’t do that as we don’t normally exchange birthday gifts.
Below: Trying to point out there is another gate at the end, leading to a canal. (Have you noticed that I am wearing the bag with its back towards the camera all the time?)
Below: The canal at which I was pointing.
Below: We headed into Delft. The weather was so nice and sunny (FINALLY), the terraces started to attract people. It was still early and a Monday, so not a busy day. I love terraces at the foot of a church.
Below: They do have many churches in Delft.
Below: Marjolein head to toe, looking good as she does.
Below: Searching for a restaurant which is open on a Monday, we passed this house with its charming greenery.
Below: We found restaurant Het Postkantoor (The Post office). It is decorated as an old-fashioned living room.
Below: There is a seating area around a fireplace. Furniture is vintage. It is a very popular (and cheap) way of decorating a restaurant. Although I do like the atmosphere it creates, I have mixed feelings about the old furniture.
We continued walking around and couldn’t skip the Delft Blue shop Heinen. I am going to show you a couple of items we saw. (No, I do not get any commission.)
Below: How about this vase? Mind you, that one doesn’t come cheap (€ 1,008).
Below: Plates with animals.
Below: A tulip vase.
Below: Adorable crockery.
Below: The last stop was a terrific shoe shop (Nolten). Marjolein bought these pink trainers but took them back again a few days later as they hurt her feet.
Below: Instead, she bought these silver trainers.
Below: And I bought two pairs of summer shoes. The ones on the right are flat and dreamy soft; the ones on the left are very soft as well and have elastic bands across the instep. By the way, shoes don’t count for the 10 items a year challenge. And one pair were a birthday gift from my mum.
Below: Some random stuff to finish with. Grand vase we spotted in a window. Mind you, it is an attention drawing piece. You cannot put a busy bunch of flowers in it (IMHO).
Below: Leaving Delft after one last shot of the old centre.
What happened in my life this week
Saturday was King’s Day in the Netherlands and especially in big cities like Amsterdam, there are huge celebrations. But as my family was coming over for a visit on Sunday, I visited mum on Saturday. A matter of priorities, right? Mum and I went out and did see some festivities but as she lives in a small village, there wasn’t much going on.
Sunday we had a nice family day with brothers and SIL’s plus Ron’s daughter and her husband. Small gathering but I care about getting together once in a while as we all live in other parts of the country, so we don’t see each other an awful lot. And there was cake! Apple pie to be precise.
On Monday Ron invited me to go to the beach to walk the dog.
Below: It was a beautiful day but still, at the seaside there is more wind than anywhere else, so I opted for a winter coat.
In the afternoon my friend Misja (blog MisjaB) came round to help me create some outfits for the blog. She came up with combinations I would never have dreamed of. Unfortunately, the weather changed so suddenly to hot that most outfits will have to wait until the temperature drops again. I don’t mind holding on to them till autumn though.
Below: Misja, dressed to the nines. With new trousers. Great combination.
Below: With the coat the outfit was even better. Friends of Misja discovered this coat in a vintage shop and immediately got in touch with her. After seeing a photo of the coat, Misja commissioned them to buy it for her. Her friends knew her taste so well.
See how one sleeve is different from the other?
Tuesday: A check at the optician assured me that my reading glasses are still good. As the shop was offering a discount, I bought a pair of glasses for computer work.
When I came home in the afternoon, I took the sun lounger out of the shed and had a nice hour of sunbathing in the not-so-bad-for-your-skin hours of 4 to 5. The sunspots on my skin are already there, so a few more won’t make a difference.
However… while I was organising space for the sun lounger in the garden, I made a move with my right arm to the right and…screamed with pain. I screamed a lot that afternoon. Luckily, I could see my physiotherapist the next day and after some tests she told me that my (wonky) shoulder probably had some scar tissue / calcium as my tendon is teared a bit. Nothing to worry about but calcium will build up in your shoulder when you have tears. You don’t need to feel anything for years and then all of sudden you make the wrong move and it cracks. And that is very painful. She put some electric device on my shoulder (shock waves?) and after that taped it. Monday I’ll attend an ultrasound to check whether this is the right diagnosis. Keeping my right arm close to my body, not reaching of anything far away and not lifting anything is the advice for now. Sigh.
Below: Over to nicer news. Wore my new French Kande necklace again, together with one I bought a few years ago.
Below: An update on the garden. It has been raining nearly non-stop until last week, with low temperatures. Nevertheless, the plants in the garden are beginning to grow. The two trees you see on the right are catalpas and they will get leaves in June. Quite handy as in spring when I want to sunbathe, they don’t give shade and in summer when it is too hot for sunbathing, the trees provide shade.
Below: Some close-ups of the garden.
Below: I bought several of these flowers and they are peonies. Charming and different from the usual ones, until they lose their yellow stamens. My goodness, what a mess.
Below: One of my outfits this week. I had to cancel meeting a friend (because of the shoulder) and another friend cancelled meeting me. Still, I managed to get out. Link to original post, when I wore it with booties, different jewellery and another bag.
That was quite a read, wasn’t it?
Greetje
Happy belated special birthday!
Best looking 70 year old I know
Love love love misjas outfit
Your photos make me want to visit sooner rather than later
How lovely to hear from you. Thank you for your birthday wishes and compliment.
I agree with you on Misja’s outfit. Wouldn’t mind owning it myself although it might not look as good on me. If you are visiting the Netherlands again, I hope you will have time to drink a coffee with me.
I LOVED that orange outfit with the barrel jeans. Are those jeans literally by Man Repeller? Does she have a clothing line? Or are you just saying they aren’t attractive for men?
Suzanne
The latter Suzanne. I thought men would hate these trousers. Turns out most of them quite like them, including Ron. The site Man Repeller is down for a couple of years now.
I love all the outfits and the photos your friend Marjolen took. It’s interesting to see all the different places you visited. I love the shoes you bought as I love shoes. So glad you had a nice visit with your Mum and the rest of your family. I hope your shoulder gets better soon I know what that’s like as I have a bad right shoulder and I have had 2 cortisone shots in it. Your gardens are very beautiful I remember we had 2 catalpa trees in our yard when I was young. We have a few tulips out now and can’t wait for rest to bloom. Keep posting and I’ll keep reading.
Don’t you worry, I will keep posting. My blog is my hobby. With the “only 10 items of clothing this year” challenge, it has become more difficult as I am not good at creating new outfits, but that’s good. Out of my comfort zone.
The garden looking good (and it is still early) is down to Ron. I do not have green fingers.
Love your orange blazer (I have one just like it), and the orange boots with it. A trick I do with cross-body bags is to wear them under the blazer-you can still get at them but they don’t create rumpling issues. I hope your shoulder feels better soon. 💕
Wearing a cross-body bag like that is also good against pickpockets, but usually I want the bag to be on show. As an outfit item?
My shoulder is slowly getting better. Don’t know how long it will take. I am still on painkillers and I have to avoid certain moves but at least I can blow dry my hair again. (Grateful for the little things LOL.)
I do hope your shoulder continues to improve. What a wonderful post–everything was interesting and inspiring. Thank you for sharing so much of your country with us every week.
My shoulder is slowly getting better, thank you for asking. I still have to be careful and not make certain moves, but at least I can blow dry my hair. And I continue taking the painkillers.
It is entirely my pleasure to create blog posts. I am very grateful that I have readers who appreciate them. So thank you for your comment.
I really liked the orange blazer outfit. So spicey! I also like everyone’s outfits too. All styled perfectly. Gave me some ideas as to what to wear. I live in the U.S in western Pennsylvania and our weather is cool one day, shorts weather the next day, mixed with a lot of rain. I always like your posts.
It sounds as if you are in the Netherlands, weather wise. LOL
Thank you very much for all your compliments. It warms my blogger heart.
I don’t understand why you call these jeans “man-repellent”? I assume you mean a type of man who only looks at women from a libidinal point of view. Some men also look at other things, the beauty of the aesthetic combination, personal style or balance. To me, personally, the combination of jeans and orange seems very pretty and, in any case, the play with volume seems aesthetically balanced to me. Some beautiful photos of beautiful places and things. I hope that your arm is fully recovered or that the recovery is positive. Cheer up, man-repellent friend! LOL
Thank you so much for your comment. You, my dear friend, are in a league of your own. You are indeed capable of looking at people in such a pure way. Not many can do that. I am so grateful that you have been following my blog and commenting on posts for such a long time. From the day I started (I was more elegant in those days LOL).
My shoulder is still sore and sometimes I make a wrong move, but if I am careful, it is not so bad anymore.
Love the orange jacket with the man repeller jeans. You have given me ideas. Lovely views of Delft too. I might try and visit there when I am in Rotterdam in August. Hope the sun is shining for you this weekend.
Isn’t that wonderful? I inspired you!! I am so pleased.
Delft is only a stone-throw from Rotterdam. By train is the quickest. From Rotterdam train station (Central) to Delft train station is 11 minutes.
The sun was shining here this weekend and I hope it will be shining Tuesday as well, when I plan to do another photo shoot in Delft. Wishing you lots of sunshine too when you visit Rotterdam.
Good outfit this week, love those jeans! I also really like the last one with the white pants – interesting tunic, and very Springy. I put my cross-body bag under my jackets when I wear them open (not suitable for photos, I know). Beautiful buildings in Delft, thanks for showing them to us. Regards
Forgot to mention how fab your new shoes are – both pairs! Lucky you 🙂
I agree. They were irresistible. I have tried the flat loafers (lightest green) already and they are good.
Wearing your cross-body bags under your jacket is very good against pickpockets. Delft is such a beautiful place that I have decided to go back next week and do another round. Fingers crossed the weather will cooperate.
Wonderful post, as usual!!! I so enjoy your posts as I am from Canada and it is so different from your country!!
Yes, I can believe that. Canada is vast with beautiful nature and big animals. We struggle to keep a little bit of nature. I am glad you enjoyed the post. I am going back to Delft next week. Let’s hope the weather will be just as lovely.
great post! I learned a lot. Looked up William of Orange (the Silent) and read what was done to the man who shot him — barbarous! On a nicer note, the Delft tulip vase has my vote. Your cottage garden is great. Being American, we have a wide mowed lawn, which I’d love to replace with more plantings. I broke my ankle at the end of last year and empathize with limb and related injuries, so I wish you well with your shoulder recovery.
The punishments in the old days were truly barbarous. I bet that these days, there are still countries, that use such methods.
We have indeed a cottage garden. We call it a city garden. There isn’t much room in the Netherlands. Small country, lots of inhabitants.
I bet your ankle is still giving you trouble if it happened at the end of last year. These things don’t heal quickly. My shoulder is slowly getting better. I can blow dry my hair again – carefully.
When I visited Amsterdam in fall 2019, I found a little shop of Delft ware…across the canal from the flower market. So difficult to choose, but came away with little Christmas decorations with blue ribbons for hanging on the tree, and an 8- sided small dish for my window sill collection…from my travels in Mexico, Italy, and France and the Netherlands. Gives me joy when doing the mundane chore of washing the dishes!
I see bluebells in your garden. The former owner here had way too many in one location, so after I dispersed them about my garden, I have them sort of naturalized throughout. Love the scent indoors. It’s a riot of colour currently, with May cherry blossoms, a white dogwood ( provincial tree of British Columbia) , rhododendrons of several colours, azaleas as well, and of course the bluebells. The best time in this garden, front and back. Now we just need a buyer who loves the gardens , as well as the house! 🏡
There is a link to the Heinen shop in my post and they ship internationally. How, I don’t know as their website is only in Dutch, but it did say so. I saw the Christmas ornaments. Nice.
As for the garden, some plants are pushy and bossy and want to take over the garden. They have to be reined in, even though they are beautiful. Ron has to do that as I would take out the wrong plants.
Your gardens sound terrific. They usually help selling a place, especially in spring.
Love the orange blazer! cannot wear that color myself. I love your friend’s sweater with the threads. And Misja always looks fabulous! Looks cold there still! We are already in the 80s fahrenheit here in Florida! (also love both pairs of green shoes!)
Knowing which colours suit you and which don’t, is the basis for outfit styling. I had my colour analysis done years ago and that was a good investment.
I know, Misja does always look fabulous.
The good weather is coming. We had a wonderful week with 24 degrees Celsius. Now it is 15 – 17 degrees, so much colder, but at least the sun is still out.
So fun looking at the stylish outfits wish I could be on that trip
Shopping trips with girlfriends is one of my biggest pleasures. A bit difficult now I am bound to the challenge of buying only 10 items of clothing this year. So glad shoes don’t count haha.
Hello You
Nice to see Delft again. I liked the old fashioned restaurant and the special lamp post. Lovely. As is your garden. That rain certainly brought the green out! And talking of green, I am green with envy over your new light green ones. I shall be interested to see what you wear with
As for this week’s put-together, I love the colour combinations but – sigh – I see you’ve given those ghastly jeans another outing! ☹️ Grr!
Still, have a good week, despite me!
Gee x
Sometimes I hit the jackpot with you and sometimes it is a total miss haha. I know, I have quirky sides to my character. I am afraid you might see those ghastly jeans again in the future LOL.
I wore the light green shoes with the long green shirt outfit I showed in the post. Instead of the sneakers which are in the photo.
I’m so glad someone else dislikes this style of jeans – everyone I’ve seen wear them looks as if they’re bow-legged or “bandy” as we say in the UK. Still “horses for courses” or “one man’s meat is another man’s poison”. The orange blazer looks good, as does the green top and pink coat.
I had so much fun reading your comment. And I can so understand your dislike. You are right, it isn’t at all flattering, but I love the quirkiness. Sometimes I don’t want to be dressed flattering. I look a bit like a little clown in these jeans. I know. That’s why I called them “man repeller jeans”. Funny thing is, most men like them and a few women don’t. Or perhaps many women don’t like them, but don’t want to put that in a comment. I am Dutch and we are brutally honest (or rude as most people outside of the Netherlands call us). But I know that the thing on social media is “if you don’t have anything nice to say, don’t say anything at all”. I agree with that point of view but not when you are a frequent reader/commenter on my blog. Then you “know” me a bit, and you can be honest. I can take it. I am Dutch.
This is a particularly wonderful post. It really makes me long to spend more time in the Netherlands.
You have such a great eye for beautiful sights and color combinations.
Don’t forget, my country has the nasty habit of being very wet. Rain is unpredictable but often. You saw how much we suffered when poor Susan was over to visit me.
I don’t think I have a particularly great eye for beautiful sights. They are just there, in abundance.
Lovely post, Greetje, except for the painful part! I do hope your shoulder heals quickly. Your garden is so pretty, and I have always loved Delft Blue pottery. Thanks so much for all the photos 🙂
I think this post went down very well. Thanks for the compliments. My shoulder is slowly getting better.
Great post Greetje! Outfits all inspiring and interesting. Keep the garden photos coming as it all matures.
Glad you enjoyed the post. And I will keep on posting garden photos.
Love your outfits, especially the first one. Thanks for the visit to Delft – beautiful. And your garden looks gorgeous.
Hope your shoulder is feeling better.
Have a great week.
I am going to visit Delft again this coming week. Hopefully the weather will cooperate again. It is colder now than last week, but still not bad.
My shoulder is slowly getting better. At least I can blow dry my hair again. Yay.
Greetje, I worked with the Dutch for many, many years and understand their propensity for being blunt. Travelled there on an almost weekly basis as well. Do you remember the story of the little boy who put his finger in the dyke? We read it at school when very young and the trousers in the illustrations remind me of your jeans but longer. As I said though I did very much like other pieces in your post. 💐
That orange jacket and boots were great with that pair of jeans. But, I think the combination would work with any jeans. Good job! As someone said above those pottery pieces were a joy to see. Send some sunshine down my way, please, that is Portugal.
I am glad you enjoyed the post. And yes the orange blazer works with a lot of jeans and the jeans work with a lot of tops and the boots work with a lot of trousers. Many options.
Funny that I have to send sunshine to Portugal. Usually you have the good weather and not us.
Greetje, It looks like you have been busy! The castle? picture of the man that was murdered in his home-can you buy tour tickets? Is it haunted? It certainly is pretty! I agree about old furniture but love antiques from around 1850 with all of the beautiful rubbed woods which is what I did our house in.
Loved your jacket, boots and bag, and striped shirt and pin! Very good looking. Your green shoes are pretty; sounds like a fun shopping trip.
Your garden looks good and should be wonderful soon!
Oh! Ilove the blue and white dishes you showed at Delft! Beautiful!
Yesterday, I had my first lunch since February 1! My friend is an artist and makes silver jewery in the methods of the 1800’s. We had beautiful salads; hers had blueberries and strawberries; mine had bacon and 1/2 and avocado.
My physical therapies have been scheduled, 2 a week.
Dear Cathy, I always link to sites in my post for interesting background information or for things like buying tickets. If you look at my post again, you will see that I linked to the castle site where you can buy tickets. And no, it is not haunted LOL.
Old antique furniture is fantastic. But just old furniture like they use to decorate these restaurants, are a bit mucky.
I am glad you were out and about again and that you found a physical therapist who can help you.
Before I even read a word this week my eye zeroed in on the brooch, I wanted it to be on the diagonal, just saying.
Gorgeous, luscious shoes!
Maybe that’s the explanation for why my right arm was hurting mightily for no reason last night (keyhole surgery for frozen shoulder yonks ago).
Great read!
Funny, you say that. We usually pin a brooch diagonally, don’t we? Well, times they are a changing LOL.
If you had the same as I seem to have in my shoulder, the should take a while (a couple of days, a week?) to wear off. It did become better quite soon (two days) but there are still moves I shouldn’t make after 5 days. Luckily I can blow-dry my hair again.
Always love the “travel” pictures! Delft is a lovely town. Your garden and flowers are beautiful! Also loved that pale green tunic at the end.
It is not always possible, but a blog post which is a “report” of a visit to a nice place, is so much nicer than just “hello, here is my outfit of the week”. Especially when the nice place is as lovely as Delft.
I love the orange jacket and Marjolein’s perfect-for-Delft sweater. Plus, kudos to Ron, your garden is looking so beautiful!
Thanks Elizabeth. The orange jacket is a workhorse in my wardrobe. A while ago when we were in The Hague, Marjolein and I looked at her jumper in the window of a shop. We both liked it a lot. I couldn’t justify to myself buying another jumper, so she went in and bought it. Great one.
I’ll pass your compliment on to Ron.
Beautiful post!!!! Thank you for sharing with us. I’m so in love with man repeller jeans; I keep looking for them but they appear to be no longer available. The town of Delft is just gorgeous; I hope someday to see it.
I checked these barrel jeans (that’s the official name) on two Dutch jeans sites for you, who ship internationally. But no such luck. Still, they are out there.
Delft is a very pretty town. I will return there shortly.
Love the orange jacket and booties with the “repeller” jeans. And the two FK necklaces.
I’m so glad you’re finally getting some sunshine. And now I want to go to Delft! Love the blue striped crockery.
I would have loved to walk through Delft with you in the sunshine. It is just as pretty or even prettier as Haarlem or Amsterdam.
Wonderful read this week Greetje! I love all your outfits. Those jeans are fabulous. I need a pair but being short, I will need to hunt around for a ‘petite’ pair… Delft is a gorgeous town. I liked seeing everywhere you went and the blue pottery was a feast for the eyes. I adore tulips but here in the UK they are very expensive unfortunately.
Both green pairs of shoes are fabulous. I especially like the dark green pair, they both look extremely comfortable. A necessity imho.
I love shoes and I have just bought a gold pair of mesh mary-janes (flat) and a pink suede (with green stripe) pair of Puma trainers. I’m a fellow addict.
Finding the right jeans for your figure is not an easy job. You’d think that with my long legs and reasonably slim figure that would be a breeze. No such thing. When the shapes change, I keep buying jeans which don’t do me favours. And I don’t mean these man repeller jeans. They are wonderful even though they don’t make me look pretty.
I think flowers are expensive everywhere but the Netherlands. You can buy a bunch of 10 tulips here for €5 when they are in season.
As I get older, comfort is a lot higher on my list and with shoes in summer it is top of my list, otherwise I cannot walk. Your shoe purchases sound great, fellow addict.