Two in five million

So, here's the explanation for my recent absence. Steve and I were two of the five million people in the UK who reported having Covid19 last week. And that's just the five million who reported it, not those didn't. It's alarming isn't it? And yet, this is indeed our new normal where businesses are closing temporarily or paring down their services to accommodate the prevalence of the virus. Tresco, like the rest of Great Britain, is awash with the illness. Steve and I are still at home waiting to show a negative test result or at least feel well enough to return to work. What about you? They say that one in 14 of us has the virus currently so we all know someone who has it. If it's you then I'd say stay home until you're well, keep warm, take paracetamol to control your temperature and pain, drink lots of fluids and suck on ice chips to soothe an inflamed throat.

Today's post is from last month, Mother's Day to be precise, when we went to the beachfront Ruin Cafe at Old Grimsby for lunch. Our table view was pretty idyllic and being indoors meant we were out of the driving Easterly wind too. I had flowers and gifts from my children, including a gift card for TK Maxx, but more of that later. I dressed a la 70's style for my lunch date.

It's been a while since I've worn this flower power jacket by Anja Rock. I remember I bought it when I was in Manchester four years ago on my modelling stint with JD Williams - read all about that here. TK Maxx in the centre of Manchester was a wonderful haven full of all sorts of fashion delights and bargains. See the first time I showcased the jacket here - it was a fabulously bright and breezy post that's worth another look if you missed it.

Steve and I had taken a stroll home through the woods after our leisurely lunch when we hit this golden pool of sunlight. Too good an opportunity to miss, eh?

The heart patterned flares were from Asos, the sweater is totally ancient, and the stone coloured boots of the moment are also from Asos. The observant amongst you may have seen that my pre and post-lunch sunglasses are different, but both are from Quay Australia.

My 70's jewellery collection is all pre-loved charity shop finds. 

My print clutch bag is from Zara and was actually part of the gift packaging of a new blouse, a birthday present from my dear friend Bo in January. See here for that. 

My boots of the moment are these chunky ecru dreams from Asos. The beautiful Chelsea boots can be found here. 

So, in between Mother's Day and Covid19, I've been to the mainland again for another health appointment, this time for some pre-cancerous cell removal on my face. The upside was that I went off clutching the lovely gift card and oh my goodness, what a super time I had! Not only did I shop there, but I snapped up some fab charity shop purchases too. 

These beaded sandals were from TK Maxx and the almost matching necklace was a charity shop find, hurrah!

Gradually I'll showcase these and give you the lowdown on where and how much etc, but in the meantime you'll just have to feast your eyes on the pretty colours and textures of my new springtime wardrobe. The fact that I've ousted 32 boxes of clothes and shoes out of the house means that this has been a guilt-free splurge - whoohoooo!

Wishing you a super week ahead!

Anna x

The last weekend...

What last weekend? you may be asking. Well, the last weekend before we re-open for another season. On Friday the island of Tresco will be welcoming visitors once again, so this was my last weekend before I have to start dressing as the Gallery Manager. 

It was a weekend spent batch cooking for the freezer and also a time for catching up on those admin jobs you never really feel are important enough to make it to the top of the list - namely, getting in touch with every single company who sends me unsolicited brochures and flyers. I hate to see all that paper going to waste so I finally spent an hour contacted each and every one to politely ask them to remove me from their mailing list. It gave me a lovely sense of achievement.

I barely think this warrants being called the outfit of the day as it was an at home day, but Fiona kindly agreed to take some photos of this most casual weekend wear. Bejewelled jeans may not be everyone's idea of casual, but hey that's what they are in my book. They're rather old now, but I fancy I bought them at TK Maxx many moons ago. 

The addition of a couple of (pre-loved) knuckle-duster rings did lend a bit of dressing up to the whole affair though.

And the blue animal print sweater is also old, again from TK Maxx. 

The pale pink floral trainers are by Replay, and yes, were another happy find in TK Maxx. 

The white soles are flecked with silver glitter, surely a great reason to buy them!

Every time I wear this fabulous vintage coat it reminds me of Sicily and the wonderful cruise Steve and I went on 6 years ago. If you're new to the blog you can hop back to see that post here. Ah, happy days!

I'm not sure when Steve and I will venture off for another big holiday like that again. This summer we'll be quite content bobbing off in our little motor boat to picnic on the Eastern Isles and swim on our favourite deserted beaches. 

                                                                                                  Anna x

If I Were a Handbag, our Style Not Age challenge for February

Hello and welcome our monthly style challenge! I'll 'fess up straight away - yes the subject was my choice this month. For those who know me, you'll agree that my featured handbag is a good reflection of my character - fluffy on one side and smooth on the other, and exceedingly bright and colourful. I have a scatty fun side away from work, but also a smooth, glossy business side which is how I see myself at work. So how do my fashionista friends see themselves...?

Jacqui's offering for the challenge is this compact satchel bag with ornate front. Not sure what this says about her, but it's a super practical bag. See more from Jacqui on Mummabstylish.

Gail is showcasing a red bowling bag which was a Christmas present. The compact, sleek style ties in with her elegant outfit. Find all of the details on her blog Is This Mutton? 

Hilda's choice is a bright green tote borrowed from a local boutique. The bag is big enough to carry a laptop, in a burst of colour from a local designer. See her back story on Over the Hilda blog. 

Emma's handbag is a funky colourful piece by Angel Jackson which has inspired a lovely mix of colours in her outfit. Read all about it on The Style Splash.

My dear friend Ben found this fabulous multicoloured bag in a market on his travels and immediately thought of me - wild and colourful! I was thrilled to receive such an individual piece to add to my handbag collection. It's been my go-to bag for the past month, inspiring various colourful outfits for my working day. 

The fringed side of the bag is a glorious fuzzy, tufted aspect of this oversized handbag. 

As for the outfit of the day - the leather coat is by Next, a charity shop purchase for £20, trousers are from Topshop (ah, the good ol' days!), turtle neck from Primark, shoes and glitter socks from TK Maxx - none of this is new. 

The ring gold coloured ring is pre-loved and the chunky silver and gold etched In Heaven on Earth ring is by Diana Porter. The mustard gloves are from TK Maxx.

The mustard hues continue with my Quay Australia sunglasses.

So how did we all fare with this month's challenge? I do hope you enjoyed it. I loved the opportunity to show you this glorious bag again and would like to think there may be some inspiration within today's feature for everyone. 

Sending love to you all and I do hope that you're safe. Take care!

                                                                                                Anna x

My pretty new Zara blouse

Hello again! How was your weekend? Mine seemed to go past in a bit of a blur of cooking, cleaning and yes, dejunking. The boxes are mounting up as I clear out cupboard after cupboard, moving out anything that's not useful, beautiful or loved by us. Even poor Steve was involved as I attacked his guilty area of workwear calling on him to help cull his large, but very tired, collection of checked shirts of which there seemed to be many. We're still in the midst of the job, barely half way through the entire house, but as they say, out of chaos comes order!

So, this is my new blouse, a birthday present from my friend Bo who lives in Portugal. It's from Zara, but I can't find it online here. The fabric is lightweight and will be wonderful to wear in the summer (I'm imagining it with white jeans and sandals), but I was so impatient to try it on then decided to winterise it with my pre-loved Ralph Lauren fairisle vest.

I teamed up the blouse with my ochre Kate trousers from J D Williams - see them here on sale now. I love the fit of these slim trousers mainly because of the stretch which makes them super comfy. This is the first time I've worn them despite having them for years - yes, I really mean years. It's only due to the big clear out that I rediscovered them, still with tags on, and decided to try them on. How fab is that to find a great new pair of trousers hidden away? And doubly fab when they match my new blouse perfectly!

My pre-loved perspex rings pick out some of the colours in today's outfit adding to the pattern play too. Dark green pearls and Quay Austalia sunglasses complete the accessories.

Russet platform boots give a bit more leg-lengthening height to the look which is never a bad thing. These are very old indeed and were from Office.

And just to add a bit more pattern to the mix, I wore my Joe Brown's woolen 3/4 length jacket. This one is out of stock now, but I did find another cute jacket - see here.  The lining is a wonderful bit of pattern play too!

It seems that here in the UK we'll all be hunkering down for the rest of the week as we have two gales lining up to give us a bit of a battering. I'd planned to get some outdoor photos taken on the beach at the weekend, but I'll maybe have to come up a plan B just in case. Do take care, wherever you are and thanks for dropping by!

                                                                            Anna x

Look what I got for Christmas!

Happy New Year to you, my dear readers! I hope that you've had a lovely break and managed to stay well. We've had a super family time over the past couple of weeks and it's been one of our best Christmases ever I would say. My daughter's boyfriend came over from the mainland for the festive period, adding to our excitement as this was the first time we've met him. Suffice to say that he's an absolute gem, a real find and such a happy addition to our family.

So, this amazing vintage leather jacket is what Steve bought for my Christmas. Of course, I made sure that wishlists were passed on to everyone, and this is what I directed Steve to. Many moons ago I had a patchwork leather blazer that I passed on to a friend and this reminds me somewhat of that. The jacket was from eBay, bought at the end of November, leaving just the right amount of time for it to get here in the midst of the postal chaos.

I love the variety of skins used to create this very unusual jacket; the animal print, embossed hide, diamante studs, floral prints, tassel fringes and leather ruffles all go to make it quite unique. It's like wearing a piece of art. Oh my goodness, how I love it! 

I teamed the jacket with an old gold sweater (from H&M) and these funky new jeans (Primark). 

The gold leather Chelsea boots are very ancient (from River Island), but much loved.

I took myself off for a Boxing Day walk to burn up a few excess calories and also test drive the bomber jacket and see how it fitted. It's fab, passed the test with flying colours! 

I stopped to enjoy the view. I wasn't surprised to see lots of people out, stretching their legs after all of those Christmas Day calories. Family groups with dogs, couples out walking and driving past on golf buggies, all passed by below my hilltop perch in the half hour I sat there.

Today's jewellery features another Christmas present - the necklace (Zara) was from a girlfriend and is a perfect accessory for this look. The gold coloured flower ring was a Christmas pressie from her too, a couple of years ago. The other gold ring was a charity shop find. The sunglasses are by Quay Australia.

Apart from family meals together we had a pretty low key time over the holidays. We met up with our extended family for drinks one night which was another excuse to dress up, but no pics of that. I did manage to get some shots of the day that I dressed for work as my favourite Christmas movie, Elf.

This was very well received by all of my customers at the Gallery that day, resulting in lots of laughter and appropriate comments.

And this was my outfit for NYE at home, where I did have my very own kitchen disco while hubby snoozed in front of the TV.

I did full on glitz for that, wearing silver and gold sparkles, sequins and glitter. None if it was new, but all fulfilled the need for full on glamour on the home front!

And finally, here's some swimming shots from the festive period. The first was my last swim of 2021.

And below is the venue for my New Year's Day swim. Green Porth was tucked out of the westerly wind affording just enough protection to make it look nigh on perfect.

I was joined by two islanders, Rebecca and Emma for the swim which was in aid of Mental Health Swims. Photos from each of us earned donations from Speedo. Somehow a group swim always feels better, dare I say even warmer, as you have the lovely distraction of chat and laughter throughout.

Not drowning, just waving!

And that pretty much rounds up my past week or so. It's been great to have some time away from work and to relax in my pj's for a change. I do hope you've had a lovely break from the norm and that you managed to spend some time with your nearest and dearest. Sending you lots of love and good luck for 2022 from my island home.

                                                                                         Anna x