Very Yootha Joyce!

Hello again and thanks for dropping by. Here's an outfit from last week that really made me smile. The pink blouse is a vintage piece that's been featured on the blog many times before which is hardly surprising as it's totally fabulous, even if I say so myself.


It's a couple of years since I found this frothy delight in a charity shop in Exeter, but my love affair with it hasn't waned. One of my readers once commented that it reminds them of the British sitcom "George and Mildred", and after a quick search on Dougal (as my sisters and I have renamed a certain large search engine), I did indeed find Yootha Joyce wearing a version of this.


Vintage glamour at its best!


I chose to wear these culottes for the sprinkling of pink within the blooms and these sock boots to pick up the yellow tones too. I found the (brand new) culottes in a charity shop, donated from the retailer because the zip was broken. The British Red Cross shop in Truro benefits from this system where retailers pass on these flawed items which are then offset against their taxes. Everybody wins!


Oh how I love a bit of patten play! Boots are from Primark, trousers from H&M.


Polly and I somehow managed to forget the shot of me with my blue leather biker jacket, ho hum!


Almost all of my accessories are preloved, apart from the necklace which is made by jeweller Charlie Dodge who creates contemporary pieces from glass beads and semi precious stones. Follow the link through to her website here.


Yup, this is me beating a hasty retreat as a tractor comes hurtling along.


And here's where I spent the latter part of the afternoon today. I work until 4 on Sundays, giving me just enough time to scoot off on my bike to find a quiet spot to chill. This is Appletree Bay and as you can see it's rather idyllic. How lucky am I that within five minutes I can be on a deserted beach like this? It's also the beach of choice for me in the mornings for my swim mainly because regardless of whether it's high or low tide, there's always enough water in this bay that doesn't entail me having to wade too far reach deep water.


Summer toes.


The jet boats on the islands are the same as taking a taxi on the mainland plus the thrill of the speed. And that's about it for today. I'll be back again midweek, so do drop in again!

This week I'll be linking with -
Catherine of Not Dressed As Lamb
Jacqui of Mummabstylish
Anna x

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Done and dusted!

Hello and happy Thursday to you all! Yes, I'm delighted to say that the big wardrobe changeover is done and dusted. But before I show you the results, I'll share an outfit that's not made an appearance previously.


I fancied a change from all the dazzling colours I've been touting lately, opting for a monochrome palette today instead. Plain ol' black and white wasn't quite exciting enough for me though so I chose checks and stripes to enliven the look. I've had this (boohoo) jumpsuit for almost a year now without it seeing the light of day. I found it in a charity shop last summer, but struggled to wear it as it was strapless. When I came across it at the back of my wardrobe earlier this month I decided to see if I could make it wearable. At the bottom of my sewing box I found some discarded straps and a few stitches later all was sorted.


The striped top is actually a body; perfect for wearing under a jumpsuit as it saves all that annoying tucking in. This one came from TK Maxx in Harrogate: the label says Mira & Co and is made in Italy. I somehow think it's going to be a very useful piece.


You'll have seen these courts before, they're from New Look.


I'm hoping that by next month the storm boards behind me will be removed allowing Polly and I an uninterrupted view across the bay to Bryher as well as giving us easy access to the beach. High tides and big sea swells have brought lots of seaweed up and over the boards, even this month, but rumour has it that summer is on the way ...


Black and white needn't be boring; the silver and black accessories help to make this interesting. I found the two spiky metal rings in the Harrogate spree, the necklace is preloved too, but was from Truro and the studded belt was a gift from my friend in Portugal. I do have a large range of jewellery and belts as I think having just the right piece can make all the difference to an outfit. When you consider that some of my rings cost as little as 50p and necklaces only £1.50, this is where charity shopping really comes into its own.


The black and silver rings are like the Ying and Yang of anemone rings.


My postscript to this outfit has to be that half way through the morning, on going to the loo, I discovered a small split in the seam of the jumpsuit - in a most revealing spot! It answered my question as to why something so lovely had ended up in a charity shop. I can only imagine that the owner couldn't or didn't sew!


And here's one section of my wardrobe all sorted, ready for some warmer weather. I've kept my sock boots out for the next little while and once it really warms up properly I'll replace those with sandals. In the middle section of my wardrobe are all my maxi skirts, maxi dresses and jumpsuits along with shelves holding handbags, scarves and more shoes. This isn't fit for viewing currently as I am in the process of culling the contents.


Talking of culling, these are the latest pieces to be evicted from my wardrobe. I'll be putting them onto eBay over the next month or so. I've put a box into storage that's all winter clothes and I'll sell those when they're back in season. Please feel free to message me if something catches your eye ...


This section of my wardrobe houses denim jackets, leather and suede jackets and all of my summer jackets. Below are shirts and tee shirts and below those are bodies, white jeans, coloured trousers and culottes, shorts and palazzo pants. Alongside the wardrobe is a cupboard that holds all my jumpers, cardigans, waistcoats, coloured jeans and blue jeans. Along the entire top run of the wardrobe are boxes of shoes and I have more under the bed. Like any true addict, I'm suitably vague about the precise extent of my addiction, but shoe-wise it's probably almost 100 pairs I'd estimate. I have to hastily add that I view it as a benign addiction as does my husband, thank goodness!


This final reveal is a holdall of clothes that I'm donating to our local fete which takes place next month. I've offered to take on the (most dreaded) jumble stall and will colour co-ordinate these and anything else that is donated. I plan to display them all on hanging rails, shake/steam/iron the creases out of them and hopefully make some money towards the day's fund raising. Wish me luck!

Anna x

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Style not age do rainbow brights

Yes, it's that time again for my monthly style challenge with the ladies of the Style Not Age collective. This month Emma chose rainbow brights as our theme which is surely just what we need after the grey spring days we've had of late.


The starting point for my outfit was these 60's multicoloured tights which surely constitute a rainbow in themselves. My scarlet and hot pink shift dress is a preloved find from M&S. The purple Ted Baker handbag is preloved too and my sunglasses are from River Island. Last, but by no means least are my silver brogues from Office.


And this is Emma with her fabulous rainbow clutch, inspiration indeed for this colourful challenge. The handbag is by a brand I've not heard of - Les Nereides - which she found in a charity shop. Emma has tied in her shoes, trousers and top perfectly to the rainbow hues. Do pop over to her blog Style Splash for more of her story.


Hilda found this dress by Marc Cain in a local boutique and thought it encapsulated this month's challenge in one fell swoop - spot on! The dress needs the minimal of styling as all of these bright colours are doing the hard work. Read Hilda's blog Over the Hilda for more.


Jacqui easily cracked this challenge with her rainbow courts, but then really went to town by adding a multi striped tee along with orange trousers, finishing with a denim jacket. Jacqui, you've made this all look so very simple! See more of Jacqui's story on her blog Mummabstylish.


On closer inspection I seem to have omitted to have included any blue hues in my offering. Dang! I was pretty sure these tights had all the colours of the rainbow in them.


Lilac, yellow, pink, orange, green, but no blue! 


My two tone dress is from M&S, found on a recent charity spree. The fabric is weighty, fully lined and hangs with a heavy swish to it. A shift dress is such a basic essential, but this one ticks the quirky box for me too with the half pleated skirt as well as the eye popping marriage of scarlet and fuchsia. A shift dress that's most certainly not boring, yay!


My bag of the moment, this Ted Baker one, was another charity scoop from my last trip to Truro. Shiny, colourful and bright - it ticks all the necessary boxes! 


My jewellery usually comes from charity shops too as I'm such a bargain seeking magpie, but today the only one of these is the wide orange bangle. I have three girlfriends to thank for the rest; Maggie for the pink rose ring, Wendy for the striped perspex rings and Lucy for pink and silver bangle.


Emma's challenge was right up my street and as you can see we all had great fun injecting lots of colours into our day. I do hope we'll act as inspiration for you too. I most definitely feel better for wearing bright colours; it's such an obvious way to cheer yourself up, and others too! I had lots of lovely compliments when I wore this outfit last week. Let's have fun with colours I say!

Linking with -
Jacqui of Mummabstylish
Catherine of Not Dressed As Lamb

Anna x

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Harrogate - the final instalment



As promised, here's the third outfit that I wore at the trade fair last week. The dress is quite old (by Nine West), polo is from Primark, tights and belt are old, shoes are by Office, my handbag is by Ted Baker, rings are preloved and my watch is by Michael Kors. I thought this van was the ultimate in accessorising! 


House by Hazel is run by Hazel Holland who is the wife of Tom Holland one of my gallery artists. I do like to make an effort to co-ordinate my outfit with Hazel's fabrics at least once over the show period. It's lovely to catch up with them every day during the fair as we have lots to chat about and generally have a bit of fun too. Tom and Hazel are based in Penryn in Cornwall which means I can pop into Tom's gallery on my way to the dentist to see how the paintings for his next show are progressing. This will be featured next month on the blog.


After my three days at the Trade Fair it was time to cash in the gift voucher from my sisters.


Sandra and Dianne had travelled down from Scotland to join me in Yorkshire so that we could have a brief catch up. Their promise was made good with these crisp Scottish bank notes along with a suitably sparkly purse. We had a busy day visiting my regular charity shops as well as discovering five new ones I'd been unaware of. I had a ball; them maybe not so much!


They even supplied me with an extra shopping bag for the occasion!


Do not adjust your sets - this is terribly out of focus! I know that neither of my sisters would wish to be featured on the blog, but I thought this one would be better than my efforts at soft focus. We had great fun together and even though we're all in our 60's now I will always be the baby of the family, meaning that I still benefit from their wisdom. 



And this is the haul! I'm afraid I couldn't find time to take individual shots of these, but have itemised them as - 6 jackets, 2 handbags, 7 pairs of shoes, 1 matching skirt and top, 2 dresses, 2 skirts, 1 pr culottes, 3 blouses, 4 prs jeans, 1 cashmere sweater, 2 shirts, 1 rash vest, 1 cummerbund, 1 hat and lots of lovely jewellery. The majority was charity shopped, but some things were from TK Maxx in both Truro and Harrogate. I featured some of the shoes on instagram - here's the three stars of the show.




I can hear the outcry of "Where will you put all of this?", but worry ye not! This weekend I have three days off work and will be applying myself to the big changeover. During this process I'll be (ruthlessly) culling what hasn't been worn and these will be laundered, ready to be sold on eBay. One of these days, I plan to feature some of these pieces here and link through to my eBay page - you may wish to buy the odd piece or two ...

Anyway folks, it's been lovely to chat. I hope you've enjoyed seeing the last instalment of my mainland adventure. The last word has to be to Sandra and Dianne - a big thank you for my fabulous day out spending all that lovely lolly!

Anna x

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Home again!




Hello and happy Sunday to you! Thank you for joining me as I return from my stint on the mainland. The purpose of my trip was to visit the British Craft Trade Fair in Harrogate where I do the main gift buying for the gallery. It was as fruitful an event as ever which is always a relief after the two days of travelling it takes to get there. I spend a whole day on the train travelling from Cornwall to Yorkshire during which time I have waves of excitement at the prospect of finding some fab new gifts and then I also worry that the Fair may yield nothing to suit my audience. My journey of nine hours is punctuated by thoughts on the two extremes.




This was the outfit I wore on day two of the Fair. If you missed the first outfit then click here to find that one. By the second day I'd made a few new acquaintances as well as meeting up with some regular suppliers and most of them declared this as their outfit of the day - very kind of you all! The kimono was a charity shop find (no surprises there) and was only £3, which frankly is quite ridiculous for an authentic Chinese piece of this quality. 




You'll no doubt recognise the obligatory sock boots (H&M) along with the embroidered velour track pants (Zara). Today I've added my beloved leather handbag from many years ago - it was one of my first vintage finds in a charity shop in Ireland when I was there on holiday with my sisters. My sisters joined me this time in Harrogate too, so that I had company in the evenings to go out for dinner.




I've adapted the outfit to the mild temperature by adding a silk shirt underneath (preloved, Next brand). When I was in Harrogate the weather was quite cold, very cold in fact, so much so that I wore a polo neck sweater with this, plus a long sleeved thermal top underneath. We also had torrential rain one day, followed by fog and a bitterly cold breeze, so we really did get value for our money weather-wise!




The eagle-eyed amongst you may have noticed my new sunglasses from my favoured brand Quay. I bought three new pairs of Quay Australia sunglasses from TK Maxx in Harrogate. On the face of it, this may seem extravagant, but when you take into account that these were all reduced in the sale meaning I got three for the price of one, then that's perfectly sensible or at least reasonable, isn't it? The gold chain was a gift, and the rings are preloved.







It's always nice to have a trip away, to have a change of scenery and Harrogate certainly does have lots of lovely scenery as well as things to enjoy. The tearooms at Bettys are a highlight of anyone's stay, whether it's for the tradition of afternoon tea or to buy some sweet treats to take home. My bags were bursting with goodies for the family on my return.





My next post will feature my third outfit of the Fair plus the further joys of Harrogate by way of its charity shopping. You'll not be surprised to hear that I couldn't fit all of my lovely loot into my suitcase and therefore had to send two boxes home by post. Hopefully within the next couple of days these will arrive and I can take some snaps for the blog. I have some vintage delights to share with you as well as some more bargains from TK Maxx. 

I hope you have a super weekend and look forward to catching up with you again soon!


Linking with -
Jacqui of Mummabstylish 
Catherine of Not Dressed As Lamb
Anna x

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