This summer's best supermarket find

Hello lovelies! How are you? As you can see, I'm in fine fettle. And yes, can you believe it that this most colourful summer frock is a supermarket find? I happened across it when I was in Tesco's in April. The shirtwaister is such an easy to wear style and this one is in the most lovely of fabrics. It's weighty enough to move in that satisfying flappy way and yet not too heavy for summer wear. 

I've  only worn the dress once, but already it's earned much praise along with comments that it doesn't look like a supermarket purchase in the least. The floral pattern is classic and the shades of cream, orange, pink, yellow and green are all very much suited to my skin tone. I love the sleeve length too. In fact, what's not to love about this whole thing? It cost £25 - well worth the money in my opinion.

Nothing new by way of accessories here. The belt is a charity shop bargain in leather. The rings and watch are all old too. 

My necklace is from Zara and was a present from a girlfriend at Christmas. I like the fact that it's not a heavy gilt piece but is really lightweight and therefore I hardly notice I'm wearing it. My Sunglasses are by Radley, from another girlfriend.

If I'd been organised I could have shown you the orange wedge sandals that I wore for the first half of the day. But instead here's the afternoon's flat sandals in coral which are quite old now, from Primark a few summers ago. I fear that they won't last another year sadly.

Fiona did the honours with the photography at the end of the day. I swished about here and there, talking most of the time and spoiling many shots into the bargain. We meandered off to the beach afterwards to swim and chat as is our habit at this time of year. We are both ever grateful that Tresco life is on this small scale, our wild swimming so accessible, the backdrop to our daily lives so stunningly beautiful. With a post-swim flask in hand we regularly count our blessings.

Sending you lots of love from Tresco!

Anna x

Friday is fun day!

Hello again! This was my work outfit from Friday, hence the handbag-on-the-beach situation which might appear odd otherwise. Fiona and I wandered off to find a quiet corner for the photoshoot, ending up here on Cradle Porth our favourite swimming beach. It was pretty much low tide so we made our way across the sandbar down to the water's edge first of all.  We found ourselves in the teeth of the wind, but the backdrop is pretty idyllic you have to agree.

Just in case you've missed the back story to my over-the-top trouser suit you can see it here. I'm planning on wearing the amazing get-up once a week to showcase it and share the love for this most amazing bit of tailoring. The feedback is wonderful and creates lots of opportunity to share the tale of my luck in securing such a fabulous two piece.

This week's variation has the joyful addition of a satin blouse which my daughter gave to me last month. It's from Zara although I can't seem to find it on their website now. The pink colour isn't an obvious partner to the aqua suit and yet it does have accents in this same shade. I put the two things together as they lay on the bed and it was a beautiful "this works!" moment.

My recent extravagance hasn't stopped at the trouser suit. I've treated myself to this gemstone necklace with silver and gold cowrie shells. It's from a range by jeweller (Julian Warrender) that we stock in Gallery Tresco and it really caught my eye as the sea colour of the gemstones were such a great match for the suit. How could I resist? Both the necklace and trouser suit are investment pieces which at my time of life seem more important than ever. I shall cherish them both while making  point of wearing them regularly throughout whatever remains of my working life.

My other new tweak to the ensemble is this rather lovely pearl belt which is another thing of joy. I found it on Amazon. The rest of my jewellery is old, including the modesty brooch which might have to be a permanent fixture on this low neck blouse. My sunglasses are old favourites from Quay Austalia.

My Replay trainers (from TK Maxx) are still looking smart and are soooo comfy, all day comfort in fact. The River Island handbag (second hand) is a great choice for this outfit with lots of embroidery in gold and aqua. 

My weekend has been a mixture of work and play. I've been helping renovate some of the woodwork on our boat - simple painting and varnishing jobs that I can't really mess up while Steve is dealing with more major things like replacing the floor and fixing outboard engines. We are very late to be doing all of this, but our lives are always seem to be this way. On Sunday Sasha and I spent the afternoon on the beach. We went to Rushy Porth on Tresco, otherwise known to locals as Borough Beach. After a while I remembered to slap on some sun cream, but by bedtime I discovered how haphazard that had been. I've got sunburnt patches on my legs, one knee, both shoulders and even a random patch on one foot - honestly I ought to know better!

Anyway, that's pretty much it for this week. I do hope you won't tire of seeing this suit over the months ahead, although I do think I'll restrict it to only the odd time when a variation merits showcasing. In the meantime I'll leave you with some beach shots from yesterday on sunny ol' Tresco.

Wishing you a great week ahead!

Anna x

The Queen's Platinum Jubilee

Hello lovelies! How was your Jubilee weekend? Did you have fun? It's been wonderful to watch all of the TV coverage showing Great Britain resplendent with street parties and parades. I loved seeing the Party at the Palace - wasn't that a brilliant line-up of performers? Diana Ross was utter class, Queen were amazing and Diversity were very clever. But best of all had to be Her Majesty the Queen having afternoon tea with Paddington Bear! What a brilliant script and what a lovely idea to let us see this humorous side to the Queen.

Celebrations on Tresco started off on Thursday evening with the lighting of our beacon. Steve and Jamie had spent the week building the oh-so-much-more-than-a-bonfire on the top of the island. After a welcome speech to the 500 or so crowd from our Island Manager Nick Halliday, Steve helped local boy Isaac to set the beacon alight. We sang the National Anthem after toasting the Queen with champagne - it was a lovely island moment for us all.

Steve and Jamie did such a great job to the construction that the beacon held itself upright throughout the evening. We were able to see the beacon on St Martin's from this vantage point too and also enjoyed watching their fireworks.

On Friday we held an invitation to Paint the Queen at Gallery Tresco. It was an open competition resulting in a brilliant uptake from all ages, visitors and locals alike. Rachel Young, our Events Manager, organised and distributed the supplies, steered the day, did the judging and generally made the whole thing work - it was a resounding success. That meant the only job for me to do was turn up in my Jubilee outfit. A rummage in my wardrobe resulted in this red, white and blue ensemble with my Lulu Guinness union jack clutch bag.

 

My headdress was a floral hairband that I'd come across in a charity shop on one of my trips to the mainland in April. I knew whenever I saw it that sometime it would come in useful. The belt was a recent purchase from Amazon. Nothing else in the outfit is new and many pieces are pre-loved.

I have to tell you that my outfit caused hardly any comment or eyebrow to be raised all day long. Clearly I have such a reputation as being over the top in my dressing that it as become unremarkable. I found that so funny. 

Anyway, our Platinum Jubilee celebrations continued on Sunday with a bicycle parade from Smith Square to New Grimsby quay. Along the sea front there was a Maker's Market, cake stall and all of the Paint the Queen entries were on display outside the Gallery too.  However Steve and I were absent from all of this as we're busy doing renovations to our boat before we launch it in a couple of weeks. (Launching sounds oh-so-terribly-grand for such a small craft.) I'm in charge of sanding and varnishing woodwork which is painfully slow, but so very necessary after some years of neglect. Steve has lots of mechanical issues to solve in the meantime. Wish us luck with all of that! 

                                                                                                                                      Anna x

Birthstone Beauties

Hello and welcome to this month's Style Not Age challenge. Jacqui has chosen this month's theme inspired by our birthstones and I'll be frank with you - I really don't like my birthstone (garnet). I have a few things in my winter wardrobe that might have worked for this one, but not in my summer collection. This lovely red jumpsuit is borrowed from Fiona my blogging photographer. But more of this later. Let's see how Jacqui  tackled her own challenge shall we?

Emerald is Jacqui's birthstone, the colour of her shoes leading Jacqui to create this zingy outfit in greens and yellow. Her jacket is from F&F, trousers from Zara and top from Matalan. See the rest of her story on her blog Mummabstylish.

Ruby is Emma's birthstone and she has opted for various tones of red to echo the different shades of the stone. Her jacket and trainers are from Zara, top and trousers from River Island and her bag is from eBay. Emma's backstory can be found on Style Splash blog. 

Hilda's turquoise birthstone has me more than slightly envious. Her daughter's handbag was the inspiration for this look paired with these fab white mules and pretty summer dress. Read more from her on Over The Hilda. 

Gail too has an enviable birthstone - topaz. She's wearing a topaz pendant with her casual denim jacket and white M&S jeans. Did you know that topaz comes in orange too? Find out more on her blog Is This Mutton.

My offering this month was virtually thrown together at the last minute. Fiona and I had been for an end of the day sea swim followed by our flask of tea and chat ritual when I remembered the outfit challenge. After a cycle dash home I managed to find this floral top to compliment the floral jumpsuit. It's very old, so old in fact that I don't recall where I bought it. I added this ornate belt (eBay) and these neutral sandals to complete the look.

My matching rings are charity shopped from long ago. 

My gold coloured chain is from Zara, a gift from a girlfriend. 

I bought these uber comfy sandals from TK Maxx earlier on this year. 

I must admit that if this were my jumpsuit I'd definitely be wearing it as a regular work outfit. The fit is loose, yet with a belt is a flattering shape, is lightweight for the summer and would look just as pretty with a simple tee shirt underneath. Platform sandals would be another great addition too. 

So that's pretty much it folks! I do hope you've enjoyed this month's challenge. I'll be back next week with... goodness knows what!

                                                                        Anna x