Homage to Iris, our Style Not Age challenge for March

Earlier this month the designer, decorator and style icon, Iris Apfel died at the age of 102, leaving behind a wealth of imagery to inspire the fashion lovers amongst us. Her viewpoint that "colour can raise the dead" sums up her dedication to powerful dressing. Iris enjoyed finding a bargain and never paid full price for her clothes or jewellery, trawling shops, flea markets and bazaars for unique pieces to add to her immense collection. To quote the Guardian Obituary, "She is the most decorative sight in each shot, her ensembles put together with complex cadenzas atop an underlying, tailored, structure - they are like jazz - not a statement, but a conversation."

A chestful of jewellery was her most favoured look and one that I've taken to heart for this month's challenge. I felt I simply had to choose Iris as our theme this month for all the right reasons. She stated that money couldn't buy personal style - according to her all that mattered is "attitude, attitude, attitude". Curating her clothes and improvising an outfit was her daily ritual, a joy, resulting in a 'zingy pzazz' unlike any other. 

I love Hilda's interpretation of this month's theme - I'm sure Iris would have approved too! The colourful shirt is fabulous adorned with bangles, beads and baubles in excess. See more from Hilda on her blog here. 

Another splash of colour in these citrus brights comes from Gail in her sporty homage to Iris. Catch up with all the latest from Gail on her blog Is This Mutton? 

Jacqui has taken a monochrome twist for her homage to Iris. Beads and bangles inject that signature pzazz to her dress and boots combo. See Mummabstylish for Jacqui's latest news.

Emma is sporting her Iris Apfel suit from the H&M collaboration (which I too proudly own) plus matching slippers topped with a fabulous jacket and Iris earrings. What a fitting homage to the Queen of Style! Emma carries the look off with true panache. See more on her blog The Style Splash. 

I bought this new suit with today's feature in mind as the colours and pattern are as bold as you get. Purchased on Vinted for the bargain basement price of £10 I thought it tied in with Iris's shopping philosophy too. 

The leather boots were also Vinted bargains at only £6 leaving me feel rather pleased with myself. I only managed to wear them for a few hours, but I felt they were essential to finish off the outfit.

Dressing fancy and fancy dress could so easily be confused, but hopefully I don't cross that line with my outfit of the day. I wore this to work last week to our first Timeshare drinks party and it did garner me some compliments rather than raised eyebrows.

I'm currently waiting for my copy of the book Rare Bird of Fashion: The Irreverant Iris Apfel and can't wait to feast my eyes on her exuberantly idiosyncratic style.  I was a latecomer to her fan club, but she epitomised all that I aspire to be - bold, bright with I-couldn't-care-less-what-you-think-of-me style where age is totally irrelavant to how one ought to dress. Every photo of her spoke of her joy in dressing up for the day, the pleasure to be had in mixing colours, fabrics and textures, no matter from what era or corner of the globe. I admired her strength, her self-knowledge and complete disregard to the self limiting rules of dressing. She truly was an inspiration and an icon. 

                                                                        Anna x

Sequins and camo for daytime

Eeek, it's only another 7 sleeps until Christmas and I'm so far off being ready! But let's move swifty on... Today I'm touting this daytime look that throws sequins on top of camo print in the loudest of colours. As you may know, I love orange, can't get enough of the colour and therefore when I came across these cargo pants on Vinted (new with the labels still attached) I just knew they were meant for me.

The trousers are so practical for work, yet eye poppingly bright and breezy that they yell out fun. I'll be wearing them this week while I do my final preparations to get the Gallery ready for opening. I'll swap out these orange leather boots (Asos) for my baseball camo ones and add a big cardigan for warmth.

My glitter top was a charity shop purchase from years ago and the orange sequin jacket came from TK Maxx a few years ago; I bring it out every Christmastime and it always makes people smile. The padding makes for a lovely snuggly winter jacket as well as being totally glam.

Glitter, sequins and camo meant I could get away with the minimum of jewellery. The classic black sunglasses are by Radley London and orange belt is from Primark.

Well, I suppose I'd better get back to my fudge making again. I've only one more batch to make this afternoon, making a total of over 24 pounds of the sweet stuff for family and friends. 

By tomorrow this will all be wrapped and packed into colourful boxes ready to distribute to my family here on the islands. It truly is the joy of giving!

I'll be back on Christmas day with my style sisters for our monthly style challenge, so if you get a quiet moment over the festive period please do swing by to see our take on Christmas Dressing.

Wishing you a very Happy Christmas!

Anna x

Inspired by Autumn, our Style Not Age challenge

Hello and welcome to November's Style Not Age challenge, chosen this month by Hilda. Inspired by Autumn suited me down to the ground as this was my work outfit from Friday showing my version of autumn delights. Burnt orange is a favourite seasonal choice of mine, but let's catch up with my blogging friends first to see how they interpreted this one...

Well, it looks like Jacqui and I were singing from the same sheet this time with our orange jackets, floral dresses and boots. Her jacket and dress are both from Bonmarche and boots are Clarks, handbag gifted from Teddy Blake. Catch up on her latest news on Mummabstylish.

Emma has shopped her closet for this stylish outfit - jacket and handbag were both from eBay, trousers and boots from M&S and top was from Joanie Clothing. The rich burgundy velvet jacket certainly says autumn to me! See more from Emma at Style Splash blog. 

Hilda's weekend look is indeed in autumnal hues. She too has shopped her closet for the challenge adding the only new item, a bright red scarf to finish her outfit. I love her boots and jacket and will be hopping across to her blog for more details - OvertheHilda. 

Zingy lemon and orange are Gail's autumn colours, and golly how fab they are together! The coat is from ASOS, scarf and top are from Kettlewell, leggings from M&S and boots are from Office. See more from Gail on Is This Mutton. 

Details of my ensemble are: fur coat from TK Maxx, dress from Joe Brown's (gifted), roll neck, old and charity shopped, boots from ASOS, belt from Amazon, gloves (old), sunglasses from Radley London, resin necklace (very old). 

To keep out the November chills at work I donned this extra layer - another autumnal offering by way of this fairisle cardigan (charity shopped last year). A woollen layer is what my mother-in-law always urged me to wear if I ever complained of being cold. It tickles me that I now pass on these wise words to workmates whenever they remark on our draughty workplace.

I'm still breaking in my new orange leather boots (from ASOS), but did manage to wear them all day long this time. The heel isn't terribly high, although the pointed toes do eventually tweak by the end of the day.

No new jewellery here, simply orange rings and necklace from my collection. Stretch belt was from Amazon earlier this year.

Despite the Gallery being closed for the winter, I do still like to make an effort and dress up for work. We have our winter schedule in place which means we have artists' residencies running over the next few months so I do see a steady trickle of them over the course of each week. Me dressing up is another way of conveying the fact that I take my role as Gallery Manager seriously; I do like to still have an air of professionalism about the place. 

Thanks for dropping by for our monthly challenge - I do hope you've enjoyed it!

Anna x

Another shorts co-ord from Primark!

If someone had told me 12 months ago that I'd be wearing shorts next winter I'd have laughed in their face, and yet here I am in another fab two-piece from Primark. I've recently bought this one from Vinted and it cost me £18. Vinted has become my guilty secret of late. I seem to have become a insomniac shopper, using the app to fill the dreary hours when I can neither sleep nor read. Speaking about this out loud is my first step in controlling things before they get out of hand. Rest assured my purchases aren't yet breaking the bank, but I'm finding the bright colours and interesting pieces quite a lure. Even if I stopped buying right now my blog will still be littered with jolly purchases for the next while. Anyway confession over, let's talk outfits shall we?

As I was saying, shorts and me are not really a happy marriage. I still carry my teenage angst about my athletic thighs and wouldn't normally choose to show them off, but the magical powers of 80 denier tights inspire enough confidence in me to step out in style. I've always loved bright coloured tights and it seems that by adding them to the equation I've overcome years, if not decades, of hang-ups. Even at my grand old age it seems we can still surprise ourselves! I'm even going to give you a quick look at the back view which is pretty brave of me, I can tell you...

The shorter length jacket works well with the slighter shorter shorts too, compared to the pink and orange two-piece I've been raving about. (See it here in case you've missed it.) I wore it to work in the last week of the Gallery being open and loved this green and white colour combination. 

I've opted to wear my mint green brogues (old from Office) with this new suit. Again, I surprise myself that I'd wear flats with shorts! What on earth is going on? Anyway, I brought various shoe and boot options together for the initial try on and strangely these chunky brogues gave the best balance to the outfit. High heeled boots really were too much, (even though that worked with the other suit) as were various ankle boots that seemed to shorten the leg, leaving these as the winners. Not only did they look the best, but they're all-day-long comfortable - hurrah!

The pale colour means that the slightest mark shoes up, but I'm learning to live with a bit of wear and tear too. Goodness, is the perfectionist in me drifting away I wonder?

I teamed the suit with this fine knit roll neck sweater that I bought from TK Maxx this summer. I've been waiting to find the right opportunity to showcase this funky top and love the pattern play it creates. The belt is old (from Primark) and the Tree of Life pendant is very old too. One silver ring is by Emily Nixon and the other enamel and silver one was a lucky charity shop find.

The finishing touch is these old Radley London sunglasses. I'll sign off with a local view for those of you who might be in need of a dose of Tresco bliss. 

Have a great week and I look forward to reading your comments. Your feedback is so very welcome, letting me know you're out there and enjoying my latest offering. So please do drop me a line! Thank you.

                                                                       Anna x

And yet more joy!

Hello again and sorry for my absence, but life is forever busy as we prepare to close the gallery for winter meaning that I change hats and become curator of the Tresco Art Collection which is held within some 100 cottages and public areas around the island. However, here I am, referring back to my previous post about joy. As you can see I'm jumping for joy as I had a lovely walk to the North End of the island and decided to practise what Gaby Roslin was preaching. It really works! I did indeed feel energised, and much happier simply for jumping and leaping around like a mad thing.

For a very small island, Tresco does offer a sense of the great escape, be it here on the rocky heathland, in the depths of the Abbey Garden or along the sweeping stretches of white sandy beaches skirting the majority of the island. It was a good day to visit the North End as I met only three other people, all heading off to find there own place of solitude. 

A day off is a chance to dress down and this was me in outdoorsy mode in this two piece (very old) from Asos. The stretchy leggings and top are perfect for working out or busying around. And a plain white tee shirt underneath was enough layering to keep me warm on this autumn day.

The camoflage boots are by Replay and oh, what a joy they were when I found them on Vinted earlier on this summer! I love the matchy-matchy look and will be seen over the forthcoming months sporting this when I'm lugging paintings around from houses into winter storage. I'm going to show you some of the views from this vantage point...

This bay is called Gimble Porth and is where you can often catch sight of a seal or two at any time of year, but mainly during the quiet winter months. There was one bobbing about while I was taking these shots and you may be able to discern his dark head just above the water.

The view just beyond Gimble Porth shows Northwethel and the Small Islands beyond - all of these are tiny uninhabited islands, popular for picnic trips and adventures for those with a small boat and knowledge of tides and rocks.

Beyond those lies the inhabited island of St Martin's and the Eastern Isles strewn outwards towards the mainland. Steve and I love to escape to these desert islands on our days off.

The lighthouse is perched atop Round Island and is now worked remotely. Scudding across the foreground is one of Tresco's jetboats.

Part two of today's post is to feature my Primark short suit again, this time with different accessories. I much prefer outdoors photography for my blog outfits, but at this time of year I'm held hostage by the weather which has been pretty dire of late. Apologies therefore for the lighting and less clear images. Hopefully the backdrop makes up for what it lacks elsewhere.

The pink and orange tweed shorts suit is reinvented by adding a colourful tee shirt, pink tights and metallic cowboy boots - a bit different to when I wore it for the first time (see here).

Gold chain belt and necklace add a bit of glamour as do the pink and orange rings (pre-loved) along with these bobby dazzler boots.

The metallic boots really do add that punch to today's look. Not for everyone, I know, but very me! I bought them from Asos earlier on in the year, but they're sold out now. Gutted, aren't you! 

Thanks for dropping by and do keep in mind that our end of month challenge occurs on the last Monday of the month. It's my turn to chose the theme - I hope you'll join us for that!

                                                                                              Anna x