I love it when online contacts cross over to the ‘real’ world. In this case a blogger friend from Canada came to the Netherlands to have a blogger meetup with three Dutch bloggers. How amazing is that?!
The Fabulous Four Fashionista Bloggers in Haarlem, having fun. From left to right: Greetje, me, Suzanne and Sylvia.
How did this come about?
Well, almost 20 years ago one of my neighbors in Haarlem, Greetje, and I became friends. Then about four years ago I ‘found’ Sylvia on FaceBook and since then we are friends in Singapore. Somewhere within the last five years all three of us started a blog. Sylvia started blogging on 40plusstyle (fashion blog), Greetje on NoFearofFashion (fashion and personal blog) and myself on CurlyTraveller (travel, art and lifestyle blog).
Since Sylvia happens to be in Haarlem regularly, I introduced Greetje to her and they became friends as well. What a friendly lot we are, right?! LOL. By chance we were all in Haarlem the last 6 weeks. That’s quite rare. Over coffee one day an idea arose: let’s invite blogger Suzanne from SuzanneCarilloStylefiles over for a blogger meetup in Haarlem. (There is a longer story to this invitation, but I will not bore you with that). She happily accepted; woohoo!
During this week long blogger meetup, we spent time with Suzanne in different settings and combinations. Greetje and Suzanne explored Amsterdam, there were dinners at home with three or four of us, I showed Suzanne the dutch beaches and so on and so forth. The different combinations and occasions each had their own dynamics, atmospheres and conversations. Interesting!
It was a great week with glorious weather. Especially given the fact that right after that week it started raining and has not stopped since. We are even having the wettest summer ever in the Netherlands!
Amongst the four of us we took a zillion pictures and wore pretty outfits for our blogs and #OOTD shoots.
The three other bloggers already have one or more blogposts up about that special week. It is so much fun to see how each one of us blogs about it in a different way and/or from another angle, theme and context.
You can read their posts here:
I have some articles about our blogger meetup scheduled as well and today is the first one. The pictures below were taken during one crazy saturday morning. Imagine four fashionista’s, a hugely exaggerated wardrobe (mine;-)), tons of wigs and accessories and four camera’s. Then imagine those four women diving into that wardrobe, dressing themselves and each other and taking pics. Fun, chaos and afterwards two rooms that looked like a bomb exploded, with clothes piled up a meter high on the floor. No worries, it’s all back in order now; LOL.
Join in the fun and have a look at some of the pictures we took during our dress-up party:
Here we see Greetje wearing my clothes, while I am wearing a dress from Suzanne. How do we look?
Greetje and Suzanne in tutu dress-up. A mustache, glitter wig and a neon boa, the sky was the limit! Fun!
“We has mustaches.”;-)
Suzanne doing a vampy bedpose wearing a cherry red wig. I went from blond to a redhead for the occasion. Which do you prefer on me?
Some time ago, Sylvia and I did an experiment on her blog. She dressed me up in her clothes and we each gave our feedback on the experience. You can read that blogpost here. The idea was to do the reverse one day, so we decided to dress-up Sylvia in my clothes during that same saturday morning.
Syvia and me, wearing the same dress.
Sylvia wearing my clothes, four different looks. Do you like these clothes on her?
You can read how she looks back at wearing my clothes here and here. Remarkable how I loved these looks on her, while she finds they make her look older. Tastes really differ, don’t they? Thanks for being such a sport, Sylvia!
The finale of our crazy dress-up morning took place in my garden. First we set up the camera to take some group selfies.
Greetje and Suzanne setting up the camera on a Tripod.
You can see the group selfies at the beginning of this post. Can you see how much fun we had? And how cramped that couch was for the four of us? And how good we look with a mustache? Hahaha…
Sylvia got inspired by the twirling of her dress combined with the neon pink wig, and decided to do some ‘Marilyn Monroe’ dancing. See?
Sylvia making her dress twirl and go round and up like Marilyn Monroe.
You can expect more posts about our blogger meetup, starting with a post about the glorious day at the Dutch coast that I had with Suzanne. It will be up mid next week, so stay tuned for more!
(Note: Pictures with me in it are taken by Suzanne.)
Lovely article Anja. You look lovely in that dress from Suzanne. Did not even realise it was her’s. Just to clarify, I don’t think I look older in most outfits, just the one in the brown skirt. This was one brilliant day with the morning this fun dressup and in the afternoon the gorgeous tour of Amsterdam. Fond memories…..
Thanks for clarifying that, Sylvia, that you referred to one specific outfit only.
Yes, I loved that dress from Suzanne. It felt totally me!
I’m so grateful that you invited me over : ) What a BLAST we had!
I’m very happy you and I had the idea to do this and carried through with it.
It is ironic since I think Sylvia looks younger the way we styled her. It is all so subjective.
bisous
Suzanne
I know, Suzanne, that’s the surprising thing. I feel the same way, but it clearly shows how we perceive things differently and how styles and tastes can be different, even opposites! Educational, right?
Even though most of your girls’ clothes were a size too small for me, the photos turned out very good. It was a terrific week. Because of this experiment and the discussions afterwards, I understand even more clearly now, that if your inner self is not reflected in the way you dress, you do not feel happy. Which is why we look at this so differently.
Greetje
Very true, Greetje!
It looks like you ladies know how to have a good time!
We sure do, Nena!;-)