Prints Charming, our Style Not Age challenge for December

Hello again and welcome to the last Style Not Age challenge of 2025! Emma's idea for this month's theme is Prints Charming, one that was easy for me to pluck from my wardrobe thank goodness, especially with all that's going on at this time of year. 

This fabulous two piece is from the Iris Apfel and H&M collection from a few years ago. Emma sat tight and waited for it to appear at a reduced price on Vinted - clever girl! Catch up with Emma on her blog Style Splash. 

Leopard is Jacqui's signature print of the moment. The coat is from George at Asda worn with cream jeans and black sweater topped with yet more leopard print in her scarf. See more from Jacqui over on her blog. 

Hilda's chosen tiger print in the form of these wide legged jeans from M&S for this month's challenge paired with a tiger motif tee shirt. Read her back story on Over the Hilda. 

My outfit is all old, shopped from my closet and yet still fulfills the brief. The red duster coat was an amazing charity shop bargain yonks ago costing a mere £3. I featured it in December 2020 when life was oh-so-different as we were emerging from lockdown. See the feature here if you missed it. (Golly didn't I look young then, slim too?!!!!)

The trousers are from Vinted and blouse is a vintage piece. 

The tartan boots are decidedly old, bought from M&S, but goodness knows when.

I hope you're enjoying the windswept look from this set of photos. I bribed my dear friend Fiona to help me with a mega dose of blog photos (as yet to be aired) - a large schooner of sherry and some of my homemade fudge kept her onside as we traipsed outside repeatedly with more wind and less sunshine for each outfit. 

I'm such a big fan of all things ornate: this Chinese jacket with hand-sewn embroidery is a real joy, a valued item in my clothes collection. Increasingly I'm moving lots of pieces on now, realising that the large volume of clothes aren't serving me well. Moreover, many are too small now - a truth I find hard to admit, but know that I must in order to cull the excess I've gathered over the years - these are only jamming up the works, stopping me from seeing what I can actually wear rather than hope to wear. My daughter came up with a wonderful solution to the decluttering problem. Sasha now lives on the mainland and is time-rich as opposed to me being time-poor. Ironic really when you consider that I live in paradise and she in Manchester. Anyway, I now send her a box of clothes about once a month and she uploads them onto Vinted to sell and after a certain length of time, if not sold, she redirects them to her local charity shop so that she's not bogged down by them forever. The money she makes is going towards her deposit for a flat. Win/win!

None of the accessories are new either. Rings are pre-loved and sunglasses are by Quay Australia. 

Apologies if you're a regular reader and have been noticing my lack of posts of late. If I show you why, you might understand...

For the past month it's been like a veritable fudge factory in my house. Juggling work and fudge production has been a real challenge and yes, probably some form of madness, but I do sincerely love the joy of giving and in particular giving my homemade fudge to family and friends. If yours hasn't arrived then sorry, you didn't make it onto the list...

My next post will be a mega feature of all of my festive outfits, some worn, some still waiting for their Cinderella moment, but all are blog-ready for your delectation. I have a few days off coming up around the New Year when I'll be dedicating some time to pulling a blog together for you. Apologies for the neglect, but I do appreciate you dropping by and also for your lovely comments. I hope you've found some time to rest and relax over the Christmas period and wish you every happiness for 2026!

Wishing you a very Happy New Year! 

Anna x

Ode to Claudia

For those of you who have just returned from outer space or have some other paltry excuse for not being in the know, the series of Celebrity Traitors has just finished and many of us are in mourning for the loss of our new found best friends, myself included. More importantly, however, is the lack of style inspiration from the icon that is Claudia Winkleman aided by her stylist Sinead Mc Keefry. The above is my favourite outfit of the entire series which energised me to delve deep into my wardrobe...

Claudia and I are at opposite ends of the goth colour spectrum obviously, but I was very pleased with my very own style version of goth chic. Steve and I came across this field of beautiful pink nerines which acted as the perfect backdrop for my palest of pale offering.

The short cream fur jacket with gold bejewelled brooch was a birthday present (in January) from Sandra, my eldest sister. She too lives on an island, but at the other end of the UK in the far north of Scotland on mainland Orkney and had espied this in the window of a local charity shop, immediately thinking of me. I'm delighted to finally have the opportunity to wear it, especially for this showcase event.

My cream waterfall skirt was a Vinted buy last year and has been featured on the blog previously - see that here. I love the ultra feminine style and do wish I could justify wearing it more often. 

In true Claudia style I'm wearing long frilled sleeves in the form of this vintage frilly blouse from many years ago, but which has proven to be real asset to my wardrobe. 

The cream platform boots are very old indeed, from ASOS many years ago. And talking of boots, I've spent far too long over the past couple of weekends trying to hunt down a box of winter boots that I had clevery hidden in the loft in our shed. I was becoming more and more frustrated at myself and how this 'putting things away somewhere safe' often results in these treasure hunts. 

The main reason for this treasure hunt was to find my tartan boots as I hope to somehow find/sew a black net skirt as per Claudia's which I'd wear with said boots over the Christmas season. Having stated this now, I do worry that I'm hexing myself. I've tracked down the designer of her fabulous net confection and can't find it on the website, but lesser ones are retailing at £695 - way out of my budget!

So these are my thoughts from a very quiet Tresco. My antics when dressed up like this are surely a source of amusement to those who might catch a glimpse of me, but hey, what do I care?

Wishing you a great week ahead! Many thanks for visiting and hurrah for you if you're kind enough to interact by way of leaving me a comment - it's much appreciated.

                                                                                        Anna x

Frilled To Bits our SNA challenge for May

Hello there! How are you this fine Bank Holiday Monday? So, here's our Style Not Age challenge for May, as chosen by yours truly. Frills are all the rage with me currently, so why not share this penchant with my style sisters?

Gail from Is This Mutton is sporting her blend of citrus brights - the frilled blouse is from eBay, crops are from Roman and sandals are from ASOS. It's a fab summery look, isn't it!

Jacqui's frilled wrap dress is from Izabel Clothing and fits the bill perfectly. Sage green and paisley print are a winning combination! Catch up with Jacqui's backstory on her blog Mummabstylish. 

I love the pink frilled and pearly top of Emma's! This was a happy purchase when she was in Funchal recently. See more from her on Style Splash blog.

Hilda's frilled dress is from Whistles, a fab thank you for contributing to a recent fashion feature in Good Housekeeping. Catch up with her story on Over the Hilda blog. Hilda's perched on the balcony of her daughter's house during her child-minding stay - what a view!

If you're a regular to the blog, you'll recognise the frilled petticoat as one of my recent sewing successes. I've just altered the length, shortened it, so that it sits better under my orange dress. (See the whole outfit here in case you missed that one.) Today's offering is more vintage than new - the frilled blouse was bought in a vintage shop in Exeter many years ago and the skirt must be at least 20 years old, from good old Dorothy Perkins. 

The boots are new, bought especially to wear while I'm in my pink and orange phase. I found them on ASOS, see here. They're available in three colourways but this one is perfect for my summer trend.

Nothing new today with my accessories. Sunglasses are from Radley, belt is old as are my rings. 

My friend Fiona volunteered to take the photos when I told her about my fab new cowboy boots. We had fun as we always do during these sessions, with me doing lots of bossing about while she heckled from the sidelines. The evening sun was soft and flattering to the skin and the new walkway to the bird hide made a great catwalk. The view from the hide was glittering in the evening light.

Hope you're basking in the early summer sunshine too. Looking forward to seeing you again soon. Please leave me a comment if you've enjoyed today's post.

Have a super week!

Anna x

Wednesdays mean Timeshare party

Hello lovelies and sorry for the tardiness in my posting this week, but this is the reason. I'm in the middle of my latest obsession meaning every spare moment is being spent sewing. I hope to showcase the dress on Monday for our monthly challenge so please do swing by again to see the fruits of my labour.

So, as the title suggests, Wednesday means Timeshare party here at Gallery Tresco and this was me after the event last night. Timeshare and Island Share owners have bought into Tresco life and as such this weekly gathering is one of the perks. It's the perfect opportunity for everyone to get together to chat about all things island as well as comparing what each property has to offer and to boast about who's got the best view!

It may not look like it, but I'm struggling to find things to wear at the moment as I've not yet done my bi-annual clothes changeover. My wardrobe and shelves are still full of winter woollies and boots, but hopefully next week I'll be taking some time off and that will be one of my chores. That said, I did receive lots of compliments about outfit of the day last night which is always a lovely boost to the morale. Nothing new here at all; the suit was a charity shop find in Harrogate a long, long time ago (it was on the men's rail, so do remember to rummage everywhere), likewise the vintage blouse, another charity shop find this time from Exeter many moons ago, the boots were from Diechman just before Christmas and the pink handbag is rather ancient too.

The pink handbag by Furla is my mini Candy bag which unfortunately didn't show up in quite the right colour - it's much more pink than that! Not quite the same colour as my boots but still acceptable fashionista-wise I think. More importantly, it's the only pink bag I have.

Nothing new with the accessories either. Sunglasses are my old faves by Quay Australia, the bejewelled watch was a charity shop buy and only recently rediscovered in a box, the huge pink resin ring was a gift from a friend and the other a charity shop find too. The necklace was a purchase a few years ago from Gallery Tresco and is by Charlie Dodge.

My beaded belt, an Amazon buy, always gets lots of comments. It's so utterly feminine isn't it?

So, you must excuse me, but I've got to return now to my sewing machine. I'm trying to make a pink net underskirt to wear under my orange linen dress, as one does. The slight problem I have is that I don't have a pattern and despite looking at lots of tutorials on youTube I'm really none the wiser. I have no real idea what I want to achieve apart from it being a flash of colour as I walk. 

As ever, thank you so much for dropping by and hopefully I'll see you again on Monday!

Anna x

My avatar is doing a great job

Hello again and how are you? If you're well, then I've got to say congratulations to you! So many of my family and friends were under the weather over the festive period including yours truly, hence the reference to my avatar. To recap, I've been ill since the 6th of December with various types of virus; a chest infection and more recently strep throat and finally exhaustion resulting in my being signed off work. Alongside that my real life has been eclipsed by my avatar who has been popping up on social media showcasing all sorts of fabulous outfits over the festive period.

My avatar has stepped in at work from time to time, looking so much like me, embracing bright colours and beaming encouragingly at the clients. Fake it 'til you make it might be another way to view this alter ego. Dressing up to the nines can be such a great way of diverting attention from the self who in real life was husky voiced, prone to outbursts of riotous coughing and wearing a sheen of barely covered sweat. 

Pink chiffon and fuchsia patent leather boots worn with a black velvet bomber jacket and grey crops all work together to distract the eye from the health of the wearer on this workday. The black velvet bomber jacket was a supermarket find many moons ago - it was from F&F at Tesco's. The vintage frilled blouse is an old favourite of mine from many years ago when I found it in a vintage store in Exeter. The hot pink Catwalk boots from Deichman (on sale here at half price) were a treat to myself in December. By the time I got home I decided that I really ought to have bought the white ones too and hubby duly bought them for my Christmas - result!

The drapey high waisted trousers were a recent purchase from TK Maxx, the brand is Mango. Belt and pockets complete the essentials for comfort all wrapped up in a deep grey colour these wide fit trousers make an understatement in style acting as a counterpoint to the fun filled pinks of the rest of the outfit.

The pink and blue glasses were from ASOS many years ago. The large pink ring crops up all the time on my blog - it was a present from a friend who obviously knows me so well as I've worn it at least once a week ever since. The other ring was a charity shop find a long time ago.

My avatar photos have buoyed up the blog for the past few weeks and I view them as truly a distanced self who somehow managed to not only pull an outfit together, but enter into the realms of real life when all I wanted to do was lie in bed in a snotty, coughing heap. My self-neglect while attending to the needs of my (also poorly) loved ones resulted in the doctor declaring me unfit to work, as the second virus attacked, resulting in exhaustion. This may well read as fool's tale to some, a cautionary one to others, but whichever, I've discovered that contrary to my deluded self promotion, I'm not Wonder Woman. 

P.S. Today is the first day I've showered and dressed in five days which I think shows some progress. Writing to you is another definite sign of improvement, so please don't feel too sorry for me - I fancy I'm on the mend. I'm on day five of ten days of antibiotics so they must be working!

                                                                                           Anna x