The summer maxi

Hiiiiiiii! How's it going folks? I've been inspired today to don a summer maxi, thanks to a young lady I saw on the road the other day. She was walking ahead of me, hand in hand with her beau (ahem, yes my age is showing here) and she was dressed in a wonderful white, floaty maxi dress that was being caught by the wind, blowing around her in the most flattering of manners. The sight of them conjured up a story of young love, romance and their honeymoon on this perfect little island which gave me a wave of the feel-good factor. 

I promised myself that on the next sunny day I too would don my favourite maxi dress and recreate an image or two that might be inspire you in your summer dressing. So here's what Steve and I got up to at the end of play yesterday. We're on Pentle Bay, the longest sweep of beach on the east side of Tresco. The island in the distance behind me is St Martin's, famous for its vineyard, the Damart and also for (allegedly) having the best beaches on the whole of the Isles of Scilly. 

I couldn't resist this pose!

I was slightly disappointed that Steve didn't know the words to that particular song.

Most of his input was about me not being a mountain goat and for me not to break my ankle as I hopped about from rock to rock, chasing the perfect angle in relation to the sunlight.

Let's talk about the outfit of the day, shall we? I'm working hard at keeping up the green message of shopping my closet and wearing recycled items too and with that in mind am pleased to say that there's nothing brand new in this post. The dress is by Anmol and was from TK Maxx years ago. The gorgeous fringed jacket (synthetic not suede sadly) was a charity shop scoop, but has no label. The brown leather sandals are also second hand and by Dune - sooooo comfy and look like they'll last forever.

A great idea to sit here, but the wind scooped the dress up, billowing it like a sail resulting in the flashing of flesh and undies. 

My sister Sandra sent me this recycled statement necklace which she found in a charity shop in Scotland many moons ago. The rose gold sunglasses are from Guess. The orange resin ring is also recycled and the other ring was a purchase in a street market in Cape Town in January - happy days!

This shot sums up the lure of these islands, offering that get-away-from-it-all feeling without a ten hour flight. Steve and I had the beach completely to ourselves. A top tip if you ever visit here - that early evening time is perfect to have a moment of reflection without interruption as everyone is either getting youngsters fed and bedded or they're getting ready to go out to dinner themselves. This golden hour is when you can stroll the beaches alone and if you land lucky, you can capture some pretty stunning shots too.

My next post will be on Monday when I join the ladies from the Style Not Age Collective for our monthly challenge, the theme being Flaming June. I do hope you can join us for that.

In the meantime, have a lovely weekend!

Anna x

A burst of spring weather

Last week we were blessed with a spell of spring-like weather, prompting me to pack away my winter sweaters and bring out some summer dresses. (The story is somewhat different now at the time of writing, as I listen to the hail bounce off the roof of our lean-to.) Anyway, Polly and I certainly did make hay while the sun shines meaning my blog will be populated for the next little while by some sunny shots of me in the idyllic March sunshine.

My pretty dress is new from TK Maxx, the brand is Mango and I bought it for £15. I think it's going to be very useful. I cinched in the waist with a second hand leather and elastic belt. 

When I bought it I had no idea of how well it would go with these ASOS boots. Don't they look fab together? Oh how I love a bit of matchy-matchy!

Brocade boots were on trend a couple of years ago and I bought two pairs from ASOS at that time, knowing full well that I'd still want to wear them long after the trend had passed. So here they are, making a perfect entrance hand in hand with the floral frock in similar shades of orange, lilac and green. The mesh dotty tights in lilac are very old - it was a lovely surprise to find them in the bottom of the drawer looking like the ideal thing for this ensemble.

The set of plastic necklace and matching bracelet is a recent charity shop find, purchased during the same shopping spree in the hope that it would work with this outfit. At only £3 for the pair it was a good find. The ring is pre-loved too. The sunglasses are by Guess and were from TK Maxx.

There's nothing better than a floaty dress to make a girl feel all feminine...

... and in need of a twirl ...

... or two!

This is my giddy face after a few spins too many.

Here's a little snippet of island life. This landing craft arrived on the beach moments after Polly and I finished our photo shoot. It had been hired to take away all of the old vehicles and metal detritus that had accumulated over the years. The massive spring clean filled the boat to the gunnel's. After a few days of loading her up, it left on Friday in the fog.

So that's all from the lovely Isles of Scilly for the moment. I'll be back in a few days and hope you'll join me then.

Have a super week!

Anna x

My new Marks and Spencer blouse

Good morning my dear readers and how are you on this fine sunny day? If you live in the UK you'll be getting used to this weather being more of a constant than the fleeting promise that summer used to be, and oh how grand it is to be able to rely on the sun showing its face day after beautiful day! The Isles of Scilly are looking mighty fine at the moment and are teaming with happy holiday makers who can't believe their luck.

I want to share this fabulous floral blouse which is NOT preloved and that I bought a couple of weeks ago from M&S for £19.50. I've just done a search to find that it's on sale now at £12, but sizes are going fast! Get yours here. Anyway folks, it's a lovely shirt, cool and easy to wear and has been an asset over the past week when I seem to have worn it at least three times when travelling and generally out and about. 

The fabric is modal which I had to look up as I wasn't sure what that means - 

Modal is a type of rayon fabric that is made from the fibres of the beech tree. Oftentimes modal fabric is blended with cotton, spandex, and other fibres because it is very soft, resists creases, has a very smooth finish, and drapes well.

The fabric does indeed drape well and the fit was loose and cool for this current spell. I chose a size 10 which fits as expected; one point that I must mention is the magic button - that perfect placement of the button at bust level which stops the blouse gaping and revealing the bra. I've washed and worn it a couple of times and the colour is holding fast too.The compliments came thick and fast when I wore this outfit. The jeans (charity shopped) are by Fat Face and this is the first time I've worn them, also they have a bit of stretch making them perfect for everyday wear. 

These cute little slingbacks were from Topshop a few summers ago and are still going strong. The colour is a great match for these cotton jeans and they are super comfy leather too which has moulded to the shape of my (broad) feet. 

This sunny outfit was completed by the addition of my Candy Bag by Furla. A search for this has taken me to a rather fabulous pink version of this bag which has me in a quandary as it's on sale too! The best thing (for me) about this spacious bag is the fact that the semi opaque finish means that it's flooded with light when you peek inside meaning no more scrabbling about in the dark trying to find wallet and sunglasses in a hurry. I took it with me on my recent trip to the mainland and it was like a miniature filing cabinet just by the very nature of its shape - everything sat static inside allowing me to have a place for everything and everything in its place. I like to feel organised when I'm off the island and this bag really helped me with my control freak tendencies.

And here I am, on my travels last week. I hooked up with this gorgeous group of ladies (now friends) on a wonderfully exciting project, a modelling job in fact. I'm contracted to say nothing more until it goes live in the autumn, but suffice to say it was great fun, a fabulous opportunity and something which was a huge learning curve for me. I'll have lots more to tell you in due course and hopefully my photos won't end up on the cutting room floor!

In the meantime I'll leave you with a couple of shots of the islands as they shimmer in the summer heat. 

My dear friend Kate was here recently giving us a couple of days overlap before I scooted off to the mainland. We had two early morning swims down on Appletree Bay and put the world to rights at the same time - such are the joys of friendship!

Wishing you a lovely weekend!

Anna x