Welcome to the Jungle our Style Not Age challenge for May

Welcome to our style challenge for May!

This month Emma chose "Welcome to the Jungle" as our Style Not Age theme, a great idea if I may say so. I was delighted when she suggested this as I've had the perfect outfit waiting for this very opportunity. But first, let's see what sparked her challenge shall we?

Style Splash's Emma has nailed it with this fabulous trouser suit by Scotch and Soda. In fact, I love everything about this outfit - the cute tee shirt, matching necklace and the orange accessories all amount to blooming perfection!

Hilda from Over The Hilda is a woman after my own heart by borrowing her daughter's cardigan for this feature. I'm partial to a bit of clothes sharing too! The beautiful cardi is by designer Hayley Menzies, as stocked by Liberty amongst other stores.

Gail from Is This Mutton is sporting a snazzy palm tree print jumpsuit with mules from Topshop. A neon see-through clutch and statement necklace finish off the look.

Jacqui from Mummabstylish played a great move here by borrowing her jumpsuit and scarf from her daughter too and boy doesn't she look great in them?

My silky and comfy two piece is from by George at Asda and was a charity shop find last year. I picked up the trousers while I was in Truro at one of my favourite shops. On taking them to the till, the assistant asked if I'd seen the matching top .... Well, I hadn't, but was delighted when she flicked through the racks and yes, it was still there! Both the trousers and top are loose fitting with elastic waistbands making them just right for lounging around or getting out and about on hot days. The two piece cost me £7.50, so what's not to love?

Just a quick mention to my artistic director of today's shoot for capturing these jungle shots. My long suffering husband gets dragged out twice a week for the blog photos and it's all done with good humour, but isn't one of his favourite tasks. I gave him the jungle remit and he delivered this great backdrop. I spotted this fallen log on what looks like a jungle swamp and said it would be great to stand on this for some atmospheric shots. This entailed him carrying me down a slippy bank and across this marshy bog to plonk me atop the slightly rotting tree. Thank goodness no-one saw me getting a piggy back especially as he nearly tripped as we were navigating the downwards slope. I was impressed that he lined up the Montbretia flowers to add to the shots - hurrah for my darling hubby!

Here's a better look at the outfit. The short sleeves have a cute bow as adornment. 

All of my jewellery is pre-loved. The sunglasses of the day are by Quay Australia.

The perfect footwear for today's outfit, these flower sandals were from Primark a couple of summers ago.

Thanks for joining us again this month and I do hope you've found some inspiration from the collective. I'll be back on Friday with the weekly Dress Up Friday feature so I hope you'll join me for that too.

Wishing you a lovely week!

Anna x

Mastering monochromatic at last

Earlier on this month I was taking part in the 5Over50 challenge and managed to misread the remit. Monochrome and monochromatic became one and the same to me, much to my ensuing embarrassment. See the post here. And so, somewhat belatedly, here is my take on monochromatic. 

On reflection, it's no bad thing that I didn't wear this version for the challenge as Laurie and I both have this very same skirt (from F&F at Tesco). I had suggested this outfit to Polly by way of "What about nude?" and she insisted that "You're better than nude", resulting in my change of heart to black and white. Well, when I did finally turn up for work in this outfit, she loved it and declared that this wasn't just nude - it's nude and blush and pink and fluffy gorgeousness. So you like it then Poll?

Outfit details - skirt: F&F, cardigan: Sainsbury's, shoes: Primark, necklace: Debenhams, rings: charity shopped, sunglasses: Quay Australia, watch: Michael Kors.

If you're reading this on Sunday, then I'll be swanning about somewhere in Cornwall with my daughter. Annual health checks require me to be away from work at this busy time, but it's just for a couple of days. I'm sure that Polly will cope perfectly well without me to boss her about. I'll hit the ground running on Monday when I return to hang the new show in readiness for opening on Tuesday. I'm hoping to find something new to wear for the opening night, so fingers crossed eh?

Linking with -

Catherine of Not Dressed As Lamb

Patti of Not Dead Yet Style

Cherie of Style Nudge 

Anna x

Black trouser challenge 5

Yep, it's week five of my self-imposed black trouser challenge and I'm still going strong. I thought it was about time to inject a good ol' dollop of colour this time by way of this floralfest of a blouse. One of my favourite stylings of this fabulous blouse was featured on the blog here. Cost-per-wear for my trousers has dropped down to a comfortable £8 so I'm a very happy bunny. Let's take a look at this week's offering shall we?

So what can I say about this five week love affair? The ruffles still make my heart somersault, the fit is still good after lots of wash'n'wear, and I'm finding black such a dream to partner up with the contents of my wardrobe. This morning I found another clutch of tops which could easily have made an appearance here and not looked out of place in the least. I do wonder if I would have been quite so inspired if I'd chosen a plain, basic cut pair of black trousers for my style challenge, but hey, you know that I wouldn't have fallen for anything less than wonderful to convert me to the joys of black breeks! My sole concern is that you, my dear reader, are tiring of the repeated exposure to these fancy pants. Please whizz on by if this doesn't enchant you as it does me - I'll understand.

Trousers: River Island (still available here), blouse: Next (charity shop find, so may be quite old), shoes: New Look, rings: charity shopped, sunglasses: Quay Australia, heart pendant: boutique find, but no idea of the name, sorry!

This is a non-sponsored post.

My next post will be on Monday when I feature the #5Over50 challenge - hope to see you then!

Anna x

5Over50 challenge round 2

Ding, ding! - round 2 of our style challenge is here. The collective have the joyful task of styling up Marvelous Metallics this month and you won't be in the least surprised to hear that this was my suggestion. Metallics feature heavily in my wardrobe and shoe collection, causing me to have a difficult time in choosing which of these to showcase. 5 over 50 are raring to go so let's get on with it, shall we?

The foundation of my outfit is this silver pleated skirt which I found in the sale at Sainsbury's some time ago. My sandals are a great match coming from TK Maxx - the brand is Xti. The tiny sequin bag was a gift from my daughter and seemed like the perfect accessory for today's challenge along with silver rings and bangle as well as my relatively new silver and gold chain which ties everything together beautifully. The simple black sweater was a good backdrop for all the shimmering metallics, and my sunglasses (another find at Sainsbury's) add just a little pop of colour.

Here's Jacqueline from Mummabstylish blog. In complete contrast to me she's taken the minimal approach to her styling of Marvellous Metallics and I know that this may have a much broader appeal - it's not for everyone to pitch up head to toe in metallics. This nod to the theme is achieved by way of the silver handbag with silver chain and a silver link watch too. Her cornflower blue scarf is patterned in silvery white too. See Jacqueline's blog here and follow her on instagram here.

Gail is totally committed to this month's challenge and I'm more than slightly envious of her outfit. The black and gold skirt is really striking on its own, but by adding a gold clutch and boots Gail is indeed embracing the marvellous of her metallics. Rock and chick come to mind when you clock the single earring, black motif tee shirt and dark sunnies. Follow her on instagram here and find her blog Is This Mutton here.

The normally conservative dresser amongst the group has to be Laurie whose classic styling always has me wishing I could be more elegant too. Today however, Laurie has drawn together gold, silver and bronze for her ode to metallics and the resulting look is pretty hot stuff, don't you think? The plain white shirt shows Laurie's expertise at knowing when enough is enough. Find Laurie's blog Vanity And Me Style here and follow her intagram account here.

Last, but by no means least is Ashley from Lazy Daisy Jones blog. The third pleated skirt of the feature is a pale gold version which she has paired up with these gorgeous silver shoes. Ashley chose her favourite colour of blue for her top and incorporated another splash of colour by way of her cute little handbag. Follow Ashley's lifestyle blog here and instagram here.

We'll be back again next month with another style challenge. I do hope you'll drop by to see what we're up to.

Linking with -

Catherine of Not Dressed As Lamb

Cherie of Style Nudge

Jess of Elegantly Dressed And Stylish

Anna x