Yay! This is 60!

Yes, here I am, jumping for joy as it's my 60th birthday today. I had no idea what 60 would look and feel like for me, but it's turned out fine. 

40 years ago I came to this beautiful little island for a summer job, as a chambermaid no less, a job that I'd never done before. Within two weeks I had met and fallen in love with my husband-to-be, changing my life completely. I was a college dropout, having given up on the oh-so-wonderful career path of high-flyer interpreter who had her sights set on working for the World Health Organisation in Brussels, earning big money to prove how terribly clever she was. 

Instead, at 18 experiencing my first time away from home, in damp digs with no friends, I crumbled with dreadful homesickness, pining for boyfriend and home resulting in me giving up on my dream without so much as a fight. My parents swallowed down their bitter disappointment. Two years later, and my resolve was no stronger when life as a bank teller left me downhearted and desperate for change. Overnight I upped sticks with my bank teller friend and we headed South. My story from there can be heard online here where I share my adventure with Johnnie Walker on his radio programme, Sounds of the 70's.

Escaping from the cold North of Scotland was like a rebirth giving me the chance to start afresh. Living on a tiny island, one mile by two, with no retail therapy, no cinema, one pub, one hotel and one grocery store may not sound like much of a life, but for me, it was ample. Maybe I'm just a small town girl an island girl at heart. I needed boundaries, needed life to be simple, and it was. Picnics on the beach, catching shrimps for tea, bobbing about in our little boat, Friday nights watching Steve row in the gig races, late night parties singing sea shanties with friends, family gatherings to welcome yet another new niece or nephew into the fold - yes this was indeed enough.

Seven years on and that once scatty chambermaid had become assistant housekeeper with a host of practical skills that she could apply to running a pristine home for her, now, husband. Four years later and Sasha was born, followed by Jamie a couple of years after that. All pretty ordinary stuff. And ordinary is just what I loved; the husband, the kids, the routine, the security.

And then at 40 I started working at the gallery once the children were both at school. I recall thinking "Life really does begin at 40" as it was a whole new world for me, being surrounded by the wealth of creativity - I was in my element! My grandfather and father were both amateur artists: this path was one I had thought I might follow too. As a teenager I had gained "O" level art at school and my teacher encouraged me to take it further, but no, I had bigger plans...

Now, 20 years on, I'm manager of the gallery and have found my niche in the world of fashion blogging, fulfilling my creative desires. If this all reads as a perfect fairy tale, then don't be fooled; as a family we've had our ups and downs, but that's normal isn't it? 

Outfit details - dungarees: Primark, denim shirt: H&M (pre-loved), jacket: H&M (pre-loved), shoes: TK Maxx, socks: gift, rings: Sainsbury's, necklace: Sasha's (borrowed), sunglasses: Quay Australia. (The photo shoot isn't from today - I had the foresight to do this in advance while the weather was good. Today is blowing a howling gale with winds of about 50mph!)

Saturday promises to be a big day as family and friends rally around to help me celebrate this significant birthday with an ABBA party. Hopefully all the fancy dress parcels will have been delivered in time, and the platform boots and wigs will be fit for purpose. My first attempt at buying a wig ended up being clown red rather than the auburn that I expected! The second one (blonde), made me look like one of the Witches of Eastwick. The third is very reminiscent of how my hair looked when I first arrived here in 1978. I hope to publish a post on Sunday or maybe Monday at the latest sharing some party outfits.

How very young we were!

Anna x

Oh, those summer days...

I don't know about you, but I'm so fed up with this stormy winter weather! Apart from the sheer impracticalities of trying to take photos in a howling gale, I really am not in the least bit inspired. 

These shots are from my boat trip yesterday, taken from inside the jet boat. I needed to get my hair cut and the only hairdresser is across the water on St Mary's. Rain and a howling gale aren't really conducive to getting dressed up in ones finery and wrapping up against the wet weather doesn't really give you many styling options does it?

So instead, I'm going to re-visit one of my favourite days from last summer. Why don't you join me?

It was mid-July and this was an after work picnic on Samson. I'd found this sundress by ASOS in a charity shop (for only £3.99) and knew it would come into its own at some stage. I was styling it up for an edition of Ping Post Post (see here), way back in the days when Samantha and Ann joined in the fun, and must admit I was rather pleased to have an excuse to prance around in this ruffled delight.

The tide was just beginning to flood across the warm sand making a lovely warm and cool sensation underfoot. The boat motoring past behind me is full of holiday-makers all returning to St Mary's after a day spent on the off-islands. By this time of day, the islands become our own again, and especially the uninhabited ones as it's only the smaller local boats that you might encounter. 

I love the freedom, the sense of joy that sunshine, sea and sand evoke in me - I bet you're the same too. The only new thing in the shot are the sandals which I bought from Primark. The dress, hat, bikini and gold bangles are all pre-loved, hurrah! 

It's so lovely to have these bits of frippery, silly bits of nonsense, to wear here throughout the summer time. My wardrobe, had I still lived in Scotland, would have been very different even in the summer months. According to my sister who lives in St Andrews, summer up there is only six weeks long, whereas I stretch my summer wardrobe from May to the end of September. I hadn't even owned a bikini until I came to live on the islands. As a child I can remember my mother taking photographs of us on the beach, always with the instruction to "Take your cardigans off!" hence revealing our knobbly bathing costumes, as well as our pallid, Scottish blue/grey skin which so rarely saw sunlight. 

I've probably said it before, but I'll say it again - I never take my life here for granted. I ended up on these beautiful shores quite by chance and will be sharing the story of how I arrived on the Isles of Scilly in my next post on Wednesday, which just so happens to be my 60th birthday.

As one way of mentally preparing for my 60th year, I've just read this wonderfully inspiring book. Age is most definitely relative according to the author, who does in fact view 60 as being middle aged, rather than old. As a teenager, 60 was indeed old to me; the age of my grandparents; the age of retirement; the age of tootling down to the park to feed the ducks; the age of sedentary hobbies and taking things easy; the age of aching bones and weariness. It most definitely wasn't the age to take up body building, or competitive rowing, or sprinting and breaking world records in so doing. Charles did all of this, but well beyond his 60th year. He even went back to work when he realised that he was going to stagnate without the mental stimulus, discipline and routine of a job. (Find his book on Amazon here.)

His book is a veritable reference library of how to age well; what to eat, the supplements to take to keep you at your peak; the exercise you need to incorporate to counter the inevitable loss of muscle mass as we transition from one decade to the next. He deals with the importance of the daily mental stimulus which is vital in the fight against Alzheimer's and Dementia. Charles is my kind of man; full of optimism, seeing age and every challenge it brings as an opportunity for something new and positive in his oh-so-busy life. No fireside napping for him, no. He sees his role as rule-breaker, a trail blazer; his journey is an opportunity to share his enthusiasm for a life that's joyful, age-defyingly-active and incredibly fulfilling. Charles has recently taken up public speaking by way of sharing his secrets of a well lived life. I, for one, would love to meet him.

After reading the book, I've come to realise that 60 maybe is the new 40. But joking aside, it seems to be a state of mind, this ageing thing. I've maybe managed to keep myself trim in time for my big birthday, but I can see I still have room for improvement. Weight bearing exercises are vital if I'm to keep from losing muscle, the framework for a healthy, battle-ready body. After decades of dieting and long term health issues (see my health page here) I know that I still have lots of work to do. Chasing the notion of being thin/slim has to be replaced with building a body that's robust enough to face winter virus attacks such as flu or the resulting dangers of bronchitis or pneumonia.

My sea swimming clearly isn't armour enough against all types of illness and my recovery from my recent dental treatment proved me to be less fit than I thought. Another health issue that affects women more than men in later life is osteoporosis, and to this end I'm already taking a calcium supplement as insurance, as I worry that the many years without dairy products in my diet may well have impacted on my bone density. Weight bearing exercise is the other part of that equation and already I've started walking (the easiest weight bearing exercise of all) during my lunchtimes. A healthy immune system is key at any age, so you won't be surprised to hear that I've just finished reading up on this too. But that's for another day.

I hope your weather isn't as wild as mine, but there again, you may be affected by snow or worse still, power cuts. Whatever the weather or challenges, thanks for dropping by and I hope you'll visit again soon.

Please join me on Wednesday for my birthday post!

Anna x

Brogue love

Winter can surely be no better time to show you some brogue love. These beauties are from Office and must be about two years old, but are still in great condition. I clean, polish and buff my shoes before storing them in the box which helps to keep them ship shape until next time. (Does that make me goody-two shoes or just OCD?)

I've dragged these photos out of my draftbox, where they've languished for months. This may have been the last photo shoot Polly and I did together before she took her leave for another winter. And now it's just a matter of six weeks until she'll be back in my employ - hooray! Of course I see her all the time - she's working just along the road in the local grocery shop - but it will be lovely to have her in the gallery, buzzing about, getting things ready for another season.

The Michael Kors jacket isn't new either and yet really came into its own when I was in London recently. In fact, there seemed to be a bit of a trend with these studded and even pearl adorned jackets, although mine was bought two years ago. Good 'ol MK was surely the trendsetter and it's taken two years to catch up with him!

The skirt and blouse are both pre-loved; the skirt from Primark, the blouse from H&M, rings are also pre-loved, Tiffany silver necklace was a find in a charity shop in Ireland, tights are very old and sunglasses are by Quay Australia.

Black, red and grey are the simplest of combinations to play around with. I have a red tartan skirt that I could have swapped in, replacing the tights with a plain black pair and still have the same visually interesting outfit. Another combo could be my red sweater and leather pencil skirt with the tartan tights, but maybe that would need some high heels to balance things out. 

And sure, I really just ought to have shown you all of these permutations, but that would have required some forward planning and to be perfectly honest, I'm just flying by the seat of my pants at the moment. So much so, that if the weather doesn't sort it self out at the weekend, I'll be delving even deeper into my draft box to find something else to amuse you.

In the meantime, I'll leave you with some brogue love. These ones are pewter, but Office have the black version on sale now - here, so go! Hurry, before you miss them!

Anna x

When okay just isn't good enough

This is far from my best post, but I thought for the sake of honesty and realism I ought to share it with you anyway. Sometimes my outfits just hit middle ground or middling to okay, but even this wasn't quite good enough in my eyes.

Today I really ought to have shown a bit more patience and this shoot perhaps would have turned out better. I wanted to take some photos of this new dress and decided to do a tour of the island to find a good backdrop. The wind had shifted, leading me to this sheltered spot at the Ruin Beach Cafe which is closed for the winter. 

But really the problem started even before I left home. I was guilty of trying to fit too much into my Sunday off; I wanted to have an afternoon swim too. In the rush I didn't really do a good job to the styling of this dress and ought to have spent more time trying other options of tights, jacket and shoes.

Even now, when I look at this I know the tights are wrong (black or brown would have been better) and I wonder if my long velvet trench might have been an improvement too. And boots, why didn't I try on some boots? But no, I charged about grabbing the first thing that came to hand!

On top of the photo shoot and the swim, I was also cooking a family meal for this evening to celebrate my daughter's 29th birthday so I had quite a lot on my plate. But this is just typical of me; I'm greedy for life, always wanting to do as much as I can.

The beach I normally go to (Appletree Bay) is having some repairs done to the nearby wall, meaning I have to consider tides and winds every day as I try to find another place to swim. The stormy weather we've been having has brought reams and reams of seaweed onto our shores and I really don't like sharing my swim with all the maggots and flies it harbours. So all in all, it's quite a palaver - just to get a swim.

I have a green corset belt that may improve the outline of the dress enormously. It looks pretty shapeless, although that may just be the style. I bought this in the Zara sale and when I tried it on, I absolutely loved it. Seeing it now, I think I'll have to work a bit harder for the next time I wear it.

Can you see the shirred waistline? I think that corset belt would be ideal. Next time eh? I also have brown knee high vintage boots that could work too... 

Outfit details read like this, dress: Zara, jacket: Next, shoes: from Portugal, tights: old, necklace: Sasha's, camisole: Primark, rings: old, sunglasses: Quay Australia.

Anyway, now that I've got all that moaning done, I have to tell you that within half an hour I was back here, swimming on this very beach. The wind direction was perfect and there was hardly any seaweed and what there was, was high and dry at the top of the beach. 

As I stood on the water's edge rinsing my goggles preparing to get in, I could see a man strolling down the quay, and I could almost hear his disbelief at the sight of me in my cossie - he, all wrapped up in winter coat, scarf and hat. His pace slowed as he kept turning towards me to see if I dared... Yes, clearly the local madwoman!

This was a little family returning to St Martin's with a tiny child wedged between mum and dad. It was such a lovely day to be out on the water having an island adventure - very Swallows and Amazons, eh?

Appletree Bay - the road and footpath as well as the supporting wall were all washed away as a result of storm Eleanor. Luckily we had no other damage to the fabric of the island nor was anyone hurt, so I suppose you could say we got off lightly compared to some places in Europe.

Those of you who know the island will understand the impact this has on our beach. The upper wall has been undermined too. However, the good news is that work is already being done and hopefully will be all put to rights in time for our season opening in March.

I forgot to mention that there's a webcam located above the decking where I did my shoot today. I've no idea if anyone was watching as I got out of the sea, but I gave a wave just in case my friend Angela was checking the view, as I know she often does. Hello!!! And didn't I look pink?

Anna x

My diy trousers

Hello again and how are you? I've just been released from the spell cast by Game of Thrones. Steve and I have been held captive since Monday when series seven was screened on tv. We've binge-watched the entire seven episodes and here I am, spat out and feeling a tad frustrated that it'll be another year 'til the final series will hit our screens. Are you a fan? We held out for some time, poo-pooing the fanciful notion of dragons, bloody battles and resulting gore, but once we started we were hooked and have raced through the entire box set in a matter of weeks. (Yes, my fellow bloggers, that's where I've been, when I ought to have been visiting you.)

Anyway, on to the topic of the day, aka my diy beading on these velvet trousers. They were a charity shop bargain at £1 but never quite inspired me. Too long and too boring in their original form, I was suddenly taken with the idea of perking them up one weekend. Last month I was struggling with the mightiest of toothaches and the sewing project was absorbing enough to take my mind off things. See the before elements of the project here.

The sewing was all done by hand, in the smallest of schoolgirl stitches that I could manage and was a lovely challenge. I have these odd times when sewing takes my fancy and realise I have to make the most of it, as I know the phase will soon pass for months on end. I've still not finished reupholstering my sofa cushions and now live with the entire sofa covered up under a throw to disguise the jumbled mess lurking below. 

So here we have the finished article and I'm rather pleased with them if I may say so myself. The beading gives the trouser hems a beautiful weighty swish that makes these culottes feel like the Rolls Royce of trousers now. I love that they're unique and might even pass as designer...?

Styling them up wasn't too troublesome once I'd rediscovered these pink glitter pumps. That led me onto the hunt for my blue bejewelled glittery belt - in my belt box under the bed, surprisingly enough. Playing up the details, I was pleased to add the pleated cuffed blouse as well as pink glitter nail polish. Understatement is not the look I'm going for.

I bought the blue velvet clutch in a little boutique in Truro just before Christmas. The best part of it has to be the rose gold clasp and trim. At the time of buying I had great intentions of pairing it up with my rose gold heart pendant, but that will have to be for next time. 

This necklace was a Christmas present from a girlfriend and is sparkly too, but doesn't show up very well in the bright sunlight. The rings and shoes are pre-loved, sunglasses by Quay Australia, blouse from Sainsbury's and biker jacket by Toxic. 

In a couple of weeks, I'm going to be celebrating my 60th birthday with an island party. But not just any old party, that'll be an ABBA party! My favourite movie of all time has to be Mamma Mia. So, the invitations are posted and the feedback good, with lots of talk of catsuits, platforms and wigs being ordered, and that's just the men! The more resourceful are recycling their disco outfits from the 80's, but no matter where it all comes from, as long as it comes together I'll be happy. Some of my nearest and dearest are dragging their (non-platformed) feet so may need a bit of help from me - what colour of satin shirt would suit my husband best, I wonder? Rest assured I'll be putting a post together of my ensemble as well as any incriminating evidence I can gather on the night - I fancy the fashion police might be out in force!

In the meantime, I'll say adieu and wish you well until we meet next time. Take care! 

Anna x

Leather and fur

Hello again! How are you settling into 2018? Made any New Year's resolutions? I've not. All too often I set my sights on new goals and promises of improvements and then feel bad when they peter out after a few weeks. 

This year I'm taking a new approach to life. Gratitude is the way forward I've decided. We're constantly bombarded with images on TV and social media telling us what we need and how we ought to look to achieve happiness which, in my opinion, only causes us to feel disgruntled with our lot. Instead, I'm counting my blessings for all that I have.

What do you see? A crazy Scottish woman? Or a joyful soul who has started her day with a positive activity that enhances her well being? After my swim I always take a moment to give thanks for the opportunity to swim safely, to reconnect with nature and revel in the sights and sounds of the big outdoors. Never do I feel more alive than at this moment.

This was the view from my kitchen window just a day later...

It's almost a year since I bought these leather trousers (from TK Maxx) and yet I've only worn them a couple of times. I suppose green leather joggers (yes, real leather) aren't that easy to slip into the everyday.

I've been so keen to feature my new sock boots, but have been finding it difficult to put the right outfit together. Every time I came to do the photo shoot, my perfect pair of jeans seemed to be in the wash. I must speak to the maid about that. Anyway, these joggers were my next item of choice.

One thing that does seem to be an everyday item for me at this time of year is the turtle or polo neck sweater. I always feel chilly, (maybe something to do with that cold swim in the morning?) and rely on a high neck jumper to keep me cosy. I came across this version in Primark and proceeded to buy the same one in grey and black too. Primark is brilliant for basics like this.

The little fur gilet is a hand-me-down from my daughter and is the ideal length for this get up. I'm wearing my much loved Vivienne Westwood pendant (a gift from my husband) and the rings are both charity shop finds.

The fur coat was another TK Maxx find, by The Boutique Collection and has been a wonderful addition to my winter wardrobe. My thanks must go to my dear friend Ann who encouraged me to try this on when we were shopping together in London in October. She spotted it while we were browsing the aisles in TK and insisted I try it on. I had my eye on a huge furry coat in baby blue, but it was very over sized and just swamped me. Ann prompted me to try the green, "So your colour!" and she was right. I love it and can see it will be a Christmastime favourite from here on.

I recently read about the gratitude jar; you write one blessing from your day and pop it inside. The best part of this is to have it to call upon when you're feeling low and need a reminder of all of the joys in your life. A simple but effective way to give yourself a lift. 

Best wishes until next time!

Anna x