Ping-Pong Post no12

Hello and welcome to the 12th edition of Ping-Pong post, the monthly collaboration between myself, Samantha of Fake Fabulous and Ann of Kremb de la Kremb. To see the background of this style challenge read here. This month Samantha proffered her black drapey top which almost flummoxed me completely. Despite being simple in shape, it was still one of my least favourite of colours to work with. Let's start with Samantha who certainly didn't seem to struggle -

The black top has a scoop neck and cross over front, but very cleverly Samantha has chosen to wear it back to front revealing a stunning strappy feature below. Wet look leggings, and patent boots lift this plain cotton top into the realms of fabulousness. She has finished this off with a statement bag and necklace leaving no room to doubt that she is indeed a true style icon. Follow Samantha on Instagram here.

Details -

TOP: Yong Kim

NECKLACE: Oliver Bonas

LEGGINGS: Pamela Mann

BOOTS: Vagabond

BAG: River Island

Ann has given the top a more casual spin with her snakeskin jeans, biker boots and striped shirt, but hasn't forgotten a dash of glamour by way of her diy ostrich handbag (see the link below). A roll neck and gloves give a nod to the cooler weather Ann is experiencing in Hong Kong this week when she took these shots. Black doesn't look very difficult to wear when you've got the right hair colouring does it? Fab styling Ann! Follow Ann on Instagram here.

Details -
Outfit Details

Earrings--my guy Ben in Jardines Bazaar, a great ladies market in Hong Kong

Turtleneck--heat technology, Uniqlo

Striped Shirt--Zara

Black Top--Sam's

Gloves--market in Shanghai

Ostrich Bag--Kremb de la Kremb DIY

Snake Jeans--Bershka

Moto Boots--boutique on Houhai Lake, Beijing

Those who know me will recognise my default setting here - when in doubt, dress it up! Glitter tights and glitter boots, seemed like a great way of detracting from the pallor-inducing colour of the top. Adding some softer, more neutral tones against the skin also helped. One feature I did like was the pockets and by adding a belt the tunic took on a bit more shape. A splash of silver jewellery and studded clutch were the finishing touches. Samantha - I gave this my best shot, but heck it's been my least favourite of our challenges so far!

Details -

Top: Samantha's

Dress: H&M

Belt: Dorothy Perkins

Tights: H&M

Boots: Topshop

Necklace: M&S

Rings: old

Handbag: charity shopped

The news on Ping-Pong Post is that having completed a whole year of this style challenge we're going to evolve the series a little next month, so do come along to see exactly how on the 20th of March.

Linking with -

Catherine of Not Dressed As Lamb

Patti of Not Dead Yet Style

Jess of Elegantly Dressed And Stylish

Anna x

Like my new shoes?

Well, they're not exactly new, more like new-to-me, but that's just the same in my book. I found them in a charity shop in Harrogate in April and this was their first outing. I love the shape of the heel. What do you call it? Anyway, I think it's quite a cute style for £5.99.

I'm wearing a leather jacket which was a wonderful purchase in a Truro charity shop for the grand sum of £10. The black blouse is from Uniqlo (this is similar)and was £9.99 in the sale. Belt and trousers are from H&M. My beautiful yellow jelly "Candy Bag" is by Furla and is available in so many mouth-watering colours (see here for my other favourite), that I had to close the page quickly to avoid temptation of another. Sunglasses are by Quay Australia. Silver rings are charity shop finds, and the olive green real pearls are by Almost Perfect in Cornwall.

"It's always Friday" is what the mother of a friend of mine used to say. I must admit I thought it was a bit of an odd saying when I was a girl. But as a working woman who juggles a full-time job with family, home, blogging, book club, sea swimming, yoga and the wistful notion of downtime, I have suddenly found that "It's always Friday" in my life too. It hardly seems any time at all that I was publishing last Friday's post, and here I am again. We all lead such busy lives nowadays. Is it rivalry, one-upmanship, and our basic competitive nature that pushes us on to do more, be more, have more? Even living on this idyllic little island, I'm aware that we are still affected by outside influences - oh, there's no escaping the power of the Internet, even in paradise. 

One important area of my life seems to be that of personal development, and more recently taking control of the increasing amount of stuff that I/we as a family have collected over the 27 years we've lived in this house. I keep hearing of friends and family who have moved house which resulted in a huge de-junking process. Much as I might like to blame my new found hobby of fashion blogging for the amount of stuff bursting out of every cupboard, the fact is this that snowballing has been part of our lives since my husband and I got married 35 years ago. History shows that Homo Sapiens have always been hunters and gatherers. My husband and I are typical specimens of the species; he hunts and I gather. But I've reached that stage when something has to change. I want to reclaim some control, and to this end I've enlisted the help of these three books.

1. Stuffocation. Living more with less by James Wallman. Buy here.

2. The life-changing magic of tidying by Marie Kondo. Buy here.

3. The miracle morning by Hal Elrod. Buy here.  

Book 1 was a brutal confirmation of all that I already knew. Of course I know I'm suffering from stuffocation, but the truth of the book was too much for me to bear. Our future as mapped out in these pages looks too chaotic, over whelming and downright scary for me to finish it. I expect the author will go on to show the reader how we, the individual, can contribute to change. I'm just not brave enough to read on. I will gird my loins and finish, just not yet.

Book 2 has been much more motivational, and I can report that some of the changes are already taking place. I haven't quite mastered the clever folding technique, but am excited at the prospect of the life change ahead. The idea of tidying once, properly and it will always be tidy, is proving itself to be true - my knicker drawer has never looked so good!

Book 3 looks like an amazing system, one which my daughter advocates and is practising herself. As yet I've not found time to embrace either the book nor the lifestyle. But somehow, just having the book around makes me feel I could be on the right track.

Some cynics might argue that buying three more books just adds to my stuffocation problem and yes, the irony of that does make me smile. Personally, I see these as building blocks for a way out of my particular problem. I've resolved to implement a new system within the household. For every item introduced into the house, I promise to move another out, for it to be sold, given away or donated to charity. On top of that, the tidying technique will continue within which there is a huge element of clearing out and moving on too. I'm doing what I can, as I can, when I can. There's not point in looking for a huge stick to beat myself up with. These three books are much more productive and may even act as inspiration for you too. And on that positive note I wish you a wonderful weekend!

Anna x

May show time!

Yes, it's that time of year again - time for another exhibition at the gallery with the best excuse ever to bring out my finery. This outfit went with me on our cruise in February (see here), but didn't make the final cut when I swanned around the cabin to get Steve's opinion. In fact, we both liked it, but not as much as some of the frocks I had taken along which rivalled this shirt and skirt combo. 

On Thursday we were hosting a mixed show from a group of seven artists. I managed to hijack a couple of the artists before the preview evening began. Nicola Hancox and Paul Lewin both went on to have a great opening night party. Check out their work here.  The Isles of Scilly attract thousands of tourists every year amongst them hundreds of artists, professional, amateur and aspiring, hoping to capture the essence of this beautiful archipelago. The five inhabited islands offer an insight into life where weather and tides influence our every day, where boats are our main mode of transport, where there will be more birds on the beach than humans, and where it's possible to spend a day playing Robinson Crusoe on an uninhabited island if that's your dream. To learn more about these beautiful isles see here.

As you can no doubt tell, the wind was blowing as Polly and I tried to maintain our smiles and ignore our windswept tresses. Our photo shoot was a bit of a rushed affair thanks to the weather, but at least you get an idea of the evening and our ensembles. Polly wears a black lace dress and black sandals both from H&M. My black blouse is from Uniqlo, the skirt is by Anthropologie (I succumbed to it at sale time which helped make it less painful), shoes are my well worn favourites from Primark, clutch is Accessorize (charity shop) and doesn't it match these shoes perfectly? My belt was from eBay, necklace from Dorothy Perkins and rings are from a charity shop.

Linking with

Catherine of Not Dressed as Lamb

Patti of Not Dead Yet Style

Anna x