Tweed and satin? Yes!

Mixing up fabrics can be just as much fun as colour play in my book, so today I'm sporting a cute little tweed jacket with these skinny satin trousers. The jacket is pre-loved by Joules which I picked up for £15 in a charity shop and the disco pants are quite old and were from H&M Conscious Collection. Jeans might have been an obvious pairing for this, but I wanted to add a bit more colour, hence the tangerine pants. 

The jacket has velvet edging and a fancy lining as well as non-matching buttons making it very me. The fit is great to say it's off-the-peg with the sleeve length being perfect too. All of my jewellery is charity shopped, but the watch was a gift from Nordgreen - see more about it here. I still have an offer available on this brand if you use the code PARKES15 you will get a 15% discount on any purchase. 

At this time of year I seem to always add a polo neck sweater to the outfit of the day, probably because I'm one of those chilly types. I hate having a cold neck more than anything, so my closet has lots of them, especially black ones - I must have about six of those currently. This cream one was from Primark last year.

Sasha was my photographer, catching me laugh when I almost fell over on this tiny incline. It's really not a very steep road, but as I changed my footing I almost lost my balance, creating a drama out of nothing as is pretty much my way. Slight incline plus high heeled boots equals risk assessment!

In my previous post I was complaining about having short legs, but today I concede that the towering boots (by Office) are magnificently leg-lengthening. Those extra five inches make all the difference confidence-wise. The best part of course is the deep platform that means these are all-day comfortable too. 

I seem to have waited ages to showcase this tiny leather bag, but here it is at last. It's by Gigi and yes, it was a charity shop find. I'm particularly pleased to have matched up the orange trim with the trousers - small things please small minds eh?

I'm enjoying this lovely view looking east across the Great Pool, a perfect spot to stop and chill. The island has benches dotted all around (many made by my dear husband) encouraging the habit of pausing to take in the scenery. The big lure of holidaying on the island is indeed the slow pace allowing for time to reconnect with not just nature, but with oneself. Read more on this aspect here. 

And as we hurtle towards Christmas in a flurry of shopping, baking and partying it's worth keeping in mind the need to take a moment away from the commercialism of Christmas and remember the true meaning of our celebrations. This is a reminder to myself as much as anyone.

Have a fabulous week!

Anna x

Here and there

Hello again! I'm both here and there today, in that my photo shoot was taken here on the island, but I'm actually up there (in Harrogate) where I'm wearing the same outfit.

The vintage tunic was £3 from a charity shop in Truro. The sales assistant told me it had only been on the rail for an hour which somehow makes me feel even more lucky to find it. Where's the logic in that? Goodness only knows! Surely I'd be more lucky if it'd had been there for a month and was still around when I arrived?

The Ted Baker handbag came from the same shop; it was £23 and worth every penny in my eyes. It shows a little bit of wear and tear, but I can forgive it everything because of the fabulous colour. I'll be wearing my red/black/lilac woollen coat (last seen here) over this ensemble while I'm in Harrogate and know this bag will be the bizz.

I've had the orange satin disco pants for quite a while and yet have only worn them a couple of times. Not easy to leaf into everyday wear, I suppose, but I'm thinking that now I can play the eccentricity card whenever something falls into the "questionable item" category. Crossing into my 60's surely promotes me from crazy lady into eccentric lady - hurrah!

All of today's jewellery is pre-loved, so hurrah for that too!

I don't know if it was just the power of this outfit or that I'd had a particularly lovely swim this day, but I was feeling so well, and so very me. Do you know what I mean? How some days what you wear really reflects your inner self - in this case, my inner joy. I bubbled and grinned from start to finish, so much so that I have earmarked this ensemble for a photoshoot that I have to submit for a magazine later this year. More details of that in due course...

The big platform helps to offset the height of these heels making them all-day-long boots for a change. Bought from Office a couple of years ago, they're not wearing too badly considering that they're real suede. I love the ginger colourway too!

My velvet trench (pre-loved from Hobbs) has had another makeover with some new retro vibe buttons. 

I'm writing this a week in advance, so I do hope that nothing has come along to change or scupper my plans. Hopefully I've arrived safely in Harrogate and have enjoyed my first day at the British Craft Trade Fair. It's a three day long trade fair where I usually find some new artists and makers to supply me with new products for the gallery in the year ahead. 

I'll be home again on Friday, but have another blog post lined up for you on Wednesday, so do please come back to see what that may feature. Until then, have a lovely week!

Anna x

It's magic

Every woman deserves to have an item of clothing that can work a bit of magic. For me, it's this bright red flouffy underskrt. Whenever I put it on I feel transformed; playful, flirtatious, joyful - it's magic! Maybe not everyday wear for some I know, but for me, if I need to inject a bit of fun into my day, out comes the petticoat. 

I've pulled together this outfit today from that bloggers standby - shopping my closet. The rollneck sweater was a brand new piece picked up from a charity shop; it caught my eye because of the gold buttons on the cuffs as well as the slimfit shape. I'd put it away in September and then completely forgotten about it. The skirt was a hand-me-down from my daughter (or should that be a pass-me-up?), anyway, it too was brand new with the label still attached. And the tights, well what a great find they were! I came across a bag of tights under the bed (like we all have, right?) and inside were a couple of pairs of these wonderful thick tights that have a slightly fleecy lining. I'm probably well behind with this trend, but golly how warm they are! I have no recollection where or when I bought them, or they may even have come from Sasha too, but hey what a find.

This month I've noticed that a few bloggers on Instagram are taking a month off from clothes shopping and I've decided to join in with the challenge. I'm not due to go away to the mainland again until April, so I thought I'd steer clear of the online sales at Office and H&M which are generally my downfall and see if I can go cold turkey until then. April in the charity shops will herald all sorts of spring and summer goodies - that's what I need to focus on. I was very lucky with both Christmas and birthday presents so I do have quite a few new clothes to add to the blog over the next few months. It's going to be an interesting few months I think. Wish me luck!

Outift details - sweater: H&M (similar), skirt: H&M (similar), underskirt: eBay, belt: New Look, boots: Office (sold out, but these are similar), rings and necklace: gifts, sunglasses: Quay Australia.

Linking with -

Patti of Not Dead Yet Style

Catherine of Not Dressed As Lamb

Cherie of Style Nudge

Jess of Elegantly Dressed And Stylish

Anna x

Fur - fake or real?

It's mid-winter and here in the Northern hemisphere fur coats are big business. It's too sweeping a statement to say most women own something fur, but the magazines would lead us to believe that's the case. Personally, I own a few fur pieces, both real and fake, but when you add fur trims on jackets, gloves, fur lined boots, scarves and pom-poms, then it amounts to a fair bit. 

Outfit details - trousers: H&M, boots: Office, fur coat: vintage, rings: charity shopped.

A few years ago my husband and I were fortunate enough to go on holiday to Venice. It was early February and the temperature had dropped to minus 9 degrees making headline news as it was cold enough for the Grand Canal to start to freeze over which hadn't happened in almost 100 years. I'd packed a duvet coat and fleecy hat to keep me warm, but they didn't. European women wear real fur when it's cold. They have no qualms about that. Given the severity of the weather, I soon came to understand why. Nothing man-made can keep you warm in these kinds of temperatures, or at least not without making you look like the Michelin man from head to toe. The bitter, icy wind blew across the canals causing chills in every nook and cranny. One of our walks took us along a tiny canal where I came across a vintage boutique. In the window was this beautiful red fox fur coat. The jacket is second hand, an important point for me, and it wasn't long before I had succumbed to its charms. I wore it for the rest of the holiday, warm, toasty warm in fact, and feeling as glamorous as I ever have.

Fast forward to last autumn when I bought this fake fur jacket. Its ombre tones called to me when I was rooting about one of the charity shops in Truro.

As consumers I'm sure we all like to understand the impact our purchases have on the environment and it's for that reason that I'm a huge advocate of thrift/charity shopping wherever and whenever I can. Previously I might have admitted to feeling a bit uncomfortable about owning a real fox fur jacket, but strangely not in the least bit awkward about wearing suede boots or pony skin shoes or carrying an ostrich hide handbag, and I fancy I'm not the only one who suffers from this odd kind of logic. Fake fur obviously carried none of the guilt that real fur might. My viewpoint has recently been changed thanks to new information. 

At the end of October I read an article in the Daily Mail by Zoe Brennan titled "The faux fur timebomb". She cites various facts, such as the ten barrels of oil it takes to make a fake fur coat, and that non-renewable plastics are used to make fake fur, and that when washed they in turn release an average of 1900 tiny particles of plastic that end up in our seas. This comes in the wake of the microbead scandal that hit the news in 2016 alerting us to the fact that our face washes and scrubs contained these ocean polluting beads of plastic. These microbeads are now being found in some sea creatures, one step away from entering the food chain. Ms Brennan's most revealing fact is that when you and I throw out our fake fur coats, they will end up alongside all other plastic waste in a landfill side and that it will take our coats 1000 years to biodegrade. Shocking isn't it? I had no idea, did you? Real fur on the other hand biodegrades naturally within 6 months. (I realise we're mixing ethics with environmental issues here and that's complex.)

The anti-fur lobby have omitted to tell us these facts. We may not want to buy mink as a result of what we've learnt about mink farms, but equally we surely don't want to have a massive carbon footprint thanks to this throw-away fashion. Another worrying fact is that the production of fake fur uses enormous amounts of energy and produces greenhouse gasses, ionising radiation and noxious chemical by-products, many of which cause cancer. Buy fur responsibly maybe ought to be the message here.

I write this for the same reason I write everything in my blog: to share my story. This is not a call to arms, a request to boycott or indeed an article intended to make us all feel bad. Remember, I'm in no position to judge. I'm sorry that this doesn't make for comfortable reading. But turning a blind eye to anything that challenges our comfort zone isn't protecting the future of our planet. Fun fur will not be much fun for our descendants to deal with. I now wear both my real and fake fur with a genuine awareness of their implications. I said my viewpoint has changed, and here's how - I now prefer the honesty of wearing my real fox fur coat. If someone wants to knock me for that, then fine. And much as I will continue to wear my fake fur, I'm no longer deluded that it's the better thing to do.

I'll finish with a quote from Orsola de Castro, of Fashion Revolution, a campaign for ethics in the fashion industry. She states "The use of real fur (in fashion) is, of course, deplorable, but faux fur is not the answer. It comes with an incredibly heavy carbon footprint, it doesn't biodegrade and the cheap examples are often produced in unregulated factories, with all the concerns that brings over sweatshop conditions, poor pay and child labour." She urges us to "Look for alternative textures, such as luxurious knits. Most people simply don't realise how bad faux fur is. They think of it as a "good" moral alternative to real fur, without realising the damage it is doing."

Linking with 

Catherine of Not Dressed As Lamb

Jess of Elegantly Dressed And Stylish

Patti of Not Dead Yet Style

Cherie of Style Nudge

Anna x

Autumn colours

I've never had my colours done, but if I did, I think I'd be autumn. My pale Scottish complexion along with my reddish hair lend themselves to the autumnal hues. Today's get up is ticking all the complimentary boxes and I hope you agree that they all work really well. The backdrop was chosen to be tonally harmonious for this, my first photo shoot this winter without Polly. Tripod, timer and me, let's go!

I'm not really one to wear mini skirts and dresses but by wearing thick cable knit tights I feel less exposed, almost like wearing leggings in fact. The platform boots do wonders for my stumpy legs - another blogger I know claims she has stumpy legs too. When I was a teenager I remember an occasion when I was told my a member of my family, ahem thanks dad, that I have chumffy thighs (chumffy = Scottish description for heavy, chunky). Maybe I was heftier in those days, maybe all the sport I did gave me very pronounced thighs, but whatever, these comments do stick when you're young and insecure, don't they? You might counter this notion with the fact that I'm happy to share photos of myself in my swimsuit, but I'm always conscious of what I think are still chumffy thighs. Call me crazy, that's OK.

I wore this dress for the first time in September see here. The sharp eyed amongst you will see how one wash has shrunk it from being just above the knee to this mini length now. The only way to remedy this was to add the thick tights and it's turned what I thought was a disaster into an acceptable outfit. My final observation has to be along the lines of "Come back Polly, all is forgiven!" The lack of sharp focus and too bright sunshine only serve to highlight what a great job she did for all of those summer months. I'll be mixing up my photos from here on, using some of my own along with the last few that I've held in reserve from the Polly days. I hope you'll all hang on in there regardless of the quality of photography.

Outfit details - dress:TK Maxx, waistcoat: gift, boots: Office, belt: old, rings: old, sunglasses: Quay Australia.

Anna x

As suggested by...Angela

Yes, it's time for my monthly feature again, the one where you suggest what I ought to wear. My thanks go to Angela for her recent email reminding me that I hadn't worn this cream jacket for a few months. She and I met at the Harvest Festival service at our local church last year while she was here on holiday, and after the service we got chatting about this jacket which I was wearing at the time. Now a regular reader, Angela wanted to see me wear it again.

So far I've managed to wear it in almost every season, even at Christmas when I took part in a feature with other bloggers see here. It's such a versatile jacket, mainly down to the neutral colour, I suppose. Today I've married it up with these wide legged trousers in a very autumnal colourway which I found in H&M in London in February. They're really long which is great as they make me look much taller and more leggy than I actually am, but meant I had to do quite a bit of rooting about to find the right height of shoes. In fact, I've gone with my russet suede platform boots which just about deliver the perfect height.

I couldn't resist adding this photo to entice you to give me the quote of the day...

The next time I post we'll be in June - summer to all intents and purposes - so I hope I can rise to the challenge and finally pack the last of my winter things away. These boots are heading into storage along with most of my beautiful brogues, sob, sob. My mint green and pale pinks ones will remain, along with blue suede babies and some much loved cream ones which are truly showing their age. Hopefully the sun will start to show it's face a bit more consistently and in readiness I will get on with the primping and priming necessary for the bare legs and sandals that are summer on Scilly. 

Jacket: Tabitha. Trousers: H&M (sim). Boots: Office (on sale now) Top: eBay. Handbag: charity shop. Watch: Michael Kors. Belt: Zara.

Linking with

Catherine of Not Dressed As Lamb 

Patti of Not Dead Yet Style 

Anna x