Autumn Colours, our Style Not Age challenge for October

Hello again, and welcome to our Style Not Age challenge for October. This month Hilda has opted for Autumn Colours as our theme, a most timely choice. I just happened to be wearing this (non-outfit) outfit the other day when the photos started to arrive in my inbox and so I thought it might just pass muster.

So, let's start with Hilda, who has recently become a grandmother (again) to a dear little baby girl. The chocolate brown trousers are new, from Cos and the pretty embroidered cardigan, tee shirt and trainers are all shopped from her closet. Catch up on her news on Over the Hilda. 

Jacqui too has shopped her wardrobe for this month's look. She's wearing russets, greys and black as her autumn colours - see more from her on her blog Mummabstylish.

Emma is sharing one of her holiday snaps with us from the sunny island of Madeira where she's wearing a favourite orange jumpsuit by Nutmeg with gold accessories. See more from her on Style Splash. 

Despite this not being a staged outfit per se, it is one of my most seen looks of late. I love this embroidered coat and am wearing it often as I know it's a brief window of opportunity before I'll have to pack it away until warmer spring days. I found it on Vinted earlier on this year and love that I rediscovered these jeans recently - hence they're turning up on the blog like a rash at the moment! Anyway the jeans and coat marry up beautifully so excuse me if you see me out and about in them, again.

Something that is new however is this rather grand Harris Tweed and leather backpack which I bought in Inverness last month. Scotland prides itself on fine goods in Harris Tweed and I was tempted to buy a handbag in this pattern, but after much thought I hit on the idea of having a backpack to not only free up my hands, but to use as my travelling bag when popping off the island. 

It's big enough to hold all of the essentials plus my drinking bottle and still has enough room for my book of the moment and glasses - so important when I'm waiting for a flight on sitting on the train. Needless to say I love the dear little backpack and hope to have many happy trips with it in years to come.

The embroidery theme continues with my Replay trainers which you'll no doubt have seen many times before. I have these in two colourways and wear them often as they're jazzy enough for work and yet so blooming comfortable when I have to stand at the desk all day.

As ever, I'm delighted to show you my Emily Nixon gemstone ring which I've worn daily since Steve bought it for my birthday in January. I so hope that this is the start of new trend for him after many years of being sidetracked during my birthday month... Apologies for the lack of manicure, but it was an impulse photo shoot!

This little beach track is just across the road from our doctor's surgery and is a much nicer place to hang out whilst waiting for the annual flu jab that Steve and I had recently. He's not doing too bad a job as my blog photographer of late, don't you think?

Thanks again for dropping by and I do hope that our monthly style challenges feed your imagination!

                                                                        Anna x

Adidas trouser suit

Hello there! How are you? We've been so lucky this week with sunshine making a regular appearance. It's such a simple pleasure to see the sunshine - it's the best mood-lifter ever! I'm feeling brighter, more motivated and defintely happier this week. 

I've managed to ditch the coat this week and have gotten by with gloves and scarf to keep the wind at bay. I've pretty much shopped my closet for everything and yet it's still a make-me-happy outfit. I think the only new addition is my cute and compact handbag, a Steve Madden gem that I bought when I was in Truro in December. I love that it's both a handbag and an across the body bag and I do use it both ways.

You'll have seen this coral Adidas trouser suit before and yet it's still looking fresh. I was delighted to be stopped by a lady on the road who wanted to pay me a compliment on my bright and colourful outfit. It's somehow even nicer when a complete stranger pays you a compliment isn't it? She couldn't believe that it was made by Adidas - it's quite formal compared to the usual sportswear of the brand.

There's nothing new with my jewellery: the necklace is old from Topshop, sunglasses old from Radley London, my beaded belt was from Amazon, rings are by Diana Porter and Emily Nixon.

As I mentioned, I'm feeling much brighter this week and that's spilled over onto the home front. I've been watching re-runs of Sort Your Life Out and it's created a real need in me to actively engage with my clutter and start to make a difference. Already, just in the space of a few days, I've relocated bits of furniture and ditched quite a lot of junk. And the wonderful thing is that it becomes quite addictive. I'm finding moments in my day, just while waiting for the kettle to boil for example, when I can throw open a kitchen cupboard and see exactly what needs to be moved on - it's so liberating!

I rediscoved my love for these ornate trainers by Replay and tied them in with my equally colourful floral roll neck (from Vinted). As ever, the outfit of the day is always chosen to please me rather than worn to attract comments from others, but of course, it's always a bonus if it garners compliments, which it did several times. It strikes me that if my outfit makes others smile, gives them joy, well what a lovely thing that is!

                                                                            Anna x

Style Scientist

Hello again! Yes, I'm back after my mini break at home where sewing was the name of the game. It was glorious, stressful, frustrating and a joy, as well as a battle as I struggled to overcome my personal limitations with both machine and brainpower, but mostly it was fun. 

Here I am wearing my new jacket, lined in burgundy satin to give it a bit of both body and style. This was one of my minor sewing projects, causing me less of a headache than others. Initially I'd planned on lining this £6 Vinted three quarter length jacket in a baby pink satin fabric but it didn't excite me so I regrouped, coming up with the clever idea of buying a satin dressing gown to repurpose instead. This meant that I had the basics already in place - seams all sewn and in the right places too. 

I removed the sleeves using only the body of the material to line the jacket, attaching it to the neckline and sides. It's a fab new addition to my wardrobe, especially at this time of year as my annual clothes changeover happens. 

Anyway, I'll be peppering my blog with other lovely sewing successes in due course, but today I wanted to say thank-you to a kind blog follower and friend who recently came to chat with me in the Gallery. Rosemary has coined the phrase, Style Scientist, applying it to me. According to her my experiments with clothes and accessories do have a place in the style choices of the likes of her and many others who follow my blog or pop in to see what I'm wearing while they're on holiday. She said that my recent neon boots (see here) were an inspiration for her and even though she considers herself fairly conservative in her dressing she said that these boots could earn a place in her wardrobe. I recently wore them with a pair of black jeans and a simple crew neck black sweater especially with Rosemary in mind - it was a cool look, even if I say so myself!

The explosion of colours in the jacket acted as a springboard for today's outfit. I've run with the patterns and embroidery stories too which give this a very maximalist look - I'm sure that Iris Apfel would have been proud of me! Sometimes you just have to submit to the more is more mode of dressing, and if my happy dressing is infectious then that's an absolute bonus.

I'm wearing my pale pink Replay trainers (old, from TK Maxx) along with this new shopper that Sasha recently gave me. She's on a big clear out like me, which suits me fine if I'm going to benefit from pieces like this!

My rings are both very old, pre-loved and worn with my only other accessory, my Quay Australia sunglasses. The lace blouse is old, from Zara a few year's ago and the trousers are from Vinted.

Photo bombing continues to be a favourite sport for some of the locals ...

... many thanks to Mitch and Lorna for pepping things up! But maybe I ought to stop being a sitting duck.

So that's the latest from me. I'll be back on Monday, the last one of the month which means it'll be time for our Style Not Age Challenge. Please do swing by if you get a moment.

                                                                        Anna x

Two birthday bashes

Hello again, and how's tricks with you? Recently my sister-in-law, Gill, celebrated her 70th birthday and we had a lovely family gathering to mark the occasion. Do you remember Polly who was my gallery assistant a few years ago? Well she and my nephew David had a baby six months ago - this is Mose in the photo. We had a very long and lazy lunch party for Gill, with delicious food and an endless supply of champagne.

Gill's children had clubbed together to pay for a week of luxury in the newly converted Blockhouse Cottage which was the childhood home of Steve and Gill so you can imagine how the memories came flooding back for them. They had such fun reminiscing about the good ol' days while they told us stories about their time growing up on Tresco.  

This was what I wore that day. The jacket was a purchase from Vinted, trousers are old (from ASOS) and the River Island top was also from Vinted. 

I love the combination of peach and lilac together. My jewellery is all old too - necklace was from Debenhams many moons ago and the perspex rings are pre-loved. 

The white patent leather boots finish off this retro look perfectly. What a great excuse the party was for me to dress up! Luckily for me, the next evening we were invited to join with the family again to celebrate my birthday. Gill's birthday is the day before mine, but I was happy to turn up to sweep up the crumbs from her party table. We had drinks that evening outside by the fire pit which was a great start to the celebrations. From there we had a running buffet followed by a beautiful birthday cake made by my neice Zoe of Bryher Bake Box fame.

Zoe had been very clever in managing to decorate my cake in the same colours as my birthday evening outfit.

The rose gold ensemble matched my cake beautifully. My rose gold shoes were from, yes, you guessed it, Vinted as was the sweater. The Iris skirt is from Eleven Loves, but is all sold in out this blush colour. You can find a berry version on their sale page here. 

Evening indoor photography isn't my forte, but I wanted to showcase this fab tulle skirt regardless. I recently showcased a cream skirt so very similar to this one, but this really is a different one.

Note the cute tiny shoes beside me. These belong to Raffy, one of my great neices. The week was a great opportunity to catch up with all of Steve's family who had travelled to Tresco for the houseparty. They raved about the on site spa facilites and yoga room which they used every day, in fact they raved about the whole experience!

And this was another shot from my 66th birthday. After the picnic lunch with Steve, I had a bit of downtime that afternoon and then swam on the high tide as the sun was setting at about 5pm. All in all, I'd had a pretty perfect day. 

                                                                    Anna x

When is a suit not a suit?

Well the answer to the conundrum is perfectly simply - when it's your pj's! Yes, this totally glamorous outfit is actually Karen Millen heavy satin pj's, bought recently, brand new with tags, from Vinted. I challenged myself not to share this info all day, regardless of the fact that I received many compliments on the ensemble, and even my husband who's the first to tease me about my outfit of the day didn't spot this.

The key to dressing up your pj's for daywear has to be good accessories and this gold link belt (Primark, old) goes a long way in the transformation. Another must-do is to add a bit of definition by way of the body hugging vest top (H&M, old) as this sharpens up the look too. The long gold necklace again shows this is very much an outfit rather than you making a sneaky dash to the shops in your jim-jams. 

Pockets too, clearly show that this is daywear not slouchy-at-home wear. I love a pocket for that easy-to-wear casual look and this is the ultimate in smart/casual dressing!

Jewellery can be transformational too and mine today leaves no-one in any doubt that this is serious dressing up not dressing down. The rope necklace was a gift from a friend and the two blue rings are both charity shop finds from long ago.

It's not by chance that today's sunglasses work tonally to pull this look together. These are by Radley London.

Pristine white trainers (by Replay) punctuate the look perfectly. Pj's as daywear, worn by Gallery Tresco Manager, with panache, as on Monday.

Footnote: the good news is that I've found my tweezers, also the lost reading glasses I didn't confess to losing at the same time. Note to self, don't tidy things away in new/better places as you'll never remember! The key from work remains lost however, but has been replaced and put on a very large, clunky keyring making it more difficult for me to lose.

And apologies for the late posting this week. Summer is upon us and the juggling of time and work needs are catching up on me. But thank you for coming back to catch up on my news. I've had a little creative moment sewing-wise, not a make as such, more customising something which I hope to showcase soon.  See you soon!

                                                                            Anna x

July and shopping my closet

I'll cut to the chase and tell you that it's not been the best of days today. I've lost a key at work, an important one, although at least not the only one, but lost somehow. Then later at home I couldn't find my best tweezers - completely gone, not in the usual place, not anyplace in fact. But what really confirmed me having a bad day was on returning home after a day of manning the desk, I'd popped upstairs to spend a penny and when I looked at my reflection as I washed my hands I discovered that I'd forgotten to finish my make-up and had spent the whole day wearing only blusher and lipstick! Not a scrap of eyeshadow or a sweep of mascara!! Maybe not earth shattering for you, but I'm one of those women who won't be seen outside without full make-up on. Am sharing all of this with you in case it's part of a gradual decline into something more ominous and a darned sight less funny. Ever the drama queen me!

But this was funny: me enjoying the fact that a cyclist had just managed to avoid knocking Fiona over as she stood in the middle of the road to take my photos. It was a tad risky on her part, but she likes to live on the edge does Fiona! Anyway, on to the outfit of the day, shall we? The jeans jacket is by Bennetton and must be at least 10 years old. I love the colour, plus it's got stretch, and pockets. Pretty much my dream jacket then.

The jumpsuit is one I bought in Manchester 5 years ago in H&M. I've recently made small alterations to it meaning it fits much nicer now. The neckline was previously too wide so I've added some darts in both back and front for a snugger fit. I've added an orange stretch belt to give a bit of definition to what is quite a baggy outline.

Shopping my closet includes my jewellery, so nothing new with rings (pre-loved) or necklace (from Topshop) or even sunglasses (Radley).

My brocade trainers were from TK Maxx many moons ago, the brand is Replay. Super comfy as all of my Replay trainers are, hurrah!

Let me introduce you to Jill who's my latest sewing friend. Jill and I got chatting in the Gallery the other day after she complimented me on my dress. We nattered on comparing stories and then later that day we met up again and this time she was wearing her new homemade dress. The pattern is from the V&A website and the fabric is from Liberty no less. Isn't it fabulous and didn't she do well with the contrasting sleeves and placket!

Jill is here on holiday on Tresco and is a true vision of loveliness! I'm thrilled at how sewing has brought lots of new people into my life already. It was super to meet you Jill!

                                                                                          Anna x