Do your own thing!

I'm a little late posting this week due to having a nasty tummy bug since Monday. I'm on the mend now, weak as a kitten, but no longer lying prone which is progress. Being forced to stop is no bad thing sometimes, although this wasn't exactly stopping if you get what I mean. As I was resting this morning I read an article in a recent You Magazine about Lorraine Kelly and her quote really resonated with me - maybe with you too?

You Magazine 15th April 2018

I bet we all feel an affinity with this wonderful lady who has become a household name. As a fellow Scot I feel proud that this lovely lass rose from the provinces to take London by storm, ending up wearing the crown of breakfast TV, all the while remaining grounded and reassuringly ordinary. I agree with Lorraine when she says, " One of the few consolations of growing older is that you have far more self-confidence than when you were young."

Take the following outfit - 

In my formative years I read in Jackie magazine (the style bible for my teenage years) that only the most flat chested Twiggy-esque types could wear smock dresses/coats. I took this to heart as my own chest blossomed beyond the reach of this particular fashion. Even now as an assertive, self possessed woman I still carry all these rules around with me when I go shopping. But lately I thank goodness for being able to counter these style restrictions with the "who gives a damn?" of maturity.

There were so many features that attracted me to this duster coat/swing coat when I found it in Harrogate recently - the checked pattern, the colourway, the darling pleated hem, the bow-tied sleeves, the patch pockets - all of which countered the fact that it was a smock coat. I'm not what you'd call busty, but the fabric falling from the bust can only make you look bigger and vanity usually gets the better of me, however in this case this entirety won me over. 

And thank goodness for that, cos isn't it just the sweetest thing ever!

I had thought that this was a vintage find, but like my dear blogging friend Sheila I took a moment to research the label and found that it's an American brand and is the sister company to Fovever21. And it's a scoop at £15!

No matter how I tried I couldn't get the big hair and big coat to swing in the same direction!

As you can see I've totally embraced the whole smock thing here with the empire line top by Cameo Rose (preloved). I used the cream tone of the lace to inform my choice of trousers; the F&F wide legged crops were in the autumn sale last year for £5. And the shoe boots were an obvious when I picked up the coat - yellow and blue in checks and florals - of course they go!

Today's jewellery is all preloved although the sunglasses are new from Quay Australia.

And to finish off I'd love to have my soundtrack for this post from my favourite artist Paloma Faith. The track is called "Make your own kind of music" see here. The remake of the hit by Mama Cass is perfect for those of us who appreciate an anthem on our journey of self expression. Until next time ...

Anna x

Very Yootha Joyce!

Hello again and thanks for dropping by. Here's an outfit from last week that really made me smile. The pink blouse is a vintage piece that's been featured on the blog many times before which is hardly surprising as it's totally fabulous, even if I say so myself.

It's a couple of years since I found this frothy delight in a charity shop in Exeter, but my love affair with it hasn't waned. One of my readers once commented that it reminds them of the British sitcom "George and Mildred", and after a quick search on Dougal (as my sisters and I have renamed a certain large search engine), I did indeed find Yootha Joyce wearing a version of this.

Vintage glamour at its best!

I chose to wear these culottes for the sprinkling of pink within the blooms and these sock boots to pick up the yellow tones too. I found the (brand new) culottes in a charity shop, donated from the retailer because the zip was broken. The British Red Cross shop in Truro benefits from this system where retailers pass on these flawed items which are then offset against their taxes. Everybody wins!

Oh how I love a bit of patten play! Boots are from Primark, trousers from H&M.

Polly and I somehow managed to forget the shot of me with my blue leather biker jacket, ho hum!

Almost all of my accessories are preloved, apart from the necklace which is made by jeweller Charlie Dodge who creates contemporary pieces from glass beads and semi precious stones. Follow the link through to her website here.

Yup, this is me beating a hasty retreat as a tractor comes hurtling along.

And here's where I spent the latter part of the afternoon today. I work until 4 on Sundays, giving me just enough time to scoot off on my bike to find a quiet spot to chill. This is Appletree Bay and as you can see it's rather idyllic. How lucky am I that within five minutes I can be on a deserted beach like this? It's also the beach of choice for me in the mornings for my swim mainly because regardless of whether it's high or low tide, there's always enough water in this bay that doesn't entail me having to wade too far reach deep water.

Summer toes.

The jet boats on the islands are the same as taking a taxi on the mainland plus the thrill of the speed. And that's about it for today. I'll be back again midweek, so do drop in again!

This week I'll be linking with -

Catherine of Not Dressed As Lamb

Jess of Elegantly Dressed And Stylish

Jacqui of Mummabstylish

Anna x

Done and dusted!

Hello and happy Thursday to you all! Yes, I'm delighted to say that the big wardrobe changeover is done and dusted. But before I show you the results, I'll share an outfit that's not made an appearance previously.

I fancied a change from all the dazzling colours I've been touting lately, opting for a monochrome palette today instead. Plain ol' black and white wasn't quite exciting enough for me though so I chose checks and stripes to enliven the look. I've had this (boohoo) jumpsuit for almost a year now without it seeing the light of day. I found it in a charity shop last summer, but struggled to wear it as it was strapless. When I came across it at the back of my wardrobe earlier this month I decided to see if I could make it wearable. At the bottom of my sewing box I found some discarded straps and a few stitches later all was sorted.

The striped top is actually a body; perfect for wearing under a jumpsuit as it saves all that annoying tucking in. This one came from TK Maxx in Harrogate: the label says Mira & Co and is made in Italy. I somehow think it's going to be a very useful piece.

You'll have seen these courts before, they're from New Look.

I'm hoping that by next month the storm boards behind me will be removed allowing Polly and I an uninterrupted view across the bay to Bryher as well as giving us easy access to the beach. High tides and big sea swells have brought lots of seaweed up and over the boards, even this month, but rumour has it that summer is on the way ...

Black and white needn't be boring; the silver and black accessories help to make this interesting. I found the two spiky metal rings in the Harrogate spree, the necklace is preloved too, but was from Truro and the studded belt was a gift from my friend in Portugal. I do have a large range of jewellery and belts as I think having just the right piece can make all the difference to an outfit. When you consider that some of my rings cost as little as 50p and necklaces only £1.50, this is where charity shopping really comes into its own.

The black and silver rings are like the Ying and Yang of anemone rings.

My postscript to this outfit has to be that half way through the morning, on going to the loo, I discovered a small split in the seam of the jumpsuit - in a most revealing spot! It answered my question as to why something so lovely had ended up in a charity shop. I can only imagine that the owner couldn't or didn't sew!

And here's one section of my wardrobe all sorted, ready for some warmer weather. I've kept my sock boots out for the next little while and once it really warms up properly I'll replace those with sandals. In the middle section of my wardrobe are all my maxi skirts, maxi dresses and jumpsuits along with shelves holding handbags, scarves and more shoes. This isn't fit for viewing currently as I am in the process of culling the contents.

Talking of culling, these are the latest pieces to be evicted from my wardrobe. I'll be putting them onto eBay over the next month or so. I've put a box into storage that's all winter clothes and I'll sell those when they're back in season. Please feel free to message me if something catches your eye ...

This section of my wardrobe houses denim jackets, leather and suede jackets and all of my summer jackets. Below are shirts and tee shirts and below those are bodies, white jeans, coloured trousers and culottes, shorts and palazzo pants. Alongside the wardrobe is a cupboard that holds all my jumpers, cardigans, waistcoats, coloured jeans and blue jeans. Along the entire top run of the wardrobe are boxes of shoes and I have more under the bed. Like any true addict, I'm suitably vague about the precise extent of my addiction, but shoe-wise it's probably almost 100 pairs I'd estimate. I have to hastily add that I view it as a benign addiction as does my husband, thank goodness!

This final reveal is a holdall of clothes that I'm donating to our local fete which takes place next month. I've offered to take on the (most dreaded) jumble stall and will colour co-ordinate these and anything else that is donated. I plan to display them all on hanging rails, shake/steam/iron the creases out of them and hopefully make some money towards the day's fund raising. Wish me luck!

Anna x

Style not age do rainbow brights

Yes, it's that time again for my monthly style challenge with the ladies of the Style Not Age collective. This month Emma chose rainbow brights as our theme which is surely just what we need after the grey spring days we've had of late.

The starting point for my outfit was these 60's multicoloured tights which surely constitute a rainbow in themselves. My scarlet and hot pink shift dress is a preloved find from M&S. The purple Ted Baker handbag is preloved too and my sunglasses are from River Island. Last, but by no means least are my silver brogues from Office.

And this is Emma with her fabulous rainbow clutch, inspiration indeed for this colourful challenge. The handbag is by a brand I've not heard of - Les Nereides - which she found in a charity shop. Emma has tied in her shoes, trousers and top perfectly to the rainbow hues. Do pop over to her blog Style Splash for more of her story.

Hilda found this dress by Marc Cain in a local boutique and thought it encapsulated this month's challenge in one fell swoop - spot on! The dress needs the minimal of styling as all of these bright colours are doing the hard work. Read Hilda's blog Over the Hilda for more.

Jacqui easily cracked this challenge with her rainbow courts, but then really went to town by adding a multi striped tee along with orange trousers, finishing with a denim jacket. Jacqui, you've made this all look so very simple! See more of Jacqui's story on her blog Mummabstylish.

On closer inspection I seem to have omitted to have included any blue hues in my offering. Dang! I was pretty sure these tights had all the colours of the rainbow in them.

Lilac, yellow, pink, orange, green, but no blue! 

My two tone dress is from M&S, found on a recent charity spree. The fabric is weighty, fully lined and hangs with a heavy swish to it. A shift dress is such a basic essential, but this one ticks the quirky box for me too with the half pleated skirt as well as the eye popping marriage of scarlet and fuchsia. A shift dress that's most certainly not boring, yay!

My bag of the moment, this Ted Baker one, was another charity scoop from my last trip to Truro. Shiny, colourful and bright - it ticks all the necessary boxes! 

My jewellery usually comes from charity shops too as I'm such a bargain seeking magpie, but today the only one of these is the wide orange bangle. I have three girlfriends to thank for the rest; Maggie for the pink rose ring, Wendy for the striped perspex rings and Lucy for pink and silver bangle.

Emma's challenge was right up my street and as you can see we all had great fun injecting lots of colours into our day. I do hope we'll act as inspiration for you too. I most definitely feel better for wearing bright colours; it's such an obvious way to cheer yourself up, and others too! I had lots of lovely compliments when I wore this outfit last week. Let's have fun with colours I say!

Linking with -

Jacqui of Mummabstylish

Catherine of Not Dressed As Lamb

Patti of Not Dead Yet Style

Anna x