We love...

Yes, it's the 20th of the month and that's time for my monthly style challenge. Previously Ping Pong Piece held centre stage here, but the girls and I have called it a day. After 18 months of collaborating we felt the time had come to bow out gracefully before we outstayed our welcome. Samantha has launched a weekly link up so do pop over to see how she's getting on with that and Ann is busy as ever sharing her savvy style as well as her DIY projects.

And me, well I'm delighted to introduce you to my daughter, Sasha, who is joining me in our new style feature called "We love..." As mother and daughter we share a passion for clothes, shoes, boots, handbags and all things sparkly. We'll be popping up on the 20th of the month to show you that there needn't be a generation gap where style is concerned. This month "We love florals" so let's get going!

Sasha and I not only love clothes, but we love clothes shopping together. We are ninjas of the sales and experts of rummaging in charity shops finding all sorts of bargains together and for each other. When I suggested that we do this monthly style challenge together Sasha immediately had her own ideas of items we've doubled up on. We have an overlap on many favourites including our passion for brogues, embroidery and all things metallic which will be featured in due course. Clothes sharing may be a contentious issue for some mothers and daughters, but not us - we are constantly passing on pieces to each other (my top today is a prime example). 

Florals was on obvious starting point for the feature as we both own an abundance of this most feminine of prints. Winter florals may well crop up over the next few months as we embrace darker tones and deeper colours that are trending. And that's where I'm going to enjoy Sasha's input most of all, as current trends tend to pass me by, but not so with Sasha. She truly has her finger on the pulse knowing what's rising, waning and completely over. Her insight will be great even though I'm sure my own style radar will remain the same. It's exciting to have her on board and I do hope that you appreciate her flair too.

Outfit details -

Sasha wears overshirt and jeans from New Look, sunglasses from Primark and shoes by Guess. I'm wearing a top by H&M, pre-loved jeans, mules by Red Kiss, sunglasses by Sainsbury's, all jewellery pre-loved.

Linking with -

Catherine of Not Dressed As Lamb

Jess of Elegantly Dressed And Stylish

Patti of Not Dead Yet Style

Samantha of Fake Fabulous

Laurie of Vanity And Me

Anna x

I can't get enough of these summer florals!

It's summer at last, so there's no need for me to apologise for this overdose of all things floral. The foundation of this outfit is this pair of magnificent billowing trousers. At £5 from New Look many summers ago I knew they were going to be worth it. I had them relined with a lovely swishy fabric as they had a stretchy lining which didn't enhance the grandness of them at all. Now, when I move about the gallery in my swishy pants, I exude an air of the VIP, which of course I am, being the manager. 

Any minute now and we'll hit July and August, our busiest period of all at work. It's a crazy mix of the most wonderful and most terrible of times - wonderful, as it's the culmination of all of my winter planning, and terrible, as it's so very busy that I have very little time to stop and enjoy it. Our exhibition period sees Polly and I like speeded up versions of ourselves; hanging, selling and taking down paintings in our very own groundhog day. But we love it, every single minute and make sure we laugh at ourselves as we unpack, hang, sell and re-wrap repeatedly in a flurry of bubble wrap and fragile tape over the most hectic 60 days of the year. We host 6 exhibitions in those 60 days, yes that's one every 10 days and they flash past us so quickly that one day, we look up at each other to discover that it's suddenly September. Crazy!

In the midst of all of this I try to ensure we get time to recharge our batteries and my favourite way of doing that is to hop onto our little boat and take off to a quiet beach somewhere. We took our friends Anna and Charlie off to an uninhabited island last week during that amazing heatwave and for us all it seemed like a day in paradise.

Not for us, those sandy sandwiches - no, we're terribly posh with our table and chairs to host the finest of fare. A huge coolbag stashed underneath to keep the refreshments cool and we're good for the next few hours. Now what else did the maid pack?

Just drop us over there, my good man.

The boat comes with this rather dashing boatman. All at no extra charge.

Please join me on Friday for the 5th instalment of my black trouser challenge. Today's outfit details are - trousers: New Look (very old), blouse, belt, clutch, bracelet, rings and sandals are all charity shopped, sunglasses: Quay Australia, green pearls: Almost Perfect.

Anna x