Prints Charming, our Style Not Age challenge for December

Hello again and welcome to the last Style Not Age challenge of 2025! Emma's idea for this month's theme is Prints Charming, one that was easy for me to pluck from my wardrobe thank goodness, especially with all that's going on at this time of year. 

This fabulous two piece is from the Iris Apfel and H&M collection from a few years ago. Emma sat tight and waited for it to appear at a reduced price on Vinted - clever girl! Catch up with Emma on her blog Style Splash. 

Leopard is Jacqui's signature print of the moment. The coat is from George at Asda worn with cream jeans and black sweater topped with yet more leopard print in her scarf. See more from Jacqui over on her blog. 

Hilda's chosen tiger print in the form of these wide legged jeans from M&S for this month's challenge paired with a tiger motif tee shirt. Read her back story on Over the Hilda. 

My outfit is all old, shopped from my closet and yet still fulfills the brief. The red duster coat was an amazing charity shop bargain yonks ago costing a mere £3. I featured it in December 2020 when life was oh-so-different as we were emerging from lockdown. See the feature here if you missed it. (Golly didn't I look young then, slim too?!!!!)

The trousers are from Vinted and blouse is a vintage piece. 

The tartan boots are decidedly old, bought from M&S, but goodness knows when.

I hope you're enjoying the windswept look from this set of photos. I bribed my dear friend Fiona to help me with a mega dose of blog photos (as yet to be aired) - a large schooner of sherry and some of my homemade fudge kept her onside as we traipsed outside repeatedly with more wind and less sunshine for each outfit. 

I'm such a big fan of all things ornate: this Chinese jacket with hand-sewn embroidery is a real joy, a valued item in my clothes collection. Increasingly I'm moving lots of pieces on now, realising that the large volume of clothes aren't serving me well. Moreover, many are too small now - a truth I find hard to admit, but know that I must in order to cull the excess I've gathered over the years - these are only jamming up the works, stopping me from seeing what I can actually wear rather than hope to wear. My daughter came up with a wonderful solution to the decluttering problem. Sasha now lives on the mainland and is time-rich as opposed to me being time-poor. Ironic really when you consider that I live in paradise and she in Manchester. Anyway, I now send her a box of clothes about once a month and she uploads them onto Vinted to sell and after a certain length of time, if not sold, she redirects them to her local charity shop so that she's not bogged down by them forever. The money she makes is going towards her deposit for a flat. Win/win!

None of the accessories are new either. Rings are pre-loved and sunglasses are by Quay Australia. 

Apologies if you're a regular reader and have been noticing my lack of posts of late. If I show you why, you might understand...

For the past month it's been like a veritable fudge factory in my house. Juggling work and fudge production has been a real challenge and yes, probably some form of madness, but I do sincerely love the joy of giving and in particular giving my homemade fudge to family and friends. If yours hasn't arrived then sorry, you didn't make it onto the list...

My next post will be a mega feature of all of my festive outfits, some worn, some still waiting for their Cinderella moment, but all are blog-ready for your delectation. I have a few days off coming up around the New Year when I'll be dedicating some time to pulling a blog together for you. Apologies for the neglect, but I do appreciate you dropping by and also for your lovely comments. I hope you've found some time to rest and relax over the Christmas period and wish you every happiness for 2026!

Wishing you a very Happy New Year! 

Anna x

Another big round up

Happy New Year to you! I do hope you've had a great time over the festive period. I certainly have! We had lots of family time together, time to relax and chill out and eat some of our favourite Christmas meals. I dodged in to work for a couple of days during the Christmas and New Year weeks which was very civilised and allowed me plently opportunity to veg out.

This was my Hogmanay outfit, a great mix of old and new pieces. The jacket is by Michael Kors and is quite old now, but still rather fabulous, don't you think? My kilt (£4.50) was a recent charity shop find in Penzance when I was there in December - it's a vintage M&S buy when they were know as the St Michael brand. 

The tartan boots are also from M&S but not quite vintage. I love how they work so well together. 

I'm wearing my green orb pendant by Vivienne Westwood along with two preloved rings. 

I worked on New Year's Eve so went halfway with my dressing up. The green faux fur coat is old, seen many times on the blog before. 

My grey woollen sweater with pearls was a Vinted find recently and perfect for his semi-party look. The sequin trousers are the same ones that I wore when I went to the ABBA Voyage event in London over a year ago - see the post on that trip here. 

The diamante Scottie dog brooch is a charity shop piece as are both of my rings. 

For the evening out at our local pub I wore my mermaid coat. I had two options and this was the first...

The Iris tulle skirt is by Eleven Loves - it's not new but they still sell this style but not in this colourway - see here for the olive green version. The sequinned bodysuit has languished in my wardrobe for ages now and at last had an airing. The pearl heart necklace was a present from my sister Dianne.

And this was option two, the one I actually wore. It was sequin overload, I know, but I did love it! The coat was from Topshop, the top is from Zara (through Vinted) and the trousers from Shein. My silver boots are by Buffalo.

I went out with my son that evening as both Steve and my daughter were full of the cold. I think it's inevitable at this time of year, but still rather annoying to be ill over the festive season. I met up with my sister-in-law and her family where we danced and drank until midnight. It was a lovely evening. So here we are in 2025 now and I do hope that we can all look forward to a good year with peaceful times, happy times too with family and friends.

                                                                        Anna x

My big fat Christmas post!

Hello and a belated Happy Christmas to you! This is my big fat post showcasing three outfits for you, including my Christmas Day ensemble. Feel free to scroll down to see the festive extravaganza as worn on the day... But this was one of my pre-Christmas work outfits.

The gold lurex cardigan was a £6 charity shop purchase many many moons ago. It's quite heavyweight but I find that somehow reassuringly comforting.

Underneath the cardigan is a simple black roll neck sweater, ideal for that cosy feeling. None of my accessories are new - the rings, necklace and belt are all old, mostly pre-loved.

My crop checked trousers are a recent purchase from Vinted. Ideal for this time of year don't you think? I've finished the look with my new gold leather Topshop boots, a recent purchase from Vinted.

I topped the outfit off with this yellow fur coat, not new. When I left for work that morning it was a grey overcast day, but by the time I was ready to leave for home at the end of the day the heavens had opened and it was absolutely tipping down with rain. I only live a short distance away from work but didn't want to end up with a soggy fur coat...

As they say, necessity is the mother of invention and so I made myself a bubblewrap coat to get myself home, dry!

My next outfit was the result of a wardrobe malfunction. I had planned to wear this top with a lovely red tartan kilt, a charity shop find from earlier this month when I was on the mainland, however after spending 20 minutes pressing all the pleats, when I came to trying it on I discovered some of the stitching on the waistband was coming undone.

I quickly popped on a pair of black jeans and black patent boots (old from Topshop) and dashed to work. It's a very pared down look for me, quite simple and conservative, but there again I do like to keep mixing things up...

My orange sequinned bomber jacket does at least jazz the whole thing up a bit! I bought this a long time ago in TK Maxx and it always makes a festive statement at this time of year. My only jewellery are two rings, both very old.

Millie Johnson, one of the local girls, made this wooden Christmas tree for the Gallery a couple of years ago and this year I decorated it quite simply with some white fairy lights and ribbons.

And so here it is, my Christmas Day outfit! I must admit, I'm pretty pleased with this rather natty trousers suit. The brand is Karen Millen and I found it, brand new still with the labels on, on my favourite shopping haunt, Vinted. I paid £75 for it and feel that it's worth every penny. I'm probably going to wear it again at work for our afternoon drinks party on New Year's Eve as I feel it didn't get much exposure. 

The jacket is very much Chanel in its style with the round neck and gold buttons giving a simple effective finish. The feather trim is for me the icing on the cake, making it less demure and much more flamboyant and fun. Our island get together on Christmas day is a lovely tradition when we all clear an hour in our day just before lunch to meet up and wish other islanders Happy Christmas. 

Again, none of my jewellery is new, but all worked fine as the suit was the star of the show.

My tartan boots are quite old too, from M&S, but always make an appearance over the festive period, so you'll probably see them again soon.

Thank you so much for making time to drop by, especially at this time of year, I do appreciate it. I'm just about to scour through my wardrobe for the monthly Style Challenge, so wish me luck with that. I'll be back with that feature on Monday 30th of December and would love you to join me again then. In the meantime I do hope you've had a lovely Christmas (I most definitely have) and I wish you all the best for a peaceful New Year!

Lots of love

Anna x

More fun, in a gilet this week!

Hello lovelies! How has your week been? Are you working from home and if so, is it all about leisure wear again? For me it's another working outfit here this week, and yes, I'm still making the most of my fun furs. I've had this fur gilet for some years now and must admit I do find it a challenge to wear as it's so boxy. That said, I think it's simply impossible to wear a layer of fur of any sort without adding inches to the torso! So I need to get over it don't I?

The gilet (TK Maxx, old) wasn't what inspired this ensemble however, it was actually these rather fab checked trousers. They're hand-me-downs from my eldest sister - the brand is House of Bruar. Sandra is a big lover of charity shopping and found these stylish trousers some years ago, only recently passing them on to me. When they arrived in the middle of the Christmas festivities I couldn't quite squeeze into them, but after a week or two of restraint and sea swimming I've slipped into them a bit more easily. 

I do love the chance to create some different outfits when I've got a new addition to my wardrobe and this was a great bonus in the middle of Christmas. The tartan (M&S) boots called out to me immediately and I couldn't wait to get going, finding the right colours to compliment the look. The gilet was the next thing that came to mind and yes, I'm thrilled with this as an outfit. 

The tartan boots were from M&S a few years ago, but I still love them to bits. Could that be just because of my Scottish heritage? Goodness knows!

The simple ribbed roll neck sweater is old, a purchase from Primark a few years ago. I do wonder if our wardrobes/closets like so many other things will be defined as pre and post Covid19, in which case this is pre-covid. I bought a few of these in different colours and am impressed how they have retained their shape and colour despite much washing and wearing.

Nothing new jewellery-wise. The green pearls are real and are long term favourites of mine. The heart pendant is a good ploy for elongating the body, drawing the eyes downwards. Sunglasses are by Radley and rings are both quite old.

This (morning) shot shows the colours up a bit better. I spent the day at work, popping out from time to time in between passing traffic taking a few photos as the clouds dispersed then gathered, leaving me dodging in and out like one of those crazy old weather vanes. Do you know what I mean - that old lady and man who used to take turns popping out according to the weather? Anyway, this was a photo-shoot of two halves, ending with the glorious glimpses of sunset as it dropped behind the clouds. 

This is the view from my office and from the Gallery shop floor. I never tire of it. The endless light-shows from morning til night, the sunsets and shifting tides all go to make the most perfect of settings. I am a very lucky bunny indeed!

                                                                                         Anna x