Black waistcoat with blue and white striped shirt

Black waistcoat with blue and white striped shirt
Black waistcoat with blue and white striped shirt

These jeans by the brand Denham are high up my list of favourites as they are so comfortable. Today you see me wearing my black waistcoat with a blue and white striped shirt. I bought the shirt second-hand, mainly because of the way the collar sat on my body. V-necks are good for women with an ample bosom but I don’t like to show the wrinkles in my cleavage. This shirt doesn’t reveal too much but does create a V.

The black waistcoat you saw before in this post and in this post. At first I thought it was a bad buy and I couldn’t style it. But three ways of styling isn’t too bad and I bet I can come up with more.

Photos for this post were taken by Sylvia of 40PlusStyle. She is Dutch and quite a traveller. Most of the time she is on the road. Her home base is now Portugal and she was in the Netherlands for a visit. She always contacts me to spend some time together.

Below: Sylvia was the one who encouraged me to start my blog journey and she advised me in developing my style. Her site offers a lot of help to discover your body shape and loads more. Sylvia herself has developed her style as well. Below you see her in an outfit which I would call ‘arty’. All items can work together; you can remove a layer and it still looks good, no matter what layer.

Sylvia of 40PlusStyle

As you can see, it was a rainy day AGAIN. Had she come the day before, we could have sat on a terrace in the sunshine. The Netherlands is very fickle when it comes to weather.

We had a ‘window’ of about 15 minutes without rain to do the photo shoot. Not very eventful but it will have to do.

Below: It will be a post with stupid faces, like this one below. I call this my ‘hyena face’. I was killing myself laughing because I had just totally surprised this man, a tourist, by putting my arm through his and saying “Would you like to be in a photo with me?” He would, bless him.

Black waistcoat with blue and white striped shirt

 Below: He was really nice. A good sport.

Black waistcoat with blue and white striped shirt

Below: The terraces were empty for obvious reasons, so nobody minded me sitting there and not ordering a drink.

Black waistcoat with blue and white striped shirt

Below: Close-up for the details. Chunky golden chain earrings and Loewe belt. That belt was rather an investment but a good one. It panned out well.

Black waistcoat with blue and white striped shirt

Below: I tried some poses which weren’t ‘posed’. Better not do that again. I look like The Scream by Edvard Munch.

Black waistcoat with blue and white striped shirt

A few days later I took some photos of nice buildings for you. The sun had come out which makes everything so much more joyful.

House in Haarlem

Below: I photo shopped all cars and most bicycles out of the photo. Ruining my picture.

House in Haarlem

Below: I have shown this old school building before but I am sure you won’t remember or mind seeing it again. I got an amazingly good sight of the building.

Old school building in Haarlem

Below: OK, this photo failed. Those two grebes were kissing each other but I took the photo from the car and that was too far away to get a sharp picture. Nevertheless, I wanted to share it (my husband will disagree).

Grebes

What happened in my life this week

Quite a lot as it happened.

During the weekend I was so worried about Watson. He seemed to get worse instead of better. On Monday everything was all right again. Pffew. Ron is now taking him for his walks in the morning and the afternoon (YAY). I urge him every time to take my car as his 41 year old Renault 4 does not have power steering. He can drive his own car though and his arm and wrist are getting better by the day.

Marjolein came over on what was supposed to be a rainy day to go through my wardrobe together and weed. We achieved quite a lot but then the sun came out and we hurried to town to do a photo shoot.

Since a week I was hurting in a particular place, right above my left breast. Particularly, when I coughed or sneezed but I had no trouble breathing. Now, I don’t like pains and aches I cannot explain and which feel not normal. If they are not gone within a week, I will visit my doctor (all covered by the medical insurance of € 190 a month). She felt the spot and said “I know what that is, that is Tietze’s Syndrome.”

I beg your pardon? Whose syndrome?? Google it if you want, but it is nothing to worry about. It is a swelling and it will go away again. Until that time it will be painful when I sneeze or cough. Annoying but I’ll take this over any serious illness anytime.

My cat Sophie was chased by another cat, that black and white rascal from the corner, Dolfje. Sophie was running home so fast that she irreparably damaged the cat flap. Which meant we had to buy another one (expensive because electric, working on the chip between her shoulders), install it and get Sophie’s chip registered again. To my amazement Ron and I got the new one installed. Not without a bit of fierce arguing but still.
I used a good trick to get Sophie’s chip registered. I placed a dish with fish indoors in front of the cat flap while Sophie was outside. She tried to get in but I stopped the flap. As she was exactly in the right spot, the ‘registering thing’ got her chip straight away. No trouble, no stress.

On Wednesday the weather was gorgeous, warm and sunny. My friend Hanka and I had lunch in town and managed to sit in the restaurant until 4 pm, talking, talking, talking. There weren’t many guests, so the staff didn’t mind.
Below: Sweet Hanka.

Hanka

And on Friday I met my friend Peggy in Delft on another glorious sunny day.
Below: Peggy.

Below: I had great tulips again last week, orange ones this time. Two of them I had put in small vases but they longed for their siblings so much that they started to bend over, reaching out for the tulips on the table. Ever seen something like this? 😂

Tulips pointing to the right

Below: Ron brought home a few bunches of daffodils. They were in a spot where the morning sun hit them. So good.

Daffodils

Below: Another morning the sun shone on this willow. Aren’t its branches like strands of gold?

Willow with sunshine

We saw the granddaughters again and went to a playground with them.

All is fine in paradise again.

Greetje

No Fear of Fashion

22 responses to “Black waistcoat with blue and white striped shirt”

  1. I love it when you “ham it up” in your photos. You look so joyful in these. And grabbing that nice man was inspired!
    I follow Sylvia’s blog and have done for years — I may have heard about it from you. I always enjoy when she uses a photo of you as one of her examples on how to wear a particular style.
    Great photos as always. I love it when we get tulips and daffodils at the grocery store because it means spring is on the way, even though our daily temperatures are still below zero.
    Glad to hear that Ron is doing so well and so is Watson.
    Forgot to mention that I love this week’s outfit’ it’s obvious that you feel good in it and that comes through in your photos 🙂

    1. Thank you Cynthia. Perhaps your last sentence with the assessment of the outfit is why people like this outfit so much. I wasn’t really that thrilled about it, but I get a lot of positive response.
      And you tought me another English expression “to ham it up”. Love it.

  2. LOVE all the photos, pretty nature and always the buildings! Your friends are so fun, enjoy reading about your outings. The tourist man, such a good sport – I’m sure you added to his day as well. Glad your hubs and pup are both doing better, you too. Thanks again for sharing your week and a few laughs along the way. 💗

    1. If you laughed then I have reached my goal. There should be more laughter in life. Thanks for all your compliments.

  3. Thanks for info on Tietze situation. Always good to know about things our bodies might experience. I would love to see a picture of Sophie. Why do you suppose that mean cat chases her? Poor thing. Relieved to hear Watson is on the mend. It’s so hard to watch a loved one, child or pet, that can’t explain their pain. And oh yes, fashion. I truly love that you post real pictures, no matter if funny, of real outfits. More helpful than a blogger trying to flog what’s on sale at Nordstrom’s. And I like that you feature real women with beautiful expression lines and imperfections that betoken actual personality.

    1. I do select nice photos of myself and delete the bad ones, but for the rest I want to keep it real. There is already so much fake in the world. Besides, it would be really hard work to photoshop all the wrinkles out of my face and neck in every photo. I suppose it is like being honest (which I am) in life. I am also honest on my blog. I cannot be unmasked that way and I don’t have to remember what I lied about. I am very much “what you see, is what you get” anyway.

  4. Linda Henderson Avatar
    Linda Henderson

    Looking good, Greetje. I am happy Watson and Ron are doing better. And I am glad your pain was nothing serious. Here in West Texas we topped 100 degrees yesterday. I guess we are skipping Spring.

    1. Oh gosh Linda, that is HOT. It would even be hot for summer, let alone spring.
      Here we have cold, warm, cold, warm etc. and warm being around 14 degrees Celsius, so not that warm. Rain is coming again but as long as it is not all day, I can cope with it. Very good for the garden.

  5. Cheryl Walters Avatar

    I love all the outfits and the photos are so interesting. I must visit Holland one of these day, I was there on a stop over to catch my connecting flight when I went to Ireland. It was so pretty flying over the fields and seeing the tulips and windmills. So glad you, watson and Ron are all keeping well and it’s so nice to meet all your wonderful friends. Keep posting and I’ll keep reading.

    1. If you do visit, come in May, June or July. Those months are the best to get good weather. The tulip fields though are at their height halfway through April up to and including the first week of May.
      I’ll keep posting every week Cheryl. Thanks for reading and commenting.

  6. Hello, You,

    I agree with Susan and Josep-Maria, you and Sylvia have indeed nailed the Annie Hall look. (Don’t we all miss Diane Keaton?) It’s very much my style too and not hard to put together as mixing and matching is both fun and relatively easy. I far prefer you in chic and casual rather than all dolled up…just saying (as usual).

    Sorry to hear about your Tietze’s; trust you to get something unheard of! Hope it goes soon. And glad that Winston’simproved. Oh, and Ron too!

    Absolutely love your tulip photo! Had I painted those two I’d have titled it ‘What on earth have they spotted?’ – I do tend to give my art odd titles. Tulips are one of my favourite flowers and I was so pleased to see ours are coming through in the garden the other day.

    Am currently sitting in said garden, being serenaded by a beautiful blackbird. It’s a glorious day in Middle England, hope it is also across the Channel.

    Going to check out 40PlusStyle now and possibly find out if I’m right to be channeling Ms Hall or maybe should downgrade to Old Bag Lady at my age!

    Have a good week.
    Gee

    1. Mixing and matching is fun and relatively easy??? Speak for yourself haha. It is hard for me and no fun at all. Why I have this blog then you may ask…well, that is because I adore clothes and make people laugh.
      My Tietze swelling isn’t really bothering me much. It is as my doctor said “Once you know it is something benign, you stop worrying and your mind makes sure, it will disappear.”
      I think I would have called the tulip painting What’s happening at the neighbours’ ? Haha.
      Weather wise the afternoons are great at the moment but that will stop again next week.
      And never downgrade to Old Bag Lady, EVER. Hope 40PlusStyle gives you some insight.

  7. The anonymous man was an incredibly good sport! Love the outfits this week, all interesting and comfortable and unique.

    1. I have a sixth sense with most people. Whether I will like them and vice versa. It is also my experience that when you ask someone something in a nice way, they are nearly always sympathetic to you. Only once I got a harsh turn-down and I go up to people all the time.
      Thanks for the outfit compliments.

  8. Both you and Sylvia have really nailed the “Annie Hall” look, which I love! The vest/waistcoat really pulls it all together, and the metallic boots add panache.

    I’m glad Watson is doing better! It’s so worrying when our pets are feeling unwell but can’t tell us what’s wrong.

    I’ve had tulips do the same thing, reaching for a light source.

    1. I wasn’t going for the ‘Annie Hall’ look, but I am fine with that. Adding panache is something I always want.
      I just wrote a reply to SarahJane how to treat tulips when you get them.

  9. Great post Greetje,

    My Aunt loves tulips, very pretty but invariably they are hanging like cartoon flowers by time she gets them.

    A different situation, but I had severe breast pain from menopause and I bought evening primrose oil. There is only circumstantial evidence but I can say it stopped straight away. Turmeric is known for anti-inflammatory qualities, takes a while to work, but you could look into it, it could well help with your Tietzes (as well as any other aches and pains).

    I hope Watson is feeling better, send him a shout-kiss from me in London.

    1. The Tietze swelling isn’t really bothering me that much. Just when I sneeze or cough I have to be careful.
      I have heard about turmeric before, not of primrose oil.
      I use glucosamine for my arthrosis knee, also never proven that it works, but it does for me.
      Watson is feeling fine again and is running around when Ron takes him for walkies. Ron is getting better and better as well, so my tasks have diminished a lot.
      Usually I have tulips that stay up all the time, only these two were going their own way. The trick is to leave them wrapped in paper in water in the kitchen (a not so warm place) and let them get used to a warmer temperature for a couple of hours. Then slant-cut the stems and bring them into the living room (without the paper haha).

  10. Every day I see you becoming more boho, more informal and carefree, and I like it. At our age, conventionality and exaggerated formalities should be a thing of the past. The comfort of your jeans and the balance of your shirt and vest seem magnificent to me, allowing you to walk around without feeling constricted. I remember Sylvia’s blog; she was a woman with her own unique, unconventional style. The close-up photo is perfect; your jewelry and the whole outfit are beautifully showcased, as is your beauty, of course. What wonderful daffodils! The yellow color looks gorgeous in the floral arrangement.
    If I ever travel to the Netherlands, I would love for us to take a picture together, like the one with the sporty man.

    1. I LOVE your comment except the fact you say I am becoming more boho. Boho (Bohemian) to me is sort of a hippie style, Ibiza style and that is not me. But perhaps you mean ‘carefree’.
      If you ever travel to my country, rest assured I will show you everything and we would take many photos. Google translate will help us understand each other haha.
      PS, when you say ‘my beauty’ I still start giggling as I regard myself as average, certainly not as beautiful. And I am not trying to get more compliments.

  11. Your “leaning tulips” photo is fantastically striking! Beautiful!
    I so enjoy your blog…… your humor, styles, & the scenery!

    1. Gosh, those are really nice compliments, thank you. I am always surprised that I can get my humour across. For one, it is in writing and that conveys less than telling and I am writing in a foreign language (for me). Compliments like yours make me proud.

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ABOUT ME

Greetje Kamminga - No Fear of Fashion
 

My name is Greetje, I am Dutch, born in 1954. Married and living with husband Ron, dog Watson and cat Sophie. Pretty bonus daughter is married to a lovely man and they gave us two wonderful granddaughters.

This blog is my hobby. I hope to entertain you and make you smile or laugh with the content I publish. It is for everyone, but probably most appealing to women over 40, like me (oh, all right…I am way over).


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