The best laid plans...

Yes, life rarely goes to plan and so it is for me that my promised feature of yesterday has flopped. Events have conspired meaning that Sasha and I haven't manged to do our joint shoot. But worry ye not, I'm here to show you brocade boots plus new trousers, my third item recently purchased from Zara.


As a teenager, flares were one of the first fashions I followed. I had a pair of bright blue satin bell bottoms that I wore with multi-coloured platform shoes and a mini seersucker smock top in rainbow stripes; my love of colour was just as evident then.




Outfit details are like this - jacket: a gift (thanks again Maggie), trousers: Zara, blouse: eBay, boots: ASOS, necklace: gift, rings: old, sunglasses: Quay Australia.


I really like how the high waist gives a lovely snug fit.



I was so pleased to come across these cropped flares in Zara last month. I've had this imaginary pair of trousers on my mind for some time, but hadn't managed to find them in real life. The shape is exactly as I'd envisioned, but I thought they might be a soft denim rather than corduroy, and certainly not in this lovely ginger colour. I wore them in London, but my camera was playing up so the shots aren't as crisp as they could be.


This variation details are - jacket: Michael Kors, roll neck: eBay, boots: Zara, ring:old, sunglasses: Quay Australia.






How's your week going? Are you on top of your Christmas plans and shopping lists? I'm about to take a look online to see if I can get some inspiration for toys for my great nieces and nephews. After that I'll get our turkey booked which will get me a bit closer to being prepared for the big day. Good luck with your shopping. Thanks for dropping by, and see you soon!
Anna x

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Weekend wear

One of my highlights of the winter period is that I have the entire weekend off. During the height of the summer I often only manage to take one day off a week, so a whole weekend seems like absolute luxury.


And there is nothing more luxurious for the weekend than this little number. Are we talking Athleisure wear here? Many moons ago this would simply have been called a jogging suit, but we none of us went jogging in them. Loungewear then, maybe?


Regardless of the name, this is my idea of comfort when I'm chilling at home.



I found this in Zara on Oxford Street in my recent trip away. The truth of the matter is that I could have spent a small fortune there. Steve excused himself from the arena which was a very wise move. I was like a wild cat stalking its prey just before darkness fell; the clock was ticking, and I knew I had to be selective. I took five things into the changing rooms and bought three. Very restrained, by my standards, but this was real shopping at real prices - no thrifting bargains to be found here.


The trainers are a purchase from earlier this year. A lovely find in TK Maxx for a snip. I think I maybe prefer my black trainers (see here) with these trousers though.




It's difficult to say what I love best about this outfit. Firstly the velvet is soft and cosy, the colours are vibrant, the embroidery intricate and enriching to the overall feel, and the loose fit is essential for comfort, but I suppose the winning design feature has to be the wonderfully deep pockets in the trousers that deliver the real slouch factor. It's still in stock here, but be quick, I fancy it will sell out soon! 

My next post will be another joint feature with my daughter. Sasha and I will be styling up our brocade boots, a trend that's still going strong this winter. That will be on the 20th, so do join us to see the results. The 5 Over 50 challenge for December has been chosen by Laurie of Vanity and Me Style and will be Christmas jumpers. We've moved the date of this to the 18th of December to allow us to capture a few festive shots. I'll be rooting about this weekend to see where my offerings are and looking at what I can wear to put a new spin on them. Our annual Christmas party is on Saturday the 16th (golly, only a month away) so I will be taking a look at what I have in the sequins and glitter department, again in the hope of finding something to inspire me. How's your Christmas events calendar looking? Or more importantly are you a "Bah humbug!" type or are you brimming with Christmas spirit already? Do let me know your thoughts on the festive season.

Linking with -

Anna x

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The idyllic Isles of Scilly

For the past 40 years I've lived on the Isles of Scilly, on the tiny island of Tresco where I settled by chance (hear how this came about here), and now I couldn't imagine living anywhere else. This little cluster of islands, lying some 26 miles Southwest off the tip of West Cornwall, attract thousands of tourists every year who come to embrace the slower pace of life. 


This is the view from my workplace. The gallery sits on the shoreline of New Grimsby, the main access point for our visitors.


Some of our visitors arrive under sail and moor up in the shelter between the islands; Cornwall, Ireland and France are the starting point for most of these sailors.


Every year the Isles of Scilly are featured on the itinerary of hundreds of cruise ships which bring their passengers to spend a day here. These tourists provide a vital boost to our local economy.


At the end of the day a boat load of day trippers head back to St Mary's to catch the Scillonian to return to the mainland. If you fancy visiting the islands see here or follow the link on my side bar for information on how to get here, and see the many types of accommodation available as well as details about the five inhabited islands.


My regular readers may recognise this shot from the summer when I'd spent the afternoon with my husband on Samson, one of the uninhabited islands - see the account here. I posted this on instagram which led to me being asked to take part in a photo shoot to promote the islands. I was asked by the Islands Partnership if I would play the part of a single traveller in their forthcoming campaign for 2018. The remit was to spend a few hours on the same island doing some beach yoga, reading, drawing and swimming all to be captured by a professional photographer. 


Behind me are the others taking part in the shoot, a young couple who had been brought across from Cornwall to do stand-up paddle boarding. The photographer and shoot director are standing in the shallows lining up the shot. As a blogger I totally understood the need to capture that perfect moment. 


As you can see, the weather couldn't have been better.


The kit for the shoot was minimal as we had to island hop on a small boat just big enough to take the six of us that made up the crew - shoot director and her assistant, photographer and three models.


We'd arrived on Samson at lunchtime, to find a row of about 10 kayaks lined up on the beach and just beyond them were the 10 castaways in row having a picnic. Goodness knows what they would have thought as we bundled out of our boat and immediately the photographer started striding about taking in all the views and finding the angles he wanted. 


As luck would have it, the first shot for me was to be directly in front of these onlookers. I was to do some yoga poses. No problem. I was prepared, with my swimsuit on already and they had brought a yoga mat. No problem. Eh, maybe there was a problem. Me on a yoga mat on top of very fine soft sand. Tension is paramount for a good, strong yoga pose and there was no purchase, just a gradual sinking. Deeper and deeper. Also there was another problem; every time I was asked to strike another pose, I discovered that this, my very public and first ever profession job, was made all the more difficult by the bemused looks from the 10 onlookers. I've never done my yoga practice in front of an audience before and suddenly was aware of a complete brain vacuum. There were no other poses on my memory card; maybe I've just imagined that I can do yoga; in fact, I knew nothing about yoga at all. "What about this one?" the director shouted as she pointed skywards, "or this one?". Was there muffled laughter from the back row? Did someone just choke on their sandwich as they tried to stifle a giggle? No matter, this was me, The Lone Traveller having a serene holiday moment.


I was holding my breath, squinting into the mid-day sun, thinking about my yoga teacher, hoping she would never see these foot-sliding, soft-knee poses. The mat and my back foot have both been gobbled up by the sand. How many classes had I missed this year? Did it show?


Downward Dog aka Sinking Toes instead.


Next up was reading. Only, in a different outfit. Samson has a terrible lack of changing rooms, so we performed that well known beach ritual of two women holding towels together enabling me to wriggle out of one and into another set of beachwear - all directly in front of the spectators, of course. Cue more chuckling and pretence at averting their eyes.


If I look like a middle-aged lady lying on a beach, reading then that's cos I am.


Again, if I look like I'm enjoying sitting in the sun, drawing the view, then I am.



The tide was flooding by the time it came for my final shot. Despite taking lots of swimming shots, it was the very first one that summed up the lure of these islands. 


It was a privilege to take part in this shoot as there can be no more authentic images of the islands than these. One of the onlookers did actually heckle us, calling out, "I bet you're doing a cheap photo shoot to advertise the Caribbean!" How wrong they were. Is it our fault that the Isles of Scilly look so beautiful, so unspoilt, so utterly idyllic?

Linking with -
Catherine of Not Dressed As Lamb
Samantha of Fake Fabulous 
Anna x

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London and another bloggers meet up

Hello again! How's your week going? Memories of our London trip are fading fast so let's get some of the snaps out to show you what else we got up to. If you missed the first instalment of our break see here for the catch up.


The Barbican, and another post-breakfast photo shoot.


The Michael Kors jacket came in very useful as the weather was quite mild at the start of our week away. I did a bit of shopping on Oxford Street after my first bloggers meet up (see here) and found these trousers and matching top in Zara. The heavy embroidery transforms what is basically black velour lounge wear into a luxe item.






Most days we went sight seeing, saw a movie or went to the theatre and ate out. On Friday we went to the Tate Modern then walked across the Millennium Bridge to St Paul's. 



Studio interior by Matisse


Coffee by Bonnard


A new addition to the Rothko collection, but I missed the title.


Weeping Woman by Pablo Picasso


Autumnal Cannibalism by Salvador Dali


From the viewing tower at the Tate Modern


The dish of the day.


Steve showed me where the First Dates restaurant is. I'm a big fan of this programme which is a new discovery for me. Just after he took this shot we were milling about trying to find the nearest tube station when I noticed a couple of young ladies in a huddle chatting excitedly. Moments later one ushered the other off with a cry of "Good luck!" and then I noticed she was holding a clipboard and wearing a headset with microphone. Yes! They were filming, and this gorgeous girl who was sashaying across the square was on her way to her First Date. As the door opened I saw Fred standing at the lectern ready to greet her. How very exciting! I snatched a brief moment of this on my phone and loaded it onto my instagram here.

Next day I gave Steve a break from being blog photographer as I was meeting up with my second lot of blogging friends. We'd arranged to meet at the London Eye to get a bird's eye view of the Thames. 


Bloggers Gail (Is this mutton?), Anne Marie (Mutton Years Style), Jacqui (Mummabstylish) and I putting our best smiles on.









We managed to cram in such a lot that day - a trip on the Eye, then morning coffee followed by lunch and a stroll back along the Thames for a final photo shoot. And all the time we talked. We agreed that blogging is wonderful for adding another dimension to your life as well as being the perfect launch pad for building new friendships. We all have things we feel less than confident about within our blogs and that's where these meet ups come into their own. We covered all aspects of blogging, finding each others input invaluable. Gail is the techie amongst us giving us tips and advice on how to make improvements. We were in unison in urging her to share these nuggets of information on her blog for her readers to learn. All in all, it was a great experience and one I'd love to do again.


On our last night Steve chose to eat here as the final hurrah of his birthday celebrations. Red grouse was on the menu, a real treat for this gamekeeper who'd never before tasted this special bird. Served with all the trimmings, it was pretty much the highlight of our London jaunt for him. He finished the meal with a warm rice pudding and figs drizzled with heather honey, and swore he could hear the bagpipes playing in the distance.


And this was my choice of outfit for a trip down the local pub. I had no idea if I'd be over or under dressed, but this was what I felt comfortable in. As it happened, I was pretty much in line with the rest of the women there.


The London skyline twinkles and shines in the night as we pack up to go home. It was a lovely holiday, full of good times and happy memories. We'll be back!
Anna x

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