Suzanne Carillo

I was lucky enough to be invited over to the Netherlands by Anja.

You can see some previous posts about the trip here here and here.

During my stay I got to spend one-on-one time with Anja, Greetje and Sylvia. It really was like having 3 holidays wrapped up in one since I was able to see The Netherlands through each of their eyes and also experience each of their unique personalities and sense of style.

Truth be told I went to the Netherlands not only to discover the country, but also to get to know each of these ladies on a personal level.

Now I'm gonna spill the beans about each of them…

one

time.

All the dirt.

Are you ready?

I'm starting with Anja…

Anja could be described as the "softie" of the bunch. She is what Malcom Gladwell would call a "connector". She is the glue that brought everyone together and introduced us to each other.

She really knows her art and was my own private art historian when we went to art galleries.

Isn't it cool how this painting matches her outfit?

She also knows her architecture and made sure I didn't miss out on any of the unique details and history of the different styles of architecture in Haarlem and Amsterdam.

She is a sensitive artistic soul with a wicked sense of humour. Check out the barbie mobile she has above her bed!

That just cracked me up.

Out of all the ladies Anja and I have the most similar style and taste. We both love colour and we both love a little bit of the unexpected (quirkiness) in our outfits. There were a whole lot of pieces I would have gladly taken home from her two massive closets (like this little dress below)…not to mention those great blue boots above!

She has the softest most gorgeous even-better-than-Kim Basinger hair (always the highest hair standard for me) that has been described by an admirer from Buenos Aires as, "A waterfall of a thousand singing yellow canaries."

I must concur.

BUT…she also looks brilliant as a redhead! : )

Sisters from another Mister.

I wish I had taken a photo of her whole outfit when she picked me up at the airport…I swear all but the boots came out of my closet…she has on a leopard dress and an olive green army jacket and looked amazing!

She is a great experienced listener and offers intelligent heartfelt advice.

She doesn't eat more than her half of our shared apple tart.

Bonus points for that!

She is a professional tango instructor and DJ…

Oh…and she lives part of the year in Singapore, which is mostly what her blog the Curly Traveller is about.

It is strange just how much Anja reminds me of myself.

She makes her own jewelry to sell and has a craft room devoted to jewelry making.

I literally think she could outfit the city of Los Angeles with the amount of jewelry she has. No joke.

She has a huge collection of clothes and shoes for all the dancing she does. (We played dress up from her closet one day…more photos to come.)

You might recognize this dress…it’s mine.

But by far the most interesting thing about Anja is her house, her collections and her art. Like me she is an illustrator and painter, but her art goes well beyond paper and canvas and is carried over into the decor of her house, a reflection of Anja's mind and spirit, which is one wild ride my friends.

Although Sylvia and Greetje had "warned" me about her house I was truly overwhelmed with just how amazing and cool it really was.

I made an Oscar worthy short film so you could get a sense of just how unique and detailed her house is.

Every corner of her house in Haarlem holds new discoveries. Even in the bathroom, while seated on the "throne", there were small fish art pieces, in the shower, the tiles had intricate animated naughty designs on them, in my bedroom there was an ongoing party of blond barbies having the time of their lives. Each morning when I woke up I wondered what craziness they'd been up to overnight and why the heck I hadn't been invited. (Highschool all over again!)

Everywhere I looked there was a magical feast for my eyes and an endless delight for my imagination.

I'll let Anja tell you herself a bit about her house and collections…

I've never met anyone that lives in an ever-evolving art installation…but now I have.

Do you have any friends or know of anyone that has massive collections/personal galleries in their house?

Wouldn't you just love to meet Anja and see her house?

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I think that must be true.

If I go by what is in my closet it is abundantly true.

I wasn’t able to turn my back on this little fit and flare dress from Dorothy Perkins. It was the swan song (literally as the pattern is white swans) for the Dorothy Perkins line.

I bought it at a super sale close-out at the Bay, the only store that I know of that carried this line of retro inspired clothing in Canada.

I must admit, I am sad and surprised to see it go. It was the only reason I ever ventured out to the mall anymore.

Granted, since I rarely buy my clothing retail (excepting Anthropologie…of course! we all have our vices people) I don’t own lots of that line, but the few pieces I did splurge on really stood out from other retail clothing lines.

I wore this out to the Chris Isaak concert the other night. It fit right in with his Rockabilly music and would have matched his sequined blue suit perfectly.

image source

Chris why oh why didn’t you see me in the third balcony waving frantically? I would have been perfect on stage next to you! I’m even wearing a sparkly belt!!! We could have sparkled like the stars together Chris!

{le sigh}

This dress is great but is clearly missing the extra magic needed to lure Chris to my seat.

Damn you fit and flare! You may be comfortable and flattering but you suck at ensuring I become Helena Christensen‘s body double tumbling around in the waves and sand with Chris á la From Here To Eternity.

Do me a favour, before you look at the photo below; slam a mickey of vodka, squint really hard, shut one eye, dip a finger in some fresh lemon juice, then rub the same finger with some fresh cut jalapenos and poke your open eye with said prepped finger, then stare for a really, really, really long time, until tears are streaming out of your bulging screaming Cyclopes eye and then… very quickly glance sideways at the photo below.

You can clearly see it is Helena Christensen me & Chris.

Uh huh.