The summer maxi

Hiiiiiiii! How's it going folks? I've been inspired today to don a summer maxi, thanks to a young lady I saw on the road the other day. She was walking ahead of me, hand in hand with her beau (ahem, yes my age is showing here) and she was dressed in a wonderful white, floaty maxi dress that was being caught by the wind, blowing around her in the most flattering of manners. The sight of them conjured up a story of young love, romance and their honeymoon on this perfect little island which gave me a wave of the feel-good factor. 

I promised myself that on the next sunny day I too would don my favourite maxi dress and recreate an image or two that might be inspire you in your summer dressing. So here's what Steve and I got up to at the end of play yesterday. We're on Pentle Bay, the longest sweep of beach on the east side of Tresco. The island in the distance behind me is St Martin's, famous for its vineyard, the Damart and also for (allegedly) having the best beaches on the whole of the Isles of Scilly. 

I couldn't resist this pose!

I was slightly disappointed that Steve didn't know the words to that particular song.

Most of his input was about me not being a mountain goat and for me not to break my ankle as I hopped about from rock to rock, chasing the perfect angle in relation to the sunlight.

Let's talk about the outfit of the day, shall we? I'm working hard at keeping up the green message of shopping my closet and wearing recycled items too and with that in mind am pleased to say that there's nothing brand new in this post. The dress is by Anmol and was from TK Maxx years ago. The gorgeous fringed jacket (synthetic not suede sadly) was a charity shop scoop, but has no label. The brown leather sandals are also second hand and by Dune - sooooo comfy and look like they'll last forever.

A great idea to sit here, but the wind scooped the dress up, billowing it like a sail resulting in the flashing of flesh and undies. 

My sister Sandra sent me this recycled statement necklace which she found in a charity shop in Scotland many moons ago. The rose gold sunglasses are from Guess. The orange resin ring is also recycled and the other ring was a purchase in a street market in Cape Town in January - happy days!

This shot sums up the lure of these islands, offering that get-away-from-it-all feeling without a ten hour flight. Steve and I had the beach completely to ourselves. A top tip if you ever visit here - that early evening time is perfect to have a moment of reflection without interruption as everyone is either getting youngsters fed and bedded or they're getting ready to go out to dinner themselves. This golden hour is when you can stroll the beaches alone and if you land lucky, you can capture some pretty stunning shots too.

My next post will be on Monday when I join the ladies from the Style Not Age Collective for our monthly challenge, the theme being Flaming June. I do hope you can join us for that.

In the meantime, have a lovely weekend!

Anna x

Just call me jazzy

Hi folks, just call me jazzy!

I decided to jazz up what was a fickle Friday by adding all the bells and whistles or maybe that ought to be stripes and fringes. Almost everything in this outfit will be familiar to you, I'm sure. Boots from H&M, palazzo pants by Boohoo, jacket is preloved (no label) and sunglasses by Quay Australia. The top is preloved and cost under £3. The necklace is old, maybe from M&S...

The rings too are second hand, and seen previously.

It's been a funny couple of days weather wise here as the warm temperatures have done nothing but produce fog and more fog. The tide and fog have both drifted in and out, although not in harmony, creating travel havoc with those who were trying to fly in and out of the islands. The Scillonian has been bulging to the gunnel's with passengers eager to move one way or the other and was even supplemented by smaller boats being hired to get folks home in time for commitments. 

Somewhere out there is a jet boat coming in to the quay to collect passengers travelling to the mainland some two hours away. Thank goodness that's not me as I dislike being out on a boat in the fog. I know that they're equipped with all the right technology like Sat Nav and radios but honestly it spooks me. I'll just say a quick Hi to my dear friend Angela who left today on the ferry after two weeks on the island - I hope your journey back to Cornwall was uneventful!

My hectic social whirl has passed, friends have been and gone, were wined and dined and life may settle back into something resembling a routine hopefully with the blog becoming less erratic too. We managed to fit in a boat trip to the Eastern Isles for a picnic which I will be sharing with you soon - the weather wasn't warm, but at least it was good enough to make the trip possible and we all had a super day out.

As I shimmy off towards the weekend I'll wish you all a lovely time - family time, party time, shopping time, DIY time or just time to chill - have a super weekend and I'll be back soon!

Anna x

Fringe jacket

When I came across this gorgeous little beauty in a charity shop in Harrogate the question did occur to me "Is there a cut-off age for wearing fringe jackets?" and no definitive answer came back. For many women they might be saying teens, 20's or whatever, but for me the test is to try it on and if it makes me smile and want to do a little dance then I buy it. I'm not one to conform as you know, nor am I out to shock or be totally outrageous. In my teens I came across the saying "Dare to be different" and that still chimes me now. I just want to be me; dressing to have fun; wanting to look good in my eyes; maybe even inspiring others; all of that makes me happy. 

The wide trousers were bought at the same time and by pairing these together I felt they helped to create a hippy chick vibe which I love. The generous dollops of orange in the shape of these bold accessories add a great pop of colour and I finished with these metallic pumps which have sat (forgotten) in the box since I bought them from TK Maxx many years ago. Working in an art gallery gives me licence to be expressive in my dressing without raising too many eyebrows. Many moons ago I worked in a bank meaning I had to be so conservative with what I wore, but honestly, I found it all pretty depressing. I don't think I could go back to that kind of restrictive dressing again. Hopefully I won't have to.

Details - trousers: River Island, jacket: prettylittlething, tee shirt: M&S, handbag: Topshop, shoes: Ras, belt, bangle and rings: all charity shopped, necklace: old, sunglasses: Quay Australia.

Wanna see that little dance?

Linking with

Catherine of Not Dressed As Lamb

Patti of Not Dead Yet Style

Wishing you a great week!

Anna x