Adidas trouser suit

Hello there! How are you? We've been so lucky this week with sunshine making a regular appearance. It's such a simple pleasure to see the sunshine - it's the best mood-lifter ever! I'm feeling brighter, more motivated and defintely happier this week. 

I've managed to ditch the coat this week and have gotten by with gloves and scarf to keep the wind at bay. I've pretty much shopped my closet for everything and yet it's still a make-me-happy outfit. I think the only new addition is my cute and compact handbag, a Steve Madden gem that I bought when I was in Truro in December. I love that it's both a handbag and an across the body bag and I do use it both ways.

You'll have seen this coral Adidas trouser suit before and yet it's still looking fresh. I was delighted to be stopped by a lady on the road who wanted to pay me a compliment on my bright and colourful outfit. It's somehow even nicer when a complete stranger pays you a compliment isn't it? She couldn't believe that it was made by Adidas - it's quite formal compared to the usual sportswear of the brand.

There's nothing new with my jewellery: the necklace is old from Topshop, sunglasses old from Radley London, my beaded belt was from Amazon, rings are by Diana Porter and Emily Nixon.

As I mentioned, I'm feeling much brighter this week and that's spilled over onto the home front. I've been watching re-runs of Sort Your Life Out and it's created a real need in me to actively engage with my clutter and start to make a difference. Already, just in the space of a few days, I've relocated bits of furniture and ditched quite a lot of junk. And the wonderful thing is that it becomes quite addictive. I'm finding moments in my day, just while waiting for the kettle to boil for example, when I can throw open a kitchen cupboard and see exactly what needs to be moved on - it's so liberating!

I rediscoved my love for these ornate trainers by Replay and tied them in with my equally colourful floral roll neck (from Vinted). As ever, the outfit of the day is always chosen to please me rather than worn to attract comments from others, but of course, it's always a bonus if it garners compliments, which it did several times. It strikes me that if my outfit makes others smile, gives them joy, well what a lovely thing that is!

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My little ray of sunshine

Hello lovely! How are you? Last week I had a little Orla Kiely moment when I wore my new Orla raincoat and dress to work accessorised with my Orla handbag. It was a drizzly start to the day which gave me the perfect opportunity to don the lightweight raincoat for its first trial. The coat was a Vinted buy recently, a note of resignation to the fact that even in springtime it rains, but maybe I don't have to be kitted up in full wetgear.

I love the iconic prints of the Orla Kiely brand for their homage to the fashion of the 60's. The strong, bold prints and colours are the epitomy of joyful dressing. 

My Stem Leaf print handbag was a present from a girlfriend and has been a constant favourite of mine over the past years. Read about the iconic design and the talented designer here. 

My fabulous dress was a recent buy, again from Vinted, in response to the gloomy grey days that seemed to be wearing me down. Winter depression has plagued me over the years and one of my ways of battling through it is to drench myself in colour. Today's look is indeed all about colour drenching with yellow being a wonderful antidote to the damp morning when I opened the blinds.

A yellow dress clearly called for yellow tights (by Snag) and yellow suede boots (ASOS). 

I donned my bright yellow necklace to compliment the look along with my Radley sunglasses. Grey hairs abound currently as I wait for the appointment to have some colours sprinkled over my tresses and oh golly, I can't say anything about the jowels and saggy neck apart from the fact that I'm 67 and am not inclined to be doing much to hide the years. This is the true passage of time showing on me now and much as I would accept a magic wand to turn back time, it's not really an option.

And so, as I stand here on my self-imposed confessional, I have to say that my fitness levels have dropped significantly over the winter. I've not had a swim since September and my walking has been sporadic to say the least. However, I find that the brighter evenings are helping to motivate me to get out after work into the evening glow for a brisk walk of the island. I have a lap that takes an hour which dovetails neatly between finishing work and preparing dinner. As for swimming, well I've had various legitimate excuses to stay out of the water and the final one being that I'm waiting for the horrible easterly wind to abate before I throw myself back into the sea. But trust me, you won't be seeing any swimsuit shots for some time...

The outfit isn't for the faint hearted, that's for sure, but it certainly kept a smile on my face. The look could almost be a rousing call to arms, to encourage everyone to don a sunny colour in defiance against a dull weather day. Feel free to join me!

                                                                        Anna x

My rather fabulous new coat

Sometimes lady luck just smiles upon you... Well, that's how I feel about this rather fabulous new coat that I found as I was browsing through Vinted last month. If you're a regular reader then you'll know that I love everything ornate, in fact the fancier the better, so this coat almost had my name emblazoned across it! The beautiful embroidery sold the piece to me straight away and when it arrived it was everythig I'd hope it would be.

The brand is Savage Culture, a boho brand from what I can tell, and is definitely worth my investigation in due course. Anyway, after the first wear I discovered that the buttons were all a bit small for the buttonholes and so I set about remedying that by customising the coat with some buttons from my button box. Most of them are ceramic, bought from one of our suppliers when I used to stock buttons in the Gallery. 

The length is great, the fit is perfect and it seems like the ideal coat for this time of year when it's still chilly enough to need a coat, but not necessarily a winter coat. This is my springtime special, I would say!

This was my outfit of the day for yesterday, the first day the Gallery opened up after our winter break. The dress has been featured on the blog before (see here) but this time I've added boots and tights to extend the wearabiltiy of it. The brand is IVIVI and was a Vinted purchase.

 I wore a long sleeved thermal top underneath the dress and the tights are bamboo ones from Boots - a cotton feel that are cool and comfy. 

The patent boots are from Topshop from years ago. I've had them reheeled recently and am so happy to have them for a while longer.

Sunglasses are old (from Radley London), the fabric necklace was from Vinted, the perspex ring was a charity shop find and I'm also wearing my beautiful birthday ring.

We've been blessed with good weather for the past few days. What about you? Does it feel more like spring with you? As the season begins with us once again it does help to have this gentle easing into another year of hospitality on our tiny island paradise. Do pop in to say hello if you're ever on the Isles of Scilly - Tresco is definitely worth a visit!

                                                                                    Anna x

Lovely Leather our SNA challenge for February

Hello and welcome to this month's Style Not Age challenge for February, chosen by Hilda this month, and the theme is Lovely Leather. Apologies for my poor submission, but life has been stacked against me this month and I didn't manage to get my chosen outfit photographed. So here's my new Laidback London leather boots as a poor offering. But let's move swiftly along to see what the ladies of the style collective have for us...

Jacqui is showcasing her faux leather trousers from Tu in this season's favourite mocha shade. Her leopard print trench is imitation suede and is a great finishing touch to the look. See the full details on her blog Mummabstylish. 

Hilda's fabulous full length leather coat is a dream in cream! I too had planned to feature a long leather coat and, like hers, mine was a charity shop find. Do swing by her blog to read more about this beautiful coat on Over The Hilda blog. 

Emma's sporting faux leather culottes with knee high boots and a fabulous orange coat for this challenge. Like me she's not entirely happy with the outcome, but hey, you can but try eh? Read her backstory on her blog Style Splash here. 

My sheepskin lined leather boots are from Laidback London, a purchase earlier on this winter when I was having pain on the top of my foot and couldn't find anything to make me comfortable all day long. They're called the Setsu Crochet boot (see them here) and are available in lots of different colours. The brand has a 40% sale on currently so it might be worth a look.

These photos are from a visit to Hell Bay Hotel in January when I was involved in stocktaking all of the art collection. The weather wasn't the best, but I felt my new boots were worth capturing. The sweater was from Vinted and black jeans and socks were from Primark.

Nothing new with these sparkly rings - both are charity shopped from years ago.

I'm not sure if this has been our best style challenge but as Emma has said, it's good to experiment even if it doesn't always work out! Please do drop by again next week and I'll be giving it another try.

                                                                    Anna x