The Topshop sale

Hi there, how's your week going? I was away in London last weekend and had a fabulous time, the details of which I'm going to share with you next time, but here's a little taster. No trip to the mainland would be complete without a tad of shopping, would it? I'm wearing what seems to the working woman's summer uniform. I clocked all of the chic Londoners wearing the long summer dress with white sneakers which seems to be the practical answer in hot weather. The dresses are all the rage and even though I'm no slave to fashion, I just loved this look. 

I'll be completely honest with you, I really didn't enjoy shopping in London at all. Saturday afternoon, Oxford Street, sunny - do you get the picture? It was heaving: absolutely chock-a-block with shoppers and tourists and it was a big mistake to think I would be able to shop under those conditions. I spilled out of the tube at Oxford Circus and got no further than Topshop thinking I might just take refuge there. Wrong! The sale was on and it was teaming with bargain hunters. This dress and shoes are from the Topshop in Truro where I had a much more relaxed experience. 

My new sunglasses are Topshop's own brand.

My rings are both charity shopped from a long time ago, teamed with this contemporary black and silver necklace by Melissa James.  I'm a big fan of Melissa's work as she always has a slightly funky take on classic pieces. We sell the range in the gallery and it's very popular, and not just with me!

A simple white trainer is a must-have for this cool summer look and mine are the CABO lace up from Topshop for £24. You could, of course, opt for your favourite Stan Smith's for an uber chic look, but I was more than happy with this low price version.

Are you a fan of this look? I wore mine to work yesterday, earning me quite a few compliments. The dress is cool and airy, the shoes are broad fitting and therefore all day comfortable - always a bonus for those of us who have an active job. 

I'm quite excited to share my London antics with you. Some of you may follow me on Instagram and might have caught up with My Stories last weekend, but for the rest of you I'll be posting the feature on Sunday for you to enjoy. 

In the meantime, have a super weekend!

Anna x

Simple summer dress

I'm sneaking in an extra post today as the 5Over50 group will be featuring our next challenge on Monday and I thought you might enjoy a little something in the meantime. June surely means summer and this is the perfect simple day dress with no need to fuss and overdo it. 

Yes, I may have shown you this dress last summer, but not with this cardi which effectively means I'm sharing a new outfit. It's also time to share the fact that I've managed to drop 2lbs meaning I can (just) fit into this slimline dress again. Hurrah! There's no big secret as to how I've done it - eat less, exercise more. The sea is gradually warming up so I'm managing to extend my swims which does make a difference to my metabolism. At this time of year I can sometimes fit in two swims a day and again that helps too. And there's certainly no bigger motivator to lose weight than knowing that I might meet someone on the beach with only my Speedo to give me cover!

In February I featured my efforts to teach myself a better, sleeker freestyle stroke (see here). The main reason for that was to be able to swim longer distances, ie from one side of the island to the other which is a two or three mile swim. One thing that I'd only recently tuned in to about swimming is that freestyle is the most efficient (and obviously quickest) stroke of all and breast stroke is the least efficient (and slowest). All these years of swimming breast stroke meant I was burning up the most calories possible. Speed isn't the focus for me, burning calories is what it's all about and by swimming the least efficient stroke as fast as I possibly could gave the optimum results. But by swapping from one to the other I'm using fewer calories which is a bit of a drag. So now I'm mixing it up by swimming breast stoke in one direction and then swimming crawl on the way back. Wake up you at the back - I'll be asking questions later! Hahaha it's okay, I've finished now x

Outfit details -
Cardigan: Star by Julien Macdonald, dress: TK Maxx, sandals: Refresh, belt, bangle and rings: all charity shopped, sunglasses: Quay Australia.

And here's a few shots of my very large swimming pool.

No post from me on Sunday, but please join me with the ladies from 5Over50 group on Monday to see how we've styled up Marvellous Metallics.

Anna x