Summer colours

Hi there! Many thanks for dropping by. My previous post was rather curtailed by a technical hiccup between my phone and my computer. Long story short, I have new phone and all is well. My summer outfit was captured by my friend Fiona just before she took off for a summer break abroad. I do wonder why she went as the temperature is crazy-hot here on Tresco this week. 

Our photo sessions are always a mixture of catching up with each other's news plus the obligatory telling off by her as I'll be speaking as she's trying to take blog photos. My speaking face isn't as acceptable as my smiling/laughing face so I really don't mind her telling me to shut up.

And so, on to the outfit of the day. The jumpsuit was a charity shop buy sometime last year - it's by Boden and is a great summer piece. I think the shirred neckline is actually meant to be worn off the shoulder, but that just doesn't work for me, so I wear it comme ca and it looks fine as far as I'm concerned. It's a lightweight cheesecloth fabric which is perfect for the current heatwave. The paisley print in orange and pink would have been a personal design choice if I'd made it - it's fabulous!

The jumpsuit does have a shirred elastic waistline too but I'm always partial to adding a colourful belt whenever I can. This pink stretch belt was an Amazon buy for some time ago. 

Worth mentioning of course are the pockets! What's the point of a jumpsuit if it doesn't have pockets? Anyway, as a work outfit it really comes in at a 10/10 for comfort. 

And talking of comfort, these Rocketdog sandals are well up there too for all-day wear. I fancy these will pop up (yet again) purely for that very reason.

Jewllery-wise I'm all about Emily Nixon this week. My first birthday ring has been joined by my second birthday ring - both are 18ct gold with sapphires and diamonds. See her full collection here.

My necklace is also by Emily Nixon, but is now a vintage piece, bought over 10 years ago before her latest reinvention. It's rose quartz and amethyst with silver flake spacers. I recently had it cleaned when I was visiting Emily's new studio in Penzance. The spacious three storey building has recently been remodelled to house all of the aspects of her jewellery business and it's well worth making an appointment to see the stylish showroom if you're in the vicinity.

My sunglasses are by Oliver Bonas and are my go-to pair regardless of the colour of my outfit. I do love the pop of blue! So that's just about it for this week. As I sign off there's a bit of bustling about in the kitchen as Steve gathers together his essentials for watching England playing in the semi-final of the World Cup. I fear it all may be for nothing and consequently I'm about to scoot off for my second swim of the day - it's always a joy to have high and low tide at 5/6/7 am and pm meaning I have the chance to fit in two swims! It's truly been a scorcher of a day here meaning the gallery was like an oven despite both doors and skylights being open. But hey, I'm really not complaining!

Enjoy the wonderful weather!

Anna x

Summer loving, having a blast - our SNA challenge for June

Hello again! Here we are with our monthly style challenge and this time it's all about the summer outfits that we wear over and over. It'll be no surprise that my most worn summer outfit is my beachwear! Every day I scoot off to the beach for my daily swim and this is my uniform for those summer months - shorts, shirt and flip flops are de rigeur for me. My city dwelling friends have a different take on this so let's not waste a moment in seeing how they tackled this one.

Hilda's stylish offering is this lightweight co-ord of balloon trousers and matching top - a great way of keeping cool in the recent heatwave. Read more of her news on Over The Hilda blog. 

Another keeping-cool outfit comes from Emma in this lemon fresh dress from Vinted. Emma shopped her closet for this look - see all the details on her latest blog post Style Splash. 

Jacqui chose this loose summer dress for keeping cool this summer, and very pretty it is too! Read all her latest on her blog post Mummabstylish.

This easy-to-wear outfit serves my purpose for a quick change on the beach - the orange linen shirt is by Ichi, a recent purchase from TK Maxx, the floral linen shorts have an elasticated waist, perfect for ease of changing; they're by Papaya, bought from Vinted last summer and have proved themselves to be a summer essential.

My beach bag was a purchase from my trip up to the top of Table Mountain when I was in Cape Town over eight years ago. Who'd have thought that there would be a retail opportunity at the top of a mountain! My sandals are by Rocketdog.

I managed to drag Steve away from his Sunday chores to be my photographer of the day. We stopped for a while after my swim to enjoy having this tiny beach to ourselves. It's called Cradle Porth and is one of my favourite places to swim. The view looks across to St Martin's on the left and out to the uninhabited Eastern Isles to the right. I love the sense of getting away from it all, despite being only a 5 minute cycle from home.

I've recently come across a new brand of swimwear, Ceacea, an Australian brand, but featured in a local shop in Penzance, called Mor Swimmy. These long sleeved swimsuits offer great coverage across the back as that's where I'm prone to getting small areas of skin cancer. I've bought three of them as they were in the half price sale, so that's me set up for the next couple of years. 

The suits are described as surf suits and work well as swimwear as they're bodyhugging, and don't let water up the sleeves or down the neck as so many of this type of suit do. Best of all they sit snug around the top of the thigh and don't disappear up one's derriere!

This was from yesterday's early morning swim on Pentle Bay. I'm lucky to have so many fabulous beaches to choose from; this one is slightly easier to access than Cradle Porth with lots of entry points along the beach. Many thanks for joining us once again for our monthly challenge. I do hope the heatwave isn't proving too challenging for you too!

                                                                            Anna x

That was Father's Day!

We were blessed with perfect weather for Father's Day last Sunday, indeed it was the start of a heatwave that seems to have hit the majority of the UK. Jamie treated us to lunch out at the Ruin Beach Cafe which couldn't have been more perfect. That said, we did miss Sasha, but she sent lots of lovely goodies for Steve to scoff later that day. Jamie's girlfriend joined us and also acted at blog photographer which was a christening by fire as far as she was concerned. But hey, Maddie did a great job!

We enjoyed a long, lazy lunch that somehow spun out to a full four hours of eating and drinking while gazing at this most lovely view. There's something so special about this vantage point - it really does feel like getting away from it all.

Father's Day means a three scoop of icecream day too! 

A few family snaps are essential as reminders of the day. No pressure Maddie to get this right!

My outfit is mostly old, from my closet. The mulitcoloured shirt is so old, it's from the 80's. I've only recently bought it from Vinted and the story is that I used to have this in the 80's when I would wear it over a bikini when Steve and I used to go off in his little boat for picinics. At some stage I must have tired of it and given it away. Anyway, I was thrilled to find it again and I can assure you, I'll not be getting rid of it again any time soon!

Maddie was clicking as I was shouting instructions with Jamie assisting, helping to shield the screen from the sunlight so that she could see what she was doing. Poor Madds, I don't think she'll be offering to help again!

White linen trousers, sandals and handbag are all old.

We've had a week of almost constant sunshine much to the delight of all of our visitors, but we had thunder and lightening during the night and it seems to be a cooler morning as a result of that. 

Coming up on Monday is our Style Not Age challenge so please do swing by again to see our latest outfits.

                                                                                  Anna x

A complete riot of colours

This was one of my most colourful outfits of the week, worn on Friday as it was such a beautiful, bright and sunny day. I never choose my outfits in advance, waiting instead to see what the day brings, what kind of weather is on the horizon and therefore how I ought to dress to be my most comfortable. I love to mix things up with my outfits, rarely choosing to wear exactly the same thing time after time. 

My vintage Jaeger button front skirt was a wonderful charity shop find from years ago. Best of all it has pockets too! I love the wild pattern of it and was pleased to see the marriage of colours between it and the patterned bodysuit which was languishing in my closet. Pairing these two together tricked many people into thinking this was a dress. 

The red flouffy petticoat came into its own here underneath the skirt, adding volume and of course, a great dash of fun. I chose the red stretch belt to deliberately tie in with the underskirt as the eye travels from one to the other seeing this clever connection.

I didn't manage to get a good shot of my sandals - this was a last minute shoot before I was due at work. The beaded sandals were from TK Maxx and are sparkly and multicoloured which was perfect for the look of the day.

My green jeans jacket is very old, by Benetton and yet is still a favourite of mine. It also has pockets plus stretch therefore is a winner. My necklace is old, not sure from where, and my sunglasses were from Oliver Bonas at Paddington Station last year.

And this pretty much sums up how the outfit made me feel all day long! Dressing for fun, to please myself, to add colour to the everyday - these are all my motivators. How lucky am I that I have the opportunity within my working life to express myself this way and be accepted - this is my norm and thank goodness for that!

                                                                                    Anna x

From spring to summer SNA challenge

Welcome to another Style Not Age challenge! This month I chose the theme and came up with From Spring to Summer, a timely notion, don't you agree? My Lucy and Yak dungarees fit the brief perfectly as I wear them most weekends - they're perfect for wearing to do the housework, go for a walk or just bumble about. 

Jacqui has chosen this lightweight cream lace jacket as her transisitional piece and very pretty it is too! Catch up with all of her week's events on her blog Mummbstylish here. 

A sporty cardi comes from Hilda, again the perfect layer to carry you from one season to another. See more from Hilda on Over The Hilda blog post here. 

Another cardi, this time a short sleeved one, comes from Emma. The cute crochet cardi comes from TK Maxx and I wish I could just pop there now to find it! See the full post from Emma on Style Splash blog. 

This weekend was my big summer clothes changeover and lucky for me it was a perfectly sunny day on Sunday to get them all washed and hung out on the line. My garden is right beside the road and the rainbow collection was the talking point for many passers by. I spent the afternoon weeding our garden wall, cutting back all the wild brambles and unwanted plants. I enjoyed lots of conversations about my colourful clothes, my blog and the day job which allows me to express myself in these bright colours and many a flamboyant outfit.

I did have one woman stop and ask me if I was having a clothes sale and what a unique idea it was for a shop front. I shall keep that in mind for when I finally retire and need to move all of my working clothes along. 

The outfit of the day shows nothing new. The dungarees I've had for few years now, the long sleeved tee likewise and my sandals are by Heavenly Feet - these I can agree are indeed heavenly as they are so comfortable. 

Nothing new with my accessories either - the sunglasses are by Oliver Bonas, gold chain from Accessorize and rings are both pre-loved. This is my ideal outfit for the weekends, easy to wear yet colourful enough to show my personality. Many thanks for joining us once again and I look forward to catching up with you again soon!

                                                                    Anna x

My new spring coat by Masai

Hello and sorry for posting so late this week, but it's been a bit of a hectic one! I won't bore you with the details but suffice to say that I'm like the proverbial swan, appearing to glide along effortlessly while in fact there's a whole lot of paddling away underneath the surface. Anyway, I was really keen to share this rather wonderful new (to me) spring coat by Masai, a brand I've not come across until now. Well, I say now, when in fact I found this beautiful coat in a charity shop last autumn and I was wowed by not just the fabric, but also the oversized shape and of course the fabulous colour. Would you believe that it only cost me £10? Bargain of the year I'd say!

The lining too deserves a mention which is why I've turned the sleeves up to created these striped cuffs. The fabric of the coat defies my descriptive powers, but it's like a very tight crinkle type material. Hopefully someone out there will be able to tell me what that might be... The size is very oversized as it an XXL, but that is part of it's charm as far as I'm concerned as I do love the feeling of lots of room and it's perfect for wearing over the top of a big sweater or in this case over a suit jacket without it being a squeeze.

Another joyful element of today's look is my Jean Muir suit. It reminds me of my primary school teacher who always wore a woollen suit like this, but it was less flamboyant of course and always with a more fitted skirt. She referred to it as not a suit but a costume - it's funny how nearly 60 years on and I still remember that. Maybe she was a style influencer of her time.

Much as I absolutely love this suit I'm very aware that it could look a bit conservative for me, hence my adding this vibrant bodysuit to lift it out of the ordinary. All of the colours pop and leave no doubt about what this look is all about - fun!

The chunky yellow necklace also adds to the funky look along with my blue Oliver Bonas sunglasses. I was really happy with the final result.

I adore this cute little handbag. The beaded handles add character which I love. The brand is Dune but I found it in TK Maxx a few years ago. My rings of the moment are both by Emily Nixon.

My yellow tights were from Snag and trainers were from ASOS some time ago. They both work perfectly with the outfit. And best of all, wearing trainers to work kept my feet happy all day long.

So that's it! My new spring coat is bit of corker, isn't it? Much as I love summer I don't want it to come too quickly as I'd like to drift about in this dream of a coat for a little while longer.

I must add that on Monday we're about to face our Monthly Style Challenge for April. I've somehow missed the earlier prompts so I'm now off to search through my closet to see what I can come up with. Please do join me again for this. In the meantime, have a great weekeend!

                                                                                Anna x

Muted shades for March

Hello and welcome to this month's Style Not Age challenge! This month Jacqui chose Muted shades for March, a lovely choice indeed. I've shopped my closet for my outfit but it'll be new to you as the cardigan and jeans have been stashed away from some months now. First though, let's do the honours with my fashionable friends to see what they came up with.

So here's Jacqui's outfit, a lovely combination from Cotton Traders. The muted shades work so well with Jacqui's dark hair and colouring. Hop across to read her blog post on Mummabstylish. 

More muted separates from Emma... The multicoloured cardigan is from Vinted, trousers are from ASOS and trainers are by Puma. Check out her back story on The Style Splash blog.

Hilda is sporting a pale pink two piece from Vinted along with jeans by Frame. She was attending the launch of a spring collection from Avoca. See more about this on Over The Hilda.

My jeans were a charity shop find, the brand is Berksha and they are super comfy thanks to the back of them being elasticated - oh dear, is this my age showing? The cotton cardigan is from TK Maxx and is the perfect spring layer as it's lightweight and such a pretty colour.

My floral Dr Marten boots are making a regular appearance on the blog and I have no apologies for that as I love 'em!

The pop of blue thanks to my Oliver Bonas sunglasses add a certain charm to the outfit. The rings are both old and preloved, but are still a great addition to the look. The gold chain necklace is also an old piece of jewellery.

It was such a treat to see the sunshine when we took these snaps last weekend. Fingers crossed that Easter will bring some equally lovely weather too. Thanks for swinging by!

                                                            Anna x