Say Yes to the Dress, our SNA challenge for April

And here we are again, at the end of another month and ready for our Style Not Age Challenge! Say Yes to the Dress was chosen by Emma as this month's theme so without further ado let's see her style offering...

The pale lemon dress is by & Other Stories, shoes are by Coast and Emma's handbag was purchased while on holiday in Abu Dhabi. Emma's cat, George managed to photo-bomb all of her snaps - see more on her blog Style Splash. 

Hilda wore this beautiful red dress to a skincare event held by Image in Ireland last week. Her stylish blazer is by Cos - catch up with her full story on Over The Hilda blog. 

To use a well worn phrase, sorry Jacaqui, but doesn't she look pretty in pink! This dreamy dress is by Ambrose Wilson and would be perfect for any glamorous occasion - see her backstory on Mummabstylish.

I wore this frilly flamenco style dress last week to an island gathering and my dear friend Fiona took these photos before we arrived. The dress has been in my wardrobe for a while, just waiting for the right occasion and this was it. 

The orange satin dress looks like the perfect party dress but wasn't without the usual Anna's Island Style drama. I had tried it on briefly when I first bought it a couple of months ago, but on Saturday I had been cramming in quite a lot of things and had just come back from a sea swim half an hour before the party was due to start. I had a quick shower, dried my hair and popped on the dress, only to find that the cleavage was ridiculously revealing. I'm not a cleavage kinda girl, so that sent me into a spin. Being satin the fabric was too delicate to accommodate a safety pin to hold things together so I rummaged through my underwear collection to try to find a solution and came up with this white bodysuit. It solved one problem but introduced another, that being the huge swathe of lace across my derriere that was now showing diagonally across my bum cheeks through the delicate fabric. Honestly! I added an underskirt to try to smooth things out, but it by no means solved the problem. By this time I was late meeting up with Fiona and also needed to find a lightweight coat to cover up my secondary wardrobe malfunction - first world problems I know, but honestly!

The dress has lots of lovely details, including the deep cuffs and tiny buttons on the sleeeves. I'm wearing my most beautiful Emily Nixon ring along with a ring from a friend.

My bejewelled sandals were another wonderful Vinted find recently and are surely going to be perfect for the months ahead. Pink and orange feature heavily in my summer wardrobe meaning you might see rather a lot of them in due course!

My gold coloured leaf necklace is a vintage piece I found in a shop in Penzance last time I was there. My sunglasses are old, by Radley London.

Despite all the drama, I do love this frilly satin frock and hope to find a style soloution for the next time I wear it. The event on Saturday was my ex-assistant Emily's island hen-do, located in one of the holiday cottages. I'm afraid I didn't get many photos but here's one of the welcome she got as she arrived to find us all wearing masks of her husband-to-be, Bruno.

And here's her reaction...

 

With legs that go on for miles, Emily is looking as beautiful as ever - she was a catwalk model at one stage in her life which probably is of no surprise. The party went on until late although the bride-to-be was in bed before midnight. Emily and Bruno are to be married on the mainland on the 9th of May.

                                                                        Anna x

Frilly jumpsuit

Hello again and thanks for dropping by! Apologies for my week off - it wasn't planned, simply a case of being overrun at both work and home so something had to give. Sometimes I just expect too much of myself which results in burn-out, last week being a prime example of this.

Do you like my new frilly jumpsuit? I wore it for the first time for one of our evening drinks parties recently and my assistant Rachel kindly did the honours with the photos. The jumpsuit was yet another lucky find on Vinted. No labels, no brand, but it's a gem of a piece and a joy to wear. I've added a green stretch belt and the yellow link necklace, both from Vinted too. My sunglasses are from Quay Australia. Rings are not new; the fluted one was a gift from a friend and the other is my Emily Nixon ring.

My sandals were from TK Maxx last summer. I bought them in two different colourways and golly, how comforable they are!

The jumpsuit has a 70's feel and makes me think I ought to be drifting about in a corn field with a chocolate ripple in my hand. Am I the only one who remembers that advert?

Rachel did a great job with the photos, but she did spend most of her time trying to make me laugh, which I suppose is no bad thing. Thanks Rachel, I'll let you help out again!

                                                                            Anna x

Zingy spring outfit

Hi there! How's tricks? I do hope you're enjoying this fabulous springtime weather. It's been glorious here with only a brisk easterly wind keeping us all in check and wearing our jackets when out and about. My pretty spring jacket is by Heyton, bought from TK Maxx a few years ago.

Despite being one of my favourite jackets I don't seem to have many things to wear it with so it was a joy to bring it together with my lime jumpsuit by & Other Stories (from Vinted). Fiona has become my Friday photographer again which is another joy in my life. It's lovely to have a bit of friendly banter to loosen me up for these photoshoots.

I have no idea what this gesture was in response to, but I was clearly having some Friday fun!

I decided on blue and turquoise as my accent colours against the lime green by adding two turquoise beaded necklaces and my recently purchased blue and coral beaded belt (yes, from Vinted of course). 

My white leather cowboy boots finish the outfit off with a sharp edge. Despite looking narrow they are actually all-day-wearable, thank goodness, as I do love them.

I'd like to finish off by giving a big shout out to all the ladies who drop in to see me at the Gallery throughout the year to pass on their positive comments on my outfits. Rosemary, it was so good to see you last week and to have your very kind feedback and valuable input - thank you! It's heartening to have these lovely ladies appear from time to time just to say how much they like popping in to see what the outfit of the day is. It's a real bonus for me, especially as I dress for myself, not for the approval of others therefore that makes it even more appreciated.

Have a great week everyone!

Anna x

Wear Your Greens our SNA challenge for March

Hello again, and welcome to this month's Style Not Age challenge! Every month we take it in turns to choose a theme for us to portray in our very own way. It's fun to see how differently we approach our subject reflecting our own personalities. This month Jacqui came up with Wear Your Greens so let's start with her, shall we?

Jacqui's outfit in fresh green and white is from Primark with shoes from New Look. As ever, Jacqui exudes a healthy glow, her smile the finishing touch in this spring green feature. Read her back story on Mummabstylish blog.

Emma's suit (from Monki) is a fabulous mix of green and fuchsia, the contrasting colours popping against each other.  The pussycat bow blouse is from The Hippie Shake and handbag is Fenella Smith. See more from her on the Style Splash blog.

Hilda has shopped her wardrobe for this month's challenge. You see her here in her favourite role as Grandma to baby Nova - the best accessory ever comes from Hilda! Catch up on all her latest news on Over The Hilda blog.

I bought this rather fabulous trouser suit from Vinted. It's by Joanie Clothing and can still be found on their website here. The print is called Art Nouveau in this glorious green and coral colourway. I bought it as new, still with tags attached for the price of £75 and it currently retails at £160. The Joanie website is a wealth of vintage style clothing and is well worth a browse.

My coral chiffon and ruffled top was also a Vinted find, but from last year. The pairing is a great match colourwise and earned me a few compliments on the day. Fiona and I took ourselves off to the beach just 100 metres from work to capture this flamboyant look. She said the print was very William Morris and I have to agree with her.

My cute little circular handbag is by Dune. I bought it from TK Maxx a couple of years ago and it's been a useful addition to my bag collection - when you need a yellow bag, well no other colour will do!

It's a year now since I bought these floral Dr Marten boots (from Vinted). I've worn them such a lot but they still look pretty clean and smart, don't you think?

Dressing up for work is the best perk of my job. I do so love playing to the gallery ('scuse the pun) day after day. Wearing my greens will forever come to mind about this suit as it was the first time I've worn it, but most definitely won't be my last.

My thanks to Fiona for risking getting her feet wet on the rising tide. It was the 5 o'clock rush hour and we were in the midst of buses meeting the Firethorn and guests returning from a day out - the rush added a buzz to our shoot.

Many thanks to you for joining us once again. Did we inspire you to Wear Your Greens? I certainly enjoyed this one - hope you did too!

                                                                           Anna x