Summer Whites our SNA challenge for May

Hello and welcome again to our monthly Style Not Age challenge! Summer Whites was my theme of choice after what's been a brilliant start to the summer. I would normally hold off wearing white at this time of year, not having faith that the morning sunlight would last all day long, leaving me looking a bit tragic in bright white summer clothes on a dull old day, but the steadiness of the weather meant that I jumped in with both feet and wore this outfit to work last week. But first, let's catch up with the ladies of the collective to see what they've been wearing...

Wowee, doesn't Emma look fantastic in this white lace dress! The brand is Pretty Little Thing and was gifted to her a few years ago when she collaborated with the company. See more from Emma on Style Splash blog. 

Hilda's white skirt is from Cos, a purchase from last year, and her top is old, from Topshop. Catch up on her latest on Over the Hilda. 

Jacqui's dress is by Nomads, gold shoes are from Vinted and matching jacket is from Matalan. Find out all the latest from Jacqui on her blog Mummabstylish.

I don't often wear all white and today's look is no different. The orange and turquoise shimmery coat was a Vinted purchase last year and can be seen here on its first outing. I clearly like to pair this summer duster with my Sunny Days MOMA boots, probably because of the tiny toe end being turquoise too. 

My jewellery is mostly in turquoise hues: the bracelet is a reworked piece from lots of vintage necklaces which I bought from the Gallery last year after coveting it from ages. My dancing girl necklace was another Gallery Tresco purchase from years ago - I love the sparkling beads and the silver dancing girl in a green mini skirt. My gold coloured chain was bought in Accessorize last year and has retained its shine despite not being real gold. The large turquoise ring was a charity shop find and I'm also wearing my birthday ring from Emily Nixon Design. My sunglasses are old, from Radley London.

My white trousers were a recent purchase from Number36 boutique in Penzance. I seem to have a love/hate relationship with white trousers having bought endless pairs of both jeans and trousers over the years and none of them delivering the look I was after. The concern about looking trashy is probably my issue and white jeans always cause me concern. I tried on these loose linen trousers in the shop along with a beautiful pistachio green sweater and fell in love with the whole outfit - I promise you'll see that soon. The trousers have an elasticated back making for a good snug fit, along with the essential deep pockets and I do love the tapered cuff finish at the ankle. I paired the trousers with a white top, newly purchase from Primark and tied the two pieces together with my old faithful stretch belt.

The outfit of the day attracted a lot of attention, particularly from one lovely lady who was here on holiday for the week and made her way to the Gallery every day just to see what I was wearing. One day she even took a photo of the OOTD to send to her daughter. She and I both agreed that the summer duster coat was a mighty fine piece. I really must make an effort to wear it more often this year. Likewise with my fabulous peapod trouser suit which I wore on Friday and had such a great response to it. I'm increasingly aware that I won't be working forever and really must make the most of the opportunity to dress up while I can. 

Many thanks for joining us for this month's style challenge. As ever, I'm so happy to have your comments and feedback about this or any other outfit of mine. So do please let me know your thoughts or even requests to see something again. 

Have a great week!

Anna x

Lovely Leather our SNA challenge for February

Hello and welcome to this month's Style Not Age challenge for February, chosen by Hilda this month, and the theme is Lovely Leather. Apologies for my poor submission, but life has been stacked against me this month and I didn't manage to get my chosen outfit photographed. So here's my new Laidback London leather boots as a poor offering. But let's move swiftly along to see what the ladies of the style collective have for us...

Jacqui is showcasing her faux leather trousers from Tu in this season's favourite mocha shade. Her leopard print trench is imitation suede and is a great finishing touch to the look. See the full details on her blog Mummabstylish. 

Hilda's fabulous full length leather coat is a dream in cream! I too had planned to feature a long leather coat and, like hers, mine was a charity shop find. Do swing by her blog to read more about this beautiful coat on Over The Hilda blog. 

Emma's sporting faux leather culottes with knee high boots and a fabulous orange coat for this challenge. Like me she's not entirely happy with the outcome, but hey, you can but try eh? Read her backstory on her blog Style Splash here. 

My sheepskin lined leather boots are from Laidback London, a purchase earlier on this winter when I was having pain on the top of my foot and couldn't find anything to make me comfortable all day long. They're called the Setsu Crochet boot (see them here) and are available in lots of different colours. The brand has a 40% sale on currently so it might be worth a look.

These photos are from a visit to Hell Bay Hotel in January when I was involved in stocktaking all of the art collection. The weather wasn't the best, but I felt my new boots were worth capturing. The sweater was from Vinted and black jeans and socks were from Primark.

Nothing new with these sparkly rings - both are charity shopped from years ago.

I'm not sure if this has been our best style challenge but as Emma has said, it's good to experiment even if it doesn't always work out! Please do drop by again next week and I'll be giving it another try.

                                                                    Anna x

Golden Girls, our Style Not Age challenge for December

Hello again and welcome to this month's Style Not Age challenge! Emma chose the theme and it did remind me of the TV series of the same name, but hopefully we're not quite as old as those golden gals. Anyway, let's take a look at Emma's outfit shall we?

Emma's gold jacket is from eBay, her blouse is new, from Monsoon and velvet trousers are from Very. The gold clutch bag is a vintage piece from Warehouse. See more from Emma on her blog Style Splash. 

Jacqui looks like a sparkling starlet in her gold F&F skirt topped with her new fur jacket by Izabel. Her shoes and top are closet finds - doesn't she look fab! Catch up with her news on Mummabstylish. 

Hilda's look hinges on her gold bag and the rest is all about tonal shades. She send apologies that her outfit isn't as dazzling as she'd anticipated but family commitments have dragged her sideways. See her latest on Over The Hilda blog.

Gail is resplendent in her vintage brocade dress, bought from Etsy worn over a cream sweater from Kettlewell. Gold and leopard print accessories finish off the look perfectly. Find more from Gail on her blog Is This Mutton. 

My gold trousers and jacket are both purchases from Vinted this past month. The jacket reminds me of Freddy Mercury don't you think? Either that or the ringmaster at the circus, hahaha!

I'm wearing my exquisite embroidered Sunny Days boots from the MOMA shop. Gold threads, seed pearls and an abundance of colours make these boots so very special and versatile - wearable with almost any colour mix. 

I finished the look off with this burnt orange faux fur jacket, old, from TK Maxx. Orange and golden hues are what my outfit is all about and needless to say I'm in my element! Thanks for joining us again this month and I'll be back next week with a round-up of my festive finery from this week at work and the New Year. I hope you have a great New Year and look forward to catching up again soon!

                                                                        Anna x

Lovely Linen our SNA challenge for August!

Welcome once again to our Monthly Style Not Age Challenge! This month I chose the theme of Lovely Linen which was led mainly by this recent Vinted buy. The dress had no label but also no pockets and at the weekend I set to creating some by using orange linen fabric left over from a dress I made previously. 

Here's the work in progress and I'm delighted to say that despite putting the first pocket in the wrong way round, I finally managed to fathom it out and ended up with two perfectly acceptable and functioning pockets! But, let's take a look at my fashionable friends and see how they approached this month's challenge...

Gail's Lovely Linen dress is a classic shape from Boden in a zingy shade of turquoise. For the past three weeks Gail has been on LEJOG, a cycling adventure from Land's End to John O Groats - so please do swing by to catch up on her news on Is This Mutton blog. 

Emma's wearing a linen mix co-ord from Damson Madder, worn with old sandals and a bag by Skinny Dip. Catch up on the latest from Emma on her blog Style Splash here. 

Jacqui's jacket and trousers may look like a suit but are simply a very good match - well done that girl! She's added a toning tan top to complete the look - see more on Mummabstylish.

There's nothing new from Hilda with her animal print dress by Whistles, but that's not to say it's not on trend - it looks fab. She shopped her wardrobe for this look - see more on Over The Hilda. 

I'd walked for a mile or so to the far end of Pentle Bay in the hope of getting out of the fierce North wind, but still it played havoc with my colourful frock! I wore my orange denim jacket by Forever 21 to keep the chill wind at bay and my blue Lazy Dogz sandals worked very well with the mulit coloured dress. 

The smock dress has a shirred back and sweet puff sleeves and is a lovely cool shape to wear on a summer's day. I wore a simple white beaded necklace with silver heart - a gift from my sister which has been very useful indeed.

My rings are old as as my sunglasses (from Radley London). 

Hiding down below the rocks I almost managed to escape out of the wind. Once I'd taken my photos I lay down and read my book for an hour which was a lovely way to end my day off.

As ever it's been fun to take part in this monthly challenge. I do hope you've enjoyed this month's offerings from us all. Did you find any new ideas? Or was there something that is so typically you? Whichever, thank you so much for dropping by and please do leave a comment if you've been inspired.

                                                                        Anna x

Dreamy dresses our SNA challenge for June

Hello and welcome to June's Style Not Age Challenge where five friends throw down the style gauntlet month after month in rotation resulting sometimes in angst other times in joy. Jacqui came up with Dreamy Dresses which seems to have been a happy choice this month. Mine is yet another second-hand find from Vinted and I'm delighted with what's surely going to be a very useful summer frock. But let's look at my fashionable friends first shall we?

A very dreamy setting for Jacqui's summer dress, a new purchase from Matalan worn with old sandals and handbag from New Look. Catch up with all of her news on Mummabstylish

Emma's Dreamy Dress comes from TK Maxx worn with sandals from Coast and bag by Fenella Smith. Read her back story on the Style Splash

Gail wore her Dreamy Dress to the Vivienne Westwood exhibition at Christies recently and didn't look at all out of place. See more from her on Is This Mutton. 

Hilda's Dreamy Dress is from Whistles (not new) but worn when she was taken out to dinner recently in Derry. Find out more on her blog Over The Hilda.

This lightweight dress is made from polyester making it easy to wear and cool on this bright sunny day at work. I'm sure this will earn its place in my wardrobe this summer.

This pretty frock has a myriad of colours making styling so very easy. I've added these fuchsia flatforms from last summer which are super comfy. Then I took orange as my next lead colour adding this stretch belt from Amazon, again purchased last year.

What's not to love about a dress that says Love on it?

The lemon mini bag with beaded handle by Dune was a TK Maxx find last summer - it's uber cute don't you think? My rings are old, pre-loved too.

My sister Dianne recently sent me this pearl and heart necklace, in fact two of these, one in white pearl and the other with grey pearls. This is perfect for today's look.

Another splash of colour comes by way of these old sunnies by Zara. It was great fun putting this outfit together, where it was all about colours and as many as possible. Thanks for joining us this month - I hope you've enjoyed our challenge!

                                                                Anna x