Easter weekend

Hurrah for Easter weekend!

Not only is it the weekend, but it's Easter weekend, time for guilt-free chocolate indulgence. Yay! 

Daffodils and Easter chicks have been the colour inspiration for today's chilled weekend look. The lime green faux suede jacket was a Primark purchase a couple of years ago and yet is still looking fresh and rather funky too. 

I teamed the jacket up with this neon bright clutch, a second hand purchase also from years ago. I love the textured bubble effect. The floral blouse with lovely yellow daffodils was from M&S.

The wide legged Diesel jeans were recently featured (see here) and I'm afraid you may be seeing a lot of them over the next little while. They're such an easy to wear style - it's a great weekend look, don't you think?

I've had these grey platform trainers for two years and would you believe it - this is the first time I've worn them? It's shocking how deep this stream of new finds runs eh? I bought them online in the Zara sale one January and somehow never got around to wearing them. I'm pleased to say that they're really comfy!

I've taken blue as my accent colour for accessories; the rings are both pre-loved and the belt is also second hand, gifted to me.

These pretty floral edged sunglasses are by Tu at Sainsbury's. A sale purchase from ages ago - no surprise there then! They're a bit Dame Edna Everage don't you think? Hilarious!

I'm so enjoying having the structure of work again now, most of all because it's helping me to redefine weekend wear from working outfits. I've been trying out new combinations at work to check how much stretch and bend room they have; I've been busy hanging art this week - you can see that on our Gallery Tresco Instagram page here. It's only a week until we have guests on the island when I'll open the gallery on an appointment-only basis.

I'm going to apologise in advance to say that the blog may be a few days out of kilter now as my camera broke the other day and I'm still waiting for a new one. There was a terminal tripod accident when a gust of wind blew the whole lot over, smashing the lens. It happened in a flash without me having any time to catch it. I ought to have had a weight attached to steady it, especially as I've had a close call once before, but I thought I was tucked in out of the wind. I wish I'd been squirreling photos away for this eventuality, but alas I haven't! The postman only comes to the island three days a week and sadly it didn't arrive today, so there'll be no feature on Monday. Fingers crossed, I'll be back on Tuesday!

In the meantime, enjoy your Easter eggs !

Anna x

Frills and florals

Hello again!

I don't know about you, but it seems to me that August is just rushing past me at a rate of knots. In less than two weeks it'll be September and as so often happens I know I'll feel that summer has flown by without me catching hold of it properly. In that way, life feels just like normal - I know I'm always saying this kind of thing pretty much about now - but in others we're still all floundering about, trying to come to terms with the new normal. At work, I'm coping with the new way of running the Gallery single-handed, although some of my clients don't agree with the rules and restrictions in place. I think this comes from the desire to believe that coming away on holiday equals getting away from COVID too. Unfortunately it doesn't really work like that.

Steve and I wandered off the beaten track on Sunday to take some shots for the blog, ending up here on the walkway leading to the bird hide. There wasn't a bird in sight, apart from me of course!

The outfit of the day comprises of a second-hand linen top from M&S which hasn't been aired previously. It's a lovely tomato red delivering a punch of colour to what was a slightly overcast day. I paired it with these huge swooshy culottes that are a few of years old. I bought them from New Look in the summer sale for £5 and then paid for them to be lined professionally. I bring them out every summer and they always get lots of compliments.

The white leather belt was a charity shop find, as were the silver bangles and silver ring.

The necklace and this ring were also thrift finds. The sunglasses are by Quay Australia.

The wedge sandals are very, very old and were from River Island. They're quite high but the slanted sole at the front means you roll along nicely.

I'll leave you with some shots from our boat trip from Saturday when we went off for a picnic and ended up on Northwethel island. We saw a couple of large bull seals on the way, their massive heads causing ripples as they coasted along. It was lovely to be out on the water on such a perfect day. See you again soon!

Anna x

My new Marks and Spencer blouse

Good morning my dear readers and how are you on this fine sunny day? If you live in the UK you'll be getting used to this weather being more of a constant than the fleeting promise that summer used to be, and oh how grand it is to be able to rely on the sun showing its face day after beautiful day! The Isles of Scilly are looking mighty fine at the moment and are teaming with happy holiday makers who can't believe their luck.

I want to share this fabulous floral blouse which is NOT preloved and that I bought a couple of weeks ago from M&S for £19.50. I've just done a search to find that it's on sale now at £12, but sizes are going fast! Get yours here. Anyway folks, it's a lovely shirt, cool and easy to wear and has been an asset over the past week when I seem to have worn it at least three times when travelling and generally out and about. 

The fabric is modal which I had to look up as I wasn't sure what that means - 

Modal is a type of rayon fabric that is made from the fibres of the beech tree. Oftentimes modal fabric is blended with cotton, spandex, and other fibres because it is very soft, resists creases, has a very smooth finish, and drapes well.

The fabric does indeed drape well and the fit was loose and cool for this current spell. I chose a size 10 which fits as expected; one point that I must mention is the magic button - that perfect placement of the button at bust level which stops the blouse gaping and revealing the bra. I've washed and worn it a couple of times and the colour is holding fast too.The compliments came thick and fast when I wore this outfit. The jeans (charity shopped) are by Fat Face and this is the first time I've worn them, also they have a bit of stretch making them perfect for everyday wear. 

These cute little slingbacks were from Topshop a few summers ago and are still going strong. The colour is a great match for these cotton jeans and they are super comfy leather too which has moulded to the shape of my (broad) feet. 

This sunny outfit was completed by the addition of my Candy Bag by Furla. A search for this has taken me to a rather fabulous pink version of this bag which has me in a quandary as it's on sale too! The best thing (for me) about this spacious bag is the fact that the semi opaque finish means that it's flooded with light when you peek inside meaning no more scrabbling about in the dark trying to find wallet and sunglasses in a hurry. I took it with me on my recent trip to the mainland and it was like a miniature filing cabinet just by the very nature of its shape - everything sat static inside allowing me to have a place for everything and everything in its place. I like to feel organised when I'm off the island and this bag really helped me with my control freak tendencies.

And here I am, on my travels last week. I hooked up with this gorgeous group of ladies (now friends) on a wonderfully exciting project, a modelling job in fact. I'm contracted to say nothing more until it goes live in the autumn, but suffice to say it was great fun, a fabulous opportunity and something which was a huge learning curve for me. I'll have lots more to tell you in due course and hopefully my photos won't end up on the cutting room floor!

In the meantime I'll leave you with a couple of shots of the islands as they shimmer in the summer heat. 

My dear friend Kate was here recently giving us a couple of days overlap before I scooted off to the mainland. We had two early morning swims down on Appletree Bay and put the world to rights at the same time - such are the joys of friendship!

Wishing you a lovely weekend!

Anna x