Check out these beauties!

Gotta be brief today, am in a bit of a rush. Will counter this by showing you these phenomenal palazzo pants - oh I do love  a bit of alliteration! These beauties were a bargain find in the New Look sale a few years ago for a snip at £5. I had to reline them as the lining was a bit clingy and now are so very flowy and whooshy, that they make a lovely swishing sound as I waltz about in them. I feel like a schooner in sail (is that what I mean?) as they flow about beautifully. Enough chat, now some snaps.

Must dash as I've got lots to do and so very little time to do it in! The top was a gift, trousers from New Look, but nothing similar currently, shoes were from New Look (similar). Rings are charity shopped, green pearls are from Almost Perfect, my perfect rose gold watch is by Michael Kors and rose gold bangle is from Kate Spade New York.

This week I'll be linking with these lovely style icons

Patti of Not Dead Yet Style

Catherine of Not Dressed As Lamb

Cherie of Style Nudge

Jess of Elegantly Dressed And Stylish

Thanks to you all for joining me and taking the time to sit down and read this waffle of mine. I do enjoy your company, your feedback and seeing my readership grow. My aim is to inspire you to venture into the world of colour, to entertain you, and engage you in this lovely life of mine. Wishing you a great week ahead and I look forward to meeting up with you again soon.

Anna x

Showers and flowers

It seems impossible for me to write up a post without referring to the weather. A visitor recently pointed out how their focus whilst here on holiday was all about the tides and the weather. We are indeed ruled by the tides and the need to be in the right place (quay) at the right time to catch the vital mode of transport, the boats. And being stranded without a car also focuses the mind on the weather as a whole day out can be blighted by forgetting to bring an extra layer of clothing. So you'll understand the influence with today's outfit. Showers means in this case a layer in the form of this flowered jacket from Zara (via a charity shop) which has been well worth the pittance I payed for it. Endlessly versatile in both colourway and pattern I keep leafing it into my daily outfits with ne'er an apology.

Those in the know will tell you to always keep an eye on the boats. The boats indicate which direction those grey rain clouds are coming from - they always face into the wind giving us a heads up as to what's in the pipeline. This vantage point today lets us see the weather ahead. Talking of which, I'd better get inside before that next shower arrives!

Today's outfit features the jacket from Zara (similar), skirt from H&M (similar), shoes from New Look (similar), tee shirt from M&S and handbag from a charity shop. Sunglasses are from Quay Australia, and all the silver jewellery is charity shopped. The fab orange nail polish is by Rita Ora at Rimmel in Tangerine Tent.

Linking with 

Dawn Lucy of Fashion Should Be Fun 

Anna x

Ping Pong Post No 5

Hello and welcome to the 5th instalment of Ping Pong Post where my two blogging friends Samantha of Fake Fabulous and Ann of Kremb de la Kremb send our clothes around the world in a style challenge to each other. See how this idea came about here. This month it's my item again with this sheer tunic which I fancy may have been our trickiest subject to date. So let's get started with Samantha and see how she got on.

Samantha took a youthful spin on this grey overshirt by way of adding a sleeveless denim jacket and vest top to give a lovely casual look. Shoe hoarder Samantha has added these funky buckled sandals to keep things interesting along with some quirky pieces of jewellery. This outfit could take her from an afternoon shopping with friends onto early evening drinks in the late summer sun, although I think she may well report the absence of summer in her neck of the woods in bonnie Scotland. Note how Samantha is gradually growing out her pixie haircut into a less structured style - I like it Sam!

Details of her oufit are

Shoes: All Saints

Jeans: Topshop

Nails: BarryM

Vest: JohnnieB

Necklace, rings, earrings and bangle: Various gifts & charity shop finds.

Waistcoat: New Look

Glasses: Tkmaxx

Bag: Topshop

Follow Samantha on Instagram here.

For those of you who follow this series you'll not be surprised in the least at the creativity of Ann in how she's styled this. Seems like this tunic was her idea of hell combining grey (her least favourite colour) with a mandarin collar! Poor Ann. However, she turned this into something truly individual by using the top as a cover up and hey, why not? In her eyes, this is the kind of thing you'd wear on a junk trip out on the river in Hong Kong where she lives for most of the year. Looks like a simple solution to what was clearly a very tricky problem. Check out Ann's other creative makes as featured on her blog here. This lady loves to be inventive.

Ann's details are currently whizzing around out in the ether so I'd say the tote bag, and jeans turned into shorts, may have further info to come, along with her sunnies and jewellery.

Follow Ann on Instagram here. 

I have to laugh at how utterly conventional I look in this tunic compared to my blogging friends. But I suppose that's the whole point of the series isn't it? I bought this top in a charity shop with the intention of throwing a curved ball at us all in #PPP and I think I succeeded. My scenario was to wear this for a summer's evening drinks party. I even had my lovely silver clutch propped up against my tripod for the duration of the shoot as a finishing touch - fat lot of good that did! So there you have it, another Ping Pong Post in the bag. Next month we'll be styling up a little something of Samantha's and I must admit I had a bit of fun with that one. Wishing you all a great week and see you soon!

Here's my details

Tunic: Wallis/charity shop

Trousers: Wallis

Shoes: Bebbou

Vest: H&M

Belt: charity shop

Necklace: Dorothy Perkins

Rings: charity shop

Sunglasses: Quay Australia

You can follow me on Instagram here.

Anna x

Wedges and windy weather

It's a rare day on the island when we are becalmed, therefore you just have to make the most of the almost constant breeze/wind/gale. Polly and I wanted to capture these fab culottes in full sail and that's pretty much what happened. The lively photo shoot took place on the beach just below the gallery where we work and will be a familiar backdrop to my regular readers and those of you who have been lucky enough to visit the wonderful Isles of Scilly. New Grimsby bay is the location and is the main docking point for day trippers to arrive on the boats from all the other islands. Cruise ships tend to use the quay at the other end of the island, Carn Near, if the tide is low enough as that is nearer to the Abbey Garden, the highlight of their visit to Scilly. I've got some lovely shots coming up later of a couple of large ships moored up at the end of the beach where I take my daily swim.

These culottes are so easy to wear as well as being functional for work. Climbing ladders, nipping up and down the stairs, hopping onto my bike to go on errands can all be achieved without the same concerns a skirt might cause. Apart from that, I think they are blooming lovely! I've added this lace, pistachio peplum top to give a bit of femininity along with these sky high wedges. I've worn these a few times on the blog before and will repeat that although they look really high and might look like they are crazy to walk on, they're not. The slope on the front edge means you roll along smoothly despite the height of them. The culottes are from Topshop, lace top from H&M, shoes are from New Look, vest top is from Primark. My necklace was from Debenhams a couple of years ago, yellow ring is by Martin James, sparkle ring was from East, and this wonderful gold nail polish is Oil Slick by Accessorize. Apologies for not supplying any links to these items today, but they are all to old too show anything similar within these brands.

Linking with

Catherine of Not Dressed As Lamb

Cherie of Style Nudge

Patti of Not Dead Yet Style

The gorgeous sweep of Pentle Bay is one of the treats awaiting the cruise ship visitors today. Despite it being the middle of July there are only a handful of people on the beach.

This scattering of islands in the distance are the Eastern Isles which are all uninhabited outcrops and mini islands, perfect for picnics and isolation.

This is the view of Pentle Bay in the other direction. Notice the isolated shower over the far end of St Martin's while the near end still enjoys the sunshine. This clump of cloud is heading towards mainland UK - next stop Land's End.

Looking towards St Helen's on the right and Northwethel island on the left - both are uninhabited and are idyllic escapes for those with their own boat.

The Old Blockhouse castle. Read about this island defence here.

This final view is across Old Grimsby bay. I hope you've enjoyed this quick sweep around the island - to find out more about where I live click here. I look forward to seeing you again soon.

Anna x

Keeping it casual

As my daughter is home I took an afternoon off yesterday and we went out for a walk in the sunshine. We visited the Abbey Garden (for full details see here) where Sasha did the honours and took some snaps for the blog. I'm keeping it casual wearing jeans for a change which I thought might make a good feature as I'm always in work clothes that veer more towards the smart than casual.

We spent a couple of hours wandering through the acres of garden, admiring all of the beautiful flowers in bloom accompanied by the constant buzzing of honey bees. This beautiful patch of paradise is only a 20 minute walk from home, yet I am guilty of hardly every making time to visit it (last time was I was here was in January). As we strolled along the paths Sasha and I talked about how this is a real photographers dream, and I agreed that I really need to make more of an effort to pop up for a blog shoot regularly. There are so many wonderful little colourful corners here, I'm sure I could come once a week for an entire year without even repeating the location. Let's see if I can get here once a month just to start eh? My challenge is to juggle working full time with my hobbies of sea swimming, yoga and book club and that's before I even take into account all of the domestic chores that beckon every day besides my passion of fashion blogging. As I say, let's see if I can manage to get here once a month then!

Today's outfit comprises of a cardigan by Tu and jeans by New Look. Shoes are Vans, belt has no brand, but was from TK Maxx. Necklace is old, rings are from a charity shop, sunglasses are by Quay Australia and my beautiful watch is by Michael Kors.  

Linking with

Jess of Elegantly Dressed And Stylish

Cherie of Style Nudge 

Anna x