Bring Me Sunshine our SNA challenge for April

Hello and welcome to this month's Style Not Age challenge as chosen by Emma from Style Splash seen here sporting this sunny yellow frock M&S. She's styled it with an across the body bag in blazing orange and blush pink sandals - see more on her blog.

Gail has gathered her favourite sunshine colours together in this bright and cheery outfit. Like most of the UK the weather still had a cool edge hence socks, scarf and hoody to ward off the chill winds. Catch up with Gail on Is This Mutton blog.

A wonderful splash of golden sunshine comes from Jacqui of Mummabstylish in this sunray pleated dress. Rain nearly stopped play for her as she tried to get out to take photos but she managed to capture this between the showers - see the backstory on her blog.

Hilda wears a veritable rainbow of colours in this co-ord by Never Fully Dressed. That's the best thing about a two piece isn't it - no worries about matching items or colours - it's all done for you! Catch up Hilda's latest on Over The Hilda blog.

My offering for this month's challenge isn't what you (or I) quite expected I'm afraid. The promise of my first ever home made frock didn't materialise when the matching petticoat flummoxed me at the last jump. The orange dress would have been perfect for this month's challenge too, but hey, such is life! For those of you who aren't on Instagram here's the latest photos of both frock and petticoat -

I'm still tweaking the neckline of the dress as it's not quite sitting flat, but I've got a couple of things I can do to hopefully resolve this. I've had lots of feedback to say that I could wear the petticoat on it's own as it's so pretty and I may now fully line it to give me that as an option. I'm finding that the more I sew the braver I'm becoming about these tweaks. Hopefully by next week all will be ready for the big reveal. I've ordered a new necklace and footwear so fingers crossed it'll all be fine for Monday...

My stand-in outfit is this bright pink trouser suit bought last summer from Primark, but never worn before. I think I mentioned at the time that I'd at last found my perfect pink trouser suit and this is it. I can't believe that something so stylish and surprisingly good quality could found on the high street for only £42!

The satin blouse is from Zara (last season) and my white belt is from Amazon, white patent boots from Deichman and favourite sunglasses are from Quay Australia. The pink of the suit is verging on neon which meant I got quite a reaction, but that's no bad thing.

There's nothing new jewellery-wise - rings are both pre-loved, as is the brooch and the necklace was bought from Charlie Dodge a couple of years ago. 

At least my photos are fulfilling the remit of Bring Me Sunshine on this bright blue day!

Anna x

My pretty new Zara blouse

Hello again! How was your weekend? Mine seemed to go past in a bit of a blur of cooking, cleaning and yes, dejunking. The boxes are mounting up as I clear out cupboard after cupboard, moving out anything that's not useful, beautiful or loved by us. Even poor Steve was involved as I attacked his guilty area of workwear calling on him to help cull his large, but very tired, collection of checked shirts of which there seemed to be many. We're still in the midst of the job, barely half way through the entire house, but as they say, out of chaos comes order!

So, this is my new blouse, a birthday present from my friend Bo who lives in Portugal. It's from Zara, but I can't find it online here. The fabric is lightweight and will be wonderful to wear in the summer (I'm imagining it with white jeans and sandals), but I was so impatient to try it on then decided to winterise it with my pre-loved Ralph Lauren fairisle vest.

I teamed up the blouse with my ochre Kate trousers from J D Williams - see them here on sale now. I love the fit of these slim trousers mainly because of the stretch which makes them super comfy. This is the first time I've worn them despite having them for years - yes, I really mean years. It's only due to the big clear out that I rediscovered them, still with tags on, and decided to try them on. How fab is that to find a great new pair of trousers hidden away? And doubly fab when they match my new blouse perfectly!

My pre-loved perspex rings pick out some of the colours in today's outfit adding to the pattern play too. Dark green pearls and Quay Austalia sunglasses complete the accessories.

Russet platform boots give a bit more leg-lengthening height to the look which is never a bad thing. These are very old indeed and were from Office.

And just to add a bit more pattern to the mix, I wore my Joe Brown's woolen 3/4 length jacket. This one is out of stock now, but I did find another cute jacket - see here.  The lining is a wonderful bit of pattern play too!

It seems that here in the UK we'll all be hunkering down for the rest of the week as we have two gales lining up to give us a bit of a battering. I'd planned to get some outdoor photos taken on the beach at the weekend, but I'll maybe have to come up a plan B just in case. Do take care, wherever you are and thanks for dropping by!

                                                                            Anna x