Scarlet and cerise - my joyful colour therapy!

Happy Monday dear readers! How are you? Did you have a good weekend? Mine was a busy one, but a happy mixture of work and play. I had a good long swim with Fiona on Saturday when the weather was fine and then on Sunday she stepped in as blog photographer to do a mega shoot for various forthcoming features. Add to this some long-overdue housework, cooking for the freezer, catching up with laundry and a family meal on Sunday and I was flushed with success by the end of it.

This was Friday's work outfit, a joyful pick-me-up in scarlet and cerise. I'd had a blah day on Thursday which I blamed on a very dull outfit that set me of in the wrong frame of mind. It's not something you've seen and maybe won't see either! A navy flower sprigged dress is being charged guilty of dreary, drab and dullness on all three counts. I had tried my best to pep it up with red cowboy boots, red belt and red accessories which sounds great, but didn't really have the desired effect. 

Friday saw me utilise red in a much more successful manner when paired with a dazzling pink trench and handbag. The two tone dress (pre-loved) is by M&S and delivers colour therapy with a punch every time I wear it. During the winter months I pop a coloured long sleeved thermal top under it, add some tights and hey presto, it earns its place in both my seasonal wardrobes!

If I was channeling the 80's on my last post, then maybe this could be a throwback to the 60's? (Although the sock boots would probably have been knee high ones.) As you can gather, I'm not one to pay any attention to trends from this era or that - I'll throw pieces together regardless of what decade they hail from.

I'm rotating three very different bags for work at the moment and this cute little Candy bag by Furla always gets compliments. My pink rings are both charity shop pieces.

My red sock boots from H&M are still going strong. What will I do when they fall apart? Maybe I ought not to think about that until the time comes...

My white and black Quay Australia sunglasses tie in with the gingham checks of my Topshop trench. The rose gold heart pendant was a retail purchase in a little boutique in Truro a couple of years ago. 

They say laughter is the best medicine and I must admit it works for me. Well that, and some colour therapy. Keep on smiling everyone, and have a great week!

                                                                        Anna x

VE Day and Dress Up Friday

Happy VE day to you all!

Hello and welcome to this Dress Up Friday feature which gives the slightest of nods to VE Day. My washing line is currently sporting everything of mine that is red, white and blue leaving me with only this tiny purse by Lulu Guiness to tie in with the celebrations. Street parties acorss the country have been cancelled (like ours) or scaled down due to restrictions, but coverage on TV and the radio is comprehensive and is an insight for us into a war where the enemy was visible and impacted massively on the world at that time too.

You may enjoy the irony of the fact that I hung everything out dry this morning and since then it's rained long and hard! The forecast is for an improvement for later so it may all be dry again by dinner time.

I embraced the two tone nature of this stylish M&S dress by adding one pink and one red sock boot (H&M) for a quirky touch today.

The round sunglasses (Radley) and long chain add a 60's vibe to the outfit. Bangle and red ring are pre-loved, the pink ring was a gift.

The mesh tights are a good soloution to the changeling period between spring and summer when legs may still be a rather whiter shade of pale.

Sorry to dash, but I've got some baking to do for our little family get together later. A rich chocolate cake is in the oven currently and I'll be making a tray bake of roast new potatoes, chicken pieces, chorizo, onions and peppers for dinner. We'll be toasting the celebrations with some Prosecco and finishing with cheese and crackers. I hope you're managing to hook up with family even if it's only virtually!

Until next time, take care!

Anna x

The Style Not Age Collective goes back in fashion

Welcome to our monthly Style Not Age challenge. 

It's Hilda's turn to choose our theme this month and this time she's given us all the opportunity to showcase a blast from the past by way of one of our own vintage pieces. For me this means my 20 year old leopard print fur that I bought from Dorothy Perkins two decades ago. I remember turning up to Sasha's Christmas play wearing this and as I walked into the room someone joked that I was wearing Bet Lynch's coat - everyone laughed, including me. (To my 10 year old daughter this was probably one of her first public exposures to parental embarrassment.) Some 20 years down the line this coat doesn't draw a comment as it's back in fashion, although in my eyes it never went out!

But, let's shilly-shally no longer. Here's what my blogging friends wore as trend setters all those years ago...

Hilda found her beautiful velvet jacket and ornate boots when she was clearing out her attic. What a great discovery! They hark back to the 1990's and haven't lost any of their charm, have they? See more on Over The Hilda.

Jacqui of Mummabstylish is sporting her vintage trench coat which dates back to 1987, a purchase from Principles. I love the handbag which is vintage too. The black and white shot is a great touch Jacqui!

Emma of Style Splash has been raiding her attic too and has come up with this fabulous mix of old and new to create her very unique look. Do pop across to her blog for all the details. 

My gold dress has a vintage feel to it although it's not (well, not that I know). I bought it in a charity shop earlier this year. It's from M&S and somehow feels a bit 1940's - maybe thanks to the pussycat bow.

Rings are pre-loved.

There's nothing vintage about these boots though. I don't think Zara even existed 20 years ago, although I do remember having knee length sock boots when I was only about 12 years old, making that fashion over 50 years old. Wow, that makes me feel rather ancient!

I like the notion that this doorway may indeed be a back-to-the-past portal.

Ah well, it seems a magic portal it's not, just the gateway to a very windy viewpoint.

I do hope you've enjoyed our fashion stroll down memory lane, and please do hop across to my fellow bloggers to read more about their outfits. 

                                                                                                                                       Anna x

Summer is here!

Yes, I know I may be tempting fate, but for the moment, summer is here and I'm embracing the heatwave that has us under its spell. Time for a summer dress then and this linen one (preloved) is from M&S. The candy colour stripes caused Steve to remark that I looked like an ice lolly! He said more than that but as we're U rated on the blog, I'll gloss over that.

I fancy that the dress hasn't been worn much as the linen is very crisp and the colours are strong too, hinting that it's not gone through the wash many times. It's a size too big for me, but the side zip gives it a good slim fit which helps and even though the top is a bit roomy, it's not gaping around the armholes or showing too much cleavage. My standard trick of adding a belt works a treat to pull the slight bit of excess material together which I then distributed evenly around the back.

My statement piece of jewellery today has to be this fabulous pendant which is made from sea glass that I found only 50 metres from where I'm standing. About once a year I spend an afternoon gathering sea glass from the beaches and send it off to one of my jewellers, Fiona Petheram, who then tumbles it and turns it into jewellery for me to sell in the gallery. This particular piece of glass is an unusual lilac colour and when I found it, it was a big disc that may have been the bottom of a bottle before it got smashed. I requested that Fiona turn it into a necklace for me and the resulting piece is beautifully smooth to the touch and is still quite weighty. Check out Fiona's website Drift here.

I've picked out the red, black and pink hues of the dress to match my rings to (preloved) and the bangle was a birthday gift a few years ago. My old favourite Quay Australia sunglasses are gradually becoming apparent again after a period when they were replaced with my all new and improved ones. Favourites are favourites - what can you say?

I bought these sandals from Deichmann last summer (all sold out now, I'm afraid). Anyway, I thought the colours worked well with the dress. What I had forgotten however, is that by lunchtime my poor feet would be swollen in this extreme heat and I'd have to change them for something more comfortable. Enter stage left these pretty and comfy sandals -

These sparkly leather beaded sandals were from New Look maybe last summer, perhaps the summer before. What I'm really saying is for you not to go looking for them as they're old stock. I suppose they might be found on eBay though ... Whatever, they are super comfortable, nice and broad fitting too, so I had a really lovely afternoon of beetling about with no pinching toes or even having to think about my feet at all.

Have a great weekend!

Anna x

Caution - colour burst!

This was my outfit today, although the photo shoot is from a couple of weeks ago when we were blessed with a golden day that was just too good to miss. I asked Sasha to join me for a photo session at the end of the day which was perfect for this location, bathing the Old Blockhouse Castle in warm, mellow light.

I fear I may accused of overkill, as it seems to be only a matter of days since I last wore these boots. But honestly, I've been itching to pair them with this geometric dress since I bought it. And these fab pink tights, don't they just work a treat? Yes, it may be a case of colour overload, but hey, I just couldn't resist super charging these fiery colours. You know me - more is more!

When I first started blogging I would never have entertained this colour combination! Neither red nor pink were on my radar at that time and yet here I am totally enchanted by this colour marriage. I see this as real progress and can't wait to see what will develop next.

The dress is preloved, from M&S, tights are old, boots are H&M, sunglasses are by Quay Australia and the necklace and other jewellery is preloved.

It was about 6.30pm and look at the quality of light - how perfect for our shoot!

The islands in the background are the Eastern Isles; uninhabited miniature islands that are skirted with a slick of white sand. These are very popular picnic islands, just big enough for a family. The local boating etiquette is that if there's already a boat moored up, then please move right along and find another spot. 

This was a lovely balmy evening - maybe we ought to have brought a picnic too.

I'd like to promise that I won't inflict these sock boots on you again until the autumn, but honestly until summer, or a least a period of consistently fine weather, settles over us I may have to resort to wearing them again. They're just so blooming useful!

It's okay, I'm all done. You can remove your sunglasses now!  

This week I'll be link with -
Catherine of Not Dressed As Lamb
Patti of Not Dead Yet Style
Jacqui of Mummabstylish

Anna x