Ecru boilersuit from Tu

Happy Friyay!

Friday/Friyay, whichever, I'm still happy to be on the cusp of the weekend. Even though I'm furloughed, I do love to have that Friday feeling where the weekday pressure is off. My weekdays are proving to be much more challenging than I expected. I thought I'd be bouncing out of bed at 5am, galloping off to the beach and then swirling around the house like a hyman tornado, spring-cleaning every nook and cranny before lunch. And yet, it's not like that at all. My sleep is disturbed and my very early mornings often result in a mid-morning slump. I'm trying to avoid the news as it's my main source of stress, but I'm like a kid with a scab on its knee who just can't help going back to it. But, from what I can gather, I'm not alone with this lack of productivity. The simple truth is, we're not quite sure how to deal with these most extraordinary times, are we?

But, one thing that's well within my limits is dressing up! I saw the TV advert for Tu Clothing in March and immediately fell for the charms of this ecru boilersuit. The colour, the elasticated waist, the cut, the fit - all are perfect for my colouring and shape. I seem to be having a bit of a moment with cream denim of late, but that's no biggie is it? I can happily report that the boilersuit is still available online here. At £35 I consider this to be value for money as well as being practical and stylish. Ideal for simply lounging around indoors or for striding out for the daily walk, it really is a great buy.

I opted to add orange as a feature colour to the ecru (mainly because I thought Steve would pass a comment about me looking ready to do a bit of painting and decorating). 

The orange resin necklace is ancient, the orange leather belt and across the body bag are charity shopped as are the rings. The sunglasses are by Quay Australia.

The orange embroidered trainers are by Replay from TK Maxx. Comfortable and very in keeping with today's easy-to-wear look.

I'm very happy to report that I've at last finished my clothes changeover. It took longer than usual, but I've done a fair bit of downsizing and reducing the actual volume of clothes I have available for spring/summer season. 

This year I've chosen to colour co-ordinate the pieces rather than group them into dresses, skirts etc. The shoes underneath reflect the colours above.

I have under-the-bed boxes and on-top-of-the wardrobe boxes housing summer shoes and sandals too. Winter shoes and boots are packed up under the bed too.

The run of colours goes from light to dark. The smaller shelves are home to handbags and scarves. (Not colour grouped I've just noticed.)  A lot of the handbags have smaller ones stashed inside each other.

On the far right are my jackets, tops and trousers, and casual footwear.

Jumpers and jeans are housed on the far right shelving system. The whole run of wardrobes is fronted with mirrors allowing plenty opportunity for self criticism. There's a whole load of angst goes on up here before you guys get to see the outfit of the day!

Wishing you a lovely weekend!

                                                                                       Anna x

Flaming June!

Hello and welcome to this month's Style Not Age challenge! Flaming June is the theme set by Jacqui and goodness I do hope she enjoys the irony of my offering in this less-than-summery month. When she suggested this topic, Jacqui proffered tips on any fire bright colours from flame yellow through to brazier bright orange and all the way to sizzling shades of red. That seemed to be simple enough I thought. But as we all know, life rarely goes to plan and the minute I started to line up this outfit, well the weather seemed to take against me! Polly and I finally accepted that we'd shoot the gorgeous outfit regardless of the fickle British weather.

I've been trying a new style strategy to counter these grey summer days which is simply to wear bright colours on dull days. The resulting lift in mood has been remarkable helping me counter the blahs with a blast of colour confidence I've not experienced before on these rainy days. My default setting has previously been to wear black or at least dark colours when it rains, goodness knows why, but I've been drawn to these dour shades almost as if I've been reflecting the grey skies. My fashionista friends may have been luckier with the weather for their photo shoots, so let's see how they fared with this month's quest.

As this is Jacqui's challenge I thought we'd start with her and goodness, it's a fantastic start!  Her daughter's wedding and a holiday in Majorca seem to have fallen back to back, so goodness knows how she's found time to pull this great outfit together. Read the back story to the look on her blog Mummabystylish.

Emma never fails to impress me with these monthly tasks and this month she is as cute as ever. Not only does Emma have a great sense of which colours flatter her, but she has the most stunning figure to showcase the outfit too. Emma, this is fab-u-lous! See more on her blog the Style Splash. 

Last, but by no means least is Hilda from Over The Hilda showing she's pretty hot stuff too in her Flaming June ensemble. We've clearly all been inspired by this one! Join Hilda on her blog here to see more of this super outfit.

My fabulous yellow trouser suit is from JD Williams (not gifted, please note) and was on my wishlist for months after I saw Evon wearing it during the trip to Cape Town for the spring fashion shoot. The scene in the TV commercial where she throws those big doors open wearing this suit won me over immediately - I just knew then that I'd have to buy it! The jacket and trousers are actually on offer now see here. 

Evon's silver sandals are still available and also on offer currently as seen here.

My own styling twist for the zingy trouser suit has me wearing these brocade trainers by Replay for a practical workaday outfit. I've injected another burst of colour with my Frida Kahlo tee shirt from Primark. You couldn't get a more summery look could you? Well, maybe if the sun actually shone I suppose.

Polly and I did this photo shoot at the end of the day on Tuesday last week and I fancy if we'd held off until the weekend the weather might have been a bit brighter. However, this weekend I may well be in London, but that my dear friends is another story as they say ...

Accessories comprise of heavy gold chain (a gift from Sasha) and these gold coloured rings are both pre-loved. 

One of the best features of these trousers is the stretch fabric - no tweaking and pinching when they have that extra bit of give in them! I wore the suit all day long and there's hardly a crease to be seen either. This is the first time I've worn it and that was a real bonus to find it after a long day at work it was still sharp enough to withstand the scrutiny of these close up shots.

I'm sure the ladies from the collective will be laughing at my usual out-of-step offering for this month's challenge. I would have loved to showcase this fabulous suit in sunny weather, but life truly conspired against that. The photo shoot for last Thursday's post took place on Wednesday and on Thursday I had a whole lot of packing to do. As I write, my plans are just coming together for a quick weekend trip with Steve to London to see a concert. 

By Monday he and I will be back on the train hurtling back south to Cornwall for an overnight stay in Truro. And when I say Truro, you know what that means - it's my favourite stamping ground for a bit of charity shopping! I'll only have a couple of hours, but goodness, I'm pretty adept at speed shopping as it's one of the skills I've honed to perfection after living on an island for over 40 years. As the summer exhibition period is fast approaching I could do with some new inspiration in the party frock department. Look out mainland, here I come!

                                                                                               Anna x

Everyday sequins?

I'll understand if wearing sequins in an everyday way may not be for you, but when you have a fabulous sequinned jacket just hanging around waiting for its moment, then sometimes you just have to make up an excuse to wear it. The wind was sharp and strong yesterday morning when Steve and I had planned to scoot out for a quick photo shoot. I'd already decided to wear these Boden chinos (quite old) along with this white tee shirt with the lovely gold blocking stating "Paris is always a good idea" (by Public Envy from TK Maxx), but this was chosen when we'd had a lovely sunny day. 

It wasn't too difficult a decision to pop this fabulous jacket over my outfit making this a very happy ensemble. The jacket is by Anothereight and was also from TK Maxx, a birthday find earlier on this year. It's nicely padded and so was the perfect toasty layer. I love the practicality of it being padded but also the impracticality of it being sequinned - cosy and beautiful, hurrah!

More posing and less bossing was pretty much what Steve was saying here. 

You've no idea what joy it is to have these brocade trainers in my shoe collection. The brand is Replay and they too were a wonderful TK Maxx discovery. Jazzy shoes are the best!

Accessories read like this - necklace was a present from Sasha, ring is preloved and sunglasses are from Quay Australia.

This is a grin-a-minute outfit. I'm frankly sequin mad, a true magpie collecting all things that are bright and sparkly. My passion doesn't rival Lisa, the Sequinist though! Check out her blog for sparkles in almost every feature.

It's a glorious Sunday morning as I sit writing this. In fact it's two weeks ago since Steve and I captured that other glorious sequinned offering on the beach on Easter morning (see here). I had a lovely swim after that shoot, but that's been my only swim in the past two weeks. The flu virus has just about passed and I may have a swim later on today after work. The enforced break from swimming has been a drag, but the longer it goes on the more difficult it seems to get back into the water. I think I could leave it forever and still find an excuse not the take the plunge. Yes, it's going to be a terrible shock to the system, but it's a deed that has to be done. Wish me luck!

                                                                    Anna x