Summer show: 4 of 6

I can hardly believe that we're more than half way through the run of our summer shows already. Polly and I are in the flow of hanging a new show, hosting the opening night party, selling and packing the work ready to dispatch and then before we know it, it's time to take it all down and start again. Details of the work for this particular show are here. Nick Botting, Rosemary Trestini and Gary Long have all been inspired by the islands so do take a look at the link to see the resulting works. And an opening night couldn't take place without my team of lovely assistants, so take a bow, Ruth, Polly and Max -

We rallied outside the gallery for our obligatory photo shoot and the weather put on its blustery best just to add a bit of interest to the shots. As skirts flapped and flew, we grabbed and clamped down what we could amidst shrieks of laughter.

The dress of the day for me is a small mending success by way of my new found sewing skills. I bought this (H&M) frock which was brand new (rrp £79.99) but due to the broken zip was retailing at £7.99. These brand goods are coming through a Truro charity shop that is in receipt of their "rejects" the best of which my daughter and I scoop up from time to time. My sewing teacher would be proud at my efforts. I carefully unstitched the broken zip, and lovingly pinned the new one in before machining it in place. The skirt has a nude lining as far as the knee, so looks more racy than it actually is. And that's it - four exhibitions down, two to go! 

The dress, as I say, is from H&M, the gold beaded top is so old that I can't recall where I bought it, the shoes are from Primark, handbag is Accessorize (again, very old though), necklace comes from Magpie Vintage, nude ring is from Boots and yellow ring is Martin James (airport stock).

This week I'll be linking with

Catherine of Not Dressed As Lamb

Jess of Elegantly Dressed And Stylish

Cherie of Style Nudge

Patti of Not Dead Yet Style

Anna x

May show time!

Yes, it's that time of year again - time for another exhibition at the gallery with the best excuse ever to bring out my finery. This outfit went with me on our cruise in February (see here), but didn't make the final cut when I swanned around the cabin to get Steve's opinion. In fact, we both liked it, but not as much as some of the frocks I had taken along which rivalled this shirt and skirt combo. 

On Thursday we were hosting a mixed show from a group of seven artists. I managed to hijack a couple of the artists before the preview evening began. Nicola Hancox and Paul Lewin both went on to have a great opening night party. Check out their work here.  The Isles of Scilly attract thousands of tourists every year amongst them hundreds of artists, professional, amateur and aspiring, hoping to capture the essence of this beautiful archipelago. The five inhabited islands offer an insight into life where weather and tides influence our every day, where boats are our main mode of transport, where there will be more birds on the beach than humans, and where it's possible to spend a day playing Robinson Crusoe on an uninhabited island if that's your dream. To learn more about these beautiful isles see here.

As you can no doubt tell, the wind was blowing as Polly and I tried to maintain our smiles and ignore our windswept tresses. Our photo shoot was a bit of a rushed affair thanks to the weather, but at least you get an idea of the evening and our ensembles. Polly wears a black lace dress and black sandals both from H&M. My black blouse is from Uniqlo, the skirt is by Anthropologie (I succumbed to it at sale time which helped make it less painful), shoes are my well worn favourites from Primark, clutch is Accessorize (charity shop) and doesn't it match these shoes perfectly? My belt was from eBay, necklace from Dorothy Perkins and rings are from a charity shop.

Linking with

Catherine of Not Dressed as Lamb

Patti of Not Dead Yet Style

Anna x

April showers

There's nothing we can do about April showers apart from finding the right jacket to fend them off. This silver Parka was my daughter's, but she grew tired of it. Her loss, my gain surely. I think the grey weather influenced my clothes choice but I managed to find a bit of sparkle amongst the monochrome as my tunic had a strand or two of lurex thread sprinkled throughout.

It was the end of the working day when Polly and I were just locking up to go home. I thought one more photo to catch the early evening sunshine wouldn't go amiss. The worst of the rain had cleared through by lunchtime; normal service was resumed.

This was the first (and last) time I wore this tunic/top/dress. I'd found it in a charity shop a few months back, but hadn't managed to find a good partnership for it. Today, however, I had the brainwave to add my faux leather jeans and suddenly there was the start of an outfit. The check blouse virtually jumped off the hanger as I was pondering my next move, and finally these sweet little brogues offered themselves up for inspection. I totally adore the shoes, but they're actually half a size too small. Every so often I get them out and think that they will stretch - this time - but they never do!

It was a good enough ensemble, but not the kind of thing that makes my heart sing. As part of my clearing out regime, I'm starting to get rid of these OK items, and this one is on its way to a fellow blogger who may love it a bit more than I did. I suppose it could have gone onto my "to sell" pile, but I could imagine the recipient wearing this and looking cute as anything. I hope she enjoys it.

Jacket: Primark. Tunic: charity shop. Trousers; H&M. Blouse: charity shop. Shoes: TK Maxx. Necklace: old. Rings: charity shop. Sunglasses: Quay Australia.