Samson evening

Hello and thank you once again for taking the time to visit my blog - I do appreciate it! I went for a trip to Samson island the other evening with Mel, my Gallery Tresco Assistant from last year and Jodie who's been stepping in to do some blog photos recently. Steve dropped us across in our little boat, Leah Dancer, which was a bit lively to say the least. He let the boat run up onto the beach and we had to hop out between the waves - I almost got stuck with one leg in and one out but the girls held on tight and pulled me onto the sand.

Mel is due to leave the UK this autumn and will return home to New Zealand by the end of the year, but that's not before she and her partner Pete have packed in a bit more travelling in Europe and the Far East too. I do so admire their wanderlust! The evening on Samson was one of several farewell's Mel is having with many friends that she's made over the past two years. We took some beers and snacks and had a good old chinwag for a couple of hours.

And of course, Jodie did a great job of taking some snaps of my outfit of the day! This was my work outfit and one of my favourites from this summer. The dress was a last minute find from New Look when I was in Truro in June. It has a very 70's vibe and feels so lovely and swishy to wear. It has capped sleeves and an elasticated waistband but I love to add a stretch belt as a finishing feature. 

The jacket was a Vinted purchase and is by Forever 21. Orange, orange and more orange was the theme today, but it feels such a joyful outfit to wear.

We missed the best of the evening sunlight and it was also very windy as you can see, but it was still fun trying to capture some atmospheric shots for the blog. My accessories are these pretty shoes by Rocket Dog from TK Maxx - again they have pretty crocheted flowers like the multicoloured ones seen previously. Rings are old and pre-loved, sunglasses are by Radley London and the necklace was from Accessorize last year. 

I'd hoped for a lovely quiet sunny evening for our outing, but island life means you have to be quite resiliant weatherwise so we had cosy layers at the ready for when the sun dropped.

And here we are, all heading home again. Mel on the left and Jodie on the right. It was so good to get off-island and catch up with each others news.

Bye bye Samson! You never know, we might manage another little jaunt together before Mel leaves at the end of the month...

                                                                        Anna x

Festival Finery our SNA challenge for July

Hello and welcome to our Style Not Age Challenge for July! Emma's choice of Festival Finery was greeted by all as a timely feature and one that I particularly enjoyed. I didn't have a festival to go to but chose my outfit with Glastonbury in mind and took myself off to the annual Tresco Fete as an excellent substitute. But first, let's check out the rest of the style collective to see how they approached this one...

Jacqui could be traipsing across a field on the way to her festival, maybe even Glastonbury too! Her summer dress is from Cotton Traders, sandals from New Look and bag from Fiorelli - see more from her on the blog Mummabstylish.

Hilda treated herself to a new hat from H&M and sunglasses from TK Maxx, shopping her wardrobe for the rest of her very stylish outfit. Catch up on her back story of dressing incognito for her festival on Over The Hilda blog here. 

Emma looks ready for a long day and night too of dancing in those fab Converse trainers at her festival! The pink leopard print jumpsuit was an amazing charity shop find - see more from her on her blog Style Splash. 

Gail is the only one of us who actually made it to a festival for this piece - she was at Hyde Park for a Kylie  Minogue concert! Her jacket is from Amazon, paired with old M&S chinos and natty turquoise shoes from Embassy London. Read all about it on Is This Mutton Blog.

I found my rather fabulous dress on Vinted (no surprises there then) along with the matching hairband. I've been so keen to wear this fab frock and yet was keeping it for this showcase first time out. As I mentioned, this was the annual Tresco Fete yesterday where they have live music, a bar, food, and lots of games and stalls for all the family to enjoy themselves. The weather was perfect all day long making for a blissful event for everyone involved. My friend Jodie kindly did the honours with my photos and made a great job of it!

My pretty floral embroidered sandals came into their own again this week with my 80's outfit. The handbag is old, a charity shop find from years ago, but a great little summer bag for occasions like this.

My necklace and matching bracelet are both old, charity shop finds, as are the two plastic heart rings I dug out to complete the look. I like nothing more that coming across funky jewellery when I'm trawling through my favourite mainland charity shops - I know it'll always come in useful at some stage!

Ah yes, here's the glamour shot to finish things off nicely! I do hope you've been inspired by this month's challenge - maybe we've given you some ideas for your next festival trip.

                                                                Anna x

Summer is here!

Hi there! How's it going? Here's me, smiling into the evening sun as I revel in the beauty of this wonderful show of agapanthus. I've been doing a lot of early morning walking of late, and this is one of my routes along the road beside Tresco Heliport. Every morning I've been taking note of how many flowers have burst into full bloom and on Friday I decided I needed to capture them as soon as I could. Agapanthus really do mean summer to me, a genuine indication that we're seeing the island at its most beautiful.

My outfit of the day was this lovely embroidered summer dress from Warehouse (bought on Vinted). I really have a thing about embroidery at the moment and so wish I had time to practise some myself. I've even gone as far as buying stencils and threads, a beginners book too, but heck, I simply don't have the spare time. Those of you who've followed my blog over the years will know how I find it challenging at this time of year, trying to balance all the elements of my life; work, home, swimming, walking, cooking, cleaning, laundry, paying bills, writing the blog, taking photos for the blog, making time for family and friends and so the list goes on. Anyway, in an ideal world I'd be sitting in the sunlight sewing away on an embroidery project with not a care, but that's simply a fantasy.

Someone recently remarked that this was my Little House on the Prairie dress - how right they are! I love it, the style is simple and feminine, but most importantly it's the perfect backdrop for all of the sprigs of embroidery, especially this oversized collar. It has an elasticated waist and sleeves, is fully lined and washes and irons like a dream. I've accessorised the dress with a pink stretch belt (old), two pre-loved rings, my Radley sunglasses and my new watch from Storm (gifted). 

My floral embroidered shoes were a recent purchase from TK Maxx in Truro. I bought this multi colour pair and also a lemon/yellow pair. Steve calls them my Jesus sandals which slightly deflated me, but I suppose they are very similar and maybe not as glamorous as I perhaps thought they were. 

Jesus sandals? Methinks not. They're from Rocket Dog and are rather lovely!

On Sunday we joined our family on Bryher for the birthday celebrations of two local babies, one of whom is Mose, son of our nephew David and Polly (my ex-assistant at Gallery Tresco). Polly has just finished her maternity leave and is now back working in the HR department on Tresco. Needless to say I miss her terribly but she's now part of the family which is such a bonus. Little Mose is a darling and is doted on by all of us and his Bryher relatives; cousins, aunts and uncles and his next door neighbour, Grandma. 

Island life on these summer days seems like a dream. It still amazes me that this is where I live. I'm eternally grateful for the journey that brought me here and for the luck that befell me when I landed on the magical island of Tresco and met Steve. 

                                                                            Anna x