Spring greens with the Style Not Age Collective

Hello and welcome to another challenge from the Style Not Age Collective! Jacqui has opted for the theme of Spring Greens this time which does seem to have had the desired effect by fast forwarding us into some lovely springtime weather. Hurrah for that and let's see how Jacqui has tackled the challenge herself ...

It does indeed look like spring has taken hold where she lives too. Her dress is from Next and just in case you hadn't noticed, Jacqui's new eating regime means that she's fading away before our very eyes, helping her to drop a size. What a great excuse to have a new wardrobe Jacqui! Do pop over to see her post on Mummabstylish.

Hilda is showcasing this fab green coat from Zara with faux leather jeans in her springtime setting. She's waxing lyrical about the delights of spring on her blog Over The Hilda so do swing by to find her inspiration.

Another green coat this time from Laura Ashley for Emma of Style Splash. Her yellow courts and that cute daffodil brooch are both perfect tie-in's for the spring theme too.

I must admit that I had to rummage around in my wardrobe to find some green of any sort. I soon discovered that even though I like the colour, I don't actually  own many green pieces - note to self to remedy that at the soonest possible opportunity! This skirt is one I bought from eBay a few years ago. I haven't worn it much due to the fact that the lining around the bottom edge seemed to be too tight and to pucker the line of the skirt. I expect that's why it ended up on eBay. After a couple of attempts at repairing it I finally resorted to separating the lining and skirt completely and et viola, it worked!

It was easy to pull the rest of the look together once I'd fixed the skirt. The spring theme was echoed perfectly in both the M&S blouse and my floral Primark boots. I picked out the blue from the boots to choose tights and all that was left was to find a jacket. This yellow tweed Chanel type jacket was a charity shop find. If there are any of you readers who've been with me from the start, you'll have seen this jacket and skirt paired up four years ago in this post here. I'm pleased to see that I still have a love for this combination some years on. 

The rings are both pre-loved and seen regularly on the blog - I do like these large gobstopper kind of rings for adding a bit of extra colour to an outfit.

These sock boots are sooooo comfortable, a dream to wear all day long. 

The backdrop for this shoot was chosen by Sasha - perfect spring greens don't you think?

My old faithful sunglasses are by Quay Australia, as usual. 

So that just about winds it all up for another month. Did you enjoy the challenge? Does it inspire you to search out your own version of Spring Greens? I do hope so. Please take a moment to visit the other ladies on their blogs to read their back stories.  I'll be back later on this week with ...? Goodness knows what! I'm sure I'll find something to share with you. Thanks for joining us again this month and I hope you'll be back soon.

                                                                                          Anna x

Mermaid coat

Yes, the wanderer has returned! Hello and how lovely to have your company again. The past three weeks have gone by in a flash, but conversely I feel like I've been away for ages. My huge trip has generated lots of imagery so I'm not going to rush into things, but want to sift through the photos and put together some easily digestible features for you over the next little while. 

Let's go back a bit, shall we, to that crazy flurry aka Christmas when my darling husband bought me this - from here on known as my mermaid coat due to the massive sequins/scales. Isn't it bloody lovely! Yes, I'll admit, he did have a bit of guidance as to what I'd like, but surely that's better than having an unwanted gift? The coat is from Topshop and for those of you who may be drooling at the sight of this completely over-the-top jacket, well it's good news - here it is in the sale.

I can see that the coat will be an absolute asset to my wardrobe - I imagine that I can wear this on exhibition nights as well as the obvious beach shot on a desert island somewhere too. What fun I'll have with this! The subtle iridescent colours are so flattering and lend themselves to all sorts of pastel pairings. Today's outfit features a pale pink cotton roll neck sweater and bleached denim flares with a rose gold belt - all preloved. The silver high heeled leather boots are by Buffalo London, giving just the right edge to the look.

I've used both rose gold and silver as my accessory colours here to great effect, even if I do say so myself. You can see how lots of pastel shades are present in the coat - lemon, gold, pale aqua, pink, peach, pale green - all of them opening up future styling possibilities. I know it's not everyday wear, but goodness, since when did that stop me? As you know, I've just come back from the mainland where I scooped up an orange sequined padded bomber jacket at the last minute and as I couldn't fit it into my already stuffed suitcase, well I just put it on, zipped it up, and travelled home in it from Truro. On the early morning train, waiting at the station for my lift, and at the airport, where I breezed in as if it was absolutely normal to be wearing orange sequins at nine in the morning. Dahling - I've just returned from a fashion shoot in Cape Town, luvvies!!!!!

I've mixed all kinds of textures and colours for my jewellery too - a plastic peach toned ring with another of silver and enamel, both charity shopped, plus the rose gold watch gifted to me by Nordgreen, a gold rose belt (preloved) and the glittery silver clutch which has no brand but was a ten pound buy from a small boutique somewhere. The rose gold sunglasses are by my favourite brand Quay Australia.

In my absence my dear friend and designer Bo, has been busy at work giving the blog a face lift and doesn't it look gorgeous? A new year, a new start and all that jazz, eh? 

If you've been following my recent adventures on Instagram, you'll have seen that the client asked me to have a new, sharp haircut. The image they sent me, showed a picture perfect young model with button nose, cheek bones like coat hangers and skin like porcelain. I do wonder if they had considered how this would translate across to my generous nose, wrinkled skin and thin lips? No matter. What I wonder is, which you prefer - this hairstyle or the micro fringed number?

It's great to be back on the island and to think about 2019 and what it holds. My recent trip to Cape Town showed me how life can be full of surprises, (albeit some of them rather last minute), but if you are willing to say Yes to the universe then anything is possible. We're all different and we all want different things in life, so whatever you want I would say - wish for it every morning, send that wish out to the universe couched in gratitude and then get on with everything that comes your way with joy in your heart and a spring in your step!

Please join me again on Monday when the Style Not Age collective will be featuring our January Jumpers - very topical indeed. Until then, have a lovely weekend!

Anna x

Happy Christmas!

Happy Christmas!

Hello and how are the preparations coming along? Currently I'm still making fudge as fast as I can, but hopefully by the end of today everyone will have their allotted box. Tomorrow I'll be making a raised chicken pie for dinner along with other savoury nibbles, and I hope to do some prep for the Christmas meal too. Please don't mistake me for a domestic goddess - there's a whole lot of panicking and comedy moments take place when I'm in the kitchen!

Homemade vanilla fudge for family and friends. 

And finally, after weeks of trying to find the perfect showcase for my tartan boots - here it is! Oh my goodness, how I love this tartan medley. I'm not sure why tartan is so big around Christmas, but I've not got a problem with this fabulous pattern being on trend again. The green teddy bear coat was from TK Maxx last year and is still a fond favourite of mine, cosy and snuggly, just like a cuddly bear in fact.

After searching the Internet for hours I came across these tartan trews (what beauties!) on the ASOS website and if you fancy them they've got £10 off now, see here. I totally love them and have had so many compliments about them and how very me they are. And now here they are teamed up with my fab M&S tartan boots and don't they look amazing together? Gush, gush!

The red pie crust, frilly cuffed blouse is by H&M and was sent all the way from Japan when my dear friend Ben was there on holiday. He came across it in a market and decided it had my name on it. It came by post, via surface mail arriving some 10 weeks after he got home. But arrive it did and thank you Ben - I love it!

Another H&M secondhand purchase is the Sealed With A Kiss Christmas jumper. I bought it on eBay last year and have found that the black makes it easy to pair with most festive outfits. I have a new sparkly jumper set aside for Christmas day and if all goes to plan I hope to sidetrack one of the family to take some photos before the post-dinner naps commence.

The black and silver ring is preloved and the frilly seaweed ring is by Emily Nixon.

From here on in, my lovely readers, I'm not sure how the rest of December will go blog-wise. I'd like to award myself with a few days off, away from the clamour of social media and let the blog bubble away, garnering comments from you or not as the case may be. 

On New Year's Eve I'll be joined by the Style Not Age Collective for our monthly challenge which just so happens to be Sequins. Oh dear, can you imagine what a terrible chore this will be for me to don something so brash and sparkly? Never fear, I'll give it my best shot!

In the meantime, I'd like to wish you all 

A Wonderful Christmas 

and let's catch up again soon!

Anna x

JD Williams trousers with pink trench by Topshop

I'm making no apologies for showcasing my pink trench coat so soon after the last time. The pop of pink and bright blue are perfect for chasing my winter blues away. The look may seem out of step with the sparkly Christmas outfits that other bloggers may be sharing currently, but first and foremost my motivation is always about the feel-good factor, especially at this time of year.

When I introduce a new piece into my wardrobe of course it has a knock-on effect sparking new combinations using older pieces. The Meghan trousers that I bought earlier this year were begging to be paired with the coat. I just love this bright pink and cobalt blue together and what a cheery response this outfit got!

The floral blouse by Country Rose (pre-loved) brought both the pink trench coat and cobalt blue Megan trousers by JD Williams together perfectly, and these in turn all tied in beautifully with my cosmic creepers by T.U.K. - these pieces are so meant to be together! (I missed a trick however, as I have a double sided pink and blue suede belt which I planned to wear and then promptly forgot!)

Steve's comment on seeing me later in the day was that I looked like I was auditioning for the 70's band, Mud. For those of you who haven't heard of them see the link here. I'm not so sure that they wore cerise tights with their brothel creepers, but apart from that I have to concede that my styling would have warranted me a place in the line-up. My voice may have let me down though!

The pink rose resin ring was a gift, the blue ring is preloved and the Tree of Life pendant was from a boutique in Truro. 

The great thing about this look is that I'll be able to wear it again in the spring - it's got a really joyful feel to it, don't you think?

I'll leave you with a few shots of the islands from this morning. I sat out at the North End of the island overlooking Bryher and Shipman's Head to capture the effect of the 50mph winds that are whipping across the Isles of Scilly today.

Needless to say, my dear readers, I didn't succumb to the lures of sea swimming today!

Anna x

Another pop of pink!

This time last week I was advocating a hefty dose of colour as my prescription against the winter blahs and this week I'm back to reinforce that message. A pop of pink can work wonders when it comes to chasing the blues away. 

The main event here has to be this rather fabulous trench coat, a charity shop find from last month's dash around town in Truro which yielded a very rich seam of treasure. The brand is Topshop and cost all of £4, but I have to add a dry cleaning bill to that as it was quite marked, although that's remedied now. It has a rubberised finish meaning it really is waterproof rather than just masquerading as a raincoat as so many do.

The other great feature of the coat is the gingham lining, of course. I'd already found this mini skirt earlier in the day (another Topshop pre-loved piece) so when I saw this coat it felt like one of those meant-to-be moments. I've been itching to put this outfit together and must admit it did live up to be all that I'd hoped for. Pink and grey do pack a mighty punch, especially when you throw gingham into the mix. The grey polo neck was from Primark last year, the elastic belt was from eBay a couple of years ago, the necklace was a boutique find earlier this year, but the rest of the ensemble is second hand. 

Oh well, I've put off mentioning these for long enough - yes, I've finally succumbed to over the knee boots! I know I've debated this dilemma in the past, trying to talk myself out of this desire to buy a pair before it's too late (for me as opposed to the trend). This year seems to be my sod-it year where I'm blasting all the rules out of the water. All the reasons which held me back previously still remain, in that my legs are still too short/chunky, I'm still not tall enough to be the willowy creature who owns this look and that I yearn to be, and surprise, surprise I'm a year older than I was last time I shared this longing with you. So what this means is that at the grand old age of sixty I've come to realise that life's too short to wait for my stars to be perfectly aligned and for me to become the woman of my dreams! This is my (and yours too) only chance at this life and I'd better get on with it!

These beauties are by Clarks, leather fronted with elastic on the back. This combination gives a great fit which is probably what convinced me to buy them. Ideally I would have preferred to have a slight high heel (not a Pretty Woman heel, just enough to help elongate my not-so-long legs). However, when I tried them on in the shop (TK Maxx where they were retailing at half price for £75) I was wearing black skinny jeans and these boots looked great, well great enough for me to jump at them. 

The clutch is another pre-loved piece, stashed away for months waiting for its timely debut, et viola! And you'll no doubt recognise my most favourite pair of Quay Australia sunglasses that look as if they were just made to wear with today's ensemble. (Big sigh, as I swoon at this blissful coming together of these elements!)

The boots also look fab with the micro mini skirt from last week (see here). I thought I'd just add that before Jude or Sheila come back at me with that suggestion - don't worry girls, I'll show you that another time! My photographer of the day was Steve and I did suggest how more suited this outfit would be for an outing in London, and bless him, he agreed. I fancy we won't get away together this winter, but maybe we can have a mini-break in the spring ...

I thought it might make a nice change for you to see a bit of different scenery today. The cottage behind me is called Pentle Cottage, one of the holiday cottages, near to Pentle Bay. My attempts at gadding about as Polly and I do, somehow didn't quite work, but I kinda like them anyway.

I hope you've enjoyed today's pop of pink and that you might consider a sweep of pink lipstick or perhaps a mohair scarf in this sweetest of colours to add a touch of fun to your day. And my finishing words might cheer you up too - take heart, I've not bought one single Christmas present yet! 

Anna x