Episode two piece

Week 46 of 2019 (November 11th to 17th be precise) I was on the mainland, in Truro and the reason I know that is because I uncovered this gem in my wardrobe recently. It's a linen two piece that I'd bought and hidden away as a surprise for myself for the summer. At that time, little did I realise that I'd be deep in the midst of a 12 month shopping ban! What a great gift therefore to unearth it this summer just when I was needing a little retail therapy. I wore it to work for the first time last week with white trainers in the afternoon, but had started the day with sandals, like this -

Steve took these shots at the Old Blockhouse castle on Saturday after my return from the hairdressers. Not that you can really tell I've had my hair done! Storm Ellen was just on the wane, but it was still very windy up on the ramparts.

I ducked out of a revamp of my hair as I wasn't really sure what I wanted. Instead I opted for a tidy up of the ends plus fringe and had a few highlights and lowlights added to give a richer colour overall. For the moment I'm going to carry on growing it as Steve likes me with longer hair and in the meantime I'll try to find some style inspiration for next time. The salon experience was great - my stylist was in mask and visor and there were only two clients in the salon at a time. I was sat by the door which was open and it all felt very safe and clean. 

So, back to the outfit. The linen two piece has big shoulder pads which indicates this may be from the 80's, the decade of power dressing - a proper vintage find then. That, plus the shorter length dress place in in that era. It's in very good shape, feels hardly worn and the colour is strong and bright making me think it's been one of those old gems where it was kept for best. The lovely gold and green colour is a great combination. I got lots of compliments when I wore it the other day.

The shiny gold buttons led me to add gold in my accessories with my go-to gold chain necklace, gold rings (preloved) and gold cuff. The retro sunglasses are from River Island.

The gold coloured cuff is an old piece that I bought in the gallery from Almost Perfect, a brand that doesn't seem to be trading currently.

The gold wedge sandals were from TK Maxx, but not this year.

The neutral (see how I avoid using the word beige?) handbag is a beautiful Radley piece, second hand from a charity shop in Harrogate a few years ago. Every time I bring it out I wonder why I don't use it more often. It's a lovely size and the quality is superb.

The rest of my weekend was filled with ordinary domestic chores. I did have a lovely long swim on Sunday morning on Pentle Bay. The yachts around the islands are beginning to thin out now and Pentle Bay was completely empty. I do love to have a beach to myself in the morning. My swims have been few and far between of late due to the pressures of work, but when the tide is high in the morning I feel the call of the sea quite intensely and will juggle what I can to create space for this chill time. Storm Ellen had curtailed swimming for a few days too and it was a real bonus to get back in the water again. One of the results of the storm was finding a line of detached thongs of seaweed, each about four foot tall, which were staggered along beach in the sea at about chest height. They were each spaced about 20 feet apart, maybe about 10 of them in total, drifting in the water showing a round knobbly head on the waterline like sentinels. As I swam the length of the beach I could observe them underneath the sea, resembling Dementors from the Harry Potter movies, their long cloaks of seaweed billowing beneath them, hanging in a strange limbo unlike anything I'd seen before. The high tide was creating a rhythmic dance, wafting them this way and that as I passed by them. There presence was all the more spooky as the sun kept disappearing behind the clouds making the sea gloomy and dark. Typically, I didn't have phone or camera with me to capture this strange sight!

Thanks for taking the time to visit. Apologies to my blogging friends for my lack of contact recently, but as you know, work is all consuming at the moment (work, eat, sleep, repeat). I'd like to think that September will see an easing up for me. Fingers crossed I'll be back at the end of the week with something else to share with you. The forecast isn't too good and I've not got any photos taken yet, but hopefully I'll be on top of things by then!

Have a lovely week all of you!

Anna x

Autumn styling tricks

Hello lovely peeps, how's things with you? You may recall me bemoaning the end of summer in a recent post and the fact that autumn represents a struggle for me style-wise. Well today I've taken the simple approach by following the fashion advice of Red magazine. The feature captured my attention mainly as I could see that I already had similar items languishing in my wardrobe.

There's nothing better than finding all of the necessary pieces in ones closet to make up a brand new outfit. My pale peach utility wear jumpsuit is so comfortable and now it seems I can extend the life of it for another couple of months. I bought mine in Topshop in the summer sale.

I'm a big fan of belts of all widths meaning that I already had this very similar one. I've had it for yonks and have no idea where I bought it. It's a lovely piece made of soft, thick leather which is why I've held onto it. On trend or not, I keep hold of quality items, not just because of the inevitability of the fashion coming around again, but because they're an absolute asset.

The snakeskin biker jacket was gifted to me by JD Williams earlier this year. See it online here. It's a lovely soft fabric, an artificial suede that wears well and hangs nicely. The rose gold necklace is pre-loved, the rose gold edged sunglasses are by Quay Australia.

My snakeskin print ankle boots were from New Look. They have a new version for this season here. This shape of Chelsea boot seems to fit my foot shape perfectly and are all-day comfortable for me - just enough heel, but not too high.

Another quality leather item is my natural leather Radley bag. If you hurry you can catch the Radley half price sale online here. Mine was an snip from a charity shop which won't surprise you. It pays to have an eagle eye, even if you're not that into second hand shopping. The flower enamel ring was another charity shop find and the ethnic ring was from a market in Cape Town (happy days!).

So, what have I learnt from Red's fashion styling tricks? It seems that by simply adding a jacket and pair of boots to summer clothes, well hey presto, that amounts to autumn dressing! I'm going to be applying this to lots of my summer clothes, that's the ones that haven't already been packed away at least. Coming up later this week, I'll be showing you how one of my favourite summer dresses looks when it gets this autumn treatment.

Did you like today's feature? If so, please let me know.

Anna x

March Madness, our Style Not Age challenge.

Hi there and welcome to this month's Style Not Age challenge, titled March Madness. I hope that you've been following the lovely group of ladies so that you may understand what madness means to each of us. Jacqui of Mummabstylish is quite conservative in her fashion tastes and therefore this mish mash of colours and patterns is indeed madness for her.

Style Splash editor Emma has gone all out in her approach to outfit madness from those crazy shoes to the cute fluffy clutch and everything in between. Personally it's something you'd see me wearing any day of the week!

Hilda's offering came from a murder mystery dinner she attended recently. The choice of this month's challenge was hers and maybe that's because she had this natty little number tucked up her sleeve. Do whizz across to her blog, Over The Hilda to read more about it.

Did I get the memo? Well yes, of course I did. Let me explain. The motto for my blog is "Let's bin the beige and have fun with colour" and therefore it's a form of madness for me to be seen dressed head to toe in beige. Beige = boring in my book. For some, such as my elegant friend Laurie of Vanity and Me Style, well beige is the height of sophistication. She looks classy in beige, I on the other hand, feel dull when I don beige. 

I know I look completely out of step with the other ladies, all jazzed up in their mad ensembles, but honestly, I couldn't find anything in my wardrobe, be it a bright pattern clash to some mad mix of colours that didn't constitute an everyday outfit for me. I do hope the collective don't feel I've let them down with this challenge.

Let's get down to details shall we? The boots are by Michael Kors, handbag is by Radley, trousers are hand-me-downs from my daughter, the brand is River Island, the sweater is pre-loved and is by Carolyn Taylor.

As for my accessories, I found the beautiful leather Radley bag in a charity shop last year and the fact that it was in pristine condition helped me get over the colour. I bought the patterned ring at an airport concession in January, the other one is a charity shop find. And I was gifted the Nordgreen watch a few months ago. 

I dug out my old favourite chunky pearls for the shoot too - these were from Debenhams many moons ago. And the mirror sunglasses are by Quay Australia.

I feel I would be letting down my style credentials if I failed to mention the fact that yes, beige is actually the height of fashion currently. Beige Is Back was the headline in January with People magazine amongst others and in the world of interiors beige is the new grey. What can say? Following the latest trend isn't high on my list of priorities, but if something I love happens to be on trend then that's a bonus for me.  Those who slavish follow the tidal wave of trends from one season to another will be easy to spot out and about being seen in all the right places as they sport the various shades of creams, tan, flax and cream. Hurrah for me then, that I've hit the mark this month, but it's all very tongue in cheek and you won't be seeing me in this washed out shade again soon.

I do hope you'll take a moment to visit the other ladies from the challenge to read their back stories too. Thanks for dropping by and I'll see you again soon!

Have a lovely week!

Anna x

From the archive

This shoot is from Polly's reign, a happy reminder of the heckling and laughter before she jumped ship, leaving me for another department and abandoning me to another winter of flying solo. I felt ambivalent about this outfit when I reviewed the photos, but at this stage I can see that beggars can't afford to be choosers. Today the grey skies, a gusting wind and heavy showers have sabotaged any thoughts I had of trying to do a shoot on my own. Pink fluffy jumper and rainbow mini skirt will have to wait for another day I think. Hahaha, and you think I'm joking, don't you!

Everything apart from the trousers is preloved. The leather jacket was a purchase in Harrogate in April and this is its first outing. The brand is House of Leather, London. The leather has a shiny gleam and looks well nourished as if it has been polished or fed with cream or wax. The elastic is taut showing no sag from age, fitting well at the cuffs and waist. I think I paid about £15 for it and am happy with that for the quality.

I paid £20 for the leather Radley bag and again this is in immaculate condition. It was a recent charity shop find, from Truro I think. Rings are preloved too.

The mustard trousers are advertised as culottes, showing how vertically challenged I must be. Yes, I'm laughing at my own jokes, sorry! See them here on the Zara site where the model is clearly tall and leggy and wearing them with high heels too. I bought them with the intention of wearing them with my latest crush - yes my tartan boots, but somehow that didn't work. My sunglasses are by Quay Australia and the roll neck was an eBay purchase years ago.

I like the mustard alongside the pony skin leopard print of these Oxfords (from Office and second hand). I've recently bought a pair of vintage high heeled boots that may work better with these trousers though. I've just sent them off to be re-heeled, so you'll have to wait to see how that pans out later. 

The white socks weren't me paying homage to Michael Jackson, more a momentary lapse in concentration when I was rummaging in my sock drawer. Later that morning I had to admit the error of my ways and nipped home to change them for black ones which merged much better with the shoes. Hah! And I consider myself a stylist, eh? Well actually, no I don't.

My summation of this look is that these wide, slightly cropped trousers do me no favours at all - well not with flat shoes that's for sure. I have short legs and these only serve to highlight that. But I do love them (both legs and trousers) none the less and will be trying to improve on this offering in due course. 

I'll leave you with this shot taken from my office window. That swirling bright light seemed to create a face in the clouds - does that look like a cute doggie to you?

Til next time, take care!

Anna x