Just saying hi

It has been a bit of an odd week. I thought I would have lots of time for sewing last weekend, because we had Monday off. However, I got ill on Saturday evening and spent all of Sunday in bed. By Monday I was sort of back on my feet, so I could at least visit my mother in hospital (she had the first of the new hip replacement operations the Friday before. All went well an she is now in a care home, until the new joint is settled in place well enough that she can get up and down a flight of stairs without risk).

So, no sewing time left. On Tuesday, I finished a jersey dress which should have been quick and fun and which hasn't been photographed yet.

Yesterday, I had the afternoon off but instead of sewing, I went to Amsterdam. I went to pick up some vintage fashion magazines which I had bought on a local auction site. The seller said she'd had bad experience with the postal service, so she didn't want to send them over. (They're Elle collection specials, 5 magazines from the 1950's, 60's and 70's. They're French and fabulous, I'll show them later)

Rather than passing up the purchase for this inconvenience, I decided to go and make a day of it.

First, I picked up the magazines from a very nice, no-nonsense kind of lady who had bought most of these herself, back in the day (she said there were no Dutch glossy fashion magazines back then, so if you wanted anything other than the general interest stuff for housewives, you had to buy French... very interesting) at the edge of the canal area in Amsterdam's city center.

Then, I walked to the handbag museum and spent a while there. The museum of Bags and Purses is located in a splendid building along one of the main canals and houses a dizzying aray of bags from the 16th century till today. It started out as a private collection but is now a serious museum, open to the public every day and with both its permanent and changing exhibits well displayed and explained (also in English). A lot of museums might be quiet on an ordinary Thursday afternoon, but this one wasn't. If a museum dedicated to bags sounds like a girly dream come true, certainly a lot of people thought so. And I don't think they were disappointed. I know I wasn't. In fact, if you are visiting Amsterdam and are into that sort of thing, I heartily recommend it.

After that, I took a little detour on my way back to the train station to stroll along the 'nine streets'. This is a nice little shopping district, tucked away from the big chain stores in nine narrow streets between the canals. It houses a nice mixture of stores: vintage clothes, vintage interior stuff, independant designers, artisan soap makers and bakers, novelty shops and some small outlets of bigger chains. One of Amsterdam's worst kept secrets, but still nice.

I was sort of good and only bought a hat at one of the vintage shops.

I'll be back tomorrow with pictures of that new dress, and I will try and catch up with showing you some of my new-to-me vintage magazines over the coming weeks.