Orange and pink - what joy!

Hi there! How are you? I'm firing on all cylinders again and wanted to share this, my favourite outfit from last week. As you know, I'm all about bold colours and this is certainly bold! 

There's nothing new here and yet the look is a joy to behold. I love the marriage of orange and pink especially with this ornate and embellished outfit. The skirt was a Dorothy Perkins purchase and is well and truly vintage now. Every so often I check it over to see if the moths have gotten hold of it or if the stitching is unravelling but so far, so good. Underneath is a white stretch bodysuit from Primark, a basic and essential to buy every year as the white gradually dulls. 

The gold trimmed jacket was a Vinted purchase last year and is still looking bright and fresh as a daisy! I added a gold coloured link chain belt (from Primark) to tie in with the gold trim of the jacket. 

My cute pink Furla Candy bag was a perfect addition to the look as it just cries out Fun! My sunglasses are rather ancient, by Quay Australia and my rings are both by Emily Nixon. My gold link chain necklace was a cheap and cheerful buy from years ago.

I seem to wear these pink and orange bejewelled sandals all of the time lately, but why not? I totally love these and they're all-day-long comfortable too!

Another fun element to this look is my pink and orange net underskirt. I'm so proud of the fact that I made this (two years ago, see the post here) and that I still love it. This resurgence of love has meant that I've been wearing the petticoat with many an outfit of late so I'm sure you'll be seeing it again soon - sorry!

Aside from the outfit I've not got much to report. July is upon us and the island is teaming with happy families returning for their dose of Tresco magic. Rachel and I are rushed off our feet at work, but that's exactly as it ought to be. The Gallery is looking fab - bright and colourful too, full of all sorts of paintings inspired by the views and clarity of light of the islands.

And here's me in yet another orange and pink outfit with the requisite net petticoat to finish it off. Rachel said this looks like an angel dress thanks to the huge sleeves. The painting I'm hanging is by Teresa Pemberton, one of our long term artists - you can see more of her work here. Thank you so much for joining me once again and I do hope you're having a lovely summer too!

                                                                            Anna x

July catch up

Hello! Apologies for my absence, but I've been a tad under the weather with a spell of vertigo that laid me off work as the room spun and I clutched onto the sick bowl. The doctor prescribed anti-dizzyness pills which thankfully worked and I've now returned to work and am catching up on the rest of life, including my much neglected blog.

This was a recent work oufit, a lovely burst of colours, a new collection of pieces brought together to create a joyful look. I bought the skirt in TK Maxx over a year ago and yet this is the first time I've worn it. The shirred elastic top is by Boden and was a recent Vinted buy as were the pink and orange bejewelled sandals that you'll have seen previously on the blog.

My hand-knitted bag was also from Vinted, customised by me with a gold chain and Barbie brooch to give it a unique bit of styling.

Anyway, after a week of being ill and well on my way to recovery Steve suggested we make the most of the lovely sunny day by going off in our boat for a picnic. We visited St Helen's, one of the uninhabited islands, taking a picnic and walking shoes so that we could walk to the top of the island to enjoy the 360 degrees view across the entire Isles of Scilly.

The island is mainly wild and overgrown with one pathway that leads to the old settlement and on to the top of the island. There's a small beach where we landed and stopped to picnic as we drank in the view.

In addition to these small dwellings St Helen's also had a small hospital known as the Pest House. The Pest House was built as a Quarantine Station in 1764. Any plague-ridden ship to the north of Cape Finisterre and heading for England was required to anchor there. It played a national role in safeguarding the country from ship-borne infectious diseases arriving via the Western Approaches. St Helen’s was chosen as it was uninhabited. The facility remained open in 1850, but was officially closed under the Public Health Act, 1896.

I've tried to add a video to here of the view but it's too large a file, however if you look at the strapline at the top of the blog and immediately to the right is the little camera icon for Instagram - click on that and it will lead you to my post showing the breathtaking imagery.

On reaching the summit we walked across the bouncy dry heather to reach the farthest point looking out into the Atlantic ocean to see Round Island Lighthouse (no longer manned but it still offers guidance to seafarers who pass by these hazzardous rocks).

And so it was time to go home. Another little island adventure was over, but the joy is that we can return again whenever we choose. Steve took our little dinghy down to the water's edge as I took some final snaps of our outing.

Leaving no trace of our visit apart from our footprints - soon to be washed away on the next high tide...

                                                                            Anna x

Dress for the heat, our Style Not Age challenge for June

Hello once again, and welcome to our monthly style challenge! Hilda has chosen well this month opting for the timely theme of Dressing for the Heat. Much as I'd like to report that the islands are basking in the UK heatwave, we are in fact sitting under a heavy cloud cover which is making for very muggy weather. My outfit is a preloved offering, but first let's see how the other ladies of the collective have fared...

Emma is basking under sunny skies on holiday abroad and is wearing a leopard print cover-up and gold sandals along with the essentail sunhat by Oliver Bonas. Catch up on her holiday news on Style Splash here. 

Jacqui is wearing her cover-up as an open shirt (by Salamander Shirts) with white top and shorts and white Lotus sandals. Catch up on all her news on Mummabstylish blog. 

Hilda is sharing her sizzling Sicily style from her recent holiday. The long, cool maxi dress is from Primark and her sandals are by Clarks. See more from her on Over the Hilda blog. 

No dazzling sunshine nor holiday backdrop from me, but Steve did land us on a brilliant white sandbar for my photoshoot of this white sundress by ME + EM, a lucky find in a charity shop in Penzance last month where I paid the grand sum of £5 for it! I found a similar one on their website here and it's retailing for £150! And let's not forget to mention that It's Got Pockets!

My green and white swimsuit was a Vinted purchase and works well with the chunky necklace from the bottom of my jewellery box. My sunglasses are old, by Quay Australia.

The beach dress is pretty but also pretty much transparent which might limit the opportunities to wear it, but I did in fact wear it to work last week...

I've added an orange vest top along with my hand made pink and orange petticoat underneath using the transparency to allow the colours to show through. I love the look as it's flamboyant and a bit different to the simple beach cover-up. 

I've continued with orange as my accessory colour - nothing new here apart from my Emily Nixon birthday ring (18 carat gold with sapphires and diamond).

I finished off the look with my favourite this season sandals (from Vinted) to tie in with the pink and orange theme. I did actually wear an orange jeans jacket over the top when I popped out at lunchtime, but forgot to capture that version for you...

And one final flash of petticoat reveals the orange trim and pink netting. I'm delighted to find another reason to bring out my fabulous underskirt again.

Many thanks for joining us for this month's Style Not Age challenge. As ever, I do hope you've found some inspiration amongst our offerings!

                                                                            Anna x

Say Yes to the Dress, our SNA challenge for April

And here we are again, at the end of another month and ready for our Style Not Age Challenge! Say Yes to the Dress was chosen by Emma as this month's theme so without further ado let's see her style offering...

The pale lemon dress is by & Other Stories, shoes are by Coast and Emma's handbag was purchased while on holiday in Abu Dhabi. Emma's cat, George managed to photo-bomb all of her snaps - see more on her blog Style Splash. 

Hilda wore this beautiful red dress to a skincare event held by Image in Ireland last week. Her stylish blazer is by Cos - catch up with her full story on Over The Hilda blog. 

To use a well worn phrase, sorry Jacaqui, but doesn't she look pretty in pink! This dreamy dress is by Ambrose Wilson and would be perfect for any glamorous occasion - see her backstory on Mummabstylish.

I wore this frilly flamenco style dress last week to an island gathering and my dear friend Fiona took these photos before we arrived. The dress has been in my wardrobe for a while, just waiting for the right occasion and this was it. 

The orange satin dress looks like the perfect party dress but wasn't without the usual Anna's Island Style drama. I had tried it on briefly when I first bought it a couple of months ago, but on Saturday I had been cramming in quite a lot of things and had just come back from a sea swim half an hour before the party was due to start. I had a quick shower, dried my hair and popped on the dress, only to find that the cleavage was ridiculously revealing. I'm not a cleavage kinda girl, so that sent me into a spin. Being satin the fabric was too delicate to accommodate a safety pin to hold things together so I rummaged through my underwear collection to try to find a solution and came up with this white bodysuit. It solved one problem but introduced another, that being the huge swathe of lace across my derriere that was now showing diagonally across my bum cheeks through the delicate fabric. Honestly! I added an underskirt to try to smooth things out, but it by no means solved the problem. By this time I was late meeting up with Fiona and also needed to find a lightweight coat to cover up my secondary wardrobe malfunction - first world problems I know, but honestly!

The dress has lots of lovely details, including the deep cuffs and tiny buttons on the sleeeves. I'm wearing my most beautiful Emily Nixon ring along with a ring from a friend.

My bejewelled sandals were another wonderful Vinted find recently and are surely going to be perfect for the months ahead. Pink and orange feature heavily in my summer wardrobe meaning you might see rather a lot of them in due course!

My gold coloured leaf necklace is a vintage piece I found in a shop in Penzance last time I was there. My sunglasses are old, by Radley London.

Despite all the drama, I do love this frilly satin frock and hope to find a style soloution for the next time I wear it. The event on Saturday was my ex-assistant Emily's island hen-do, located in one of the holiday cottages. I'm afraid I didn't get many photos but here's one of the welcome she got as she arrived to find us all wearing masks of her husband-to-be, Bruno.

And here's her reaction...

 

With legs that go on for miles, Emily is looking as beautiful as ever - she was a catwalk model at one stage in her life which probably is of no surprise. The party went on until late although the bride-to-be was in bed before midnight. Emily and Bruno are to be married on the mainland on the 9th of May.

                                                                        Anna x