The jeans jacket is a recent purchase which I bought with Marjolein in Haarlem a couple of weeks ago. It has black plastic flowers on it which attracted me like a bear to honey. My mum used to say, “If there isn’t something extravagant going on with the garment, she won’t buy it”. That is not entirely true but I do get attracted to the unusual, the things that stand out. Which provides me with many attention seeking clothes that won’t go together because they compete with one another. The problem is that I cannot imagine how something “normal” will look on me when it hangs on a rack. I have to see it on someone or it has to have something extra.

Marjolein and I had arranged to go to a second-hand pop-up sale. If you keep the above in mind, you’ll know that I didn’t find anything. I looked and my mind went blank.

Below: Loved this Maje dress though. Timeless and wonderful. But black (not again) and sleeveless. So I didn’t even ask the size or the price. That is another thing of second-hand stuff. If you do find something you like, it often isn’t your size.

Below: Two more photos to give you an impression of the venue. It was too crowded.

Before we started to “do the rounds”, I asked Marjolein to take the blog photos. It was sunny and bright and you never know how long that will last.

Below: The sitting down pose. When I did my colour analysis, it was clear that the washed out denim colour near my face didn’t do me any favours (slightly depending on which shade). This is easily solved by my bright yellow earrings with silver button. For the coherence in my outfit, I am wearing my EIJK silver ankle boots and by advice of my dear husband, my yellow bracelets. Last week, I used the same ‘trick’ with my blue cardigan.

Below: Close-up.

Below: The jeans seem to be straight legged in the first photo but as you can see, they are really wide legged. I want to wait to shorten the hem until I have worn them a couple of times and washed them. Experience taught me that they will ‘ride up with wear‘, a famous phrase from an old British TV series ‘Are you being served?‘
Further down you will read that I shouldn’t take them up at all, but let them stay as they are.

Below: Marjolein was dressed more colourful than me with her orange coat, receiving many compliments for it. She also got a new off-white bag. Ready for spring and summer.

Below: I, on the contrary, was wearing the brown leather jacket which you saw last week. I adore this jacket and also got many compliments. Women were asking me whether it was by Bottega Veneta. No, it is not, but I looked the jacket up on their website and it is quite similar. The price, however, is not haha. The one of Bottega Veneta is € 9,200 which is way, way, way above my budget.

Below: Marjolein ‘hacked’ (as it is called) her oversized shirt by putting a pin at the side and pulling one half of the shirt through it. She gave me two of these pins as a present. Sweet.

Below: Close-up of the pin hack. Because the shirt bit that she pulled through the pin, would never stay put, she secured it on the inside with a safety pin.

Below: I knew there were stairs at the side of the building which usually makes for a nice photo. Holding my jacket over my shoulder, pulled the side of my jeans jacket and made it look uneven.

Below: Then Marjolein said “Why don’t you pretend to come down the stairs?”
I am not good with stairs and my left knee still has arthrosis, so that is a hazardous request for me, especially when I cannot hold a banister. Can you tell haha?
These following two photos were too good not to show you.

Below: As for buildings, I haven’t got many this time and the two which I do have are very different from the old buildings which I usually show.

As we didn’t spend much time at the second-hand sale, we decided to continue at the TK Max store. Yes, we have one in The Hague. It used to be good, but prices have gone up and what they sell, isn’t that spectacular anymore. A shame.

Below: Marjolein tried on this coat (it was darker in reality) but decided against it. She also left two gorgeous winter coats in the shop. Not enough space for it.

Below: I bought this short trench coat by Michael (Michael Kors). Handy little thing. I am thinking of livening it up a bit with brooches or such. It is rather boring khaki. Or change the buttons?
My face in this photo clearly demonstrates why I always smile in my blog photos. No further explanation necessary.

What happened in my life this week

The weekend was supposed to be filled with entertainment in the sunshine, but a nasty throat ache plus a cold threw a spanner in the works. No photo shoot with Marjolein on the Saturday and no photo course on the Sunday morning. Instead, careful walks with Watson who had injured his paw with a split toenail.

Monday we took Watson to the vet and he had to stay to have the whole toenail removed under anaesthetics. We picked him up 3 hours later. He was in pain, not allowed to walk far or in mud or in the sea and he didn’t want to either. We hid the painkillers and the antibiotic pills in tasty sausage chunks and that worked fine.
The first day he was piteous, looking at me with his big brown eyes, breaking my heart. The next day he was getting perky again and walked on four legs for most of the time. Then on Wednesday the wound started bleeding again which resulted into panic with me. I sent photos to the vet and got word back that it wasn’t serious, not to worry, which I do so much anyway. Animals in pain really get to me. We will wait and see how this develops.

On the brighter side, Monday was Marianne’s birthday.

Below: Here is the birthday girl, all rosy.

Below: Marijke was also at Marianne’s birthday. Happy child.

Below: I was wearing last week’s outfit the way I think is best. With the lime yellow shirt, but with silver boots and my Dries van Noten bag. I was wearing a silver bracelet and blue earrings. I am on the hunt for lime yellow bracelets. Oh, and I am supposed to wear these trousers really long. I like it a lot, but at the back I put the hem up with a safety pin as I don’t want to damage the fabric by dragging the jeans across the floor.

Below: A combination from my wardrobe last week but I didn’t like it much. It was sort of all right, but I have better options, like with the green and white striped top.

I saw Sylvia of 40PlusStyle, who came to Haarlem as she was over from Portugal. That Tuesday when we met, the beautiful sunny weather had changed to rain and drizzle again. Double bad luck as I had brought my camera to ask Sylvia for blog photos. We managed them in a 15 minutes’ break from the rain. Ugghh. It was lovely to see her again, but it would have been more fun if we could have sat on a terrace in the sun.

Ron is getting better and better and joins me on my daily dog walks. It will take a couple of weeks, I think, before he can do it on his own again. He has to be able to drive.

And I have gone back to my pelvic floor physiotherapist. In 2023 her exercises helped me a lot. I was down to 1 little drop loss a month. Great result. We decided that one exercise a day would be enough to maintain that result. That was a mistake. Of course, two months later I had that tumor removed from my urethra and had to recover from that which didn’t help. The loss got gradually worse and worse. So, on the 5th of February I went back to the therapist and it is amazing to experience what result I already achieved in a month. Which means I have to keep up the exercises three times a day for the rest of my life. I gladly will. Some people might find this TMI (Too Much Information) but I want to share these things as it might help someone else. Why shouldn’t we talk about it?

Did the tax returns for us both. I am always very quick with that.

Below: Another outfit I wore this week, my oversized orange blazer. I wore it buttoned up this time as the jeans showed tummy and the top was tight. Together that was a bit too much and wearing the blazer buttoned up solved it.

 My little hairpiece isn’t to my liking anymore. I have to fuss with it far too much; it had lost quite a lot of hair. So, I went back to the salon to assess whether it could be fixed or whether I needed a new one. The one that I have is only a year old. Makes this an expensive business.
To be continued.

Below: At the moment time is lacking to do much with photography, but I did see this opportunity. Spring flower in the park. And I think that is Watson at the right, photobombing.

Greetje